Jolly Thoughts on Recently Experienced Festive Media!

Happy Night Before the Night Before Christmas!  I know this holiday season is probably very different, but as if to make up for the whole... everything else, 2020 brought us a wealth of reasonably good to excellent new holiday movies and specials.  And I caught up on a few specials that are new to me.  And so, some (mostly) jolly thoughts:

"Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas" - Whatever you're imagining from a Mariah Carey Christmas Special, I can assure you this isn't going to have any shocking surprises. 
But I liked it!  The Peanuts animation in the middle is so cute and the songs are, of course, terrific.  I'm just surprised that this didn't happen back in the 90's.

"My Gift: A Christmas Special from Carrie Underwood" - Carrie sings a bunch of Christmas songs and, well, that's about it.  Singing kids, sparkles, and a general "We're trying to make the best of what we can control" feeling.  It's nice.

"A Holly Dolly Christmas" - Dolly Parton sings and tells stories and generally is awesome both here and in real life.  We respect a Queen.

"Jingle Jangle" - I love this so much!  The colorful steampunk aesthetic, the music, the magic; so far this is my favorite live-action Netflix Christmas movie.
It's also a movie where a guy creates a self-aware A.I. and immediately starts planning on making more to sell as toys for children.  For some reason, they don't really dwell on that part.

"Happiest Season" - I know there is a lot of Discourse over this one but I'm not going to go too crazy here.  It is a romantic comedy -a Christmas romantic comedy no less- and I enjoyed it!  If you know me at all, you know this is huge.

"It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie" - "Oh hey," I thought, "I haven't seen this Muppet holiday special!  I wonder why Freeform aired it only two times very early in the morning in between their mandated '700 Club' broadcasts?"
And then, dear readers, I watched it.
"Oh.  Oh no... 😰
"This is, at least the second-strangest movie I've ever seen where a supernatural being played by Woopie Goldberg helps a little guy get their life in order.  That club scene though, yiiiiikes..."

"Anna and the Apocalypse" - Like many zombie comedies, this is a lot of fun until it isn't.  It's also a holiday musical, and I kind of want to add some of the songs to my Weird Christmas Playlist.  Kind of.  Seems a little on the nose for this year.

"Hilda" - The brand new second season has an episode about the Yule Lads, so it counts.  Plus the whole series is basically Weird And/Or Obscure Nordic Folklore and is so beautiful and lovely and cozy!  I don't think we've had a good cozy animated series since "David the Gnome" back in the day.  It is, I believe the term is, Hygge as heck.
(But darn the cliffhanger ending... )

"Ziggy's Gift" - You can find this in the good old Thief Archive, which is appropriate because it is very obviously a Richard Williams joint.  It's nice; worth watching for the scene with the turkeys.

"Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" - Maybe this is a bold proclamation but this is, I think, the best live-action Christmas special of my generation that does not contain Fraggles or John Legend.  Halfway through this rewatch I was ten times happier than I was when I started it.  (Not sure why Netflix is dropping it right before Christmas though.)

"Twelve-Hundred Ghosts" - You ever notice how many "Christmas Carol" parodies and straight adaptations there are?  It was almost inevitable that some mad genius would edit every one they could find into one coherent "megamix".  That genius is Heath Waterman and if you only have time for one Christmas movie off this list, make it this one.  On the one hand, it's genuinely moving.  On the other, it's hilarious (I'll never get over Mystical Buffalo Marley).  

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Art of the Day!  Happy Holidays everyone!

Goblin Week 2020 _World of the Dark Crystal_ Brian Froud Master Studies

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.











And now for some bonus sillyness:

"Defunct TV: Jim Henson"

While I love the Defunctland channel anyway, they've completely outdone themselves with this fantastic six-part tribute to Jim Henson.  A wonderfully edited tribute to a wonderful man, it covers everything from "Sam and Friends" to "The Muppets at Walt Disney World".




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Art of the week:

"We wish that we didn't have to leave / this wonderful world of make-believe!" Let's Watch 25 Years of Disney Television!

We've watched a lot of Disney television specials together here at the Blog.  Every time, I think I've finally found the weirdest one they ever made.  And boy do I love being proven wrong, as is the case with this 1978 special celebrating 25 Years of Disney on Television.




Now, I will never waver from my position that "Kraft Celebrates Twenty Years of Walt Disney World" is The "Star Wars Holiday Special" Of Disney, but boy does this special do everything it can to make it hard.  First of all, it's cut down from a nearly two-hour special that ran over two weekends.  That explains some of the jarring editing, but I honestly don't know if more context would help.  The whole thing is '70's variety show Hell, but I must direct special attention to that courtroom scene and the scene where we're suddenly in "Mad Monster Party?"

