Cartoonist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal is back with another explanation of how the world works. In today’s episode, he argues that the personality, lifestyle, and biological features of an octopus make it far awesomer than your mom. You’ll just have to read it if you want to understand why babies equal nachos.
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I love these kinds of interactive generators, and this one’s pretty cool. For the above panel, fill in what you’d like each word balloon to say. Link via Buzzfeed (where there’s a bunch of funny examples).
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An Armenian story in Russian with English subtitles. Starring the wildest animated wizard you’ve ever seen! (via Metafilter)
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Joe Peacock (previously on Neatorama) has been collecting Akira cells and production art since he was 14 years old, and now he has collaborated with ToonSeum to show the entire world why Akira is the pinnacle of Japanese anime:
No other film has ever looked like Akira, before or since. It’s stunningly fluid and detailed animation often required as many as nine separate cel layers. The 125 minute feature was comprised of over 160,000 cels and almost as many backgrounds, each one completely hand–drawn and hand-painted. Purists recognize Akira as the last completely hand-created animated feature, as cel animation quickly gave way to cheaper digital production and CGI technology.
Filmmakers, animators, art students and anime fans have largely missed out on in-depth looks at how original, cel-based animation was created – and what better example than the magnum opus that is Akira? No other animation in history – from Japan, the United States or otherwise – focused so much attention to detail in every single aspect, on every single frame and background. Each piece is a study in color theory, layout, motion dynamics and technical artistry. And it is my mission, along with ToonSeum, to expose as many people as possible to the brilliance inherent in this collection.
Links: Art of Akira – via The Journal of Joe The Peacock. Yay.
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Three years ago, Neatoramanaut Chris Garvey drew a punny doodle on a piece of sticky note and posted it on a co-worker’s desk to cheer her up. He continued to draw one note a day and today has a collection of over 1,000 drawings.
Take a look at the cartoons – some are cute, some are crude, but even the groaners are quite funny – over at Chris’ blog Sticky Moments.
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Natalie Dee of the webcomic Married to the Sea organized and categorized elemental smells into a periodic table. Sure, you can probably think of other smells, but they’re really just compounds of these, right?
Link via Geekologie | Natalie Dee’s Website
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It’s been 15 years since the beloved characters Calvin and Hobbes left the comic pages. Creator Bill Watterson hasn’t given an interview to anyone since 1989, but he recently answered some questions for Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter John Campanelli. Here he explains what he would tell grieving fans.
It’s always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip’s popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now “grieving” for “Calvin and Hobbes” would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I’d be agreeing with them.
I think some of the reason “Calvin and Hobbes” still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.
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Cartoonist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal describes nine people that are unfortunately on Facebook. He’s been on a roll lately, adding new content to his archive of cartoons about every four days.
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Combine the imagination of a five-year-old with the talent of a professional comic artist and you get Axe Cop. Malachai Nicolle comes up with the stories and his 29-year-old brother Ethan Nicolle {wiki} draws them. The result is wonderful! Anyone who’s ever had, or ever been, a five-year-old storyteller will get a real kick out of this. Link
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a staple in our household, which is funny, because I remember being quite scared of the steamroller scene near the end when I was a kid. Now that I’m older, I appreciate it more from standpoint of how much work it took to get such a groundbreaking movie made – and here are some of the inside details on exactly what it took to make that happen. For the record, I still find the steamroller scene a little creepy.
Like so many movies, this one was a book before it ever hit the screen. In this case, the book was named Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, by Gary K. Wolf. But the film doesn’t follow the book exactly. For instance, the book took place in present day – which was 1981 – not 1947.
And instead of famous animated cartoon characters making appearances, famous cartoon strip characters pop up to chat with Roger, including Dick Tracy. Most Toons like Tracy “spoke” in the book the only way they knew how – through word bubbles. Some became “bilingual” and could speak without balloons. The only line in the whole book that made it to the silver screen was spoken by Baby Herman – “I’ve got a 50-year-old lust and a three-year-old dinky.” In the book, though, Baby Herman was actually 50, not 36. The ending is a lot different too, but I won’t spoil that for you (Google will tell you pretty quickly, if you’re dying to know).
After the movie became a success in 1988, Wolf wrote a second book (though not necessarily a sequel) that fell more in line with the movie than with his original book. It’s called Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?
It’s probably music to the ears of Roger Rabbit fans: a prequel. According to the prequel, Roger grew up on a farm in the midwest and headed out to California to try to find his real mother. That’s how he falls in love with Jessica Krupnick (Jessica Rabbit has a much better ring to it, don’t you think?) and eventually meets not only his mother, but his father too – none other than Bugs Bunny.
The movie would have been a direct-to-video release. As of 1997, Michael Eisner was onboard for the prequel and commissioned a rewrite of the script; in 1998 some test footage was even shot. After estimations brought the cost of the movie to about $100 million, the idea was more or less shelved.
