– – A rhinoceros, a cheetah, and a gazelle walk into a bar…it sounds like a hokey joke, but it’s the theme for a Kraft MiO liquid water enhancer commercial! Blending the line between live action and animation,the spot makes over wild animals into twenty-something dudes, inhabiting a bar appropriately called, The Watering Hole. The Rhino is a solid, muscular guy with glasses wearing a tight T-shirt labeled (–What else?) “Animal.” The Cheetah is a sleek speedster in a leather jacket who bewails the fact that MiO energy drinks are “completely crushing my game” by making everyone “…more energized, more alert” after mixing MiO into their water. As a result, the Cheetah is no longer the fastest beast around!
“Remember when I used to be it?,” continues the Cheetah. “I was the man. If you needed to track a gazelle down for dinner, you came to me.” At that point a jeans-jacket wearing Gazelle literally laughs in the Cheetah’s face!
It’s a great furry bar scene, a place where I’d certainly be at home! Watch for a future spot to include a giraffe…
– – Think The Muppets meet Family Guy, and you’ve got a starting idea of what the show Mongrels is like! This British sitcom revolves around the lives of five anthropomorphic animals who hang around the back of a pub in London. I’m an easy sell for the show as one of the main characters is Nelson, described as a likeable middle-class urban “metrosexual fox.” Other regular characters include an Afghan hound, a borderline-retarded cat, a pigeon, and another sociopathic, foul-mouthed fox. The pilot of the show also included a suicidal chicken!
Definitely not for the wee ones, the show features neutering, incontinence, cannibalism, and catnip overdoses! The show was described as attempting to do for puppetry what American shows like The Simpsons have done for animation. The show, which took five years to make, ran on the BBC for two seasons between 2010 and 2011, but sadly was not renewed for a third seasondue to poor viewing figures. Episodes and clipsof Mongrels may still be viewed on Hulu and YouTube, and Nelson has a page on Facebook as well as another promoting him for Prime Minister…what a fox!
– – Riding on the coattails of the popularity of Geico’s Maxwell the pig, Cici’s Pizza has unleashed near look-alike pigs seen speeding around in a blue van…and the kicker is, these pigs are advertising not insurance, but (-gasp!) a Hog Fest promotion, which means a pizza with bacon, sausage, ham, and pepperoni!- –Oh the horror, thehorror!
Things may get ugly in the Pig Wars from this point on, but you may count on Foxsylvania to give you an unflinching look at the atrocities and keep you fully informed, for you deserve nothing less!
– – In times gone by, New Jersey’s fabled Atlantic City featured at their Steel Pier a so-called “diving horse” act which began in the 1920’s, and was shut down five decades later. In the stunt, a horse ascended to the top of a 40-foot platform, and didn’t as much dive as was tipped off it, plunging the animal and its rider into a 12-foot deep water tank below. Animal rights advocates maintained that the act at the very least scared horses, and carried the potential for them to be injured or even killed.
A brief return of the act happened in 1993 with riderless mules substituted for the horses, but protests ended that revival. Nostalgia for Atlantic City’s edgy past prompted recent plans for anotherdiving horse comeback, but successful online petitions against the plan caused the revival rather than the horses to be tanked…
– – If you’re up to seeing Michael Caine riding a giant wasp in a movie that includes former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as well as wildlife such as really small elephants, you just might like to view the sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth 3D, awkwardly called, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.
Advance reviews of the movie appear marvelous in their negativity, with professional film critics noting day-glo vegetation, giant rocks clearly made of styrofoam,and terming the flick, “…everything a twelve-year-old boy could want.” Jules Verne is probably spinning in his grave over this one…
– – A series of DirecTV commercials shows us the consequences of making bad decisions in a chain of events fashion reminiscent of Laura Numeroff’s 1985 children’s classic, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. It seems that if you pay too much for cable, you throw things. If you throw things, people think that you have anger issues. When people think that you have anger issues, your schedule clears up. When your schedule clears up, you grow a scraggly beard. When you grow a scraggly beard, you start taking in stray animals; and when you take in stray animals, you can’t stop taking in stray animals!
In this half a minute gem, we are shown each step in this downwards spiral, winding up with our unfortunate man at home looking cheerfully demented with unkempt hair and beard, clad in his robe and slippers and surrounded by numerous stray dogs and cats and even a raccoon and opossum! We are told that one may break out of this bleak cycle and stop taking in stray animals by getting rid of cable, and subscribing to DirecTV…
Aspects of this commercial are funny and I take it in the spirit in which it was intended, but the problems of animal collecting and hoarding are real as are the problems of homeless, neglected, and abused pets. The commercial might also be criticized for potentially ridiculing those who have taken in stray animals, a practice which is far from objectionable if done responsibly and in full awareness and acceptance of the commitment involved…
– – Geico continues to produce noteworthy commercials with a furry twist, one of their latest featuring a magnificent black panther doing duty as a money-saving home security system! I certainly wouldn’t mess withhim…trouble is, the couple employingthebig feline’s services aren’t getting much sleep out of the deal, especially since the panther appears to be sizing the duo up, staring as cats do so uncannily well and licking his lips- -heck, they can’t even talk as the fearful woman “shushes” the guy!
