In Which Another Obscure, and Very Strange, Disney Animated Short Finally Surfaces

Sadly, the Disney studio has the nasty habit of either owning the rights to or creating really awesome animated content and then essentially burying them.  The periodic "vaulting" of their classic animated features is the most infamous example of this, but there is a lot of much more unusual Disney animation that has never even had the chance to see the light of day outside of maybe one Oscar-qualifying theatrical screening or something.  Once in a blue moon, one of these resurfaces online, and that is an occasion the entire animation fandom should celebrate.

One such animated short was finally posted on YouTube by it's director, Steve Moore, last week.  Now imagine you are a director and the leader of Disney's television animation team asks you if you would like to create an animated short film that parodies a famous fairy tale -- and that you can have complete creative free reign?  It sounds improbable, especially for Disney in the mid-90's, but that is essentially the situation a stunned Steve Moore found himself in.

The result is "Redux Riding Hood", and it is very definitely one of the very strangest animated shorts to ever bear the Disney name:



Steve Moore tells the complete story of "Redux" on his blog, and it's a worthy read.  Rumor has it that this was going to be a part of a series of fairy tale parodies directed at an older audience; a project that was later abandoned after only one other film was created.  That sadly leaves "Redux" a one-of-a-kind oddity, and unless Disney finally releases the "Lost Disney Shorts" DVD compilation I suddenly need like I need water, it'll never find a permanent home.  Then again, "Redux" has been steadily building a cult following so we can dream...

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Sketch of the Day!

Speaking of weird Disney things...

Phylo Art Exhibit in Vancouver, BC!

This week, the HiVE in Vancouver will be hosting an exhibit featuring some of the artwork from the educational card game, "Phylo". Among the artwork featured will be my own Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.  The HiVE also plans on having a special event on July 6 where you can play the Phylo game and enter a raffle for various pieces of art, my Hummingbird included.  If you are in the area, please give the HiVE a visit and show your support!

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Sketch of the Day

Why yes, she can draw humans too. (Not well, mind you.)

Yet more Sketching from "Nature"!

Drawings I did while watching the "Nature" episodes "Revealing the Leopards", "A Lemur's Tale", and "Born Wild',  You know the drill by now. :)

Yeah, Links of Interest.

I may have big news for the end of the month and therefore I am quite busy.  This, of course, means you get some Links of Interest.  And since it has been a while since I last did this, you are going to get a lot of them:

* - You have to admire Don Bluth for never giving up on the "Dragon's Lair" movie he's been trying to get off the ground for years and years.  He recently talked to Cartoon Brew about it and other projects.

* - Just recently launched is the wonderful website A Mighty Girl, a huge list of fiction recommendations for mothers and daughters to share.

* - You may file "Ask A Velociraptor" under Ideas I Wish I Had Thought Of First.

* - Brian Switek recently pleaded with the mainstream media to, you know, maybe chill out about dinosaurs for a while.

* - Brian also watched an episode of "Ancient Aliens" so that the rest of us wouldn't have to.  (And oh, has he gotten some interesting comments on that one...)

* - Brian also recently appeared as a special guest on "Science Sort Of"!  Dude's been busy!

* - Kate Beaton shared this lovely autobiographical comic that I think a lot of us will sadly relate to. 

* - The Onion AV Club created a Primer to the works of Studio Ghibli.

* - In sad local news, one of Boston's most beloved radio stations (and IMO, the last one left that's worth a damn) was sold to the dreaded Clear Channel.  I got to listen to WFNX in it's death throes on Friday.  Fun times.

* - In happy local news, Franklin Park Zoo is celebrating it's 100'th year anniversary!  This article has several intriguing vintage photographs.

* - The Urban Pantheist is participating in a very interesting citizen science project that... OK, seriously, half of me wants to do this too and the other half does not know what my OCD would do with the resulting data.

* - Niroot recently finished his so-gorgeous-you-will-cry illustration of Thecodontosaurus.

* - People have been buzzing about Toniko Pantogia's short "Crayon Dragon" recently and for good reason; it will make a rainbow in your heart.

* - Although it has since become bittersweet, Adam Yauch's Criterion Collection recommendation list is a hilarious read.

* - Best Week Ever dug up this very strange commercial that reminds us all what life was like before you could buy your favorite songs a la carte for about a buck or two.

* - Deep Sea News shared some insight into the amazing footage of the "Abyss"-like Deepstaria jellyfish that's been making the rounds lately.

* - TetZoo reported on a fossil nesting colony of Enantiornithines.

* - Scott C.'c well-loved "Great Showdowns" illustrations will be collected into a book sometime this October.

* - And Life Before the Dinosaurs just celebrated it's one year anniversary!

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Sketch of the Day!

"No. Unless You Count Birds." - Let's Finish Reading _If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today_!

Ay-yi-yi, we're almost done!



Here's that other strange-looking Triceratops I promised way back in the beginning.

The whole final section of the book may actually be the most brain-hurting.  It purpotes to be a "Question and Answer" section that intends to show some genuine non-speculative science in this otherwise very silly book. Well...



