Archive for the ‘animal presence’ category

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The Werewolf of “Wednesday…”

September 14, 2025

To my knowledge, there hasn’t been an on-going werewolf character in a regular TV series since Oz on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Josh in Being Human. Fortunately, the Wednesday series on Netflix has introduced a leading werewolf character, a female no less, in the person of Enid, the roommate of Wednesday Addams.

Now Enid is not your typical dark and tormented werewolf character, but instead a rather cheerful and bright-spirited young lady who is just at the start of her werewolf journey, in the process of discovering herself and experiencing her first transformations. She contrasts almost completely with the darkness of Wednesday, having her half of their shared room in bright colors whereas Wednesday’s half is black and gothic. When asked at one point how she feels, Enid responds, “warm and fuzzy!”

Her upbeat nature initially causes Wednesday to keep Enid at some distance, but their relationship grows during the series, and in the second season now completed it’s revealed that Enid is not only a werewolf but an Alpha, capable of changing into her wolf form willfully without a full moon. Should she do so at this point, however, she will be permanently locked into her werewolf form, unable to transform back to human status…

Well, it turns out that when Wednesday is prematurely buried by a series villain and in danger of death by suffocation, Enid’s powerful werewolf form is needed to excavate Wednesday from her grave just in time. Fearless and unshaken, Wednesday declares “I enjoyed that” of her burial experience; you gotta love this dark girl! Enid, however, is locked in her werewolf form and feral, and goes on the lam. She is pursued by (hooray!) Uncle Fester and Wednesday at the end of the second season, with Wednesday riding in the sidecar of Fester’s motorcycle, and Fester ecstatic about the fun they’ll have pursuing such a dangerous creature!

It will be interesting to see the further development of Enid’s werewolf character, who Wednesday promised to pursue and restore. One hopes that Season 3 of Wednesday will not be long in coming…

Categories: alternative realities, animal presence, anthropomorphic, furry, furry horror, furry television, paranormal, television
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Comments: 8 Comments

IKEA’s “Next Weekend” Spot…

April 26, 2025

In this IKEA TV spot, a family is called by “Uncle Ricky” to be reminded that they had offered to host a barbecue next weekend, a fact that they had obviously forgotten. Looking out at their backyard to check the status of their yard, they find that nature has quite taken it over, for there are raccoons, opossums, rabbits, and even a background deer cavorting around!

“What are those rabbits doing,” questions the son. While we are not shown the act, one suspects from their positioning that the rabbits are “doing what comes naturally,” and giving junior a free lesson on reproduction. Mom and Dad look at one another, and converse, “IKEA?- –IKEA!”

So when Uncle Ricky arrives, the family’s backyard has been transformed by the purchase of a large table and chair set from IKEA for a proper barbecue, and even the animals appear happy…

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

(…and hooray for backyard barbecue season!)

Categories: advertising, animal presence, commercials, events involving animals, furry, furry commercials, television
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Comments: 12 Comments

“Flow;” Courageous Cat in An Aquatic Apocalypse…

February 16, 2025

Flow is a 2024 animated movie that features a young black cat with large, expressive eyes who is trying with other diverse creatures to survive a flood of almost Biblical proportions. His companions include a lemur, a secretary bird, several dogs, and surprisingly, a capybara…

Victims of circumstance, the unlikely menagerie are swept up in extensive flooding of their homelands, places that are never precisely specified or illustrated, and wind up clambering onto a small, well-worn sailboat that serves as their life raft and conveyance through a watery wasteland. This is a “journey”type of movie…

These animals are not anthropomorphic, and do not speak but make animal sounds appropriate for their species. For the most part, their movements are completely believable for the animals depicted. While essentially realistic, the animal companions are not finely detailed or photorealistic, nor are the habitats that they pass through on their survival journey. At one point, a fantastic whale-type creature unlike anything I’m familiar with vaults over the small craft. There’s nary a human in sight, although we are shown abandoned if nondescript settlements. While there is no dialogue, there’s a soothing musical background soundtrack, and the combined effect is somewhat magical or mystical. This is neither Disney nor Wild Kingdom…

The nameless black cat is kind of the cast protagonist, plucky and adaptable, rolling with the punches and reversals of their journey while retaining feline curiosity and wonder. He is endearing, resourceful, resilient, and at times comical, and you want to root for him and his survival. This cat grows on you, and he’ll endure…

There’s no violence or death in Flow, unless you count the fish that the cat catches and shares with his fellow travelers. Flow would likely be captivating viewing for any child, and can be a hypnotic, rather zen-like experience for adults as well. There’s no profound or transformative lesson conveyed here, although the values of co-existence, toleration, and cooperation emerge. We could all benefit from more of that in 2025. Recommended for all fans of animation, Flow was formerly shown in theaters, may now be seen on HBO, and it’s good stuff…

Categories: alternative realities, animal presence, animals, fantasy, furry, furry movies
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NJM “Target Audience” 2025 Commercial…

January 20, 2025

“Whatcha doin’,” inquires hubby of his wife in this recent NJM Insurance commercial. “Just shopping for new car insurance,” she chirps while on the internet. That’s all it takes, apparently, because then the Mascots come!

