Even though I've seen this episode before, I never noticed that that's where those poses came from. I see them all the time on promo and fan art. Favoeite jokes from this episode
"Nice shot, too bad it will never make it."
"Why not?"
"Because of the piano."
"Piano?"
THWACK!
Next favorite joke
"Give me the bird!"
"We'd love to, but the Fox censors simply won't allow it."
Happy Thanksgiving Tom! Oh, and it just so happens to be an important toon birthday today. Woody Woodpecker appeared seventy years ago today in the short, Knock Knock.
I don't recall if I saw it or not. It certainly looks like the sort of image that would have been done as a sericel for the WB Studio Stores. Could that have been what they were R&D'ing and they gave you the original...? Or was this well after the WB stores closed? I don't see any results on a quick Google search for a Turkey Jerky Animaniacs sericel, so maybe not. It probably should have been if it wasn't!
I suppose maybe it could have been cut out, but those poses, nor that background ever occured. Weird, maybe it's fake, I don't know. The Miles cel could be in their, but the Warners were to be found in that short.
Luke, those are indeed standard model sheet poses. I have scans of some of the original model sheets / color instructions of Dot and Wakko, and those are the poses on the color instructions. (I would suspect that was Yakko's pose too; certainly I have seen it many times on merchandise, along with the others' poses.)
As Tom said, this was something made by the WBA R&D department, as a one-off (with my theory that maybe it was a potential art piece for seasonal merchandise).
I remember, you gave me the link to those scan a while back (thanks by the way.) I didn't know what a sericel or the R&D department was. Is a sericel kind of like the fake cels they sell for the Simpsons?
(geez, arguement ovet a simple Happy Thankagiving? I guess I can't contain myself. :) Is this the type of disscussion that would be generated at alt.animaniacs.tv, or whatever the old board was called?)
My theory was that it was a test cell from the color department. I have a King of the Hill color test cell where the characters are in their model sheet poses but in outfits/colored for the scene & the BG that they'll be in is there so they can see if it all actually goes together or not.
Either way, this episode was my gateway drug to the show. First time I saw Animaniacs was the Fox Kids Turkey Takeover. Thanks!!
Heh, well, Luke, as for the sort of thing that would have been discussed at alt.tv.animaniacs -- I suppose if artwork were postable. You must realize that Usenet is a text medium, and in those days, most people were online via dial-up modems anyway.
Certainly, we'd discuss elements of images seen in the show (by pausing our own videotapes rather than sharing an image online) -- Steven Pudner's room in "Please Please Please Get-a-Life Foundation" was specifically made with lots of items because they knew we'd have a field day with it. (The laughter at the end on the "before you rewind to see what was in the opening shot!" line when we were shown this cartoon at Animania IV was tremendous, because I think every one of us had been wishing they'd stop the tape to let us see all the items that were there!)
That cartoon in general is a good example of the sort of things that were discussed. Everything said by the people in it was paraphrased from actual posts which were quoted in the CRGA document. It was all in fun; we didn't (well most of us) take ourselves too seriously. We knew we took these discussions to extreme levels. And of course there were dozens of running gags that we had. Some of them ended up in the Animaniacs comic books, as one random visitor to our IRC channel was introduced to the show by us and then went on to write for DC Comics. There are some gags in his stories that only about 10 people would truly get.
Here's an example of how things might get taken to extremes on the newsgroup... from merely bizarre-but-fun contemplation to rather disturbing!
Given that the Warners in their element exist in the "real world" -- on the lot around humans -- someone wondered, "What do they feel like?" This question applied equally to the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? movie. If Roger Rabbit or one of the Warners jumps into someone's arms, what does that person feel? Do they feel like ink and paint, or like the furry animals they are drawn to represent? (Of course, the Warners only looked furry because of the last-minute tufts added to their heads, a subject which Tom has mentioned here.) That bizarre-but-fun question then led to someone asking, "If you accept them as furry critters, then what color would their skin be if they were shaven?" (Getting weird now, but I figured that, if they were real beings, they'd be similar to my black & white cat -- shiny sleek fur over white skin.) Then it got disturbing, as someone wondered, "OK, so what would their meat taste like if you were to eat them?" Blinkblinkblink...
