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STRANGER THINGS Video Recaps Season 1 with Minimalist Animation

The second season of Stranger Things finally dropped on Netflix last week, and many of us inhaled the nine episode season in just a matter of days. How many of us? According to Nielsen data, almost 16 million viewers watched the first episode in the three days following release, beating other insanely popular shows like The Walking Dead when it comes to ratings.

Still, there are no doubt still many of you who have yet to dive into season two, maybe because it’s been so long since you’ve watched the first season that you might be afraid you’ve already forgotten most of the details. Luckily for you late to the party viewers, we’ve learned, via The Laughing Squid, that the folks over at  Creative Mammals and Bare Knuckles Creative joined forces to make an animated retelling of the first season, and they’ve done so in under a minute running time. Think of it as Strangers Things: The Visual CliffsNotes.

Using minimalist art and the amazing ’80s style synth score from the actual series, we get flashes of the boys’ Dungeons and Dragons game, the killer Demogorgon, Joyce Byers’ Christmas light Ouija board, Eleven stealing the Eggo waffles from the grocery store, and many other highlights from the first year. The video specifically highlights young Will Byers’ journey in the Upside Down, including the cliffhanger ending to the first season that showed us that Will’s troubles were far from over.  You can watch the season one recap video in its entirety above.

Have you started to binge the second season of Stranger Things? Be sure to chime in down below in the comments.

Image: Netflix

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Blizzard’s WORLD OF WARCRAFT CLASSIC Rolls the Clock Back

Ten years ago, Blizzard released the first expansion for World of Warcraft, which began a long inexorable transformation into the game’s present form. Warcraft has gone through a lot of changes through its six expansions, with a seventh expansion on the way. But one of the biggest surprises out of this year’s BlizzCon is that Blizzard is bringing back the original World of Warcraft with dedicated servers and a commitment to giving the old school WoW fans the experience that they’ve wanted for years.

Via PC Gamer, Blizzard announced World of Warcraft Classic is in the works. The news is light on specifics regarding a launch window for the World of Warcraft servers, but it is happening. Blizzard released the above tease for World of Warcraft Classic, in which the events of the previous expansions are rewound until viewers are brought back to the time frame of the game’s first iteration.

It has to be said that the current incarnation of Warcraft does offer a lot of improvements to World of Warcraft that won’t be carried over to the classic version of the title. But that’s not why fans have been clamoring for the original WoW. A lot of their desire is tinged by nostalgia, but so are most retro gaming titles. WoW‘s imperfections aren’t a defect, they’re a feature. Even though it’s relatively primitive by modern Warcraft‘s standards, the original version is still a great game. For many players, this is the title that introduced them to the franchise and the larger community that it inspired. It’s a piece of gaming history, and it deserves to be preserved.

For years, Blizzard was somewhat dismissive over fan requests for servers dedicated to classic WoW, even when fan servers attempted to fill the void. It’s refreshing that Blizzard has reversed course and embraced the desires of its audience. It may still be a long wait for World of Warcraft Classic to get off of the ground, but it’s coming, and we’re very happy that it is.

Are you excited about the opportunity to play World of Warcraft Classic? Declare your allegiance and share your thoughts below!

Images: Blizzard

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You Can Help This SESAME STREET LEGO Set See Sunny Days

In what can only fall into the “Wait, there ISN’T one?” column, Laughing Squid is reporting that LEGO Ideas user bulldoozer21 has designed an amazing set replicating the famous apartment building at 123 Sesame Street.

Not only does bulldoozer21 have great taste in choosing a username with a Fraggle Rock reference, they also design a pretty mean LEGO set. The 123 Sesame Street set comes with 14 mini figures, including Big Bird, Burt, Ernie, Grover (who can also transform into Super Grover), and Oscar the Grouch. Not only will you get the Muppet cast members, but some of their human mentors as well with Bob, Gordon, and Susan.

This set features a great replica of the exterior of the building, but it also opens up to reveal the individual apartments. You can expand your imagination in Elmo’s world (we didn’t really know that Elmo’s world was inside a rent-controlled apartment building, but we’ll run with it), or you can practice your own rendition of “Rubber Ducky” in Burt and Ernie’s place.

The video game LEGO Dimensions has proven that any character, TV show, or movie has a place in the LEGO Universe. It’s about time that the show that helps so many kids start to love learning get there time in the LEGO sun.

If you want to help bulldoozer21 get this project off the ground, you can support the project on the LEGO Ideas website here. Check out our gallery below for more pics of LEGO Sesame Street.

So what do you think? Is this project deserving of your support? Let me know on Twitter @donnielederer or sound off in the comments (brought to you by the letters Q, H, and the number 7) below.

Images: bulldoozer21/LEGO Ideas

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Taika Waititi and the THOR: RAGNAROK Cast Play Superhero “Would You Rather?”

Thor: Ragnarok is finally in theaters, and it may very well be Marvel‘s funniest film to date. And as much fun as it must have been to make that movie, it seems to pale in comparison to the joy that Taika Waititi and his cast displayed in a new video in which they played a superhero inspired round of “Would You Rather?”

