El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera

Starting from clockwise: Grandpapi Rivera/Puma Loco, Manny Rivera/ El Tigre, and Rodolfo Rivera/ White Pantera

Before I will start about this entry, let me apologize for having a long-term waiting to see my new post. It's just because I'll have to fix my college subject classes starting this week.

When I saw this cartoon show on TV5 and Nickelodeon cable channel, I was suddenly amazed and I thought it's Nickelodeon's cartoon rivaled for Cartoon Network's Mucha Lucha. Maybe I'm wrong and Nick Jr's. Dora the Explorer is not only a cartoon with Mexican language. El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (sometimes nicknamed as "El Tigre") is another Nickelodeon show aired around year 2007 to 2008. Set in fictional place Miracle City in Mexico, El Tigre tells about the adventures of 13-year old boy Manny Rivera. He has superpowers and deals whether if he's going into good or evil side. His father Rodolfo Rivera (a.k.a White Pantera) is a superhero and wanted his son to be like him, but Granpapi Rivera (a.k.a. Puma Loco) likes his grandson as a super villain.

For us, we can say that we are on the good side but sometimes we are in the clutches of doing bad things. For El Tigre, while his villains show up to do crime his conscience is his real challenge. He has to learn to distinguish what's right and what's wrong. Like does Manny use his father's money to buy a tattoo maker instead of a can of guacamole? Or letting his prized animal die and revive it in a horrible way? Those are examples of issues that Manny deals with it.

Manny is just like a tween who never know what responsibilities are and instead to have fun. While he decide which side he will be, he makes trouble along with his best friend Frida Suarez as happy time. Manny also likes to fight for good or worst. He transforms into El Tigre by spinning his buckle belt. He (sometimes along with his family) face many villains including El Oso, Sartana the Dead, Titanium Titan and many super villains in order to protect Miracle City from ruin.

Another exciting reason why El Tigre is that the animation uses Flash plus the hand-drawn animation for effects. The creators and staff of the show added many Mexican culture stuff - from costumes up to famous Mexican people. Whether if your not a Mexican resident, you'll still like to watch it's action and comedy moments. There's even one moral lesson you'll learn in El Tigre , not even Grandpapi Rivera can't resist this value - "Family comes first, whether you're a superhero or not".

If you wanted to find out more about El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, you can check out the creator's DeviantArt account at http://mexopolis.deviantart.com/ and their Blogger account at http://tigreroar.blogspot.com/.

The Nutshack

I'm used to watch few episodes of cartoons which have physical and mature humor like The Simpsons and Family Guy, but what about this one? If you didn't know, The Nutshack is right in front of you. The show is much different because it contains some Filipino themes. Back in 2007, Monster MYX (aka MYX channel from United States) had decided to make an animated series made by Filipinos and made stories that has stuff influenced from their beloved country. Then at the same year, the pilot episode was sucessfully aired on MYX and for those people who wanted to see the show, in Youtube.

It's really amazing to see much of it's characters that are Filipino and of course life being from urban U.S. The show tells about two cousin teenagers who met in United States and share their similar wackiest scrapes in a city of San Francisco - the Tenderloin. Jack, a fat yet humble boy was raised in Manila, while Jack the tough punk raised in the streets in San Francisco. When the two cousins met together, they meet other characters and make craziest doings as the Nutshacks.

The flash animation of the Nutshack series really would feel a cool to watch especially when you hear the dubbings by Filipinos. One of the voice actors I recognized was Rex Navarette, who made the voice of Tito Dick ( Jack and Phil's cool uncle from San Francisco). I seen kuya Rex on his TV performances like MTV's Rex in the City and he's really a good comedian. The storyline seems to be fine but there are some themes that are purely mature. The most memorable storyline they got was the skit cameo appearance of some popular stars in the Philippines like Willie Revillame and Manny Pacquiao. The show also got box-sets of DVD's which are uncut and uncnesored in 2008 and featured in a ComicCon in US as promotion. But since the Nutshack was aired in United States, there is no chance for Filipinos to watch them locally even getting a MYX Philippines cable. I think it's because of MTRCB that some people talking about. Like any other shows in Adult Swim, Nutshack airs weekly at 10:00 PM and only adults can watch. If you're in the Philippines and want to watch the show like I did, there are few episodes (including "behind the scenes") were uploaded to Youtube. Just search the words "the nutshack" and you'll get them. Just make sure you're not below 16 to watch The Nutshack.

For more info, merchandises and updates visit The Nutshack's official website here.

"Habulan" - A Quake Overload Commercial feat. Pugad Baboy

Before they made an appearance of one of Sugarfree's music video, the round, wobbly and known cast of popular Pugad Baboy series made an appearance of a Quake Overload commercial back in 2007. As I say, the characters are modeled in 3D as they popped-out from the comics.

Do you think Pugad Baboy will be made into animated series? Perhaps someday...

Polgas first moved out...

The main cast of Pugad Baboy.

If you want to watch the commercial featuring them, one Youtube user uploaded the Quake Overload commercial here. Ay, don't forget to try the creamy and tasty Quake Overload...they're absolutely good.

Commercial Information
Project: HABULAN "The Chase"
Client: URC
Product: Quake Overload
Agency: Harrison Communications

ECD: Alex Arellano
DECD: Budjette Tan
ACD: Mervin Ignacio
AD: Mark Pahate
Accounts: Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Monday Gonzales, Sinta Rosales-Baguio, Ethel Dino

Director: Jeorge Agcaoili
Producer: Datu Gallaga
Animation/SFX: Underground Logic
Artists: Wayne Dayauon, Richard Haw, Russ Galicia, Marlowe Mercado, Nath Robite, Jose Ticsay
Production House: Unitel Productions
Editor: Melanie Valera