However, just last year, Robert Zemeckis said he was interested in doing the prequel and it’s rumored that the script is being worked on again. I guess we’ll see. I’d certainly go see it.
I did. Here are some other fun facts from the movie.
Although Roger and his cartoon pals have largely been abandoned at Disney, you can still find traces of them here and there. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled the next time you’re at Disney Hollywood Studios – if you look in the right place, you’ll find Eddie Valiant’s office, complete with the “hole” where Roger busted through the glass. There’s also a billboard for R.K. Maroon Studios.
Kathleen Turner famously provided Jessica Rabbit’s sultry voice, but Amy Irving – then Steven Spielberg’s wife – was her singing voice.
This was the last film Mel Blanc provided his famous voices for, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat – with one exception. He did provide Daffy’s voice one more time in 1988 before passing away in 1989.
The movie’s original budget was $29.9 million dollars – the most an animated movie had ever cost at the time. But the price tag could have been even more astronomical – Roger was slated to cost $50 million at first, but Disney refused to shell out that much and wouldn’t approve production until costs were slashed. Rumor has it that by the time production was finished, the budget had soared to around $70 million.
Despite the cavalcade of characters from across the cartoon universe, a few that Disney wanted are missing: Popeye and Olive Oyl, Tom and Jerry, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Deputy Dawg. They couldn’t secure the rights for these in time for the movie.
Before the final title was finally settled on, others that were considered included Murder in Toontown, Dead Toons Don’t Pay Bills, Trouble in Toontown and Eddie Goes to Toontown.
The book has a question mark after the title, but the movie doesn’t – ending a movie title with a question mark is considered bad luck in the industry, apparently. This hasn’t stopped Who’s Harry Crumb?; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; or Dude, Where’s My Car?. The principle does apply to What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Who’s That Girl, however.
Warner Brothers would only allow the use of their toons if they got the same screen time as Disney’s toons. Thus, when you see Bugs, he’s usually with Mickey, and when you see Daffy, Donald is probably there too. Screencap from Obsessed with Film.
To make Judge Doom extra creepy, Robert Zemeckis had Christopher Lloyd refrain from blinking during his scenes. I’m tempted to watch just to see if I can catch him. Tim Curry auditioned for the role of Judge Doom, but he was so disturbingly sinister that Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner all nixed him for fear that he would give children nightmares.
The inspiration for Jessica Rabbit was taken from a bunch of Hollywood glamour girls, including Lauren Bacall, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Veronica Lake.
Zemeckis and Spielberg both really wanted Bill Murray for the role of Eddie Valiant, but Murray is notoriously hard to get a hold of, so it never happened. Murray has said that when he later found out that he was the number one choice for the role, he screamed out loud because he would have loved playing Eddie.
If you haven’t kept track of all of the animated cameos in the movie, here’s a list to watch for the next time you catch Roger on T.V.:
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Pringle of Scotland is an old and established sweater company which has nothing to do with potato chips. They commissioned artist David Shrigley to make a humorous video about the firm. The result is strange and delightful! -via Flotsam
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Ross Butter has a fine grasp of an odd idea. His explanation: “I got in touch with my inner child. He made me do this.” -via Buzzfeed
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Scott Meets Family Circus is comedian Scott Gairdner’s skewering of Bill Keane’s sentimental comic Family Circus. Gairdner is not amused by the comic’s puns and childish musings. Content warning: some NSFW language.
Previously on Neatorama: The Nietzsche Family Circus
Link via Urlesque | Scott Gairdner’s Blog
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Photo: gammaraybots [Flickr]
What do you get when you mash up Charles M. Schulz’s comic Peanuts with Star Wars? Behold the Charlie Brown TIE Fighter by Tom Torrey: Link – via The Zeray Gazette
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An award-winning French film about Gary, who doesn’t want to go through the door. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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Man Eggs is a subversive humor type comic along the same lines as The Perry Bible Fellowship. Pop culture skewed for your daily humor serving.
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Apple Daily in Hong Kong produced a Sims-style video to explain the Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien situation to Chinese television viewers. Portraying them as comic book heroes is sheer genius! You don’t have to understand the language to follow along. -via Cynical-C
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As Clark Kent, Superman was raised as a Methodist.
While growing up in Smallville, Kansas, Clark Kent attended Sunday church services at the local Methodist church with his mother, Martha Kent, every week until he was fourteen years old. These aspects of the character are not speculative, but are canonical – established by in-continuity published DC Comics.
Batman’s religiosity is a bit more complex:
…there is some disagreement among fans as well as among writers about whether the character is a mostly lapsed Catholic or a mostly lapsed Episcopalian. There is universal agreement that the character is not an active churchgoer in any faith.
