Welcome to a new episode of Digging Up Positivity, this month we have a very special guest: Chipflake, known for his very cute and silly animations and we will be talking about his upcoming game as well! Furthermore we have some animations, and of course, oh man, we have so many charities, it is really showing that convention season is gearing up! So lets get started!

In a sequel to a pair of stories I wrote many years back (good god, I'm old now), we're now seeing things play out in reverse. Childrens' animation on Canadian television is now on life support or effectively dead, thanks to a slew of channels from Corus Entertainment and WildBrain Studios (representing the vast majority) getting the plug pulled as of September 1, as reported by Montréal broadcaster Steven Faguy's blog.

The Bad Guys 2, directed by Pierre Perifel, is the latest theatrical release from DreamWorks Animation, and is the sequel to 2022's The Bad Guys, which has gone on to become very popular with furries. The titular "Bad Guys" are a gang of "scary" animal ex-thieves featuring Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (voiced by Marc Maron), Miss Tarantula a.k.a. "Webs" (voiced by Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (voiced by Anthony Ramos), plus Diane Foxington (voiced by Zazie Beetz), the current fox governor of the state of California and also secretly an ex-thief known as the "Crimson Paw", who, unlike the Bad Guys, was never caught. Having given up their lives of crime last movie, this movie begins with the Bad Guys living the trials and tribulations of ex-cons.

The movie is already available for digital purchase, despite the movie only being out a little over two weeks. However, DreamWorks Animation has been playing Moneyball recently, spending about half as much as most of the other major studios on their theatrical releases, so they've already made back most of their money domestically, and are in the black (more or less) counting international grosses. It's not a big hit, but it is a "base" hit, and that's what DreamWorks is aiming for. DreamWorks Animation has never gotten past the billion mark (Shrek 2, way back in 2004, was the closest), and the company seems to have accepted this fact. If anything, when they make a "big swing" anymore, it's an Oscar play rather than box office, like last year's The Wild Robot, which ultimately did not win (once again, Shrek is DreamWorks's only Best Animated Feature, despite being the second most nominated studio in the category).

But the point of bringing up this "inside baseball" bit about box office is that this has already been earmarked as a DreamWorks franchise. Ironically, they were bumped by The Wild Robot in the studio's logo sequence this year, but that seems to be more about DreamWorks wanting to avoid having them appear in front of their own movie than lack of confidence. I'm very confident there will be a The Bad Guys 3, and am looking forward to it, because both movies have been a lot of fun.

Welcome to a new episode of Digging Up Positivity! In this episode:

• A very special guest from Honduras
• Animation news
• An upcoming furry indy game
• And of course a whole load of charity!

So let’s get started!

What furry animated films might be coming out since our last list? (You can find some non-furry films discussed in the comments section.) As usual it's difficult to know for certain what's coming up, since a lot of films show up with unpredictable marketing, or might never reach completion, or might be a Warner Bros tax write-off.

Let's start with a little non-furry news! Ne Zha 2 (China, 2025) now holds the record for being the highest-grossing animated film ever, having earned over $2.2 billion. KPop Demon Hunters (Sony, 2025) on Netflix got over 33 million views in two weeks, and is still going strong.

The news site Cartoon Brew has a new owner and chief editor, who hopefully will be less snooty and won't accidentally create Brony fandom. Director Brad Bird is now over at SkyDance and might finally get to make Ray Gunn, a project he's wanted to do for 30 years.

Laika isn't leaking any information about Wildwood. DreamWorks' The Bad Guys 2 is just around the corner, and Zootopia 2 (Disney, 2025) is aiming at a Late November release for U.S. Thanksgiving and any cinema foolish enough to be in range of Midwest FurFest.

Nimona (trailer) is a 99-minute American animated movie released in 2023. It was eventually directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, with a script by Robert Baird and Lloyd Taylor (plus additional writers), and was adapted from a webcomic/graphic novel by ND Stevenson. Originally it was produced by Blue Sky Studios, whose parent company was acquired by Disney before the project was finished. Disney cancelled it, likely due to its overt LGBTQ+ themes, and closed down Blue Sky to focus on their own, pre-existing animation studios. Luckily, they were willing to let Netflix acquire the rights, and it was completed by DNEG Animation and Annapurna Pictures.

And I am the wrong person to be reviewing this movie.

In my years of writing reviews, this is the second time this has happened. The first time was when Kyell Gold sent me a copy of Green Fairy to review. By no fault of Kyell's, or the story itself, aspects of the book set off multiple buttons in my head due to personal experiences from my past. This caused my brain to mis-map story elements, and it didn't work for me. I tried writing a review, and I couldn't bring myself to publish it at the time. It wasn't fair to the book, nor to Kyell's writing craft.

