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Author: Rakuen Growlithe

The documentation of Alpha and Omega (trailer) is as much a cliché as the content. Its closing disclaimer assures us that the story is completely fictitious; all well and good, yet it continues with: “No identification with actual …. products is intended or should be inferred.”

This could only have been added out of tradition, as this is little more than a rip-off of prior animated films, Disney’s in particular. The only difference is that the originals did a good job.

This isn’t a well-known studio’s production (indeed the credits say that it’s split between the US and India) and unfortunately that is very clear. While the scenery looks rather good, the wolves – intended to be the focus of your attention – needed a lot more detail in their models. This is particularly noticeable in the tails, which often seem to have been tacked on at the end; and worse, in an incredibly poor design choice, their hair. Wolves don’t have human head hair, and its inclusion does not do the characters any favours.

Most characters don’t stand out on their own in any way; the exceptions are sometimes for the wrong reasons. Eve (Kate’s mother), for example, stands out for having a nose at least twice the size of anyone else in the film. Despite her lack of aesthetic appeal, she makes up for it with one or two good lines:

If any of you wolves have hurt my daughter, I will personally rip out your eyes and shove them down your throat so you can see my claws tear your carcass open!

Character-wise, nearly everyone is unbelievably shallow. You don’t need to spend more than a few seconds listening to their lines to learn everything there is to know about them. The one exception is Lilly, who we see keep her feelings a secret. Humphrey, who as a main character ought to be one of the more complicated ones, is a joker; apart from that, there’s really nothing more to him. He has feelings for Kate, but there is no subtlety, and never any real ‘feel’ to them.

The story is decent, but it’s been seen a thousand times before. Aside from being derivative, the biggest disappointment is how the quadrupedal characters occasionally feel the need to stand on two legs and dance. They look even worse in that pose and The Lion King showed it was entirely possible to have an excellent quadrupedal dance sequence.

Following on that thought: Disney made a point to include songs, often excellent ones, into their films. Alpha and Omega didn’t copy that though, which worked against them. In a train scene, which reminded me of Spirit’s train scene in Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron, we get a strange choral howling and symphonic music. This is a really beautiful scene; you can feel a climax building, a climax that could be reached with a powerful song. Instead we scrabble on the lower slopes of the peak, failing to climax and abruptly changing tone, as well as seeing the animators stretching events (again) to conveniently suit the plot.

If I had to find a single unique feature in the story, it would have to be the lack of an evil character. There is a conflict between two wolf packs, but neither comes off as bad; one of them is just a bit mental. Strangely, there is no second-in-command to balance the leadership and the packs blindly do what they are told, which makes the ending a laughable, bipolar, roller-coaster of battles and peace over the smallest issues. It isn’t even slightly satisfying, as no one seems to have much reaction to near-death of one of the pack members and the viewer is left with a bunch of questions about issues that the film appears to have just forgotten.

In the end, Alpha and Omega seems less like a proper film and more like a film student spent his time cutting together his favourite scenes from old Disney films and, when told that wasn’t allowed, changed it enough to look slightly different. If it were a parody, it would have succeeded. As it’s own film, it is a failure. It can still be enjoyed, perhaps especially in a group where you play ‘spot the inspiration.’

submitted by AstronotusOcellatus
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submitted by wonderfuldog
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I don't get what the big deal is. Why is it so important that people don't think we're weirdos? What difference does it make?

I hate seeing furries trample over each other over this. So much useless drama arises over people getting tense about other people making the fandom look bad. People care too much about how other people act or behave and don't let them live their lives as they please. I think we often forget that furry doesn't mean the same thing to everyone.

I think this would make for good discussion. What's your opinion on this? Why do you care (or not care) about how other people make the fandom look to outsiders?

Edit: this is kind of in response to some of the comments here http://www.reddit.com/r/furry/comments/jkkqh/what_behavior_do_you_consider_is_taking_furry_too/

submitted by jmelo-uw
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The real reason Yogi Bear - and so many other cartoon characters - wears a tie.

This is a scene from the first episode of Star Fox: The Animated Series. The boys are all still in their late teens, and in their last year of the Cornerian Flight Academy, and this is where they meet the future Star Wolf team for the very first time.

submitted by Eclipser
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NCsoft's long in development MMO by Carbine Studios has finally been announced and detailed with some screenshots and a trailer. WildStar will be a large-scale and dynamic MMO, and just so happens to feature a purple-haired bunny girl! :o

There's currently no timeframe for release.