The point of the commercial is that Geico offers security that will save you money and doesn’t involve adopting a rescue panther, but cat people will enjoy seeing this black beauty, who as David Bowie sang so memorably, “…can stare for a thousand years.”
– – A video reportedly showing an apparent subarctic anaconda snaking its way upstream through Iceland’s Jokulsa River as shot by a 67-year-old farmer has been subjected to an analysis in which the position of the monster’s head were matched up with relation to static reference points. It was concluded that the “monster” was actually stuck in one place on the river, with moving water creating the illusion of a swimming snake.
The object is thought to be a fishing net or long piece of cloth caught on a branch or a rock lying beneath the surface of the water. The serpentine shape is caused by chunks of ice hanging onto the net.
Iceland does have a legendary Lagafljot Worm, the Icelandic equivalent of the Loch Ness monster…but this was no Nessie cousin.
– – Maxwell the Pig seems to be getting into extreme sports, and continues to be hamming it up and having the time of his life! Geico’s original 2010 commercial turned the porker into a web sensation, and the last time we saw him he was flying down a zip-wire. Now Maxwell’s trying out a street luge, and making it all look easy; he catches up to a street-luging human, gives him a memorable “bro-nod,” warns him “Ahh…heads up!,” and then becomes airborne! At no time does Maxwell lose his blue and white pinwheels or express anything but giddy delight as he “Weee’s” his way along in his quest for the ultimate thrill!
– – The moon is full as I write, and I’m mindful of how we’re conditioned to think of most werewolves as being, well, reluctant, and if anything tormented by their werewolf status in the Lon Chaney, Jr. tradition. Such werewolves were not born as such, and were “turned” or made into werewolves by the bite or sometimes even scratch of another werewolf.
Episode 204 of the innovative and engaging Being Human show presented us with beasts of a somewhat different variety, a brother and sister pair of purebred werewolves. Both of the parents of these twins were werewolves, and so they were born into the condition. The wolfy senses of such purebreds are heightened all of the time, not just before and during the full moon; indeed, the twins presented take wolfsbane as kind of a canine Xanax to take the edge off, whereas in most werewolf lore it acts as a poison or repellant for werewolves. Far from loathing their lycanthropy, these furry twins (Brynn and Conner) find it a consummation devoutly to be wished, so much so that they wish to turn to their lupine state whenever they wish, not just during the full moon.
The storyline gets more complicated in the series, with regular werewolf character Josh engaging in research to put an end to his lycanthropy whereas the twins who exult in it are interested in the research so as to enable werewolf conversions “on demand;” wouldn’t this be a kick! No doubt more interesting events lie ahead!
– – A rhinoceros, a cheetah, and a gazelle walk into a bar…it sounds like a hokey joke, but it’s the theme for a Kraft MiO liquid water enhancer commercial! Blending the line between live action and animation, the spot makes over wild animals into twenty-something dudes, inhabiting a bar appropriately called, The Watering Hole. The Rhino is a solid, muscular guy with glasses wearing a tight T-shirt labeled (–What else?) “Animal.” The Cheetah is a sleek speedster in a leather jacket who bewails the fact that MiO energy drinks are “completely crushing my game” by making everyone “…more energized, more alert” after mixing MiO into their water. As a result, the Cheetah is no longer the fastest beast around!
– – Riding on the coattails of the popularity of Geico’s Maxwell the pig, Cici’s Pizza has unleashed near look-alike pigs seen speeding around in a blue van…and the kicker is, these pigs are advertising not insurance, but (-gasp!) a Hog Fest promotion, which means a pizza with bacon, sausage, ham, and pepperoni!- –Oh the horror, the horror!
– – In times gone by, New Jersey’s fabled Atlantic City featured at their Steel Pier a so-called “diving horse” act which began in the 1920’s, and was shut down five decades later. In the stunt, a horse ascended to the top of a 40-foot platform, and didn’t as much dive as was tipped off it, plunging the animal and its rider into a 12-foot deep water tank below. Animal rights advocates maintained that the act at the very least scared horses, and carried the potential for them to be injured or even killed.
– – If you’re up to seeing Michael Caine riding a giant wasp in a movie that includes former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as well as wildlife such as really small elephants, you 
– – A series of DirecTV commercials shows us the consequences of making bad decisions in a chain of events fashion reminiscent of Laura Numeroff’s 1985 children’s classic, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. 
– – Maxwell the Pig seems to be getting into extreme sports, and continues to be hamming it up and having the time of his life! 
– – 
FOXSYLVANIA 
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