The Cryptid Kids are off and running with their first graphic novel, The Bawk-Ness Monster, written by Sara Goetter and illustrated by Natalie Riess. “Penny swears that when she was a little girl, a creature called the Bawk-ness Monster — half sea serpent, half chicken — saved her from drowning. Now, years later, she’s about to move away to a new city, and before she goes, she needs the help of her best friends, Luc and K, for a vitally important mission: seeing ‘Bessie’ one more time. But in their quest to find Bessie and give Penny the send-off she deserves, the kids stumble into a whole new problem: Cryptids are being kidnapped by an evil collector, and only Penny, Luc, and K can save them!” Available now in hardcover or paperback, from First Second.

image c. 2024 First Second Books

This is a triple movie review! Three animated films for kids from 2017, all of them originally French, that have been dubbed into English (or soon will be): The Jungle Bunch, Sahara, and The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales. The last one is the best by far, but isn't available in English yet. Coming soon!

The Jungle Bunch

Original title: Les as de la jungle (literally "The Aces of the Jungle"; here's the trailer). When my nephew was little, I took him to see the Thomas and the Magic Railroad movie, because he loved the whole Thomas The Tank Engine thing. I knew it was a franchise with loads of characters, and the movie relied on familiarity. I know I watched it, but to this day, I have no memory of it.

Similarly, The Jungle Bunch is based on a lot of television episodes, plus an earlier movie or two. You don't need to have followed any of them to watch the 2017 movie, but it probably helps to connect with it more. Personally I didn't find the characters particularly deep, and they're not meant to be. I liked some of their designs more than others. It's a computer-animated film, and the animation and backgrounds came out well. Visually it looks very good!

They called Marvin a chicken. And he was. (But only 5%.) He also plays the piano.

In the far-flung, space-traveling future, genetic manipulation has created a small subculture of modified humans that aren't exactly well-respected, but people will at least have sex with them and pay for the privilege. Marvin is pilot of the Pussy Pod, a small ship that safely transports people to and from the Henhouse, a brothel that sits just outside the limits of a space station's jurisdiction.

Legion Printing, May 2012, 78 pages. Available in eBook from Amazon.

Marvin's not a sex worker, but he respects them and cares about them. If he's a trifle ambivalent about his cattle car full of Johns, who can blame him? He's an excellent pilot and deserves more in his life. He shouldn't need to be covered in feathers, but his boss insisted because of the Henhouse's name. For Marvin, every day is a struggle to do his job well and not be bitter. He simply doesn't have the connections to find better work. But a man's got to make a living, even if it's just chicken feed.

Here is another anthro-animal animated movie that America probably won’t get. The Hollywood Reporter reported on March 14 that:

Malaysia's Animasia Studio has inked a deal with China's Zero One Animation to produce the CGI-animated feature film Chuck Chicken — The Movie.

The $8 million movie is being adapted from the successful television series Chuck Chicken a.k.a. Kungfu Chicken. Production will take place in China, but animators from both countries will work on the project. The film will premiere first in China, as the original TV series was particularly popular there, having gained 300 million views within six months of its launch on the country's VOD platform iQIYI.

The Malay Mail Online says that the movie will be finished in 2018. There are several furry fans in Malaysia including prominent new author MikasiWolf and artist Silverfox5213. Can any of them tell us anything about Animasia Studios?

Sorry, sorry… It’s called The Chicken Squad, a series of light-hearted mystery stories written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Kevin Cornell.  “Meet the Chicken Squad: Dirt, Sugar, Poppy, and Sweetie. These chicks are not your typical barnyard puffs of fluff, and they are not about to spend their days pecking chicken feed and chasing bugs. No sir, they’re too busy solving mysteries and fighting crime.” In The Chicken Squad: The First Misadventure, “… when Squirrel comes barreling into the chicken coop, the chicks know they’re about to get a case. But with his poor knowledge of shapes (‘Big’ is not a shape, Squirrel!) and utter fear of whatever it is that’s out there, the panicky Squirrel is NO HELP. Good thing these chicks are professionals”. Following all this? Check out this new book series from Atheneum Books for Young Readers over at Amazon, in one of several formats.

[Hey, don't forget! You only have one week left to vote for the Ursa Major Awards -- the Hugo Awards (tm) of anthropomorphic fandom! Visit www.ursamajorawards.org to find out how.]

À la française, a very anthropomorphic student film by Julien Hazbroucq, Ren Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu, William Lorton, and Morrigane Boyer of the SUPINFOCOM animation school of Arles, France, has won Best in Show at the (40th annual) SIGGRAPH 2013 convention in Anaheim, California, July 23-25, and is considered a sure nominee for the 2013 Best Animated Short Film Award (Oscar) at the 86th Academy Awards, March 2, 2014.

Here are a 1’24” extract, a 47” Vimeo trailer, and a SUPINFOCOM press release (in French).

P.S.: Many of SUPINFOCOM's student films are anthropomorphic. Here is a clip from "Home Sweet Home", about anthropomorphic houses, from the international animated film festivals circuit; and another from "My Little Croco", about a crocodile who is married to a sheep.

The Chicken or the Egg, a 3’21” student film by Christine Kim and Elayne Wu at the Ringling College of Art and Design.

