And Now, Tricia's Slightly Conflicted Thoughts on "The Muppets"

This week, I finally saw "The Muppets".

Ever since, there has been an angel and a devil (or perhaps a Playmobile figure and a LEGO minifig) arguing about it in my head. So with that in mind, I'm going to list things I liked in "The Muppets" and things that... irked me. I have to clarify that when I say "not-so-good things", I mean they didn't totally ruin the film for me, but they did get stuck in my craw.

So before I do this, I want to emphasize that I love the very fact that this movie exists. I love all the promotional things Disney did leading up to the movie, and most of all I love that they're doing big things with these characters at all. And this brings us to our first

Good Thing about "The Muppets": The filmmakers really really give a hoot (to borrow a phrase) about these characters and their legacy. They want to do Jim Henson proud. This is unspeakably refreshing in a world where we've got an annual variation on "Lovable, Innocent Childhood Characters - but They're Stuck in Cynical Modern Times! Isn't That Wacky?!?"

So let's sit back and appreciate how this movie could have gone so wrong in the worst ways. Hell, even when filmmakers do give a hoot about classic characters, their "comeback film" can go due south anyway. (Hey there, "Looney Tunes: Back in Action".) Every frame of the film you can tell that the humans involved are just about to burst with joy at the mere fact that they're working with these characters they grew up with since childhood.

Not-So-Good Thing about "The Muppets": That said, the subplot with the two lead humans is just... there. Actually, it just keeps showing up and getting in the way. In previous Muppet movies, the human characters were all as close as possible to background noise with the Muppets themselves carrying all the action. It's also a little uncomfortable to see Amy Adams essentially playing a nagging girlfriend character out of a gamer comic.

Good Thing about "The Muppets": The film is essentially a love letter to Muppet fans and a victory lap for the Muppets as a whole. There are tons of little references and inside gags. Overall, in a way, I was reminded of all the best parts of "Enchanted".

Not-So-Good Thing about "The Muppets": But the whole premise of the Muppets being gone for decades and nobody knowing who they are is, frankly, absurd. Even insulting (there is no way anyone Selina Gomez's age wouldn't recognize Kermit standing -so to speak- right in front of her). Yeah, this is their first movie in many years but it isn't like they've completely vanished. Hell, they were in a well-loved Walt Disney World ad campaign and starred in their own pretty decent Christmas special just the year before!

The plot overall is pretty nebulous and just feels like an excuse to get the band back together. And I'm not really keen on the fact that the main conflict gets resolved in the end credits. (I know a lot of scenes were cut for time constraints but this is ridiculous.)

Good Thing about "The Muppets": Sweetums is in it! With his suitcase! And so are Lew Zealand and Wayne and Wanda and Dr. Strangepork and Rizzo and his family and Thog and the Mutations and... This review is starting to sound like this, isn't it?

Not-So-Good Thing about "The Muppets": Ah, but then there's Walter, the new Muppet, and he's...

Okay to be fair, he's not like Lola Bunny or Jar-Jar Binks or Poochie or anything. He's not a downright offensive or insulting new addition to the Muppet roster. He is, in fact, kind of the opposite: he is uninteresting in every way. He is beige, through and through. He'd be easier to take if the older Muppets didn't stop every little while or so to say, "Hey, let's hear it for Walter!"

He'd also be easier to take if his subplot didn't force me to consider Muppet biology. Yeah, really. Spoilertext time: So was Walter a Muppet adopted by a human family or did a human give birth to a Muppet? Bearing in mind that the Muppets have, up until this point, been absolutely and unquestionably real within their world, I honestly don't know which situation has worse implications. Either Muppets are a species, possibly a whole other order of life forms, or Muppet is a physical condition that different species can be born with. (And on a related note, let's not mention the freaky Jason Segel Muppet - though Walter's equivalent is hilarious. And speaking of...)

Good Thing about "The Muppets": The songs, with but one or two misfires, are terrific. The cameo guest stars all have great fun with their moments onscreen. The whole last act that plays out like an extended episode of "The Muppet Show" is terrific and overall, once again, I'm just glad the movie exists.

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Sketch of the Day!

I didn't already share this little landscape, did I?

Ill-Advised Oscar 2012 MOBILE Live-Tweetery!

Go forth, fellow Oscar-watchers, and read them! Read all of them!

Edit: Complete List of Winners and my Tweets, reposted for prosperity and for the benefit of anyone watching the Oscars on DVR (please excuse the wonky spelling):

* - My fearless prediction is that the Dictator thing will be the only spontaneous/interesting moment on the red carpet.

* - My other fearless prediction: "The Artist" wins all the things. Even though it was much better when it was animated and titled "The Illusionist"...

* - Methinks Nick Nolte's crows would consider him their pet human.

