An interlude about furry cult classics

[chipotle]

There were a few formative commercial works in the early years of furry fandom-we’re talking around two decades ago-that took the idea of “funny animals” and treated them in serious, adult fashion. (“Adult” in this case simply means “not aimed at children,” although the arguments about the place of sexy critters in the fandom started, well, before

Comments

[kereminde]

Cult classic? You mean like "Meet the Feebles", also apparently *really* hard to find? Well, supposedly because Mordenheim recently located a copy (recent as in, two or so weeks ago). He claims he's been looking for it for a long time; I rather believe that, considering we had to comb an entire used video store on our first trip there and didn't find it though it was in their counts. The next time we found it just kinda sitting there.

Or are we talking closer to things like "Fire and Ice", which was decent animation that got buried? . . . though I admit it ran a bit long for me at the time I had watched it last. Hopefully I'll be able to run the tape again soon and watch the whole thing.

[twentythoughts]

This is one good thing about living in Norway: Stuff like that often finds its way on to a DVD release. "Meet the Feebles" was part of a Peter Jackson DVD series, released as the Lord of the Rings movies were making the rounds. For a while, it was pretty easy to find, and cheap as well. Seems to have been a limited release, though, as it's listed as "temporarily sold out" in most places now.

[chipotle]

I'd say it's more like the latter than the former. It's not a perfect movie by any stretch, but it's certainly more than decent animation. It shares that "labor of love" feeling that Bakshi's work has -- although all the complaints that might be made about "Rock & Rule" being quirky and undisciplined go over tenfold for just about anything that Bakshi does. :)

[sebkha]

Personally, my favorite lost furry classic has always been Animalymics. The character designs in that always struck me as more attractive furries than Rock & Rule's. Similarly though, it also had a pretty good soundtrack.

[chipotle]

I've only seen "Animalympics" once, fairly recently; it was a show I was thinking of but didn't name when referring to shows with lines adults can appreciate. But, despite furry fan protestation to the contrary, it struck me as pretty firmly in the mold of later Warner Brothers cartoons -- designed to be all-ages entertainment. "Rock & Rule" is unusual in that rather than trying for the "enjoy it on multiple levels" approach, it's just not aimed at children; outside of Japan, Bakshi was the only animator consistently trying to do that. (And that's the only sense in which I think anyone could call him "consistent.") While they're both definitely products of their eras, so to speak, "Animalympics" also struck me as not having aged quite as well as Rock & Rule did.

[momentrabbit]

I first saw R&R when it was broadcast on the CBC - on a black and white TV, which made it a little more surreal. I kept having flashbacks to it when Droids came out, because Nelvana reused the music shamelessly there. And then, the second time I saw it:college.

I believe Sheridan has a print from the original: it didn't have any generative fading when I saw it there. They show R&R to all 1st year animation students... Part of the Animation History class on Nelvana, which is, after all, where nearly all the Animation Faculty came from.

Now, of course, they can show it from the DVD, which is cool. And with a copy of The Devil and Daniel Mouse, no less, in the higher-cost edition.

Groovy. All my childhood influences coming home to roost. Gotta put this on my list of things to get when the finances are under control.

[koogrr]

Yes, even their desks came from Nelvanna.

I've seen it a couple times on TV. You know, I think one of my friends has a Laser Disk copy. His dad owned a second-run theater, they had a mini-movie theater in their basement, and they had 35mm reels and laser disks of a variety of odd things.

I've got Animalympics on VHS. Official release.

Meet the Feebles was inescapable at one point, strange to think of it as rare and obscure now.

[chipotle]

According to the production notes (which were surprisingly good on the 'deluxe' edition, which was still only $20, so I figured what the hell) it was three and a half years in production, not five -- but, it definitely sounded like it had some of the same problems Disney's "Black Cauldron" had: over budget, way over deadline, constantly in flux, and a finished product that nobody was quite sure what to do with. The comparison to "Heavy Metal" is pretty apt, as it came out about the same time R&R would have, if it had actually come out. (It doesn't sound like it *ever* actually got a full theatrical release. Apparently, Nelvana was actually approached to do the animation for "Heavy Metal," too

[cowboy_r]

I rather liked Rock and Rule. I'll have to look up the DVD. Thanks.