It looks like Mickey Mouse got char-broiled, and has certainly seen better days…I’m referring, of course to the Richmond Rat Boy, a small, seemingly-mummified object anonymously donated to the Wayne County Historical Museum in Indiana. The Rat Boy appears to sport a rodent’s head atop a humanoid body that boasts details such as claws and teeth…
Now sadly, Rat Boy was never alive, but has been determined to have been crafted of plaster of Paris and clay over an armature. Animal claws, pointed teeth, and hair were added to lend a touch of realism to the figure. A note was left with the figure saying that it was found long ago in the basement of a local hospital, and once belonged to a circus-worker friend of the donor’s late grandfather…
Now Rat Boy is thought by museum staff to have been a gaff, a cryptid fabricated as a sideshow attraction in circuses that toured America in the 1910’s to the 1930’s. A more memorable example was the notorious Fiji Mermaid once exhibited by P.T. Barnum. They might have charged you a dime to a quarter to see such draws back in the day. Nowadays we can laugh at those gullible people of an earlier time, having reality television and conspiracy theories today…
So while Rat Boy may not be real, you can still buy your very own Rat Boy T-shirt to remember him by. “Be the first one on your block,every cat in the neighborhood will be in shock,” to recall the late great Soupy Sales in his song, Do the Mouse!
From Batman to Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton has played them all…and if there’s one movie sequel that he’s wanted to make, it’s been of The Ghost With The Most. Well, in September our long wait will be over with Beetlejuice 2 due to arrive! Our favorite bio-exorcist will again thank heavens be played by Michael Keaton, who after 35 years can probably play the role with less makeup.- -Yes, Beetlejuice will finally be back, and “more juicier than ever!”I’m in…
In the sequel which acknowledges the passage of time, the goth girl Lydia from the original movie has grown up, and had children of her own. Jenna Ortega, titular character from the Netflix series Wednesday has been brilliantly cast to play the daughter, which should be right up her alley.
In Beetlejuice 2, we will again return to the strangely bureaucratic world of the afterlife, although plot details have been few and are tightly under wraps. Presumably we’ll get to hear more of Harry Bellafonte’s Calypso music score. There has been reference made not only to Lydia’s daughter, however, but also to Beetlejuice’s WIFE, so we know that Beetlejuice is truly a soul in hell…
I’m really looking forward to revisiting the dark and at times grotesque world of this fantasy/horror/comedy, and can’t wait to hear Beetlejuice once more announce, “It’s showtime!”
I eagerly look forward to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 released this month as it highlights and furnishes the backstory of Rocket Raccoon, who director James Gunn describes as the “secret protagonist” of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies…
Now Rocket Raccoon is an iconic character, especially to those of us who identify as furry. In this film, we see his humble beginnings as a “street raccoon,” and Rocket was perfectly happy being an animal. His forced transition to a snarky biological weapon was fraught with pain, and we are shown those Dr. Moreau-type experiments that later led the character to remark, “there ain’t nothing like me except me.” There’s a lot more to Rocket other than the master strategist, pilot, weapons-master, and space maverick that we knowand love,and we see his vulnerability and terrible aloneness here…
Fortunately, it’s a commonality of trauma that binds The Guardians together, and in this their final ride as a team they appear to be going out in fine formin a movie described as both dark and hilarious.- – Long live Rocket Raccoon! 🦝
I have to admit that I was wrong in my earlier negative opinion of the rebooted Lost In Space series on Netflix that had been based solely on the initial episode that I was able to view at that time for free. I couldn’t connect with the redefined series characters at that time, and felt that the whole reboot was a pointless exercise. Since that time armed with a Netflix subscription and so able to get further into the series, I can say that the series does get appreciably better after the first episode, when they spent entirely too much time trying to get daughter Judy out of a frozen lake…
Now what really makes the series perk?
