Albino Blacksheep

Half-Halloween update

tumor

I wish the file above and below were longer.

It can't be a Halloween or even a half-Halloween update without Bad Idea and The Dangers of Halloween.

It was also a Halloween tradition on Albino Blacksheep for TastyBabySoup to submit a Chris The Jack-O-Lantern (Part 2, Part 3) animation each year. It hasn't made sense since 2004 when Halloween really did fall on a Sunday. While this depressed pumpkin brought some joy to others, TastyBabySoup wants to be completely upbeat this year with a new original song.

Using a title might get me confused with Sally' Happy Funtime Adventure (Zomg, I'm in the credits), Super Fun Happy Song or Mega Happy Flash Battle.

Nowhere near par with Ultimate Flash Sonic, but Mark P0rter has released a Halloween-themed Sonic game simply to make fun of Sonic fanfiction fans.

Mark says he'll post a real game soon. Also, there's no need to complain about the small screen area on Ultimate Flash Sonic or any game. Just click the "size" button a few times to expand.

If you want an Xbox or Nintendo DS game, all you gotta do is be one of the only people to enter the animate a Mr.Fizzy cartoon contest. Simply make an animation in the style of Mr.Fizzy.

DubDub

It's a competition. This month's new Cat Dog song by Eustus versus Adam Witt's ABS classic LOLWTFOMGBBQM8. Be sure to download the free MP3s the artists kindly provided just for Albino Blacksheep readers.

The following does not have a million views. No where near that, but I can see it getting there. It's on the ground floor about to move up, so invest your hit now by watching.

I'd like to post some more free MP3s that you can download and their accompanying videos.

Un-J (Andrzej Banas) also made the animutation classics Seeing Jesus H. Christ, Gone With The Wind 1979, and took part in the epic Fingertips Project.

Upon some more backend/archive work on the site, I retored the "screen-shaking" activity of the following animations. At least in Firefox, and kind-of in Internet Explorer. By design, Chrome's features don't allow your browser Window to be controled, and they might even remove this feature in the next version of Firefox too, so please open up Firefox 3 and watch these now before you start crying about the "the good old days" of the Internet when this was possible.

I got the news that Apple will not be including Flash for their newest MacBook and MacBooks made in the feature. It's not just iPads, iPhones and iPads that won't have Flash. As I've said before, Flash is dead, but at least people can choose to install Flash on MacBook if they want it... and if they know how.

Don't forget. Toronto Zombie Walk 2010 is Sunday October 24th. Here are pictures and video I took from Last year's Toronto Zombie Walk.

Updates are in the backend

BillGates999 is back with another masterpiece of horror. You may remember his previous works on Albino Blacksheep such as Skinwalker, Da Killer Hase and Funny Games.

Disregard the previous file. Super Mario: Frustration is the best recorded playing of any version of Super Mario of all time.

80s on the 8th: He-Man

[Skeletor head] After knowing I need to put up the Fabulous Secret Powers He-Man music video, I set in stone that the topic of this 80s on the 8th would be He-Man. One problem. I remember He-Man: Masters of the Universe always being on TV as a kid, and I remember the hype including the action figures and halloween costumes. I don't remember anything beyond that.

I asked other children-of-the-80s, "Do you remember He-Man?" "Yes, of course." "Can you tell me what you remember?" "....."

So I had to do this thing called research. I needed to remember why He-Man was so significant in the 80s since it wasn't remembered for the plot. With clear influences of Superman, King Arthur, Christianity and Hamlet, the story of He-Man is as follows. Prince Adam who lives the lazy life of royalty transforms into his secret identity He-Man, the strongest man in the universe, when picking up a power sword from Castle Grayskull. Skeletor, a mystery man of pure evil, wants to replace the masters of the universe with himself by discovering the secrets of Castle Grayskull for and destroy He-man. Very generic, but understandable for a children's cartoon.

The awesomeness, then, is in the details. This animated series stood out from the crowd, demanding every kid's attention with no detail left unpolished. The fantasy world(s) they live in; the clearly defined personalities of the characters; talking pet animals; the voices (everyone remembers Skeletor's voice); the men twice as strong as Arnold Schwarzenegger and the beautiful women. The animation was above and beyond anything else on TV in 1984. It set the bar for fantasy-inspired superhero shows that would come after like Thundercats.

