Digs, Dragons, and the Dinosauroid (again?) Let's Watch "The Great Dinosaur Hunt"

It's almost 100 degrees out!  It's so hot, why don't we take a journey to the desert!

Okay, this one's a real oddity.  I only learned about "The Great Dinosaur Hunt" (a 1993 Goodtimes home video release, not to be confused with the identically titled "Infinite Voyage" and, er, "Postman Pat" episodes) recently on Twitter and since it was a dinosaur documentary I somehow never saw, I needed to watch it.  Three nights later (!) I'm here to tell the tale.

"The Great Dinosaur Hunt" covers the China-Canada Dinosaur Project, an expedition that started in 1986 and carried into 1991.  And it is a fantastic example of what I can only accurately describe as a pre-"Jurassic Park" dinosaur documentary.  First off, it really did take me a while to get through.  For a 90 minute film, this is s-l-o-w.  The focus is on paleontology itself and the truth of the matter is, paleontology is an awful lot of wandering through the desert hoping to find something, anything.  And boy did I feel that vicariously.

Another interesting thing about this documentary is there's almost no animation.  There are a few animated sequences showing living dinosaurs in action, all traditional and by the fine National Film Board crew.  The scene showing the world through a young Troodon's eyes is particularly lovely and I long for a whole short like this.  

Of course as soon as they mentioned Troodon, and because Dale Russel is one of the paleontologists involved, I knew our old friend the Dinosauroid would make an appearance.  I'm honestly starting to wonder if they were required to mention this thing in every dinosaur documentary from this time.  Think of how weird that is; like if every marine biology documentary spent a few minutes on Initial Bipedalism (link goes to an old TetZoo article where sadly the illustrations are gone, but brace yourself for a wild ride anyway.)

And because this mostly takes place in China, the very droning narrator really loves droning on and on about dragons and how the dinosaur scientists are Unearthing the Mysterious Dragon and did you know that the ancient Chinese found dinosaur fossils and thought they were from dragons?  And that in Asia they use the same word for "dinosaur" and "dragon"?  And and and...?  (Turns out this is all, to put it succinctly, Kinda Racist Nonsense ^TM.  I f-in' knew it. 😒)

Other than that, this is a pretty nifty look at a legendary expedition.  I'm glad to have had my attention brought to it.  Now I need to jump in the lake.

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Art of the Day

So. I knew about the “We’re not sure how Azhdarchids moved on the ground, did they walk on two legs?” theory but I
A. did not know there was a sculpture depicting this or that
B. it looks... Like This.
Anyway, this was all I could see. A vision that haunted me all that night, so I had to draw and share.

Dixon, Dinosauroids, and We're Desperate for a Dub: Let's Watch the "After Man" Specials from Japan!

Boy, I really wish we had subtitles for this one, but I'm glad to get to watch it at all.  Here is the rare 1990 Japanese documentary based upon After Man:

This wasn't too hard for me to follow even though I couldn't understand the narration.  It mostly reiterates the big points in the book, like that no niche in nature stays empty for long and that the ancestors of the animals we know today would've looked very odd to us.  We get to see a lot of Phil Tippet's animation from "Dinosaur!"  Dougal Dixon gets to visit the real lands and animals that inspired his imagined ones, which are brought to life through some wonderfully Harryhausen-esque stop-motion animation.  This is all delightful to watch but I really long for an English-language version, especially so I can better understand the sequence where we encounter our old friend the Dinosauroid as well as Dixon's... different... take on the concept.

Fortunately, we do have English subtitles for the "After Man" music video.  This was part of a program of short educational music videos called "Minna no Uta", kind of the Japanese equivalent of "Schoolhouse Rock".  Understanding the lyrics doesn't answer that many questions, but I really like the designs for the creatures here.

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Art of the Day!

JuneFae isn't over yet!

Everything is Hell so Let's Watch "Saturday's the Place" From 1984!

Well, it sure has been a while hasn't it?

You might have guessed, given the wait between Blog posts, that your germphobe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder suffering buddy Trish hasn't been having a very fun time during the pandemic.  And, you're right.   The past few months have been surreal.  Back in the beginning, when people were taking Covid-19 more seriously, almost everyone suddenly agreed, "Always have disinfectant spray or wipes. Use them to sanitize everything in your home and clean everything that comes into your home because your home is your Safe Place. Avoid public transportation and above all Wash. Your. Hands!!!"  

And there I was, already deep in the middle of a sustained anxiety attack for everyone I care about and incidentally also myself, thinking, “Normal people DON’T do these things?"

Because if I have to fill the bird feeders or ride the subway, my entire day centers around that because for me it is a Whole Thing.  My home is my Sanctum Santorum of Sanitary, so after such activities, I must go through a thorough dermatopic purification (hot shower) before entering.  Everything is a potential danger you must prevent somehow or Bad Things Will Happen and it Will Be Your Fault.  

What I'm saying is, in the early days of the pandemic, what people were freaking out about was my "normal."  (I and a few others were very quietly hoping that maybe, just maybe, OCD people would get a bit more sympathy from all this.  Or at least that most folks would start going over your phones with a wet wipe when you charge it at night because I honestly still can’t get over the fact that most of you apparently wouldn’t normally do that?!?)

But I don't want to dwell on that right now.  For the first blog post in ages, I want to post something silly and upbeat instead.  

And so, let me share the ridiculous 1984 CBS Saturday Morning Preview show!  I talked a little bit about these programs way WAY back in the Archaen Eon of my Blog, and I'm surprised I've never revisited them since.  After all, if there are things I love to write about here, two big ones are 1) Animation and 2) Unintentionally Hilarious Vintage TV Specials. 

