Acum 2 seri am intrat pe un tracker si din greseala am dat la torentele cu continut in limba romana..si imi sare in ochi ceva…Mickey Mouse Romanian Comics…hopa…Si am inceput sa imi reamintesc cu cat drag le colectionam si le citeam(si pentru astea furam bani).In acest post va voi prezenta primul numar din revista cu Mickey Mouse din 1992.Sper sa ajut si eu in felul meu… .Multumesc tuturor celor care au facut posibil reaparitia lor in fata ochilor mei .

Numarul complet aici

asa zicea descrierea..:D

Aceasta revista a fost prima dintr-o serie de publicatii de exceptie scoase de Egmont in anii 90 si care a inclus Familia Flintstone, Duck Tales, Asterix, Bugs Bunny, Bamse si colectii de carti cu imagini inspirate din filmele si serialele animate Disney cum sunt Egmont mini, Egmont Maxi, Egmont Junior sau Disney Clasic. Sa speram ca cei care mai au pe acasa asemenea raritati (avand in vedere ca ele nu vor mai fi re-editate, si ca se pare nici nu mai exista in arhivele editurii) vor fi deschisi in a le aduce la suprafata.

Multumirile merg in exclusivitate catre cei care au lansat in Romania aceste publicatii (EGMONT Romania – pentru ca, pana la urma, nimeni altcineva inaintea lor nu a facut-o) si mai ales catre colectionarii care cu bunavointa le-au impartit sau urmeaza sa le imparta cu noi:

krossfire
panseluta
adi
grn (green eye)
KaRaKteR
catz
Crash1o6

Cu ocazia asta o sa incep sa postez din cand in cand benzi desenate,in engleza in principal..dar si in alte limbi .

O sa fac si o pagina speciala pentru asta..tot aici pe blog..ca sunt chitros .

Got this in an e-mail, so I thought it would be cool to do it here. You can use it if you like, of course you have to replace all the answers though. Lol

1.  What is your occupation right now? Psychologist for private practice
2.  What color are your socks right now?    to hot for socks lol
3.  What are you listening to right now?   Lil Wayne – No Ceilings
4.  What was the last thing that you ate? beef pot roast
5.  Can you drive a stick shift?  DUH, all my rides are stick, except for one lol
6.  Last person you spoke to on the phone?  one of my best friends
7.  Do you like the person who sent this to you?  shes cool I guess :-p
8.  How old are you today?  HA, wouldn’t you like to know
9.  What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?  Moto GP
10.  What is your favorite drink?  Mojito
11.  Have you ever dyed your hair?  Yup
12.  Favorite food?  pizza
13.  What is the last movie you watched?  StarTrek 2009
14.  Favorite day of the year?   my b-day DUH
15.  How do you vent anger?  kill people of course….on ps3 LOL
16.  What was your favorite toy as a child?  my 4ft bugs bunny stuffed animal…which I still have lol
17.  What is your favorite season?  toss up, winter and spring
18.  Cherries or Blueberries?  is both an option? but blueberries
19.  Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? sure
20.  Who is the most likely to respond?   hell if i know
21.  Who is most likely not to respond?  same as above lol
22.  Living arrangements? me, myself, and i. few dogs, and a cat lol nuff said :p
23.  When was the last time you cried?  march
24.  What is on the floor of your closet?  heels, heels and more heels LOL. plus clothes and other crap
25.  Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to?  hmmm
26.  What did you do last night?  played Borderlands on ps3
27.  What are you most afraid of?  rejection
28.  Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?  spicy!
29.  Favorite dog breed?  pitbull
30.  Favorite day of the week?  mondays, cuz everyone else hates monday lol
31.  How many states have you lived in? 15
32.  Diamonds or pearls?  well diamonds are a girls best friend, i guess lol. plus ive never owned any pearls
33.  What is your favorite flower?  dragon lily

The following Toys are currently on sale at Books From A Rose:

Melding the world of human beings and cartoon characters on the silver screen has been a horrendous and often disastrous task for filmmakers.

The biggest success and still the staple of this genre was the revolutionary 1988 film, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” The film showed that humans and toons could interact given a good script and an understanding of the toons themselves.

Before Roger Rabbit, there were some successes like 1964’s “Mary Poppins“, 1971’s “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and 1977’s “Pete’s Dragon“. After Roger Rabbit, these kinds of movies were giant bombs or quickly forgotten duds like 1992’s “Cool World“, 2000’s “Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle“, and 2001’s “Monkeybone“. Warner Bros. saw limited success with 1996’s “Space Jam” and saw the potential to bring the likes of “Bugs Bunny” and “Daffy Duck” back to the big screen in a giant way.

