“Furry Film Festival:” thoughts from Fred Patten and Califur’s video programmer.
by Patch O'Furr
Gideon & BuckHopper
“The San Francisco Furry Film Festival” was a fantasy article inspired by many potential reasons for why it could happen for real. A movie journalist even told me it was an idea “way past due!”
Once put together, it could have built-in audience at any con. However, the practical work of organizing a festival wouldn’t be too different from making a small con. With such a special niche, that puts it out of reach unless a team of dedicated movie lovers gather around the idea. That hasn’t happened yet… but 2016 has brought amazing Furry movie events. There were sold-out furry screenings for Zootopia, and the furry-made documentary ‘Fursonas‘ won unprecedented notice on the festival circuit.
A furry film fest isn’t so far-fetched. Here’s hoping it happens. Meanwhile, below are reactions from Changa, video programmer for Califur and admin of Furry.today (check the site for great videos!) And then Fred Patten.
– Patch
From Changa:
One of the reasons I started furry.today was to keep myself constantly looking for new furry shorts and animations and keep track of them for things like our Parties and the animation festivals I had been putting on at Califur. Here was the play list for the Animation Festivals we showed in 2015. Warning: Lots of embeds. I mostly put that page up not linked anywhere as it was my way of handing out a link to people asking me what specific films were after the con. A dedicated Furry film festival is a great idea (not sure of the logistics.) From your article, I haven’t seen Finsterworld but was aware of Furry Force – they were at Califur, they received the Ursa Major award and it was rather awesome. I do know about your site and it’s cool that you noticed my video blog.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Furry Film Festival
The suggestion of a Furry Film Festival makes my mind overflow with potential titles. Such a festival could easily be filled by excellent but obscure features (many foreign). That would have the advantages of probably being cheaper to rent than those by large American studios like Disney and DreamWorks (which might snub a Furry Film Festival even if it was willing to pay really expensive rentals), and more enticing to the public that might be overly familiar with big American studio “classics” anyway. Here are some suggestions (emphasizing what I would like to see):
American Features
Mr. Bug Goes to Town, directed by Dave Fleischer. 78 minutes. December 5, 1941.
Bill and Coo, directed by Dean Riesner. 61 minutes. March 28, 1948.
Gay Purr-ee, directed by Abe Levitow. 105 minutes. October 24, 1962.
Shinbone Alley, directed by John David Wilson. 85 minutes. April 7, 1971.
Fritz the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 80 minutes. April 12, 1972.
Coonskin, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 89 minutes. August 20, 1975.
An American Tail, directed by Don Bluth. 80 minutes. November 21, 1986.
Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, directed by Barry Caldwell and six others. 80 minutes. March 11, 1992.
Once Upon a Forest, directed by Charles Grosvenor. 72 minutes. June 18, 1993.
Balto, directed by Simon Wells. 77 minutes. December 22, 1995.
The Nut Job, directed by Peter Lepeniotis. 86 minutes. January 17, 2014.
Foreign Features
Puss in Boots, directed by Kimio Yabuki. 80 minutes. March 18, 1969. (Japan)
Blinky Bill, directed by Yoram Gross. 90 minutes. September 24, 1992. (Australia)
Felidae, directed by Michael Schaak. 78 minutes. November 3, 1994. (Germany)
Catnapped!, directed by Takashi Nakamura. 76 minutes. June 10, 1995. (Japan)
The Fearless Four, directed by Michael Coldewey, Eberhard Junkersdorf, and Jürgen Richter. 89 minutes. October 2, 1997. (Germany) NOTE: Warner Bros. has an excellent American dub of this, unreleased. Ask for it.
Help! I’m a Fish, directed by Stefan Fjeldmark and Michael Hegner. 83 minutes. October 6, 2000. (Denmark)
The Adventures of Renny the Fox, directed by Thierry Schiel. 90 minutes. August 12, 2005. (Luxembourg)
Blinky Bill’s White Christmas, directed by Guy Gross. 80 minutes. December 24, 2005. (Australia)
El Arca, directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini. 88 minutes. July 5, 2007. (Argentina)
Niko & the Way to the Stars, directed by Michael Hegner and Kari Juusonen. 81 minutes. October 10, 2008. (Finland)
Roadside Romeo, directed by Jugal Hansraj. 93 minutes. October 24, 2008. (India)
The Missing Lynx, directed by Raul Garcia and Manuel Sicilia. 100 minutes. December 25, 2008. (Spain)
Cinderella in the Far West, directed by Pascal Herold. 81 minutes. April 16, 2012. (France)
Bitter Lake, directed by Shay. 41 minutes. August 19, 2012. (France/Germany/Netherlands)
A Turtle’s Tale 2: Sammy’s Escape From Paradise, directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen. 93 minutes. August 15, 2012. (Belgium)
Delhi Safari, directed by Nikhil Advani. 92 minutes. October 19, 2012. (India)
The House of Magic, directed by Jeremy Degruson and Ben Stassen. 85 minutes. December 25, 2013. (Belgium)
Sheep and Wolves, directed by Andrei Galat. Scheduled for 2014; postponed to 2015. (Russia)
Shorts
This is a mixture of furry films, animation school student projects, and even commercial films. It only briefly suggests the wealth of material that exists.
