* Leehardcastle presents us with a short stop-motion animation that you should only let children watch if you hate them.
* Speaking of things that involve monsters, nightmare fuel, and things that children probably should not see, Eric Canete posted some sketches on his Twitter on New Year's Day that reveal that "Ben 10" could have been... different. (And awesome.)
* SFWeekly shared an amazing find, which is essentially the death of Saturday Morning Cartoons preserved in print. (But on the plus side, it reminded me that "Space Cats" existed.)
* Disney announced the odd way in which they are going to celebrate Leap Year Day.
* And over at Passport to Dreams, Foxxy wrote a very extensive assessment of the state of the Magic Kingdom.
* Ignoring the strange music ("Raar!"), I want this freakin' cake.
* Niroot continues to be more awesome than I could ever hope to be.
* And Mark Witton posted a long, long piece full of advice for aspiring paleoartists.
* The Onion AV Club watched an entire day's worth of programming on Smile of a Child TV. But for now, never mind whether sitting your children in front of shows hand-picked by a protege of Tammy Faye Baker is at all a good idea (spoilers: it's not)...
* ...Because one of the highlights/most haunting discoveries is the "Boulder Buddies" promotional ad. Words cease. By far, the best part is when Punk Rock (sigh) starts rapping. It's like they are giving us two horribly clueless interpretations of musical genres that the kids are into for the price of one!
* The AV Club also shared an Inventory of obscure comic strip-based television programs, most of which are animated.
* "Earthflight" looks amazing. Prepare to say, "holy sh*t" out loud around the forty minute mark.
* Photographer Joel Sartore shared a YouTube preview of his upcoming book, Rare. Come for the Blue-Tongued Skink, stay for the Tenrec.
* O.T.I.S. gave us curious artists a much-needed public service announcement with regards to Absinthe.
* And Adam and Ifi finally hit one of the best/worst/best Animorphs books over at Cinnamon Bunzuh! Speaking of, I may have another treat for you guys very soon...
* And lastly, here is a remarkable find via DRIP, Comics Alliance, and Cartoon Brew. Did you know that Gene Deitch created an animated film of The Hobbit that runs just under twelve minutes? And that he started on this project at a time long long before most people even knew who J.R.R.Tolkien was? And he finished it in one month? He tells the whole remarkable story, and that of the amazing person who conceived of the project, here. The film is included, of course, and it is kind of like looking through a collection of elaborate psychedelic album cover art and beautiful old picture books. And all the while, your crazy Auntie is trying to tell you a story from her early childhood, and she is both remembering the details spectacularly wrong and also getting them confused with parts of other completely different stories. And that is why this short is AMAZING!-----
Sketch of the Day!
(I can't be the only one bothered by the thing in the footnote, can I?)