First off, that's a metaphysical question I never thought I'd see. Secondly, "Mammals are only here because there are no dinosaurs.  In the Age of Dinosaurs mammals were small... new meat-eating animals evolved -- first into giant flightless birds, and then carnivorous mammals."

So much wrong in one little rectangle of text, it boggles the mind.  And here is another unsuspecting human who looks like he was blissfully unaware of what they were going to use his photo for.



But then the answer is "Yes" isn't it? Anyway, at least Dixon is nice enough to elaborate on this. Kinda:



Yeah.



That's downright philosophical.  And what do people have against chickens anyway?



"I've always wanted to ride a Chocobo!"



Yeah, so who else has ever heard of this "Vivaporous Pachycephalosaurs" theory? I've only ever heard of live-birthing sauropods and that was long enough ago to feel like a childhood fever dream. Elsewhere, Dixon notes that since their eggs are always in pairs, a female Troodon must have had a pair of "egg tubes" in her body where modern birds only have one, which, if true, is news to me.

And then, there's this:



I feel Dixon stopped just short of screaming, "'Jurassic Park 3' is stupid, stop even acknowledging it!"  This is part of a brief listing of science fiction involving dinosaurs in modern times that mentions "Jurassic Park", of course, and The Lost World and Journey to the Center of the Earth and Pellucidar...  but NOT The New Dinosaurs.  Huh.

Anyway, it's time to touch base with an old friend:



Syntarsus sans Mohawk! Man, he looks strange without it.

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Sketch of the Day!

"Save the Ichthyosaurs!" - Let's Keep On Reading _If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today"!

Clearly this book is a goldmine.

Today, we're going to explore how Mesozoic creatures of the air and sea would deal with modern times.  As we've seen, most Mesozoic animals, when suddenly transported somehow to modern times, make a big conspicuous show of themselves.  These guys won't be any different:



Dear Quetzalcoatli, please don't mess with airplanes. Just don't. I've seen you do this before and let me tell you, it will only end in tears. (By the way, obligate scavenger Quetzalcoatlus.)



... ... ... What?



DIVER 1: "Shonisaurus! Oh, how majestic!"

DIVER 2: "It's only a painting."

DIVER 1: "Shut up, you."

To be fair, the painted animals look awesome especially since the CGI animals look so goofy. The Photoshopping is still so very awkward. To wit:



This otter looks so happy to have caught a badly-Photoshopped-in painting of an Ammonite!

And this reminds me of another odd aspect of this book.  It happily ignores the fact that there were such things as fish, birds, small mammals, and such in the Mesozoic.  Scenes like this or the sight of a small pterosaur competing with small birds for food aren't quite as bizarre as the book makes them out to be.



Coming at this from a different direction, the book also ignores the fact that large predatory animals, giant sea creatures, enormous herbivores, and -duh- birds exist in modern times.  It's not so bizarre to see birds roosting in and flocking around the Statue of Liberty -- except they aren't as conspicuous about it. And dig the early interpretation of Microraptor. "We can be sure that it was brightly colored like the tropical birds of today," says Dixon, even though the Microraptors in the illustration are more subdued. Yeah.

And now, the second most-ridiculous image in the book.  Gaze upon it in despair:



There is absolutely nothing I could add to this. At all. Moving on...



"Birds is Birds!" Yes, but Microraptor is classified as a Deinonychosaur, so...? And then there's the strange assurance that if you're a bird you aren't a dinosaur anymore.  I cannot emphasize this enough: that is like insisting that whales are no longer mammals.

And finally, the most ridiculous, and my absolute favorite, image in the book:



I wonder if this person knew what they were taking her picture for?

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Sketch of the Day!

Yeah, what if dinosaurs were alive today?  Hmmm...   HMMMMM...

"No, What Are You DOING?!?" - Let's Continue Reading _If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today_

When last we left off in the big barrel of insanity that was Dougal Dixon's If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today, we saw a monstrously huge and very 90's Tyrannosaurus attacking a herd of longhorn cattle. This brings us into the chapter about how Theropods would have to deal with modern times.

We're going to ignore for the moment that, uh, there are theropods dealing with modern times, but we'll have to wait a while to get to them. For now, enjoy the above implication that if there were nonavian theropods around, we'd all be reenacting "Reign of Fire". Reason being that big theropods ate everything, including animals that hadn't even appeared in the fossil record yet:



Even the Hartbeeste is like, "I don't even know..."



Note: not an image from that one Animorphs book with all the dinosaurs.

This is as good a time to note that obviously Dixon isn't attacking the "what if dinosaurs were still around" premise from the same angle he did in the New Dinosaurs. New Dinosaurs is the "Primer" of alternate universe nonavian dinosaur survival fiction compared to this. With this book it almost looks like they started out with the basic idea, "Let's compare dinosaurs to modern animals" and then things went south.



I like how they just drop in the "warm-blooded" issue with no elaboration at all. Also, what?  No!  WHAT?!?



