Archive for the ‘anthropomorphic’ category

Early Conditioning…

March 6, 2010

– – I was programmed to be furry from an early age; just my karma, I guess…anyways, when just a wee one I was enrolled in the Cub Scouts (although I would have preferred to have been called a fox kit), and attended weekly meetings in a den led by a den mother.– -Are you sensing a pattern here?!

Then I was made to swear an oath, and they’re serious stuff, by the way…swearing an oath is not to be confused with just plain swearing, which I learned early on can get you into a heap o’ trouble!  Part of the oath was, “…to obey the laws of the pack.” (silent pause for dramatic effect)

Now, many years later, I’m still bound by that oath, waiting for the pack leader to appear.- – Someone’s gotta tell me what I’m supposed to do;  I need my orders, right?   Until then and the coming revolution,  I suppose that as Churchill said,  “they also serve who only stand and wait.” I’m good at waiting as it’s not labor-intensive. – – Someday, the Alpha male will come and give me my marching orders…I have faith!

…another part of the Cub Scout oath was, “to be square”…and that, I’m afraid, has come all too true…

(…although I am a bit twisted, ahahahahaha!)    😉


“Mothman” on MonsterQuest…

February 12, 2010

– – We’ve posted here before on Mothman, but that was before the MonsterQuest edition.  After all of the humdrum episodes on rats, feral dogs, snakes, and killer bees The Quest has again found a cryptid subject worthy of their consideration!   One wonders why they took this long to get to Mothman…

This cryptid has been drawing attention for decades, and is described as appearing somewhat like a man-bat, standing about 7 feet tall, weighing around 250 pounds, and boasting an impressive 10-15 foot wingspan.  He has prominent red eyes, emits a high-pitched shriek, and can reach incredible speeds in flight, readily keeping up with a speeding car!   I love the re-creations of cryptid encounters that they do on The Quest! One idiot, after drag-racing Mothie in his car, was shown pulling over and chucking rocks at the cryptid!    Impressive was another re-creation that depicted Mothman perched gargoyle-like atop a tall bridge; really great stuff! – -This image alone made the episode for me, but I digress…

Anyhow, reports of the winged creature were previously best associated with sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia beginning in 1966 when over 100 encounters were recorded.  In 1967, the Silver Bridge buckled and collapsed in that town, causing 40 deaths and leading to the reputation of Mothman as a “dark angel” of some sort who shows up before local tragedies.   More recently,  Mothman is reputed to have branched out, showing up as far away from his original stomping grounds as Wisconsin.  Other supposed sightings were said to have taken place in New York City prior to the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks; even more recent was a 2009 sighting in Sacramento, California.

Now MonsterQuest tested the theory that Mothman is a known animal, most specifically a barn owl.  Their experiment showed that size estimates of Mothman cut-outs placed in locations varied widely, and were generally over-estimated.  In spite of this, a psychological expert testified that people will have high confidence in a distorted memory image, an image which can be fleeting and further distorted by the fear response.   “Psychological contagion” is also known to cause people to see things once they are reported.   MonsterQuest further demonstrated that the eyes of many animals will glow red as they reflect light at night, including barn owls.

Be this as it may, one is hard pressed to believe that misidentified barn owls account for all of the Mothman sightings.  In the absence of hard evidence, however, the truth as often happens is still out there…

…long live this “dark angel!”


The Wolfman Cometh!

January 18, 2010

– – Is it here yet?- -Is it here yet?- –You gotta excuse me if I sound like Eric Cartman or perhaps Bart Simpson, but I just can’t wait for the February 12, 2010 arrival of The Wolfman. – – Can you blame me?!

The cast of the 1941 original was awesome, with Lon Chaney Jr,  Claude Rains,  and Bela Lugosi on board, but this remake will have Anthony Hopkins, Benecio Del Toro (the Wolfman), Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, and Art Malik.  Universal is striving to re-image their classic horror masterpiece, and from all I have read, does a great job!  Ain’t no school like the old school…

So bring on the slavering man-beast, and let’s do something dastardly and perhaps scandalous to fair maidens as they run through the moors!- –Let’s go where the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon shines at night!- –Heck, I wanna live there!

http://www.thewolfmanmovie.com

“Fantastic Mr. Fox!”

November 6, 2009

the-fantastic-mr-fox– -Worth a look and arriving November 13th is Fantastic Mr. Fox, an animated adaptation of the popular 1970 Roald Dahl children’s book by director Wes Anderson.

Voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep,  Mr. and Mrs. Fox have lived a peaceful life in the wilderness with their son, Ash.  Resorting back to his old ways as a cunning chicken thief,  Mr. Fox uses his formidable slyness to outwit three evil farmers who resort to extreme tactics to protect their chickens, endangering the animal community and forcing them to unite to fight for the land that is rightfully theirs.- – Fantastic Mr. Fox also features the voice talents of Bill Murray as a lawyer badger!

Nostradamus Effect

September 17, 2009

Nostradalmatian– -The end is near!– -At least that’s what the doomsday predictions from Nostradamus, the Book of Revelation, the Mayan “long count” calendar and many others would have us believe.  A new show on The History Channel, Nostradamus Effect,  examines end-of-time predictions from cultures across the globe, questioning whether they constitute inspired visions or crackpot conspiracy theories.

Now Michel de Nostradamus was a 16th century French physician and astrologer whose name is synonymous with apocalyptic visions of the near and distant future…kinda the gold standard for that type of thing.  But we furries have our future-predicting psychic seers, too!

One such is Nostradalmatian, a canine seer seen in the comic strip Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley.- -Don’t you believe in Nostradalmatian’s uncanny powers?!–Oh, he knew that you were going to say that!!!

Jack Nicholson’s “Wolf”

September 14, 2009

wolf-“Inside every man there are two people–one good, one beast.”

Did ‘Ya Catch This One Department: Jack Nicholson has done horror flicks, including Little Shop of Horrors and The Shining (– -Here’s Johnny!). Nicholson is such an awesome actor that even his stranger and less memorable performances are worth watching, and Wolf is no exception.  In the vintage 1994 flick, Nicholson plays a publishing executive whose life begins to change after he’s bitten by a wolf.  First his mood changes, then his sense of hearing and smell go into overdrive; then there’s the problem of Nicholson’s character leaping around in the neighborhood at night killing deer and other animals with his teeth (…don’t you hate it when that happens?).

While we’ve seen better special effects and aspects of the performances seem curiously detached, the psychological aspects of Nicholson’s transformation make this movie a kick, with his character finding himself more energized and more competitive than ever, plus possessed of amazingly heightened senses; ” ’tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.” While rejected by Nicholson’s usual fans for its horror content as well as by some horror fans, Wolf is thoughtful horror that has more brains than blood…this Wolf, while flawed,  is no dog!

Will “Avatar” Rock You?

August 30, 2009

Cameron's Avatar— It’s been called, rather unkindly and dismissively, “a movie for furries.”  I don’t think that James Cameron’s Avatar is going to be that, but there may be furry elements in it, specifically ten-foot blue humanoids called Na’vi who are striped like tigers.

Avatar is, first and foremost, a sci-fi movie written by James Cameron, the visionary behind such cinematic gems as Terminator and Aliens. I like his stuff; if you don’t like sci-fi, there’s always Cameron’s Titanic. Even if you don’t like the subject matter, Avatar promises to be the most ambitious 3D movie experience to date.  Cameron supposedly conceptualized the movie 15 years ago but basically had to wait until technology could match his vision.  Avatar is described as a movie revolution that will push technical effects to the limits while delivering  kick-ass action and a solid  storyline.-And BTW, the incomparable Sigourney Weaver will appear in Avatar.–Alright, I’m sold!

The story of Avatar follows a future battle between Earth and an alien moon called “Pandora,” a terrifyingly beautiful world full of rich minerals and strange creatures.  “Avatars” as in the movie’s title are human-Na’vi hybrids controlled by human drivers who project their consciousness into the Avatar bodies, since ordinary humans find the environment on Pandora toxic.

Would I be my avatar?–Yes, in a heartbeat…and Avatar opens in December 2009… advance trailers may be seen…watch for 3D televisions to be introduced in the not-too-distant future, BTW…now I want my flying car!




Somewhere in Dreamland…

August 28, 2009

bigfoot— I had an unusually vivid dream last night about Bigfoot…In my dream, I went to the Post Office, and they had a juvenile female Bigfoot there in a back room, acting like it was nothing new and really no big deal to them; the postal workers went about sorting their mail.  The Bigfoot was not being held captive, but could apparently come and go as she wished to; she was about the size of a human teenager, and was completely covered with reddish-brown hair.  The Bigfoot was using a wheeled canvas mail carrier as sort of an impromptu chair.