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Art of the Day!

Have a little Mary Blair study why not?

Draw Dinovember Day 21 and "Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow"

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...

Inktober Day 25 - "I'm Marching on With a Smile..."

I was obviously less pressed for time on this prompt, "A Character Who's Ready for Adventure". Who else would I draw?



And since you all need to have it in your head too:

Initial Thoughts Regarding "The Muppets"

As you may or may not know, a brand new primetime series staring the Muppets made its debut last night.  I watched it, let it simmer over last night, and my initial knee-jerk reaction is that it's... it's pretty good.

The idea is classic Muppets: it's a show-within-a-show.  This time, Miss Piggy hosts her own talk show and the other Muppets scramble behind he scenes to get everything rolling.  We seem to be back in the classic "Frog; 100, Chaos: 99" formula, which is very encouraging.  There are cute subplots involving Fozzie and Scooter and a few poignant scenes as well.  the latter is especially encouraging; the old "Muppet Show' was as much about weirdly sad or genuinely touching moments as it was about explosions and anvils.  (There is also no sign of Walter in this first episode.  Interesting...)

The "roving camera" format is unusual, but seems to be working well so far (it makes a lot more sense when you realize it's just the modern version of the previous Muppet series' stationary camera capturing the activity behind the scenes).  Denise is... certainly a thing; I'm hoping she turns out to be a more interesting character.  And while this is the first episode, and I understand they're finding their footing, I'd have liked a lot more segments with the Muppets interacting with the guests.  That Imagine Dragons weren't accompanied by Muppet dragons during their end-credits number is a damn shame.

At the end of the day, we've got the Muppets on television on a regular basis again.  That is priceless.

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Sketch of the Day!



Cows!!!

"Do something instead of being afraid." - Let's watch 1990's Earth Day Special!

Remember back in 1990, when Gaia appeared in front of a kind-of-evil Robin Williams in the glorious form of Bette Midler and would've died if not for the valiant efforts of Neil Patrick Harris in-character as Doogie Howser M.D.?



All joking aside, yes, it's the cusp of the 80's and the 90's.  Yes, looked at from a certain angle, it's the weirdest "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" Prequel / "Ghostbusters" and "Back to the Future" Sequel ever.  And yes, this is a nearly two-hour movie where Gaia appears in front of a kind-of-evil Robin Williams in the glorious form of Bette Midler and would've died if not for the valiant efforts of Neil Patrick Harris in-character as Doogie Howser M.D. (and as far as I know, Michael Eisner wasn't involved).  And yes, there is a scene where Midler-Gaia, in a last-ditch effort to save herself, litters, and the litter lands near E.T. (who's just kind of there for reasons unknown), who turns it into a book that teaches some children and IDK, WTF.  But dang me if I wasn't genuinely moved by this special.  I mean, that bit with Kermit and Robin...


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Sketch of the Day!

In honor of all the adorable amphibians out there, meet my #Salamandersona!

"We’re Snivelly, Snickety, Boppity, Snarl, Scoff… and Gloat!" - "The Great Santa Claus Switch"

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.

Happy Holidays everyone!

For a Given Definition of "Special"... - "A Special Sesame Street Christmas"

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.

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Sketch of the Day!

More doggies!

"At Least the Things We're Seein' are a Dream Come True!" - "Rocky Mountain Holiday"

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!

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Sketch of the Day!

We need more dogs!

On Geometry, Pontitudinal Abundance of Cleverosity, and Unfortunate Reality Subtext - "Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree"

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.

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Sketch of the Day! Dog Show doodles!

In Which I Feel The Readers Are Due An Apology

So...

Clearly, at this point, Ghibli-thon has turned out to be a bust.  I will eventually write something.  It will probably not be as elaborate as originally planned because, and it's time to admit it, I honestly do not know what I can bring to the table regarding these movies that's entirely new; I feel like it's going to be me gushing "OMG so awesome!" over and over. 

Moving on, what of Christmas?  It'd be wrong not to have anything for Christmas here on the blog!  So this year, somewhat inspired by this pair of features at ToughPigs, I am going to be filling in the gaps in my Muppet Christmas special knowledge.  There are five major specials I've never seen and all accounts suggest I should tackle them in reverse-chronological order so as not to be depressed.  The most upsetting of them ("A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie") is only available On-Demand for not-free, so I might go ahead and skip it.  See you then!

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Sketch of the Day!

Then there was that time Sue the T. rex used one of my drawings as her profile picture for a few days.

Links Of Interest - Prelude to Holiday Shenanigans Edition!

Man, there's a ton to catch up on here.

* - First off, all the cool artists are doing it so everybody reading this draw and submit a happy partying creature for the Party Bueno project!  The deadline's November 30'th so get to it.  Details and submission instructions here.  My little guy is Party Member 359!

* - Second off, go download All Your Yesterdays if you haven't already.  Make a donation and download lots of copies!  Give them to all your impossible-to-buy-for people this holiday season!

* - Third off, I hate being kind of a shill but TODAY ONLY if you use the promotional code BLKFRIDAY983 over at my Zazzle Store, you can get half-off mugs and t-shirts! Go get an Awesome Overload shirt for all your other impossible-to-buy-for friends!

* - Fourth off, Mental Floss managed to score an interview with Bill Watterson!?

* - Fifth off, Dr. Bob Bakker is blogging for the Huston Museum of Natural Science and wrote a lovely tribute to the classic "World We Live In" issue of Life.

* - Sixth off, now we know what Deinocheirus looked like!  Now we know what Deinocheirus looked like!  NOW WE KNOW WHAT DEINOCHEIRUS LOOKED LIKE!!!???!!!

* - Seventh off (I will stop doing this), I spent much of the summer catching up with the lovely Tobolowsky Files podcast and lo and behold there is a new episode fresh on the feed.

* - A sobering message from DinoGoss: We're all drawing dinosaur feet wrong.  Probably.

* - If you met R. L. Stine, would you think to ask him about his involvement in the Nick Jr. show "Eureeka's Castle"?  Well, thankfully, the Onion AV Club did, and everyone is the better for it.

* - The entire series of essays from the Dissolve's Movie of the Week features for both "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" and "Kirikou and the Sorceress" are terrific, but my favorite parts were the staff's reminiscing of favorite strange movies discovered at the video store and favorite unusual animated features.

* - And for fans of the late, lamented "My Year/World of Flops" series at the AV Club, Nathin Rabin's new series "Forgotbusters" (basically, movies we all assumed were flops but made the top 25 of their year) is outstanding, especially the "Space Jam" and "Jack" entries.

* - Danny Horn of ToughPigs traveled to Japan in search of unique Muppet-related stuff and discovered, among other things, that somebody at Universal Studios Japan learned about Duffy the Disney Bear and evidently thought, "We need something just like that -- but how can we make it more unintentionally unsettling?"

* - Forbes ruminated on the long, strange history of Dreamworks animation.

* - I got a serious Where the Wild Things Are vibe from this Hyperbole and a Half comic.

* - The way Disney markets its animated films these days is pretty confusing, but at least it isn't as insane as this promotional song for "Robin Hood".

* - Tony DiTerlizzi reminisced and posted a gallery of the Joanne Scribner cover art for the Dell Yearling editions of Beverly Cleary's books.

* - And Tim Brayton finished his review of every single direct-to-video Disney sequel and managed to come out the other end (mostly) in one piece!  All of his Disney reviews, including those for the sequels, are listed here.

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Sketch of the Day! I thought, "Hey, everybody else is drawing Deinocheirus, why aren't I?"

September is "Fraggle Rock" Month!

"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.

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Posts in this series:

Season 1, Episode 1 -  "Beginnings"
Season 1, Episode 11 - "Catch the Tail by the Tiger"
Season 1, Episode 17 - "Marooned"
Season 1, Episode 18 - "The Minstrels"
Season 1, Episode 19 - "The Great Radish Famine"
Season 1, Episode 20 - "The Garden Plot"
Season 1, Episode 21 - "Gobo's Discovery"
Season 2, Episode 5 - "Uncle Matt Comes Home"
Season 2, Episode 6 - "Boober's Dream"
Season 2, Episode 8 - "All Work and All Play"
Season 2, Episode 14 - "The Secret of Convincing John"
Season 2, Episode 15 - "Manny's Land of Carpets"
Season 3, Episode 4 - "The Grapes of Generosity"
Season 3, Episode 8 - "Believe It Or Not!"
Season 3, Episode 9 - "Wembly and the Mean Genie"
Season 3, Episode 18 - "Bored Stiff"
Season 4, Episode 1 - "Sprocket's Big Adventure"
Season 4, Episode 9 - "Wembly's Flight"
Season 4, Episode 17 - "The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer"
Season 4, Episode 18 - "The River of Life"
Season 4, Episode 20 - "Gone But Not Forgotten"
Season 4, Episodes 24-26 - "The Gorg Who Would Be King", "The Honk of Honks", and "Change of Address"

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Old but Relevant Art of the Day!  I still like it and honestly, I still stand by this theory:

It's the Hardly-Annual Summer Animated Trailer Post - Pre-D23 Expo Edition!