Anthrocon 2014: Compass. 5:16
Chicken or the Egg. 3:22
Children of the Night. 4:20
Control Bear. 4:04
Crayon Dragon. 3:13
Kickball. 2:26
Merry XXXmas from Room 366. 2:55
RusFurence 2012: The Movie. 16:37
I could go on, but this gives you an idea of how enjoyable a Furry Film Festival could be. These particular films might not be available, but others could surely be found to fill a three-day festival program. Would it be best to schedule such a film festival in conjunction with a furry convention? I’ll leave the details to the festival organizers.
Felidae!! I’m happy that one made the list. What a wild flick.
I am glad to share this post with Changa. Our two columns on furry short films and theatrical features have almost enough links to trailers and complete films to serve as a Furry Film Festival in themselves.
I hope that someone in furry fandom knows a theater manager who would like to organize a Furry Film Festival by him- or herself. I’m sure that it would get lots of publicity in furry fandom.
Is this a joke?
Because some of these movies are downright terrible.
That’s your opinion. Oh, wait; it’s mine, too. But they’re all important furry movies; and just because we don’t like them doesn’t mean that other furry fans don’t.
I could criticize Ralph Bakshi’s “Fritz the Cat”. It’s a dishonest movie. It wasn’t ever X-rated; Bakshi (or Steve Krantz’s publicity department) just said that it was for the publicity. It was never submitted for a rating. It’s a lousy adaptation of Robert Crumb’s “Fritz the Cat” comics. Crumb hated it for a reason; it was just close enough to Crumb’s comic that after it, nobody would ever make an accurate movie of Crumb’s comic. Crumb also realized that most people would judge his comic by how bad Bakshi’s movie was. Bakshi’s “Coonskin” wasn’t any better; pure deliberate offensiveness.
The German movie of “Felidae”? Much better, but still not as good as Pirinçci’s novel. The novel was too long for the movie; the movie is “Felidae”-lite. Read the book.
The Indian “Roadside Romeo”? It did so badly on its Indian release that it set Indian animation back by four or five years. But a lot of furry fans love it.
I would have loved to include Mark Merlino’s edit of “Animalympics” on the list. It’s much better than the commercial video or DVD. But an authorized film festival probably would only get permission to show the official release. Also, Merlino’s edit is only for video, not a theater’s screening.
“Bill and Coo” is the only live-action movie on the list. What about “The Jungle Book”, “You Never Can Tell”, “Babe”, “Fluke”, “Cats and Dogs” 1 and 2 — even the forthcoming “Nine Lives”?
This list isn’t perfect, but it’s furry-historical. What would be on your list?
If I was ever appointed as the person in charge of choosing movies for a furry film festival, I would be all like “HOLY MOLLY I NOW HAVE THE POWER OVER PEOPLE! I CAN DECIDE THEY FATES! I! AM! A! GOD! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
And then I would go through the list of all the available movies, and only chose those that are above B in their writing. And if people would complain, I would give them “QUIET, WORMS! I AM IN CHARGE OF YOUR LIVES NOW!”
I expected you to prefer a book to a movie adaptation, knowing you to be a bibliophile (or a book worm if you prefer that). I always said, and will say again at my deathbed, that a good adaptation is one that does not make you want to check the source material to see if it’s any better. Seeing The Golden Compass made me immediately seek out the books. I read them all, loved them, and now despise the movie. But after I saw Secret of NIMH, I was so satisfied with what I got, and I never gave a hoot about the source material. And yes, I know what the differences are. I don’t care. I don’t want to read a different version, the book can keep existing and I will never care for a coward Jenner and non-wizard Nicodemus. Same thing with Felidae. I love the way the story is told, and I live the cinematography. I don’t care for the extra details, the movie gets my love. And does the book have the magnificent soundtrack by Anne Dudley? I don’t think so.
In other words, I do not put books on a higher pedestal than movies, or videogames, or comics. And I definitely do not thing source materials are better than adaptations. Also, for reference, the Fritz movie holds a special place in my heart because the cat is less of an asshole in it. In the comic, he is insufferable.
Here are my opinions. And pray to whatever gods you may believe in I don’t get to be the Great Furry Dictator >:D
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