The annual Ursa Major Awards have opened for nominations for the best furry works published during 2022. Visit UMA's nominations webpage to enter your nominations. The nominations period "will continue until the end of 11 February 2023.
The nomination categories this year are:
The music category is a new addition, and was announced at Ursa's twitter on January 20. It isn't listed as a catagory on the HTML page, but will be available on the form.
The first session of the Oklahoma State Senate has put forth a bill penned by State Senator Shane Jett that focuses on education in the state’s public school system and the allowing of endowments for a parent to pull their kids from public schools.
The 20 page document caught attention on social media by furries due to a highlighting of the law’s claim of a district that could be deemed as problematic because of furry activities.
“Trigger district” means a school district in this state where any of the following concepts or activities have been advocated or tolerated:
[...]
g. the presence of any school employee or volunteer engaged in anthropomorphic behavior commonly referred to as furries,
There are 12 other items that also would qualify a school as a proclaimed trigger district. Some of the ones not covered in previous statute include things such as: promotion of Marxist ideology, disparaging the 2nd amendment, promoting animal rights activism, promoting social and emotional learning, climate change ideology that disparages the oil, gas, and farming industry, and instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation that creates 'gender confusion'.
When a school is deemed as a trigger district, it allows the parent to pull their child from the school to fund their education in a private manner through a program outlined in the law known as “Oklahoma Parent Empowerment Act for Kids [OK PEAK]”
Tropical Hearts is a game made by Kokolori Studios. This lovely visual novel RPG is a passion project with tons of heart and effort put into each scene. Full of nods to 90s nostalgia and beautiful art, the game keeps the player involved in the story of these vibrant characters.
The results of the eighth once in a decade Sight and Sound "Greatest Films of All Time" poll were released last year, which kind of puts my list in its place. The number one movie there was Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; haven't seen that one yet. Catchy title, though! Hey, my top pick for 2017 did make top 100 (in a five way tie for last)! Well, let's see how influential my picks for this year are in 10 years for the next poll.
So, this is a year end top ten list of my picks for favorite movies of the year. Pretty simple premise, and I've written what counts and what doesn't before, and this is the internet, so I can just link to older lists if you want the nitty gritty details. I don't need to rehash them. Though Flayrah is a furry site, this is not a furry list. However, I will pick out my favorite furry movie of the year, which was Turning Red this year, as well as a Cutest Vixen Award, just for fun. This year's prestigious CVA goes to Diane Foxington, a.k.a. the Crimson Paw, in The Bad Guys. It was an overall pretty good year for movies, so much that I actually feel like giving away a few honorable mentions, listed here in no particular order other than alphabetical; Beast, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Three Thousand Years of Longing and The Woman King. Also, shoutout to Prey, which was streaming exclusive, and which I didn't consider for the list, but was worth a shoutout anyway.
Well, let's get to the list proper. The film's title and posters link to IMDB or a Flayrah review for more information than the short blurb here could give you. Enjoy!
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (trailer) is a live-action musical comedy family film released in October 2022, with computer-animated critters mixed into it. It's an adaptation of two children's books by Bernard Waber, The House on East 88th Street (1962), and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (1965).
In my earlier review of My Father's Dragon, also an adaptation, my biggest complaint was how it borrowed story elements while destroying the spirit of the book. With Lyle, the spirit has definitely been kept. The premise is silly, it doesn't make sense, and has fun with it. It knows exactly what it is!
Hector P. Valenti is a charismatic showman and second-rate stage magician who buys a baby crocodile (Lyle), vainly hoping his new pet will become his ticket to stardom. When it doesn't work out (think One Froggy Evening), Hector leaves to recover his finances, abandoning Lyle in a New York townhouse, where he lives in secret. When the Primm family moves in, Lyle gradually befriends them and brings out their better natures. Until he runs afoul of their conniving basement tenant, Mr. Grumps.
