Archive for the ‘cartoons’ category

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Obscure Cartoon Foxes…

April 28, 2011

 – – A character called Sly Fox appeared in a Warner Bros. cartoon produced in 1957 called Fox Terror.  Also appearing in this ‘toon and featured in it was Foghorn Leghorn, who thanks to Geico has been enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately.  Now Sly Fox was after some chickens for dinner, and sought to bypass the barnyard security system of Barnyard Dog by having Foghorn Leghorn distract and annoy the dog (–Foghorn annoying?–Now that’s a stretch!).  Anyhow, the fox never does get the chickens due to the interventions of a hyper little black rooster, and at the end Foghorn and the dog get wise to the fox, and run him out of the yard.  He’s shot, which fortunately is seldom fatal in the ‘toon world; the fox does dynamite both Foghorn and the dog, which has no long-term affects, either.

I love the way that Sly Fox is drawn, and you can see hints in the treatment of the figure of Wile E. Coyote.  Voiced by the great Mel Blanc, the fox wears several disguises and at times even sounds somewhat like Bugs Bunny.  One good lookin’ fox this, Sly regrettably only appeared in a single cartoon but should have been featured in his own show… 

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cartoons, furry, television
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Foghorn Leghorn Does Geico!

April 6, 2011

– – Foghorn Leghorn is not the best known Looney Tunes character, but deserves a bit more attention.  He’s about to get it in one of the on-going Geico commercials, where it is posed whether Foghorn Leghorn would make a really bad book narrator…

The answer is, extremely! Foghorn is an anthropomorphic rooster with a Central Virginia accent and a “good ol’ boy” speaking style who is full of bluster, hot air, and himself.  He starred in 28 cartoons in the Golden Age of  American animation, first appearing in 1946.  We are shown the rooster narrating A Tale of Two Cities in his own inimitable way, offering much irritating commentary along the way.  So irritating is Foghorn that Henry the  Hawk, also present in the recording booth for the session, just can’t take it anymore, and picks up a bat to explain the situation to the extremely verbose rooster…it’s classic stuff!

Most of us know someone who is at least somewhat like Foghorn Leghorn, and have been tempted to deal with them in a similar fashion…just resist, because assault and battery is illegal!

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, cartoons, cool things, television
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Warped and Wonderful!

December 4, 2010

– – If you enjoy the unexpectedly weird, you might like Regular Show, an offbeat cartoon on The Cartoon Network about a blue jay called Mordecai and a hyperactive raccoon named Rigby who work as groundskeepers at a large park, spending much of their time and effort avoiding work and seeking to entertain themselves.  They are essentially slacker-type twenty-somethings bossed by a living gumball machine who have a Yeti coworker.

In spite of these and other surreal characters, the Regular Show while bizarre is a kid’s animated series written for adults, and it works!

Categories: absurdities, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, cartoons, furry, television
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More Annoying Than The Average Bear…

November 28, 2010

– – As if we all didn’t suffer enough at Christmas, you’re soon to be hit with both a Yogi Bear and a Smurfs movie!  As Al Bundy might have questioned, “Are we not fit to die?!”

The live-action/CGI Yogi Bear movie opens December 17th, and stars none less than Dan Aykroid as the voice of Yogi with Justin Timberlake doing the honors (?) as Boo-Boo Bear.  Aykroid was reportedly sent tapes of  Daws Butler performing the original voice of Yogi Bear, but refused to listen to them, preferring to do his own take on the character.  The movie is reportedly pretty thin on a story line, not that there was great intellectual content in the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon…

Of greater interest to me is the fact that the film in theaters will be preceded by a new 3D short with Wile  E. Coyote and the Road Runner entitled, “Rabid Rider.”– -Now that’s entertainment!

Categories: anthropomorphic, cartoons, furry
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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! 

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cartoons, television
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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!

Categories: absurdities, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, cartoons, furries, furry, television
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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! 


Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cartoons, furry, furry art, television
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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…

Categories: cartoons, unexplained
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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…     😮

Categories: animals, cartoons, furry, movies
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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!!!

Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, cartoons, television
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