This guy! Not the “Robot” from the original series who looked like he was made from a vacuum cleaner and several kitchen appliances, but this sexy alien construction who looks like he was designed by H.R. Giger. There’s not a flat surface on him, nor facial features but rather a faceplate within which swirl colored lights, red if he’s going into “attack mode,” and blue if he’s becoming reflective and empathetic. There’s a bit of the T-800 Terminator in this robot as he does have a dark past, but has bonded with the ever-so-familiar Will Robinson, through whom he’s being schooled in such concepts as restraint and friendship. The Robot’s potential for destruction is channeled into defensiveness and protection as he incorporates human emotion. Heck, he even does primitive cave wall paintings! This Robot can knock down trees, but can also be calm and cool even if a tad unpredictable. He’s a work in progress…
The Robinsons are really much better off with the Robot, who is largely controllable through Will Robinson. Portrayed as a highly intelligent 12-year-old boy, Will is nowhere as annoying as say, Wesley Crusher. Father John Robinson, re-envisioned as a former Navy Seal, is a stalwart and dedicated family man and almost indestructible, capable of surviving in a drill pit after being impaled on a rebar stake, then returning to work almost immediately afterwards. Mother Maureen Robinson has had her IQ bolstered several dozen IQ points from the original character, and is an endlessly resourceful modern take-charge woman who can fix something with almost nothing, saving their backsides multiple times in the process. Major Don West is now a resourceful space smuggler and rogue, a bit like the early Han Solo, who will make the right decisions when the Robinsons are in jeopardy, which is often. Judy Robinson is an adopted daughter portrayed as 18-years-old, and although trained as a medic she can apparently perform almost any life-saving procedure. Middle-child Penny is highly intelligent, intuitive, and creative.
Aww! Isn’t this nice! The Robot at dinner with the Robinsons! This illustrates how while masquerading as science fiction, Lost In Space is essentially a sappy family drama. In almost every episode, there are invariably hostile planetary monsters, killer robots, or a disintegrating planet in environmental upheaval.You know that they will all survive, however, and that there will invariably also be, at the end, a whole lotta hugging going on!
I have to admit, though, that I’m really more interested in the killer robots depicted in the series. I’ve always loved robots, you see, and am willing to put up with the gratuitous hugging of family members if it gets me to one…
Stop-motion animation has progressed a lot since the days of the 1960’s Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and The House on Netflix, like Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, illustrates this beautifully! The House is a trio of stories loosely centered around a house occupied by different parties, the house itself seemingly morphing in both size and location. Presenting as kind of a surreal, seductive nightmare, The House at times is quite charming before luring us into disturbing reality violations and explorations of themes like frustrated ambitions and appearances versus realities.
The first family to inhabit the house are human, and are rather whimsical, Muppet-appearing creatures, with something quite British about them. Living a happy but lackluster lower middle-class existence, they essentially buy into the plans of a mad architect to live in a house he builds for them, ultimately falling prey to their own greed and ignorance.Nothing is as it appears to be in The House…
Segments two and three involve anthropomorphic animals in the house, with the second chapter detailing a kind of rat real estate agent who tries to sell the house while battling the bugs that infest it. There is a musical song and dance extravaganza involving the “fur beetles,” the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the dancing cockroaches of the movie-version of Cats. It’s utterly nauseating, but you can’t look away from it, either. Horror mesmerizes…
Segment three, my personal favorite, is for the felines, with hard-working calico cat Rosa seeking to convert the house into rental units, dealing with constant setbacks and non-paying tenants. One of her renters tries to pay Rosa with a fish, whereas the other, a very new-age type of cat, offers a crystal in lieu of rent. Eventually the property is flood-inundated, and Rosa must join her tenants in a makeshift flotilla of boats, some crafted from timbers of the house. This actually represents a kind of liberation from the entrapments of possessions and materialism. The cats really don’t know what lies ahead, but really, do any of us?
Although heavy on anthropomorphic animals, The House is adult animation, not for children who might find its contents disturbing. Although it’s cute and cozy at times, The House has horrific elements, and kind of sneaks up on you at times. The best subtle horror can do that. The House will make you think, but you wouldn’t want to live within its walls, because it’s a stop-motion nightmare…
Bunnies tend to take over at Easter, symbolic of spring and fertility. In some cultures and folklore, however, foxes have also registered an Easter presence.
