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Contrast Review: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Archive — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 10:24:00 +0000

Over the years, games based on movies have developed a reputation for being notoriously bad, and the same can also be said when the scenario is reversed. But there are a few good ones that manage to slip though the cracks because they have one key element about them that gives them a stronger chance at being good. These games and movies I'm referring to are the ones based on books or comics. They either have more information to use (in the case of video games), or are much more flexible in terms of creative licensing (in the case of movies), but when it comes to graphic novels, reinterpretation can be tricky because visuals are supplied to the reader and it could cause problems if it isn't translated properly for use on the screen. Scott Pilgrim is the rare gem that breaks this trend as both the game and movie adaptations of the graphic novel they are based on are fantastic in their own right and I am going to cover each one in this comparative review.

Scott Pilgrim Graphic Novel

Released between the years of 2004 and 2010, this six part series tells the story of Scott Pilgrim, a lazy 23-year-old living in Toronto, Canada in a small flat primarily owned by his gay roommate Wallace Wells. In his spare time, Scott plays bass in a band called Sex Bob-omb with his friends Steven Stills (on guitar) and Kim Pine (on drums), or will go on a date with his 17-year-old girlfriend Knives Chau. Everything goes relatively smoothly for him until he sees a mysterious girl from his dreams appear in his life for real which he then seeks her out and attempts to get to know her. Shortly after he finds out that her name is Ramona Flowers, the two begin dating which prompts an unusual circumstance where if he wants to continue dating her, he needs to fight and defeat all seven of her evil exes. Now this kind of story can't really be played out too well without the visuals that were generously provided by the series author and illustrator, Bryan Lee O'Malley. There is action, romance, humor and many video game references. And the internal struggle Scott experiences when dealing with not only Ramona's exes, but also his own arises, it makes you feel a unusual combination of both disgust and pity for him. It's very much a metaphor for how many relationships have emotional baggage that needs to be dealt with before you can truly grow as a person and accept that some things are just out of your control (at least, that's what I got from it). A very good read and it can be knocked out in just a day if you have nothing to do.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World (Film)

Now unlike the books, the movie is altered a bit due to the fact that filming started before the books were finished being written. As such, some characters toward the second half of the film have different back stories and some plot elements were removed in favor of a battle of the bands style story. But at most, this only diminished the quality just slightly as the modified story is still very good and the scenes mirror many events in the novels up to the end of book four. Now while most of the movie follows the plot of the novels very well, many scenes were moved around to improve the flow of the story, but the visuals remain extremely faithful as it looks like they were lifted from the books themselves. Even if some of it seems a little out of place after reading the novels, it is still an engaging movie to experience and a lot of fun to watch as Michael Cera plays the role of Scott very well. This is a great film for movie night.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game

Now this is where things get interesting. The game adaptation of the novels was made to promote the film and was released around the same time the film was released to theaters. The game on the other hand, follows the books much more closely likely due to direct influence of the series author. The game is an arcade style RPG beat-em-up for up to four players, in which you can play as Scott, Kim, Steven or Ramona in a quest to defeat Ramona's seven evil exes. The game is mostly modeled in the same vein as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons Game, but is also influenced by River City Ransom as many of the actions you can perform, such as lifting and throwing downed enemies, and buying healing items and power ups from shops, can also be done. The gameplay can be a bit chaotic with four players on the screen at once, but to me, that just adds to the insanity that this game offers. Like most games with RPG elements, the more you fight, the more experience you get toward leveling up which grants new skills and powers at each level until you max out at sixteen. The game's graphics are outstanding; it is done in a style reminiscent of 16-bit and 32-bit games and was done mostly by Paul Robertson who is known for the animations Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 and Kings of Power 4Billion%. The music is fantastic too; all of the songs in the game are composed by chiptune rock band Anamanaguchi and it fits the style of the game extremely well. Everything about this game just meshes so well with everything else that's in it. My only real gripes about it are that it is a little short, it is a little repetitive and you can't play online until you buy the DLC for it and even then it can only be someone from your fiends list. Still, this is a great game and it is even more fun to play with friends.

