It's the most important steak of the day, Bidwell

First thing's first.

The Princess and the Frog is out.
Disney's very VERY long awaited, much anticipated, often quite debated, possibly ill-fated, race issues agitated, musically demonstrated return to classic 2d hand drawn animation.
Obviously one of the main things of this film that caused an uproar amongst retarded soccer moms and political pundits is that the cast is pretty much all black. Which according to people with bad memory, is a shocking revelation because all of Disney's character's are white.
Oh wait. Thats not true. Disney's always had a wide range of ethnicity in their films and people are morons.

Anyway.


The most important thing about this film is how successful it will be. It cost about 100 million dollars to make. And it made about 30million in it's first day. So, I'd say its got a damn good chance of making quite a heap of money, proving that 2d animation is not dead to the common american public. That if you produce a film, no matter what medium it may be, if its good, and advertised well, people will come to see it.


Now of course, the fact it's making money is only a small thing people have been curious about, with the most important question being "Is it good?"


Yes.
Hell yes.

First thing's first the film completely trumps the cliches of a Disney film. The main character, Tiana, is a very average but very hard working woman who wants to fulfill her father's dream of opening up a restaurant.

She also has a friend named Charlotte whom you expect to grow up into a horrible spoiled human being, as she is pretty spoiled by her father as a child at the start of the film. WRONG. She grows up to be a very kind yet hyperactive friend who is surprisingly generous who nearly saves the day at the end of the film.

Naveen, the prince, is nothing like a Prince disney has ever done. He's basically your average party guy with rich parents. He sails from place to place, playing in bands and enjoying life. A playboy. And a bit of a jerk. But not to the point where he's an asshole or a snob. Just enough to make him a smartmouth and often very funny.

Dr.Facilier is the best villain I think Disney has done since Frollo in the Hunchback of Notre Damme. A slick voodoo witch doctor with a mouth that says just the right thing to say at just the right time, ensuring he can get people to do what he wants. He moves like a serpent, sliding from place to place with a wonderfully agile way of walking. And he has a bunch of demons living in his house. Big ones. That sing.


And unless you dislike jazz, bluegrass, or big band numbers I cant imagine anyone disliking all the wonderful songs in this movie. Theres alot of songs. And each one is catchy, although I think most people including myself have taken a natural favoritism to "Friends on the Other Side" which is the song Dr.Facilier sings that outlies his plan to take over the town and turns Naveen into a frog.


I can't imagine anyone not thinking this movie really recaptured that magic the films in the 90's had. And I imagine those who do think that are wearing some awfully thick nostalgia-goggles.

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I like the villain enough where I might...MIGHT...try to draw him. MIGHT.

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Speaking of drawing, Team Fortress 2 has had the largest and most generous update of a 2-year-old niche shooter that I think will ever befall a game franchise. It's actually rather disturbing. Like I don't think a video game developer will ever do something this big and complex for free ever again in the history of time.

For starters, each chunk of the update has been adorned with some delightful pages of a Team Fortress comic book. 21 pages so far. Not only do these comics flesh out a very interesting backstory to the game, but they also provide some interesting character dynamics that I honestly dont think anyone ever expected. Plus they are drawn in a lovely art style that reminds me alot of Mike Mignola.

All the amusing little jokes and references in the comic are great as well. How the events in the first few pages actually occur at the same time as one of the animated shorts Valve made for the game. How the demoman, who is a one eyed scottish explosions expert, has a statue of Odin (the one-eyed Norse God) in his lawn. How his family's crest has "In the Land of the Blind, the One Eyed Man is King" in latin written around its outer edge. How they show that the fact the Soldier character was never in any armed forces and is basically a homicidal maniac, is actually a trait the Soldier is ashamed of. How the monkey-business with Saxton Hale actually is a page of subtle clues about the new weapons being added into the game within the next few days.
They even gave the character's NAMES. Which considering that, until this point, the characters have been strictly referred to by their jobs (even in conversation between characters) is really a bit of a shock. Helen is the Announcer and Administrator. A new character who delivers weapons to the players in the game named Ms.Pauling. The demoman's name is Tavish Degroot. The Soldier's "codename" is Mr.Jane Doe.

It's all very amusing.

I think Valve has healed the wound left in my heart when Microsoft bought Rareware, and Rare became a perverse strange parody of itself.
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So what does this have to do with art? Well besides games being an artform, technically.

Valve were having a propaganda poster contest! And me, being the fanboy I am, hopped on the opportunity train immediately. Any chance to draw characters I like, is a good excuse.
So I made these:







I have no chance of winning as there is some GODLY stuff that has shown up in the contest already, but still, this was fun. Theres alot of references to the original Team Fortress crammed into that first one.

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In "i'm a whore" news, I added a whole bunch of shit to my zazzle store. Posters of things from cartoons I made that noone remembers, some new shirts with little weird characters on them, etc.

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To end this post, I finally got a chance to use my camcorder. I made two videos of what is basically a summarization of two nights I spent with my friends.
You can see how I look and talk in real life. Isn't that exciting? No it's not. Its basically 20 minutes of us smoking, drinking, and eating. So I mean, if that's your kinda thing, then have at it.



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I also really rushed out this new episode of weebl and bob for my employer.
The Dragon's Den

note: the above cartoon will make alot more sense if you have seen the tv series The Dragon's Den.

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ALSO
I've been a very busy man this week.
I finished off a bunch of old flash cartoons and submitted them to albinoblacksheep.

You can tell they are old because of how bad the drawings in them are. However, they are amusing enough to be worth putting up, I thought.


So here are 4 new SHORT flash cartoons for you people to watch.

Vacation

Toilet Fetus

McCree's Interrogation

Shanta Claush




And thats it.
Have a nice day!