Animation remakes: Watership Down, NIMH, DuckTales, Dumbo, more. Newsdump (3/11/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips are always welcome. 

The Tufts Daily goes to a furry convention.

Anthro New England gets a good college news piece.  My Newsdump gathers links as news happens, but it’s interesting there’s no other media articles this time!

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Comics/animation: “who likes remakes?”

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I hope you like remakes, because it seems there’s no stopping the onslaught…

New images for Disney’s Zootopia.

i09 shares an update from what may be the new furriest movie ever, scheduled for 2016.  “Taken from the Disney Facebook page, these new Zootopia images reveal these animals have designed their buildings and bridges look like their own furry appendages.”

Hulu’s docuseries “Behind the Mask” stars pro mascots.

Antarctic Press Returns To The Furry.

Furry comics suffered in 1997 when the Furrlough and Genus publisher dropped them for other directions. They just made a little effort to honor those roots.

DuckTales to return.Ducktales

InFurNation has more.  DuckTales led a wave of 1990’s afternoon TV cartoons that might be on top of the list for Why You Are Furry.  It’s getting a new series on Disney Xd in 2017.

Live Action Dumbo.

Cartoon Brew shares news of yet another remake, to be directed by Tim Burton. (Sent by Fred Patten.)

Rats of NIMH reboot in live action/CGI.Sonimh06

MGM will produce it in live action/CGI hybrid style, with writing by the same guy who did all of the Ice Age films. Mary Sue’s blogger (who says “Justin was one of my earliest crushes”) and their readers are not so excited.

CGI Watership Down.

Another Cartoon Brew article.  Now my doggy eyebrows are tilted quizzically while I wrinkle my nose at a bad smell.  Leave the classics alone and spend on something original, you meddling kids!

Reader recommends overlooked Australian animated series, The Silver Brumby. (Tip: Ace Eldrich.)

Take a look at The Silver Brumby, it’s an Australian animated series based on a youth novel series similar to Black Beauty and a little bit of Spirit Stallion of the Cimmeron. I do not think I have ever seen any one do ANYTHING on this movie or this show. LOVE this show, reminded me of the Watership Down series or Farthing Wood. But HORSES!

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Further Reading

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Anthrocon guest announcement: The San Diego Chicken.

Kage’s announcement of this year’s Guests of Honor:

Ms. Kimlinh Tran, whose voice you have heard in Dust: An Elysian Tail and in many other places, and Mr. Ted Giannoulas, a man who has not only made a career out of fursuiting but who is credited with establishing the modern day sports mascot in the public eye with his incredible partner-in-comedy The San Diego Chicken.

The Chicken’s origins were mentioned in an entertaining History of Mascots show that I linked in a Newsdump last month.

Princeton University course teaches Furry Fanfic.

Fanfiction: Transformative Works from Shakespeare to Sherlock assigns homework to write a story replacing characters with animals.  (Go down to March 4.) I emailed the professor for comment to furries but she was probably too busy to respond. She has an interesting background and is author of Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World”.

The Playboy Rabbit Is Soft, Furry, and Cute: Is This Really the Symbol of Masculine Dominance of Women?

b005f67fdc80c016d5df6586141fec16An interesting find. The academic article is old, but the info is relevant.  The Journal of Men’s Studies authors address gender roles, and planned construction of image.  It concludes that Playboy’s influential role in culture (ushering in the sexual revolution) always intended to shape an attractive image apart from “macho”.  It was meant to defuse harshness and inspire accommodation, making it a “source for women’s perspectives.”  That’s contrary to absurdly simplistic preaching against porn, that denies science to pretend it causes “degradation”.  There is heavy consensus that no convincing evidence has ever shown that mainstream porn inspires people do to harm. (It may do the opposite).  In a similar way: Furries do a great deal of constructing of image – and those images are light years away from “macho”, even the ones that play like it.  That makes good reasons to celebrate, not criticize relations of people in this subculture.