Well, that's all I can say about this. If you wish to buy the books or the movie, you can get them from Amazon for pretty reasonable prices and if you wish to buy the game, you can download it to the PS3 and XB360 for about $15USD. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Graphic Novel Score:

Film Score:

Game Score:

Five Nights at Freddy's Film in the works. Will it be good?

Archive — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 06:37:00 +0000

I'm sure many of you have heard of the survival/horror series created by Scott Cawthon known as Five Nights at Freddy's, but when I heard the announcement that a film based on the franchise is now currently in the works, I started to become a bit skeptical. Movie adaptations of video games almost never do well at the box office and many people are already starting to get tired of the series due to the fact that the entire trilogy was released in the span of seven months, but I have three reasons why I have hope for this movie.

Reason 1: The Story

Because of the first game's short length, the fact that the only spoken dialog is from the phone guy when he leaves messages on the restaurant's answering machine, and because that the actual back story is vague enough to interpreted in many different ways, the story that could be used for the film might actually be something coherent regardless of what route they take. Plus, we might actually be able to finally find out what's going through Mike Schmidt's head as he progresses through the week.

Reason 2: The Director

Many of you know that who directs the film can either make it or break it depending on how they interpret the source material. A good example would be Joss Whedon when he directed The Avengers, whereas a bad one would be M Night Shyamalan when he directed that godawful film, The Last Airbender. Now the director that has signed on for this film is Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment who has directed the fantastically scary films The Ring and The Grudge which both follow under the same kind of psychological horror that Five Nights pulls of quite well. If anyone can make a good film based on that game, it'll be him.

Reason 3: The Original Creator's Involvement

Usually when a film adaptation of a game goes down the toilet, it is usually because of lack of involvement from the creator of the source material. Because the game was made by one person much like many books, it will likely be much easier for information to be relayed back and forth between the movie studio and the creator. Scott Cawthon has said this on the matter,

"The story really lends itself to being a movie and it taps into a largely unexplored niche of horror that a lot of people will be able to relate to."

These three reasons should be reason enough that a film based on Five Nights at Freddy's could turn out to be legitimately terrifying, but only time will tell if the game will still be relevant when it is released a few years down the line. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Review: Bayonetta (plus Extras)

Archive — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 08:07:00 +0000

With the recent announcement that the Umbra Witch, Bayonetta would be coming to Super Smash Bros 4 via DLC, it got me wanting to play through the first Bayonetta game again. There is so much about her that I just adore, be it her sexual nature, her fun-loving personality, or even her fighting style; it all just screams whimsy. I played through the game again fairly recently, but after I finished it this time I decided to do a bit more research on it and I discovered that some additional products were made to further promote it that I had unintentionally overlooked. In addition to the game (and some figurines that were only in Japan), Platinum Games also released a rather large artwork book (with a behind the scenes DVD) and even an animated film called Bayonetta: Bloody Fate. So, I'm going to review each of these three and see whether or not if it is worth getting each one.

Video Game

Since the video game was the first of these three that I had experienced, I will of course be covering it first here as well. Released on January 5, 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and again on October 24, 2014 for the Wii U, Bayonetta is an over the top, combo-heavy, action packed brawler with some light platforming and minor puzzle elements. In it, you play as Bayonetta, a rather tall, voluptuous, and long-legged witch with the ability to travel to and from Earth and Purgatorio as she hunts down and slays angels to keep the demons she has contracts with at bay. However, as she fights these angels, she also needs to recover the memory of her past which was lost from being sealed in a deep sleep at the bottom of a lake for 500 years. As well as recovering bits and pieces of her past, she also frequently runs into a bumbling investigative reporter named Luka, who blames her for the death of his father; a lost little girl name Cereza, who mistakenly confuses Bayonetta for her mother and tags along with her for most of the game; and an opposing witch named Jeanne, who wants nothing more than to stop Bayonetta dead in her tracks. To help her fight the more powerful angels, Bayonetta can also temporarily obtain their weapons when they are slain, or as a better option, collect pieces of golden LP's of angelic hymns to bring to a weapons manufacturer named Rodin at a bar called "The Gates of Hell." He will use these records as bait to call forth powerful demons which he will then turn into a permanent weapon for Bayonetta to use for the rest of her quest. Confused yet? Well the plot just gets more outlandish later on and is explained in pieces by the angels that Bayonetta kills.

