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Ursa Major Winners for 2011

Jun 8th, 2012
by rodney.
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Hey there, we’re back among the living. Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter has been down with a very, very nasty sinus infection for no less than two weeks, and is only just now getting back to his feet. So it’s time to play some major catch-up with In-Fur-Nation, yes?

The winners of the Ursa Major Awards were recently announced at a Saturday afternoon ceremony at CaliFur in Irvine, California. The June 2nd show was emcee’d by CaliFur’s own Gary Whalen. Greenreaper was on hand to accept Flayrah’s award for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine. The full list of winners for 2011 looks like this:

Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture: Kung Fu Panda 2 (Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson)

Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series or Short Work: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Produced by Studio DHX)

Best Anthropomorphic Novel: Isolation Play, by Kyell Gold

Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction: “How to Get Through the Day”, by Kyell Gold

Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work: Nordguard, Book One, by Tess Garman & Teagan Gavet

Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story: Furthia High, by QuetzaDrake

Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip: Housepets!, by Rick Griffin

Best Anthropomorphic Magazine: Flayrah

Best Anthropomorphic Website: Equestria Daily

Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration: Blotch, for the cover of Nordguard, Book One

Best Anthropomorphic Game: Pokemon: Black and White

In addition, the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), which administers the Ursa Major Awards, announced a new “ALAA’s Choice” award for a nominee which the committee felt deserved special mention for its merit. This year that award went to the graphic story Red Lantern by Rukis and Alectorfencer.

The Ursa Major Awards are the “People’s Choice Awards” for anthropomorphic fandom, nominated and awarded every year by votes from regular fans like you. Want to get involved?  Make suggestions? Visit www.ursamajorawards.org to find out more. And start thinking about what to nominate for 2012!

image c. 2012 ALAA

Game Art from Japan

May 23rd, 2012
by rodney.
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Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is an Ursa Major Award-nominated video game from Japan which (according to its Wikipedia page) is “a spiritual sequel to the Tail Concerto game”, which was also released by Namco Bandai. Now the anime/manga fan site Otaku.com has let us know that the Solatorobo Sketch Book is available for import, and you can order it on their site. It’s expensive (kind of), but it this softcover book features some striking anime-style furry art.

image c. 2012 Namco Bandai

Po’s New Comic Book Series

May 19th, 2012
by rodney.
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There’s just no getting around the Kung Fu Panda.  (Of course not! He takes up too much room!). First off Ape Entertainment’s’ Kizoic imprint is releasing the popular Kung Fu Panda comic-book miniseries from last year as a collected trade paperback called Kung Fu Panda: Kung Fu Fighting. And then this July, Po and the Furious Five (and Master Shifu, of course!) return in a brand-new full-color monthly series, Kung Fu Panda: Tales of the Dragon Warrior (written by Quinn Johnson and illustrated by Massimo Asaro). Find out more about all of these at Things From Another World.

image c. 2012 Ape Entertainment

Unico comes to DVD

May 17th, 2012
by rodney.
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Unico is a well-known and well-loved anime and manga character created by the late great Osamu Tezuka in 1976. A baby unicorn with the magical ability to make people happy, he draws the wrath of jealous gods who think only they should have such powers. Tezuka was unsuccessful in turning his popular manga into a TV series, but Unico did find his way into a pair of feature films in the early 1980’s.  In The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (from 1981, directed by Toshio Hirata), the West Wind is charged with carrying Unico away to a far-off land when the gods banish him — but she takes pity on him and sets him free.  Now Unico and his friends are on the run, with the angry gods in hot pursuit! Then in 1883 came Unico in the Island of Magic (directed by Moribi Murano) where Unico and his friends join the fight against an evil wizard who plans to turn all living things into his zombie slaves. Both feature films (dubbed into English) were popular VHS tapes in the late 80’s but have long since gone out of print. Now comes the word that Discotek Media are releasing both Unico films on DVD this month, each with both the English and original Japanese soundtracks. You can find out more about all of this (including several Unico fan sites) by checking out Unico on Wikipedia.

image c. 2012 Tezuka Productions

This Movie is for the Birds…

May 14th, 2012
by rodney.
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Sorry, sorry… sometimes you take the easy way out. This movie is actually for people who like birds! It’s called Zambezia, and according to an article at Cartoon Brew, it’s set to premier later this year in Africa — with a possible appearance in North America sometime in 2013. Zambezia is the first CGI feature film to come out of South Africa, produced by Triggerfish Animation. It tells the story of Kai (voiced by Jeremy Suarez), a young African falcon who sets off in hopes of finding a fabled City of Birds. No big shock, he finds it: But at first he has trouble fitting in, and then the entire city finds itself threatened by egg-hungry reptiles! Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonard Nimoy, and Abigail Breslin are among the voices you’ll hear as well. Check out the trailer on YouTube, or the official Zambezia page from Triggerfish, and keep your ear to the sky in 2013.