A bear is repeatedly ringing the doorbell…a rabbit is knocking on the window…the phone is ringing insistently…windows are popping up on the computer…and a pair of bird legs is struggling to emerge from the fireplace!

“We should have known!,” despairs hubby as he grabs an umbrella to jab at the bird legs, and repel the invader!

Now I, for one, have always wanted to seek out the furry mascot army, and join their hellish crusade, so I would embrace the invaders, and go off with them! Just let me grab my fox fursuit. – -My time would have finally arrived, Ahahahaha! 🦊

(What?! – –You think I’d rather watch the Trump coronation?! Not in this life! 😼 )

Categories: advertising, alternative realities, animal presence, animal spokepersons, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, commercials, fantasy, furry, furry commercials, television
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Who’s a Good Boy?- -“Krypto,” of Course!

December 20, 2024

It’s official...coming in July 2025, we will be privy to seeing the first furry superhero on the big screen, discounting such notable characters as Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy, of course!

When the new James Gunn Superman movie trailer opens, we see The Man of Steel as being terribly vulnerable, in a world of hurt, actually…cut, bleeding, spitting up blood, and actually in dire need of help! Fortunately, Supes has his best friend Krypto available to save his tail, taking the injured superhero from his frozen crash site home by the cape!

Yes, Krypto in the upcoming movie is more than just a cute pet, but rather an underrated powerhouse…and he promises to have significant roles in other upcoming DC movies as well! Thankfully, Krypto will not speak in the movie as he has in some of the animated cartoon versions, but only bark. He’s a dog, but one with formidable powers…

The new Superman movie seeks to further humanize the titular character, making him more relatable. Yes, this Superman is an alien, but his heart is human. He can shoot beams from his eyes, but you don’t have to be afraid of him. The entire tone of the movie is brighter, reflected in the color schemes. All in all, I think that this is a good course correction…

The ambitious scope and nuances of the upcoming movie are too vast to cover in a single post, so this blog will probably return to it. For now, enjoy the official trailer, and the upcoming holiday, no matter how you may celebrate it…

Categories: aliens, alternative realities, animal presence, furry, furry movies, movies, sci fi, superheroes
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Comments: 24 Comments

Disney’s Shelved Movies and Characters…

September 23, 2024

It’s well-known that Disney studios have shelved Song of the South, a 1946 production that depicted such racially-insensitive stereotypes as happy, servile black slaves. Song of the South has never been seen on home video, DVR, or released to streaming, and has remained in the Disney vaults since 1986 where it will likely remain forever. I guess that means we won’t be seeing Br’er Fox anytime soon, although frankly he hardly represented the best of my kind…

Disney has also eliminated the “crow chorus” from the 2019 live-action remake of “Dumbo,” as the crows have been called racist caricatures for their minstrel show-like behavior. The leader of the crow clique was even originally named Jim Crow, a reference to a blackface character who supplied the name for the Jim Crow laws…

Fantasia was edited in the 1960’s to remove Sunflower, a dark-skinned centaur who acted as a ladies’ maid to several other white centaurs! Her stereotypic look was enough to raise concern, and the character was fully removed in 1969 from the film’s re-release…

The Siamese Cat Song was completely revised from the new version of Lady and the Tramp, as the original Siamese cats were considered Asian stereotypes, despite being cool cats and smooth operators…

“Liver Lips McGrowl” from Disneyland was removed from the Country Bear Jamboree at Disney World due to fears that the inebriated character was offensive to alcoholics, and transformed into the character of Romeo McGrowl…

Even the iconic character of Tinker Bell from Peter Pan has been considered as a negative role model for her vanity and jealous possessiveness of Peter Pan when Wendy rolls around. While Tink is under some scrutiny, she appears safe in Pixie Hollow, at least for now…

Cultural standards change public perceptions over time, and those characters cited represent only a few examples. When it comes to extreme political correctness, however. I often find that I just don’t give a “Zip-a-Dee-Doo–Dah”…

