Well the fall quarter is over, and I have not touched this thing like I told you guys I would because school :I but with a whole winter break ahead of me, I have a lot on my to-do list and this here blog is one of the many things I have decided I need to get back on. So there.
You'll be glad to know that I have once again made it through my classes with fairly good grades overall, and that I will be moving on to next quarter with no issue :P I'll actually be starting my senior film next quarter, so that's pretty daunting. Otherwise, nothing too exciting going on. I'm going to spend most of my days when I'm not too busy otherwise staying home... playing video games and... I don't know...
Maybe. I'll pencil this one in somewhere, I have a tight agenda.
So, I think I'll have more time to pay attention to what's going on in the animation world and complain about what I don't like here, so look forward to that. Also, I managed to get my mitts on a copy of Frozen, albeit unintentionally, but nonetheless... so I'm going to do that comparison to The Lion King that I've been talking about. Look forward to that! :D Last but not least, I am gladly awaiting the release date for Kingdom Hearts 2.5, where I will finally for the first time ever get to play Birth By Sleep, so that's pretty exciting stuff, and I'll let you know what I think about it.
Thanks, all one of you who have probably read this! :D I'll try to post more often haha. Remember, tell your friends, and I hope you'll decide to hop onto the Matt's Musings Facebook page and show the Like button some love!
Dim the lights, baby.
Last but not least, don't forget to tell your friends!!!
So the past two weeks have come and passed, and for the most part, I haven't had too much material to do a good, bad and ugly segment... because, surprisingly, most of the news in the animation sites I peruse is actually pretty exciting. The blue moon must be out on this sunny Thursday.
But all good things are meant to crash and burn, and the news that I've picked up over the past couple of days proves that the industry is no exception to this. With that being said, let's get right down to the nitty gritty!
The Good
So Pixar, amirite?
That's it, guys, that's the end of this part, on to the Bad now.
Pixar, who for the most part has churned out back-to-back hits (and spilled spaghetti on its dress shirt when they released Cars 2... oops) has just released the teaser trailer for a film that I am gleefully anticipating. Next summer, the Pete Doctor-directed film Inside Out is due to be released, and well... just watch the teaser.
News via Cartoon Brew
If you managed to push past the unnecessarily long montage of its previous films (which, funny enough, did not feature Cars 2), than good job. I want to discuss the things that I saw after the montage, and more importantly, the things that I've gathered thus far regarding the film. For one, it's supposed to be a fusion of 2D and 3D which... my god. Since Day and Night debuted, I expect big, great things. For another, Lewis Black as the voice of Anger. Ohhhh, Pixar, you must be probing my brain for the things that I want out of a great movie. Suffice to say, I'm excited about this movie. You did it again, Pixar. Also, don't just gloss over where it says "Lewis Black" like I didn't link you to a very informative video - click that thing, and educate yourself.
If you've been living under a rock since 2010, Angry Birds is... was... the super-popular phone game promoting the sale of bacon, because pigs are evil. I say "was" because, if you have been looking over at the phone of the person sitting next to you on the city bus lately, odds are they haven't been playing Angry Birds much, anymore. Because it lost its popularity around the time that the majority of the people reached that level that was specifically designed to piss you off. I guess.
Unless you're Sony. oh... Sony, no... I was just singing your praises 2 weeks ago. Why'd you have to go and do this? Well anyways, Facebook made this shit trend because apparently people on the internet lost their minds over the cast of the movie. Which just goes to show: if you're a movie company, as long as you're pretty sure that thing that was popular 4 years ago will make lots of money and attention on the internet, than to hell with any original ideas. Good job, Sony.
The really, really, REALLY Ugly
By now, I'm sure you've heard of the animated masterpiece released in 2012. You know, the CG work of cinematic genius ten years in the making, starring the world's most popular and familiar names. You know what I'm talking about? Unfortunately for you, the answer is probably "yes."
And the most memorable cast of characters since Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs.
That's right, Foodfight. And yes, there is a deeper story behind what happened to make this film the gem that it became today, but the fact is that someone in Hollywood still believed in this stinker. Which is a shame, because someone's name is attached to this, for ever.
:(
The person I'm talking about particularly, and the point I'm trying to get to, is that there's a guy named Larry Kasanoff, he runs a studio named Threshold Entertainment and he really should have shut down this studio and retired, because he seems to have a difficult time differentiating garbage with polish. On that note... Tetris: The Movie!