The books had a low word count, so a lot of things had to be added to make a full movie. The Primms were originally bland and generic. Lyle's presence in the house (and how he survived) needed more of an explanation, so all of that received more details. Most (though not all) of the major plot points from the books still exist in some form. The changes make sense from a screenwriting perspective, but whether you think the movie is a respectful adaptation, that's going to vary a lot from person to person. It depends on what people are willing to accept or let go of.
You can poke holes in this movie like crazy, but at heart, it's an entertaining ride without any delusions of grandeur. I don't mean that in a snooty film review way. Like I said, the premise is silly, and it's having fun. I'm going to nit-pick things anyway, but there's lots of good energy!
2023 has started off, but before we get too far in I wanted to take a look back on the short animations that I think are worth your time to look at from 2022. As there are quite a bit of items in the recommended list on the Ursa Major site, I decided to go through and watch them and curate them into 11 items I think do what they do really well and are well worth consideration for nomination.
The videos here are all short, only one of them breaks the 20 minute mark. The reviews will contain spoilers so be sure to watch the embedded feature prior to reading my thoughts on them if you would like to experience them for yourself.
Be sure to take some time and enjoy the hard work these artists put into these works. Also check out the other items in the recommended list if you have time as there are some interesting items that I thought were good, but there are too many to write about extensively.
Nominations are now open for the 5th Annual Good Furry Awards. The awards, sponsored by the Ask Papabear and Uncle Bear Publishing, recognize furries who are active in the community and are doing things to project a positive, helpful, and friendly image of the fandom to all furries and nonfurries alike.
Anyone in the fandom can nominate one or more furries (note: nominees should be currently active in the community) now through March 31, 2023, after which there will be a 2-month period for voting. The winner receives a handsome trophy, a free banner ad on Ask Papabear, and a check for $500. Past winners include Tony "Dogbomb" Barret, Soatok Dhole, Ash Coyote, and Cassidy Civet.
There will also be a Lifetime Achievement Award announced by special committee. This award debuted last year to recognize furries who have made a lifelong impact to the fandom. Last year, the co-winners were Rod O'Riley and Mark Merlino.
To learn more about the award, go to https://www.askpapabear.com/good-furry-award.html. To nominate someone, follow this link: https://www.askpapabear.com/goodfurrynominationform.html.
Before Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, even. How about DreamWorks Animation's new studio bumper? It's a bit ostentatious, even a bit overly pleased with itself. Maybe goes on a little long. But, then again, what studio bumper doesn't, nowadays? But, being a celebration of DreamWorks past triumphs, it's interesting to note what franchises were chosen to be spotlighted.
Right out the gate, the Bad Guys are getting quite a vote of confidence, despite being the new guys with one movie under their belts. So I think it's safe to say we're getting a sequel. Also for furries, the Kung Fu Panda series is featured, and we already know that's got a fourth movie coming. The How To Train Your Dragon series is also represented by Toothless, despite the fact that the last movie came to a very decisive story end. It's one of the more acclaimed franchises of DreamWorks, so it has to show up, and even if there are no more movies, smaller screen spinoffs are still happening. There are also appearances by the Trolls and Boss Baby franchises, but they aren't furry, so who cares?
There are some notable absences, however. Despite featuring four movies, the Madagascar franchise is ignored. Spirit, you know, the one with the horse? That somehow managed two movies, but is apparently not an ongoing concern. And obviously, the Shrek franchise is prominently featured, but the star of the movie we're about to actually start reviewing is not. Maybe he'll show up in the bumper for movies he's not the star of?
WatchDaToast has been developing a furry-themed point-and-click adventure game for a while now, Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard, raising €36,317 from 682 backers on Kickstarter. It's just been released, and VoxelSmash has reviewed it.
You can buy the game on Steam and follow the author on Twitter.
This year's furry charity index has been released with $1,180,320.69 raised this year.
Happy New Year everyone!
Contributors for December 2022 include 2cross2affliction, dronon, earthfurst, GreenReaper, and Sonious.
Grand Island, Nebraska law enforcement report that 26 year old Aaron Zemen, who also has the alias of Tadashi Kojima and fandom name of HunterFox, was found and arrested for kidnapping a thirteen year old from the state of Utah. The juvenile was found in the car with Zemen at the a gas station.
Officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call at 3320 Langenheder Street (Git N Split). Upon arrival, officers made contact with Tadashi Kojima and a juvenile male sitting inside a white Toyota Avalon. GIEC advised officers the juvenile male was reported as an abducted child from Utah.
At this time, officers advised Tadashi to exit the vehicle. When officers advised Tadashi he was going to be placed under arrest, Tadashi tensed up and started resisting officers placing cuffs on him. Tadashi was placed under arrest for Kidnapping and Resisting Arrest.
Members of the furry community had called out Hunterfox as a suspect in accosting the 13 year old after an Amber alert was made in response to his disappearance. Fortunately, the child was found safe and can be safely returned to his family.
There are two movies that came out this year based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, the story of a marionette who gains life and then proceeds to, well, go on adventures. Both for all intents and purposes went straight to streaming services, but were treated on the higher "prestige" end of streaming movies, though we're still, as a culture, not sure if streaming first is on par with theatrical releases or more along the lines of straight to video trash (or are they TV movies?). Both were directed by Best Picture/Best Director Oscar winning directors. I personally found them both not actually very interesting, one being ridiculously over-hated, the other just as ridiculously over-loved.
The first was Robert Zemeckis's Pinocchio, which is less a straight adaptation of Collodi's novel than another one of those "live action Disney remakes" that everyone loves so much, this time of the 1940 version of Pinocchio. It released on Disney+ back in September, so I've been very efficient getting around to it. The second is Gillermo Del Toro's Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio. Normally, I hate when they do that "Director's Name's Whatever" thing to titles, it comes off as pretentious and boastful, but given the circumstances, I'm going to have to allow it this time. It released to Netflix this month.
European furry convention Eurofurence has announced that it will be changing its dates and venue for EF27:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we need to change our venue and date in 2023. We fully understand that this means an inconvenience for those of you who have already made plans and we apologise for that. It was a choice made with the confidence that it will be best for EF in the long run, but we can assure everyone that the choice was not made lightly.
We are going to announce detailed information ASAP.
We will open a new chapter for Eurofurence so you can continue to enjoy all EF has to offer and we look forward to writing it with you.
Eurofurence 27 "Black Magic" had been scheduled for 2-6 August 2023 at Berlin's Estrel Hotel, its venue since 2014. [tip: Rakuen Growlithe]
Furry information security blogger Soatek was banned from Twitter on Thursday, December 15th after posting on his account how easy it was to circumvent post restrictions that the platform had silently implemented to block links to the Mastodon version of ElonJet. In a blog post written by the security blogger, he demonstrates the differences in response from Twitter to public sharing of site flaws before Elon Musk had taken over in October versus now.
Look, we’re just quoting the artist! Honestly! We met Helen Asia at her table at WonderCon, and admired her various feline designs on everything from t-shirts to enamel pins… to a complete Cosmic Cat Tarot Deck. You can visit her web site and see more of what she has to offer. Interestingly, we met her at a con in Southern California, but all her items are priced in British pounds…
image c. 2024 by Helen Asia
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Sonious (Tantroo McNally) – 8 stories since Jan 20
dronon – 5 stories, 11 newsbytes
GreenReaper (Laurence Parry) – 3 stories, 24 newsbytes
2cross2affliction (Brendan Kachel) – 3 stories, 7 newsbytes
Rakuen Growlithe – 2 stories, 2 newsbytes
Grubbs Grizzly – 1 story
Zhora (Christine Klunder) – 1 story
EarthFurst – 5 newsbytes
Acton – 1 newsbyteGreenReaper (Laurence Parry) – 39 edits since Jan 20Sonious (Tantroo McNally) – 17 editsdronon – 2 edits2cross2affliction (Brendan Kachel) – 1 edit
Mink (Rod O’Riley) – 47 stories since Jan 20
Pegla (Danny) – 3 stories
Wileyoffit (visitor) — 1 hour 14 min ago
Anon (visitor) — 21 hours 27 min ago
GreenReaper — 21 hours 28 min ago
Fexe Wolf — 22 hours 22 min ago