Easter was originally a pagan festival dedicated to Eostre (Ostara), the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Her consort was a hare, hence the Easter Bunny. Ostara’s consort (lover?) had previously been a bird, hence the ability to lay eggs! It gets freaky, and it’s best not to question notions of shape-shifting and cross-species relationships. This notion of an Easter Bunny was solidified by Jacob Grimm of the Brothers Grimm, who believed that the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara…
But in Germanic traditions extending up to the mid-20th century, an Easter Fox was held responsible for the Easter eggs, and children would prepare a cozy bed of hay and moss for der Osterfuchs. Yeah! Now we’re talkin’! German and Dutch settlers brought the tradition of the Easter fox to the U.S. in the 18th century, where rabbits gradually took over the Easter duties…
But for those of us who are fur-ious that a rabbit supplanted us, we await the restoration of the true Easter fox to his proper post of rightful honor… 🦊
I have to admit that I’m a big fan of old school gangster movies, even though they predate me. I’m particularly fond of Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre in their gangster roles, back in the day when good writing and solid acting alone drove movies.
Bugs Bunny could play that game, too. In the short Racketeer Rabbit (1946), he goes head-to-head with ‘toon versions of Robinson and Lorre, playing them as readily as he often played Elmer Fudd. In this Friz Freleng classic, Bugs is never intimidated, but plays all of the gangland conventions against them, treating a grilling as a sunlamp, ducking under machine gun fire, and treating a gangland “ride” as a delightful outing…
In the end, Bugs has driven Robinson’s “Rocky” character screaming out of the hideout, and Bugs is doing his best Edward G. Robinson impersonation…truly a small masterpiece, a work of art imitating art!
Just for the record…I did not…have sex…with Stormy Vixen! Nothing happened. I’m innocent of any wrongdoing, and have done nothing wrong. I’m being treated very unfairly by the media. If any money traded hands, I assumed that it was for Girl Scout cookies. I eat lotsa cookies! It’s all a witch hunt, ‘ya see…
Cats, when you think about it, are natural vintage 1920’s-era gangster animals. You’ve heard of swing cats, and they’ve got the music of the jazz era covered, with an electro-swing soundtrack. So put a bunch of anthropomorphic cats in prohibition era New Orleans. complete with the garb, wheels, weaponry, and style of the era, and you’ve got a real winner! I’d like a piece of their action, frankly…
Now Lackadaisy is a speakeasy that operates during Prohibition behind the front of the Little Daisy Cafe eatery. It’s previous proprietor was slain in a hit, so it remains to the surviving members of the mob to find their way again, and keep their business operational. Fortunately, cats are nothing if not adaptable survivors, and within their numbers they are well able to meet these challenges, all the time looking good, and fully in the spirit of the age…
Lackadaisy is the creation of Tracy J. Butler, and originated as a webcomic that is approaching breakout status, with a short film in the works. Her artwork is richly detailed and highly expressive, with a world of distinctive characters. I really think that great things lie ahead for these gangster cats, and their retro, fully-visualized 1927 speakeasy world…check ‘em out! 😸
“We play rough. That ‘s why they call us animals!“
Being a mascot therapist must be a highly specialized niche within psychotherapy, and a sweet gig if you can get it. The clients are all quite remarkable, like the green catfish mascot who’s questioning his whole existence, and having anxiety over the fact that NJM has no mascots. “Identity crisis,” writes the therapist dutifully in her note pad…
Prompted to tell her more, the giant catfish comments almost tearfully that he also can’t seem to blink. “I meant more about NJM,” redirects the therapist.– –Ohh, the angst, the suffering here!We hear a muffled wailing sound, and the scene shifts to the waiting room, where we see a penguin and a robot mascot on the couch, awaiting their turn with the doctor. They are all good mascots with their tales of woe, no doubt, but unfortunately NJM doesn’t use mascots. Pity that, because these all look like good mascots…
Now if these fellows can’t find employment as mascots, surely they could fit into the Otherkin community… 🦊
FOXSYLVANIA 
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