In “Looney Tunes: Back in Action“, we discover that Daffy Duck is being over-shadowed by the star power of his rival Bugs Bunny. The studio decides to make a movie without Daffy and fires him. Daffy is irate when studio executive Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman) is behind his dismissal. Daffy bumps into studio security officer DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser) who also seems to have been dismissed by the studio.

Upon arriving home, DJ and Daffy discover that DJ’s famous movie-star father (Timothy Dalton) has been kidnapped. It turns out DJ’s father had been moonlighting as a secret agent and had stumbled upon the whereabouts of the mysterious gem, The Blue Monkey. It’s up to Daffy and DJ to secure the gem before DJ’s father is killed by a maniac (Steve Martin). Meanwhile, Kate and Bugs seem to be in hot pursuit of DJ and Daffy with some news from the studio.

“Looney Tunes Back in Action” is clever, funny, delightful and hysterical.

The story of how all the characters get together is a little flat and the film is almost like an amusement park ride as we journey to different settings so that other toons can guest star. But if you love Looney Tunes then this film is sure to make you smile. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Unlike a lot of films from this genre, this film understands and welcomes what the toons are all about. They don’t give the toons complex emotions but just enough for us to understand why they are in our world.

The toons feel more real without damaging the iconic status that they are. I especially loved the film’s portrayal of Daffy Duck. He is by far the star of this movie. I loved how the film used the rivalry between Daffy and Bugs as a launching point to who these characters were in the film.

I also loved the performances of human beings as well, Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman and Steve Martin pulled off a lot of their interaction scenes without missing a beat. The interaction wasn’t stale or out of place but gelled very well.

The biggest compliment I would like to bestow would be to director Joe Dante. I have been a big fan of his films for a while now. But taking a difficult movie like this and delivering so much fun is genius.

This film is just pure chaotic fun. This is the best of the genre since Roger Rabbit hands down. Cheers, Joe.

4 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

To find out what your prize is, watch bugs until he finishes his carrot…

I’m glad some people got a kick out of last week’s list of Top Seven Worst Cartoon Ladies, because now it’s time for the sequel.

A solid female character in animation is hard to find.  If you are able to extract their likes and dislikes from their gender (they like shopping BECAUSE THEY’RE GIRLS!  They hate getting messy BECAUSE THEY’RE GIRLS!) you’re still stuck with having to make them look ‘cute’ or ’sexy’, and have a role beyond Love Interest or Nagging Psychobitch.  These seven characters all have a degree of depth and thoughtfulness in their creation.  Their qualities came first, and their gender second.

Let’s get rolling, shall we?

7.  Dora The Explorer:  Love or hate Dora, you have to admit that she is a pretty stellar example for young girls.  She’s bright, she’s friendly, she’s willing to scrape her knees and get dirty, and she sticks to her guns in the face of adversity.  And by adversity I mean cunning foxes who steal her monkey’s sandwiches, or whatever.  I put Dora at seventh on this list because her redesign to appeal to an ‘older’ crowd makes me cry tears of rage.  She went from clever adventurer to mall-haunting pre-teen overnight.  Oh, Dora of yore!  How I miss thee!

Dora, before and after. Now she solves mysteries, like Which Boy Is The Cutest Boy?

6.  Gretchen and Spinelli from Recess:  Recess is a show that centers around schoolyard stereotypes.  In the main cast, we have the Fat Sensitive Kid, the Mischievous Kid, the Smart Kid, the Tough Kid, the Sporty Kid, and the Awkward Wimpy Kid Who Is Only Occasionally Useful.  The charm of a show like Recess is that the kids realize their labels, and regard them with a resigned sort of malice.  I’ve picked Gretchen and Spinelli out here because really, out of those main cast members I’ve mentioned, which are the girls?  Guesses?  Guesses?  Gretchen and Spinelli were created as schoolyard archetypes, not as schoolgirl archetypes, and that I can appreciate.

It's a veritable Who's Who of unfair labeling!