Categories: alternative realities, animal presence, classics, furry, furry movies, furry perspectives, movies, trends
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Comments: 10 Comments

Allstate’s “Wild Bird” Commercial…

March 19, 2024

Allstate’s Dean Winters as the redoubtable “Mayhem” is doing animal impersonations again, this time as a wild bird stuck in the attic of basketball legend Larry Bird. – -What, you’ve never seen a bird in a suit before?! That absurdity is part of the humor. Well, once again Winters pulls his animal act off, bonking his head against an attic window to show his entrapment, knocking stuff about, and announcing that he’s “going cuckoo…”

All of the ruckus draws the now senior Bird out of his comfy chair into his attic, where he encounters the bird-Winters, and arms himself with a lacrosse stick! “What ‘ya got, Larry? May the best bird win,” declares Winters. It’s no contest, however, as Winters-as-bird handily dodges basketball Bird’s swings. Jumping to reach Winters, Larry Bird crashes through the attic floor, his legs dangling comically through his living room ceiling…

“You may be a legend on the court, but you’re an amateur up here,” mocks wild bird Winters from the rafters. “Now YOU’RE the bird stuck in the attic!”

Once more, nature prevails…as does Dean Winters, whether as a cat, raccoon, deer, St. Bernard puppy, or bird.- – Can he do a fox next?! 🦊

Categories: absurdities, advertising, animal presence, animal problems, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, humor, television
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The Foxes of Easter…

April 9, 2023

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… 🦊

Categories: animal presence, animals, anthropomorphic, furry, historical perspectives, holidays, seasonal
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“Cloverfield 2” is Coming!

February 6, 2023

Not everyone is a fan of the CloverVerse, but Cloverfield has been called the best Godzilla-type movie done by Hollywood. The original 2008 Cloverfield movie was commercially successful, although in my case it was an acquired taste due to the “found footage” format of the film as filmed by the shell-shocked, ground-level perspective of the young people who attempted to survive a monstrous attack.

10 Cloverfield Lane from 2016 was a different kind of offshoot of the franchise, anchored by the star power and acting of John Goodman, and set in the paranoid and claustrophobic setting of an isolated survivalist rather than in the big city. We did get to see some actual aliens in the closing segments of the film, and they were worth waiting for, having advanced technology and biomechanical ships…

Then there was 2018’s The Cloverfield Paradox, a muddled and confusing installment set on an orbiting space station where an international team of scientists attempted to solve Earth’s critical energy crisis using a particle accelerator but unintentionally opening a rift in space to an alternative dimension from which flowed monsters to our reality. Rifts in space…where would science fiction tales be without them?! This device however explains how Earth received the Cloverfield monster (code name, “Clover”) in the first place, and so is a necessary link in the CloverVerse. As the sole surviving scientist returns to Earth, the enormous monster is already here, and rears its hideous head into the heavens, roaring in the last moment of the film. The Cloverfield Paradox was relegated almost immediately to Netflix, and may largely be seen only there today…

There is little that is presently known about the next planned Cloverfield movie, other than that it intends to be a direct sequel to the 2008 original, and may pick up from where the creature, having thoroughly trashed New York, has survived a tactical nuke. Reportedly the “found footage” viewpoint of the original film will be abandoned, so the monster won’t be shown just in fleeting partial glimpses again. Rumors are rampant; we may see the whole of human civilization plagued by multiple monsters, or perhaps a new creature will be introduced to fight against the original. Kaiju type films have been known to do those kinds of things, and it should provide a fine spectacle in any case… RAWRRR! 🙀

( Watch the skies!!!)

Categories: aliens, alternative realities, animal presence, creature features, doomsday, furry horror, horror, movies, sci fi
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Fluzone TV Spot: The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing…

October 21, 2022

In a Sandofi commercial for Fluzone, the disease is personified as a ravenous wolf stalking people in various settings with ill intent. The notion of “the wolf at the door” is historically a longstanding one often used to represent all kinds of hardships and deprivation, from war to famine to disease.

The attempted predations of the realistic and sizeable wolf depicted here are repeatedly frustrated in this commercial by the simple fact that his intended victims have been immunized. Eventually he becomes a wolf on the run, rendered impotent by the simple fact that the people he surveys and passes have been protected…

And so we finally see our wolf retreating to the extent that he’s looking out the rear window of a bus. I don’t know what fare he was charged, but think that being immunized is a good idea lest you be visited and victimized by the flu wolf…

I’ve had my vaccine this year…have you?

Categories: advertising, animal presence, anthropomorphic, commercials, furry, furry commercials, television
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Comments: 6 Comments

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