Review: 'Five Nights at Freddy's' (the movie, not the game)

Your rating: None Average: 3.4 (12 votes)

fivenightsatfreddys.jpgDo you like scary movies?

I do. A downside of reviewing movies for a furry site is that you don't get to review horror very much, and when you do, it kind of feels like you're stretching more than a little (not pseudo-apologizing for this one, though, it's awesome). What you end up reviewing mostly is movies whose intended audience is for kids, and though the primary audience of Flayrah seems to be adults, its sometimes important to acknowledge that there are limits to what can and can't be done in a lot of more mainstream productions featuring talking animals.

Which makes it even wierder to finally get to a wide-release horror movie featuring a bunch of characters the furry fandom has embraced (if e621 is any indication), and my most positive response is, "yes, but the kids'll love it!"

Five Night's At Freddy's is a (very soft) PG-13 horror movie, directed by Emma Tammi, and is an adaptation of the 2014 horror video game of the same name, created by Scott Cawthon, who is a credited writer on this movie. The premise features an abandoned "dinner and a puppet show" pizzeria and arcade haunted by ghosts who possess the old animatronic puppet attractions. Though given a theatrical release, it's also available on the Peacock streaming service.

Newsbytes archive for October 2023

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Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, GreenReaper, and Rakuen Growlithe.

Review: 'Captain Laserhawk: Blood Dragon Remix'

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (4 votes)

Captain-Laserhawk-A-Blood-Dragon-Remix-Season-1-How-Many-Episodes.jpg

Captain Laserhawk: Blood Dragon Remix is a Netflix animated series from Ubisoft Film & Television. The executive producer, Adi Shankar, previously worked on Castlevania, another Netflix animated series. The show is loosely based off of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. In fact, this show references multiple Ubisoft franchises, which has led to the show gaining interest online. Most of the notoriety that this show has been gathering has been its depiction of Ubisoft's former mascot, Rayman. I know seeing Rayman swear like a sailor piqued my interest for the show. Luckily, the show is a lot more than just showing beloved gaming mascots swear.

Digging Up Positivity - October 2023

Your rating: None Average: 4 (4 votes)

Welcome a new fresh Digging Up Positivity, and with this fresh look we are still going to cover all those amazing charity events in and around the furry fandom, but also LEGO, Chillhop, animation and our special guest is Mylo! A really advanced and amazing photographer from the Netherlands. And if you want to win one of those lovely comfy paw pillows those meerkat pawsby ArtworkTee, stay with us till the very end, but first, the charities.

Current and upcoming animated films (2023-2024)

Your rating: None Average: 4 (5 votes)

It's been 18 months since the previous list of current and upcoming animated films, so why not do an update? Last time, I thought I did a pretty good search, and then Mink found more.

What's become clear is that thanks to Covid, film distribution is a mess. Some animated films are endlessly delayed, some get shown early at film festivals before getting a limited release up to a year later in their home country, and some just... show up, and it's anyone's guess which streaming services will carry them, or for how long.

For many of the films below, I can't find streaming versions yet - this might be because I'm in Canada. If you find out they're available in your area, let us know in the comments. (Justwatch has been a great help.)

I'll provide ratings from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes with [I=] and [RT=], if available. This list relied largely on Wikipedia. It's an okay source for older films, but isn't especially reliable for upcoming titles. So this is definitely an incomplete list. For babysitting films, Sturgeon's Law usually applies (90% of everything is crud). But perhaps there will be a few unexpected surprises - time will tell! So first, let's talk trends.

Lookouts - Furry Western where Romeo and Juliet gets a hint of Brokeback Mountain

Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (5 votes)

Lookouts.jpgLookouts is a visual novel Western adventure where you play as a one armed wolf scout for a notorious gang. The 2022 Ursa Major nominated game is available to play in browser, or pay what you want to download at itch.io. It features art by Coldoggo, music by Jamie, and ParanoidHark composing the story and programming.

The art seems to take inspiration from Northwest Indigenous styling to form simple and effective character silhouettes for use in the story. The form not only lends itself well to the Western format, it makes the artstyle instantly recognizable and stand out from its other visual novel peers.

Gaming Furever relaunches

Your rating: None Average: 4 (5 votes)

Gaming Furever

Some of you may remember GamingFurever.com! We first launched in 2011 as a place where furries and anthro video game enthusiasts could come together to discuss current happenings, get the latest gaming news for games featuring furries of all sorts, and to host a database of every type of game featuring animal anthros, or games where you play as an animal.

We grew over the next ten years to host an incredibly talented group of volunteer staff and writers who streamed a bevy of games, published quality editorials and reviews only found on GF, and facilitated many new friendships for visitors to the site and community.