* - Also "Warrior" is excellent and you should see it. #BlatantOscarSnubs

* - God, there's another 1/2 hour of this? Get to the part about movies winning things!

* - (Plays with her Audubon Guide to New England app. LOL random animal sounds.)

* - When are they going to stop talking about clothes already???

* - Not that I am in any position to talk, but Brian Grazer is an odd-looking man.

* - OTOH, I am digging Chris Rock's 'fro.

* - OMG almost time!

* - I still can't choose between Morgan Freeman or Sir David Attenborough for who should narrate my inner running monologues.

* - Random Bieber!!!

* - Should note that's the only part of "The Help" I've seen...

* - Glad to see "Hugo" get cinematography

* - And for best art direction! Hmmm...

* - Hell of a montage going right from "Titanic" to "Twilight". #WhyThisGenerationFails

* - Oscar-nominated Madonna movie. #Things80sComediansWouldPointOut

* - And a million Harry Potter fans cried out...

* - D'aww at Brad Pitt waxing nostalgic about a monster movie.

* - Welp. Good jarb offending all of China, Sandra Bullock.

* - The Oscar goes to the woman involved in the SECOND-best moment of scatological humor in the bunch!

* - OK, the Christopher Guest Gang focus group bit was hilarious.

* - And a win for Team Fincher!

* - The Oscar-nominated Transformers 3. #ThingsModernComediansWouldPointOut

* - Yay Hugo!!!

* - Cirque Du Soleil is all like, f--- you, we got your 3-D right here!

* - Meanwhile George Clooney 's date is all like "I'm not familiar with the kind of thing I'm seeing...?"

* - For reals, Cirque Du Soleil are amazing and anyone who disagrees can go right to hell.

* - Brace yourselves, here comes the intro to the Best Animated Film award...

* - No, animation is hard if you're the person who is ACTUALLY DOING THE ANIMATION!!!

* - YEAAAH!!! The only award I was in any way emotionally invested in and my fab film won!

* - Emma Stone , WTF?

* - 0.0 #ActuallySurprisingOscarWins

* - Incidentally, this is where I should note that I was hating Michael Bay before it was cool.

* - D'awww Christopher Plummer

* - Yo, fellow Leo DiCaprio fans: let's school them little Twilight fans when Titanic 3D comes out.

* - And that's how you keep all the Muppet fans in suspense.

* - Though I have to say, with all the dancing birds, my 12-year old self would have gone nuts over Rio

* - And now I live on a planet where both The Muppets and Flight Of The Concords (on a technicality) have Oscars.

* - And now I live on a planet where Dean Shelton has an Oscar #EarthIsTheBestPlanet

* - And special effects legend Doug Trumble won an Oscar !!! But not during this broadcast. #SpecialistFilmmakerGhetto

* - Best. Callback. Ever. #ScorseseDrinkingGame

* - Yaaaaaay!!!

* - The only other award I was emotionally invested in and my favorite won again!!!

* - Best Director already?

* - I like the traditional Polish Christmas ornaments Merryl Streep is accessorizing with

* - James Earle Jones ALSO won an Oscar! Also not during this ceremony.

* - Here comes the sad part so get out your hankies...

* - This must be how adults felt towards us kids born in the late 70s with our Ataris and pocket calculators. #SamsungSmartTVAd

* - Uggie was robbed!!! #BlatantOscarSnubs

* - This is as good a time to note that we are going to hear a LOT of interesting comments on Pharrell's house band.

* - This is also as good time to note that times like these, I regret my sensitivity to high frequencies... #WTFTechnicalGlitches

* - Seriously, those are some nice Christmas ornaments.

* - Hurry up Tom I'm running out of wine!

* - D'aaaaaw, Uggie!!!

* - BTW, if The Artist win surprises you at all, welcome to being disillusioned with the Academy.

* - Seriously, am I the only one kinda bothered by the fact that it's THE SAME THING as Chomet's "The Illusionist"? #AnimationAgeGhetto

* - Ah well. A fine night to celebrate the Art of Film.

* - I'll be back for the Jimmy Kimmel show. Until then, go watch "The Illusionist".

* - Not gonna lie. I'd watch the hell out of "Movie The Movie".

Try Looking Michael Eisner in the Face After Watching These Disney Sequel Teasers

I have sometimes been asked why, during the Chronological Disney Animated Canon, I refer to the late-90's through early-2000's as the "Dork Age" of Disney. Now I have a very simple way to answer that question. Boy do I ever.

This thing right here is the trailer to "Dumbo 2". This one (of much poorer quality) is for "The Fox and the Hound 2". Gaze upon them in despair.

You see, this time period not only contained a string of rather dubious films from the Disney animated canon, this was also the Age of the Unnecessary Disney Sequel. Let us never forget that, fellow Disney geeks.