The 1983-developed series inspired a spin-off based on He-Man's twin sister, She-Ra: Princess of Power, a live action He-Man film and two more He-Man cartoon series.

I think it came down to context. Competing children's cartoons didn't have a superhero strong male lead for a role-model. Are you really going to look up to Papasmurf? In the 80s, men were being demasculinized, and that's assuming they even had time to be around during their 40-hour or more work week.

In other words, He-Man is your real father.

And now you know... the rest of the story.

Copyleft

[Angry Donald Duck] From my perspective, animation and children's toy companies are the most protective of their brands' image and characters. Namely, companies owning rights to the likes of Mr. Potato Head, Where's Waldo, Barney the Dinosaur, The Smurfs and Tetris. On the Internet, most people are concerned with piracy and record companies, but artists who create their own works don't worry about that. They worry not that they can't download music, but that they can't parody pop culture. Their humour and, in this case, their message relies on that.

In the animation world, everyone[1] knows that Disney is most protective of their characters and you probably don't want to go uploading bootlegs of their movies or making your own Mickey Mouse cartoon[2]. But then there's the grey area. Remixing (discussed on the September 15th update). It involves a touch of piracy, but not enough to bootleg a whole piece of work. It involves a touch of parody, but enough of a touch to create a new piece of work.

With this I present you with something you must watch immediately before it possibly gets deleted from the Internet.

The author, Jonathan McIntosh, has made every effort to claim his right to fair use citing section 107 of US copyright law, but its not up for him to decide. Mickey and Donald are the faces of Disney. More recognisable to the brand than the castle logo or Walt's signature. Despite Disney's reputation for protecting their brand, I think this will stay online. Overprotection can lead to cruder parodies and eventually rule 34. As long as the piracy is quenched enough that a Bambi DVD for the kids costing $30 is acceptable, Disney is still in good standing. I think piracy and not parody is Disney's enemy given their business model, and parody, including rule 34 is inevitable and unwinnable. See footnote #2 again.

The problem with the Walt Disney company is that a children's brand, unless you are handing down the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory to Charlie, is run by an adult, with all their adult problems. To make matters worse, Walt was raised in close-minded [by this I mean, racist and sexist] small-town America of the 1900s bringing a clash between his worldview and the reality of a changing America as time went on.

  1. Everyone except Andrew Kepple who animated Amigo while Wall-E was still playing in theatres. Also, South Park featured an episode where Mickey Mouse beat up the Jonas Brothers and Family Guy featured Goofey going to hell for excusing 9/11.

  2. An in-house animator at the Disney studios once created a very adult cartoon of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I'm paraphrasing here, but Walt Disney said, "Wow. This is great. Who made this?" The animator said, "I did.". "You're fired", replied Walt.

Facebook Movie

Oponok, a semi-semi-semi finalist of TOFA 2010 has submitted his ode to Tom Waits. Oponok would have progressed further in the tournament had he not come down with a case of the TOFA curse.

The amazing Frozenfire will apply for an animation school program using his ABS profile for his porfolio of work. He submitted his popular Lil' Einstein's Manhattan Project game on Albino Blacksheep to put his best foot forward. I just hope his decision-makers wait through the long load time.

Siriagus (Andreas Garmannslund) created a Flash animation to accompany his own piano composition. It's a simple-styled animation, but the rise and fall of the music coincide with the animated story. Each word being displayed with a note reminds me a little of Staring Contest and definitely Aritist's Statement No. 45,730,944 if taken to an extreme.

With the Facebook movie coming out today (official non-trademark-infringing title: The Social Network), you might find this video clip surprising. Stop reading and watch now if you don't want the spoilers.

First, it shows the billionaire's tiny home. Well, tiny for a billionaire which is nice and humbling. Second, the exposé shows his stable girlfriend who he was with well before Facebook. Also very humbling, but which is the complete opposite of a the movie that claims he hooked up with a Victoria's Secret model after making it big. Lastly, he's a nervous wreck when asked about his thoughts on the movie. The strange thing is, I see him speak all the time. He doesn't "hide from cameras" as they portray. He's front and centre at many major tech conferences with a microphone and big speech. Sure, he's socially awkward, but never this awkward, and it's such a harmless non-interrogating question too, at his own direction. So now I'm really curious to see The Social Network movie. I'm even more curious to see it knowing that Mark Zuckerberg refuses to.