To Bespoke or Not to Bespoke

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I scrapped this vid of former NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman (now head of Electus) speaking at the MIPTV market in Cannes off Deadline.com.   I use the term speaking loosely because I have no idea what he’s talking about.  

I’ve been in the online entertainment business for a few years now and I’ve heard a lot of jargon masquerading as a business plan,

Why I Want Everyone to see Furry Vengeance

As of this writing, Furry Vengeance, the live-action-Brendan-Frasier’s-crotch-attack-a-thon-full-on-rip-off-of Over the Hedge has a 0.0% Top Critics rating on Rottentomatoes.com.  

I’ve never seen a rating that low. 

Apparently this “movie,” from the makers of earnest docs like Food Inc. and The Cove, is so bad even the crickets are boycotting.   This is unfortunate, because if enough people went to see it, they might be reminded how much they enjoyed Over the Hedge and wonder aloud why DreamWorks Animation doesn’t make a sequel.

But it’s going to bomb big time because even kids realize they’ve already seen it.   

Sigh… If only it had had a few ninja leprechauns.

Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind…

Pickles, cotton candy, unicorns and Kurt Cobain:  No where but Over the Hedge.

Cul de Sac: Beni Can Fix It

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Another RingTales Cul de Sac animation.  I just love this strip.  And these animations.  There’s just a warm, friendly charm about them.  Richard Thompson has a way of making the Otterloop family as familiar as your own.  

See more RingTales Cul de Sac animations on Babelcom.com.

Gumming the Hand That Feeds Me

I noticed this morning over on comics.com/over_the_hedge that today’s comic got a particularly low rating. I’ll admit this isn’t one of our best weeks, but I’ll bet the low rating stems from Verne’s outing of Glenn Beck as, well…  a willfully ignorant cynical demagogue. 

I forget that Fox News’ propagandacasts are so popular.  I like to think of Fox News as The All Train Wreck Channel.   If you broadcast regularly scheduled train wrecks,

Unpublished Dilbert Cartoons on Stolen iPhone 4G Prototype

Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, published these two timely and funny cartoons on the stolen iPhone 4G prototype on his blog yesterday.   He had to post them on his blog because he couldn’t get them in the paper fast enough.   He works far ahead and the earliest he could get them in the papers was mid June.  

It’s absurd that he couldn’t just drop them in this week, but such are the publishing demands of an ancient and dying industry.    At RingTales we discussed whether to animate these, but we wouldn’t be able to get them done until next week at which point we thought they would seem dated.  

Such are the demands of a new and thriving industry.

I Leave All My Worldly Possessions to…

I don’t have a will.  I should have one, but it’s tough to get motivated to do the whole, organizing-the-end-of my-existence-thing.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to contemplate my untimely demise.  It’s depressing.  It’s sad.  It really eats into my time writing blog posts about how writing about death really eats into my time writing blog posts. 

“Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality.”

I hope Emily Dickinson is right and Death is a kindly cab driver who speaks English, bathes regularly and takes the direct route to immortality.  No detours to get the fare up.   Because

Pooch Cafe, Over the Hedge Animated Cartoons Now Podcasts

The RingTales Pooch Cafe and Over the Hedge animated cartoons are now available as iTunes podcasts.  They each have a five cartoon archive and will updated weekly going forward.   

Click on images above to subscribe to each podcast.

XKCD LOL

For the 14 of you out there who are unfamiliar with the best comic online, let me introduce you to XKCD, a web comic about romance, sarcasm, math and language.   

We at RingTales would love to animate XKCD, but creator Randall Munroe doesn’t see the added value.  He has a point as far as added entertainment value.  Animating his comic won’t make it funnier or make his audience enjoy it more.  But animation would grow his audience.  As great as XKCD is, there’s a huge market out there that would enjoy XKCD, but unfortunately won’t take the time to read it.  For now, I guess, Randall is satisfied with the size of his audience and income.   

Click on the comic or here to see it larger and also go to the XKCD site.

Some Squirrel Over the Rainbow

We should have had Verne spraying the Old Spice into his shell in the first panel as a set up for the final gag.  Right now it just comes out of the blue.   

On the other hand, who doesn’t want to see Hammy riding a unicorn over a rainbow?  

Win some.  Lose some.  Scratch your head some. 

Over the Hedge:  Now with extra dill.