{gallery}NewsImages/PC/Wildstar1{/gallery}

submitted by SamuraiSmurfette
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I am very interested. Are there any good ones out there?

submitted by Ragingsquism
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Ready for some fuzzy, fluffy kitties and cubs on your Windows 7 Phone? Microsoft recently announced plans to release a mobile version of Kinectimals for Windows 7 phones at the 2011 Gamescom event in Germany.

"Players can care for and bond with their favorite pet cat or bear cub using touch screen controls to feed, pet, play and nurture them on-the-go from their Windows Phone while also enjoying Xbox LIVE integration of Achievements and Leaderboards."

{gallery}NewsImages/Furry/kinectimalsmobile{/gallery}

We really can’t top this description (from Amazon) for The Trouble with Chickens: A J.J. Tully Mystery, so we’ll not try. “J.J. Tully is a former search-and rescue dog who is trying to enjoy his retirement after years of performing daring missions saving lives. So he’s not terribly impressed when two chicks named Dirt and Sugar (who look like popcorn on legs) and their chicken mom show up demanding his help to track down their missing siblings. Driven by the promise of a cheeseburger, J.J. begins to track down clues. Is Vince the Funnel hiding something? Are there dark forces at work—or is J.J. not smelling the evidence that’s right in front of him?  Bestselling author Doreen Cronin uses her deadpan humor to pitch-perfect effect in her first novel for young readers. Heavily illustrated with black-and-white artwork from Kevin Cornell, this new series is destined to become a classic.” It’s in hardcover from Balzer & Bray. The Amazon entry also features a video ad that Doreen Cronin put together for the book.

image c. 2011 Balzer & Bray

So come on and join? it's probably one of the funnest social sites for us furrs.

furnation.com

submitted by Dionbry
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submitted by 123not-it
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On Wilfred, FX's Elijah Wood comedy adapted from the Australian original, the titular character is a dog — to everyone except Ryan (Wood), the near-suicidal neighbor who agrees to dog-sit him. To Ryan, Wilfred appears as a walking, shit-talking, hung-over man in a rumpled dog suit. Wilfred exhibits both human and animal behaviors: He watches a Matt Damon movie, then indulges in the urge to dig holes and pee freely around the yard. He gives Ryan some legit life advice (between beers and bong hits), and he also humps stuffed animals. This all raises a number of questions, obviously: How crazy is Ryan? If Wilfred is a dog, who's smoking the other half of those joints? And if he isn't a dog, then is Wilfred a furry, a person who puts on a costume, attends conventions, and perhaps gets down in a fur suit? To investigate this last question, Vulture spoke with Kilcodo, a practicing furry — her avatar is a lemur — and a professional fur-suit-maker, about Wilfred, the aesthetics of the dog suit, and how it's Ryan who's really the furry.

More than a decade after the beloved PBS show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” went off the air, the series is getting a sequel. Fred Rogers passed away in 2003, leaving behind a legacy of nearly 900 (!) TV show episodes spanning five decades. Despite his passing, The Fred Rogers Company has announced the creation of a “multi-platform animated series aimed at preschoolers.” The new show will be called “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” and will concentrate on the 4-year-old son of Daniel Striped Tiger, a resident puppet of Mister Rogers’ well-known Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

"?When we called Sorin Katt for the interview, we asked to speak with Kevin, his legal first name. He told us we had the wrong number. When we asked to speak with Sorin, however, he responded immediately. Besides talking to us about how he got involved in the furry lifestyle (the "fandom"), Rocky Mountain Fur Con and the fur community at large, Sorin, who is 33, also told us about his dayjob -- software development -- and his partner of nine years, whose fursona is a fox. Although his developer co-workers know Sorin runs a convention, he doesn't flaunt his furry lifestyle: "It's not something I hide, but it's not something I make a big deal of -- just like a lot of things in people's lives," he explains."

The inconsistency of cartoon characters wearing pants has always baffled me. If Donald Duck doesn't wear pants, why does Mickey Mouse? What about Alvin and the Chipmunks vs. The Smurfs? I'll give some credit to the Looney Tunes, as they are committed to the "animals don't need clothes" bit, but everywhere else it's up in the air. I'm not the first person to think about this aloud, and I won't be the last, but now Puss in Boots is here to promote one idea over the other.

?It's a well known fact that animals are people, too, which is why Morrissey doesn't eat them. Less well known is that some animals are actually people, a rare and fascinating sub-genus of sapiens sapiens known as Furries, which work, play, hunt and mate unseen among the less heteroclite members of their order. In an ongoing effort to observe and categorize these woodland creatures into several distinct phyla, we sent a crack team of Westword scientists into the field to observe them in their natural habitat: a furry convention. These are their results.

O you silly Japanese. What won't you advertise with fursuits?