5.  Kim Possible:  Much like an aged version of a Powerpuff Girl, Kim Possible saves the world before curfew, trying to do her homework and get a date along the way.  Kim is in every way a girl’s girl.  She idolizes a clothing chain.  She gets embarrassed in front of boys.  She hates her little brothers and uses the Puppydog Pout to get something she wants.  The reason I’m including her on this list is that Kim likes what she likes…because she likes it.  Too often animators will create a character that is supposed to exemplify a Successful Modern Woman.  She’s smart!  She’s capable!  She owns her feminity, and yet, she is completely defined by societal expectations and all of the males around her.  Kim defines herself, and while she has the normal teenage tendency to worry about what other’s think of her, it doesn’t shape her life.

You guys, this plays on the Disney channel at 10:30 PST. Why haven't you watched this, you guys?

4.  Gadget from Rescue Rangers:  Some…times!  Some…crimes!  Go slipping through the cracks, but these…two!  Gum…shoes!  Are picking up the slack, there’s no case too big, no case too small!  If you need help just call…Gadget, apparently.  Rescue Rangers centers around some rodents who solve mysteries.  It’s pretty simple.  The titular characters receive most of the credit, serious Chip and goofy Dale, but every kid who watches that show knows that Gadget is the real hero.  It’s always Gadget who makes the machines that get them out of trouble, Gadget who sees through the scam, Gadget who crafts the master plan to solve the crime.  And you know what’s appealing about Gadget?  They don’t try to hide her brilliance behind a (heh heh) mousey facade.  She is just a genius.  No glasses.  No gimmick.  No social awkwardness.  All of the things that are typically associated with the smart girl are conspicuously absent, and they let her play the hero just as much as the boys do, even if the show is named after them.  It’s a nice change of pace.

Aaugh, Gadget. Why does Google have so many fanarts of you having sex with power tools??

3.  Gosalyn from Darkwing Duck:  Gosalyn, put simply, is a kid.  She’s not a smart kid, or a dumb kid, or an athletic kid, or a sensitive kid, or a tough kid, or a wimpy kid.  She’s just a kid who lives with her dad, who happens to be a Bruce Wayne-esque fly-by-night  crimefighter.  Sometimes she worries about him, sometimes she wants to join in on the fun, but at the end of the day, she’s just…well.  She’s a kid.  The simplicity of her character without relying on overused tropes is what gets Gosalyn on my list.  It’s not easy to craft a character that doesn’t rely on a stereotype that we are already familiar with, while still making her appealing and instantly familiar.  She could ride in my sidecar anyday.

Why is it always ducks? What does Disney have with ducks? People don't even like ducks that much.

2.  Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender:  I could take almost anyone from Avatar and point to them as a model for outstanding character development, but Azula is here for a very specific reason: she is a crazy bitch.  She is a crazy bitch with fire powers and mommy issues, and she will eff you up the a, if you so much as look at her funny when she’s got her crazy hat on.  I’m a big fan of villains.  It’s tough to make a villain who doesn’t seem like a moustache-twirling Dick Dastardly or a hulking inferno of unspecified fury.  Villains need motivations too, you guys!  Something has to make them interesting, and worth our time.  With lady villains, it is almost always sexuality.  She’s evil!  What else is evil?  Uhh, sex?  Yeah.  Sex is evil.  So let’s make her very sexy and she can even make untoward advances at the disinterested protagonist!  Sounds like a plan.  Gladly, Azula doesn’t rely on these things to make her a stellar baddie.  From the start of the series, her intentions are clear.  She’s not evil, necessarily.  She just went round the bend several years ago, and never came back.  Good for her.

She will grind your bones up and wear the powder on her face like a fine foundation. AWESOME.

1.  My number one choice for awesome lady cartoon comes from a classic conundrum: how to make girls funny.  Sometimes they just aren’t, and that’s okay.  The same things that are hilarious coming from a man may not induce the same belly-laughs from a chick.  Some female comedians have resorted to giving up their girliness to get a more masculine sense of humor, but I don’t think that’s necessary.  A gal can be funny in a skirt.  A purple skirt.  With a yellow sweater, and bows on her ears:

I think I still have a sweater like that.

Babs Bunny was created as one of the two main characters of the Warner Brothers’ hit, Tiny Toons.  The animators noticed a significant underrepresentation of ladies in the original Looney Tunes, and so when its ’sequel’ began, they decide to split the character of Bugs Bunny into two halves.  The male half, Buster Bunny, contains all of Bugs’ sly charisma and mischievous smooth-talking mannerisms.  The female half, Babs, got all the screwball humor, and I couldn’t be happier about that.  Babs is a tornado of comedy, constantly lampooning the other characters in the show, doing spot-on impressions of pop-culture icons, or just inserting a quick, 1930’s era one-liner into the mix.  Unlike her counterpart, the loathable Lola Bunny, Babs can go toe to toe with her male companions and come out with the top joke.  She’s zany, over-the-top, and endlessly appealing.