(My favorite part?  "The ostrich is jealous of Dumbo because he's an elephant that can fly!  She's a BIRD!  She CAN'T fly!"

This is like saying that I am jealous of sloths.  Because they are Xenarthrans that can brachiate.  I am a HOMINOID!  I CAN'T brachiate!)

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Older Sketch of the Day!

Just because it's adorable (not because I haven't uploaded anything lately). It's also essentially my reaction to the linked videos.

"Drug Avengers" will Break Your Mind

We all know that the "Drugs Are Bad" trope when applied to animated series can result in unintentional hilarity. But Everything Is Terrible just dug up a doozy. I'd like to point out the eye-wateringly trippy animation and the fact that nobody seems to give a crap about the horrible little creature they brought along for reasons that are unclear.

DRUG AVENGERS from Everything Is Terrible! on Vimeo.

I would like to apologize for screwing up Earth's admittance into the Diplomatic Organization of Planets a hundred years from now because my friends and I shared a joint at the Radiohead concert at Great Woods a few years ago.

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Sketch of the Day!

I don't think I shared this tyrannosaur yet? Well, have a tyrannosaur:

Sketching my friends' dog

Quick post today. We visited some friends over the past weekend and I wound up doing a lot of sketches of their dog, cat, and a random bottle of whiskey. These are all ballpoint pen on recycled Sketchbook paper:







We also went ice fishing for smelt (probably Osmerus sp.). We learned that smelt scales are nature's glitter and that you haven't lived until you learn in the most graphic way possible why Bloodworm Polychaetes are named that...

The Feather Gallery is up!

Go and look! Peter and Traumador did an amazing amount of work on this gallery and they say it's the biggest we've had so far! There are some absolutely gorgeous pieces in there; great work everyone!

On Avian Diversity

So I came back from visiting my sister over this past weekend, I was sick with a probable stomach bug for half of this week and very tired, and I am going to be very busy this weekend too. So I ALMOST almost decided not to post anything this week!

It felt too weird. I couldn't do it. So, you're getting a wicked quick repost of something I recently shared over at DeviantArt and Flickr. I am very happy to report that most of the comments thus far have been positive. Good to see I am not the only one who is legitimately bothered by this.

"My Life as a Turkey" Sketches

So the other night I technically sketched some live animals in my living room. The animals in question were in the excellent "Nature" episode "My Life as a Turkey". Yep, today we're briefly discussing the act of sketching from television.

"Now wait, Trish. I know you've gone on and on about how you need to sketch animals from life whenever the opportunity presents itself, but isn't sketching from a documentary cheating?" Well... that's up to you. The fact is, some people might not have a decent zoo or natural history museum near them, and it's absurdly difficult to find good motion and/or anatomical reference on certain species. Since my heart belongs to winged theropods, an entire documentary about wild turkeys and their life cycle was too good an opportunity to pass up.  I apologize if the notes are a little hard to read, but I originally wasn't planning on sharing these here. The first picture has one note that's kind of important though:



In the bottom-right of this page I have some notes on feather tracts. Note that the spine is essentially bare. A little while ago on Twitter, Aaron Diaz of "Dresden Codak" expressed his annoyance at artists drawing known species of feathered theropods with a handfull of quills running down the spine and calling it a day. Since he's mentioned that, I'm seeing that everywhere. And as you can plainly see, it's physically impossible. Go figure.

I also don't know what's up with that one kid in the beginning of "Jurassic Park". A six-foot version of one of these things would be horrifying.









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A Few Links of Interest:

* I want to see how many people who don't know much about animation I can convince this was an actual 80's cartoon.

* Speaking of 80's cartoons, check out Comics Alliances' rundown of the craziest episodes of "Jem".

* These quilled paper illustrations are amazing and kind of insane.

* Topless Robot has a great primer on Douglas Adams' work.

* There is apparently a football game happening this weekend and I have reason to be emotionally invested in it as the Patriots are involved. Eh. Let's all watch this collection of remarkably ill-conceived halftime shows instead. So many weird Disney cross-promotions...

* More importantly, the Annie Awards are tomorrow night, and Cartoon Brew will be streaming them at 10:00 PM EST!

Bob Clampett of Mars?!

So apparently Robert Clampett of all people (and as an aside, I have not shown enough love to him on this blog which is downright embarrassing) approached Edgar Rice Burroughs in the 1930's to make an animated feature film based off of A Princess of Mars. Who knew?

The very little finished animation is beautiful, very Un-Clampettarian, and unlike anything from the same time period. In a weird way, it reminds me of the awesome and very strange Gene Deitch "Hobbit" animatic that resurfaced recently, in that it's a damn shame that neither of them ever became even a full short film.



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Sketch of the Day!

Have a Tyrannosaurus.