How many stories and videos titled A Fox Tale or Tail have there been? Here is one more, courtesy of the Cartoon Brew website, from student animators Thomas Bozovic, Alexandre Cazals, Julien Legay, and Chao Ma in 2011 at France’s Supinfocom Arles.

Wired reports that Swiss scientists are trying to develop a sheep collar that will notify shepherds when wolves attack their sheep, and will release a chemical deterrent.

The Cartoon Brew website says that Parler le Fracas, a 4:26-minute French music video created by Wasaru for Le Peuple de l’Herbe, is sort of an update of Orwell’s Animal Farm.

Put the emphasis on “sort of”; fat pig capitalists oppressing other-animal workers have been a common image of communistic (as distinct from Communist) propaganda since long before Orwell. Be that as it may, this is superficially anthropomorphic, although it feels more like humans in cheap animal-head masks.

This month’s contributors include dronon, earthfurst, Fred, GreenReaper, Higgs Raccoon, RingtailedFox, and TwilightShadow.

Furry webcomic At Arm's Length will soon see its 500th strip uploaded for your viewing pleasure! To celebrate and commemorate the occasion, DarkwingDork (the writer) and Brooke Scovil (the artist) have decided to hold a contest for the strip's loyal readers: Create a character who could be a recurring guest-star in AAL. [Details 'below the fold'.]

In San Francisco culture magazine The Bold Italic, SF's legendary monthly furry club night gets a classy writeup: Plush Life: Jesse Hirsch goes animal style with furries at Frolic.

According to his profile,

Jesse is restaurant critic for the San Francisco Examiner. His writing has also appeared in SF Weekly, the Chronicle, the New York Times, San Francisco magazine, the Wall Street Journal and a few really funny emails.

The Cartoon Brew website has posted Metro, a 2011 student film directed by Jake Wyatt and produced by him and others at the Brigham Young University for Animation.

It is a 4:45 minute cartoon that does not become anthropomorphic until its last moments, but it is a charming animal fantasy for most of its length.

Did I ever tell you that I once wrote a movie script? It was Furry, too.

This was twenty-five years ago, in 1987. Clearance Papers was only a 9-minute amateur film – an embarrassingly amateurish amateur film – but for a two-man effort, it wasn’t too bad.

Pixar is not the only studio that can make movies about anthropomorphic toys. The Cartoon Brew website announces that on September 7, indy distributor Hannover House will release an English-language dub of Czech director Ji?í Barta’s 2009 feature Na p?d? (In the Attic) in America, as Toys in the Attic. This is a mixed feature combining stop-motion puppetry, 2D cartoon animation, and live action.

It’s an analogy based on the cultural and political contrasts of the Cold War era; the world of the attic is divided into the land of happy toys in the West and the Land of Evil in the East.

The Cartoon Brew presents the new 2012 American theatrical poster, which implies that Toys in the Attic is like Pixar’s Toy Story trilogy as made by Tim Burton, and the 2009 Czech trailer.

The Cartoon Brew website announces that the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts Gallery is presenting an exhibit, “DreamWorlds: Behind the Scenes, Production Art from DreamWorks Animation” from July 30 through September 7.

DreamWorks’ works include more than just anthropomorphic animals, of course (Prince of Egypt, anyone?), but there has been SO MUCH anthropomorphization in its 24 features!

The exhibition includes more than one hundred digital prints and approximately thirty traditional paintings and drawings on paper; two miniature sets; three character maquettes; two set pieces – an 8? high Kung Fu Panda “Po” statue and the new Rise of the Guardians standee; and three media stations displaying animation tests, stereo footage, and the Rise of the Guardians trailer. There will also be a contemporary animation work station on display, with demonstrations given by current Hench-DADA students.

Overture, curtains, lights,
This is it, the night of nights

And that night will begin October 26 at Tennessee’s new Furry event, Fangcon. This three-day con will host its “Opening Night” in Nashville at the Millennum Maxwell House Hotel. Room rates start at $101 a night over the traditional Halloween weekend. Look for a lot of Halloween antics throughout the con, as well as activities. One of these is the Halloween Ball hosted by Goldenwolf. Bring your fursuit and dress your costume up in a costume. If you do not have a fursuit, just come in your own Halloween themed costume. After all, it is a Monster’s Holiday!

This is subtitled Freedom City, Book 2, and it does start soon after the last events of Freedom City. Familiarity with the events in Book 1 will definitely help, but Manifest Destiny stands well on its own.

Freedom City is an artificial city but a real country above international waters in the Caribbean Sea, about a hundred years in the future. Taking as a model the 20th-century “pirate” offshore radio stations located on abandoned marine platforms, Freedom City was constructed by those fleeing the confiscatory socialistic laws of the United States.

Freedom City declared its independence and operates under libertarian principles. Its freedom to allow the development and application of scientific and technological research, as opposed to the increasingly restrictive Public Safety laws of other countries, has made Freedom City a technological and industrial leader, but a social pariah among other nations; particularly the United States which even denies that Freedom City is a nation.

They’d tried to impose their crippling self-imposed limits upon us as well, and worked damnably hard at it. The USA had hampered Freedom’s construction every step of the way, and still claimed from time to time that we were an illegal outpost of Americans created as a haven by the evil rich solely in order to evade fair taxation and social responsibility. (Freedom City, pgs. 6-7)

“Manifest Destiny; Freedom City, Book 2”, by Phil Geusz. FurPlanet Productions, June 2012, trade paperback $19.95 (294 pages; on Amazon).

Harison Long-Randall, known as "Elden" in the furry fandom, passed away at 3.02am this morning from complications from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run on July 16, according to family. Eyewitnesses said he heroically put himself in front of his girlfriend, Gemily (known as "Wolfgem" in the fandom) to shield her from the oncoming car. Their four Australian Cattle Dogs were also killed in the crash.

Long-Randall, 21, was a college student at American River College studying improv, an avid fursuiter and cosplayer, and was loved by many both in the fandom as well as out.

His last day in the hospital, Harrison said he remained puzzled that he was being called a hero.

"He said he had just done what he had been taught to do," his father said.

Donations for help with Harison and Geminy's medical bills are still being accepted through a fund set up by the Sacramento Bee, and more information on donating can be found here at the bottom of the article.

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London have generated considerable coverage. The Cartoon Brew website presents “Olympic Vermin”, an animated anthropomorphic take of squirrels, pigeons, rats, and other urban wildlife running their own torch relay through the city.

Stylized angular animation overlaid on live-action footage, by Amaël Isnard and Leo Bridle at London’s Beakus studio.

A new site is to open this year: Weasyl, for "artists of all kinds". But they need money to do so…and the countdown ends Tuesday.

If funding falls short, the group will still be paid, but must forfeit an additional 5% - up to $250 - as well as the regular fee of up to 7%.

Update (30 Jul): The goal is met; funding is still open until Aug 1.

Update 2: The total raised was $6015.

A variety of artists are offering services to donors, who can also receive paid site access, ad space, and merchandise.

Staff plan to use cloud hosting (Amazon S3 and EC2), rather than purchase their own servers. The site is being organized by a team of eighteen, headed by co-owners Benchilla and Kihari, and lead admin Taw Echo.

Three staff gave an hour-long presentation at Anthrocon 2012. Members also promoted the site at this year's FWA.

Weasyl links: Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook accounts — Screenshots — Forums