February 24, 2015

I can’t believe I forgot to nominate Finsterworld for a best movie Ursa Major award!

by Patch O'Furr

The Ursa Major nominations close on February 28. Send yours to support creativity. Here’s a choice that deserves recognition:

Finsterworld is far from well known. That’s too bad, because even though I gave it a lot of articles, I only just remembered to add it to my nominations. If you like smart movies and don’t hate foreign movies, seek it. (The Facebook page tells me it’s only shown once in Hollywood, and at international festivals where it got lots of awards.)

It’s likely to be the best furry-related feature film there is. I’m sure it’s the only depiction of a capital-f Furry that was ever a possible Oscar contender. (It was short-listed among Germany’s selections for Best Foreign Feature).

I’m not comparing it to huge things from Disney that are totally gateway movies, but aren’t informed by this tiny subculture. Finsterworld has a fursuiter who goes to furmeets. The director used actual fursuits, and research and advice from Germany’s Furry scene.

It’s one reason to recommend a movie, but the real reason isn’t for a Furry movie, it’s for a good movie.

Finsterworld is a very, surprisingly good movie. I had low expectations when a festival director solicited a review and sent me a private screener. I thought it would be just some average indie thing. Nope.

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3 comments

February 23, 2015

The Hero of Color City – animated movie review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

The Hero of Color City, directed by Frank Gladstone. 77 minutes. October 3, 2014.

Since I have already reviewed The Nut Job and Thunder and the House of Magic, I may as well review the third similar animated feature here: October 2014’s The Hero of Color City. I am reviewing it primarily to let you know about it, in case you want to see it. You’ve seen the Transformers movies, about anthropomorphized whatever-they-are’s. Now here are anthropomorphized crayons! You won’t get many opportunities to see anthropomorphized crayons.

I criticized most of the reviews of The Nut Job and Thunder and the House of Magic, which were very negative, as irrelevant because they judged the movie as an adult theatrical feature, whereas it was a children’s film. The Hero of Color City is for even younger children – preschoolers – and the reviews tend to be of two types. Those that do review it as kidnergarteners’ fare are generally positive. Those that review it for the parents who will accompany those kindergarteners are really negative. And I can’t say that I disagree with them.

Here is the plot synopsis from the review from Variety, October 2, 2014, by Geoff Berkshire:

“Lacking any of the visual sophistication customary in contemporary bigscreen toons, The Hero of Color City more closely resembles the by-the-numbers smallscreen product churned out overseas to fill time on countless tyke-oriented cable channels. The youngest members of the film’s target audience aren’t likely to care much about the lack of craft here, but grown-ups will immediately spot a generic rip-off and tune out accordingly. They won’t be missing much.

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4 comments

February 20, 2015

The 2014 Olympics Winter Games Mascots – by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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 »

February 19, 2015

Early Furry Fan Photos – by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Greymuzzle Stickmaker (Rodford Edmiston Smith), an attendee and photographer of many World S-F Conventions and other s-f conventions of the 1980s through the 2000s, has been posting his photos on Flickr since late September.

Most are of interest to s-f fans, but some contain pictures of furry fans at bygone s-f conventions. (I’m in there, but never mind where – I don’t photograph well.)

A fox fursuiter (but the word “fursuit” didn’t exist yet) at the 1991 Worldcon in Chicago. (link)

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February 18, 2015

French anthro comic: Solo, by Oscar Martin – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Solo. T.1, Les Survivants du Chaos, by Oscar Martin
Paris, Delcourt, September 2014, hardcover €16,95 (107 [+ 13] pages).

Thanks, as always with French bandes dessinées, to Lex Nakashima for loaning this to me to review.

The setting: a bleak, war-destroyed future Earth. Think MGM’s/Hugh Harman’s 1939 animated Peace on Earth, where the last humans on Earth kill each other and leave the world to the peaceful funny animals; or the similar sequence in Alexander Korda’s 1936 live-action feature Things to Come, where England (and presumably the whole human race) has been bombed and shot up back to the Stone Age. It’s Mad Max with furries.

