I have, if I do say so myself, an impressive collection of art books. One of my favorite things I used to do was take one, pour over it, and draw from the illustrations in my own Sketchbooks. My version of a Master Study, a very important learning method for any artist. Any time I copy from a professional, the results always eventually end up more "me" anyway, but I still learn a lot from mimicking my favorites.
I've never really thought to share such studies but A. I got a copy of the gorgeous concept art book The World of the Dark Crystal, which I never thought I'd get to own. It's been reissued to celebrate "The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance" series which, goodness, is a genuine miracle. Like, go watch it right now instead of reading this. Anyway, the book is a fantastic collection of Brian Froud's concept art for the film and loads of world-building notes.
And B. it is Goblin Week, my dudes! And so, here are some Brian Froud-y gobliny "Dark Crystal" critters. Drawing these little guys was so much fun and it makes me want to draw more studies like these (eyes the "Labyrinth" concept art book on the shelf).
You'll notice a note on the first page. The Sketchbook I'm currently using is a Design Ideation LS PAINT. And it is... fine. It just doesn't take watercolor paint very well at all and the pages are thin enough to bleed through. It was very nice for these pencil drawings though. Note the pages are actually a creamy white paper; the rusty background on these images seemed to suit these little goblins better.
Three out of four hawks like being in this painting.
We'll round out our look at Thanksgiving specials with the very freshly premiered Lifetime Original Movie "Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow". Here's the trailer:
Based (in the sense that the setting is called Turkey Hollow and involves Creature Shop creatures and literally no other way at all) upon Henson's recently rediscovered "Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow" story, this sure is a Lifetime movie in which Creature Shop creatures show up, with all that implies. As usual, my transcribed notes, for your amusement:
* - "Why am I even here?" - Ludacris
* - There have been a lot of insufferable kids in the specials we've seen this week but *daaaaaamn*... I want to see both of these brats get messily eviscerated by turkeys or monsters or both.
* - I would like a Ghillie Suit for Christmas, though. Oh, the fun I'd have...
* - "Hey, kids! We know what the Internet is!" - Whoever wrote this
* - It takes 40 minutes for the monsters to show up and... I don't know if it's worth it.
* - Hey, take a photo of the monsters, you stupid kids! The walking barfed-up hairballs are right in freaking front of you!
* - Take pictures of the Uncanny Valley pumpkins while you're at it!
* - Oh, FML, is this turning into a "science vs. just believing" thing?
* -The stupid kids find a "Pikmin 2" tunnel that might lead to a Magical Land, and not only do they not take a picture of it, they don't show any interest in it at all. I really hate these insufferable idiot kids.
* - Take a photo of the villain-guy's illegal turkey operation (Jiminy Cricket, look at what I just wrote; this f-ing movie) you stupid, stupid..... Oh, hey, they're actually taking pictures now. Huh.
* - And then their one phone that the stupid kids brought with them in the ancient, sprawling, monster-infested forest overnight is stolen by the bad guys and stomped upon.
* - The bad guys have locked the kids in their illegal turkey pen overnight, it's now the next morning, and JUST NOW they remember the sister is allergic to feathers. (Screams and screams...)
* - Take a photo of the monsters roughing up the bad guys, you stupid kids!
* - "Auntie, you discovered a new species? Why did you keep them a secret? You could have been rich and famous!" - stupid kids
Yeah, like all those many and varied super-rich and famous biologists out there! Household names living in solid gold mansions, the lot of them! You know, like... I'll think of one, just give me a minute...
* - "Well, I kept them a secret because I wanted to keep some *Magic* in the world!" - Auntie
Auntie, if somebody runs over or shoots one of your monster friends because you never let anybody know that the forest really does have a unique species in it that the locals should be familiar with and whose forest home should be protected, I want you to know that it's going to be your fault. Specifically your fault because of your "screw science; magic and mystery for life" bull.
(Damn, I just came up with a more interesting plot. When does NaNoWriMo start? Oh. Well, maybe next year.)
* - Oh, and these Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow sing exactly one song in this 90-odd minutes of, to borrow a phrase, "Hashtag Boring". And it's right before the end credits.
