Archive for the ‘cartoons’ category

The Flintstones Turn 50…

October 3, 2010

– – I’m more a fan of The Jetsons myself, but The Flintstones turned 50 at the end of last month.  Owing much to “The Honeymooners,” the Bedrock gang in turn set the stage for the success of more adult-styled cartoons such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill, and many others.

Running from 1960 to 1966, The Flintstones didn’t start their popular “Meet the Flintstones” theme until their third season. – -And who can forget the infamous commercials of the cartoon characters smoking, since the show was sponsored in part by Winston?

My personal cast fave Dino (pronounced dee-no), the Flintstone pet dinosaur, was not mentioned by name until the fourth episode, and in an apparent flashback story sequence of episode 18 was portrayed as very anthropomorphic indeed, complete with powers of speech! 

Ursine Unexpected!

September 22, 2010

– – A regular furry character appears, in all places, on The Cleveland Show, a spin-off of Family Guy. This character is Tim the Bear, who is a telemarketer working at the local cable company with Cleveland.  Voiced by Seth MacFarlane, Tim speaks with a Slavic or Eastern-European accent, and is the son of a black bear and a kangaroo!

Tim tends to be a bit naive about American culture, and is partially a psychological derivative of Steve Martin’s Wild and Crazy Guy persona.  Tim has an ursine wife, Arianna, and a son, Raymond.  Tim has deep religious convictions, and considers it racist when someone screams because he is a bear.  He often accidentally slashes things with his claws, something that he’s quite ashamed of.

While I’m not a great fan of The Cleveland Show, it’s nice to see the infiltration of furry characters here, who seem to fit in rather well as bears in human society…and yes, he has a Facebook page!

Katz the Cat!

September 3, 2010

— Cats kind of tolerate us because we are useful to them; one can see this orientation in Katz, villain of Courage the Cowardly Dog. Now Courage has faced many enemies, often anthropomorphic, including my personal fave The Cajun Fox, who treats even his rivals with friendliness and can drive a car and pilot a plane!

Not as relaxed and laid-back as the Cajun Fox, Katz is a red, lanky anthropomorphic cat with purplish stripes who specializes in scam businesses, such as a vacation resort and motel, always with the intent of killing the patrons when he has no further need of them.  Katz’s catchphrase is, “I wish you hadn’t done that,” usually uttered after he gets injured.  Katz enjoys a “little spot of sport” with Courage, as all of his battles with the dog are games, such as a staring contest.

Springboarding off our previous post featuring spiders, an episode called A Night At The Katz Motel was indebted to Hitchcock’s Psycho, and featured Katz trying to kill Courage’s masters by using giant, horrifying spiders to eat them.  Katz is a smooth and wonderfully sadistic feline who has a vaguely British accent and his own sinister background music, and lovingly maintains a spider collection.

As Katz did say,  “Yes, set a plan; cunning, elaborate, over the top!”- –This is a furry villain you’ve got to love! 


Gumby, Asian-Style?

May 2, 2010

– – The Shanghai Expo, the largest world’s fair ever, opened today with a mascot, Haibao, who appears to bear more than a passing resemblance to the iconic American character, Gumby. The two figures are shown side-by-side here for your consideration…

The Taiwanese creator of Haibao denies having seen Gumby before creating the mascot.- – Is this some kind of hybrid love-child between Gumby and the genie of Aladdin? Perhaps Pokey the horse could render a judgement…

The Horror, the Horror!

April 21, 2010

– – Something wicked this way comes…or at least, something terribly bad is coming.  I’m talking, of course, about the upcoming Yogi Bear movie, which promises to give new meaning to the name, Boo Boo.

One questions why a Yogi Bear movie has to be made in the first place; perhaps it has something to do with the nature of evil, or perhaps the Guild of Malevolent Intent is somehow involved.  Perhaps those of us who are furry haven’t suffered enough in this life, and our pain must be taken to a new dimension.  I will leave such musings to the philosophers, being but a timid woodland creature myself- -.And what possible good can come out of a Yogi Bear movie, you might ask?   The moans and sarcastic commentary to be heard out there just anticipating this movie  are absolutely delicious!

