We kick off today with the return of the big blue bug of justice: Rand Cyrenne’s review of the recent The Tick Vs Season Two – twelve more episodes from the superhero spoof that Disney are slowly releasing thanks to picking up the show as part of a licensing agreement when they bought the Fox Family Kids channel. This go around, we’re missing another episode from what should make up the full pack, though there is hope the ones missing from the first collection and here will show up in the final third set, to be released in future. Although this time around the show felt “less fresh” for Rand, he says there are still “plenty of chuckles to be had”.

On the hi-def front, the war is extending to filmmakers, with TransFormers director Michael Bay, a man who knows all about technology battles, coming right out and proclaiming that he wouldn’t direct Paramount/DreamWorks’ requested TransFormers 2 because of their decision not to release those films on both high definition disc formats. According to the Coming Soon site, Bay has remarked, “I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-Ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No TransFormers 2 for me!” Of course, Bay has a habit of making statements that get retracted, such as the premature leakage of his association with the Superman project, and sure enough he changed his mind and now supports Par/DWs choice. I guess, for him, he wasn’t put off by the extra $200 he’ll need to slap down to get the extra player, but for many that’s just not an option. Bill Hunt and The Digital Bits has much more on this, while our own Animated News & Views Forum is abuzz with witty asides on Bay’s 180 degree turnaround.

Interesting days! – Ben.