All while wearing a skirt.  Who’d-a thunk it?

From CITY PAGES:

The governor’s annual deer-and-publicity-hunting excursion over the weekend seems to have turned into a bit of a PR nightmare.

Shhhh! Be vewwy, vewwy quiet! Here’s a pic of Governor Timmy heading out for the hunt.

Original image

It turns out that, unlike most years, the governor actually shot a deer this time, according to the Star Tribune. The bad news is that he didn’t kill it, and the seriously wounded buck bounded off into the forest.

This was the scene right before the horror began:

Original image

But rather than help look for the suffering animal, which is every hunter’s ethical responsibility, Pawlenty delegated the job to others because he had to fly off to a Republican Party fundraiser in Iowa.

…snip…

Despite a two-day search by the hunting party, the deer was never found. “It was extremely frustrating,” the landowner Warren Sparby was quoted as saying. “We do know he shot it, because it was bleeding profusely. We combed and combed and combed, but still couldn’t find it. … We gave it the best shot we could.”

Forest denizens were furious at the governor, and they wrested the rifle right out of his hands!

Original image
From CITY PAGES:

When Gov. Tim Pawlenty lost track of that buck he shot last week, and left it to his hunting buddies to track it down while he flew off for a political speech in Iowa, we began to ponder the degree to which the wounded creature might come back to bite him in the political butt.

With that in mind we bring you this gem of a post from a site called DeerHuntingChat.com:

What kind of slob hunter goes out opening morning and shoots a deer knowing full well you won’t have time to retrieve it or tend to it? One whose presidential ambitions override his hunting ethics, that’s what kind. I hope all you hunters out there remember this sorry episode when Tim Pawlenty comes looking for your support in 2012. Minnesota doesn’t need any more slob hunters like Pawlenty, and we certainly don’t need one in the White House.

Whoa.

This is probably not what the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, Explore Minnesota Tourism and the Minnesota DNR had in mind when they sponsored the annual Governor’s Deer Hunting Opener on Wally Sparby’s land near Thief River Falls.

If they only knew how ugly the aftermath really was!

Original image

A fost odata ca niciodata,un iepure pe nume Bugs .. El arata cam asa:

Era un iepure smecher,trasnit de felul lui,amuzant si chipes =p~.Toate iepuroaicele salivau dupa morcovele lui (pe care il purta mereu cu el ;;) ).Era sufletul petrecerilor,respectat si iubit de toata lumea.

Intr-o zi,culmea chiar in aceeasi zi cu marele festival al muzicii,aparu o creatura nemaivazuta de cei din oras.Era o creatura galbena,cu buline in obrajori,un zambet dulce,o voce super simpatica ce avea puteri supranaturale.Toti locuitorii orasului erau speriati,dar nu si Bugs El,fiind eroul intotdeauna,facu un pas si il intreba: What’s up, Doc?

Creatura,numita in lumea lui PIKACHU,scosese un singur sunet si anume: PIKA. Locuitorii orasului auzind vocea dulce si vazand creatura neajutorata,nefiind in stare sa faca rau cuiva,il “adoptase”….,lucru care lui Bugs ii displacea.

Trecura ceva ore,timp in care Bugs si Pika (denumire data de locuitori deoarece “pika” era singurul cuvant care putea fi spus de catre creatura) se priveau insistent.In privirile lor se citea ura,dar si simpatie.Nimeni nu stia cum avea sa inceapa spectacolul de festival,cum avea sa se desfasoare dar si cum sa se termine.

In sfarsit,orele trecu,iar festivalul muzici avea sa inceapa… Primarul orasului iepuresc,veni cu o propunere care pe Bugs il facu sa inebuneasca de nervi! Iepurele il ruga pe micul Pika,sa cante alaturi de Bugs pe scena,deoarece vocea lui dulce ar fi sunat extraordinar in fundal.Pika neavand ce sa faca,accepta,insa Bugs vroia scena doar pentru el,lucru care il determina sa parcurga la gesturi de “smecherie”!

