"Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toontown"

Goodness, I don't even know where to begin with Richard Williams.

I, like many, first learned of the man thanks to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", a film that simply does not exist without Williams.  This awesome television special, which I remember watching during its premier, is an astounding look behind the scenes.  And it feels like it's from a completely different planet now: animators, voice actors, and effects technicians are all given as much attention as the human stars.  More in fact!  Imagine!



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Art of the Day!

The... Somewhat Delayed Inktober Wrap-up

So, an awful lot of things happened between the last blog post and this one and most of them were, indeed, awful.  I apologize in advance for the sad news but having hadn't posted in ages, I feel like an explanation is owed.

The month began with the sudden passing of my uncle, one of the funniest people I ever knew and the husband of my Godmother, who passed away last year.  This has, all told, been a hell of a couple of years for me.  Much of October was spent dealing with the fallout from this.  And just as my family and I were starting to get a handle on things, the month ended with The Nameless Storm.  At least ten trees were down in our neighborhood and we lost power for a week (we have a generator thank goodness, but still).  Fun times.

So October, the month, was a seemingly endless nightmare.

INK-tober, however, was fantastic.  I loved seeing everyone's art; it really did cheer me up during a terrible time.  I also drew a picture for every single day in October and honestly, I have no idea how I even did it.  To tell the truth, I'm a little soured on daily art challenges even though this was mostly stressful because of extenuating circumstances.  Anyway, here they all are.  Head to Flickr for the larger versions and more information:

"Next of Kin" and Harvard Museum of Natural History Studies

Speaking as an artist, I'm not sure if drawing stuffed animals can teach me anything meaningful anymore.

Let's back up.  I was back in Boston for a week last month and decided I might as well enjoy the local attractions.  I hadn't been to Harvard to draw in ages and I'd heard they had a new exhibit that was a must-see, so I headed over there.

That new exhibit, man.  It's called Next of Kin.  The HMNH is so *old* that many of its skeletal and taxidermy specimens are from severely endangered or even extinct animals.  Artist Christina Seely, working alongside The Canary Project, an organization of ecologically-minded scientist/artists, created an art installation using many of these specimens.  Combining sculpture, photography, and music (including the calls of extinct animals), it's a stunning and incredibly moving marriage of science and art.  It is indeed, to borrow a phrase, not to be missed.  You've got until June to catch it. 

Oh yeah, and a far, far more accurate title for it would be "You Will Need A Strong Drink And A Good Long Stare At The Wall After This One."

It managed to haunt my entire visit.

I felt *bad* walking among the taxidermy in a way that's hard to put into words.  I drew a lot, as you can see, but I felt bad about it.  Even weirdly complacent - these were, after all, living animals that had been killed and stuffed in "lifelike" poses just so people like me could come and study their propped-up pelts.  So I really don't know if dead animals have anything left to teach me.

Anyway, on that cheerful note, art!







I got home with a desperate need to see *living* animals.  And so a few days later...

Good Grief - Thoughts on "Death Prattle"

I have to begin with yet more sad news that helps explain why this blog has been in radio silence for a while now.

As readers may already know, my Godmother passed away earlier this summer.  Well, not long after that, my uncle passed away.  This uncle of mine had one of the most interesting lives imaginable, lived in a big old house full of treasures from his journeys around the world, and shared with us excellent sci-fi books and the strangest b-movies he could find.  And he just died very suddenly.  And having just typed that, I hate it, because now it feels more real.  Anyway, that's two major losses in a row for me this year.

It was in this grieving state that I discovered "Death Prattle".

"Death Prattle" is a very good podcast hosted by Tara Dunderdale and Talcott Starr.  And it is all about death and grief and mourning.  Both hosts have suffered profound losses in their lives.  They and their guests speak very frankly about their experiences.  It's often a very hard listen (it's taken me quite a while to catch up with the new episodes) but it's well worth it.  And, you have to trust me here, it's frequently hilarious.

