Romanov. © Wild Brain, Inc. Eggels. © Rumpus. Science Freaks. © Rumpus. Archived Classic - Friday, March 23, 2001 As a celebration of the Oscars ceremony this coming weekend, I thought I'd take a look back 20 plus years and point out that Ferenc Rofusz's THE FLY Archived Classic - Friday, March 16, 2001 Over on TheThreshold.com, the Joe Camel Webisode of WHERE ARE THE TOONS NOW is quite classic. The toon pokes fun at the cigarette company's marketing of their product toward kids. The series as a whole is funny and solidly written. However, Joe Camel's audition reading is one of the funniest moments the series has ever produced. The installment works as a satire of cartoons, the cigarette industry and fame all equally. Archived Classic - Friday, March 9, 2001 Mishmash Media's BULBO is truly an Internet classic. It's been around for years and has steadily built up a strong fan base, spurring its syndication by Mondo Media. My favorite installment would have be "Bulbo in the 20th Century," where the black and white hero travels through all the major events of the past Century. The cartoon is a throwback to classic cartoons and Fleischer design style. Sight gags are abundant and very humorous. It Archived Classic - Friday, March 2, 2001 My Archived Classic for this week is 8Legged.com's DEEP FRIED LIVE!, which debuted on CampChaos.com last week. The show is an animated cooking show, which like other cooking series explains how to make a meal, however here they use animation to give the viewer a chance to buy everything needed to make the recipe. Pop-up screens appear throughout the toon advertising everything from knives to electric thermometers. While there's better animation on the Net and this show doesn't offer a laugh a minute, it is interesting because when selling over the Net becomes the norm, you may think back and say, "Hey, that's the first time I saw that." In this new Web age where producers are seeking all possible ways of making money, this series actually uses the show's content to sell product, unlike other Webtoons that just try to hock show-inspired merchandise at the end. This toon could serve as an interesting forbearer of things to come. Archived Classic - Friday, February 23, 2001 RUTH TRUTH on Oxygen is a wonderful use of cut-outs in Flash and interactivity. It Archived Classic - Friday, February 16, 2001 Honkworm's FISH BAR may be the most random show on the Internet. Tommy and Donnie are the two main characters and they have a very strange way of explaining the ways of the world. For me the best installment of the series is "Fish of War." It is completely off the wall. It introduces the reoccurring spy cow into the series with its pilots the Evil French Twins. The wild design, which utilizes photograph cut-outs, adds to the overall insanity of the series. A cow with a periscope coming out of its head is a benchmark for what to expect with this toon. You may find yourself scratching your head after an episode, but eerily drawn to watch more. You're not alone. It's one of those strange anomalies that could have only found a home on the Internet. Visit MondoMedia.com to find out where FISH BAR airs. Archived Classic - Friday, February 9, 2001 The accolades for Mark Osbourne's film MORE haven't stopped. It received an Oscar nomination in 1999 and won the Sundance Film Festival award for best animation that same year. Why? Because it is a well rounded, simple and truly emotional film. Osbourne creates a drab work where happiness is a commodity, but few know how to produce it. One of the great things about the short is how the visuals speak the ideas behind the film. Animation has the great luxury of allowing us to step into worlds that are completely made up of visuals. In the film, the main character's stomach furnace works on various levels and creates a feel so amazing -- words would have failed to compare. How rarely in life do we take solid advice about avoiding a problem? But how quickly we change when we experience the same problem first hand. There are no concrete words spoken in MORE, but the lessons learned within the film are grander because of it. You can check out the film at iFilm.com and SciFi.com. Archived Classic - Friday, February 2, 2001 If I've said it once I'll say it again Archived Classic - Friday, January 26, 2001 The animation is not great, voice bubbles are used instead of dialogue and the interactivity isn't very challenging, but I'm calling WebWank.net's JOHN HERRON'S STOLEN CHILDREN GAME, created by Russ Weakley and Peter Firminger, a classic. The main reason is that it Archived Classic - Friday, January 19, 2001 CartoonNetwork.com's short "Switcheroo" by Tom Snyder Productions is a very humorous and witty Webtoon. The toon superimposes the voice of a little boy talking about the high dive onto a mob hitman talking about a killing. The film works much like Aardman Animations' CREATURE COMFORTS. The execution is very good as the underplayed movements add to the overall tone. In my opinion, Tom