The gameplay, as I've said before, is a combo-heavy action brawler. Bayonetta fights with punches, kicks, and with the various weapons that she obtains throughout her adventure. She can also punish her foes with BDSM-styled finishers or by summoning her contracted demons to more easily finish off her larger targets. If you are having trouble hitting faster or airborne enemies, Bayonetta also has four guns she can use that help with her reach, and the ability to dramatically slow down time when she successfully dodges an attack at the last moment. However, as fun and action packed as the battles are, the rewards that you gain from them are dependent entirely on skill. The rewards get better depending on how fast you finish it, how often you got hurt, how many items you used, and how high your combo was for the entire fight. This scoring style determines how many halos (the game's currency) you get after you win and what kind of medal (from Stone to Pure Platinum) you will receive. These medals actually affect your final score at the end of each chapter, and getting the best score is not easy.

This game is fantastically good and a helluva lot of fun, even if the difficulty on the Normal setting is a little unforgiving. The music is fantastic as well and the character and enemy designs are extremely creative and fit the theme of the game superbly. The story can be a little confusing at times, but it all comes together nicely in the end. However, depending on which version of the game you get, it can be either an extraordinary experience, or torture for the eyes. If you decide to get the game, go for the Xbox 360 or Wii U version of the game as the PS3 version is plagued by terrible frame-rate issues making it look awful to watch, let alone play. Plus as a bonus to those that get the Wii U version, Nintendo themed costumes for Bayonetta are also available which alter some minor aspects about the game without affecting the gameplay. All in all though, just avoid the PS3 version.

"The Eyes of Bayonetta" Artwork Book and DVD

Now this is usually outside my area of expertise, but before I decided to play through Bayonetta again, I decided to learn more about the game outside of what Hideki Kamiya's Twitter and Platinum Games' blog can provide. Luckily, I found an artwork book on Amazon called The Eyes of Bayonetta that had a lot of cool concept art and production notes that had been omitted from the blogs and wiki for the game. The book had a ton of really interesting tidbits and information about the game that also went unused as well. Some stuff did manage to find its way into the game's sequel though, but I'll cover that another time.

Now despite how interesting and informative the artwork books was, the "Making of" DVD actually was what I more interested in. The development process was quite a sight to behold. As it turns out, the main character, Bayonetta, was designed by Mari Shimazaki with the only instruction that she should look feminine. Needless to say that this gave her a lot of freedom and she rolled with it. She wasn't the only one that was given a lot of freedom in her work, just about everyone involved in the game's creative process was allowed to let their imaginative juices flow freely. The way everything meshes together really shows that love and care was put into the game's creation. The DVD is definitely well worth the watch; the dev's personalities show in both their commentary and their work.

Animated Film

Now out of all of the things that could've been produced from the success of Bayonetta, I don't think an animated film was expected at all. Released in the US on February 14, 2014, Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is an adaptation of the video game, with some minor changes to the plot in order to fit time constraints. The animation is is really good and music from the game is used at times where it fits really well. Some other extra details that were shown in The Eyes of Bayonetta also managed to find their way into the film as well. A really good example would be Bayonetta's guns which actually aren't Scarborough Fair as they are in the game. Instead, she has a set of guns based on some concept art for a prototype design called The Elfin Knight. Now while the plot is designed to follow the story of the game, there are some changes in order to make it flow more smoothly and to make it easier to understand. Some enemies from the game are noticeably absent from the film and certain scenes have been changed in order to better fit the lines they had in the game. Overall, I liked the changes they made because the plot was indeed a bit easier to understand. Definitely worth the watch if you enjoyed the game.

Closing Statement

No matter what medium you enjoy Bayonetta in, this first entry in the series definitely had a very strong impact. Bayonetta as a character is probably my favorite female protagonists of all time as well. She is strong, independent, knows that she's sexy and casually exploits that fact in her work, which she also enjoys. If you can get any of these things, definitely go for it, just remember to avoid the PS3 version of the game due to a very shoddy porting process. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Game Score

Book Score

Film Score

Ratchet & Clank's Complete Waste of Time

Archive — Sun, 08 May 2016 06:28:00 +0000

Ratchet & Clank is the recently released movie based on the 2002 game; Ratchet & Clank, it also has a tie-in game called Ratchet & Clank and is part of the long running Jak & Daxter series. Oh sorry, I mean Ratchet & Clank.