So overall, from these Thanksgiving specials, I have learned that Thanksgiving is super weird and often involves annoying furry creatures and insufferable stupid children. Also something about Pilgrims, Indians, Turkeys, and food, I guess. Seriously, though, I hope your holiday was and is awesome. Will we be exploring weird Christmas specials next month? We shall see...
For my birthday this year, I cleaned my bookshelves! This is a Big Deal!
Seriously, I follow a lot of blogs by other illustrators and the one thing we all seem to have in common is breaking out in chronic literature, as in the above wonderful Arnold Lobel poster. Now that my books are as organized as they are probably ever going to get (which means that they are actually in bookshelves; I really did have piles of books all over the place), it seems like a good time to give you, dear readers, a tour. This is going to take a couple of posts and table-breaking photos.
Going from left to right (this shelf refused to photograph well thanks to the light seeping in from the adjacent window):
Jim Henson: The Works, Christopher Finch - This is one of the first art books I owned and it has spoiled me rotten ever since. Loaded with concept art and history, this is a must-have.
Sesame Street Unpaved, David Borgenicht - Nice companion to The Works and very similar in format. Plus you can currently find it for dirt cheap on Amazon.
Chuck Amuck and Chuck Reducks, Chuck Jones - Even if I wasn't such a Chuck Jones maniac, I'd consider these books essential. They're packed with concept art, anecdotes, and drawing tips.
Imaginative Realism and Color and Light, James Gurney - These books together have a wealth of information for painters. I don't paint very often, so I appreciate them more as a collection of Gurney's artwork.
Various Anatomy for Artists Books - Hey, remember these guys from the very earliest days of this blog? Wow, that takes me back. Specifically, I've kept Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, Ken Hultgren's The Art of Animal Drawing, Fritz Schider's Atlas of Anatomy for Artists, and a little later we'll be seeing Eadweard Muybridge's essential Animals in Motion, Ellenberger and Davis' Atlas Of Animal Anatomy For Artists, Eliot Goldfinger's Animal Anatomy For Artists: the Elements of Form (it was on sale), and Katrina Van Grouw's The Unfeathered Bird.
Character Animation Crash Course, Eric Goldberg - I've been referencing it more than I thought I would when I first reviewed it.
Paleoart Galore! - OK, let's see here. We've got The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of DINOSAURS and Prehistoric Animals, at least until an updated reference of every known prehistoric animal comes along, Mark Witton's beautiful Pterosaurs, Henry Gee and Louis V. Rey's beautiful beautiful Field Guide to Dinosaurs: The Essential Handbook for Travelers in the Mesozoic, Gregory S. Paul's Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, William Stout's awesome The (New) Dinosaurs, the two Dinosaurs: Past and Present exhibit catalog books (I haven't read them but my succinct review of this wealth of classic paleoart is awesome), and Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart. And there's more on other shelves...
The Art of Maurice Sendak, Selma Lanes - I haven't been able to properly read this yet but it's an excellent collection of Sendak's art and since you can find copies for under ten dollars, it is a must-have.
Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo, Chris McDonnell - Here's the first series-specific art book I've found that's as good as the two aforementioned Jim Henson art books. It's a must-have for fans of "Adventure Time" and is packed to the gills with concept art, interviews, and trivia.
Next, more animation, comics, and children's books.
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Sketch of the Day! The first "Final Fantasy" is a little strange, it turns out.
By all accounts "The Great Santa Claus Switch" is one of if not the earliest Christmas special made by Jim Henson and the Muppet crew, and it does clearly look like an early effort. However, of all the Muppet specials I've watched during this week, this is the one must-see.
The Muppet designs are already all kinds of adorable. You can see the seeds of better-known, later Muppet productions and characters. (Thog and Gonzo look and act a little odd but they're already endearing.) And oh, how I love the central image of Muppet monsters gradually overtaking Santa's workshop. This special is the best and I'm so happy to have found it.
From all I've heard about it, I was expecting "A Special Sesame Street Christmas" to be the "Star Wars Holiday Special" of the Muppets. It isn't quite that bonkers (honestly, it's too boring), but it's close. Real close. It's weird in the very specific ways that 70's variety holiday specials are.