Inainte de inceputul petrecerii,Bugs ii oprise microfonul-morcov lui Pika,insa el nu stia ca Pika nu era doar o creatura mica,dulce si neajutorata,Pika putea creea fulgere,tinti cu privirea si citi gandurile celorlalti prin telepatie! De indata ce Pika afla planul “malefic )” a lui Bugs,se gandi sa lupte impotriva focului,tot cu foc.Drept urmare pe amandoi ii astepta cate o capcana in timpul desfasurarii concertului.

Ei faceau un adevarat spectacol certandu-se,Pika atacand cu scoul electric…

Insa Bugs era mai rapid,muuuult mai rapid (bineinteles fiind iepure :-@ ),iar Pika obosi sa-l alerge…

Iepuroaicele din public vazandu-l pe Bugs rautacios,incepura sa-l huiduie.Nemaiavand ce sa faca,lua un buchet de flori de la o doamna-iepure din public,si isi ceru iertare de la Pika.

Pika il ierta,iar cei doi impreuna facura o demonstratie artistica care facuse spectacolul sa fie cel mai misto din totdeauna!

Acum cei doi sunt prieteni,fac desene animate impreuna (care inca nu se difuzeaza),nu se mai cearta,inebunesc lumea cu simpatia lor mai pe scurt,SUNT CEI MAI BUNI PRIETENI.

 Si-au trait fericiti pana la adanci batraneti in casuta lor pe www.lipiciosii.ro unde vor ramane mereu LIPITI

Sa nu exageram,Bugs nu a imbatranit astfel )

THE END!

© A production for www.lipiciosii.ro

I have always loved cartoons. Here is a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon.

I love television! You love television too. C’mon, admit it, even if you think you spend too much time watching T.V., you love it. Television is an incredible invention and tool. It informs, entertains, passes the time, and creates loads of water cooler topics for us all to chat about while we aren’t watching T.V. Now, with the advent of first, cable programming, then satellite television, there are a seemingly endless supply of shows we can watch. Too many, in fact, for a single person to watch all of, so along came Picture-in-Picture, TiVo and DVRs, followed quickly by DVDs of television shows, webcasts, and iPod downloads. We watch comedies, drama, sports, documentaries, reality shows, then shows about reality shows, and awful “celebrity news” programs about the people on the shows about reality shows. Let me just sum this paragraph up by simply stating the following: TMZ? OMG!

I have also loved television for as long as I remember. I have very fond and vivid memories of watching “Sesame Street”, “Electric Company”, and “Zoom” on PBS back when I was four or five years old living on the north side of Chicago. I remember the intro music to the nightly news shows my dad watched religiously (and still does). I can still sing word-for-word the jingles for Empire Carpets, Aronson Furniture, and Townhouse T.V. and Appliances. I remember all those Saturday morning cartoons and watching sitcom after sitcom like “Welcome Back Kotter”, “Barney Miller”, and “Alice” after school every day. In recent years I was truly addicted to several shows including “Lost”, “Survivor”, “The Amazing Race”, and “CSI” (yes, the Vegas one – do the others even deserve the “CSI” name?). Finally, of course, I don’t let a Sunday go by without watching 6+ hours of NFL football, though I do try to get out of the house and be social for those.

Wow, sounds like I must have a rotted brain, obese body, high blood pressure, and a propensity for violent behavior, right? Nope. Aside from being a little softer around the middle, and perhaps a little less sharp than my interestingly television-free college years, I am a pretty healthy, happy, and good natured person with a good head on his shoulders, thank you. Does this mean that too much T.V. is in no way detrimental to human development? No way!

Many studies have been done that effectively demonstrate that excessive television viewing in early childhood leads to a higher risk of all the nastiness I listed above. Just to reinforce, that was obesity, high blood pressure, delayed or reduced capacity to learn reading and writing skills, and aggressive or violent behavior and mannerisms. I guess the key question is what constitutes “too much”? It appears as though the general consensus is that any television is worse than no television, but let’s be honest about the reality of a child growing up in America and never watching any television. From what I have read, it sounds like the scientific suggestion is that 4 hours or more daily is excessive, and progressively less than that is progressively better. So, now you know what to do with your children, just cut back that television time, right? Wrong.

Like almost everything else in life, that is simplifying the issue way too much. Let’s assume that children are going to watch television. In my case, the primary child watching television is my two and a half year old son, Xavier. Xavier likes a handful of television programs, and probably watches too much television. It is frustrating for both my wife and I as we would like to curtail his viewing habits more than we have, but between my money-making efforts and her caring for seven month old Hayden in addition to Xavier, television is a convenient distraction, and allows us to get the necessities done. You might think that makes us bad parents, and you have a right to your opinion, but there is more to it than that.