So admittedly this film has been out for a while now, I only got the chance to see it this Wednesday due to life getting in the way, which the exact same reason why I was only able to get this article out recently.

So a week ago I started out my √¢‚Ç¨ÀúUpcoming Video Game Movies’ article by stating that Ratchet & Clank is the type of property that has great potential to make the transition to film. The fact that Insomniac Games and one of the official writers from the games was working on the project raised my interest and the inclusion of the actors from the games also showed to me that the film-makers were willing to cater to the wants of the fans by not sacrificing the personality that the canon voice actors have given them, presenting a project where all the pieces can be assembled into a film that encapsulates what people love about Ratchet & Clank and presenting it to a wider audience.

It blew.

Not only was the humour flat, the characters dull and the plot resembling the form curdled milk might take if it was being fingered by a Swiss man, but the action was oddly subdued. So be prepared as I eat my own words as I tell you why this film isn’t worth your time.

None of the action sequences in this film were exciting; there’s a bit where Ratchet flies around with a magnet to stop some robots, a bit where Ratchet and Co run away from some robots, and an underwhelming final battle. That’s it. The direction of the action is done in a way that everything seems slow; a far cry from the series origins where you can rush around making use of any weapons you have to defeat enemies. Speaking of which, the weapons are never given priority or focus upon in this film, they’re just there and could honestly have been replaced by anything. There’s a training montage and sometimes weapons are used in big set pieces, but it doesn’t add anything to the substance of the film and seems to just be there for fanservice.

“Oh but this is a film! And in your last article you said that films have to put more focus on plot and characters than games do!“

Yes, that is true Mr. Mysterious Speaking People’s Person. But R&C doesn’t do that right either.

So the plot. Chairman Drek is destroying and harvesting planets to rebuild his own one. The concept of a giant space station that blows up planets might be interesting if there weren’t three Star Wars movies with that exact same plot device. Ratchet wants to help the Galactic Rangers defeat Drek because he wants to be a hero, but he gets rejected by Captain Qwark. The problem with this is that it’s clear the writers were trying to make us empathise with Ratchet for being rejected, but at this point in the film, Ratchet has done precisely nothing heroic and has at worst tested my patience for waiting for something interesting to happen throughout the runtime. Then he meets a robot dubbed √¢‚Ç¨ÀúClank’ who has information that might be useful in defeating Drek. And then the adventure happens. Eventually.

Yes, the plot has various issues, namely that it can’t decide on whether it wants to remain faithful to the source material or take the story in a new direction as this so-called √¢‚Ç¨Àúre-imagining’ attempts desperately to appeal to a new audience, failing to make that balance between fans of the original or new fans. The film doesn’t seem to know what it’s audience is either. As mentioned, the plot is largely based on the 2002 game and I believe it since the script reads like something conceived from that era. With obnoxious quips such as √¢‚Ç¨ÀúSweet’, √¢‚Ç¨ÀúWicked’ and other words that are being thrown about in a non-ironic context scattered throughout the film.

The underdeveloped characters and meandering story leave you bored while you watch the various colours flashing onscreen and questioning how close to the climax the film actually is. The film is only around 90 minutes long yet it feels so much longer since there is little to feel invested in, even the climax of the film involves protecting a planet we’ve never seen before and don’t care about since the stakes are so low, this is because apparently the last planet that Drek blew up was evacuated. As in Everyone got off on time. There’s a fine line between suspension of disbelief and pure Fantasy you know.

In the run-up to the release for this film you may have seen this video clip:

You may have noticed the annoying Qwark fanboy from this clip. He’s annoying. But you may have also noticed that Clank makes use of a speech recorded to call out Ratchet’s lie about being friends with the Rangers. A well written story would have used this as a √¢‚Ç¨ÀúChekov’s Gun’ effect where this would be used later in the film for a different purpose, but it never has any effect on the film at all, nor does Ratchet’s lie put any strain on his relationship with Clank (I’ll go into some more detail about that later).