Also, it was apparently not *quite* authorized by the creators of "Sesame Street", who made the classic "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" the very same year. There are few better demonstrable arguments why we need PBS then this.
Anyway, it's Christmas on Sesame Street and Oscar's trying to ruin it for everyone by being a jerk. Random people try to get him to stop, Michael Jackson shows up for about a minute (this is maybe the only reason people know this show even exists), and it's always nice to have people singing "Just One Person" to a Muppet (but this wasn't for the first time). Gets me every time, it does.
Last year, I watched "John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together" for the first time ever and... well, it was something. "Rocky Mountain Holiday" is several orders of magnitude more enjoyable. This is mostly because it feels more like a Muppets special, and the crew is at the top of their game.
It also doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. Ah well. At times it feels like the middle chapter of a trilogy that doesn't exist, or like that one awesome time you had last summer. Except better, because Muppets!
This December, I'm filling in the few gaps in my Muppet Christmas special knowledge. And what better, merrier place to start than with an oddity made soon after Jim Henson's death and very soon before Robert Downey Jr.'s meltdown.
Yeah, knowing all that while watching "Mr. Willowby" casts a huge pall over everything. And this is a special that didn't need any strikes against it because it is, and it pains me to say this about anything involving Muppets, not very good. It really does look like it was made during a very rough time for everyone involved, and there are effects in it that seem uncharacteristically cheap for the Muppets. Eh, at least this is the debut of Bobo the bear, if you like him. Other than that, there's not much here. The plot is literally about how, if you have a cone, you can slice ever-smaller conical pieces off the top. You've got better options for a Muppet Christmas special and boy do you ever have better options for a Robert Downey Jr. Christmas movie.
One of the reasons why "Fraggle Rock" is so acclaimed has a lot to do with the music. Music had always been part of Muppet productions, whether it furthered the story, helped define a character, or was sung just for fun. "Fraggle Rock" took Muppet music to a whole new level. By the time we hit "The Minstrels", the first episode of the show explicitly centered on Fraggle music, we've heard songs written in the style of every imaginable popular genre and even a few unpopular ones.
You probably already know this, but Cantus was Jim Henson's signature character on the show (though he performed a few other characters, including Convincing John). Henson could only work directly on "Fraggle Rock" a few times, since he was busy with other productions at the time, most notably "Labyrinth". And Cantus, who only shows up for maybe one episode per season, almost feels like he's entering the Rock from another world entirely. Now we'd had a couple of mysterious, dreamy moments before in the first
season of "Fraggle Rock", particularly in "The Lost Treasure of the
Fraggles", "Finger of Light", and "Capture the Moon". Here we're
confronted with a mysterious, dreamlike character.
And here I hate to admit it, but as a very young child watching "The Minstrels" for the very first time, I was right with Red in her frustrated cries of "Who IS this guy?" Weren't older characters supposed to give straight answers? Or explain everything? Cantus broke the rules and blew my mind to smithereens. I'd never seen a character like this before in a kids' show and I wasn't entirely comfortable with him the first time I watched this episode; he was too cryptic and strange. Of course, by the end I was totally on board with him. To this day, I think he's one of the best characters on the show.
The writers of "Fraggle Rock" were in the middle of a streak of amazing episodes. I was lucky enough to find the old "Fraggles Search and Find" VHS back in college, and I used this episode and the next one I'm reviewing to introduce people to the series.
"Seek your heart on the high blue skyway,
"Keep your heart and it's bound.
"Steep your heart in the deep of the earth again.
Lose your heart and it's found."
- Cantus and the Minstrels
"Fraggle Rock" was only in its first season when HBO aired this advertisement for a sweepstakes based on its very first original series. I want you to pay attention to the wording in it:
The grand prize, as you just heard, was a trip for a family of four -and this is the exact phrase they use - "to Fraggle Rock". Now obviously (to my adult self at least), they meant the studio where "Fraggle Rock" was filmed. But instead of asking the audience if they want to visit a studio or a bunch of sets or even the Muppet workshop. They ask us if we want to visit Fraggle Rock. The real place.