This video was released by Buzzfeed, which made the natural choice to pair Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, with his director, Waititi. The second pairing combines Jeff Goldblum and Tom Hiddleston; Goldblum seems to be fascinated by his co-star’s use of British words that haven’t quite crossed the Atlantic. Rounding out the pairings were Tessa Thompson and Mark Ruffalo.

As Hemsworth noted, some of the questions got “wildly sexual.” But almost everyone agreed that getting a deep massage from the Hulk’s bare hands was preferable to a massage from Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir. Thompson also seemed to reference one of the comedic shorts with Thor’s roommate, in which Thor rudely left Mjölnir on the toilet. Can we call that canon now? And while Goldblum was kind enough to choose Hiddleston’s Loki as his deserted planet companion, Hemsworth was quick to pick Hela. His justification was that “people change!” And after this video, “Hulk Smash!” will have a brand new context.

What did you think about the Thor: Ragnarok cast’s latest media appearance? Call down the thunder in the comment section below!

Images: Buzzfeed

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS TV Series May Come To Amazon Prime

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been looking for a Game of Thrones-style breakout hit for Amazon Prime. And what better place to start than the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien? A new report states that the Tolkien estate and Warner Bros. TV are in talks with Amazon Studios to make a Lord of the Rings series into a reality.

Variety broke the news about this potentially huge LOTR adaptation and added that Bezos is “personally involved in the negotiations.” But there is no deal currently in place, and the talks are reportedly at a very early stage. Regardless, adding a LOTR series to Amazon’s original programming slate would be a huge boon for Bezos’ company.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was previously adapted by director Peter Jackson in 2001, and those films are still a gold standard for fantasy movies. That said, it would probably take at least two to three years to properly develop LOTR for television. By that point, it will have been nearly 20 years since The Fellowship of the Ring kicked off the cinematic trilogy. That’s not an unreasonable amount of time to wait before setting a retelling in motion.

How could a LOTR series compete with Jackson’s masterfully crafted movies? For starters, the TV show could incorporate even more elements from the novels, as well as characters who didn’t make the cut for the feature films. Tom Bombadil, anyone? The television series probably wouldn’t have a budget that could directly compete with a feature film. If Amazon goes with $6 to $8 million per episode over the course of a 10 episode season, a series with that kind of money could still be a very high quality production. But first, a deal will have to actually materialize. And it remains to be seen if it will happen at all.

Would you like to see Lord of the Rings come to television? Cast the ring into the fires of Mount Doom and share your thoughts below!

Images: New Line Cinema

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DRAGON BALL’s Goku Goes on a Rampage in GRAND THEFT AUTO V Mod

Dragon Ball‘s Goku is one of the greatest heroes of manga and anime, and he’s often compared to Superman because of their similar alien backgrounds. But unlike the Man of Steel, Goku was sent to destroy humanity to pave the way for a planetary conquest. Goku took a more heroic path, but a new Grand Theft Auto V mod is unleashing Goku’s might upon the unsuspecting citizens of Los Santos. And as you can see in the footage, there’s no one who can challenge Goku in this reality.

Via Kotaku and PC Gamer, this GTA V mod was created by JulioNIB, and he’s done a remarkable job of bringing Goku’s destructive power to life within the game. This is just a video of the work-in-progress mod, but Goku’s Destructo Disc appears to have been faithfully recreated. And there is something truly unsettling about seeing Goku indiscriminately use his powers without his signature mercy or kindness.

This mod does make a strong case for dropping the Dragon Ball characters into a GTA V style sandbox city and letting them explore or fight each other. Using Goku’s abilities looks like it would be fun for a while, but imagine how much better it could be if there were other characters who were also on his level. Those could give us some epic Dragon Ball battles on a scale that we’ve rarely seen in video games.

To follow the progress of this mod, you can visit JulioNIB’s patreon page.

What do you think about this GTA V and Dragon Ball mash up? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Image: JulioNIB

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Meet the Man Who Collected 1,200 Messages in Bottles

Leaving a message in a bottle may be one of the most unlikely ways to make a human connection. But for one man in the Netherlands, his love for collecting those messages has allowed him to reach out to people from all over the world. Great Big Story recently put its spotlight on Wim Kruiswijk, a Dutch beachcomber who has amassed a staggering 1,200 messages in bottles over the last 34 years.

As strange as it may sound, Kruiswijk’s hobby has given him a purpose in life. Within the video, Kruiswijk recalls finding his first three messages in 1983. He took the time to contact the three authors, and all three of them responded to his letters. From there, he devoted himself to his new passion. “I have all the time in the world,” says Kruiswijk in the clip. “And instead of talking with other old people, I love to walk on the beach and see the surprises.”

Kruiswijk notes in the video that he doesn’t always find new messages, and that it can be weeks or even months between making new discoveries. The video also offers up a glimpse of his collection of messages and the bottles that they came in. Kruiswijk seemed particularly happy when examining the first message he received from a German girl in 1983. It’s also striking that Kruiswijk appears to prefer using a typewriter for his letters as opposed to a computer.

