Making the middle east a little more comprehensible

Marjane Satrapi took a convoluted, complex topic—the recent history of Iran—and made it easy for everyone to get a handle on it with her two-part graphic novel Persepolis. Her secret? She told the tragic tale of geopolitical manuervering and religious oppression from the standpoint of a teenage girl struggling with her own identity. Her memoir was condensed further into an entertaining and enlightening animated film by the same name. Buy it and you'll discover that Iranians are a lot more like us than you might think.

 

The most “wicked/boss” cartoon on TV

Arguably the best animated adventure series is Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest (1964); the best, smartest parody is The Venture Bros. by World Leaders Entertainment. Both series feature a single-dad scientist travelling the world with a no-nonsense bodyguard and a pair of teenage boys, but the new show found a way to make it work for an adult sensibility: It's screamingly funny.

The Venture Bros. stretches its low budget to great lengths not just with inventive visuals, but some of the most densely-plotted, richly-appointed and downright-hilarious writing anywhere on TV. Every episode pays new benefits on repeat viewings; If you think a walking Robot Eye or hordes of evil henchmen dressed as flying butterflies are simultaneously ridiculous and, well, wicked boss, this is the show for you. The first two seasons are on DVD.

Don't be too clever for an audience. Make it obvious. Make the subtleties obvious also.

—Billy Wilder, filmmaker, Some Like It Hot

 

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