The Nerds of Color

This was one of those weeks where it felt like half the site was living at a press junket. Between Lanterns gearing up for its origin-heavy third episode and Forgotten Island‘s Filipino pride tour ahead of its September 25 release, our team was everywhere — and it made for some of the best coverage we’ve run in a while. Mike sat in on a special panel for Lanterns‘ third episode, where writer Vanessa Baden Kelly and stars Jasmine Cephas Jones and J.

There are names woven into the history of Disney that we know by heart. Walt Disney. The Nine Old Men. Glen Keane. John Musker. And then there are those who work may have shaped the films, characters and worlds we grew up with, even if we never knew their names. Ron Husband was one of those names. That changed this year.

DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island begins with the kind of problem no magical creature can easily fix. Your best friend is moving halfway around the world. Raissa (Liza Soberano) is bound for America, Jo (H.E.R.) is staying in the Philippines, and suddenly years of inside jokes, adventures, and shared memories come with an expiration date.

Fridays mean new episodes of Dark Matter on Apple TV. That means another NOC Recap in which I attempt to tie the episode to a song from Pearl Jam’s 2024 album of the same name. And with episode 2 of the second season, “A Perfect World,” the parallels to track 2 of the PJ album, “React, Respond,” are pretty clear. Before we get into the actual recap, we need to discuss the Pearl Jam of it all.

The newest Street Fighter trailer takes a closer look at Ryu and Ken’s storyline and the complex world of tournament fighting. Outside of the tournaments, the cast has kicked off its world tour in Japan with stops across Tokyo, including Sensō-ji Temple. Set in the early ‘90s, we now have a glimpse into the rivalry between Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo) in the latest trailer release.

Shelf Conscious is back from the dead! To resurrect the show, Keith sits down with one of his favorite YouTube creators and collectors, Ibrahim Moustafa — a world-renowned comic book artist whose graphic novel RetroActive is currently in development at Hulu, and who you may also recognize from a recent stop on the Middle Geeks podcast.

When we last left the world of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, the story wrapped up like the self-contained novel it was adapted from. So when Apple TV renewed the sci-fi thriller for a second season, it meant heading somewhere the source material never went. We caught up with star Alice Braga, who returns as Amanda, to talk about diving into uncharted territory, her real-life friendship with author Blake Crouch, and the guilt her character carries into this new chapter.

We are officially less than a month away from the debut of DreamWorks’ new upcoming classic, Forgotten Island. And to celebrate the release of the first major animated studio film rooted in Filipino culture and mythology, DreamWorks and Universal invited us to a very special screening of the film followed by a terrific Q&A with directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), and Filipino film stars Liza Soberano and Manny Jacinto.

Lanterns is without a doubt, DC’s finest streaming series to date. With a detective-style plot, richly developed characters, and phenomenal acting by its cast, this series has demonstrated just how deep and powerful superhero storytelling can be. We spoke with J.

Despite a mighty and delightful ensemble cast, the Play On Shakespeare‘s modern verse translation of William Shakespeare‘s Pericles at Boston Court Pasadena is a bit of a head-scratcher. By attempting to fuse modern dialogue with Shakespearean language, it creates an off-putting rhythm that isn’t helped by the direction’s contrived ‘play within a play’ concept, which would have served the story better if told directly.