Before I start getting to serious, I thought I might post this excellent cartoon remix call "Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown" which was done " many many moons ago" by students at Cal-Arts. According to Anime Hell "BMTHOCB has achieved legendary cult status in the underground film 'circuits'". I believe it, cult culture is te bomb.
"this tuesday night...[]..when the Great Pumpkin puts a bounty on Charlie Brown's head, the rest of the gang race against each other to bump him off and collect the reward..."
Watch it: BmthCBVCD.mpg (video/mpeg Object)
BTW, It even has a page on IMDB. I just love a good back story.
From: IMDb user comments for Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown (1986)
I'm sure many people have watched twisted parodies of Charles Schulz beloved PEANUTS comic strip like MAD TV's "South Parknuts" and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's Peanuts tribute sketch in 2000, but none of them have the fast-paced thrills of this obscure animated B&W student short done at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1986 by renowned animator Jim Reardon (who later worked on THE SIMPSONS and Disney films like THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE)! The short has been screened at Lunacon (a sci-fi con I regularly attend) since about 1997 or 1998, and I was immediately hooked! This was the best of the old CalArts student shorts among what Lunacon showed (before I saw Craig McCracken's WHOOPASS STEW, which later became THE POWERPUFF GIRLS)!
Most of the other Peanuts parodies always had Charlie Brown die or commit suicide, to all of which I say, "been there, done that," but this was about the first time I've ever seen Charlie Brown unleash the beast within (something I, and possibly some other people, always wanted to see him do after some of the Peanuts Gang were so cruel to him)! In this short, the Great Pumpkin orders the Peanuts Gang to kill Charlie Brown in all sorts of ways, until Charlie himself, when getting chased by the gang at one point, becomes Rambo/Schwarzenegger-like and goes around blowing away all of the Peanuts Gang with his uzi! Then, for some reason, we see other cartoon characters (Fred Flintstone, Mickey Mouse, Popeye, etc.) slaughtering each other at random until the Hanna-Barbera version of Godzilla nullifies the entire scene, and amongst all the carnage and destruction, Charlie Brown stood victorious! The climax was just hilariously chaotic! There was even a funny (and long) disclaimer in the closing credits ("This film is not intended to ruin the good name of Charles M. Schulz," etc. etc.)!
This short may not be for the more sensitive fans of PEANUTS, but if you're lucky, give BRING ME THE HEAD OF CHARLIE BROWN a try! It is, by far, the best of the twisted PEANUTS parodies!
No comments:
Post a Comment