By now you might have caught wind (or teaser trailer) of Hop, a new live action/CGI film coming next spring from Universal Pictures. If not, here’s the run-down: It seems that one day the Easter Bunny (voiced by UK comedian Russell Brand) is accidentally run-over by Fred (James Marsden), an out-of-work slacker. Now Fred is forced to keep the bunny in his home until he heals enough to complete his job — a fact that both of them find terribly annoying. The film is directed by Tim Hill, best known for Alvin and the Chipmunks, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, and Muppets from Space. The animation was created by Illumination Entertainment, who created this year’s film Despicable Me. Oh, and that trailer? You can find it on You Tube, or find out even more at Hop’s official web site, I Want Candy. Check out the film when it premiers on April 1st, 2011.
Funny Animal
The Stink of Love
It looks as if picnic-stealing bears aren’t the only toons giving you a guide to life lately. Now Insight Editions have brought us The Stink of Love: Pepé Le Pew’s Guide to L’Amour. It’s available in hardcover, written by Pepé Le Pew himself with the help of Sally Deems-Mogyordy. Here’s the description from Amazon.com: “Learn from the master of l’amour! In The Stink of Love, Monsieur Pepé Le Pew tells readers how to charm a belle femme with helpful chapters on Grooming, The Chase, and Couplehood. Let Pepé tell how to put one’s best paw forward on the path to love, how to anticipate a potential mate’s needs and desires, how to woo and romance, and — most importantly — how to hold on to her! As Pepé says, ‘There is very little difference between men and women, but vivre le difference!’ Mais oui, love is a many splendor’d thing! As the world turns to shades of pink and red, cynics can warm their hearts and laugh out loud to Pepé’s cheerful self-delusion. Deems-Mogyordy’s writing is pitch-perfect Pepé Le Pew, completely in character. As Pepé might say, ‘Cherchez la femme!'”
BOOM Go the Ducks
Boom! Studios have two new Disney-Duck-related items on the shelves at your local comic book store right now. Darkwing Duck Volume 1: The Duck Knight Returns brings together the first Darkwing Duck story arc in a single full-color trade paperback, written by Ian Brill and illustrated by James Silvani. The people of St. Canard have grown worried when their loyal protector, “the terror that flaps in the night”, hasn’t been seen in more than a year… and evil is on the rise again. Is it time for the Duck Knight to rise again too? Meanwhile, readers looking for more of Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck should look for the new hardcover, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion. It features “the pre-chapters, the post-chapters, and the in-between chapters” of Don Rosa’s sought-after work. You can find out more about both of these at Boom! Studio’s web site.
Gummi Bear Reunion — On Line!
Short notice but: Animation writer, producer, and show-creator Jymn Magon is hosting another “webinar” this Saturday, December 11th, at 5:00 pm (Pacific Standard Time). This time he’s presenting a special 25th anniversary show for Disney’s The Gummi Bears — still a popular favorite animated TV series, to say the least. The two-hour “webinar” will include live interviews with June Foray (the voice of Grammi Gummi), Katie Leigh (the voice of Sunni Gummi), Art Vitello (director), Ed Wexler (layout), Gary Eggleston (backgrounds), Michael and Patty Silversher (theme song composers), Mark Zaslove and Len Uhley (writers), and of course the series creator, Jymn himself. Signing up will cost you $20.00, and you can do so by visiting Jymn Magon’s web site.
image c. 2010 Walt Disney TV Animation
The Origin of Fish’n’Chips
Steve Hamaker (best known as the colorist for some issues of the comic Bone) created a rather strange superhero comic known as Fish ‘n’ Chips. Now Cartoon Books brings together the first issues in a full-color trade paperback, Fish ‘n’ Chips Volume 1. Here’s how they describe it: “Solomon City is under attack by vampyres, and the only people willing to stand in their way are a telekinetic goldfish with a robotic body and a lightning-charged cat! Don’t miss the origin story of the superhero team of Jaxer ‘Fish’ and Clave ‘Chips’! Exclusive pin-up gallery features new works by James Kochalka, Alex Robinson, Andy Runton, David Petersen, and Kazu Kibuishi.” The graphic novel is available now on Steve Hamaker’s web site.
Spider Man Helps The Duck
Whenever Howard the Duck turns up in your comic book, things are almost guaranteed to get weird — or weirder than usual. Such is the case in Spider-Man: Back in Quack, a new full-color one-shot comic written by Stuart Moore with illustrations by Mark Brooks and Joe Suitor (and published by Marvel Comics, as if you didn’t know). It’s seems that Howard the Duck’s brain has been thoroughly scrubbed, and his hard-edged humor has been ground down to make him more… socially acceptable. It’s up to none other than Spider-Man to save to the duck from the threat of mediocrity… But does the world prefer the new “Cynical Duck” over good old Howard? You can find out now: This book is on the shelves.
Stu Bear in the 25th Century
Viper Comics has a notably unusual sort of graphic novel that’s available now. Here’s how they describe Stu Bear in the 25th Century: “A freak avalanche turns Stu Bear’s annual hibernation into a 500 year frozen sleep. Rediscovered and thawed, Stu finds evolved, hairless, intelligent bears, descendants of Stu’s brother, the new dominant species; living in floating cities above the Earth. But as a seemingly incurable plague threatens to destroy all life, Stu finds he’s the only one who can save the day.” The story was created by Jeff Bushell, who previously wrote the screenplay for the feature film Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The full-color art was created by Beware of the Art Studios. The Viper Comics web site includes a link to a YouTube video preview of this softcover book.
Return of the Love Skunk
And they just keep coming… Now word is out from Hollywood that Warner Brothers will soon be starting work on a live-action-with-CGI Pepe Le Pew feature film. In other words, a world of humans where only the amorous skunk Pepe and his feline love-target, Penelope, would be animated. New York Magazine is reporting that none other than Shrek himself, Mike Myers, will be voicing Pepe le Pew for the movie (rather than Joe Alaskey or Maurice LaMarche, who’ve voiced him in other recent animation projects). The point of all of this, of course, is to re-brand Warner Brothers characters like Pepe before they run out their copyrights, and to get them back in the public’s eye so they will again start moving merchandise. No word yet on a planned release date for the film. The folks over at Cartoon Brew don’t seem very happy about this whole development.
