InFurNation Rotating Header Image

Bird

Pink Passion

We stumbled across this announcement in Variety recently: “Germany’s Studio 100 Media and Spain’s 3Doubles Producciones have teamed to develop animated adventure comedy Flamingo Flamenco. The script has been written by Rob Sprackling, whose credits include Shaun the Sheep Movie, Gnomeo & Juliet, and The Queen’s Corgi. Flamingo Flamenco follows the journey of Rosie, a young and exuberant flamingo, as she navigates personal loss and seeks to rediscover the joy of dance. The action is set against the backdrop of the beautiful Fuente de Piedra lagoon in Andalucía, Spain… The family-friendly entertainment feature ‘promises an enchanting and passionate blend of adventure, comedy and heartwarming moments’, according to a statement from Studio 100 Film, adding that the film ‘…emphasizes the importance of perseverance, self-discovery and the power of determination’. ” No word yet about any possible distribution in North America, but the film’s not scheduled to be completed until the fall of 2026. In the meantime, check out that poster! (Girl!)

image 2024 Studio 100 Media

Not the Early Bird

And rounding out the year with another title for young readers this time from Scout Comics: Mortimer the Lazy Bird, written by Brendan Deneen and illustrated by Marco Antonio Cortez. “This is the story of a bird, Mortimer, and a very talkative worm, Lucius, two strangers who are supposed to be enemies, but end up becoming best friends! Their adventures won’t be easy, though they will be fun!” Talk about playing with your food. [Happy 2024, everyone! Thanks for spending 2023 here with us — ye ed-otter.]

image c. 2023 Scout Comics

Lofty Goals

Another creative person we came across at Midwest FurFest: Foxfeather R. Zenkova is a multi-talented artist and crafter from the American Midwest. “I have an enduring love of all things feathered, furred, and scaled. I feel a particularly strong connection to birds of all kinds (especially vultures, corvids, and owls). As a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and conservation educator, animals are a huge part of my life; I hope to help share this connection, respect, and awe through my artwork. My art business, Foxloft Studios, fully supports my volunteer work helping creatures in need.” At their web site you can see their art prints, shirts, dolls, and even animal-themed jewelry they create to that effort.

image c. 2023 by Foxfeather R. Zenkova

Justice Has Teeth

And one more from Marvel, as they release the Marvel Unleashed trade paperback, compiling four issues of the original comic written by Kyle Starks and illustrated by Jesus Hervas. “When Kraven the Hunter abducts the teleporting hound Lockjaw at the same time as a local scientist mixed up with A.I.M. goes missing, it’s up to Throg the Frog of Thunder, Redwing the Falcon, Chewie the catlike Flerken, Lucky the Pizza Dog, Bats the Ghost Dog and their scrappy new ally, D-Dog to save the day! But there’s more to this case than meets the eye, and something infernal lurks in the shadows. Can feathers, fangs and claws stand against one of the deadliest foes in the Marvel Universe? Or will these Pet Avengers be made to suffer their worst nightmares?” (We’ll ponder that as we travel to Midwest FurFest. See you all next week!)

image c. 2023 Marvel Comics

Fifty Short Years of…

And more from Marvel! You’ve been hearing more about Howard the Duck too. Well guess what? 2023 marks his 50th anniversary in comics! With that in mind, Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones (creators of the recent Howard revival comic) have gathered some talented friends together to write and illustrate a special Howard the Duck One Shot to celebrate the event. “Meet Howard. He’s a hard-boiled P.I. with problems by the duckload. But a cosmic, all-seeing friend (?) known as the Peeper (!) is giving him a chance to see what his life could be! The joys he could have! All the ways his life could suck way less than it does now!”

image c. 2023 Marvel Comics

So Who DID Come First?

Hitting at an interesting idea from several angles at once, Canadian production house Wind Sun Sky have given us Future Chicken, a new environmentally-themed presentation for children that’s arriving as a podcast, a streaming series, an interactive web site, and so forth. Here’s an announcement from Animation Magazine: “Wind Sun Sky Entertainment partnered with the Ontario Water Centre’s social enterprise ClearWater Farm are gearing up for the November 5 launch of Future Chicken — a new animation property designed to help children counter ‘climate doomism’ with hope, inspiration and empowerment — with the announcement of a coop-load of trailblazing green guest stars. This new global platform will launch with a digital series, a podcast, YouTube shorts, a Roblox experience and more. Featuring a variety of entertaining learning experiences for kids aged six to nine years old, the property revolves around a time-travelling eco-superhero chicken from 2050 named Potato, a.k.a. Future Chicken, who travels alongside other amusing characters, including a gossipy mushroom with a love of travel and an egg who wears rocket-pants.” Typical stuff that, of course. The official web site has a whole lot more.

image c. 2023 Wind Sun Sky

Book Buddies to the Rescue

We found this in Animation Magazine, looked it up, and followed along to their web site… Atomic Cartoons present a new animated special for young folks, coming to PBS Kids right before New Years. “Rocket Saves the Day is a fun-filled adventure for preschoolers and their parents, based on the New York Times bestselling Rocket book series created by Tad Hills and published by Random House… The movie is a hero’s journey in which an enthusiastic young pup, Rocket, and his new best friend, Little Yellow Bird, embark on a quest to save their town through the power of reading. Throughout the journey, Rocket and his friends learn how to put letters and sounds together to make words – the building blocks of reading. Its animation style embodies a unique and distinctive hand-drawn look that mirrors Hills’ textured illustrations.” Look for it on December 26th.

image c. 2023 Atomic Cartoons

A Continental First

We found this over at Cartoon Brew: “Pan-African SVOD platform Showmax has released the trailer for its new animated series Twende, the first 2D animated Showmax Original. The producers of the series are touting this as the first 2D animated show of this scale and quality made almost entirely in Africa.” They go on to describe the new series like this: “Twende’s titular protagonist is a pangolin, an endangered species which is one of the slowest-moving animals of the savannah. He works as boda boda (motorcycle taxi) driver in a fictional East African city where his incongruous career choice and belief that life is about the journey and not the destination often cause friction with riders who just want to get where they’re going quickly.” There’s a trailer up on line as well. Showmax plans to premiere Twende across Africa this December, and they’re shopping the series around at MIPCOM and the like to try and find international distribution.

image c. 2023 Showmax

VR to the Next Level

We just learned about Shangri-La Frontier, a black & white manga written by Katarina and illustrated by Ryosuke Fuji. “Second-year high school student Rakuro Hizutome loves nothing more than finding so-called ‘trash games’ and beating the crap out of them. When he decides to change things up by playing a new, ‘god-tier’ VR game known as Shangri-La Frontier (a.k.a. SLF), he does what he does best: Min-maxes, skips the prologue, and jumps straight into action! Clad in nothing but shorts and a bird mask, Rakuro (player name: Sunraku) launches into the world of SLF. Things are going well at first as he takes down a goblin, a bunny, and even a python. But then Sunraku comes up against a huge, hard-hitting wolf known as Lycagon the Nightslayer. Will Sunraku’s years of ‘trash game’ experience be enough, or is he about to suffer a rude awakening just a few hours into his SLF adventure?” The series is available now from Kodansha International. What’s more, there’s already an anime adaptation series available on Crunchyroll — and YouTube has a preview.

image c. 2023 Kodansha International