This is the part where I'm supposed to say, "Just kidding, guys!" but this is a thing that's being made. And guess what, Sci Fi buffs, this one is for you! The cinematic wizard behind the Poop Rat is quoted as saying, "What everyone doesn't know yet is this epic sci-fi story that we're going to tell. That's what's really exciting."
My heart is just racing with anticipation, Larry.
Guys, that's it. That's all that's needed to be said.
Don't forget to follow the Matt's Musings Facebook page so you can keep up to date on the latest of my musings, along with the regular Animation Good, Bad, and Ugly weekly series. And guys, watch Lewis Black. You won't regret it.
I'm not dead D: but things have been insane for me, guys. So... I've started my senior year at SCAD this past week, and uh... oh my god.
"Have mercy on me! I've only been back for a week!"
See, I'm in a particularly crazy situation with my scheduling that pretty much means that I'm doing studio classes for... the rest of the year. Three at a time. Which pretty much means that I'm going to kiss sleep good bye until I graduate. Also, I still have to work.
:(
But I'm not here to make excuses for my inactivity, damn it, I'm here to talk about something with you! So, with that, I want to quickly share with you guys what I consider the good, the bad, and the ugly in animation this week.
The Good:
Skip to 1:57 for the juicy stuff. Article via Cartoon Brew
I don't usually pay too much mind to CG, but Genndy Tartakovsky does it so gooooooooood (go see Hotel Transylvania). And if they stick to this feel for the actual feature, than I am 1000% on board. My favorite part about this test is that Genndy directed the "modernizing" in such a way that is so faithful to the Fleischer Popeye shorts, like... I was speechless. Note to everybody who wants to modernize another classic property: "modernizing" does not mean stuff an hour and a half with modern pop culture references and... dubstep, I guess? I don't know. Either way, take notes from this, all. I'm excited to see where this goes. Also, Popeye translates surprisingly well in CG. Creepily well...
The Bad
Noooooooooooooooooo! Why!? Article via Cartoon Brew
Aaaand we've taken a step back, CG. This is exactly why I don't pay attention to it - this kind of bull( )t happens when I look. For those of you guys that don't know, Mexican animation house Anima Estudios released what I like to call "a step forward" in 2011: a 2D animated Top Cat movie called... Top Cat. The movie. ...
It wasn't the most beautiful animation ever made by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, I concede (from experience) that there's not a whole heck of a lot that can be done with Flash puppet-style animation, but just look at this.
Oye. Also, some of the character design choices made in this movie
just make me uncomfortable.
Despite that, though, any studio that's willing to re-venture into 2D is okay by my book. And than, they just... gave up? ... why? Anima Estudios, you've disappointed me. I'm going to give this one, and the studio, a pass.
The Ugly
Hands down, this:
Not real. Yet. Unfortunately.
I dabble into Disney World news every now and again, mostly in my inability to afford to be able to go down there myself so I feel the need to make up for that by gawking on the internet. In doing my dreaming, the internet (in typical fashion) turned my dreams into a nightmare when it started talk about Disney looking to shove Frozen in my face every turn I take in the parks (I despise Frozen, but more about that later). A summer event? Okay, that's cool. I can't go in the summer anyway.
Oh, what's that? You want to shut down a 30 year old ride that celebrates the mythos and heritage of a legendary culture in the name of permanently shoving Frozen in my face some more? ... okay. sure. I see. Well, at least it's just a crappy internet rumor.
What's that, Disney? It's not?
You know. But no big deal, you know. Just sayin'.
Aside from spitting on anything that had to do with Walt Disney's vision for Epcot, and the more personal issue that I have with Disney's need to shove Anna, Elsa and Olaf in my face constantly, I believe that this is just bad foresight strategically in the parks. Think about it - how long have even the biggest fads on the internet stayed popular? And I don't mean in the way that they're still being used today... I mean as in, how long has a fad been actually, legitimately popular? To say two years is a stretch, for the most part.
A note to Disney - I don't know if you'll believe me or not... but Frozen is still an internet fad. And not much else. And, thank goodness, it's starting to go on the decline. So, before you decide that the appropriate reaction to an internet fad is to stomp all over Walt Disney's ideals for his very last dream - and by extension, his grave - to try to make a few more bucks off of Frozen, consider stepping back and thinking about it. Just, do that much.
