LTV21

Created by the cartoonist, Charles Burns.  Apparently Burns’ “Black Hole” may be in the process of being made into a movie by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (co-writer, Pulp Fiction) and produced by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club).  Might be kind of interesting.

Anyway, on to Dog Boy…

What if Dick Tracy had a dog?  Or a son?  Or a son who was a dog?  It might look something like this…

Episode 1: Pilot – Dog Boy’s origin story.

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhHooV2zJ8[/youtube]

Episode 2: Disastrous Date – Dog Boy acts doggy, goes on a failed date with Nurse Betty and somehow attracts the attention of Rondy.

YouTube

(alternate: YouTube )

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxmIIFjIJys[/youtube]

Episode 3:Nauseating Next Door Neighbors – Dog Boy takes Rondy on a date to Club Robo and his stuck up neighbors spy on him.  Preacher Jerry makes his first apperance.

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vHLSywNk_g[/youtube]

Episode 4: Red Hot Robot Romance – The date with Rondy at Club Robo continues, then back to his..err.. her place.

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEaw1VIZoEQ[/youtube]

Episode 5: Carnal Chaos – Dog Boy sleeps with Rondy.. sort of, and Rondy gets jealous of the new girl, Cindy

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ8-MjtfbiA[/youtube]

Episode 6: Passion Pit -Cindy and Dog Boy play in the park, until she notices his true nature.  Then off to the drive-in with Rondy.

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzVywjn2BT0[/youtube]

Episode 7:Long Arm of the Law – The neighbors suspect Dog Boy of being a mass murderer. Cindy has some issues with her coworkers, that clumsy bitch!

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEgoewe5wcU[/youtube]

Episode 8:The Psycho Shrink – Dog Boy goes to a shrink and spreads his dog cooties!

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnFH2XiRKh4[/youtube]

Episode 9: House of Half-Wits – Time to visit Preacher Jerry and then wind up in the clink!

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RPigxY6-Sk[/youtube]

Episode 10: Calling All Cons – Dog Boy plays with his new friends in jail before getting bailed out by Rondy.

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooCJrbOIoJA[/youtube]

Thanks to ZappVid and digloid for posting the videos.

A quaint little short by John Dilworth, who went on to create Courage the Cowardly Dog (and you were wondering why the dog looked familiar, eh?).  Odd, but not quite as brilliantly strange as “Courage” was.

YouTube

(alt: YouTube )

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQu-Sq_sAS8[/youtube]

Thanks to nunlover and ZappVid for posting this video.

The Art School Girls of Doom is one of those LTV items that didn’t really stick with me very well, but now that I’m watching it again, I do remember it.  Not the cream of the crop, but LTV wasn’t always about “great” or “mass appeal”, but more about showing a wide variety of videos so there’s a little bit for everyone.  I hope I can capture some of these more esoteric choices when posting new videos and not just choose things I personally like.

Before you get too excited, boys. Those are dudes.

Oh.. and apparently Gina is a fan.

The Beat Down

YouTube

(alt: YouTube )

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lAFpBmNKJs[/youtube]

The Beach

YouTube

(alt: YouTube )

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11CyMbhOVVU[/youtube]

The Bra

YouTube

(alt: YouTube )

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWGSU_0G8AI[/youtube]

Thanks to ZapVidd and scythrop for posting the videos.

Not so tough without THAT are ya?…  Just a badge and a mustache!

A double feature, with “To Officer with Love” and “Fast, Loud, Dumb and Proud” from Season 3!

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v94b6nWQTo[/youtube]

The overall feel of this animation reminds me of Edward Gorey’s dark, start black and white ink drawings, but there are many other themes/feels within this piece.  The music is haunting, some of the animation is reminiscent of Monty Python’s cutout animation while some is rotoscoped and there’s a nice little Rube Goldberg bit in the beginning.  I love a good macabre theme, especially when it’s pulled off so excellently as this one is, but I love even more the detail put into not just the artwork, but the design of all the incidental objects, devices and backgrounds. All in all, a masterful job.

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRHVzbJVx8I[/youtube]

From YouTube description:

Now Formerly Playing in the YouTube Screening Room:

YouTube YTScreenRoom (account now closed)

Craig Welch takes viewers inside a surreal, meticulously crafted world to meet a mysterious protagonist and his otherworldly visitor.

In this surreal exposition, we meet a man, obsessed with control. His intricate gadgets manipulate yet insulate, as his science dissects and reduces. How exactly are wings attached to the back of angels? In this invented world drained of emotion, where everything goes through the motions, he is brushed by indefinite longings. Whether he can transcend his obsessions and fears is the heart of the matter. A film without words.

Directed by : Craig Welch. Produced in 1996

Posted by:  nfb (National Film Board of Canada)

More links:

IMDB

Viral Video Chart

Originally posted elsewhere 12/07/2007

I’ve been thinking of putting together a list of videos that embody everything that *was* Liquid TV. I’ve been procrastinating, working on other projects, just generally NOT compiling the list. I see that Olive, The Other Reindeer is coming on Cartoon Network and figured I’d give it a shot since I had never seen it. Boy, did I not expect it to meet the Liquid TV standard but I was happily surprised.

Olive, the Other Reindeer is a charming little ‘alternative’ Christmas story that’s cute and colorful and sure to be a favorite among odd little children like most of us were once upon a time. The fact that it has such mature humor and dialog will surely make anyone with more than ten brain cells ask themselves, “Seriously, what the hell is going on here.. this is a kid’s story??”

While watching this 45 minute oddity, all I kept thing of over and over was Thomas and Nardo. Thomas and Nardo had this particularly strange quality to it. 2D figures mapped onto 3D objects, all very primative and jerky. It was plagued with very odd leaps in logic and rationality and all the characters were very abstract to the point of not being portrayed as ‘human’ as much as paper dolls glued to popsicle sticks and pranced around by unseen puppeteers. Olive shares this odd abstraction. The characters are all mis-proportioned and shaped, barely recognizable as human (the ones that were supposed to be) and the oddness in logic is pervasive.

While Thomas and Nardo were jerky and stuffed into mere seconds, Olive has almost a full hour to stretch it’s legs and pace itself. One of the gimmicks that pops up throughout the whole show is what the Wikipedia entry calls “mondegreens”, the mis-hearing of names or phrases as something similar but totally different. You may be familiar with misheard lyrics like “‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy!” Just like that.

This is where the whole “other reindeer” thing comes from. One of Santa’s reindeer is out of commission and he’s holding press conferences about whether he’ll be able to make his deliveries that Christmas. Olive and her penguin friend, Martini, hear mention on the radio Santa needing help from “…all of the other reindeer…” Olive hears it correctly, but her tuxedoed friend convinces her that he said “Olive, the other reindeer.” Knowing she, actually a dog, has always been different from the other dogs, becomes convinced that she must be some kind of odd reindeer and embarks on a trip to the North Pole to help Santa.

I guess it’s worth noting that Olive was executive produced by Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama), Drew Barrymore (Actress a-plenty) and produced by Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) who also all provided voice. Almost all the other voices were either “big name actors” or perennial voice actors, with only a few unknowns.

Conclusion: I nominate this holiday nugget for LTV21 for its unique animation style, its odd jump jumps in logic and dialog and for including references to things like ‘deus ex machina’ with asides like “Look it up” when characters inquire about the meaning. This is obviously a creative, quirky holiday romp with extra depth of vision for those who care to see it.

Nickelodeon TV Ad on Dailymotion.com:

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1804l_olive-the-other-reindeer-nickelodeo_ads[/dailymotion]

Further Digging

• IMDB
• Wikipedia
• DNA Productions – These guys did the animation