And so now I'm facing a similar dilemma with Nimona. This time, I'm going to attempt a review, but without all of my internal brain slop. You'll be getting some of it, but believe me when I say I'm leaving a lot out. (Deep breaths. Focus on the positive.) At this point the film is two years old and I'm assuming that most folks here have seen it, so I'm not going to be shy about major plot details.

However, despite my personal opinions, let me be clear: If you haven't watched this film, it's worth a watch. It's good. It's just I'm not the audience it's for. And that's ok! I still appreciate it for what it is. Stop reading here to avoid spoilers.

Welcome to the April edition of Digging Up Positivity, this month we are interviewing two amazing beans from the virtual world, however their friendship influenced their lives much more than anyone expected!

We also feature a new furry game, some lovely animation news and of course, our charities, because my dear friend, we sure had a lot of those in April, so lets gooo!

On the menu today is: Cult Of (The) Lamb with a side of Science Dog.

Sound good? Well then, let's partake of a somewhat kosher dinner of allegory. Notice that these works have firm connections to other media. As is only right, we'll open with the appetizer.

Welcome to the April[sic - should have been March] edition of Digging Up Positivity, this month:

• An update on all the furry charities around the world
• How Coyote vs Acme got saved from the Shelf
• Cattbutt controllers (who writes this stuff)
• And our special guest is the amazing pie-tactic Duino Duck!

But first, lets start it with our charity update!

"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day."
-Chikn Nuggit, "An episode made for Tik Tok in case the app gets banned for real"

"I missed."
-Pepé Le Pew, "For Scent-imental Reasons"

Animation, at least in America, feels a bit weird right now. Maybe a bit unhealthy, but not in a "sick and dying" kind of way, but in a "your diet is messed up" kind of way. My most recent review besides this one is Flow, a micro-budget independent movie from Latvia made with Blender, while The Day the Earth Blew Up is the latest iteration of major studio Warner Bros.'s most famous IP, featuring marketable characters older than World War II. And yet, somehow, the former review feels like an unnecessary noting of something everyone was already aware of anyway, while this review feels more like a spotlight on a small unknown that deserves a wider audience.

Fresh back from a convention, still dealing with the concrud, but welcome all to an amazing packed episode filled with good news from the furry fandom! Covering not just the charity numbers with a highlight of Nordic Fuzzcon, but also a lovely interview with Chester the Geroo. I mean, not only does this little critter have the voice of an angel... he sings operas— in fursuit. But first the charities!

Three reviews today, starting with the trailers for:

The first two can be skipped, and the third is a maybe.

It’s time for the third annual review of furry shorts released the prior year. In these I go through the previous year’s released animation shorts released, typically on YouTube, to see which ones stood out to me. I will note however that this year really was all kill and no fill on the recommendation list. I’m glad to see that there are so many passionate fans finding good content out there and the improvement over all.

I will admit I did miss a bit of the “what the heck did I just watch” surprises for this year. Hopefully things don’t get too sterile. But when it comes to short stories worth a watch there is no shortage of goodness this year.

So without further ado, let’s continue.

(Prior Years: 2023, 2022)

Welcome to my top ten list of movies for 2024. It's pretty self explanatory, and I've explained "the rules" plenty of times in the past, but I think I should explain one qualification for what constitutes a "2024" movie for my list, as it applies to one movie this year and has caused confusion in the past. Basically, I'm going by theatrical release, not festival premiere, like IMDB does.

Other than that, just a reminder that this isn't supposed to be a specifically furry list, even if this is a furry site, but I will award a Best Furry Movie, with this year going to The Wild Robot. At the start of the decade, this had a pretty high correlation with the Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture, with victories for Wolfwalkers and Raya and the Last Dragon, but in the last two years, I seem to have lost my short status as furry middlebrow tastemaker, as Turning Red lost to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 lost to Nimona. All four of my picks for Best Furry Movie also ended up being my number one pick those four years, as well (spoilers for this year's list?). I also, just for fun, as a fox fan, give out a Cutest Vixen Award, and this year that goes to Zhen from Kung Fu Panda 4. In less furry accolades, I do sometimes list a movie from the previous year that might have made the list if I'd seen it before publication (not that this is a correction) and for 2023 I'll say The Holdovers was pretty good.

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds (trailer) is a 2D children's animated fantasy film, a Franco-Belgian production released in 2023, directed by Benoît Chieux who co-wrote it with Alain Gagnol. Imdb rates it 7/10.

Carmen and Juliette are sisters, whose mother drops them off with her friend Agnes to babysit for a day. Agnes has forgotten they'd be coming, and asks if they can be quiet for a half-hour while she takes a much-needed nap. She's the author of a long-running book series called Sirocco, and had been staying up all night writing.

Unable to sit still, Juliette rifles through one of Agnes' books, weird stuff happens, and the sisters end up in the world of the book, transformed into cats. After Juliette gets them in trouble with the local mayor, they embark on a quest with an avian opera singer named Selma to find the elusive Sirocco, a mysterious, reclusive, and mercurial sorceror.