This doesn't have to be a lesson you need to learn the hard way.
So uh... I work retail. You know, the classier alternative to the ever-dreaded standard college job. You know the one I'm talking about.
Pictured: the collective smile of "if this picture leaks on the internet
and my friends and family see this, I will find out where you live and
kill you in your sleep." Also, Ronald McDonald.
I have the particular pleasure of working in an office supply store, and not a particularly cheap one, either. Given my store's proximity to one of the many low-income districts around town, the variety of, er... clientele... can get very interesting. Some times obnoxious, some times insightful, some times delightful, but 100% of the time, no one day is the same as the next.
We are at the tail end of our back to school season, which is a relief, because things finally calm the hell down a little bit after the notebook and backpack aisles stop looking like the Tasmanian Devil was going back and forth around them all day. Here in Savannah, though, we as an office supply store have to face one final storm before the back to school season comes to a close.
That's right, boys and girls
We have to face the swarm. Of SCAD bees.
Buzz buzz. We're here for your furniture.
Being a SCAD-ling myself, I fancy myself to be in a unique position where I can actually try to make a couple of new friends, perhaps people who I can talk to during our college duration about how the SCAD bus is pretty much the worst thing ever and share my work with, forming what could be lifelong friendships and professional contacts with like-minded artists. It never works, but I digress.
Yeeeeah. I'm that kid in most social settings.
But my inability to make friends is not what I'm discussing today. I want to discuss the one sure thing that comes with every SCAD student's package, the one unseen, thankless element that all students come to Savannah and quickly forget about: the SCAD Moms and Dads. They, to most students, are the providers of all their financial needs - everything from their tuition to the socks they're going to not put on 3 weeks into the quarter because they're already about to miss the bus for their 8 AM class. Well, as the new year starts and new students the world around flock down to Savannah to begin school, the parents more often than not are right behind them, and with good sense, decide that maybe four years of sitting on a miserable wooden stool might not be the most comfortable living situation.
So it's off to the store we go!
Now, here comes a most valuable lesson I think most people can, and probably should have already learned, especially when it comes to going to the store. Occasionally, we as the store I work at will cycle different sales throughout the store to try to get rid of stock, or to create the illusion that the customer is actually saving money so they can justify coming back and paying full price for the rest of our crap later on.
"5% off!? Willikers, what a bargain! I've bested
this corporate capitalist money trap yet!"
It just so happened that we have been running a particularly good special on our office chairs, as luck would have it... for most people. And herein lies the problem: most customers I've ever interacted with expect the product to always be there, when they want it. Being an office supply store, this is perfectly understandable for some items, such as pencils and notebooks. And most times we are accommodating with the demand for stock of those. Chairs are not so easily accessible, especially chairs with special discounts on them.
It's one hour before we close, and the demand for chairs has been nonstop for that entire afternoon. Naturally, stock is running low, and to all of the customers' amazement, still nobody has come to repair the magical everlasting vending machine of items in the ever-hallowed "back" of the store.
A pesky annoyance for us all.
Keeping cool in the face of a mob of angry customers who just drove all the way from California to see that their kid's every living need is taken care of is a difficult thing to do, but in the world of office supply retail, you learn to cope. Still, it leaves me to puzzle this one vexing question: has nobody told these SCAD moms and dads that - to coin a phrase - "The Early Bird Gets the Worm?" Now, I understand that this is one of those ironic phrases, but surely it has some meaning outside of the implications of the natural food chain. Perhaps, for example, that you can't expect a chair that was $30 since the time the store opened at 8 in the morning to still be available to you 30 minutes before the store closes? Also, I promise you as a store associate that I'm not taking a stab at you when I say "We are not allowed to sell the display." Please don't look at me like I just kicked your puppy Olympic soccer-style.
Somehow there's a shortage of photos depicting people
kicking puppies on the Internet. Or perhaps, like most people,
I don't want to actually see that - much less caption it here.
What's wrong with the world, anyway?
I promise, I just work at the store, and I'm going to the same school your kid is on Monday. I'm not trying to sleight you in any way.
((P.S. This is a post I began working on last night upon coming home from work, but I got tired and didn't finish until I woke up this morning. Forgive.))
