This is vewy, vewy distuwbing

If you have not watched any episodes of the new animated Looney Tunes show then you are missing scenes like this.

-Elmer Fudd Grilled Cheese Sandwich song-

Another example of a cartoon not really made for the kiddies.

A lazy, slightly creeped-out Sunday post.

Cry havoc and let slip the hogs of war

Archer is currently one of my favorite animated shows. The adventures of Sterling Archer and the dysfunctional spy agency ISIS and the cast of characters is wrong on many levels. The show is obscene, rude and pushes boundaries. The delivery of H. Jon Benjamin, who voices Sterling, is comedic and note perfect. The recent two part episode where Sterling battles breast cancer and goes on a deadly rampage when he discovers his costly, life-saving medication was replaced by sugar and Zima was the funniest television I've seen in ages.

While the animation is what brings people to the show it is the characters that make them stay. The entire cast is great and they play horrible, flawed people with few redeeming qualities seemingly effortlessly.

The title sequence is awesome and retro, capturing the pastiche of the 1960s-1970s era of spy thrillers perfectly. You can view the lead in to Archer at the website The Art of the Title Sequence which breaks the creation of the opening credits down a bit.

Visiting hours are 24-7, so click the picture and get your visitor pass!

A lazy Sunday post.

But will it play in the Borscht Belt?

Today's musical video comes from an episode of the animated Batman: The Brave and the Bold series. The clip has been out there for a while and while I usually watch the show, I passed on that particular episode due to my general dislike of the Matches Malone character. That is a choice I now regret.

From September 2010 here is Catwoman, Huntress and Black Canary singing the Birds of Prey Song. Words by Gail Simone, sounds by Nika Futterman, Tara Strong and Grey DeLisle.

The entire act is pretty naughty for a show that is supposed to be for children and it was reported that the US release was delayed to reanimate some of the more suggestive scenes. I have no idea if this is the reworked version or not. For those of you who don't understand all the innuendo, the Birds are rating the male members of the DCU superhero club by size and stamina.

A lazy, kinda risque Sunday post.

The Saga of the Family Guy

In the December 13th episode of Family Guy the character of Peter Griffin takes over his Father-in-Law's company and becomes a power-mad tyrant who abuses his employees. During the show one of the things that came to my mind was: "It sure would be funny if Swamp Thing made an appearance in some sort of parody to The Anatomy Lesson."
Well, that's exactly what happened. So while the 'Swamp Monster' gag was not knee-slapping hilarious it was a nice homage that should get the notice of any fanboy.

Motion Comics: Animation of the Past, Today!

Does no one remember Clutch Cargo?

Click for a look at what childhood horrors your Dad had to deal with!

I don't see the lure in the "new" Motion Comics. Unless they are viewed on something about the same size as a book I can't be all that interested and that has more to do with my age and how my eyes work than my fear of new technology. But I get why they are being produced. Motion Comics can give the public their movie fix in between animated specials and live action films. It also serves as one of many intermediary steps before publishers finally pull the plug on the long, slow death that is print media.

One of the things I have noticed by observing the younger generation and the media empires that produce content for them is that their entertainment is disposable to them. This is much as it was for both the companies and consumers of decades past before the notion of collectability and preserving the content of the past for use in the future became as widespread as it did starting in the late 1960s. Today more than ever everything is only momentarily cool and amusements are consumed on-the-go and rarely revisited. I think this is why comic book companies cater mostly to the aging, hard core fans that began reading and collecting at the end of the Silver Age.

There is an inevitable evolution to these things. Originally the stepped-down animation style of a motion comic was little more than a digital version of a Power Records album. Given the high cost, slow internet and CPU speeds a character would rarely do more than shift a few degrees in place, giving the illusion of action in the narrative. One of the more understated yet quite effective use of motion effects in still frame cartooning was the use of blinking eyes of the characters in the online For Better or Worse strips. If you were not paying attention it would really creep you out.

As technology improved the expectations of both the creators and the readers increased and currently motion comics are typically made with pretty high production values, the Watchmen motion comic being a good example. Eventually Motion Comics will probably get to the point were the line between full animation and the simplified Syncro Vox-style will be blurred.

Reverse Evolution

The Transformation of Henry Limpet

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964).