Indeed several elements such as the one mentioned appear throughout the film yet have no impact on the plot later on, the inverse it also true. You may have seen the use of the √¢‚Ç¨ÀúSheepinator’ in several of the Trailers and TV Spots, this gun is retained from the games and is used to turn enemies into sheep, likely a piece of fanservice to appeal to its prior audience. Bad news, it appears a grand total of once in the entire film, is never mentioned before that point and is never used again, ultimately making the presence of a fantastic weapon in a story that otherwise wants to be taken seriously seem extremely out of place.

Speaking of fanservice, there are several nods to previous games in the series that feel extremely out of place. An example is when Qwark is using a computer and the start-up tune for the original PlayStation plays (Ratchet & Clank never appeared on the PS1 by the way, making me question why it was added); it’s extremely jarring and takes you out of the movie. Another example is when we see one of the rangers training using a game. Eagle eyed viewers will notice that game is clearly Ratchet & Clank 3 played in First-Person mode. What may have been intended as an innocent piece of fanservice will be really out of place to fans of the series and will probably make common viewers do a double take upon what they’re seeing.

The characterization is a mess as well. In the original 2002 game (I haven’t played the 2016 reboot game admittedly, for all intents and purposes I hear it's great), Ratchet was a loner and a jerk to pretty much everyone and had a dated late-90s surfer dude attitude. I never liked his characterisation in that game, but upon seeing this film I realise how important that characterisation was to the Character and the overall appeal to the series. 2016!Ratchet is presented as dorky wannabe hero who is clumsy but has a good heart, I know this because throughout the film several characters literally say he has a good heart.

Even though I don’t like 2002 Ratchet, I do acknowledge that his transition from abrasive jerkass to the lovable Hero of the sequels is a great factor to the Characters lasting appeal and personal strengths. 2016 Ratchet is presented as a bland hero who is not interesting enough to get invested in.

Clank’s role in the film is completely superfluous. Considering his name is in the bloody title of the film that’s a pretty big misstep. In the 2002 game, the relationship between the two title characters was a big part of the development and appeal of the game, one has to wonder why this important element was omitted from the film. The two leads barely interact with each other and even when they do there is no meaningful conversation between them.

The new characters that have been added to the film are a bunch of the most forgettable supporting roles I’ve ever seen. A group of heroes known as the Galactic Rangers have been re-imagined as a superhero team led by Captain Qwark for this iteration of the franchise; they are all boring and forgettable. I don’t remember a single thing about any of them. Not one.

Ratchet gets a mentor early in the film played by John Goodman, now I like John Goodman but his role is literally any generic mentor type character you can think of. Imagine Obi-Wan if he didn’t die and just told Luke to be good. That’s the role. What a complete waste of your John Goodman.

Chairman Drek returns as the chief baddie for the film, this time played by Paul Giamatti, now for what it’s worth, Giamatti probably gives one of the best performances in the film outside of Jim Ward as Qwark and David Kaye as Clank, he does seem like he’s having fun with his part for what it’s worth and he does encapsulate the characteristics of the villain fairly well. Drek’s motivations have changed this time round to make him slightly more sympathetic, whereas 2002 Drek was a complete monster through and through, I won’t fault the filmmakers for wanting to make him more sympathetic. Both incarnations of the character have their strengths and weaknesses.

Dr. Nefarious is in the film as well. They screwed up big time with this character, the Nefarious of the games in my opinion, is one of the funniest characters put in a game. Film Nefarious is incredibly boring. He does nothing funny in the film and his status as a Mad Scientist has been flanderized into a Jerk who just happens to be a scientist. How the hell do you make Dr Nefarious boring!? I can accept applying him into the story but if you’re gonna do that, then at least make him fun to watch!

And finally we have Captain Qwark. He betrays everyone. I hesitate to call this a spoiler since this happened in the original game as well, so I apologise for spoiling a 14 year old game for you. I won’t fault Jim Ward’s performance since he definitely knows the role he’s been playing for the past dozen years through and through. But his characterisation makes no sense.

In the 2002 game, Qwark was working with Drek from the start because Drek was sponsoring him and making him loads of money. 2016 Qwark betrays everyone about halfway through because he was jealous of Ratchet getting all the hero attention. That’s a bloody weak excuse. It doesn’t even make any sense why he stays with Drek until the Climax either, Qwark’s betrayal is uncovered by Ratchet who is captured by Drek’s forces, so instead of killing Ratchet, Drek decides to let him go because... I have no idea. Why doesn’t Drek just kill him? By letting Ratchet live, Qwark's betrayal becomes public, so why the hell would anyone accept him as a hero now? This makes no sense; why doesn’t he just turn Drek in there and then!? Their deal is broken!

