James Eatock

Infobox Actor
name = James Eatock
birthname = James Douglas Eatock
birthdate = birth date|1977|8|21
location = Enfield, London

James Eatock (born August 21, 1977 in Enfield, London) more commonly known on the Internet as Busta Toons is an English freelance animator, designer, writer and publisher.

Background

A fan of animation, James Eatock grew up watching cartoons, primarily shows from the 1980s, taking an interest not only in the obvious visual entertainment, but also the people that worked on the shows themselves. Gaining access to the Internet James as Busta Toons soon found himself engaging in many an animated discussion, and was the first person on-line to interview Larry DiTillio regarding his work on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Galaxy High. The name Busta Toons came from his admiration of Leaders of the New School front man Busta Rhymes, and his love of animated cartoons.

He-Man and She-Ra Episode Review Website

In 1997, James alongside Zadoc Angell created the "He-Man and She-Ra Episode Review Website". The website was primarily Zadoc's idea and James had little interest in contributing to it during its initial developmental stages. The website went on to become one of biggest dedicated to the He-Man and She-Ra animated series. The website attracted many visitors, including many of the series staff, earning the pair reputations as experts on the series. However by late 2001 both James and Zadoc had many other priorities occupying their lives prompting them to rarely update the website, leading to an eventual unexpected merge with "He-man.org".

oopa Don Boogie

In mid 2001, James was fortunate enough to get his animated short aired on the BBC as part of the "BBC Talent" scheme that the channel had been running. The short was popular enough that he created a website dedicated to the characters from the Soopa Don Boogie short. However he received the most positive feedback over an animated short he had created which featured He-Man and Teela against a monster. James' animated work was heavily influenced by the animation styles of both Tom Tataranowicz and John Kricfalusi.

Mattel

In December 2001, Mattel contacted James and paid both he and Zadoc to write an in-depth guide to the original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series. The project was completed on time and handed to Mike Young Productions who used the guide to heavily influence their new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) series. The pair were supposed to receive an on-screen credit for their work, but they were left unaccredited. This would be the last time that James and Zadoc would work together. At the same time James had left his job in the Department for Culture Media and Sport and pursued a career in animation attempting to get a job at Passion Pictures, but failing.

DVDs and comics

In 2003, Contender Entertainment Group asked James to co-produce the UK release of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on DVD. Liaising with Contender he was responsible for the extra content, which included DVD commentaries (two on each volume) on which he and Dave Newman attempted to give insightful, and at time humorous comments on specific episodes. The DVDs were popular at the beginning, but due to a slow release schedule the interest level vanished and the DVDs were cancelled with Volume Six in late 2004. However at the beginning of 2006 Contender decided to release the remaining episodes of season one on three DVDs but only available as a Boxset exclusive to play.com with all the previous releases. Understandably this was not met with a positive reaction, and even though James and Dave recorded new commentaries, many of these would never be heard until Contender finally released one final He-Man DVD boxset which contained volumes 7-9 and it complete the first season. James and Dave's commentaries for six different episodes was included in the extras. The set was released in September 2007.

At the beginning of 2004, James and Dave were asked to appear on the commentaries for the UK release of Dungeons & Dragons (TV series) on DVD.

Alongside co-producing the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe DVDs James was also writing the "Masters of the Universe Encyclopedia" for MVCreations. Unfortunately due to disagreements with Mattel the series was cancelled after only one issue, even though all five issues had been written. Initially the plan had been for James to write an Encyclopedia based on the classic He-Man properties, but legal problems led to this idea being shelved after James had written the first issue.

James also worked alongside Val Staples to create "The Energy Warrior" and came up with concepts, stories and designs for a proposed comic series which sadly never saw the light of day.

BCI Eclipse

Since 2005 James has worked with MVCreations on many DVD titles from BCI Eclipse including He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, , The New Adventures of He-Man, The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, Defenders of the Earth, Dungeons & Dragons (TV series), Filmation's Ghostbusters, Bravestarr and many more. His role primarily involves writing the synopses, character profiles and trivia, naming the chapter points, and researching material for the documentaries.

In 2006 started the "He-Man and She-Ra Blog!", updated on a near-daily basis, which is now visited by over 7,000 people a month and is in its second year.

cereal:geek

In 2007 James launched "cereal:geek"; a 100-page glossy magazine with no adverts dedicated to the animated shows from the 1980s with contributions by many talented artists and writers.

External links

* [http://bustatoons.blogspot.com The He-Man and She-Ra Blog!]
* [http://www.cerealgeek.com cereal:geek]
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Interviews

* [http://www.farsector.com/quadrant/interview-heman.htm Farsector Interview (2006)]