Solo’s blurb, translated by the publisher, is:

“Ravaged by nuclear and chemical weapons, the Earth has mutated and many animal species have developed a size and intelligence similar to that of humans. To make life easier for his family, Solo, a young rat, decides to take the road. In this hostile world of predators, cannibals, monsters or pirates, Solo will have to become the best fighter to survive.”

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5 comments

February 17, 2015

$11,575 fursuit sale brings comments from Furbuy and seller PhoenixWolf.

by Patch O'Furr

(UPDATE: The buyer does an interview with Dogpatch Press! Thoughts from the winner of the record-setting $11,575 fursuit auction.)

“Angel Dragon” set a new record for known fursuit auctions.

The $11,575 sale on Furbuy beat the recent record of $8,025 for Lavender Corgi, sold on 10/11/14.

At the time, Lavender Corgi’s buyer declined my request for comment, citing drama that could be seen on forums elsewhere. (In requests, I mention: “When something sells for a lot of money, I consider it positive “patron of the arts” support for artists.”)

The “Angel Dragon” is by PhoenixWolf Fursuits, maker of the popular suit for Telephone. The contest of 187 bids ended on 2/14/15. The auction didn’t go without drama even before it ended. At one point, bids shot up to $14,000. These were removed after a bidder commented:

I guess I don’t have 14000 I only have 11,000 in my bank can and admin remove me from the angel dragon auction please I’m no interested anymore I really do want it but I don’t want to bid too much

Furbuy admin, Jurann, replied…

“…this is one of the straws that broke the camel’s back and caused us to implement the new bidding restriction measures today.”

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3 comments

February 17, 2015

Chakat in the Alley, by James R. Jordan – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Chakat in the Alley, by James R. Jordan. Illustrated.
North Charleston, SC, CreateSpace, June 2014, trade paperback $14.95 (318 pages), Kindle $4.95.

Chakat in the Alley is James Jordan’s third annual novel in what has become a regular series. It is a direct continuation of Jordan’s May 2012 Bound to Play, and his June 2013 The Cat’s Eye Pub; and it ends with “To Be Continued In: It Takes Two: The Story of Diamondstripe”, presumably coming around June 2015. Each novel is complete in itself, but for how long will the overall saga continue?

What’s more, Jordan’s novels do not exist alone. They are set, with permission, in Bernard Doove’s “Chakat’s Den” universe. Doove began writing about the chakats, his 24th-century hermaphroditic felinoid centauroids in an interstellar civilization, in 1995. By now Doove has six volumes of their adventures (one of which, Flight of the Star Phoenix, won the 2012 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Novel of the year), plus another set in their universe. Doove is writing My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction today (see his December 2013 Change of Life, his May 2014 Growing Up Dandy, and his December 2014 Conversations in a Canterlot Café), so Jordan (among others) is keeping his chakat universe alive.

By now, everyone in furry fandom should be at least aware of the chakats, foxtaurs, skunktaurs, Caitans, and other species (including humans, of course) of the Chakat’s Den universe. If you’re not, it’s easy enough to pick up within the first few pages. The chakats take the most getting used to, because of their hermaphroditic nature. Each chakat is both female and male. That makes family life among chakats a bit unusual, with each parent able to be both a mother or a father. Since chakats are neither a “him” or a “her”, they have their own pronouns of “shi”, “shir”, and “hir”. You’ll pick it up fast.

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February 16, 2015

$11,575 fursuit, 50 Shades of Celebrifurries, Inside Edition invasion – Newsdump (2/15/15)

by Patch O'Furr

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

By Foxenawolf.

Nominate Dogpatch Press for an Ursa Major Award – 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 at the Ursa Majors site. These hugs are worth it. (OK, they’re worth nothing because I hug everyone for free. They’re just priceless.)

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Fandom News

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Ursa Major Awards nominations close on February 28.

The final ballot should be ready around March 15. It will be announced here. There’s a little time left to nominate your favorite creators. Don’t wait! (Please also nominate College Humor’s Furry Force, the millions-viewed comedy animation. Writer Adam Conover is super grateful for furry support.)