The misery that will be ‘Yogi Bear,'” as remarks one commentator, features none less than Dan Aykroyd slumming as the voice of Yogi Bear…and get this, Justin Timberlake will play sidekick Boo-Boo!  Tom Cavanagh will play Ranger Smith, a part rumored at one time to be going to Brendan Fraser.  The movie will be done in the live action/CGI hybrid style of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Now Yogi Bear was a one-dimensional character from almost 50 years ago who had no memorable narratives and was at best annoying as he stole countless picnic baskets from human campers in the fictional Jellystone National Park further impoverished by Hanna-Barbera’s econo-animation.  Now if Yogi would maul someone for that picnic basket, I might consider it redemptive, but having seen Robert De Niro play Fearless Leader in Rocky and Bullwinkle, I figure I’ve suffered enough…and as another commentator put it, perhaps this movie was inevitable, but it’s still painful to see…     😮

Elmer Does Geico!

January 4, 2010

– – Elmer Fudd has always been the perfect patsy for Bugs Bunny; although the outcome of their encounters is a given and you know Elmer couldn’t possibly hurt Bugs, you have to admire the rabbit’s artful and leisurely baiting of the incompetent, bumbling hunter.–Just sit back, relax, and watch a true master at work!

The great classics never really get old, and the woodland encounters of this duo are timeless, playing as well in the present as they did decades ago.  Besides being hopelessly inept, Elmer is cursed with a speech impediment, engineered back in the days when Porky Pig stuttered painfully and it was not politically incorrect.- -Well, Elmer still has trouble with his /r/ sound, so “rabbit season” comes out “wabbit season.”– – We wouldn’t have it any other way!  But after being coached and corrected several times on the /r/ sound, Elmer is spent, stomping off with complaints that the director is “getting on his nerves!.”

As part of Geico’s “Rhetorical Question” series, it’s good to see the mighty hunter again.  Just be “vewy, vewy quiet, he’s hunting wabbits!”- –Looney Tunes forever!!!

Disney and Marvel?

September 12, 2009

Wolverine— Well, Disney has bought Marvel Entertainment for about four billion bucks…a fair piece of change by anyone’s standards.  The move will make Disney house owner of Marvel’s dazzling array of characters, and probably improve Disney’s appeal to males…

…one hopes that Disney will not neuter Marvel’s characters, and that we’ll never hear Wolverine sing, “When you wish upon a star.” –Will we see the Hulk School Musical?–Will Wolverine and Sabertooth have a song fight?–One suspects that Logan would not be pleased by this merger…

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?    😉

The Trix Rabbit Turns 50!

August 9, 2009

Trix rabbit— His 50th birthday has quietly come and gone, and I’ll bet that you didn’t buy him anything, either, what with famous people dropping like flies lately and hogging the spotlight…he’s the Trix Rabbit,  an anthropomorphic cartoon rabbit and the oldest commercial mascot to continue to exist on television!  Now Trix cereal by General Mills has been on the market since 1954, but the Trix Rabbit was created on August 4th, 1959 by Joe Harris. The original commercial featuring him was of course in black and white, back in the dark ages before luscious color!  Dinosaurs roamed the earth then…

The Trix Rabbit had a kind of existential dilemma, eternally craving Trix cereal which he could rarely procure, ’cause as we all know, Trix is for kids! The poor rabbit was typically forced to resort to rather transparent trickery to entice children to yield the cereal to him, and his efforts were usually for naught.  Now on a few rare occasions, the rabbit did manage to get a spoonful of the cereal, which I suppose gives us all reason for hope…

The Trix Rabbit has been referenced twice on Family Guy, and I’ve always found him strangely sensuous…Happy Birthday, Big Guy!!! And may all of us someday get our personal Trix cereal, or at least be brave in the effort…Silly Rabbit!–You are US!!! 😉