In 2010, Kruiswijk released a book about his experiences with the messages as well as his correspondence with their senders. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be an English language edition of Kruiswijk’s book, but it’s still very fascinating to see and hear about the lives that he’s touched through this endeavor.

What do you think about this video? Before leaving a message in a bottle, drop us a comment below!

Images: Great Big Story

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Famous Movie Lines Get Literal in Silly Animated Video

“Houston, we have a problem.”

“Say hello to my little friend!”

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Some movie lines are so ingrained in our collective consciousness they’re just as famous as the films they come from. Everyone knows the exact scene they are said in, the precise cadence they’re delivered with, and the actors who uttered them. And it’s that level of familiarity that makes this silly animated short video, featuring some of cinema’s most iconic lines, so funny. Because hearing them in either a far more literal or a far sillier context upends everything we think we know about them.

We came across this fun short made by Nick Murray Willis at Neatorama, and it features 22 classic movie lines–with the actual audio–from films like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, The Shining, A Few Good Men, and The Lord of the Rings. And each one gets it’s own animation, which technically keeps the meaning of the line accurate, but in a very different way.

Did you know it’s literally impossible to inquire about the contents of a package without screaming, “What’s in the box!” Try to ask someone what’s in a box without turning into Brad Pitt from Se7en and you’ll see it can’t be done.

But we’re definitely going to start using the line from Taken when we’re searching for that elusive spider who won’t let us sleep because it insists on existing in the first place. It’s so much fun to say, but we doubt we’ll ever get to use it to threaten a ring of international kidnappers. Why should it be limited to such a specific situation?

What other famous movie lines would you like to see him animate next? Quote yours in our comments section below.

Featured Image: Nick Murray Willis

Scarface Image: Universal Pictures

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OVERWATCH’s New Theme Park Map is a Love Letter to BLIZZARD Fans

BlizzCon 2017 is underway at the Anaheim Convention Center, which just happens to be a very short distance from Disneyland. So it’s fitting that Blizzard’s latest Overwatch reveal happened within the shadow of a world famous theme park. Because the new Overwatch map will bring players into Blizzard World, which looks like the Blizzard theme park of our dreams.

According to Blizzard, the Blizzard World is a hybrid map that lets players attack and defend the payload. But personally, we just really want to explore the park’s attractions and go on the rides. If there is ever a real Blizzard theme park, we hope that it’s as amazing as this one. Blizzard has included references to nearly all of its other games in this video, including Heroes of the Storm, Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo, and StarCraft. It’s such a convincing theme park that we suspect it required several trips to Disneyland. For research.

Among our favorite shout-outs/easter eggs in the video? The “Flight to Dustwood” dark ride from World of Warcraft, the giant Pylon Terrace attraction from Starcraft, and the arcade inspired by Heroes of the Storm. And of course, we can’t pass up the chance to revisit Azeroth, Tristram, and the Koprulu Sector. It would probably be extremely expensive to ever create this park in real life. But it would totally be worth it.

Blizzard World will go live for all Overwatch players in 2018.

What’s your favorite part of Overwatch‘s new Blizzard World map? And would you go to a real Blizzard World theme park? Let us know in the comment section below!

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Images: Blizzard

Where Does THOR: RAGNAROK Rank in the MCU?

After months of anticipation, Thor: Ragnarok has finally been released to the Nine Realms, but does it live up to the hype? We answered that on today’s (mostly spoiler-free) Nerdist News Talks Back, along with our updated ranking of every movie in the MCU, and breaking down the most polarizing episode from Stranger Things 2.

Geek and Sundry‘s Amy Vorpahl took over hosting duties today and was joined by Nerdist News writer Joan Ford, Mothership producer Derek Johnson, and Nerdist editor Kyle Anderson—a.k.a. Mr. Fancypants who got quoted in a commercial for the film. What did everyone think of the film? Does everyone agree with Kyle that it’s “phenomenal?” And where does it rank among all Marvel sequels?

But why stop there? As pop culture experts (let us have this), it’s our duty to ask the hard questions, and that includes updating the definitive ranking for every movie in the MCU. This way no one ever again has to debate it themselves. You’re welcome.

From there they headed to the Upside Down to discuss the most poorly reviewed episode of Stranger Things 2, episode seven when Eleven headed to Chicago. What did we think of it? Did we hate it as much as the rest of the internet seems to? And which episode was our favorite?

Nerdist News Talks Back airs live every weekday at 1:00 p.m. PT on our YouTube and Alpha channels. Tune in and discuss the biggest pop culture topics of the day with us.

The show has been called “as fun as Thor: Ragnarok” and “the best pop culture talk show on the internet.” Who called it that? We did, and we should know since we are experts.

We still want to hear from you about today’s topics, so talk back to us in the comments section below.

NEED MORE NNTB?

Will Infinity War work as a heist film?
Did you watch Taika Waititi when he was on?!
And finally, here’s everything we thought about  Stranger Things 2 !

Images: Marvel, Netflix