"Death Prattle" is available on iTunes.  It can be found on Twitter here.

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Drawing of the Day

Sad News

My beloved aunt and Godmother passed away last Sunday morning.  Yesterday was her funeral.  This whole week has been an awful whirlwind of mourning and heartache and I'm just now able to write about this here.

My Godmother was an incredible, wild, vivacious woman who loved me like another daughter.  Her loss is so monumental, my entire body hurts like I've been gutted.  If you ever met her, you'd never forget her, and you'd feel heartbroken too, because she brought joy and light to so many different people.

I think that was the only happy aspect of her wake; the line to pay her respects went around the block (twice, curling like a seashell, according to some!) and the room was so crowded that I kept crashing into people - but they were all people who I love and who love me.  That was my Godmother's effect on everyone and I don't have any better word for it than magic.  There are a lot of angels in my life but she - she's my Faery Godmother.

Life is never going to be the same without her.  But the world turns, time passes, and shows must go on, so new posts will go up as scheduled.  Drawing and writing helps keep me from despairing, and it helps me a lot to remember and laugh about the past.  We all know 2016 has been a really crummy year so far with all the profoundly creative people we've lost, so I think the best thing to do is fill the void with more creativity.  Art and imagination are the magic in this world and we need more.

"Fraggle Rock" Month: Season 4, Episode 20 - "Gone But Not Forgotten"

First, the succinct version (since I know you've been missing NoFace; I was trying not to use him so often because I knew I'd be needing him for this one):



Oh man.  Oh, gee, we're at THAT episode.  And right after yesterday's episode too.  Give me a minute to compose myself, guys.  Okay.

One of the things that I have heard tends to alarm people when they revisit "Fraggle Rock" as an adult was the fact that this children's show with colorful Muppet creatures who sing and dance never shied away from the subject of death.  As a matter of fact, death is all over the place in "Fraggle Rock".  The Rock could be pretty terrifying; there are tunnels that can spirit you away to another world, bottomless pits, predatory caves, and vicious monsters lurking around the bend.   Simply put, the show wasn't afraid to get dark as f**k if it needed to.

Yet somehow, "Gone But Not Forgotten" tends to get mentioned most frequently as one of the saddest episodes (the other saddest episodes ever being "Marooned" and "River of Life", naturally).  And I think the reason for this is because while this is a story of how Wembly befriends a strange creature who passes away very suddenly, it doesn't really focus on that character's death.  It's really about Wembly's grieving process.

That's more unusual than you may think.  A lot of children's media approaches the subject of death, but most of them shy away from the subject of grief, because it is so much more painful to deal with.  (Hell, I'm having a hard time writing this review!)  But really, the sudden empty hole in your life is the very hardest part of suffering a profound loss.  It hurts so much, especially when it's a more personal loss, as is the case here.  Given that Wembly is, in many ways, still the most innocent character in the show, it's a tough thing to watch him suffer so, let me tell you. 

None of the other Fraggles knew Wembly's friend Mudwell, and the episode is wise enough to show how awkward and upsetting Wembly's personal grief is from their point of view.  For my money, this is the most devastating aspect of this episode.  They all want to help, they hate seeing their friend in such a state, but they just don't know what to say.

Rewatching this episode, it's poignancy reminded me a great deal of "Luck of the Fryrish" or "I Remember You".  And it made me wonder if the writers of "Futurama" and "Adventure Time" were influenced by "Fraggle Rock" in a way that runs deeper than the obvious "very funny series set in a richly imagined fantastical world populated with weird but endearing characters".  They at least share the same mindset.

In the end, Wembly discovers a way to keep Mudwell's memory alive, thanks to a very strange quirk of his friend's life-cycle.  And it involves song, which is a lovely touch, and a very Fraggly thing to do.  And the song's lyrics include some beautiful images that foreshadow the events of the final episode, which is just around the corner... 