Here are some of the ways that we try to make the time he spends watching television effective, and hopefully less damaging to his development:

• Avoid programming that includes commercials. Fortunately, we get the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Noggin to complement our PBS channel. I know that Disney and PBS are commercial free, and I believe Noggin is as well. Commercials suck! They are well-produced and have a very definite objective to sell products and/or services to us. The benefit that they entertain us only makes their messages more powerful, and is in no way their primary objective. Children, toddlers in particular, can’t discern between commercials and regular programming, and can often immediately want the things they see on commercials. They can do the same with things they see on television programs, but generally the programs aren’t specifically trying to sell them something, so the impact is perhaps lessened.
• Choose programming that encourages the viewers to be interactive, physically active, and thinking. Perhaps “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” isn’t the greatest, but throughout that show, the characters ask questions directly to the “camera” and even pause so the child can respond. Mickey and his pals will also encourage the child to get up off his or her butt and march, dance, skip, and stretch. Other favorites of ours that at least try to be educational include “Word World” and “Sid the Science Kid”. I am not claiming that these shows will turn our young boy into a super-genius (his genes will do that), but they are relatively entertaining even for adults which helps us interact as well and ask him questions about what he watched, what he thought of it, and heap praise on him when he demonstrates having learned something during the show.
• Get him actively playing and exploring outside the home for several hours each day, or inside if and outdoor excursion is either unmanageable or unaffordable. We utilize a local playground, the nearby train stations, and our very walkable urban neighborhood. Xavier has had the opportunity to explore some of the greatest museums our country has to offer, including the outstanding Children’s Museum on Navy Pier. FYI, if you live in Chicago, you can go to any local library and check out free passes to most of the city’s museums, pending their availability, of course.
• Read to him every night before bed, and randomly throughout the day. During reading, it is important to keep the child engaged by asking questions about the story, what he thinks might happen next, what he would do in that situation, and other questions along those lines. We need to make more time to read to him, and encourage him to “read” alone as well.

With all that said, there are some weak points we need to correct, but struggle to balance. I have mentioned often in the past that Xavier loves trains. It is no surprise he would, they are big powerful machines that are ever present in our neighborhood as we live only blocks away from the two major commuter train stations in Chicago (Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center), and steps from the Green/Pink CTA elevated line (the “El”). Along with that love of trains comes a love for train videos and shows. Xavier will watch everything from “Thomas the Tank Engine”, to a DVD series appropriately title “I Love Toy Trains”, and a surprisingly gargantuan assortment of train videos available for viewing on YouTube.

While the train videos seem innocent, they have a few drawbacks that are causing us to become more strict about his time spent viewing them. First, while not commercials, they are selling us something…toy trains, imagine that! I have to admit that I have at times gotten swept into the collectible nature of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters, of which there are many more than you might imagine. We use the wooden variety (they also are available in die cast and a plastic motorized version), which cost anywhere from $10-$30 retail per character. The various buildings and accouterments are even more wallet-thinning ringing in for prices extending well into the $100+ range. Now that he has discovered actual “O” and “HO” scale toy trains I can only imagine how high the prices of his wish lists will climb.

These shows and videos can also be quite violent. Not in the shooting way that cop shows and war movies are, nor in the reality defying catastrophic injury manner of such cartoons as “Bugs Bunny” or “Tom and Jerry” are, but rather in the frequency and seriousness of the train derailments and other disasters that saturate the Thomas series. Even in the “I Love Toy Trains” series which features video of actual toy train layouts in various shops and basements, the “funny” moments involve trains crashing and derailing. I have no doubt in my mind that Xavier’s tendency to involve crashing in all aspects of his play come directly from our decision to introduce him to the “Thomas the Tank Engine” video series. Recently, I have found myself catching him in the midst of reenacting scenes from the videos, stopping him from completing the scene, and explaining that trains crashing is actually very far from funny, and that people get very hurt when train crashes happen (regardless of how incredibly powerful they are to watch).

So, I’m not so much looking for advice as much as sharing our experience with television, and wondering if others would be willing to share their challenges with this battle (and by battle, I men with the ubiquitousness of television more than the battle with the child wanting to watch it). This is something that is very difficult to avoid due to the demands on our time, and can’t be even close to unique to us.

