What A Cartoon! - The August 2020 Schedule (Patreon)

We're entering the dog days of summer, and we hope all of you are staying safe and cool in these hot and interesting times. With five Mondays in August, that also means there will be five more What A Cartoon! podcasts coming your way! This month sees us chatting about a trailblazer in the US anime market, one of Adult Swim's best one-offs, us returning to both Gargoyles AND Ren & Stimpy, all capped off with an extra-long podcast about one of the most important anime films ever made!

As always, if you're not yet a subscriber, signing up at the $5 level will get you each episode a week ahead of time and ad-free, along with our collection of exclusive miniseries (like just-completed Talking Mission Hill) and over 100 more exclusive bonus podcasts on top of that! And stay tuned, because our fall miniseries will be here before you know it!

Here's what's on the schedule for August:

Ranma 1/2 - "School Is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga" [Patreon: 8/3/20 - Free Feed: 8/10/20]

Though many have forgotten it, there was a time when Ranma 1/2 was the hottest show for hardcore anime fans. The gender-bending martial arts comedy was a hit in Japan, and Rumiko Takahashi's work blazed a trail in the US anime market as being the first VHS hit for an uncut TV series. Learn about the history and the action with our special guest when this podcast goes live!

Ranma 1/2 is streaming free subbed on Viz's website, subbed/dubbed on Hulu.

Korgoth of Barbaria [Patreon: 8/10/20 - Free Feed: 8/17/20]

Aaron Springer is an underrated animation talent who has worked on many of your favorite shows of the last 25 years. And in 2006 Springer created a pilot for the comedic take on Conan The Barbarian, Korgoth of Barbaria! The show was deemed too good for Adult Swim's budget-conscious reps, but the lovely pilot (chosen by one of our top patrons) is at least widely available so we can appreciate what might have been.

• Korgoth of Barbaria’s full pilot is on YouTube.

Gargoyles - "Eye of the Beholder" [Patreon: 8/17/20 - Free Feed: 8/24/20]

It's been a couple years since we last covered Gargoyles, and lots of news and information has come out about it since. So we're returning to the series again with guest Kory Bing, and we're covering a tour de force episode for the show's spectacular villain, Xanatos. Not only that, but we unearthed more details about the show's creation and its potential future! 

Gargoyles can currently be streamed on Disney+.  

Ren & Stimpy - "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen" [Patreon: 8/24/20 - Free Feed: 8/31/20]

We have returned once more to the important '90s classic, and not only are we joined by R&S historian Thad Komorowski, but also the animation director on the episode, Bob Jaques! We discuss the brilliant episode Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen, how Jaques' team produced brilliance in spite of the show's infamous creator, and so much more! 

You can stream Ren & Stimpy's first set of episodes on Prime Video. 

An Extended Preview of What A Cartoon Movie! for Ghost In The Shell [Patreon: 8/31/20 - Free Feed: 9/7/20]

What is a person? What separates them from machines? How cool is it to watch someone kick ass in a skintight suit? Those were the questions 1995's Ghost in the Shell created for millions across the world. As chosen by patrons, we're going to dive into Mamoru Oshii's adaptation of Shirow Masamune's classic manga about cyborgs in the year 2029. (And just to be clear, we're directly covering the original theatrical version, not the alternate 2.0 edition of the film). And remember: $5 patrons and folks on the free feed will hear an extended preview of this podcast, but if you want the whole thing (and access all other episodes of What A Cartoon Movie) you'll have to bump your subscription up to the $10 level.

An easy way to watch the 1995 version of Ghost in the Shell is to watch it on YouTube (in the US at least) or to get the cheap Blu-ray of 2.0 that includes both versions (just don't bother with 2.0 itself).

We hope all these podcasts help all of us make it through another five weeks of quarantine and keep sticking with us as tons more cool stuff is coming to the Talking Simpsons Network real soon!