WHO ARE YOU?
My name is Tim Stoddard, around the internet I’m known as Gamepopper or Gamepopper101, which is a username I have used as early as 12, though I don’t remember where and why I thought of the name. I like to try many different stuff, I try drawing, animation, video editing, music editing, game making, programming and more, each to varying success. While I still try the ones I enjoy, the ones I find I’m good at are writing reviews and programming.
I’m currently a Sixth Form student studying Maths, Physics and Computing. I also study iMedia, which is a course that allows me to practice with Media based software such as Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Blender and the Unreal Game Engine.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST ANIMATED FILM/SERIES?
Yikes! That’s a hard one, I remember my parents owning a lot of Disney and other VHS tapes when I was little. I remember watching Bambi, Cinderella, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland…Outside Disney there was Tom & Jerry, Fintstones, Dexter’s Labratory, Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy, An American Tail, Land Before Time (I was a big fan of dinosaurs back then) and Dragon Ball Z. I think the first animated film I saw in theaters was Pokemon: The First Movie, since me and my sister were big Pokemon fans.
HOW DID YOU START REVIEWING ANIMATED FILMS?
The earliest memory I have of actually writing reviews was writing game reviews for Gamespot as mild interest when I was 12 or 13. I later wrote small game profiles for the Retro Gamer Website, and I wrote a review of Digimon Tamers on RetrowareTV. I started reviewing animated films as a hobby in August 2010, before that I wanted to make a series of videos detailing the history of Studio Ghibli, which is my favourite animation studio, and I wrote two 1 1/2 page long reviews for both Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Then one day I found a forum post wanting reviewers for a new site called Studycove, I posted a message saying I was interested, signed up and I submitted both reviews. Since I found it more interesting writing reviews then writing a script and recording myself, I kept on doing it and I’m currently the third highest submitter on the site.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ANIMATED FILM/SERIES?
All-Time Film would be Pom Poko hands down. Spirited Away would be an obvious favourite of mine because it was the film that got me into anime films in the first place, although The Cat Returns is a more special film for me personally from the Ghibli collection. Others would be Paprika, Perfect Blue, Watership Down, The Secret of Kells, Dobutsu No Mori and Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva.
For series it would be Azumanga Daioh, Dragon Ball Z, Fairly Odd Parents, Ed Edd ‘n Eddy and Digimon Tamers. Series are a lot harder for me because nowadays I lack motivation or have time to watch several episodes of random series to find a series that interest me, hence most of my favourites are from my childhood.
WHAT KIND OF FILMS YOU LIKE OUTSIDE OF ANIMATION?
Mainly action and comedies, particularly Jackie Chan, Jim Carrey, Simon Pegg, Bruce Willis and others of that kind. My favourite live-action films are V For Vendetta, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Die Hard, Office Space, Starship Troopers, Highlander (never cared about the sequels though), Tron and Tron: Legacy.
ANY OTHER INTERESTS?
Video Games, Programming, Webcomics and the Internet.