Snyder Productions is creating some of the best stuff on the Web. Archived Classic - Friday, January 12, 2001 DotComix's BIRTHDAY PARTY is one of my favorite Webtoons. The Webisode entitled "Smelly Kid" is one of the best. Mr. Binkles and Mr. Tinkles take a job working the smelly kid's birthday party. We slowly find out why Binkles has a special feeling for odoriferous children. It's that simple well-timed unveiling of information that makes the installment so good. Each line gets closer to the truth and adds to the humor. This toon is for all whom want to see great voice work, direction and writing all wrapped into one show. Archived Classic - Friday, January 5, 2001 The CartoonNetwork.com short "Let's Have Fun Club" is yet another great Webtoon from Tom Snyder Productions. The toon chronicles a children's TV show that is hosted by a man who has absolutely no understanding of kids. The humor is very typical of the dry and subtle approach that typifies all Snyder projects. The writing is solid and voice work is dead on. People interested in writing should definitely take a look at this show because it proves you don't have to beat viewers over the head with jokes to make them laugh. Archived Classic - Friday, December 22, 2000 I almost picked the "Santa vs. Candy Cane" Webisode of HOLIDAY FORCE for last week's "Rick's Picks!," however I felt it would be best suited as the "Archived Classic" going into the winter holiday. The installment of the show follows the evil dealings of an elf who is transformed into an evil living candy cane after falling into a vat of peppermint. This program is very well crafted and written. It's quite humorous and the result of Candy Cane sucking on his arm is a moment of brilliance. MongaDillo Animation produces the series for AtomFilms and I'm looking forward to seeing what Ed Anderson and his crew does for Martin Luther King Day. Archived Classic - Friday, December 15, 2000 JoeCartoon.com is often irreverent and over the top, but a true measure of a good sense of humor is self-parody. If you can make fun of yourself then you really are good-natured at heart. JoeCatoon.com has made a name for itself on the Net for blowing up and destroying little furry animals in millions of painful ways. GERBIL GENOCIDE is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the whole GERBIL IN A MICROWAVE-type Webtoon craze. It's funny and a great stab at the sick oriented toon craze that JoeCartoon.com started. Well, worth anyone's time Archived Classic - Monday, December 11, 2000 Rumpus.com's SPACE PUPPIES Webisode 2 is my pick for Archived Classic this week. The series is a fictional take on the 1954 space program. Webisode 2 is witty and subtly written. The humor is set for all ages and works on different levels for different people. This series is top-notch fun for the whole family and this installment is the best of the batch. Archived Classic - Friday, December 1, 2000 With the presidential fiasco still going on in the U.S., we can sit back and bask in the humor of DUKE 2000. If we knew what was going to happen before the election, maybe the former ambassador from the Doonesbury comic strip would have been the best choice for president. His campaign address on 11/2/00 entitled, "Drivetime Duke" was the best installment of the series. Duke actually gets interviewed on WGN-Chicago's morning news show, reporting from the highway where his 14-year-old son has wrecked their tour truck. The interaction between the animated Duke and the live-action reporters is great. The whole toon really works as a satire of the presidential candidates. Plus, it's just darn funny. If you're fed up with politics, check it out on Entertaindom or Dotcomix! Archived Classic - Monday, November 27, 2000 One of the best things about AtomFilms is they give brilliant animation shorts a chance to have a wider audience. From brother and sister duo, director Steffen and producer Annette Schaffler, PERIWIG-MAKER is on my very short list of front runners for next year's animated short Oscar. It's a stop-motion masterpiece about a tortured wig-maker who is visited by a sickly young girl during the Black Plague of London. The animation is impeccable and the mood created is grippingly eerie. This is the kind of film that sticks with you long after the first viewing. The main reason for this is not only the story, which is very simple and yet thought provoking, but also the visuals. Tied together with narration by Kenneth Branagh, Schaffler creates a feel in the PERIWIG-MAKER that is a beautifully crafted example of visual emotion. Archived Classic - Friday, November 17, 2000 Like many of Icebox's toons MEET THE MILLERS is very edgy. The jokes push all the buttons of racism, sexism, ethnocentricity and many other touchy issues. However, the toon does it in an intriguing format of a 1950s TV sitcom. The paranoid ideals of the '50s addressed in the toon seem ridiculous by today's standards. That's why the series works. In making fun of everything from white relations with African-Americans to Communism, the series makes fun of the people who actually held paranoid beliefs in the past. The best installment of the series is the "Identical Cousins" Webisode where Nancy's French identical cousin comes and steals her prom date. The installment hits every stereotype in the book. Sometimes, the best way to show how wrong a stereotype is, is to show how ridiculous it sounds. Archived Classics - Friday, November 10, 2000 This week Archived Classic - Friday, November 3, 2000 Considering the U.S. presidential election is coming next week, I thought I'd pick my favorite presidential-themed Webtoon for this week's Archived Classic. Jib Jab Media and AtomFilms have teamed up on an interactive toon entitled CAPITAL ILL that is hilarious. Viewers choose which presidential candidate they want to hear rap a lick about politics and themselves. By using real cutouts of Al Gore and George W. Bush, the toon takes on a greater level of humor and the rap lyrics are quite witty. In addition, viewers can scratch a record along with the rappin' Gore and Bush. Make sure you check out who's hiding right off stage of both candidates. CAPITAL ILL airs on both AtomFilms.com and JibJab.com. Archived Classic - Friday, October 27, 2000 At Othervision.com, INDIE PLANET "Episode One" is proof that there is actually great writing on the Net. The series is one of the best sci-fi stories I've seen in a long time Archived Classic - Friday, October 20, 2000 In doing the Web Animation Guide, I've seen a lot of Webtoons, however, BIRTHDAY PARTY's "Puppeteers' Hand Job" is by far my favorite Webisode of any series. When I introduce my friends to Internet animation this is the toon I show them. The writing is brilliant and the timing is dead on. This Webisode is so witty, smart and edgy that it amazes me every time I watch it. This toon is everything that the Internet could and should be. Congrats Dotcomix! Archived Classic - Friday, October 13, 2000 UrbanEntertainment.com focuses on the African-American audience with one of the best all-around line-ups on the Web. Leading the site is their movie reviewers CISCO & RIPPLE, the best review show on the Net. Review-type toons in cyberspace are quite common, but the "Trust Us" crew presents films in a funny and intelligent way. Their review for NURSE BETTY and BAIT is funny and poignant and is my personal favorite installment. The series is simple with the duo just sitting on the couch, but the timing is dead on. Unlike some of the other review shows, Cisco & Ripple actually tune viewers in on whether the flicks they Archived Classic - Friday, October 6, 2000 A true cyberspace classic would have to be "Chapter 1: Episode 1" of WHIRLGIRL. As the first weekly updated Webseries, the adventures of Kia and her band of rebels has served as a torch-barer in the exploding field of Internet animation. The toon is grounded in tongue-and-cheek humor and well written episodic tales that keep you coming back for more. Internet animation software usually hampers action Webtoons, but Visionary Media has realized the limitations and utilizes the software to its best potential to create an action-packed new type of superhero series. Archived Classic - Friday, September 29, 2000 Rumpus.com is one of the best Web sites for kids and SCIENCE FREAKS is one of the reasons. "Episode 2: Flying Saucers" is my favorite. When a three-eyed freak named Inky needs to create a science fiction story for class, Dr. Freakenstein helps him out with a lesson in science friction. Educational and fun SCIENCE FREAKS is a little bit BILL NYE mixed with a little bit of ANIMANIACS then topped off with a dab of AAGH! REAL MONSTERS. Rumpus has made the Internet an enjoyable place for children to learn and be entertained. Plus, trust me, it Archived Classic - Friday, September 22, 2000 Over at Icebox.com there is a little archived gem called Garbage Island. "Episode 5: Orphans Inc." is one to check out, especially. The toon paints an interestingly bleak future where children receive new toys everyday. Everything has been made corporate -- even orphanages. Twisted and intriguing character design sets this series apart from the pack. Hooray to creator Mel Horan for making a smart and thought-provoking Webtoon. Icebox should air more shows like Garbage Island and less shows like Hidden Celebrity Webcam. Test 123 deleted				Destino Seems Destined for Oscar Nomination After Taking Melbourne Prize Electronic Arts’ LA Studio to Rival Major Effects Houses Miami to Honor Fleischer Studios Academy President Reups and Roth Will Produce Oscars Anime Network MIPCOM Bound to Shop [More] [More] My pick of this week is GWYNETH AND STEVE, airing at Countingdown.com. This toon is yet another of the batch of programming that was to appear on DreamWork's now defunct... [More] At CartoonNetwork.com on Funny Garbage's PLANET OF THE MAGILLAS, this parody of PLANET OF THE APES sends a JETSON-age space traveler to a world inhabited by a cast of... [More]