Archive for the ‘Brilliant but twisted’ category
June 7, 2012
– – Before there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there was…Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter! In one of the strangest, genre-blending movies since Cowboys & Aliens, the film to be released June 22nd will mix incidentals of the American Civil War era with the gothic. Based on the 2010 novel of the same name and co-produced by Tim Burton, it seems that the mother of the 16th president was killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels Lincoln’s passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers! Lincoln therefore assumes a secret identity as a vampire hunter, brushing elbows during the story with a variety of historical notables, including in the book Edgar Allan Poe.
– –Ha, and you thought that history was a dead subject!- -Well, in a sense, part of it is, at least where the vampires are concerned. The book has generally received favorable reviews, and been described as being an original vampire tale with heart, humor, and (–of course!) bite. I’m encouraged by the fact that the vampires in the film will supposedly be presented as fierce, visceral, intense, and bloodthirsty rather than as the insipid pretty boys that they’ve recently morphed into elsewhere. Lincoln will supposedly prove himself adept at wrestling and with an ax…and John Wilkes Booth wouldn’t have dared to take on this president in a fair fight!
Categories: absurdities, Brilliant but twisted, cool things, fantasy, movies, strange
Tags: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Comments: 2 Comments
May 25, 2012
– – The course of true love did never run smooth, especially if your intended is of a different species than yourself, and a predator to your prey. Such is an on-going story on Frontier Airlines ads, where Jack the rabbit has been hitting unsuccessfully on Foxy the fox. In an offering airing recently, Jack asks other “spokesanimals” what his breath smells like (answer: carrots…”Good, that’s what I was going for!,” responds Jack), and then inquires of the winsome vixen if she’d like to have dinner with a rabbit…
…”No,” replies the red fox, “I’d like to have a rabbit for dinner!”
“Waiter, check please!,” reconsiders the hapless rabbit…
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry commercials, television
Tags: Frontier's Jack and Foxy
Comments: 2 Comments
May 22, 2012
– – The Enchanted Forest as envisioned by Psyop in a recent commercial is a wondrous place indeed, filled with sprites, smiling trees, and a variety of dancing, costumed anthropomorphic animals. There’s even a fox, a remarkably tall and slender specimen wearing shorts and a top hat! It’s essentially an environmental plug for FedEx clad as a fairy tale, and when those conventions are stripped away, we’re then left with electric trucks, recycled shipping materials, and lower-emission planes as FedEx’s contribution to the environment.
The spot is 80% live action and 20% CGI at the onset, with an actual forest having been filmed in Washington state on the northern Pacific Coast. The look is magical but not overly cartoonish, with a sing-songy soundtrack composed by a musical collective called Human which would be “perfectly at home in a 1950’s-era animated film,” according to the spot’s Senior Creative Director/Copywriter. The animated characters are all fully CGI, and a wealth of fine detail may be seen in successive viewings of the spot, such as the fox character modestly covering himself when his outfit is taken away…
Categories: absurdities, animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, environmental, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: FedEx's "Enchanted Forest"
Comments: 3 Comments
May 12, 2012
– – In yet another MiO Energy Drink commercial staged at the legendary Watering Hole bar, we are shown a lemur trying to make time with the giraffe girl previously seen in another commercial of the series. With the world’s worst timing, the lemur’s efforts are ruined by the unwelcome intrusion of the hapless, unlucky-in-love crocodile character, who ruins the set-up by commenting that he thought he smelled the lemur in there, and asking the primate if he’s still living with his parents…
…”You just totally croc-blocked me!,” complains the irate lemur. “Oh!,” responds the clueless crocodile, who upon close inspection may be seen to be wearing a Lacoste shirt! I live for stuff like that…sad, isn’t it?
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: MiO "Croc Block"
Comments: 4 Comments
May 10, 2012
– – I, for one, prefer not to see naked mole rats, especially when they’re in an obvious state of intoxication. Strange sights are known to appear with some regularity at the Watering Hole, however, a bar or pub frequented by anthropomorphic animals in a series of MiO Energy Drink commercials.
In this brief segment, previously-seen Rhino and Zebra characters are discussing how convenient the small water additives are to carry anywhere when the mole rat appears, naked but with certain mole rat, err, parts tastefully pixillated out. The mole rat slides up onto the bar, wearing a checked hat and little red sneakers, and proceeds to shake his booty. Where does the mole rat carry his MiO, asks the Zebra…the Rhino prefers not to think about it.- -One can hardly blame him! Other characters from previous episodes such as the Cheetah are seen in the background…
Categories: absurdities, animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: MiO animal commercials, MiO naked mole rat
Comments: 2 Comments
April 30, 2012
– – I love considering the tale of Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf’s perspective, and now it would appear that in addition to cagey little girls and woodsmen with axes, the wolf also has to contend with red Volvos as well! This commercial begins with a bright red Volvo S-60 R-Design driving down the road in a dark, scary forest! The red Volvo’s standing in for Little Red Riding Hood, ‘ya see, and it’s moving right along to a version of “Little Red Riding Hood,” originally by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs…wasn’t that a great song?!- –Everybody sing!!!