OK then!
Another example subject, of rather fierce debate as I recall, was a matter of character design. People argued vehemently over whether Dot's ears are simply tied together, or whether they actually come out the top of her head. The image in this post is an example of the sort of thing people would use for the latter argument, as it is not clear that the feather is in any way tying her ears together. That the plush toys of Dot were made with her ears coming out the top of her head also fueled their argument. I was in the former camp. I always maintained that her ears probably come out of her head on the sides just like her brothers', but that she ties them up. As there never was a situation in the show where her ears were not tied or not covered by a hat (and neither did any model sheets I've seen), the matter was never settled. Perhaps this is a design element that was never even thought about at WB for the very same reason: they never had her in an outfit with her ears untied or uncovered, so never had a reason to ask themselves this design question. I guess Tom could answer that.
Another design question, were the Warners hands supposed to be white like their feet or black like the rest of their arms? A few Animaniacs cartoons show the Warners with white hands (like Space Probed) and a few others show them with black hands (like White Gloves). I always thought their hands are white, just like Rita the cat's hands.
I agree with you, Nebbie. Without gloves, I think their hands/paws would/should have white fur on them. In any case, they should wear their gloves so that these issues do not plague mankind.
Even though I've seen this episode before, I never noticed that that's where those poses came from. I see them all the time on promo and fan art. Favoeite jokes from this episode
ReplyDelete"Nice shot, too bad it will never make it."
"Why not?"
"Because of the piano."
"Piano?"
THWACK!
Next favorite joke
"Give me the bird!"
"We'd love to, but the Fox censors simply won't allow it."
Happy Thanksgiving Tom! Oh, and it just so happens to be an important toon birthday today.
Woody Woodpecker appeared seventy years ago today in the short, Knock Knock.
I think this was one of those sericels, hence the standard model sheet poses in use.
ReplyDeleteKeeper:
ReplyDeleteHave you seen this image before? I know of no other copies, but I could be wrong.
It was given to me years ago by Tim Sarnoff's R&D team at WBA.
The BG is a hi-res glossy copy but all four characters are painted together on one cel, with ink lines to boot.
The detailed paint job on the cel is pretty well done, since the entire image is only 7 inches by 8 inches.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I don't recall if I saw it or not. It certainly looks like the sort of image that would have been done as a sericel for the WB Studio Stores. Could that have been what they were R&D'ing and they gave you the original...? Or was this well after the WB stores closed? I don't see any results on a quick Google search for a Turkey Jerky Animaniacs sericel, so maybe not. It probably should have been if it wasn't!
ReplyDeleteThe Warner Bros. Stores were open at that time. I think your sericel prototype idea is a good one.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't their outfit, it's the poses they're in that I see alot. I'll reference my DVD today and get back to you on that.
ReplyDeleteI suppose maybe it could have been cut out, but those poses, nor that background ever occured. Weird, maybe it's fake, I don't know. The Miles cel could be in their, but the Warners were to be found in that short.
ReplyDeleteLuke, those are indeed standard model sheet poses. I have scans of some of the original model sheets / color instructions of Dot and Wakko, and those are the poses on the color instructions. (I would suspect that was Yakko's pose too; certainly I have seen it many times on merchandise, along with the others' poses.)
ReplyDeleteAs Tom said, this was something made by the WBA R&D department, as a one-off (with my theory that maybe it was a potential art piece for seasonal merchandise).
I remember, you gave me the link to those scan a while back (thanks by the way.) I didn't know what a sericel or the R&D department was. Is a sericel kind of like the fake cels they sell for the Simpsons?
ReplyDelete(geez, arguement ovet a simple Happy Thankagiving? I guess I can't contain myself. :) Is this the type of disscussion that would be generated at alt.animaniacs.tv, or whatever the old board was called?)