"Fraggle Rock" Month: Season 4, Episode 18 - "The River of Life"

Throughout "Fraggle Rock", humans have almost invariably been referred to by the Fraggles as "Silly Creatures".  It's one of the most overlooked ingenious aspects of the whole series.

When we humans are the alien "other" to nonhuman point-of-view characters, you are almost guaranteed to see the rusty old "Humans Are Bastards" trope.  The writers of "Fraggle Rock" are smart enough to not avoid it completely.  But they put an unexpected fairer spin on it: humans aren't evil and we're certainly not intentionally mean, but we do some awfully confusing things sometimes.  And sometimes we do things that would look downright stupid from the outside.  We are, in a word, silly.

The Silly Creature we've been most concerned with in this series is... well, here's where things are going to get complicated, because where Canada and the United States had Doc, played by the irreplaceable Gerry Parkes, other markets around the world had a different human lead.  The fascinating thing here is that nearly all versions of "Fraggle Rock" had an older gentleman as their equivalent character.  You'd think our human emissary into the world of Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs would be a child for maximum audience-appeal points, and a less interesting series probably would have done that (there's a quick moment in "Uncle Matt's Discovery" where a little girl finds a Fraggle Hole that gives us a glimpse of that less interesting series).  But there's "Fraggle Rock" for you, subverting expectations at every opportunity.

In any case, this is one of the very few episodes where the human world directly intrudes on Fraggle Rock.  And your heart sinks at the revelation in the prologue that not only have humans found the "empty limestone caves" surrounding Doc's workshop and the Captain's Inn, it turns out that a few humans have already found an unsavory use for them: as a potential "safe" dumping ground for industrial waste.

I grew up in the early 90's.  I've seen a lot of programs try to do a "save the environment" episode.  An awful lot of them fail because they end up in way over their head; usually the issue ends up either too simplified or too overbearing.  Jim Henson would go to this well quite a few times, and he'd usually do a better job than most.  But I think this is his most powerful take on the issue, one of the best attempt at such an episode ever made by anyone really, and here's why:  At this point in the series, we've spent so much more time in the Rock than in the human world that it feels more like home than the human world does.  We've spent three and a half seasons with the Fraggles; that's basically like going to college with somebody.  So learning that somebody intends to dump poisonous industrial byproducts into the caverns of Fraggle Rock does not strike us viewers as a sad -- but faraway! :D -- tragedy (to borrow a phrase from another series).  No, it is nothing less than an incredible violation of our own home and beloved friends.  It's unthinkable.

And it gets worse.  Because here's the other remarkable aspect of his episode: who is this human who is threatening our home and our friends?  Who is this person who could, just by agreeing to the dumping, doom the Fraggles to extinction and the entire Fraggle Rock ecosystem to complete annihilation without even realizing it?  It isn't some dedicated "eco-villain" a la "Captain Planet" who evidently just thrives on hurting living things for the hell of it.  It's not a random character who is going to show up for only this episode, naively causes harm, learns to not do that, and promises never to pollute again and therefore gets to be an honorary Planeteer (yeah, this isn't the most original observation, but "Captain Planet" was not very good).  And it's not even a big, faceless scary corporation.  No, this episode doesn't go the easy route.  The person who could inadvertently kill all these wonderful characters we've grown to love over the years is Doc.  Yes, dear old kindly Doc, the nicest human character of all.  Doc who we know and love.  Doc, who we know would never in a million years do anything that would hurt another living thng, and certainly wouldn't even think of harming Fraggle Rock if he knew about it.  Holy sh*t, this episode; is it trying to kill me over here?  I need a beer and a good long stare at the wall, guys.

And so help me, it gets WORSE!  Because Boober, the only resident of the Rock who hasn't been poisoned, has tracked the source of the pollution to Outer Space.  And in a scene that is less "sad" and more "brace yourselves, audience, cause now we are just going to tear out your guts and stomp all over them", he kneels down at the entrance to Doc's workshop and pleads with the Silly Creatures to stop hurting his friends.  The thing is, he doesn't know that Doc and Sprocket have stepped out for a while, and the workshop is totally empty... except for us Silly Creatures in the audience... Oh, God...

