December 2015
2015 Anthropomorphic Reading List, December update
Posted by Fred on Tue 1 Dec 2015 - 22:23
The ALAA’s 2015 Anthropomorphic Recommended Reading List has already had its November update, and will post its December update in a week. This includes all of the anthropomorphic works published or released during 2015 that have been submitted by someone as being worth reading, looking at, or playing. Look it over and see if you have been missing anything.
If there is any 2015 work that you feel is worth recommending that is not on the List, please hurry and submit it to recommended@ursamajorawards.org.
Call for help: We have a recommendation of Teagan Gavet’s wraparound cover for the EuroFurence 21 Conbook for Published Illustration, but this does not appear to be posted on the Internet. Would someone who has the EuroFurence 21 Conbook please scan the cover and post it on the Internet so we can link to it and everyone can see it?
'Savva: Heart of the Warrior'
Posted by Fred on Tue 1 Dec 2015 - 22:33Here is another new animated feature that we aren’t getting in America, at least right now. The Cartoon Brew website has just posted this article about Savva: Heart of the Warrior, a new Russian animated feature that opened in second place in that country, and has since been released in Poland and is coming to other countries in 2016. An American voice dub has been prepared, but no American release has been scheduled yet.
The CB article includes the trailer and a half-dozen stills. Savva and many characters are human, but there are plenty of talking animals including Angee, a white wolf or werewolf.
Pixar leads the Annie nominations
Posted by crossaffliction on Wed 2 Dec 2015 - 13:53
ASIFA-Hollywood has announced its nominations for this year's Annie Awards. These awards are given for achievements in animation in movies and television. This year, Pixar's two movies, Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur, have together racked up 25 nominations between them.
The nominations for Best Animated Feature include Inside Out, with further nominations in Animated Effects, two nominations in Character Animation, Character Design, Directing, Music, Production Design, two nominations in Storyboarding, two nominations in Voice Acting, Editorial and Writing; The Good Dinosaur, with further nominations in Animated Effects, two nominations in Character Design, Music, Production Design and three nominations in Storyboarding; Anomalisa (the only movie nominated for Best Animated Feature with no claim to furry), with further nominations in Directing, Music, Voice Acting and Editorial; The Peanuts Movie, with further nominations in Character Animation, Directing, and two nominations in Voice Acting; and Shaun the Sheep Movie, with further nominations in Directing, Production Design, Writing and Editorial.
How can we not call 'Get Squirrely' a crappy movie?
Posted by Fred on Wed 2 Dec 2015 - 14:10This article by Amid Amidi on the Cartoon Brew website about the coming anthro animal feature Get Squirrely says it all, or at least enough for us. The Canadian CGI animation looks horribly unfurry for the squirrels and bats, but okay for the frogs and snakes.The whole cast appears to be talking critters: bats, birds, hedgehogs, flying squirrels, regular squirrels – he may not have fur, but he’s a natty dresser – and more fart and poop jokes than you could wish for.
From the producer of four Shrek movies? With John Leguizamo, Jim Cummings and John Cleese?
An offer of help to FurNation from FurrTrax
Posted by DarkXander on Wed 2 Dec 2015 - 16:31FurrTrax.com is making an offer to FurNation.com to host that site for free for the next six months, until it can get back on its feet and figure out its own server space or other hosting arrangements. If that becomes a problem FurrTrax is willing to extend its offer within reason, or simply continue to host FurNation for a small fee, in the range 10 or 20 dollars, just to cover the added bandwidth usage on FurrTrax's pipeline.
FurrTrax can give FurNation a VM or Segment on our VMware System, which on Thursday, December 3, will become a Dell R710 with 96GB of RAM, and 8 CPUs, the PERC H710 512MB SAS/SATA Controller, and 6 SSDs (2 x 60GB, 2 x 120GB, 2 x 500GB).
FurNation would have its choice of Operating System, all FurrTrax would need is an ISO to pump into VMware and it would allow FurNation to install it remotely, as if FurNation were at the console using the remote management FurrTrax runs.
If FurNation opted, FurrTrax would also be willing to toss in one or two of its hard disks in FurrTrax's two empty bays, and then FurNation would have its own dedicated space and Disk I/O. FurrTrax does not rent this infrastructure, FurrTrax owns it and as such can make these types of accommodations. Though FurNation and FurrTrax have had issues in the past, this is FurrTrax's olive branch to bury the hatchet, and shine together.
