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Upcoming furry comics for July 2011 (Previews only)
borderline, the last two in this post. An even later report than
usual; sorry. But it may still be of historical value.
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DARK HORSE COMICS ([link])
MAY110046 Usagi Yojimbo #139 24pg, b&w $3.50
by Stan Sakai
Inspector Ishida returns and mystery ensues. I like him.
?Russian Domesticated Foxes??
Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
On Thanksgiving, the Sonic balloon will sky rocket into the atmosphere with massive blue spikes, his signature white gloves and red shoes, shining in the sun. For his parade return, Sonic will measure approximately 48-feet tall, 60-feet long, and 26-feet wide, solidifying his presence, once again, as a historic character in the 2011 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade line-up.
“Sonic the Hedgehog was a Macy’s Parade trailblazer when he burst into the line-up, becoming the first-ever video game character to fly in our annual march,” said Amy Kule, executive producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “Sonic continues to be a worldwide phenomenon and we are thrilled that this Thanksgiving his distinctive blue spikes will be seen zooming down the route once more, as part of his 20th birthday celebrations.”
“The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a celebration of the most famous faces and characters in our culture, so it was a simple decision to bring Sonic back to the parade to celebrate his 20th anniversary in great company,” says Judy Gilbertson, Senior Brand Manager, SEGA of America. “It will be a thrill for Sonic fans young and old to see the balloon this Thanksgiving.”
Alongside his parade return, Sonic’s highly anticipated new title, Sonic Generations, will be released this holiday season,commemorating Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20thanniversary.
Sonic Generations features Sonic the Hedgehog playable as both the much loved classic 1991 character and the modern day video game hero he has become. In this exciting new fast paced adventure set across three defining eras from 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog, you can now speed through some of the most iconic environments, playing as Classic Sonic in re-imagined 2D side scrolling levels and as Modern Sonic in all new, stunning 3D levels.Sonic Generations will be available this holiday season for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Nintendo 3DS™.
The 85th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade airs nationwide on NBC-TV, Thursday, November 24, 2011 from 9:00 am – Noon, in all time zones.
Fire Department rescues kitten with leaf blower??
Solatorobo Soars to the States this September
White Lion - Home... is a Journey
According to the legend of the Shangaan, white lions are the messengers of the gods, but it has been years since one has been seen in their remote African valley. When a white lion is miraculously born into that valley, a young Shangaan named Gisani, finds himself destined to protect this rare and magnificent creature at all costs. This young lion, whom will be known as Letsatsi, is cast from his pride and forced to embark upon a perilous journey of survival.
Close to starvation, Letsatsi befriends Nkulu, an older lion and together they learn how to survive in the harsh African wilderness Gisani, who is watching over Letsatsi, takes a job as a tracker with a local hunter, who has his sights set on leading the hunt for this rare and magnificent white lion. Gisani, guided by fate, believes that he must find a way to prevent this tragedy from happening. When Nkulu is killed by a farmer, Letsatsi is forced once again to survive on his own. After many trials and tribulations he finally learns to hunt by himself and grows into a magnificent adult.
But before he can take over a pride of his own, Letsatsi and Gisani must face their greatest challenge - the trophy hunter- for whom legends are worthless and rare skins priceless.
WHITE LION…home is a journey.
Punky Pets!
The newest cartoon band exploding on the scene is called Punky Pets, and this one is all funny animals! Well-connected funny animals it seems, as they not only have a whole line of t-shirts and plush dolls associated with them, but also sponsorship from the Vans Warped Tour and San Diego Comic Con. As you can see on their web site, they also have a whole set of Warped Tour bands promoting their stuff. The web site also features animated videos by the Punky Pets. Here’s what we can’t tell: Are they a “real” band, or just cartoons? Their web site is mum on that point. Stay tooned and you’ll find out more when we do!
image c. 2011 Punky Pets
Anthrocon 2011 media coverage roundup
Author: GreenReaper
Another year has come and gone for Anthrocon’s 4,400 attendees. But what did the media make of it all?
Local stations WTAE (video, slides) and WPXI (video) gave mostly superficial coverage, while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (photos) went into a little more depth. [Higgs Raccoon, baracudaboy, Wild`Bill`TX]
The convention was also picked up by Reuters, who posted a short piece based on organizers’ statements.
In a story likely to be repeated in 2012, furries were blamed for booking out local hotels. Conversely, Anthrocon’s CEO complained of a lack of hotels, telling the Post-Gazette that “when downtown hotels became fully booked in mid-May, [registration] dropped off dramatically.” This helps explain this year’s growth rate of 3.8%, compared to double-digit increases in prior years. (Somehow the parade count rose over 19% to 854.)
Meanwhile, 10th St. sub mogul Cory Robinson reported two months of business in five days:
We love furries. They’re just people having fun, and they don’t hurt anybody.
Find the full article here: flayrah – furry food for thought
Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.
Video: ‘Out of Sight’
Author: GreenReaper
The five-minute animation Out of Sight tells a touching story of Chico and her dog. [earthfur]
Read more: The making of Out of Sight
A Fur-Suit Movie from Europe
The European furry fans known as EZ_Wolf and Shay have produced what they claim to be the first full-length feature film starring fur-suit characters. Bitter Lake is more than 60 minutes in length, and it’s scheduled to premier at Eurofurence in August. The fantasy adventure was written and directed by Shay, with production design by EZ_Wolf and original music by Fox Amoore. The fur-suits were created by Clockwork Creature Studios. The film’s web site features character studies, the story background, creator information, and a trailer for the film.