Bonus video: The closing credits to Dragon Half; lyrics by Kyoko Matsumiya.

This week I accidentally stumbled across two animated shorts, both from the DailyMotion Talking Animals account. The first, Chicken Wings by Pauline Kortmann, is described like this:

Once upon a time, when the Wild West was still wild, a Cowgirl and a Werewolf travel the hostile land. As a chicken walks their way a fight about the appropriate use of it makes them forget the danger around, till it seems to be too late.

The second, Flamingo Pride, directed by Tomer Eshed, is "The story of the only heterosexual flamingo, in his desperate attempt to find love." It's not entirely safe for work.

For fans of Robert McKimson’s Leon Schlesinger/Warner Bros. 1940s-1950s theatrical cartoons, there will be a screening of 35 mm. prints of eleven of them on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90403; (310) 260-1528. The eleven, which McKimson was the director of, include Hillbilly Hare, Devil May Hare, Rabbit’s Kin, Hot Cross Bunny, The Foghorn Leghorn, Bedevilled Rabbit, Bill of Hare, Tabasco Road, The High and the Flighty, Falling Hare, and Walky Talky Hawky; featuring Bugs Bunny and Foghorn Leghorn & Henery Hawk.

This event is in celebration of publication of the brand-new biography I Say, I Say….Son! A Tribute to Legendary Animators Bob, Chuck, and Tom McKimson, by Robert McKimson Jr., with a foreword by John Kricfalusi (the creator of Ren & Stimpy) and an introduction by Darrell Van Citters. McKimson Jr., Kricfalusi, and Van Citters will sign copies of the book in the lobby beginning at 6:00 p.m., and hold a discussion following the screening.

(And don’t miss my review of the book.)

We are not men! We are chickens!!!

The Cartoon Brew website presents “Chicken Core: The Rise of Kings”, a 6’02" preview for an epic fantasy directed by Oricha Aliyu, about an oppressed kingdom of chickens (apparently all male) fighting against a dark crow overlord.

Not too impressive, until you consider that it has been made by a group of young self-taught animators in Lagos, Nigeria who formed the Sporedust Media studio just this May. With commentary on Nigeria’s nascent by-its-bootstraps animation industry by CB’s Amid Amidi.

Thanks to the folks over at Cartoon Brew, we now know about Chicken Core: The Rise of Kings — one of the first animated short films ever completely produced in the country of Nigeria. Here’s the description from YouTube: “Chicken Core is a Nigerian animated feature which follows the adventures of a group of chicken warriors in their quest to rid the land of Amaji from the clutches of the tyrannous Boar King and his minions.” Got that? It’s directed by Oricha Aliyu and produced by Sporedust Media.  Animation in Nigeria is really starting from the ground up, as all the people who work for Sporedust are self-taught. Check out what they’ve created — and be on the lookout for what they do next.

image c. 2012 Sporedust Media

Lagrange is one of Phil Geusz’s slighter pieces. The novella appeared in the Sofawolf Press magazine Anthrolations #8, November 2006, and was reprinted in the online Furry magazine Anthro #25, September-October 2009. Now here it is as a separate booklet from Legion Publishing in hardcover, trade paperback, or Kindle editions, your choice.

It may also be the only high-tech astronautical erotic comedy-drama that you ever encounter. Don’t miss it.

Legion Printing, January 2012, hardcover $5.99+$5 s&h (91 pages), trade paperback $3.99+$5 s&h, Kindle $2.99.

Look, we just can’t make up some of this stuff, folks.  Here, this is from Image Comics: “Still kicking yourself for not ordering and/or passing by Chew #1, now that you see what it’s going for on eBay? Here’s your chance to get sweet, sweet, revenge, with an all-new Chew #1, a one-shot spinning off Chew‘s most popular supporting character, and comics’ most beloved homicidal cybernetic kung-fu rooster. Concentrated mayhem. Feathers, rage and hate! Plus: an all-star pin-up gallery from some of the most staggeringly talented artists in the industry!” The main artist for the Chew: Secret Agent Poyo full-color one-shot is Rob Guillory, and the writing is by John Layman. And the chicken is coming our way July 11th. BleedingCool.com has a background article, including interviews with the creators, if you want to try and figure this thing out.

image c. 2012 Image Comics

If you've been paying attention to the Recommended Anthropomorphics List, you might have noticed a movie called Leafie: A Hen into the Wild. Otherwise, you have probably never heard of it, unless you are one of Flayrah’s South Korean readers.

When I first saw Leafie's trailer, I was impressed with the animation and character design, and wondered how the movie would hold up. I was finally able to see the movie, and it is certainly one that furries should seek out.

A chicken known as J-Lo because she was born with two rear-ends has been killed by a fox, ocala.com reports. The chicken – who had a large backside covered by white feathers – become a national sensation when news of her double lady-lumps spread over the Web.

As reported by the Ocala Star-Banner:

The couple brushed the feathers away and found two pubic regions, spaced about two inches apart. Typically, there is one such region in the center with a single orifice.

J-Lo was previously in the news in January, when her owners brought forth the extraordinary clucker. Even Jay Leno cracked a joke as the double-bottomed chicken went viral.

We bid ye farewell, J-Lo. You just had too much junk in your trunk to be in this world for long.