Okay, but I still prefer my old copy of Les poulets n'ont pas de chaises -- Chickens don't have chairs, a great book of completely surreal French comics published by, who else, Grove Press, in 1969.
Meanwhile "buck buck b-buck, we should take our bucks elsewhere and boycott Utah and LDS owned business." There a list to a link in a post below.
This short animation is from Australian director Craig Boreham, whose longer films that deal with queer sexuality and desire have won awards at festivals around the world. He describes this animation as "dark" and I agree -- it takes all the illusory heat out of sex in public space and reveals its loneliness and desperation, the alienation from self and other. There, isn't that just what you were expecting for a Sunday morning cartoon?
Avenue Q — the Broadway musical — has inspired a large number of animators and mash-up artists to create short films taking songs from the show and matching them to animation. One of the more popular songs to get this treatment is "If You Were Gay," a sweet song of sung by a straight character to his best friend and room mate, a closeted gay character. One of the more recent versions on YouTube features original animation:
But just as interesting are the mash ups taken from Japanese yayoi anime here, here and perhaps most brilliantly, here. There are versions edited to other films, like Austin Powers, and version edited to episodes of SpongeBob. Personally, I would love to see this mashed up with bits and pieces of old Laurel and Hardy films. Let me know if you find any that you think are particularly brilliant.
I've always been a big fan of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Even more so of Dr. Peabody and his boy Sherman. When asked in those idiotic online personal questionnaires what celebrity I look like I always say Peabody's Boy Sherman, grown up. But more on that later....
So here they are, Boris and Natasha, Moose and Squirrel, in an odd tribute to reality television, such as it is.
I remember the first time I read this monologue in The Essential Lenny Bruce. Everyone has been memorialized George Carlin these last weeks, but he would never have existed had it not been for Bruce, who went to jail for saying things Carlin made millions with. This cartoon version of his take on The Lone Ranger is one of my favorites.
Gay science fiction animation — that brings together several things I love. This little film (cartoon sounds so dismissive really) brings E. M. Foster’s two-word message to humanity: “only connect,” to life in a sweet and sad way. I would almost say the aesthetic at work here is Japanese since the story is about the evanescence of connection, the beautiful sadness of it all. Alone won an award at the 2006 OUTer Gay and Lesbian SciFi/Fantasy Film Festival. I hope I see work as good as this next week at the NewFest LGBT film festival in NYC. I always go to the Saturday morning animation program. And if you’re in NYC, and you’re also a fan of this program, say hello when you see me.
This is the first episode in a lovely little animated series that chronicles the adventures of a young gay man — this is already a genre of its own and amazingly enough post Stonewall the stories seem to have an archetypal feel that remains the same across generations. It may well be the Jungian archetype of the Puer, but it has heart and humor and sweetness along with a sharp eye for the world we live in.
An interesting note is how this is different from everything that has come before in that it appears on the web in weekly installments, not merely on youtube, but on its own website, vickvancouver.com — which is connected to queer community in this city on the edge of the future. (Yes this New Yorker has Vancouver envy.) The creators of this cartoon connect live events, web presence (not only their own site, but youtube and facebook groups) and community outreach. And commercialism feels relaxingly absent. What a pleasure.
Long before the now iconic Simpson's opening sequence with Homer heading home from the nuclear power plant, pulling out the radioactive rod that fell down his shirt and throwing into the street there was a cartoon called Jollity Farm, set to the music of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.
The band was a dadaist musical version of Monty Python (whose members they worked with on a British children's show in the mid '60s). And Jollity Farm is an upbeat number that seems perfect for kids — all the animals on farm make their appropriate sounds — not unlike Old McDonald Had A Farm. Except that in the cartoon, well, there is the rather unfortunate effect for the animals of living next to a nuclear power plant.
The cartoon begins innocently enough, with the music and the motions on screen reminiscent of so many cartoons from the '30s where it seemed all of nature was dancing to a jazzy rhythm. The kind of music you hear on Don Byron's Bug Music, his marvelous tribute the to music of Raymond Scott, some of whose music you have heard in Warner Brothers cartoons. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, go right now and listen to Powerhouse. You'll know it in a second, but it wasn't written for a cartoon. Scott was a serious Jazz composer. It just works well in so many cartoons. But I digress — except to note that many of the Bonzos were also originally serious Jazz musicians who also channeled the English music hall tradition.
Watching this cartoon you can see the influence of Warner Brothers, Disney and Scott. And you can see how it may have influenced Matt Groening. And you should wander over to youtube and take a look at all the Bonzo's songs. One of my favorites is their absolutely insane Sound of Music.
To call this 11 minute claymation telling of the Greek myth of Achilles and Patroclus a cartoon does not feel right, regardless of the fact that this is certainly animation. It brings together so much that I love — Greek mythology and folk tale, animation and queer representation in media. This is not for children to watch. I mean, naked men in claymation? There is a rape scene in this cartoon that is intense and horrific. It is the story of the violence of war writ small. Yet this little film is really about the love between these two men. As the narrator asks: What makes a leader of men — the armor or the heart? Made in 1996, it is narrated by Derek Jacobi and was nominated for a BAFTA award. Be patient though, because it's long it takes a little while to load, but believe me it is worth it.
Who knew there was a gay pornographic super hero animated movie? It sure wasn't at any gay film festival I've been at — and I've not seen the trailer online before, even tho the flick is more than a year old. I wonder how come? Unless somehow I blinked and it went by that fast. Nevertheless, here for your adult pleasure (and this is no children's cartoon) is a bit from Stonewall & Riot By the way — don't click on the video screen, but on the start button of the video controls at the lower left...