The episode ends with the residents of Fraggle Rock well again, singing and merrymaking as usual thanks to Doc calling off the dumping project... and with Doc seriously wondering for the first time at those mysterious caverns under his home, thanks to the stack of postcards addressed to one Gobo Fraggle that Boober had left at the entrance to the tunnel to Outer Space. The more I think about it, the more I think this may be the single most profound episode of the entire series.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 1, Episode 21: "Gobo's Discovery"

All joking aside, "Gobo's Discovery" blindsided me.  I remembered this one as the episode where Gobo gets all emo and there's an invisible monster or something.  I did not recall the reason for Gobo's angst, and while there is an effectively scary invisible monster, the real invisible monster here is all in our hero's head.

Gobo, as I have already mentioned, is our de-facto leader and an explorer.  In this episode, we learn that he never really called any of this into question, but a particularly terrifying visit to Doc's workshop got him thinking.  And he realizes that he never asked for this life; it was kind of thrust upon him by his uncle.  There's a long path of risky decisions and shattered childhood dreams stretching behind him and a lifetime of danger and fear in front of him.  All of this causes Gobo to suffer what can only be called the Fraggle equivalent of a mid-life crisis, and he spends most of the episode moping in bed.

That's some heavy stuff for a kids' show isn't it?  I don't think this is the kind of problem you're going to see tackled in "Super Why".  This is where "Fraggle Rock" is at this point in the series.  No subject is off-limits.  This is the kids' show that isn't afraid to go there.

The other Fraggles are desperate to get Gobo out of his depression.  And mind you, that's before the invisible monster (the one who is not inside our hero's head) attacks the Rock.  At that point everyone is clamoring for Gobo to get off his fuzzy butt and help drive the beast back into its lair.

The conclusion to this episode is kind of fascinating.  As an explorer, Gobo has developed skills that none of the other Fraggles have.  He really is the only one who can save everyone from the monster because he knows where it came from and how to trap it.  And he learns that even if exploring isn't what he's always wanted to do, at this point it's what he's meant to do.  So, kids, even though you may grow up and not be where you dreamed you'd be as a child, other people are going to be counting on you, so it's almost kind of selfish to mope all day that you grew up to be an accountant instead of a rock star.  Again, that's pretty heavy and unexpected, but it's another big step in humanizing (or Fragglizing?) Gobo. 

Next week, we'll start in on season two - and I'll be writing the reviews right after watching the episodes this time instead of all at once.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 1, Episode 17: "Marooned"

Well first, here's the succinct version of my reaction to "Marooned":



Okay.  This episode's gonna make you cry.  A lot.  (If it doesn't I want nothing to do with you.)  Let's try to discuss it without breaking down again.

One of the main reasons why I have such nostalgia for Jim Henson's productions where so many other shows I watched as a child are forgotten is this: the Muppeteers weren't shy about making their young audience feel ways about stuff.  The Muppets could go to some pretty unexpectedly sad places as discussed here, and there were moments in "The Muppet Show" that blindsided and haunted me both as a child and as an adult with their open poignancy.  It certainly helps that, above all things, the Muppets are sincere.  "They are vain and hopeful, selfish and generous, complicated and true," wrote Roger Ebert in his review of "The Muppet Movie", and this quote has stuck with me forever because it is dead on, "They mirror ourselves, except that they're a little nicer."

So what we have here in "Marooned", which many "Fraggle Rock" fans agree may be the best episode of the first season and perhaps the finest episode of the entire series, is essentially a bottle episode (of the Trapped in a Freezer subtype).  And it is a character development episode, as so many bottle episodes are.  And, again, like many bottle episodes do, the two characters being developed here are two characters who haven't had much to do with each-other and don't seem at first glance to have anything in common.