Yes, I will have to do an updated edition of this post after the D23 Expo happens and brings us more trailers.  Most significantly, it's anticipated that the trailer for "The Good Dinosaur" will premier there and... yeah, being that it is a "we research our butts off" PIXAR film about dinosaurs, I may already be a little too emotionally invested in that one (please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck...)

Addendum: And that isn't going to be for a while, it appears.  It's been weeks since D23 and the only "Good Dinosaur" tidbits we have been given since are some concept art and some not-terribly-encouraging news.

Anyway, here are the current animated trailers:



Well, first off, New Miyazaki Film! New Miyazaki Film! New Miyazaki Film!



For those of you who think there aren't any good animated films centering on feathered theropods lately (except, you know, that one), behold "Leafy: a Hen Into the Wild". Sadly, there's no news of an American release but I'm holding out hope.



There's a sizable "Legend of Korra"-shaped hole in my life right now, but this incredibly evocative teaser for season two promises to finally fill it in September.



One of the best surprises among recent animated features was "How to Train Your Dragon".  Fans of the film went rightfully nuts over the friendship between Toothless and Hiccup and their acrobatic (if somewhat familiar) flights together.  The teaser for the sequel very wisely promises more of exactly that.



Blue Sky is sparing us "Ice Age 5: Why Are These Even Set During The Ice Age Anymore" for the moment, but giving us a sequel to the underwhelming "Rio" instead. The teasers throw yet more characters into the overloaded cast, so hooray for that? This particular teaser starts by briefly giving us 80's kids bad flashbacks to the "Somewhere Out There" scene in "American Tail"...

...but then...😨

...but THEN...😱

Then you get to the part where they reveal the title and... yeah, these are all interesting visuals for an animated teaser.



A lot of people loved the hell out of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". Enough to make me wonder what I missed, since I kind of hated it. The inevitable sequel at least promises some very cool plant-animal designs, along with more awesome food/scenery, more puns, and more insufferable little sidekick characters who scream a whole lot. I'm such a big fan of that last thing, you have no idea.



And speaking of things that are insufferable, behold the trailer for "Turkeys". I mean "Free Birds". I mean, I don't even give a s**t, because look at this thing. It's like they had five or six plot ideas centered around the general pitch, "Blargh, somethin' about turkeys, I guess, whatever."  And instead of picking just one of them like a sane person would have -- and not even a sane person!  Because "South Park" already did "angry turkeys attack humans on Thanksgiving" way-ass back in 1997!?!  Anyway, instead of picking one plot to focus on and develop properly, they mashed together all of them.  Every last God-damn one of them, because that approach always ends well for animated holiday feature films with goofy animals.  In other news, "From the producer/director/studio/whatever of 'Shrek'!" doesn't even look like a real phrase made up of real words anymore.



One of the more unusual features coming soon is "Walking With Dinosaurs 3D".  Which will hopefully not end up being "Spirit: Ceratopsian of the Cimmaron," even though this bored-narrator-heavy trailer is discouraging.



"Box Trolls" is the new Laika joint.  Based on the high concept, gorgeous animation, and "Hey, people who walked out after that one offhand line of dialogue during the finale of 'Paranorman'? Deal with it." attitude, they're obviously remaining as awesome as ever.



The announcement of the "LEGO Movie" a while back made me skeptical, but this trailer got me looking forward to it.  And then there's the awkward moment when I realized this is what it took to finally get Wonder Woman into a theatrical movie...



Here' is what I am assured is an impressively misleading teaser for "Frozen" and... actually, forget this. Have the Japanese teaser instead:



So... pretty...

BONUS: "The Muppets: Most Wanted" trailer just dropped this morning!



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Sketch of the Day!

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?

Let's Cry Like Litle B***hes at "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson"!

There is nothing I can say.

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.

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Sketch of the Day

Never mind Irene, let's watch this Amazing Disney Special Montage and InnerTube TV!

But before we do that, I got the kind of comment I write this blog for which prompted a major, major update on the Ranger Rick article, so go read it and see.

Alright, back to the subject at hand. Everything Is Terrible, you're my hero.





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 Chicago Taio 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.

The Jim Henson Hour and "Monster Maker"

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, very few- 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 two years ago. Derp.

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Sketch of the Day!



Of course, this show reminded me that it's been a while since I drew any dragons...