Disney has chosen to keep their animated content light and family friendly, which is why some legendary female characters will never make it onto the big screen under the Disney monicker.

Characters like Mai Bhago, the Sikh warrior-saint who led forty fierce women against the Mughal army and lived to tell about it, and Pasiphae, the immortal daughter of Helios who was cursed with desires to couple with a bull and gave birth to the Minotaur, are the stars of tales way too explicit for a general audience:

Illustrator, history/mythology buff and former DreamWorks animator Jason Porath is giving these hardcore heroines their day in the sun through his site Rejected Princesses, which is full of fun Disney inspired illustrations and a fairly comprehensive backstory on each character, so you can see what you're missing when Disney chooses some G rated gal over these fiercely capable femmes!

-Via io9

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Former Disney artist Glen Keane has contributed his incredible skills as an animator to classic features like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, and it appears he hasn’t lost his touch since he left the studio that Mickey Mouse built.

He recently released a hand drawn short film called Duet as part of Google's Advanced Technology and Projects Group, one of three short films "designed to explore the possibilities of interactive animation on mobile devices", meaning you'll be able to explore content in three dimensional space on tablets and smartphones.

Glen's ethereal short celebrates the power of imagination, and the joys of sharing life experiences with someone you love.

-Via Cartoon Brew

Philip Pullman as Long John Silver from Treasure Island

Neil Gaiman as Badger from Wind In The Willows

Terry Pratchett as Just William

The Story Museum in Oxford, England approached photographer Cambridge Jones about contributing to an exhibition called 26 Characters, and Cambridge immediately came up with an extremely novel idea for a photo series- famous authors dressed up as their favorite characters.

The 26 portraits in the series show authors such as Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman and Malorie Blackman having a great time all dressed up and playing a role, and for many the simple act of putting on a costume seems to have brought out the kid in them.

Cambridge borrowed the costumes from the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theater, which explains why they all look so fabulous, and each portrait is accompanied by "audio of the authors reading extracts from their books and interviewed about their chosen character."

See many more portraits in the series, as well as some insightful comments from Cambridge Jones, over at BBC News

H.R. Giger is generally known for his paintings, his concept art work for the Alien film franchise, and more recently for his amazing biomechanical sculptures, but when Giger wasn't working he was snapping Polaroids that reveal the man behind the ghastly machines:

Antennae Books recently released "Polaroids: H.R. Giger", featuring dozens of Polaroids from Giger's private collection, portraits which have somehow become more poignant, and insightful, since his passing:

Giger's photographs are just as sexy and experimental as his paintings, which can be seen in the background in many of these candid photos, and they share a side of Giger known well by his friends but relatively unseen by his fans.

(Some images may be considered NSFW)

-Via Boing Boing

Tumblr blogger Panovator is an artist in ceramics, stained glass, knit work, and chainmail. Lately, she has gotten a lot of attention for stained glass work. Pictured above is a panel showing the Marvel Comics character Hawkeye violating conventional etiquette standards. It's on display at Fantastic Comics in Berkeley, California.

And here is Carol Danvers, AKA Ms. Marvel. Panovator says that it reflects an image by "Jamie McKelvie that truly captured the strength and determination of one of my favorite heroes."

Panovator describes stained glass as "a somewhat mystical and highly skilled art" that captured his attention by accident. But now it's clear that he's become a master of the craft.

-via Crafting the Marvel Universe

Sonic earned his nickname by running really, really fast, just like his buddy Tails earned his name by having two tails, and Dr. Robotnik earned a PhD in robotics and a nickname to boot, but how did SEGA settle on a hedgehog as the main character instead of a rabbit, armadillo or a chicken wearing overalls?

And as for Dr. Robotnik, did you know he was initially going to be the star of the game? The original concept design for the character looked like Teddy Roosevelt, which SEGA felt would be a great way to appeal to Americans:

Okay, now I really want to see a Dr. Robotnik in Dreamland game!

Read Gamma Squad's Fifteen Fascinating Facts You Probably Don't Know About Sonic The Hedgehog

There’s a gloriously anonymous job in the entertainment industry which combines a love of film with a love of gimping, or green manning if you're from Philadelphia, and leaves some of the on-screen talent identity free for eternity.

The job is affectionately referred to by some as "gimpsuited greenscreen fluffer", and it’s their job to keep that hair flowing “naturally”, or Superman's cape fluttering, during filming:

If you already have a chroma key green suit hanging in your closet you might as well get suited up and wander around a few Hollywood lots until someone offers you a job, or tells you to get back to work, because this is probably what you were destined to do for a living!