What was Flayrah's most significant story of 2015?
Posted by crossaffliction on Mon 7 Dec 2015 - 16:31Three comic book reviews: Pull List #27 ('Batman/TMNT', 'New Avengers' and 'Squirrel Girl')
Posted by crossaffliction on Wed 9 Dec 2015 - 19:55
This is a first.
It's the first time a Pull List will feature a review of a comic the same day as it actually hits newstands. Or comic book stores. Or wherever you happen to buy comic books. If you buy physical comic books and don't just read them online.
Anyway, that comic book is Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. So that's exciting! And then we have some more Squirrel Girl comics, which would be a bit more exciting if they also came out today (which they didn't) and I also hadn't featured Squirrel Girl in the last two Pull Lists (which I did). Oh, well, reviews after the break!
Trailer: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows'
Posted by crossaffliction on Thu 10 Dec 2015 - 17:32The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming "Out of the Shadows" (and out of nowhere) with a new trailer showing off the sequel to last year's reboot. Besides the turtles, it features fan favorite characters like Casey Jones, Baxter Stockman and, for the furries, Bebop and Rocksteady.
Disappointing lack of ninja vixens; they're saving that for the next sequel, hopefully.
The movie is releasing June 3 of next year, so add that to the pile.
After 20 years, furry website FurNation shuts down
Posted by Sonious on Sun 13 Dec 2015 - 11:17On December 10th, 2015 FurNation announced that it will be closing its website after a string of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and staff's family, health, and career problems. The announcement marks the end of one of the original furry social networks.
It is a good time to reflect on what FurNation was, and what this loss means for the future of the fandom.
Insult the king's dog, go to jail
Posted by Fred on Thu 17 Dec 2015 - 05:44I don’t pretend to know what this Thai film, Khun Tongdaeng: The Inspiration, is about, but it’s partly animated, it’s partly anthropomorphic, and it shows Thai King Bhumibol Aduyadej’s pet dog, Tongdaeng (Copper), as a canine superheroine.
Thailand has the strictest laws against lese majeste (insulting the king) in the world, which have been interpreted to prohibit any news criticism of the king’s government. Recently Thanakorn Siripaiboon, a 27-year-old man, was arrested on charges of violating those laws for possibly insulting the king’s dog by posting a “sarcastic” photograph of her on Facebook. The 88-year-old king is in a wheelchair, and in the photo it looks like the happily-panting dog is pulling the wheelchair. Siripaiboon’s lawyer says that the charge is ridiculous for several reasons, including an absurd stretching of the laws against insulting the king.
Here is a trailer for Khun Tongdaeng: The Inspiration. Nothing wrong here; this is approved by the Thai government. The movie, a live-action/animated adaptation of a book about Tongdaeng written by the king, is #2 on Thai box office charts at the moment.
Tongdaeng was a stray rescued by King Bhumibol Aduyadej in the late 1990s, so she must be at least 16 years old today. She doesn’t look it.
Review: 'Ewe at Work'
Posted by Rakuen Growlithe on Fri 18 Dec 2015 - 00:44
Christmas markets, and craft markets in general, can be a bit of a gamble. Many times, it's just the same old things that you will see at every market. Though sometimes you find something different, something more unique that jumps out at ... ewe. That was my experience at a recent Christmas market where I found a number of pictures and books revolving around sheep puns. It kept my attention long enough that I decided to buy one of the books; Ewe at Work.
According to the cover, it was "Voted No. 1 sheep book in Ramsgate." That's a real place! (Population around a thousand, so make of that what you will.) It features just over 90 self-contained images, nearly always involving sheep puns, drawn in a minimalist style similar to xkcd and Cyanide & Happiness. And that's it, really. You're either the sort of person who would buy a book of sheep puns or you are not.
Video: Pokémon vs. Digimon, round 2
Posted by crossaffliction on Mon 21 Dec 2015 - 00:07Last April, web animation series Death Battle's spin-off series One Minute Melee featured as combatants Digimon Renamon and Pokémon Lucario. However, that battle could be considered an under-card fight in the Battle of the Mons, as the main series has now featured Agumon and partner Tai for team Digimon versus Charizard and trainer Red for team Pokémon.
NSFW Warning: Violence with blood in embedded video.