My theory was that it was a test cell from the color department. I have a King of the Hill color test cell where the characters are in their model sheet poses but in outfits/colored for the scene & the BG that they'll be in is there so they can see if it all actually goes together or not.
ReplyDeleteEither way, this episode was my gateway drug to the show. First time I saw Animaniacs was the Fox Kids Turkey Takeover. Thanks!!
Heh, well, Luke, as for the sort of thing that would have been discussed at alt.tv.animaniacs -- I suppose if artwork were postable. You must realize that Usenet is a text medium, and in those days, most people were online via dial-up modems anyway.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, we'd discuss elements of images seen in the show (by pausing our own videotapes rather than sharing an image online) -- Steven Pudner's room in "Please Please Please Get-a-Life Foundation" was specifically made with lots of items because they knew we'd have a field day with it. (The laughter at the end on the "before you rewind to see what was in the opening shot!" line when we were shown this cartoon at Animania IV was tremendous, because I think every one of us had been wishing they'd stop the tape to let us see all the items that were there!)
That cartoon in general is a good example of the sort of things that were discussed. Everything said by the people in it was paraphrased from actual posts which were quoted in the CRGA document. It was all in fun; we didn't (well most of us) take ourselves too seriously. We knew we took these discussions to extreme levels. And of course there were dozens of running gags that we had. Some of them ended up in the Animaniacs comic books, as one random visitor to our IRC channel was introduced to the show by us and then went on to write for DC Comics. There are some gags in his stories that only about 10 people would truly get.
Here's an example of how things might get taken to extremes on the newsgroup... from merely bizarre-but-fun contemplation to rather disturbing!
Given that the Warners in their element exist in the "real world" -- on the lot around humans -- someone wondered, "What do they feel like?" This question applied equally to the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? movie. If Roger Rabbit or one of the Warners jumps into someone's arms, what does that person feel? Do they feel like ink and paint, or like the furry animals they are drawn to represent? (Of course, the Warners only looked furry because of the last-minute tufts added to their heads, a subject which Tom has mentioned here.) That bizarre-but-fun question then led to someone asking, "If you accept them as furry critters, then what color would their skin be if they were shaven?" (Getting weird now, but I figured that, if they were real beings, they'd be similar to my black & white cat -- shiny sleek fur over white skin.) Then it got disturbing, as someone wondered, "OK, so what would their meat taste like if you were to eat them?" Blinkblinkblink...
OK then!
Another example subject, of rather fierce debate as I recall, was a matter of character design. People argued vehemently over whether Dot's ears are simply tied together, or whether they actually come out the top of her head. The image in this post is an example of the sort of thing people would use for the latter argument, as it is not clear that the feather is in any way tying her ears together. That the plush toys of Dot were made with her ears coming out the top of her head also fueled their argument. I was in the former camp. I always maintained that her ears probably come out of her head on the sides just like her brothers', but that she ties them up. As there never was a situation in the show where her ears were not tied or not covered by a hat (and neither did any model sheets I've seen), the matter was never settled. Perhaps this is a design element that was never even thought about at WB for the very same reason: they never had her in an outfit with her ears untied or uncovered, so never had a reason to ask themselves this design question. I guess Tom could answer that.
When her ears were untied, her cuteness became overwhelming and would start wars. So we had to make sure that never happened.
ReplyDeleteBut there was a time on episode 25 where Dot pulled her ears and her flower thing fell apart. Does that count, too?
DeleteWas that why the screen faded to black?
DeleteAnother design question, were the Warners hands supposed to be white like their feet or black like the rest of their arms? A few Animaniacs cartoons show the Warners with white hands (like Space Probed) and a few others show them with black hands (like White Gloves). I always thought their hands are white, just like Rita the cat's hands.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Nebbie. Without gloves, I think their hands/paws would/should have white fur on them. In any case, they should wear their gloves so that these issues do not plague mankind.
ReplyDelete