image c. 2012 Triggerfish Animation

Off to Meet the Wild Things

May 12th, 2012
by rodney.
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Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter was taking a work-related trip to Nashville, TN for a few days. Now it’s time to get caught up…

The literary world (heck, the world in general) was saddened recently by the death of Maurice Sendak on May 8th at the age of 83. By far he was best known as the writer and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are, which revolutionized what a “children’s book” could be — and gave us all some cool monsters to befriend — when it was first published in 1963. But that is far from Mr. Sendak’s only legacy to Furry Fandom. Prior to Wild Things he was the illustrator of the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik. (Nelvana used his Little Bear designs when they created the animated Little Bear TV series and feature film in the late 1990’s.) In the 1980’s Mr. Sendak was often hired to be a production, costume, and art designer for East Coast opera productions, including the 1981 production of The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janacek — possibly the most anthropomorphic opera ever, and certainly the most anthropomorphic thing on stage before Cats came along. Most recently, Maurice Sendak had his works translated for the big and little screen: Where the Wild Things Are was adapted into a feature film by Spike Jonze in 2009, and that same year Sendak’s short story Higglety Pigglety Pop was adapted into a short film (starring the voice of Meryl Streep) using  a combination of live-action and puppetry. If you want to find out more about Mr. Sendak’s wide body of work, check out his Wikipedia page. But be warned: There are Wild Things there.

image c. 2009 Warner Brothers Pictures

Dragons on your i-Phone

May 4th, 2012
by rodney.
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Dreamworks Animation have announced the release of a new video game for the iPad and iPhone called Dragons: Tap Dragon Drop (get it?).  Players take on the role of Hiccup and Toothless from the How to Train Your Dragon movie series. As a terrible storm approaches the village of Berk, the vikings hurry to move their sheep to safety. But the sheep are scattered all over the island! Hiccup needs to train his dragon Toothless to herd (and in many cases, air-lift) the sheep away from danger while losing as few of them as possible. Dreamworks has a YouTube video preview of the game up now.

image c. 2012 Dreamworks Animation

New Disney/Pixar Films

Apr 29th, 2012
by rodney.
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The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation have announced several new films they’ll be completing and releasing over the next couple of years.  First up is a feature film called The Good Dinosaur, written and directed by Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo, Up — he was also the voice of Dug the dog in the latter movie). This new film (set for release in May of 2014) explores what might have happened if dinosaurs never went extinct. Would they wind up being our pets? Or would we wind up being theirs? Also in the pipe are a film based on the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos, and an untitled film (set for release in 2015) about the inner workings of the human brain.

 

That’s a Joke, Son!

Apr 13th, 2012
by rodney.
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If you don’t know about the McKimson brothers, you should — especially if you love anything about 20th Century animation. Chuck, Bob, and Tom might not be the household names that Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng have become, but they probably should be as they had their hands in an amazing number of animation projects. Now there’s a new book by Robert McKimson Jr., I Say, I Say… Son! that attempts to fill you in on their amazing story. This new hardcover book is arriving from Santa Monica Press in early July, but here’s a preview from Amazon: “The first survey dedicated to the work of the McKimson brothers, this book offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the upper echelon of 20th-century animation and examines the creative process behind the making of numerous popular characters and classic programs. Featuring original artwork from the golden age of animation, this book includes a wealth of material from many professional archives—screen captures, original drawings, reproductions of animation cels, illustrations from comic books, lobby cards, and other ephemera from the author’s collection—while surveying the careers of three groundbreaking animators whose credits include Looney Tunes, the Pink Panther, and Mr. Magoo. Beginning in the 1920s and then tracing the brothers’ work together at Warner Brothers Cartoons in the following decades, this history details Robert McKimson’s creation of such beloved characters as Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, and Speedy Gonzales; Tom McKimson’s work at Warner Brothers, Dell Comics, and Golden Books; and Chuck McKimson’s long career working in comic books and then later at Pacific Title, creating animated film titles and commercials, including his award-winning work on Music Man, Cleopatra, and The Sound of Music.” The book’s forward was written by John Kricfalusi of Ren & Stimpy fame.

image c. 2012 Santa Monica Press

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