AD 033 - First Hunt - High school sucks when you're different from everyone else. It sucks more when you get punished for standing up for yourself. But when staying in control means the difference between life and death, maybe there's another way. "First
High school sucks when you're different from everyone else. It sucks more when you get punished for standing up for yourself. But when staying in control means the difference between life and death, maybe there's another way.
"First Hunt" by Jim Lai
Read by Chris Hvidsten of the Outcast Novel Podcast
Music cues by Infinity Squared
AD 033 - First Hunt - High school sucks when you're different from everyone else. It sucks more when you get punished for standing up for yourself. But when staying in control means the difference between life and death, maybe there's another way. "First Hunt" by Read...Movie review: ‘Animals United’
Author: dronon
Long story short – Animals United (trailer) is a crappily-written CGI movie. Avoid it.
Animals United is the British dub of a 2010 German 3D production, Konferenz der Tiere (Conference of the Animals), based on a 1949 children’s book by Erich Kästner. More accurately, the movie took bits and pieces from the book and ignored the rest. It had been adapted into animation once before, in 1969.
You know you’re in for a bad film when the second conversation involves independently re-inventing the game of golf and has the following dialog: “Yes, but what was that?” – “Only hard-as-a-rock, sun-dried hyena poo-poo.” Sadly, this becomes relevant later on.
Basic story: African savanna. The annual flood hasn’t shown up, everyone needs water, so Billy the meerkat risks venturing into the Valley of Death and discovers a giant man-made dam that’s trapped the water for an artificial lake and luxury hotel. He’s joined by his friend Socrates the lion and a gang of other animals not native to Africa.
They disrupt a human conference on climate change and run for it, hunted by an evil human (creatively named… Hunter), and aided by the hotel’s resident chimpanzee. Everyone escapes except the lion, who gets locked up. Returning to the savanna, they rally the other animals together, return to the dam, create some chaos to rescue Socrates, and break down the dam due to luck and narrative convenience. Dance party. The animals then travel to America to make mankind aware of their plight. The end. (Plus some extra scenes during the credits.)
It’s horribly written and badly paced. There aren’t any really good jokes in it, save for some predictable gags when the lion explores the hotel gym. It’s all downhill from there, not that there’s much of a slope to begin with; I doubt even little kids would enjoy this crap. The characters are pretty one-dimensional and the schtick gets tired fast. The giraffe obsessing over her appearance. The swishy monkey hairstylist. The capitalist human hotel owner and his voice-of-reason kid. The revolutionary French rooster who gets far too much screen-time. The Tasmanian devil who explosively farts a huge noxious cloud of green gas out of multiple orifices – which, I gotta tell ya, fails to increase in hilarity each time he does it.
This is the kind of movie where you feel compelled to shout at its stupidity. If the savanna animals have never heard of humans before, how come they know how to sing “Splish Splash” and “King of the Road”? What kind of lion parents would name their cubs “Socrates” and “Mambo”? What ocean course does a floating bathtub take in order to pick up animals from Australia, the Arctic and the Galápagos, to eventually land in Africa? How does Hunter teleport from the top of the dam to the other side of the valley, driving a jeep? Why would a hotel own a biplane equipped with a missile? Where’d that motorboat come from?? If your token child character is supposed to be wiser than the adults, why would she think it’s safe to pet or release a caged lion?! If you’re going to build a giant hydroelectric dam to generate electricity, why aren’t you running water though it?!? MALE KANGAROOS DO NOT HAVE A POUCH!!
(Deep breaths) On top of this, it’s hitting you over the head with environmentalist themes with less subtlety than a Miyazaki film. Especially the tortoises, who have to point out just how bad humans are to the planet, which takes four-and-a-half grinding minutes.
Now comes the difficult part of this review: Can anything positive be said about the film? Well, except for the kangaroo’s buzz-cut, pouch and floppy ears, I thought that visually-speaking, the character designs were good. Some models were obviously overused, like the cape buffaloes and rhinoceros. But if you’re a lion or meerkat fan who needs online user icons, you might be able to snag some from this film. Particularly if you need a meerkat with a good cartoony expression of panic.
Despite trying to tempt audiences with known British entertainers, the voice-acting is pretty dull. Because the film was originally in German, the speech doesn’t always sync up properly. The main character, Billy the meerkat, is voiced by James Corden. Unfortunately, because Billy is a scatterbrain, Corden can’t deliver lines with gravitas, and ends up sounding like a high-pitched cartoony goof.
The only attempt at depth is a shallow side-plot involving Billy’s son being teased because of his dad’s uncharacteristic dark fur color. Billy’s unreliability ends up with him being told off by his own son. (“You’re not my father anymore.”)
Socrates the lion is far more interesting as a character, and is voiced by Stephen Fry, so he sounds great! Unfortunately he’s the most lazy lion imaginable, so his plot potential is handicapped right from the start. For the second half of the film he’s largely absent due to being locked up. Still, he’s the smartest character in the whole thing (relatively speaking); we get to see flashbacks from his younger days, and he has the odd quirk of being a vegetarian. I wish the film had done more with him!
Overall, this movie isn’t worth bothering with. In furry circles, it might be useful at a furmeet, if only as something to play in the background with the sound turned off. If the meet’s energy is low, or if some folks are shy, or if you don’t want the TV used for something else, Animals United can serve as a momentary distraction without being engaging enough to prevent people socializing.
There are lots of films like this; Alpha and Omega, Roadside Romeo, The Missing Lynx, Animalympics… not good enough to really entertain, but not bad enough that they can’t lend a little silent background atmosphere to a gathering. That’s about as good as it gets sometimes
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