Dogpatch Press

Furry Force part 3: “Furry Superheroes Are the Grossest” is the new animated comedy short from CollegeHumor.  It did confusing things to my body.  I didn’t know whether to laugh or barf.  Let’s call it larfing.  If you’ve ever been hangry, you get what I’m trying to say.  Or if you’ve ever sharted… never mind, because that’s gross.  If you don’t like gross, don’t watch this.  Run away.  Furry Force 3 pushes the silly, teasing grossness of the first two shorts way past sick and twisted.  It might go too far for most of us.  But for some asstronauts at the outer limits of taste, that’s exactly where they wanted to go.

They went this far because the Furry Force series won unexpected demand.  The response surprised even the creators, who had no idea they would get appreciation by satirizing furries.  (Read my interview with writer Adam Conover and what he says about it.) They even won the highest Furry award, the Ursa Major!  CollegeHumor laughed with furries while laughing at them, by campaigning to win the Ursa Major.  This new episode comes fresh after being voted Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short of 2014.

It’s arguable that we asked to get punished this way. But if you have to blame someone, blame me.  I suspect that they were egged on by this blog, and I think that’s how they knew they were getting an award nomination, and why they asked for votes.  And there’s this.  I was a willing victim… (See 1:37 in the vid.)

Interview with the animators!

 

You can blame this joker, too.  Below are responses from Rich D, of Smiley Guy Studios (the animators that team with CollegeHumor to make Furry Force.) 

(Patch:) What’s the team like?

(Rich:) The Furry Force team has changed up from episode to episode. There have been many very talented FF alumni. The super talented storyboard artist Marko Bajic has been on eps 1 – 3 and deserves a special mention. Consistently the team has been made up of passionate people with big dreams of creating or contributing to projects people will love, or love to hate. They are opinionated about films and art, they eat unhealthy food, they collect toys and they love their work.

(Patch:) Did you run across any furry art while looking up reference, that actually captured your appreciation?

I always loved Thundercats, TMNT animated series (1980’s), Disney’s Robin Hood (1973) but more recently was shown Blacksad which looks great. From my Deviant Art browsing I’ve definitely come across some super talented artist like Seyorrol, or Pacelic. Is Kung Fu Panda furry art? If so, I want to put Nicolas Marlet on the list of talented furry art contributors.

(Patch:) Did you run across any furry stuff that really freaked you out?

I’m not comfortable with hyper-sexual anthropomorphic characters especially while viewing in a studio space with co-workers around. Furry Force helped me stretch my boundaries. Thank you Furry Force!

(Patch:) Truthfully, can cartoon animal characters be sexy?

“Sexy” is in the eye of the beholder. Bugs Bunny in drag as an example: Cute? Yes. Sexy? Not to me.

(Patch:) Have you ever had to do awkward conversations about what you did for this job, or had to say “I’m not actually into that” or “that’s my friend’s?”

I showed my parents who show everyone the work I do, but they won’t share Furry Force with pride. I can guilt them into it because they love me so much. But I won’t, it doesn’t feel right. I am proud to tell people that have something to do with this project because its hilarious but my wife is very uncomfortable when I tell people I was involved.

(Patch:) Does anyone on the team have a FurAffinity account? Everyone on there was recently talking about how the site got bought by a corporation. In the animation industry, do you think more stuff might get made that’s explicitly targeting furries?

As far as I am aware, none of the team have a FurAffinity account.

There are so many great shows with anthropomorphic characters. As long as the fandom is the setting and not the whole concept and the characters are complex and ‘living’, then you may have a winning idea!

(Patch:) Would you go to a furry con? Would you welcome invites to be guests of honor?

We’d be very proud to receive invites, and gladly would attend any I was able to. Guest of Honor? That title should definitely go to Adam Conover and Brian Murphy at College Humor. I bow to their comedic brilliance!

(Patch:) Do you know any secret furries in animation? If you can’t say their names, can you hint about what they do?

I know one. Have known him for 15 years: Patch O’Furr! He’s a great man and hilarious to talk with. I’ll leave it there cause the readers of this blog know all they need to know about Patch.

(Patch:) What are your proudest accomplishments so far as an artist?

Smiley Guy Studios, where I work, has a super varied demo reel and Furry Force is one of the best projects I’ve been able to contribute to. Cloud 8 by the studio is one that I am proud to have art directed and animated on, and we are about to begin production on a feature film Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, which will be awesome and hilarious when complete!

Thanks for the funny art, Rich!