It is a testament to how awesome "Fraggle Rock" was and is that not a few months into its first airing on American television, the network was treating its setting like a real place viewers could go and visit. I longed with an indescribable heartache to visit the real Rock as a kid. Hell, I am 35 and a half and I still want to go there.
Thankfully, the series is very easy to access these days. As I mentioned in an early post, I've got the series sets put out a few years ago, and there is a gorgeous complete series set as well as episodes available through streaming services. It is, thankfully, no longer difficult to go back to Fraggle Rock whenever you want.
And it turns out this is a series that is worth revisiting and revisiting often. I have said in the past that I firmly believe that "Fraggle Rock" is the finest television program ever made for children and I'm sticking with that assessment. The main reason why is because I don't think it's possible to outgrow it. Thirty years later, watching the show makes me want to be a better person.
There's a reason for this, and it involves Jim Henson at his most Jim Henson-y (and therefore it's kind of the diametric opposite of the supposed origin story for last week's series binge). The legend is well known by now, but it bears repeating here: Henson wanted to make a children's show that could bring about world peace. Let's reflect for a moment on how freakin' incredible, crazy, and awesome that is.
For the next few weeks, I'll be watching every season of "Fraggle Rock" in order. I'll discuss the most interesting, for ill or good (but mostly good), episodes and share a little analysis after I watch them. In short, brace yourselves for a lot of short posts and a vanishingly rare "every weekday" posting schedule.
And watch along if you would, please, because with Season One already in the rear-view mirror, I've learned that this is not only the finest children's television series I've ever seen, not only arguably Jim Henson's greatest achievement, it is a fantastic series for all ages.
If you were paying attention to my Twitter last week, you know that my family loved Christmastime in Walt Disney World so much that we went back again to catch all the interesting-sounding stuff we'd missed. We're back, we're exhausted,and we're in charge of the big Christmas party this year which takes place this weekend and we haven't even decorated yet. So you, dear readers, are getting a Links of Interest.
* - Ramping up for the release of "The Hobbit", Antagony and Ecstasy is reviewing every readily available adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, and along with the movies we're all familiar with, this includes some deeply strange films indeed.
* - And Feriowind did a series of illustrations where... you know what? Hulk is friends with Jigglypuff and Thor has a Joltik on his head. That's all you need to know.
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Sketch of the Day
I'd be more enthusiastic about the whole "OMG Dragons" viral Disney thing if there was some guarantee it'd pay off with this:
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?
It made me cry. I was going to go on and on about how I wanted to watch this again for the first time ever since it was broadcast and share it here to get us all psyched for "The Muppets"... but then those final ten minutes happened...
Watch it. Please. I can't describe how good this is, especially given how emotional it must have been for everyone. Watch it if it's the last thing you ever do.
Well not the last thing ever, obviously, I mean I'll want you to come back to the site and read and look at my drawings and stuff.
Even though none of us -NONE of us- will ever do anything an micrometer as awesome as what Jim Henson could have done while phoning it in.
I mean, Jesus, we're talking about a guy who pitched a kid's show in the early 80's by stating, "I want to promote world peace to the children of the world." Not, "Let's sell toys" or "Let's cash in on whatever those little brats are into now" or any normal show pitch for that time. No, Jim Henson said, "Let's use television to make the world a better place." Dude. Dude!!!
If only a thousand people today had that same kind of crazy-optimistic-awesome attitude, respected children that much, and had that much faith in humanity, we'd all be in a better world.
I can't be coherent at all. Nothing I can say can make you understand what watching this did to me.
Hooo... man. So "Muppets: Legacy" (heh) premiers this week. I'm psyched for it, and I hope to see more -much more- of these wonderful characters because I have missed them so.
So this is thirty late-70's through early-90's Walt Disney World specials in thirty minutes. I remember SO many of these from when I was a kid. It felt like Disney made two of these specials every year (I don't even think they still do the yearly Christmas parade special these days).
One of the specials is a whole hour-long production with random celebrity guests and musical numbers dedicated entirely to the opening of Splash Mountain. A whole television special for the opening of one ride! Hell, Disney can't even get that excited about the Fantasyland expansion project these days.
