— It’s not easy being a demigod; everyone expects great things out of you! Pity poor Perseus; as if whipping the Kraken wasn’t enough in 2010’s Clash of the Titans, now he has to beat a whole host of other assorted monsters in Wrath of the Titans. There will be a slew of them to boot in this special effects extravaganza, everything from a thirty-foot high Cyclops to a Minotaur to my personal fave, a Chimera…I just like things with multiple heads and incongruous parts that spew fire, that’s the way I roll! Mighty Kronos himself enters the fray, just dripping with lava…what more could a boy want? Yes, I know, robots, zombies, mummies, aliens, and werewolves are extremely cool too, but you can’t have them all in the same movie and preserve artistic integrity.- -Besides, I’d die of too much happiness!
While most of the beasties are computer generated, the Minotaur is played by an actor in a latex suit who underwent four hours of makeup for each day on the set! You’ll also see Perseus’ noble winged steed Pegasus, and the demonic Makhai, who attack like whirling dervishes.
This isn’t Shakespeare, but it’s good guy fun…and what’s wrong with that? Wrath of the Titans opens March 30th…and it’s a cornucopia of creatures!!!– -Woo-hoo!
– – The action continues at the Watering Hole, and in this airing it’s time for the girls to come front and center…two long-necked beauties, specifically an ostrich (–perhaps swan?) and a giraffe! The animation is amazing, but reactions to the commercial itself appear to be divided along the lines of, “It’s creepy and disturbing,” versus “They’re hot!” So choose your side, I guess…but I like this universe!
Females everywhere regardless of species apparently have commonalities if this commercial is to be believed, and these two ladies engage in the bar pastimes of shooting down guys who hit on them, and making “catty” comments about other females…in this case, a rhino girl who had her nose done, and a camel chick with humps that “do not exist in nature!“
Whether you love this commercial series or hate it, you can entertain yourself deciding which female celebrities the four presented characters resemble! I’ve heard Taylor Swift, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Snookie mentioned as possibilities…
– – It’s not well known that Batman creator Bob Kane also created a comic parody called Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse. Originally run from 1960 to 1962, the series almost anticipated the campy extremes of the later-appearing live action Batman TV series. The ‘toons averaged five minutes in length, and 130 were produced, intended for use as airtime filler to accommodate a movie or another feature which didn’t quite fill a time slot.
Parallels to the Batman series were numerous, with “Courageous Cat” and “Minute Mouse” anthropomorphic animal superheroes who lived in the “Cat Cave,” were summoned by a “Cat Signal,” and drove a sleekly-feline “Cat Mobile” which could convert to a plane or boat. The villains were likewise furry, with a frog a recurring archenemy.
The theme music for the show was fashioned after the memorable theme for Peter Gunn! All in all, Courageous Cat was campy fun decently done…
– – 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!
– – 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!
– – With Stride gum packing long-lasting flavor, management has to take strong measures to get consumers to spit out their gum wad, take a new chew, and so grease the economic wheels. They have devised ingenious ways of doing just that; past commercials have depicted rams butting customers, wrestlers squeezing the gumout of them, and German folk dancers slapping them chew-free. Now, an even heavier hitter has been recruited; the legendary Yeti!
This isn’t your father’s abominable snowman, mind you, although he certainly is cool! This Yeti enters a marketing meeting wearing a headband and earphones, and delivers a gut punch to one manager, physically forcing him to expel his gum. A voiceover warns, “Spit it out. Or Yeti will find you.”
Stride Whitemint gum is licensed by gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White, although I’d much rather meet the Yeti…
– – Most people like talking animals, which is good because I am one…a writing, blogging one, anyways. Those of the talking animal persuasion tend accordingly to be popular as product and service spokesmen, or one might say, spokesfurs. Recently Netflix has released two commercials, one with a talking beaver and the other with a talking hamster.
The Netflix beaver is genial and sociable, and takes us inside a cozy lodge where a rabbit and a duck are comfortably seated on a sofa watching a big screen television. The beaver introduces us to the Netflix service and its attractive rates, which are then confirmed by a fish which conveniently pops up from beneath the beaver’s hat. It’s all cute and charmingly retro, with the animal cast looking like they’d be naturals for hosting an afternoon or Saturday morning show for kids.- – I’d move in with them in a minute!
Not everyone has received this commercial well, however, with some noting similarities to the stop-motion Beaver Creek Episodes created in 2008 by award-winning animator Ian Timothy, and viewable on YouTube…
– – He’s still having fun, and he’s still the one!- -Maxwell the pig, that is. Reappearing in a commercial for the new Geico mobile app and having the time of his life, Maxwell is enthusiastically riding along high above the ground on a zip line, his little feet flailing, sensibly helmeted, and a pinwheel in each hoof! He catches up with a slower moving rider, slows momentarily, and pronounces his experience to be “Pure…adrenaline!” Then Maxwell is off, pinwheels spinning and “whee!”-ing as he goes! We’d expect nothing less from him…
…Well done, Maxwell, for returning just as we needed ‘ya, and getting 2012 off to a good furry start!
— Some have referred to the Yodeling Cat as being “creepy” or “disturbing” or even “horrifying,” but the holiday season seems to spawn such things, and one may see the creepy and disturbing prowling the aisles at Walmart anyways, so I welcome this white-furred warbler as a twisted commentary on where the excesses of Xmas can lead us. It’s also perhaps the most significant intrusion of yodeling into pop culture since the late great Andy Kaufman yodeled to an African drum rhythm, or yodeling was used as a potent weapon against alien invasion in the movie, Mars Attacks!
As one who loves dementedly random things as well asjuxtaposition, by extension I’m also led to wonder if perhaps by yodeling we who are furry might also also use it as a force for societal change, or at least by yodeling cause Donald Trump’s head to explode as those of Tim Burton’s aliens did.- – It’s worth a try…
We’ve come a long way since the 1955 novelty hit, “Jingle Bells” by the Singing Dogs, right?– No, I didn’t think so either…
— It’s not easy being a demigod; everyone expects great things out of you! Pity poor Perseus; as if whipping the Kraken wasn’t enough in 2010’s Clash of the Titans, now he has to beat a whole host of other assorted monsters in Wrath of the Titans. There will be a slew of them to boot in this special effects extravaganza, everything from a thirty-foot high Cyclops to a Minotaur to my personal fave, a Chimera…I just like things with multiple heads and incongruous parts that spew fire, that’s the way I roll! Mighty Kronos himself enters the fray, just dripping with lava…what more could a boy want? Yes, I know, robots, zombies, mummies, aliens, and werewolves are extremely cool too, but you can’t have them all in the same movie and preserve artistic integrity.- -Besides, I’d die of too much happiness!
– – 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
– – Maxwell the Pig seems to be getting into extreme sports, and continues to be hamming it up and having the time of his life! 
– – With Stride gum packing long-lasting flavor, management has to take strong measures to get consumers to spit out their gum wad, take a new chew, and so grease the economic wheels. They have devised ingenious ways of doing just that; past commercials have depicted rams butting customers, wrestlers squeezing the gum
FOXSYLVANIA 
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