But Great Gorg is this one effective.  And for me the reason is this: the two characters trapped by a cave-in here are Red and Boober.  At this point in the series, we don't know much about either character.  Boober serves as kind of a foil to the other Fraggles; while other Fraggles don't seem to worry about anything, Boober worries about everything.  The only thing he seems to have a grip on is laundry; it's the thing he's in charge of, so it's the only thing he feels he has control of in his life.  And as for Red... well, I'll discuss her in more detail in a future episode review.  But right now, we know that she's a very active wild child who has some insecurities carefully buried deep inside.

In short, we have two characters here who, I just realized here, kind of personify two very different reactions to anxiety.  You can either let it control your life, or bury it deep within you to save face -- but also make it all the more intense when it does break out.  When Red and Boober find this common ground, it's incredibly moving.  The song they sing together during this moment is haunting.  People, this is up there with "Feed the Kitty", the "Married Life" sequence in "Up", the "Souls don't die" scene in "Iron Giant", and the flower scene in "Brave Little Toaster" in terms of, "You can gauge whether you raised your kids right based on their reaction to this."

(I'd be remiss if I did not mention that this episode also has one of the most downright adorable Doc and Sprocket B-plots.)

Random 90's Animation: "Quest for Camelot" (1998)

Before delving into any of the projects I listed in the last post, let's cross another Random and/or Obscure Theatrical Animated Feature From the 1990's off the big old list.  Today's selection takes us into the late 1990's, and at this point animated features made in the very stereotypically Disney mold were coming in from even the most unexpected studios.

Arguably the strangest source for such a film was Warner Bros. animation. At the time, they were riding high on the success (commercially, certainly, goodness knows, not critically) of "Space Jam".  One of the people who worked on "Space Jam" -I forget who, unfortunately- described Warner Bros. feature animation as the antithesis of Walt Disney Feature Animation.  "They're the Merchant Ivory of animation," he said, "and we're more like 'Die Hard'!"  Which was a fine philosophy to have -- except then they went and made one of the most unabashed rip-offs of the Disney feature formula ever created.  Well then.

Watching "Quest for Camelot" with this in mind gives the movie an aura of strangeness that it certainly did not need, because the whole damn movie is just weird as hell.  It's weird in a really tedious and uninteresting way, though.  Rumor has it that the initial script for "Quest" was much more unique and interesting, but the poor thing got executive meddled to hell and back.  Additionally, nobody working on the film really enjoyed doing so.  I can believe both these rumors because you can really tell while watching "Quest" that the whole thing was a mess from the script level and nobody involved seemed to know what to do with it.

The basic story of the movie is staggeringly mediocre, to the point where it's even hard to discuss it.  I will address one of the big elephants in the room though: Not even a minute and a half into "Quest for Camelot" it occurred to me that this has to be what the people I know who still refuse to watch "Brave" must imagine "Brave" to be like.  It's as if "Quest" came first and took the bullet for "Brave", making all the boring and wimpy decisions so "Brave" didn't have to.

It is hopefully enough to say that "Quest for Camelot", having given us a plucky girl-hero who wishes to be a brave warrior instead of a pretty princess, decides about halfway through to give her a broody, angsty male sidekick/love interest.  *sigh...*

To the film's credit, they do at least attempt to do something interesting with AngstyWangsty McOurGirlHeroNeedsABoyfriend.  This is a major animated feature film with a blind protagonist.  That's actually really cool.  So it's too bad that (a) this movie sucks and (b) every song this character sings calls attention to his disability.  I couldn't make that up if I wanted to and it is just as horrible as it sounds.

So it's time to address the other elephant in the room: the songs.  Oh, boy, the songs.  I have a story to go along with one of the songs in this movie.  Did you know that the beloved and powerful Andrea Bocelli ballad "The Prayer" comes from this movie?  Most people don't know that.  I already knew this because (incoming sad personal story) I had the unfortunate job of picking the music that would play in the background during my Grandmother's wake.  Yeah.  My Grandmother was a huge fan of Andrea Bocelli, and this song was beautiful and moving and bittersweet, and everyone cried when they heard it.