A similar thing happens later on after Sylvester Stallone’s character (who is clearly phoning in his role) gets anticlimactically killed off, when one of Drek's lackeys ends up turning good for some inexplicable reason.

“Well aside from everything negative that has been stated prior to this point, is it at least funny?“

Nope. If they can’t even make Nefarious funny then what else is there? The aforementioned training montage involves lots of prat-falls and stuff going wrong, but it isn’t funny, There’s a running gag where Drek’s minions are seen texting their stereotypical Jewish-sounding mothers during his speeches, it isn’t funny though. I will admit that I did chuckle a few times at scenes that I have already forgotten, and the payoff for the unfunny texting gag was the one time in the entire film that I laughed out loud. But other than that, it fails in the humour department.

Animation-wise, there really is nothing spectacular about it, the animation is fine in most parts of the film, but the use of animation never factors into making anything more exciting, a competent film would have used the fluidity of animation to improve the direction of the action, but that never happens, Ratchet runs to this place and fires a gun. There are no non-stop action moments throughout this film, like the whole film is taking a breather from doing nothing.

Some things that are legitimately bad relating to the animation however; there’s a moment when a planet is destroyed and the debris looks like it was rendered in 2002. There’s an image of the President of Planet Whatever which looks unaltered from his appearance in Ratchet & Clank 3 way back in 2004! In all Crowd shots there are dozens of identical clones present, because apparently the phrase √¢‚Ç¨ÀúVariety is the Spice of life’ just meant throw as much of the same thing into the product and hope that people don’t notice how bland everything tastes.

The soundtrack is forgettable as well.

So aside from the poor direction, clueless writing, boring plot, forgettable characters, mediocre animation, generic soundtrack, weak humour, average performances and awful dialogue, is there anything worth recommending in this film?

Nope.

Nothing about this film works. In my last article I stated that this film would likely be the best video game movie in years. Oh how wrong I was. It’s not completely awful, I don’t think that it will make anyone’s √¢‚Ç¨ÀúWorst of’ lists, but as a film that had a lot of the crew behind the over the top zany action of the games behind it, it’s depressing to see how safe the film is trying to be, appealing to the lowest common denominator and offering little of substance in return, ultimately creating a boring and forgettable product that fails to do justice for the great game series it’s based on.

I also stated in my last article that the film would have to make its budget back quickly to avoid competition with Captain America 3. According to the-numbers.com the film, as of this writing has made around $8million on a $20million budget^[1][2] (although I question how much of that money was left over from the undisclosed budget of the game).

Nobody is interested in seeing this film. In fact the cinema I went to see this film at only had 3 showings a day (for a film which at the time hadn’t even been in cinemas for a week!) and there were a grand total of four people in the theatre: Me, my R&C-savvy friend (Who hated it even more than I did), some kid and her dad, and even they seemed bored by the film at the end of it all.

Somewhere among this 90 minute train ride of tedium and generic sci-fi slop is the film that I wanted to see, but what we ultimately have is a film with no ambition to be anything more than a promotion for a vastly superior game. And it feels very alien to me as well considering that this is the ONLY thing in the entire Ratchet & Clank franchise to receive universally negative reviews from critics (Yes, both those puns were deliberate).

So I guess Warcraft is the film that people are gonna be hyping as the first great video game movie (because I refuse to live in a future where people praise Angry Birds as a cinematic masterpiece), and for what it’s worth, Warcraft does have a good director behind it. Also considering how the upcoming Sly Cooper movie features the same Director and I was initially sceptical about that one, so I guess we can list that film as a premature dud.

Go watch Zootopia (yes, it’s still in Cinemas after all this time) or Captain America 3 instead as this film fails to do justice to the game franchise it’s based on or to entertainment as a whole. I myself will likely forget the entire film by the end of next week.

References:

[1] http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Ratchet-and-Clank#tab=summary

[2] http://www.awn.com/animationworld/kevin-munroe-talks-ratchet-clank