-Via Boing Boing

(Image Via Gawker)

In a recent example of real life playing out like the plot of a comic book, officials in New York are about to make the Superhero Registration Act a real life thing…for Times Square characters.

(Image Via In Other News)

After years of reported problems with the superhero clad busker types who hang around Times Square posing for money, culminating in the recent arrest of "Spider-Man" for allegedly groping a tourist, heads of the Times Square Alliance are proposing a law requiring all street performers, especially wanna-be superheroes, to be licensed and regulated by the New York state government.

So it’s kinda like the comics, only the superheroes in this instance don’t have any powers, and this most certainly won’t lead to a Marvel Universe divided via the Civil War, although there may be a new batch of outlaw superheroes wandering the sidewalks of Times Square in the near future...

-Via ComicsAlliance

Here's a clever piece by makeup artist Crystal Effin. When she opens her lips, Wicket's mouth expands to terrifying proportions, ready to devour Luke, Han, Leia, and any stormtroopers who survived the destruction of the second Death Star.

Pro tip: do not read an Ewokese cookbook. There's nothing inside that you want to know about.

-via Fashionably Geek

When you have time to kill online, like a whole lotta time, you can end up deep inside a clickhole- a word that means what it sounds like it means, and it's also the name of a website which is home to quizzes that are a total waste of time, like this hauntingly mysterious quiz How Long Will You Survive The Chamber?

Once you start clicking, reading, clicking, choosing then clicking again you’ll find yourself having some sort of adventure involving something called the Sightless Finder, which is apparently blind but can still find stuff, and a creeping madness threatening to overtake your mind...

Have fun storming the chamber!

(Video Link)

Fartzenegger is one of those videos you find online that initially makes you wonder why anybody would spend time making such a thing, but if you have a silly sense of humor, a nostalgiac love of Ahnold’s old movies and a few minutes to kill you might just see the merit of making such a ridiculous video.

Distractotron Channel sure did, they're the makers of this fine compilation video, and they want you to know that no actual farts were used in the making of this video. None. Just some Foley sounds at the touch of a button and excellent comedic timing.

Fartzenegger is a bawdy little guilty pleasure of a video with some genuinely funny moments, and if you can hear the farts in your head it’s almost as funny with the sound off!

(NSFW due to language and content)

-Via Geeks Are Sexy

Working from home can make you feel like a hermit, and totally antisocial, which makes you want to stay home even more, the antisocial cycle beginning anew.

Normally socialized folks don’t understand why their antisocial friends never go to clubs or parties, they don’t see the fun in socializing exclusively via the interwebs, and they don't know why antisocial people bother having a phone if they're never going to respond to text messages.

If you relate to these antisocial attitudes then your friends don’t understand you, the antisocial you, and they definitely won’t understand the many “things” on this hilariously relatable list of 30 Things Only Antisocial People Understand.

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Moustachioed macho man Nick Offerman has one of those faces, and personalities, that totally belongs in a Western flick. Couldn’t you just see him playing an old prospector/curmudgeon, or the newly elected sheriff of a small town, or perhaps the leader of a bandit gang full of ornery varmints?

Well, you're just gonna have to wait for another Western to come out with Nick in it if you wanna see him on camera, because in The Gunfighter he plays the role of The Narrator- a narrator heard by both the audience and the characters.

This hilarious short was written by Kevin Tenglin and directed by Eric Kissack, and the only thing this bawdy Western short is missing is a cameo appearance by Nick's moustache!

(NSFW due to language)

-Via GeekTyrant

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Call it what you want, but Foster the People’s fan love, critical acclaim and rising stardom is well deserved because it all comes from the fact that they make some mighty sweet music, at least to my ears.

Their tunes are as fun and bouncy as a pair of pumped up kicks, and their videos are every bit as entertaining as their songs.

Their latest video is for a lil’ ditty called Pseudologia Fantastica, featuring eye pleasing animation by Hannes/Johannes which was conceptualized by FTP member Mark Foster, who came up with the idea while driving through Cuba.

Mark drew inspiration from all he saw around him, concluding that even in Cuba cash is king, and this video became a labor of love as well as a surreal love letter to the people of Cuba.

-Via Juxtapoz

A lot of terms you might think came from science actually came from science fiction. Some of those words, like robot, cryostasis, and spaceship were born in fiction but later became real science. Others, like force field, came from science and were appropriated by science fiction. The terms super-hero, dystopia, and multiverse came from neither science nor science fiction! You can find out the earliest use of these familiar science fiction terms and more at io9. -via the Presurfer