– -Now I feel much better! Anyhow, the car slams on its brakes because there in the road is a real wolf, unkindly called the Big Bad Wolf in the story. The magnificent lupine begins growling and barking at the Volvo, which in turn revs its engine to “growl” back at the wolf. Obviously not Courage Wolf, the wolf in this commercial backs away scared. The father driving the Volvo then asks his young daughter riding in the back seat (clad in a red hooded cape, natch!) what a wolf says, she responds by howling, and they continue driving down the road!
<Sigh>…wolves never get a fair rap…if he had called for reinforcements, they could have taken that Volvo!- – And what are the Pharaohs doing these days, anyhow?!- –*Howl!*
Categories: absurdities, animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: L'il Red Riding Hood, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Volvo's "Little Red" commercial
Comments: 2 Comments
April 18, 2012
– – We’ve met the MiO Cheeta before and likewise the Rhino, but in this commercial for MiO Energy Drinks we go back to the Watering Hole and re-visit the Rhino again, this time finding him so tired that he’s apparently hired a small monkey to perch on his shoulder and slap him in the face to keep him awake! We see the monkey do this repeatedly, at one point using the Rhino’s convenient horn to swing to the opposite side of his face. But the Rhino needn’t suffer this abuse…a Zebra is there, one with incredible eyes. He pours a MiO Energy Drink additive into the Rhino’s drink, which perks the big guy up right away! The Rhino then fires the monkey, which nets him the biggest slap of all!
It’s not the best one in the series in my opinion, but it’s always great to go to the Watering Hole!
Categories: anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: MiO "All Nighter", MiO Monkey, MiO Zebra
Comments: 3 Comments
April 16, 2012
– – I, for one, don’t like to discover foreign materials when I open an egg carton, and so I find it vaguely disquieting to ponder the notion of discovering a small armored knight occupying an egg compartment when one such container is opened in a Spam commercial.- -Does his rather surreal presence represent a new stage in chicken evolution?- -Do the other uncracked eggs also contain tiny armor-clad warriors, representing some kind of miniscule medieval army? –And if so, do they intend to take over and occupy my kitchen, perhaps as a prelude to an assault on my neighborhood? One must worry about such things in this age of terrorism.–Should I seize this anachronistic warrior, and test his mettle by attempting to squeeze him to death? Or do I hurl him down the sink garbage disposal, and hit the “on” switch? Perhaps I should cast him into the microwave, and see if he sparks! The legendary kitchen battle of the housewife against the title characters in the movie Gremlins comes to mind…
Actually, the character is Sir Can-A-Lot, and he has been created as a mascot for Spam in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Hormel product. He is here to “…rescue the world from routine meals,” and help rid you not from tiny dragons, but mealtime boredom. Just don’t look to see him competing in Full Metal Jousting anytime soon…
Categories: absurdities, Brilliant but twisted, strange, television
Tags: Sir Can-A-Lot, Spam
Comments: 2 Comments
April 11, 2012
– – The off-beat comedy Wilfred is returning to the FX network for another season starting June 28th. The protagonist of the show is a depressed former lawyer, Ryan Newman, who has unsuccessfully attempted to kill himself; following that effort, his neighbor’s dog, Wilfred, now appears to him as a foul-mouthed Australian in an obvious dog suit! The dog, while selfish and worldly, serves as a helpful guide and mentor to the often clueless human.
This isn’t a show for kids, with drug use portrayed and the humor frequently raunchy. That having been said, however, the show has surreal and existential overtones, and mixes shock and hilarity with the absurd. We were asked during the previous season to “embrace the mystery” of Wilfred’s existence, and it was unclear as to whether the dog-person actually existed, was a projected manifestation of Ryan’s animal impulses, or if the human was simply insane and Wilfred a hallucination or a medication effect. Some answers may be revealed in the upcoming season, one promo for which is a spoof of the classic spaghetti sequence from Lady and the Tramp!
Categories: absurdities, animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, strange, television
Tags: Wilfred
Comments: 3 Comments
April 8, 2012
– – He’s played a raccoon, and now the Allstate “Mayhem” guy is going to the dogs, playing an utterly ineffective guard dog! The commercial spot begins with the Mayhem guy sprawled canine-like on the floor but wearing no costume whatsoever. “I’m your dog, holding down the fort while you’re out catching a movie,” he explains, pausing to gnaw on a hefty bone. “Lucky for me your friends showed up with this awesome bone.- -Hey! You guys are great!,” he declares with a mouthful to the surreal white-faced flashlight-wielding robbers ransacking the house.
Mayhem in canine guise steps outside with the departing thieves to remind us that if we got our home insurance where we purchased our cut-rate car insurance, it might not replace all this…but alas, the canine is apparently wearing one of those “invisible perimeter fence” collars, and he receives twin zapping jolts of electricity which knock him to the ground at that point! We see Mayhem sit up and shake his head to clear it as the thieves drive off…great stuff!
Categories: absurdities, animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: Allstate Mayhem guard dog
Comments: 4 Comments
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