“Angel Dragon” fursuit sets new auction price record of $11,575.

The auction on Furbuy beat the recent record of $8,025 for Lavender Corgi, sold on 10/11/14. The “Angel Dragon” is by PhoenixWolf Fursuits, maker of the popular suit for Telephone. The contest of 187 bids ended on 2/14/15. There was controversy when some bids inflated the price to $14,000 before they were removed. A followup article will share comments from Furbuy admins, and the seller. (Confirmation of payment is still pending.)

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2 comments

February 12, 2015

French anthro comic: L’Epée d’Ardenois – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

L’Épée d’Ardenois. T. 3/4, Nymelle, by Étienne Willem.
Geneva, Switzerland, Éditions Paquet, February 2014, hardbound €13,50 (48 pages).

This is part of Lex Nakashima’s & my project to bring American furry fans the best of new French-language animalière bandes dessinées. Volumes 1 and 2 of this 4-volume series were reviewed on Flayrah on April 29, 2013. Here is volume 3, Nymelle.

The warfare in the Medieval funny-animal realm of the three kingdoms has devolved into bloody chaos. Garen (rabbit), the young peasant boy who hero-worships the legendary Companions of the Dawn — four unstoppable knights who led the three kingdoms of Bohan, Herbeutagne, and Valdor against the demonic armies of wizard-king Lord Nuhy a generation ago, then retired – is eager to see them reunite when Nuhy’s army reappears under his “eternal captain”, Hellequin of the Cursed Wood (goat). But the Companions are old and out of training today, and Sir Godefroid (hound), who is Garen’s personal hero among the Companions, is carefully killed by Hellequin before he relaunches the war. The other Companions dubiously accept Garen as their squire to honor Godefroid’s memory, but they are all shocked to find that the three kingdoms of today are not what they were a generation ago. Then, they were three monarchies united by strong rulers working together. Now, they are three separate monarchies each under weak rulers who do not even have the support of all their own nobility and knights, and who are jockeying for leadership among themselves – divisions that Hellequin skillfully encourages. Hellequin is supposedly trying to find and collect the Black Armor of Nuhy, which was divided among the victors after Nuhy’s death in battle. Some believe that this is just Hellequin’s pretext to use Nuhy’s name and armies for his own benefit, while others believe that Nuhy had real demonic powers, and that he will be resurrected if Hellequin does find all of his Black Armor. There are more complications, and volume 2, The Prophecy, ends with Garen, the other three Companions of the Dawn (Sir Grimbert, fox; Lord Arthus, bear; and La Fouine, marten), and the peasant refugees left behind the Wall of Ambrosius where they are supposed to be safe, suddenly attacked by Skernovite pirate raiders led by their King Rothgard the Bald (hawk) and Hellequin’s lieutenant Sigwald the Rash (bull terrier).

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February 11, 2015

Kiwi Tiger lends a paw to help Patch and Fred Patten share furry news.

by Patch O'Furr

Time Crunch! This month, my posting will be cramped by life commitments – (even internet dogs get those.)

There’s a big backlog of Fred submissions to fill the gaps. Formatting them takes time. So I sent out a call for help to do something nice and help make stories better. Kiwi Tiger stepped up to help.

Here’s his delicious bio:

Kiwi might not be the biggest fruit in the bowl, but he sure is one of the best! Sweet, Tangy, and just the right amount of fur. Kiwi’s hobbies include preforming shower concerts, binge watching Netflix, and actin’ a foo’. Kiwi loves meeting new people, so never be afraid to approach and say hi! The customary approach is to get right in his face and say “What I wouldn’t give for a mouthful of Kiwi!”

We talked about formatting, and he told me:

Lucky for you, I spend a large amount of time at work making spreadsheets and word documents clean so they don’t assault eyeballs!

Thanks Kiwi, for saving our eyeballs. When you see Fred’s articles, thank Kiwi for helping bring them to you.