 

So here's the preview special for the... honestly pretty bleak lineup for CBS in 1984.  The highlights were "Dungeons and Dragons" (better than I remembered), the then-brand-new "Muppet Babies" (not as good as I remembered), and Looney Tune and Charlie Brown anthologies series.  Lowlights include about a half-dozen cartoons based on arcade games.  Mediocre-lights are the "Shirt Tales" and "Get-Along Gang".  The IDKWTF-light is a live-action show I completely forgot about, kind of a precursor to "Pee-Wee's Playhouse", made by Sid and Marty Krofft, and starring Richard Pryor.  (When I need to tell a kid what the 90's were like, I usually tell them, "Monks had a double-Platinum hit record."  From now on, when I need to tell kids what the 80's were like, I shall tell them, "Richard Pryor hosted a children's show.")  

What's really interesting about this special, the reason I want to share it, is the "plot".  Janet from "Three's Company" is a reporter who hates hates hates cartoons but must write about how they are made.  And so Henry from "Too Close For Comfort" is going to show her.  What follows is more delightfully strange than you'd expect, but hey we get to see the cast of "Muppet Babies"!

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Art of the Day!  And now, totally botanically accurate humor.

 

The Six Fanart Challenge!

This was a lot of fun! First, the Twitter thread that started the whole thing:

I’m going to do it why not? #SixFanarts pic.twitter.com/6uPwnh1Siy

— Trish (@Babbletrish) April 8, 2020

I eventually did use the grid thing for the cleaned up color version:

 


And now, closeups of each color version!

Spring Is Maaaaaaagic! Let's Watch The 1985 WDW Easter Parade!

I am heading down to Walt Disney World very soon!  Goodness I can't wait to experience the whole Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group insanity for myself!  Ha ha ha (please keep my family and I in your thoughts and prayers) ha ha!  😨

So as is tradition, let's travel back to the long-long ago and watch a weird vintage Disney Parks special.  Now this particular special is mostly here due to unabashed nostalgia.  I haven't seen this in ages and can't believe how much I remembered from it; it's almost certainly my first encounter with most of these songs and artists.  I'm not going to say it's outright good, you don't even see much as far as vintage Walt Disney World goes.  But among the wonderful things you do see and hear are Doug Henning!  A very young Bobby Brown!  Upsettingly wrong-sounding Goofy!  The star of the brand new Disney movie "Baby"!?!



Stick around after the parade for a couple local news shows and a pledge drive!  Ah, YouTube.

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Art of the Day!

The coming spring season is a time for animals to get flashy, so here is an extremely speculative Triceratops couple:

The Triumphant Return of Walter Fozbek!

Few things make me happier than getting to finally tie up a long-dangling loose end. 

You may recall that way WAY back in the summer of 2011, I wrote two long, weird posts about The Double Disappearance of Walter Fozbek by Steve Senn, a short, weird book that I mostly remembered for it's very short, very weird animated adaptation that aired as part of the anthology series "CBS Storybreak".  I strongly recommend reading those posts because there's a lot of information in them.  Like I said, this is a very weird book.  (You'll also get to enjoy some early-installment weirdness.  Who the hell is this person who actually enjoyed the taste of an IPA?  Certainly not I?)

As happy as I was to finally find the book, I still longed to watch the cartoon again.  I figured by now that it was lost to the ages, Lost Media if you will.  But it turns out that there's a small but dedicated contingent of YouTubers finding and uploading as many "CBS Storybreak" episodes as they can find.

And, miraculously, "The Double Disappearance of Walter Fozbek" is among them!  What a great way to kick off the new decade!  Here it is:



Goodness.

I remember practically every minute of this strange little cartoon. It's really close to the book, aside from a somewhat streamlined ending, "Flintstones"-ish prehistoric gags and all.  There's also a touch more existential angst.  Like, certainly "The Last Unicorn" this ain't.  But that scene where Walter (remember he's the only human in a world of anthropomorphic animals) is face-to-face with the fossil remains of another human (remember humans are extinct in this world); that kind of thing messes you up as a kid. 

Between the New Kids on the Block Christmas Special and "Walter Fozbek", this has been a very good time for “Yay I KNEW it was real!  And, now that I can finally watch it after 20-30 years, I completely understand why everyone looked so confused and slightly concerned when I tried to describe it to them.”

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Art! A cute pudgy Unicorn and her tiny Fairy friends to bless our 2020's.

A Salute to All of America, but Mostly Mickey's Birthdayland? Let's Watch the 1988 WDW Independance Day Special!

It's February and you know what that means: I'm going to Walt Disney World this month!  And as is of course tradition, I am hyping myself up by watching weird vintage Disney Park television specials.

And because I also felt it was kind of weird keeping a Christmas post up top for so long, here's a... Fourth of July special?  Well, why not?



A special with this much stuff is right for any season.  Highlights include wrong-sounding Mickey announcing the whole entire new Magic Kingdom land built for his birthday, the very odd "Spirit of America" parade, a look at the then-new Norway pavilion, the Electric Light Parade complete with circus floats, a special preview of the Disney/MGM Studios, and the triumphant return of our lanky tap-dancing friend Tommy Tune in a patriotic musical finale that seems to go on forever. 

I hope that everyone in the coming year brings as much enthusiasm to their creative endeavors as Uncle Jessie does playing percussion here.

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Art of the Week!

I drew Pluto from memory and this happened:

The "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" Tweetmentary

I don't always almost never have a "Go big or go home" attitude.  

But when I do, it's doing a Tweetmentary of "E.T." on Halloween night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to The Song here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to The Other Song here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some more footnotes: You can read about the Dinosauroid on TetZoo and watch some commercials for the broadcast of "E.T." on Thanksgiving.  I still can't find any evidence of "Jurassic Park" on Thanksgiving.