So thankfully, it didn't seem like anyone there knew the original context for the song in "Quest for Camelot".  Most people would probably expect this song to play during a scene in the movie that would be, you know, appropriate.  At all.  Fortunately, I already knew that the scene where "The Prayer" appears is... not that.  Unfortunately, the scene in question is very like the "This is the skin of a KILLER!!!" scene in the first "Twilight" movie.  NOTHING can fully prepare you for it.


Man, I don't know where to take the review from here.  Would anyone mind if I just transcribe and elaborate on my notes?  Seems like the easier thing to do here cause I'm kind of sick of talking about "Quest for Camelot" and there's still a lot of ground to cover:

* - There's an awful lot of Irish iconography and Some-Kind-Of-Irishy-Or-Something music (actual genre; my iTunes library says so) in this movie supposedly set in Arthurian Merry Old England.  To be fair, this movie is already very lenient with the story of King Arthur (even though Arthur himself is barely in it and he, the Knights of the Round Table, and especially Merlin do an excellent job of being completely useless), but it gets weird.

* - I like how you can pick out who is going to betray the Knights of the Round Table only seven minutes in.

* - Funny, the animation here doesn't really look like "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm", "Space Jam", "Iron Giant", or "Osmosis Jones".  It actually reminds me more of "The Swan Princess," not least because of the male lead's distracting giant mouth.

* - In any case, whatever animation team they did put in charge was just not comfortable with it.  Ye gods, some of the designs on these minor characters...

* - There is a flashback to LITERALLY TEN MINUTES AGO!?!

* -  There is Conspicuous CGI and then there's this.  One of the special features on the disk goes on and on about this new computer-assisted animation technology called "Regging", and I wonder if that tech ever went anywhere or if it explains why the film looks so strange?

* - Sure glad that one character told us in the audience that the monster attacking King Arthur right now is a gryphon because this movie's take on the beast is... different.  This is the only instance where I didn't entirely hate that this is one of those movies where the characters provide a running commentary on everything we see happening onscreen.

* - This is... this sure is a Villain Song.

* - Say, why is ObviousBadGuy McCantEvenLookAtThoseFingernails even attacking Not-Merida's house?  It'd make sense if she made the potion he's using to make his monster army or something, but she didn't.  The stated reason is that her mom knows how to get to Camelot.  Except there's an obvious main road with obvious signs that lead you there?  It can't be because her presence would make them less conspicuous because they don't even bother to hide in the wagons along the way.  Basically, he's attacking Not-Merida's house because of Plot Reasons.

* - Speaking of ObviousBadGuy's monsters.  Holy mother of vocal dissonance, they come up with a kind of badass monster design and then they give it a shrill, whiny Bronson Pinchot voice, WHY?!?

* - You know, it'd be really cool if the Forbidden Forest was actually based on enchanted forest mythology from the British Islands, but that'd take actual imagination.  And not the "you can tell the animators dipped into the brown acid" kind of imagination.  Which is an easy dig, but really, look at this.

* - Let's not even talk about the deeply unpleasant dragon sidekick and it's (their? I don't even give a s**t) ghastly song.  It's like two insufferably obnoxious sidekicks for the price of one!

* - On the subject of small annoying creatures, was the falcon ever on-model to start with?  Cause for most of the movie it looks like a pile of fluff hovering around making dubbed-in Red-Tailed Hawk sounds.  Additionally, I'd call the chicken-thingy a JarJar-esque nuisance, except noted worst character ever JarJar Binks, like it or not, actually did contribute anything at all to the plot.

* - There's a scene late in the movie where it is heavily implied that Not-Merida would have succeeded in avoiding ObviousBadGuy and his minions on the road to Camelot and saved the day if she'd waited for her (all-male) sidekicks to join her.  Instead, she goes on without them, gets captured and dragged off to the castle, and ends up being rescued by the menfolks.  Seriously.  This happens.  Ugh...