So I want to finally make good on one of the promises I made when I had started this here blog and discuss something that I, along with most of the rest of the world, cherish very much, both as a major part of our childhoods and a significant game-changer in the film/theme park industries and the way we look at different cultures. I, of course, am referring to the one and only -
Of course.
Ha. I'm just kidding. (did i scare you?)
I am talking about the Walt Disney company... or for the sake of keeping things simple, Disney.
When you wish upon a star, we raise ticket prices to our parks again. Good luck.
The Disney brand has been the source of many, many great things since its inception in the mid-1920's. And if you are a child of the 90's, like me, you'll remember that Disney has treated you especially well with its offerings to us. We, their audience, were the backbone on which Disney found success, particularly in film (the Disney Renaissance) and, the focus of today's conversation, television. Yes, friends, we were treated to none other than the Disney Afternoon.
Witness it's majesty.
Some of what most consider Disney's greatest works of television animation were spawned from this series. We had the privilege of growing up watching shows such as Ducktales, Goof Troop, Darkwing Duck, and The Adventures of the Gummi Bears. And than later they gave us Schnookums and Meat and the Mighty Ducks cartoon... but there's a reason why nobody remembers those shows.
It's because nobody wants to remember these shows.
But there's one show that was a particular gem in my childhood... this is probably one of my absolute favorite cartoons of the Disney Afternoon line-up, matching neck-and-neck with Darkwing Duck and the classic Disney cartoons. In case you didn't quite catch the title of this blog, I am referring to the unfortunately short-lived Bonkers.
No no no waaaaaait, don't click out of this, just hear me out, guys.
A lot of people are quick to immediately spit on this cartoon. Why? Well... perhaps a little background information will help shed a little light on the subject. The main reason people, even back in the day, gaffed at Bonkers was because "omg it's just a knockoff of Roger Rabbit." Ladies and gentlemen, that is actually very much on purpose. Touchstone Pictures, and by ownership, Disney, was riding the success that Roger had brought to them since its 1987 release well into the 90's. Disney was also at the forefront of syndicated animated programming with their wildly successful Ducktales and Gummi Bears (as I had mentioned before). Can you guess where this is going?
"Let's make a deal."
Now, Disney and Steven Spielberg (producer of the Roger Rabbit movie) were seeing eye-to-eye on home video releases, merchandising and theme park tie-ins with the film. So, it would only makes sense that the next step would be to add the titular character to the already wildly-successful Disney Afternoon line-up... right? Well, the mouse-house was all on board, but somewhere down the line, Spielberg got cold feet and pulled the licensing right out from under Disney's golden yellow shoes.
This might be speculation on my part, but there was probably at least some pre-production going on for the Roger Rabbit TV series... at least, enough that Disney was not willing to just trash it. So, some clever (or not-so-clever, depending on who you ask) writing later, and we have... well, Bonkers.
Okay, we now understand that Bonkers is Roger Rabbit in a bobcat suit on purpose... so what else was wrong?
Well, I'll be the first to say that Bonkers in and of itself was not a series without fault. And the faults are painful to watch, more often than not. First, the human characters. Oye. Most people who are still loyal to Bonkers will tell you that there were two "sagas" of Bonkers: the Lucky saga, and the Miranda saga, named respectively after both of the human cops that Bonkers was partnered with. As a child, Lucky was painful to watch. As an adult, Lucky is still painful to watch. Why? Because he's an exact duplicate of Eddie Valiant. Who needs to cut back on the donuts for a little while.
I really did try to avoid making the fat joke, but this is literally
the only distinguishing point Lucky has going for him.
But, while he's a duplicate, he's kind of... a lot worse? Like, you know when you go to make a copy of something and the copier is almost out of toner and you watch in horror as your copy comes out faded and illegible? Well, this is Lucky. Remember in Roger when Eddie spells out his motivation for hating toons (I apologize, there just isn't a good video with that scene online anymore)? Well, when the writers were building Lucky, they decided to take all of that motivation away. The best that we know from watching the show is that Lucky is a cop that hates toons because he hates toons. And by a wacky, entirely unpredictable (sarcasm underplayed) turn of events, he gets the only thing he's ever wanted in life - a promotion - but having to be partnered with a toon cop in return. That's all that Lucky is. Fascinating. Miranda, the Chief, and the "Sarge" that Bonkers works with are actually more tolerable as human characters, but not by way too much (Actually, "Sarge" is pretty hilarious to watch).