The religious affiliation of hundreds of comic book characters and superheroes has been tabulated at Adherents.com. You can search through a list to find your favorites, or view them as groups. Pictured above, for example, is the Legion of Baptist Superheroes.
Link.
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What if Shakespearean costumes were designed by an artist who drew superheroes? That would never happen, right?
In 1969, Sheldon Feldner contacted Marvel Comics, asking if one of Marvel’s artists would be interested in designing costumes for a production of William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar by the University Theatre Company at Santa Cruz at the newly-built Cowell College of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
As luck would have it, the Kirby family had recently moved to California, and Stan Lee recommended that Feldner contact Jack Kirby.
Jack Kirby {wiki} was the creator of such characters as Captain America, The Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. But he went to work designing not only the costumes but also a poster for the student production. His sketches, and some pictures of the actual costumes, are posted at the Kirby Museum. Link -via Metafilter
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The comic strip Calvin & Hobbes often included Calvin’s disturbing snowmen. We’ve previously featured one such scene recreated with real snowmen, but WebUrbanist has a post filled with them.
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Matthew Inman once again puts into comic form what we’ve all thought at one time or another. Has anyone ever been completely happy with their printer? Between the cost of ink, the difficulty of setting them up, and their reliability, it’s a wonder anyone uses them anymore! Link -via Gorilla Mask
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Illustrator Cliff Chiang took remixed classic 12" album covers into their comic superhero counterparts. The Breakfast Club? Meet the Teen Titans (obviously!). Check out how he turned Prince into Batgirl and Flashdance into Elekra: Link
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Mario
Question Block Coin Candy - $3.95
You never know what you'll get from a question block in the video game Super Mario Bros., but there's no question here. You'll get awesome coin-shaped candies from Boston America's Mario Question Block Coin Candy.
The candy, licensed from Nintendo, comes in a collectible metal tin and is now available from the Neatorama Shop: Link
More Super Mario Bros. themed stuff from the Neatorama Shop:
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Super
Mario Bros. Mushroom Tin - $3.45 |
Mario
Bros. Super Star Candy - $2.95 |
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Every year, the United States Postal Service release a set of new stamps and this year, one particular set stands out: The Sunday Funnies Collection.
Comics Alliance blog has the scoop (and more pics):
Based on popular newspaper comic strips, the series will include stamps involving Archie, Garfield, Dennis the Menace, the cast of "Beetle Bailey," and my personal favorites, Calvin and Hobbes!
Link | USPS News Release – Thanks Laura!
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If you grew up in the ’80s and early ’90s and had access to Nickelodeon, no doubt you found yourself watching Inspector Gadget at one point or another. The cartoon about a bumbling detective and his genius niece Penny and her dog Brain who are constantly saving the day only ran for two seasons, but the reruns lived on (and were popular enough to warrant a 1999 live-action movie).
Because Neatorama is always on duty, here are a few wowser facts about the good Inspector, Penny and Brain:
1. If some of the voices from the cartoon sound familiar, it’s because you’ve almost certainly heard them elsewhere. Cree Summer, the voice of Penny, has also been in Tiny Toon Adventures as Elmyra, Rugrats as Susie Carmichael and Drawn Together as Foxxy Love (among lots of one-off voice appearances and guest spots).
2. Even if you were never a fan of the cartoon (or the movie, for that matter), you might be familiar with the Inspector Gadget theme song. In 1984, Doug E. Fresh sampled it for his classic song The Show, which resurfaced in the 1991 Wesley Snipes movie New Jack City.
3. The original song was inspired by a classical work – “Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg.
4. In 2006, a couple of the original voice actors reprised their roles for a Robot Chicken skit. Sadly, Don Adams had died the previous year, so Gadget was voiced by Joe Hanna. But the voices of Penny, Brain and Dr. Claw are all done by the originals. Chief Quimby was voiced by Robot Chicken co-creator Seth Green. If you’ve ever wondered what a cross between Gadget and the Terminator would look like, here you go:
5. You might remember Gadget’s best gadgets: binoculars, skates, springs, extra hands. But those are just the tip of the iceberg. Gadget also had a necktie-lasso, a parachute, a respirator, skis, pulleys, eyeballs that could pop out of his head and spy on people, and even radar (among other things). Those are but a fraction of the gadgets the inspector has at his disposal, though – he was said to have about 14,000 gadgets in all.
6. The 1999 movie starring Matthew Broderick revealed a lot of things the cartoon never did. For instance, Inspector Gadget’s name was John Brown and Dr. Claw’s name was Sanford Scolex. A 2002 cartoon called Gadget and the Gadgetinis, however, tells us that the Inspector’s nemesis was born as “George Claw” and he has a twin brother named “Dr. Thaw” who wears dishwashing gloves instead of a menacing spiked glove like his sibling.