I’d also love to know from the parents out there if and by how much having children has curtailed their own television watching habits. I have significantly reduced mine, and now will not even watch a single episode of a new show knowing my own propensity to becoming “hooked”. I still watch “Heroes”, will not miss “Lost”, and try to keep up with “The Amazing Race”. I still watch a lot of football on Sunday and most Monday Nights. I have lost touch with “How I Met Your Mother”, “Survivor”, and “The Big Bang Theory”. The only other show in the rotation is “The Biggest Loser” which, at two hours per episode is both way too long and easy to cut away from sporadically to get things done. Those people on that show are both inspirational and indicative of the epidemic of obesity in America, and it is something I like to keep up with.

Thank you, and Goodnight.

A previous post explored the possibility that the undead attack more than just humans (see: Will Zombies Eat My Pet Monkey?).  Taking that thought to its logical conclusion, Split Reason argues that even cartoon zombies would have a craving for their furry friends.  This thick black “Bwain Season” tee, with creepy green, gray and mauve print, is all the argument they need.  To check out Split Reason’s entire line of geek and gamer merchandise click HERE.

I’m the character that wants to resemble Bugs Bunny. Bugs was/is adaptable, creative, adventurous, suspicious and — but this is subjective, of course — funny.  Around Bugs revolves the antagonists and protagonists who interrupt his world and continually come back for more. 

If all of us who inhabit Jarangwa understood our cartoon world a bit better perhaps we’d live better — and laugh better.  We wouldn’t be the Coyote chasing the Roadrunner. Because that’s what it’s starting to feel like here. When will the boulder roll off the cliff and land on the target? ACME Co. the gigantic corporation that wants control over this island, this strange universe, looms in the background. And they’ll wait us out before they make a move. Pounce when we least expect it. But I do expect it. Lawrence does too. His paranoia a daily growth problem. Fortunately I don’t see him very often. His paranoia not yet my daily problem. 

Will a cartoon hero arrive to save us when things go really wrong? Will that character be larger than Stella? He or she will have to be, because right now Stella is the only one that may be able to stop the insanity that I see building up here. Jarangwa’s tobacco universe soon a smouldering cigarette in the ashtray of a dominate universe.

If Bugs were here, what would he do? One things’s for sure, he’d retain his sense of humour and survive it all. I have an objective to do the same. Now pass the carrots, Doc.

Cateva din cele mai importante personaje de desene animate..daca ma gandesc bine cred ca sunt cele mai iubite din totdeauna.

Cartoons are as familiar to us as parents.  Probably because they were playing nonstop during our childhood’s when the idiot box raised us.  And by way of that, our childhood icons are hand drawn representations of who we’re not.  Ralph, a veritable expert of all things, checks out About.com’s list of the Top Cartoon Characters Of All Time while making personal notes of their awesomeness, or lack thereof.

Here’s the top ten.

10.  Rocky & Bull Winkle
9.  Wile E. Coyote
8. Popeye
7. The Grinch
6. Fred Flinstone
5. Charlie Brown
4. Bart Simpson
3. Mickey Mouse
2. Homer Simpson
1. Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny, the Fonzie of the cartoon world, as Psycho Mike so eloquently puts it, takes it in the end. Check out the audio to hear Ralph’s commentary on the list.

Don’t believe me?  Head on down to Hyde Park and see for yourself.

We are now midway through AFM, and things are looking up from last year. Buyers are buying, but very specific in their wants.  I had a chance to catch up with John Foster, CEO, of Odyssey Pictures who recently acquired 31 hours of animated children’s content from DPM, a French-based specialty distributor of entertainment and how-to programming.  Having scored this superb catalogue of cartoon classics (Superman, Casper, Bugs Bunny) at Cannes, John is shopping AFM before heading on to other markets like NATPE in January.  ”We are looking to acquire content libraries for the children’s market as well as for specialty markets like health, finance and education.  We are in talks with ION for television distribution, Limelight to power distribution online, and working with Spelling Communications to secure US sponsors.  Odyssey already has several European sponsors signed up.  Backed by a $10mm acquisition fund, Odyssey is on a tear analyzing mobile marketing opportunities as well as those with connected devices.  ”Odyssey soon will be launching 1-3 hours sponsored programming via satellite and on the web.  We’re starting with established content but plan to showcase outstanding original programming in time.” Interested sellers can contact John at info@odysseypix.com.