More thoughts:
* - Let me guess. Little potential future robotics engineer who could have invented something that changes the world for the better instead learns the Power of Disney Magic! (Spoiler: Not quite, but close.)
* - They didn't know what the heck they were doing with Pleasure Island even back then.
* - For the 15 year anniversary of Walt Disney World, a random prize was given out at the ticket gate every fifteen seconds. You could randomly get anything from a pin to a free hat to free park tickets to a free Thunderbird! Holy sh*t! Right now the best WDW prize you could hope for is to be locked in a small room inside Cinderella Castle all night for one night. I don't even know if they're doing anything special for their 40'th anniversary.
* - Never mind that now: Two generations of Mouseketeers! Say, aren't today's kids long overdue for a Mickey Mouse Club of their own?
* - Totally Minnie: here to compete with Barbie and Jem. Yup.
* - Jeez, that free-roaming robot is terrifying!
* - But not as much as the "Too Smart for Strangers" clip they sneaked in.
* - I wish I could get excited about anything as much as the "Fantasia" crocodiles get about pizza.
* - My God, the Gepetto song is chilling...
* - I could swear I saw that "Spirit of America" parade as a kid. Now I've got the song back in my head. Great.
* - Giant. Babies.
* - That vulture is so ashamed to be with ChicagoTaio Cruise Pablo Cruise instead of soaring over the Serengeti.
* - Anyone know who the weird singing redheaded Justin Bieber lookalike and the really lanky guy who falls down the manhole are? (EDIT: Thanks Anonymous Commenter Person!)
Speaking of Weird Disney Things, I am so very happy to learn, right from the Mouse's mouth, that I didn't imagine this. Somewhere, Xzibit is shedding a single tear at it's beauty.
And then, on a totally different note that is too cool not to share, there's "InnerTube TV":
I had a fever dream on the morning I wrote this post. It wasn't nearly as awesome and random as "InnerTube TV". This was a very early and very weird pilot for what would eventually become "The Jim Henson Hour". Note the strange early versions of characters who'd be modified for "Hour". You can also spot characters in the house band who'd be modified and eventually show up in the equally all-but-forgotten Jim Henson production, "Faffner Hall". I like the incredibly catchy songs -- and the fact that Kermit is fully aware that this version of the show doesn't have a chance clicking with people.
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Sketch of the Day!
My new Sketchbook is huge...
The book (which I cannot wait to read) and Carnegie Collection Parasaurolophus are there for scale. It's a little tiny bit awkward carrying this size Sketchbook around, and it will fit no scanner there is, but I have been drawing more so that's good.
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Important: So... I might not have power or internet access by the time this publishes. Please be patient with regards to comment moderation, ect. Thursday's scheduled feature will hopefully make everything all better.
One of my unstated goals here at the Obligatory Art Blog is to write a bit about things that I recall from childhood that I have seen mentioned almost nowhere else online. And recently I mentioned that it usually turns out to be very hard to write about such remembered things when there is so little information about them online. I may luck out and find a book or video on the subject (and you may have noticed that the book/video often is the subject), but this happens very rarely.
Fortunately, there are a wide variety of Jim Henson fan-websites out there in this vast digital sea, so it isn't too hard to find information about "The Jim Henson Hour". This was a truly ambitious series that, back in the late 1980's, looked and felt like something that had popped right out of the Aether in spite of everything just to make me happy. Just watch the introduction here, which is basically Jim Henson Productions saying, "Look at what we can do NOW!" over a very awesome late 80's pop-rock instrumental. You knew you were in for something special when you saw this.
The series has never been released on DVD largely thanks to the number of hoops whoever has the rights to the show would have to leap through in order to settle things with whomever owns the rights to the shows' various segments and characters. See, "Jim Henson Hour" was an anthology show. It was very similar in format to "Walt Disney Presents"/"Wonderful World of Color"/"Magical World of Disney"/etc. A few - a very,veryfew- of the individual features on the show have been released on DVD. One or two more are on Netflix Instant, and we'll get to one of these in a bit. And of course, a few full episodes are available on that great repository of barely-remembered 80's television, YouTube.
Now, it's funny how your memory works when you are eleven. I remember watching this show for an entire summer, loving it to death and so happy to finally have a "Muppet Show" equivalent to call my generation's own. This is just the kind of show that, had it appeared ten years later, would have gained a rabid cult following online. Chiefly, I remember the show going on for far longer than it did (this in spite of the fact that I only recalled a handful of episodes) and being way, way popular.
You can imagine my surprise to learn that the show lasted for a grand total of under four months. Poor thing was relegated to the dreaded Friday night death slot and was, well, WAY geeky. Save for maybe three of them, the new Muppet characters didn't click with people and most of the rest of the show was dedicated to the Creature Shop strutting their stuff in obscure story adaptations and other, stranger things.
And that brings us to "Monster Maker". One of the better-remembered episodes, this was based upon a novel by Nicholas Fisk, who, I was happy to learn, is responsible for one of my very favorite science fiction short stories ever. I'm not sure what the book is like, but the short film adaptation is essentially the Creature Shop's love letter to... itself. I say that because they were proud enough of their creature puppets in the episode to showcase them in many different later compilations.
And the puppets are amazing. "Monster Maker" is a very poignant viewing experience in the year 2011. In an age of CGI whatever you want, there it is, it's kind of mind-blowing to watch this film about a special effects house that has to actually stop and think about such questions as, "How do we get these little monsters to walk"? "Can we build a dragon puppet that's large enough to convincingly interact with human characters?" When facing the Ultragorgon dragon, Harry Dean Stanton (in full-on Harry Dean Stanton mode) has a wonderful monologue about believable creature design and animation. Heck, the Ultragorgon himself is fantastic; he's the one thing I recalled very clearly from "Monster Maker".
I hadn't seen "Monster Maker" in full since the episode of "The Jim Henson Hour" in which it was featured way back in 1989. So it is with a very heavy heart that I have to note that everything in it aside from the monsters isn't very good. It is worth watching, especially at a scant 45 minutes, but I will warn you that the story makes not one lick of sense. Also, the lead kid gets a Jake Lloyd Award.
Since most of the show's problems have to do with the story, it's Spoilertext time! So, what was the moral of "Monster Maker"? I guess it was, "Children, give up your lifelong dream. Even if your dream is to work in a very, very specialized creative field that is hard to enter, and the greatest person in the business has already taken you in as an apprentice which is basically a million to one lucky chance. Or, you know, don't give up on your dream. Follow it right into the sun, even if the guy who took you in as his apprentice turns out to have been playing mind games with you all this time and is kind of a terrible person. Also, after either giving up on your dream or not giving up on it, go back with your father. Even if your father is kind of a worse person who has always openly discouraged your dream and wanted you to stay in the family's boring-ass auto repair business, and who deals with incredibly shady people for... some reason they never elaborated on." I did learn this: if I am ever lucky enough to lead my own nominal studio, I am totally going to build a giant robot dragon puppet to use as a secret test of character on new interns.
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By the way, you'll notice that I am speaking about a barely remembered and way, WAY geeky late 80's television show while everyone else seems to be doing their Harry Potter retrospective. I, of course, did my Harry Potter retrospective posts twoyearsago. Derp.
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Of course, this show reminded me that it's been a while since I drew any dragons...
Because it's been a wacky Memorial Day Weekend! And that means we're on a two-posts-per-week summer schedule! Here is some news I managed to read in time to regurgitate here:
I should save this one for last, but here is a review, on Comics Alliance, of what just might be the greatest ever work of western literature. That was written by a nine-year-old girl. Circa 1990. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect.
Speaking of teaser trailers. When I reviewed "Happy Feet" back when this blog was young, I said that nothing in the world could be as deeply surreal as the in-film sight of a cute little newly hatched baby Emperor Penguin singing "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash. Suffice it to say that in the new teaser for "Happy Feet Two: Penguin in the City", George Miller has outdone that scene. Twice.
And on the same subject, the very funny "How Did This Get Made?" podcast discussed the notorious super-long McDonald's commercial/"E.T." rip-off "Mac and Me", and tried to determine exactly what the message of the movie was supposed to be.
And yet more things that might scar a child for life! While we're stuck with the incredibly stupid "Hey we should sue ourselves for stealing our own taste" campaign, Bogleech showed us that the way they advertise Coke Zero in the UK is... different.
There's a nifty new website called Living Lines Library with a ton of animation production art to sift through.
You may have seen recent commercials for Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion featuring the Muppets. You may have suspected that there is an interesting story there.
Boy howdy, is there ever an interesting story. It is the tale of a corporate merger gone sour, of a genius who passed away suddenly before his time, and -uh- a guy with a bucket stuck on his head.
I am not going to tell that story. It's too sad. But it does help to explain why different Muppet DVDs feel like they are each put out by about five different studios.
Instead, here's the special. I like how they edit it so that it looks like Star Tours, Big Thunder Mountain, and Body Wars are all within walking distance. Other highlights include Jim Henson and Wayne Allwine doing the voices of Kermit and Mickey, a Sprocket cameo, and a very, very young Raven-Symone singing to Kermit. Man, if only they knew, back then, that Mickey would some day be their boss again.
---- Sketch Finished Piece of the Day!
I painted this pretty dragon:
Before I get to topic advertised in the title, I just realized that I can no longer let Xuxa Pets (or whatever they're called) pass without comment. Here's the commercial, which I initially thought was an elaborate satire:
(Love how the actual honest-to-goodness tagline is basically, "It's just like a real hamster, but it doesn't crap everywhere!")
---- "Rudolph", "Charlie Brown", "Grinch". We all know the Big Three Christmas Specials. But there are lots and lots of lesser-known specials that are still very good. Some of them are still well-loved but are simply not shown on TV anymore. Here are just a few of my favorites. Titles will link to their IMDB page:
"A Wish For Wings That Work" - Informally known as "The Bloom County Christmas Special" (even though it was made during the "Outland" era, but let's not get into the sticky issue of Breathed-verse continuity). This Youtube clip isn't the best quality, but trust me the animation is superb. Sadly, it's Opus' only animated outing. There is some concept art on Michel Gange's website that suggests a sequel was in the works, but it never came to be. It saddens me that we never got an Opus series (a la "Garfield and Friends") in this style:
"Twelve Tiny Christmas Tales" - I probably only have to say the following words here: Bill Plympton Christmas Special. It does retain his twisted humor and low-tech style, but it's also really sweet. It's available on Plympton's "Dog Days" DVD collection.
"Olive, The Other Reindeer" - It saddens me that this little slice of happy has faded into obscurity. It was produced by the "Futurama" team at the top of their game, and features big name voices that actually fit their characters. Best of all, J. Otto Seibold's artwork is perfectly replicated. As you can see, that was quite the animation challenge:
---- As a bonus, here's the unedited cut of "A Muppet Family Christmas", the best Muppet holiday special of all for my money (and it has some tough competition). Tough Pigs called this Jim Henson's victory lap and when you see how many characters he created, it's easy to see why:
(I officially deem it totally cool to go "awww" during the special's very last scene in the kitchen.)
Well my beloved Tetrapod Zoology blog has informed me that the "flipper photos" that so captured my eight-year old imagination back in this special (note the bad-ass Phil Tippet stop-motion animation) are fakie-fake-fakes. Wah.
I'm going to come right on out and say that "Fraggle Rock" is the greatest television program for young people ever created. (I know, I know, "Sesame Street" was there first but I'm considering the rewatchability factor here.)
There is a film on the way, which you may have heard of. Reaction from the Muppet fandom has been markedly mixed thus far, though it is hard to blame them as the initial announcement happened in 2005. There have, naturally, been many rumors in all that time. Some of them have been intriguing: Frank Zappa's son Ahmet is involved somehow, as are several original cast members. Some of them have been deeply, deeply troubling: the Fraggles are apparently going to be CGI for no good gorram reason. Try to sit through this clip from "Sid the Science Kid" ("Uncanny Valley - The Musical!") to understand why this is a bad, bad idea.