7. You know you’ve got a classic theme song on your hands when street performers add it to their repertoires. Check out this busker in Australia playing the catchy tune by hitting beer bottles with a wooden spoon. It’s pretty awesome.
8. Inspector Gadget had a mustache in the 1983 pilot episode. Almost immediately after the show, DIC, the company who created Gadget, received a “friendly” letter from MGM saying that their cartoon seemed to closely resemble a character they had recently created. Thus, Gadget was clean-shaven for the rest of the series. Try as I might, I couldn’t figure out which MGM character that might refer to – anyone have any guesses? Photo from SearchforVideo.com.
9. Fans already know that Don Adams – probably most famous for playing a somewhat similar character in Get Smart, Maxwell Smart – was the voice of Inspector Gadget. What you might not know is that it wasn’t Don’s first venture into the world of animation. In the ’60s, Adams endeared himself to children as the title voice on Tennessee Tuxedo and his Tales (you’ll see that Tennessee Tuxedo sounds just like Inspector Gadget).
10. Dr. Claw is a spoof on a famous Bond villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who was seen in several films including You Only Live Twice and Thunderball. In fact, he may be one of the most spoofed Bond villains of all time – Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers series is the spitting image of Blofeld.
11. There was a way to see Dr. Claw’s face prior to the 1999 movie – back in 1992, a Dr. Claw action figure was produced. But there was a catch – a large sticker on the package obscured Claw’s face, so to get a glimpse, you actually had to buy the toy. Clever. Here’s what he looked like when you bought the action figure:
Pictures from ProgressiveBoink.
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When Danish political cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was attacked at home by an ax-wielding man, he didn’t lock himself in the bathroom – instead, he utilized the panic room:
Westergaard took his 5-year-old granddaughter into the "panic room" when he realized what was happening, Chief Superintendent Ole Madsen said.
Westergaard, who has been threatened for drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, is ordinarily accompanied by bodyguards when he leaves his home, but nobody was on guard at the house Friday, the Security and Intelligence Service told CNN.
And you thought that the 2002 movie Panic Room by Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker was just Hollywood non-sense: Link (Photo: AFP)
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Superman and Batman (1977)
Growing up Heroes is a fascinating tumblr blog by Belgian comic book fan Franz Donovan, where people submit their old childhood photos of themselves dressed up as superheroes. From Wired’s Underwire Blog:
Donovan pictures his online scrapbook as an exercise in nostalgia. “Growing Up Heroes brings back vivid memories of our own attempts to be heroes when we were uncomplicated, over-imaginative, nerdy kids,” he said.
The only things lacking are the "after" photos of these people all grown up: Link – via The Zeray Gazette
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A journey to the Emerald City? Meeting strangers that have no brain, no heart and no courage? Getting attacked by flying monkeys? If you think about it, the Wizard of Oz is needlessly long and complicated.
The folks over at How It Should Have Ended created a short animation that tells us logically how the Wizard of Oz should have ended.
Miss Cellania has the clip: Link
Also, from the Neatorama Shop: Wizard of Oz, the Short Version by Mike Jacobsen
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Run Wrake made this very strange, yet very intriguing short called “Rabbit.” Like the Dick and Jane books of yesteryear as seen through the eyes of a madman, the style is unique, and the moral of the story is poignant. (Warning: animated animal slaughter.)
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The people of Sweden really love Donald Duck, or Kalle Anka as he’s called. They are especially enamored of the duck’s comic antics during the Christmas season, as the country pretty much shuts down for an hour on Christmas Eve to watch the 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas television special, “From All of Us to All of You.”
The special features a bunch of cartoons, snippets from feature Disney films, and promos for new projects, and while only a small fraction of the content is holiday-related, half the country tunes in every year as a tradition.
Slate’s Jeremy Stahl experienced the cultural phenomenon firsthand:
The show’s cultural significance cannot be understated. You do not tape or DVR Kalle Anka for later viewing. You do not eat or prepare dinner while watching Kalle Anka. Age does not matter—every member of the family is expected to sit quietly together and watch a program that generations of Swedes have been watching for 50 years. Most families plan their entire Christmas around Kalle Anka, from the Smörgåsbord at lunch to the post-Kalle visit from Jultomten. “At 3 o’clock in the afternoon, you can’t to do anything else, because Sweden is closed,” Lena Kättström Höök, a curator at the Nordic Museum who manages the “Traditions” exhibit, told me. “So even if you don’t want to watch it yourself, you can’t call anyone else or do anything else, because no one will do it with you.”
Any time someone tries to modify the tradition, by even so much as recording the presenter’s lines so he can spend the day with his family, the public gets wind of it and revolts until normalcy is restored. Head over to Slate and read the full, fascinating article.
Link (via Bifurcated Rivets) Image: Serieforlaget AB
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