* - The entire ending is just layer upon layer of "what just happened?"  A lot of plot points get resolved in a pretty cramped amount of running time, then the movie just stops.  But not before Not-Merida and AngstyWangsty get married, because of course that happens.  And then it just literally stops, as if even the movie is sick of itself.

For more in this series, click this link or the "Random 90's Animation Month" tag below.

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Sketch of the Day!  Have a random, half-Azhdarchid, half-"Dark Crystal" Landstrider creature designs.



I should probably mention that prior commitments are keeping me away from Boston Comicon this year, but I hope to enjoy the show vicariously through the internet!

Thank You, Maurice.

Lines and Colors post

Onion AV Club post

Tough Pigs post

Terrible Yellow Eyes

In the Dumps

And of course,

Maurice Sendak Being Awesome

Four Weirder Nutcracker Films

"Where The Wild Things Are" Review

Master's Essay Part One

Master's Essay Part Two

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

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

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

Let's read some Eye-Searingly bad Dinosaur Books for Children!

I'm going to impulsively discuss the world of discount dinosaur books for children, just in time for *next* month's Boneyard. (Edit: YAAAAY!!! Yes, people discovering me through S.O.S., I'm a bit of a dweeb. But hopefully a funny and informative one.)

Now, dinosaur books at least aren't as bad as cheap toy makers (if only the situation in this book was real). But they likewise tend to be a mine field of too little fact-checking, too much "aw, we'll just base everything on the most famous depiction of the animal in question." It takes a very long time for the new dinosaur finds that change out perspectives and shatter our very expectations of what these wonderful animals were like to filter into the public consciousness (if you don't believe me, ask your friends what a Tianyulong is and why everyone sh*t themselves when it was published).



As a shocking demonstration, I have for you two cheap dinosaur books I found in a surplus and salvage store. The first is creatively entitled Dinosaurs and if you must, it may be purchased at Amazon here. Or not, because the thing is mercifully out of print, but at least we know who to blame now.



Now, I should really let images like this one speak for themselves, but the print may get hard to read once I resize them (you should hopefully be able to click for big). For it's first trick, the book confuses Mei Long and Psittacosaurus (if you don't know from dinosaurs, I'm in no position to help you in understanding the rest of this post, but in this case the mammalian equivalent would be identifying a small, fluffy cat as a big, bristly boar). As an added bonus, the text refers to dinosaur eggs. Yeah.



The text in this one's a little fuzzy, but it's the most epic failure in the book. Here we have all of our favorite Ornithischians or "bird hipped" dinosaurs! You know, like Torosaurus and Psittacosaurus and Microraptor and Caudipteryx and Ara and...

...

...

Wut?

To be fair, I can see why that'd be confusing. But it's also the kind of thing that makes it clear you have no business writing a book about dinosaurs.





I can't tell if these are sad or hilarious in hindsight. (And yes, the top one does say "Torsaurus".)



Our next book is this thing, which I am very sad to see is published by Walter Foster, the famous art instruction book publishers. I was going to go ballistic over that title, but it turn out they're all like that (All About Drawing Sea Creatures and Animals! All About Drawing Horses and Pets! All About Drawing Vehicles and Trees!) It starts out with this handy scale guide for typical animals in the book:



Oh... wow...

Then gives us some handy -er- "Dinosaur Extremes". Again the text is fuzzy, but we get the good old "Troodon is the smartest dinosaur" trope again:



And finally, a selection of the dinosaur drawings themselves, with some text. LOOK AT THAT TRICERATOPS!!! Also, the fun fact about Baryonx is just strange and that cute Bearded Dragon has no idea why he's here:



(And guys... hey guys... guys...
Oshawatt or Snivy?

EDIT: Oshawott. Oshawoot always.)