These "Gorilla suit" Troodons are all like, "We got your low metabolism dinosaurs right here!" More importantly, these guys are the first feathered theropods we see in the book. Brace yourself for a bunch of brain farts, including this strange looking "adult Troodon":



Sticking with the maniraptors for a bit, here's a small flock of badly rendered crab-eating Oviraptors:



This is a particularly strange Oviraptor behavioral theory that I've seen exactly twice; the other instance was illustrated by no less than Wayne D. Barlowe. I hate to be a spoilsport but wouldn't Oviraptor habitat be lacking in seashores and crabs?

And then we see this:



Alright, let's ignore the hilarious sight of a flock of Struthiomimids joining a horse race (like so many wild animals who like to run do today). "Struthiomimus resembled today's large, flightless birds... and were the ancestors of all modern birds."

What? WHAT? No. But... WHAT?!?

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Sketch of the Day!

Thank You, Maurice.

Lines and Colors post

Onion AV Club post

Tough Pigs post

Terrible Yellow Eyes

In the Dumps

And of course,

Maurice Sendak Being Awesome

Four Weirder Nutcracker Films

"Where The Wild Things Are" Review

Master's Essay Part One

Master's Essay Part Two

We'll all miss you like crazy, Maurice.  Hopefully, you're upsetting and confusing concerned parent angels and blowing the minds of weird kid angels now.

Edit: Had to share Ape Lad's lovely tribute too:

"What in the...?" Let's read _If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today_!

Full confession: our dear friends at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs already covered this book, but I happened to order my copy around the same time Marc did and since there is WAY more than enough WTF-ery in the book to go around, he said it was okay.  (I will try to come up with different funny things to say about the illustrations we both picked to show.)

The book we shall be exploring this week is If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today, written by our old buddy Dougal Dixon with consulting from Professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol.  Illustrations by Simon Mendes, Andrew Kerr, Roger Harris, Leonello Calvetti, Franco Tempesta, Peter Scott, Frank DeNota, and... Luis Rey?!?  Why do I feel as though this may be an old shame for him?  Even though -and this is the strangest thing- it isn't all that old; the book was first published in America in 2007 by Running Press Book Publishers.  That's... surprising, given what we're going to see.

So.  This book.  To borrow a phrase, it sure is a book.  It has pages that are stitched together, and those pages have words and pictures on them.

Okay, seriously.  This is a book about how well animals from the Mesozoic era would be able to deal with modern times... hypothetically.  See, there are moments where the goofy-as-hell premise is taken seriously and there are many MANY more moments when it isn't.  This creates its fair share of mood whiplash.  There are also some deeply bizarre moments that have nothing to do with the premise.  Basically, every two-page spread in this book has at least one thing about it that will make you say, "Wait, what?!?" I wouldn't dare spoil the fun by posting every single illustration here, since the book is available for dirt-cheap on Amazon. It's worth it to have a copy of your own to gawk incredulously at.

The fun begins right on the Table of Contents:



So far this is the most recent book I have seen that associates Archaeopteryx with pterosaurs instead of other dinosaurs.  (I didn't mention it at the time, but Dinosaurs Discovered does the same thing.  It was slightly more excusable since that book is quite old.)  The weird thing is, now Microraptor is brought into the -ugh- "Flying Reptile" fold too.  Don't worry, there will be more brain-farts involving winged theropods later on.



For now, enjoy this herd of elephants chilling with a Sauroposeidon who suffers from a severe case of Shrinkwrap Face.  Behold!



"Dear sweet Littlefoot... Do you know the way to the Uncanny Valley?"

Now, to be fair, it's neat to see the scale of certain prehistoric animals next to modern animals.  And this image is appropriately epic.  If you ignore the eye-bleedingly awful CGI and Photoshoppery.



This might just be the nadir of "Pachycephalosaurs were just the dinosaur equivalent of bighorn sheep" paleoart meme.



After we get to see a Styracosaurus facing down a White Rhino, we get to see the first of two very odd-looking Triceratops. We'll get to the other one in a little bit.



Now this illustration is our first focus on the probably unintentional underlying theme of the book: modern day mammals are just better at everything. We're told that poor Plateosaurus (whose neck looks painful) wouldn't stand a chance against a tiger. Well, no kidding! It'd be no more fair to drop a tiger in the middle of the late Triassic would it? I'm giving the stupid premise of this book way too much thought, aren't I?



Oh God oh GOD, bad "Dinosaur" flashbacks!!!

At some point we're told that herbivorous dinosaurs would have a hard time of it in modern times since the foods they are used to are relatively rare and take many years to mature.  Even so, humans would domesticate them and not cows and pigs and whatnot.  This is a book that exists outside the land of logic.



Man, another sauropod suffering from the unspeakable heartbreak of Shrinkwrap Face.



Said Diplodocus (Seismosaurus in the book) is part of a herd that has wandered into a busy commercial airport runway, like you do when you are a very big animal. "They would not be disturbed by the movement of taxing aircraft," Dixon assures us, "as to them they would be just like other big sauropods to which they are accustomed." Yes, because airplanes are what sauropods look like.



I have nothing to add to this. Anyway, time for one of the most ridiculous pictures in the book before we pause for now:



90's as f***!!!

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Sketch of the Day