What's worse: the toon side characters are not that much more entertaining. As an example, let's talk about Fallapart Rabbit, the main side character during the Lucky saga. Fallapart exists pretty much for the same reason that Barney Rubble exists in The Flintstones: to serve as a foil for Bonker's shenanigans. But worse, because Barney was a strong character by himself. This serves to prove my point about most of the toon characters in the Bonkers series: they exist strictly for Bonkers to bounce off of, and than to go away once they're done being useful. That's not good writing for a show. Any show, live action or animated. And it's certainly not good Disney writing, even by it's lowest television standards.
Long story short, I can understand why people are quick to look down upon Bonkers. So, in the end, Bonkers is a complete disaster that is not even worth defending. Oh well. Right?
What is the first thing I can say is working so well with this show? Well, Bonkers himself, for starters. For starters, anybody who is getting ready to shoot out, "Bonkers is just Roger Rabbit in a bobcat suit!" like I totally did early just to prove a point, needs to re-watch the show and really study the title character. He's wacky and cartoonish to the nth degree just like Roger, but as a character, he's completely different. They handle situations completely different, for starters. As much as we love Roger, it's hard to argue that when he gets in a fix, he essentially has to wait for Eddie to pull him out of it. That is the nature of Roger's character: he hilariously stumbles his way into a situation, panics and has to wait for the cavalry to arrive. Don't believe me? Watch all three of the shorts, right now. In fact, I'll give you links: Tummy Trouble, Trail Mix-Up, Roller Coaster Rabbit. What do all three of the shorts have in common? I'll tell you: none of them end with any meaningful resolution. They just stop filming for Trail Mix-Up and Roller Coaster Rabbit, and while they manage to "cure" Baby Herman in Tummy Trouble, Roger finds his way into another experience, panics, and "That's All, Folks!" As much as Roger tries, he never triumphs as the hero, but places himself as the hapless protagonist.
That's not the case with Bonkers. More often than not, Bonkers is the one that ends up saving the day in the show, especially during the Lucky saga... mostly because Lucky is pretty much the worst cop in existence, real or fiction. Honestly, a lot of the situations Lucky and Bonkers find themselves in is because Lucky doesn't take Bonkers seriously when she shit hits the fan, because of his inexplicable disdain for toons. So it's up to Bonkers to save the day. Perhaps one of the most telling examples is the episode titled "You Ought to be in Toons." (The link is only for the third part of the episode, but this has everything I need to illustrate my point) Aside from the actually really funny Michael Eisner jokes, this episode is telling of Lucky's unwillingness to listen to Bonkers, when Bonkers is telling him to pull his shit together because he's wrong. The basic premise is that Mickey Mouse is kidnapped on the day he's supposed to sign a big contract with another cartoon studio, Bonkers finds him in a dog kennel sitting in the basement of his mansion, and has to stop a gross, rat-looking dude from impersonating Mickey. This episode, for some reason, lives in an alternate dimension where everybody but Bonkers is incapable of distinguishing Mickey Mouse's persona from a painfully bad imposter. Anyway, it takes until the last 5 minutes of the episode for Bonkers to get the obvious point across that the Mickey Lucky thinks he found is a sham, and Bonkers finds the solution that ultimately saves the day.
In conclusion, Bonkers as a show had and continues to have a lot of potential, perhaps just because Bonkers as a character stands out as a strong, independent, and inspired character. All similarities to Roger Rabbit as a concept are 100% intentional - adversely, any ties between the two title characters are, for the most part, unfounded. I truly believe that Bonkers can be made better: he needs to be given a much better supporting cast, for starters, and if we much give him an Eddie Valient-esque human sidekick, he needs to be just as strong of a character as Bonkers is, not a cheap Dollar Tree knockoff character.
For as anyone who's ever bought a bargain bin tablet should know,
cheaper does not necessarily mean better.
Also, if a Bonkers remake were to ever happen, for one I'd kill to be a part of that, and for another, Disney has a fantastic array of amazing characters they can easily use as story points. Take advantage, guys.
That's it for this post, guys! If you haven't already, please Like the Matt's Musings Facebook page. I'll be setting up a Twitter and perhaps a Tumblr soon. Thanks to all of you awesome people who have already Liked my page! :D
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