The Simpsons Movie Trailer has made it's way onto Ice Age 2. It will be the very last trailer shown before the movie hits the screen at most theatres. It will be shown right after Garfield 2, which looks so bad anything after it is bound to look good.

I will not go into details about the trailer to keep it as a surprise, but I will tell you the movie is coming out 7/27/07. The trailer is just a teaser and is very short, so don't expect anything to spectacular.

Just for you, another premiere of a brand new Chuck Norris fact:

"Chuck Norris once roudhouse kicked so fast his foot combusted into flames. His foot burned for 8 nights. This event is commemerated in what we now call Hanukkah."

##Incoming transmition
#####
From: NSA
Subject: Conversation received Via Phone Tapping
Date:060322

Begin Transcript:

D. Rumsfeld: Hello
G.W. Bush: Hiya Rumy
D. Rumsfeld: What can I do for you today Sir?
G.W. Bush: It's about Iraq
D. Rumsfeld: Yes Sir
G.W. Bush: I just found out about a secret weapon
D. Rumsfeld: Sir, as we discussed earlier, sending Cheney there with a shotgun isn't an option. If he didn't report for duty the first time, there's no reason to think he would this time.
G.W. Bush: I remember Rummy. You were quite helpful in explaining it to me with your memos. Colorful diagrams, powerpoint presentations, interactive flash games, and stage show concerning the Cheney-Army situation.
D. Rumsfeld: I'm glad I could help Sir.
G.W. Bush: No, I have a different secret weapon in my mind this time.
D. Rumsfeld: That's great news Sir, care to shed some light?
G.W. Bush: Chuck Norris.
D. Rumsfeld: Chuck Norris?
G.W. Bush: Chuck Norris.
D. Rumsfeld: The guy from Sidekicks?
G.W. Bush: Oh yes, I love that film. It's my favorite fighting movie. That and The Three Ninjas Fight Back... and Earnest Goes To Jail.
D. Rumsfeld: Sir, I believe Chuck Norris is just an actor.
G.W. Bush: That's what we thought, but I have some new intelligence that says otherwise.
D. Rumsfeld: Such as?
G.W. Bush: Did you know that 182,000 Americans die from Chuck Norris-related accidents every year.
D. Rumsfeld: Really?
G.W. Bush: Or that Chuck Norris never goes to the dentist because his teeth are unbreakable. His enemies never go to the dentist because they have no teeth.
D. Rumsfeld: Wow.
G.W. Bush: Or that Chuck Norris was banned from competitive bullriding after a 1992 exhibition in San Antonio, when he rode the bull 1,346 miles from Texas to Milwaukee Wisconsin to pick up his dry cleaning.
D. Rumsfeld: Amazing!
G.W. Bush: When Chuck Norris played professional baseball he broke every homerun record in just one month?*
D. Rumsfeld: Wait, if that one's true home come it's not in any of the record books?
G.W. Bush: Because he was disqualified for using his foot instead of a baseball bat.
D. Rumsfeld: This is remarkable! Is your intelligence source reliable?
G.W. Bush: Sure is, it's where I get all my information, the internets!
D. Rumsfeld: (Sigh) Goodbye Sir.
##D. Rumsfeld disconnects
G.W. Bush: I don't understand, it's reliable, that's where I learned that All our base belongs to some alien fellow afterall.
##G.W. Bush disconnects
####End Transmission

*Brand New Chuck Norris Fact, just for you! For more Chuck Norris Facts, check out this site.

We reached the end of an era. Cultural phenomenas all begin and end the same basically. They start off with one instance of something found appealing because it's different. A couple of other people catch on and repeat the formula and have some success. Then suddenly the market floods with people trying (usually quite unsuccessful) to repeat the success and it becomes so saturated everyone grows tired of it and moves on. Companies lose money and people will sit back and analyze it to death trying to figure out what went wrong.

Now the above formula could apply to many things: The home video game market in the early 1980s, the dot-bomb of the late 1990s, the primetime game show explosion just a few years ago, and many others. But I'm not refering to any of these this time, I'm talking about something that's happening right now: Computer Animated movies.

It was just a little over 10 years ago Toy Story premiered in theaters. The film met a great deal of success. The fick was made by Pixar, headed by then former, now current, Apple front man Steve Jobs. Pixar went on to have a great deal of success making more such movies such as Monsters Inc., Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.

But, of course, with success comes copy cats. They didn't come that fast though. You see, computer animated movies were not only expensive to make but were also new territory. No one had experience in the field and therefor it wasn't easy to duplicate.

Perhaps the real obstacle that would be hard to produce would be the writing. Pixar movies were actually cleverly written. It's hard for people to write anything clever, especially something that could appeal to both children and adults.

It'd take 6 years, but the success was finally reproduced with Shrek in 2001. The computer animation, the celebrity voices, the clever writing. It was all there. Except one change. Shrek not only contained clever jokes, but also of plenty of slsapstick, low-brow humor, and, well, crotch jokes. People in Hollywood saw this and said, “We can do that!” The next couple of years were followed by films such as Shark Tale, Ice Age, Shrek 2, and Madagascar, all of which have had success.

Here we are now in 2006, and by my last count we have 10 computer animated movies due for release this year. All look to be full of “people getting hit in the crotch” humor. Disney will be releasing The Wild next month, which judging by a trailer looks exactly like Madascar (although with the amount of time it takes to make one of these movies it's doubtful it's that much of a rip off), Doogle was released just a few weeks ago has already revealed itself as a major flop, and even Pixar's own Cars looks to be their worse.

The problem is that all of these films follow the same formula: Get celebrity voices, fill it with bad crotch and fart jokes, and don't forget to have either fake outtakes or a music number during the ending credits. Even if one or more of these are good, no one will pay any notice because they all look the same.

Here, for your record, is a list of all the movies will be, or already have been in the theatre in 2006:
Ant Bully
The Barnyard
Cars
Doogle
Happy Feet
Hoodwinked
Ice Age 2
Monster Mansion
Open Season
The Wild

I should note that Curious George and Charlotte's Web also come out this year. Curious George is not 3D animation however, and Charlotte's Web, well I just don't know. So far not much is known to me about this film.

Only time will tell how well these films can really do in such a saturated market. Steve Jobs sold Pixar to Disney earlier this year, perhaps he saw the writing on the wall. Now he can forget about the over crowded animated film market and concentrate on the MP3 market, which his iPod still over dominates.

Update 3/26/06: Another animated film has come to my attention. Over The Hedge (starring William Shatner!) comes out this May.

Howdy folks. Just want everyone to take a gander at Raw Toast, it's a new site we're working on. It's still in it's early developement stages, but I invite you to take a look anyway. It's looking to be a top quality portway to all the crazy stupid stuff waiting to be laughed at on the web.

Basically I created the site because I wanted to share my stupid finiding with everyone, but didn't want to soil cheesegod.com with it. So please check it out and feel free to leave a post on the forum there. Like I said it's just starting so, um, be wild and try something before it becomes the big rage all over.

Thank you, and good night.