I didn’t discern any menace from the Bigfoot; she was actually rather endearing, and seemed to be appealing to the postal workers for hugs at times, wanting physical touch; in spite of this, she conveyed obvious physical strength.   Most startling was the fact that the Bigfoot appeared to have limited use of language, coming out with simple single-word utterances that were usually outreach-type comments to the workers, or appeals for things that she wanted.  After a few seconds, I was hustled out of the room.

I was of course astonished, and asked the postal workers if they had reported the find.  They said that they had not, and that no good would come out of doing so.  I was admonished not to tell anyone of what I had seen, but told the workers that this was far too important a discovery to be kept secret.  Bursting from the Post Office, I was racing to alert authorities when, of course, I woke up…

…my heart was almost pounding out of my chest at that point, and it took me quite some time to calm myself.  I have since pondered the significance of this dream, wondering if it was a symbolic representation of my own wishes and desires, or whether:

A.)  The government knows more than it’s telling, or…

B.)  A major discovery on Bigfoot or another major cryptid is about to be made…

C.)  Bigfoot is messing with my mail, causing many of my magazines to arrive mutilated?

…In either case, I wish I could follow up on this dream!

Disney’s Foxes

August 16, 2009

Pinocchio foxDisney has a mixed record on their portrayal of foxes, which range from the villainous to the heroic.  On the one hand, “Honest John” Foulfellow of the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio was a scoundrel, a sly anthropomorphic fox and known criminal who tricks Pinocchio twice in the film; negative stereotyping! In fairness to Disney, however, both the fox and cat characters were depicted as con men who lead Pinocchio astray and try unsuccessfully to murder him in the original Adventures of Pinocchio story, a tale which is quite dark in places.  The Fox and Cat in the original story even pretend to sport disabilities, the Fox lameness and the Cat blindness!  Felines will probably take offense at the cat in Disney’s Pinocchio as well, as he isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer…

–There’s also the rather negative portrayal of foxes presented by Br’er FoxBr'er Fox in Disney’s  Song of the South, a classic film now almost banished due to political incorrectness.  While Br’er Fox and his dimmer sidekick Br’er Bear are likely offensive to vulpines and ursines, they are still portrayed in a rather broad comic sense, and we’ll let Br’er Rabbit walk away with this one, which you’re not likely to see anymore in public anyways!  The film is accordingly relegated to the status of a cult classic, with 19th century southern drawls and all.  If you’ve never seen it, try to catch it sometime and form your own opinion!

Robin Hood — Then for a heroic fox, it’s hard to beat Disney’s Robin Hood, with a very affable vulpine in the title role.  Most furolks genuinely like this film and for good reason, even though the characters are somewhat stereotypic and parts of the film footage including dance sequences were borrowed or adapted from other Disney creations to save a little time and money.– Still, two paws up for Robin Hood and a positive portrayal of foxes!

This brief consideration should not by any means be considered an exhaustive look at all Disney fox characters, but is only regarded as a consideration of three examples possibly familiar to the readership.  The views presented here are only those of the blogger  (who is a real piece of work, anyways)…

“Quiky” the Nesquik Bunny

August 12, 2009

Nesquik Rabbit— Having already considered the Trix Rabbit, it is only fair that we also consider the Nesquik Bunny, wondering perhaps which one might win in a Deadliest Warrior deathmatch…

…now Nesquik is a milk flavoring mix developed in the U.S. in 1948, and introduced there as Nestle Quik. The name was changed to the worldwide brand Nesquik in 1999.  In 1973, the Quik Bunny, an anthropomorphic rabbit, was introduced as the product mascot, originally sporting a large red “Q” on him which was changed to an “N” in 1998 when the brand name changed.  The nickname of said rabbit is Quiky, and he has endured as the product mascot for over 35 years.

I guess I somewhat prefer the Trix Rabbit as he is slightly pitiful and pathetic, seldom getting the cereal that he yearns for whereas the Quik Bunny always gets his chocolate milk fix.  Quiky seems to be somewhat more metaphysical, lately urging consumers to “come to your happy place.” –and just where might that be, hmmm?    😉