For the weekend, AFI Fest has moved to the Laemmle at 1332 2nd close to the Loews.  Rush Lines are still getting into screening for free so stop by.  And the price of admission to AFM drops significantly as the market opens up to half-market badgers on Sunday.

There are also several excellent seminars still being offered:  Sa 11/7 at USC is Distribution U with Peter Broderick, Steve Kirsner, Jon Reiss, Adam Chapnick.. and Su 11/8 at Le Merigot is Changing Indie Distribution Strategies. At both events, Jon Reiss will be signing his timely new book:  Thinking Outside The Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era.  He sent me a copy to review earlier this week and I am still deeply immersed.  Written in a light conversational tone and beautifully organized over 354 pages, Jon, a noted filmmaker (Bomb It, Better Living Through Circuitry) and CalArts teacher, passionate about connecting filmmakers to their audiences, arms filmmakers with the arsenal needed for a killer DIY direct to fan film marketing campaign.  This book drills down to specifics that allows the reader to form an actionable strategy, and is destined to become required reading for all filmmakers.   Some of his points are similar to what we’ve been covering:

- Budget as much for marketing and distribution as you do on production upfront, e.g. $100,000 production budget = $100,000 P&A budget (Jon provides detailed budgets with links to websites where assistants, publicists, bookers, sales reps/distribution consultants can be hired, and cost information to help filmmakers decide which path to take for theatrical release)

- Consider festival circuit as theatrical release, eventize screenings with cast and crew, reach out to traditional press as well as tastemaker/niche blogs for coverage, connect with fans, collect emails and zips, get venue/alcohol sponsors to throw after-parties, handout out stickers other pocketable schwag with website url, sell tees, merchandise, DVDs, CDs

The book also includes steps to create better engagement on WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube, and then in the next breath puts a call out to festival directors to see themselves as distributors, aggregators of quality indie content for traditional and new media.  It seems so complete I’m still reading on hoping he addresses ways not to trip up Oscar qualification with day and date online screenings.  An incredibly valuable resource.  $5 off if you order through this link.  Free if you’re a filmmaker who fills out the filmmaker survey (see page 17 of the book).  The companion website will be up soon at www.ultimatefilmguides.com. Enjoy!

These 4 classic Halloween themed Buggy Bunny cartoons close out my Halloween spectacular for this year. I hope that the rest of your Halloween is a safe and enjoyable one.

It’s time for me to raid the kids goodie bags

1993’s Hocus Pocus: pretty much the only thing in which I have ever seen Sarah Jessica Parker and actually found her to be attractive.

I have never seen Sex and the City. Not even one episode. As near as I can tell it doesn’t star her so much as her remains. Have some cheesecake, Skippy.

Anyway, back in 1993 she still had a little something going on in the upper decks, and she brought a kind of abandoned, childlike sylph-style ebullience to this role that was a surprisingly genuine and fresh take on such a stock role, and could have been played vampy and bimbo-tatstic in other hands.

Plus, you slap a blonde wig and some red lipstick on almost anybody and they are automatically going to be looking pretty good and I’m going to warm to them; I cite Bugs Bunny as evidence. I already liked him for that busted grill, so I was all about Lady Bugs.

I like Sarah Jessica Parker lookswise in this movie for all her blondeness, slightly immodest bosomness, and for-once-not-coated-in-makeup sharp-witch-chin-moledness. (I do like flaws!)

We tried to rent this last night down at Paolo and Miss D’s, but the ondemand was having none of it. Total folklore to pay for a movie that old and often-watched. Screw ABCFamily! We rented Monster House instead. In your face, Disney Corp.

Winifred Sanderson: Don’t get your knickers in a twist! We’re just three kindly old spinster ladies.
Mary Sanderson: Spending a quiet evening at home.
Sarah: Sucking the lives out of little children!

But I’ve been thinking about it since we considered renting it, and I drew some conclusions about the characters of the witches and what fears they represented; like what were their real crimes (I mean, other than being honest-to-god witches who were morally in bed with Satan).

It seemed to me that each witch had a central character trait around which the rest of her personality was constructed, and the actresses played those up in their performances. These traits were the unpardonable sins. The ones that got them burnt at the stake with no voice to defend them. So here’s a little list, from me to you. You’re welcome. Think nothing of it!

Things that’ll get your burnt in the stake in a rural Puritan village at the turn of the eighteenth century: