Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Ribbit, directed by Chuck Powers. 88 minutes. September 4, 2014.
This CGI animated feature was released theatrically in Malaysia, in Malay, on September 4, 2014. But I saw it at my sister’s on On Demand TV in English on January 16, 2015.
It is not the worst movie that I have ever seen, but it comes close.
Just published in the media: SF IS A HOTBED OF ONE KINKY-CREEPY-CUTE SUBCULTURE. And: SAN FRANCISCO – A FURRY FETISH EPICENTER. More on that shortly. (I apologize if this post is jumbled to read all at once- a lot of related topics just happened.)
1) Researcher Debra Soh recently wrote about Furries in Harper’s Magazine. I invited her to submit a piece here. She sent:
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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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.
Unmask new characters. S2 of the #hulu original docuseries "Behind the Mask” is now streaming: http://t.co/cFswK5ht2x pic.twitter.com/tO1ojHGfSj
— hulu (@hulu) February 26, 2015
Do those titles perk your ears up? They had major impact on cult movies from the 1990’s to now. The Crow won a new level of respect for comic-based movies, which had never been so dark before. (The soundtrack alone was a gateway for countless black-clad kids.) Then, Dark City created a visionary sci-fi dystopia world with only a handful to compare: like Brazil, The City of Lost Children, or Blade Runner. It was stellar work from director Alex Proyas. 1994-1998 may have been his peak (so far.)
There was supposed to be a movie in between: an adaptation of Freak’s Amour, an obscure but highly praised cult novel by Tom De Haven. It was optioned and scripted for Proyas. The project fell by the wayside for two sad reasons. One was aftershocks from the tragic death of Brandon Lee on set of The Crow. The other was critical success but financial failure for Dark City. Even though it’s called the best movie by Proyas, it hurt his career. It was triumph and tragedy. A year later, The Matrix came along (sharing studio and style) and won all the attention. Dark City has continued to influence movies like Inception.
Proyas followed up with 3 features that got mixed reviews. There’s mentions of a number of projects in development. The next one for sure is Gods of Egypt in 2016. (Hey furries, I wonder if there will be characters like Anubis?)
As far as I can tell, almost nobody in the fan world has talked about this lost movie project. (As a fan of the novel, I’d never known about it until now!) Stories like this are why I blog.
It’s an indirect topic for a Furry blog. The anthropomorphism is Monster Movie style – not funny animals. This is for sci-fi fans in general, especially ones for the niche called Body Horror. But it’s inspired by comics, and it’s relevant.
“…The story of Freak’s Amour is, in it’s own way, a story of body dysphoria.” – Dana Marie Andra, artist for the comic.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Previously: French Anthropomorphic Animal Animated Features, Part 1. There will be four parts.
Continuing from where we left off …
Le Château des Singes (The Castle of Monkeys), directed by Jean-François Laguionie. 76 minutes. June 2, 1999.
Kom, a brash young monkey, is a member of the Woonko tribe which lives in the treetops, believing that the earth below them is inhabited by demons. Kom scoffs at this, and generally makes himself unpopular. One day he accidentally falls to the ground, where he meets the Lankoo tribe; monkeys like himself. He falls in love with Gina and is adopted into the Lankoos, although Gina is repelled by his boastfulness. But Kom and Gina become enmeshed in Lankoo politics when they discover that Sebastian the Chancellor is plotting to kill the king, poison Princess Ida, and rule with Ida’s evil governess. They are too late to save the king, but they expose the plotters and save Ida, who becomes the new queen. Kom brings Gina back to the Woonkos, where they will work to unify the two monkey tribes
Laguionie is an international award-winning animation director whose previous shorts and feature did not include any anthro animals. His second feature (international title: A Monkey’s Tale) won the Best Animated Feature Film award at the 5th Kecskemét (Hungary) Animation Film Festival, and was the first to bring him international attention.
A Monkey’s Tale website – Full movie:
No – this isn’t about regular anthro animals, or mascots like Tony the Tiger (as fabulous as he is.)
However, this regular Symbicort “wolf” ad has kept bringing occasional traffic since I posted it in the summer. People seem to want more of the animation:
There’s a million regular ads. Let’s focus on ones with specific awareness of Furry subculture.
First… the newest one I’ve seen: “Cage Dancing, bicurious furries.”
It’s a Slo Down Wines commercial from January 2015. The title is “Boxers/Furries”. They aim for outrageous, and have other commercials with S&M scenes.
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Story tips are always welcome.
By Foxenawolf.
Ursa Major Awards nominations close on February 28. Nominate Dogpatch Press – get fuzzy hugs! I love furries so much, blogging about them is it’s own reward. But I love shinies too, so can the highly attractive readers of this site nominate it for an award? Submit a Best Magazine nomination. These hugs are worth it. (OK, they’re worth nothing because I hug everyone for free. They’re just priceless.)
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High traffic for $11,575 fursuit story.
Far flung places like German news sites are continuing to give notable high traffic for last week’s story of the record high fursuit price.
Austrian TV covers furries with a good 15 minute news piece.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Dear Patch;
I was inspired to write this by the discovery that some of the “current” internet information about the 2014 Winter Olympics mascots is now being taken down. I feel that this will still be of interest to at least some furry fans, and somebody ought to save it while it’s available. Late January or February is a rough first anniversary.
A brief aside about sobering world news… The “most expensive Olympics games in history” left more abandoned than the mascots.
The 2014 Olympics Winter Games Mascots
The 2014 Olympics Winter Games, in Sochi, Russia from February 23 to March 1, 2014, are almost a year old now. Information about them is disappearing from the Internet. It’s time to save their three anthropomorphized mascots before they’re gone for good. Read the rest of this entry »
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Story tips are always welcome. First, a little site news…
Nominate Dogpatch Press for an Ursa Major Award, and get fuzzy hugs! I love furries so much, blogging about them is it’s own reward. But I love shinies too, so can the highly attractive readers of this site nominate it for an award? Please go to the Ursa Majors site and submit a Best Magazine nomination. These hugs are worth it. (OK, they’re worth nothing because I hug everyone for free. They’re just priceless.)
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“99 Percent Invisible” radio show presents a thrilling history of mascots.
From Episode 151 – La Mascotte:
“Furry, larger-than-life, foam-headed mascots may seem standard-issue for sports teams now, but this is only a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of professional sports.”
It’s an honor to host articles by Fred Patten, “Furry’s favorite reviewer and historian.” There’s minimal management, supporting him to post what he wants. Many are reviews and some are in depth writing from his experienced perspective. Those are the ones I want to select for a new feature.
FRED PATTEN PRESENTS joins other features: INTERVIEWS FOR FANS AND FURRIES – THE “FURCLUB” SURVEY – and FURRY GOOD IDEAS.
I’ll pick the best to highlight and link. It’s inspired by the great quality of Fred’s article that posts tomorrow:
A History of Furry Publishing (Part One – Beginnings, and Part Two- Current Publishers.)
While I shake my sore paws after many hours of tedious book cover image layout for Fred’s pieces… I wanted to announce it, and toss a little “outtake”.