In the late 2010s, life for me, as the head of the site, was in flux and busier than ever. It became hard to put as much of a focus on GF as it truly deserved, and maintaining the website in a secure manner became too much of a responsibility to keep it going. To top it off, 2020 was what it was for everyone, and it felt like a good time to go on a bit of a hiatus. Important word: hiatus!

Newsbytes archive for September 2023

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Contributors this month include dronon, earthfurst, and GreenReaper.

Digging Up Positivity - September 2023

Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (4 votes)

Welcome to Digging Up Positivity, where we cover positive news from the Furry Fandom and beyond! Where we cover charities from conventions and fundraisers all over the world, including some really special moments at Eurofurence, some lovely animation news and an exclusive interview with one of the more relaxing chillstreamers: Casey Explosion.

But first! All those wonderful charities, and with con-season going in full effect, there sureare a LOT of them!

Trailer: 'Hazbin Hotel' on Amazon Prime

Your rating: None Average: 4 (7 votes)

Better late than never, but a release frame and streaming service has finally been announced for Hazbin Hotel, sister series of the Ursa Major Award-winning adult animated web-series Helluva Boss. This is the one creator Vivienne "Vivziepop" Medrano and her SpindleHorse animation studio are not giving away for free.

After the series pilot released to YouTube all the way back in 2019, it was picked up by cult distributor A24 (Hazbin Hotel is not their first demonic rodeo), and the series has found a home on Amazon Prime, to begin streaming next January, with a second season planned.

Update 10/14/23: A voice cast has been announced (Keith David as Husk!) and an preview of the show's theme tune have been released at New York Comic Con.

Review: 'Strays'

Your rating: None Average: 2.3 (4 votes)

strays.jpgReggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) is a cute, scruffy little mutt who lives with his owner, Doug (Will Forte), who hates Reggie. Reggie was actually adopted by his ex-girlfriend, and Doug blames Reggie for her leaving him, despite the fact that he is generally a terrible person himself. He only kept Reggie around just to hurt her.

Doug continuously tries to get rid of Reggie, who believes the frequent trips far out into the country ending with a tennis ball thrown into a random field followed by Doug not waiting for him to bring it back is a game. Reggie seems not to realize that this is not fetch until, out of desperation, Doug leaves him in a city over two hours away. There, Reggie meets Bug (voiced by Jamie Foxx), who finally is able to explain to him that what’s going on here is so not fetch. Reggie and his new friend, as well as Hunter (voiced by Randall Park) and Maggie (voiced by Isla Fisher), decide to make the arduous trek back home, not to reunite Reggie with Doug as dog and master, but so Reggie can seek revenge for his mistreatment, specifically by biting Doug’s penis off.

Trailer: 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 4

Your rating: None Average: 2.1 (10 votes)

Bear with us here, as if you just watch the following trailer, you may be a bit confused as to what it actually has to do with the furry fandom. You'll just have to take our word that there is actually a fairly important, fun furry character in this series, despite the fact she's in less than a second total of the trailer. (If the video below isn't visible, try this link.)

Star Trek: Lower Decks is the eighth television series (if you count streaming series as such) and the second animated series in the long running Star Trek franchise. The first three seasons of the show are available from the Paramount+ streaming service; the fourth season will begin airing September 7. In a tribute to the original animated Star Trek series's catperson alien Caitian crewmember Lt. M'Ress, Lower Decks's supporting cast includes Dr. T'Ana.

Digging Up Positivity August 2023

Your rating: None Average: 3.4 (5 votes)

Welcome to the August edition of Digging Up Positivity! with:

  • Various conventions and charities around the world
  • New Irish convention starting out strong
  • Lion cubs born in Dutch safaripark
  • A long overdue classic animated movie finally being released on Blueray and more animation news.
  • A walk through the British furry fandom’s memory lane with GamePopper’s Furtannia, and afterwards I am announcing the winner.

But first, the conventions:

Newsbytes archive for August 2023

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Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, GreenReaper, and Rakuen Growlithe.

Movie review: 'The Great Wolf Pack' (2022)

Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (2 votes)

The Great Wolf Pack ®: A Call to Adventure is a 45-minute 2D animated mini-movie produced in 2022 by Great Wolf Resorts, an American chain of family-friendly hotels featuring indoor waterparks. Most of the animation was outsourced to Mexico, directed by Chris Bailey and written by Kent Redeker. The IMDB page mentions an additional writer I couldn't find in the closing credits, M.J. Offen.

The movie is for young kids and can pretty much be skipped. There's a group of young animal friends in the forest: Violet the wolf and Sammy the squirrel (action girls), and Oliver (a raccoon tinkerer who always talks using the most loquacious and unnecessarily wordy vocabulary), who are joined by newcomer Wiley (the coyote wolf), and finally Brinley, a young bear with self-confidence issues, who of course gets chosen as the Special One by a spoon-wielding spirit and is given the Magical Rock to guide them on their quest.

From the Yerf Archive