Well, our Halloween juggernaut's just getting started (after all, it's only Day 4), but gosh all fishhooks, I've just seen the most inspiring thing, one that fits right in with what we're doing. It's the premiere episode of Cartoon Network's new show The Secret Saturdays, and I never thought I'd say this about anything, but... I'm feeling so chipper.
I found out about this show in one of my 
ongoing searches for monster culture stuff on the web, and after reading the concept I thought this would be a hoot. Now, after seeing the final product, which will be among the new series CN has on its Friday-night block of programming, I'm completely in love. This show, though it wears its influences on its sleeve with unabashed geeklike pride, has taken the best elements of Jonny Quest, The Herculoids, Challengers Of The Unknown, The Fantastic Four and The X-Files and distilled them into a completely original creation. No derivation of popular franchises here; Saturdays is its own game.
In this first episode, "The Hur Stone," we are introduced to all the main characters and the ongoing plot for the series. The show's conceit is that various scientists work together in an underground network across the globe to study and research the mysteries of the universe (i.e. monsters, unexplained phenomena, and just plain old weird stuff) in order to protect not only the world from the secrets, but the secrets themselves from anyone who would use them for evil or ill gains. The notion of ill gains has its manifest in the form of crypto-scientist V. V. Argost, who hosts the popular TV show 
Weird World and comes across like an unholy combination platter of Doctor Doom, Boris Karloff and Snidely Whiplash (if you don't believe this last part, just listen to him do his Evil Sneering Laugh). Argost's main concern in this episode is to gather the pieces of the Hur Stone, which will control all cryptids (or unexplained natural monsters such as Bigfoot and Chupacabra) and put them under his rule, with the goal of controlling the world.
Opposed to this, of course, are the Saturdays, a family of cryptozoologists who, along with two other scientists in their network, have a piece of the Hur Stone. The family consists of Doc Saturday, who prefers hard facts to speculative science, his wife Drew, whose expertise in mysterious artifacts makes her the Mulder to Doc's Scully, and their eleven-year-old son Zak, who has a strange power over cryptids and can control them, and wants to be accepted as a full-fledged member of Team Saturdays. The team is rounded out by the Saturdays' family pets: Komodo, a mutated monitor lizard who can become invisible at will, and Fiskerton, a gentle but clumsy seven-foot-tall "gorilla cat" who serves as an older brother to Zak and led a previous life as the "Fiskerton Phantom" before hooking up with the Saturdays. When the Saturdays learn of Argost's plot to recover the Hur Stone (which is done by Argost simultaneously blowing up the headquarters of the three scientists who have the pieces), Doc and Drew reveal their legacy of the Hur Stone to Zak, and suggest (much to their concern and discomfort) that his cryptid powers may be the key to retrieving it. With Zak in tow, the race is on, and the Saturdays head for a spot deep in the Amazon to recover their hidden piece before Argost can get his hands on it. This also serves as a method of picking up the sixth member of the family, Zon, the last surviving remnant of a prehistoric species of pterodactyl-like creatures, who has her nest unceremoniously destroyed by the Saturdays when their airship crashes after a dogfight with Argost. The subsequent battle and denouement sets the tone for the rest of the series, and shows a glimpse of things to come.
The series has a definite retro tone and feel, all the way down from its simplistic Sixties-ish character design and 
muted color palette to its percussive and sprightly bongo-jazz score, but it is in the writing and characterization that it truly shines. Doc and Drew, despite their passion for adventures and scientific discoveries, show genuine concern and love for their son, while Zak behaves as precociously as any other boy in a family of adventurer-scientists would. The family dynamic is palpable, and drives the show quite well, deriving much situational humor (when Drew is questioned by her husband about why she threw the TV at a villain ransacking their HQ, her response is, "I'm sorry, I just get in a zone") and creating a real bond between the viewer and the characters. Argost is a great villain with a hilariously slimy upper-crust demeanor (he drops various foreign-language words and phrases continually in his speech) that recalls some of Hanna-Barbera's best Saturday morning villains, and there is a certain not-too-subtle commentary made by Argost's status as a reality-show host. The Herculoids-like menagerie of Fiskerton, Komodo and Zon all provide great support and comic relief, and promise great times ahead (and I want a Fiskerton stuffed doll, if not a full set of Saturdays action figures). There's no doubt about it: this show is going to be a monster, and because it's animated is not an acceptable reason for not watching it. After the cancellation of Teen Titans and Justice League and the subsequent takeover of CN's adventure blocks by incomprehensible anime, this show may well be the redemption of Cartoon Network.
The Secret Saturdays is airing each Friday on Cartoon Network. Catch it and share with friends; it's worth your time.
Check your local listings for proper airtimes for The Secret Saturdays. More information is available at http://www.cartoonnetwork.com.
Creator Jay Stephens hosts the Monsterama blog, which records his fine body of comics and cartoon work as well as his expertise in monster culture. Visit it here and let him know how much you like the show.
Hello, everybody! Frankie Franken here, and Happy 31 Days Of Halloween to all of you! Gosh, we've been so busy planning our Halloween celebration that we nearly forgot to mention--The Secret Saturdays is premiering on Cartoon Network tonight!
The Secret Saturdays details the adventures of Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday, a family of 
cryptozoologists who travel the world solving the mysteries of Earth's strangest creatures to save them from the evil machinations of V. V. Argost, who's bent on finding them for his own evil purposes. Created by Jay Stephens, this super-cool cartoon is full of monsters of all types, and perfect for the Halloween season! We want this cartoon to become a major hit, so make sure you tune in and watch tonight! Click on the link in our blog title to go straight to the Cartoon Network's Secret Saturdays portal for games, clips and show information!
Also, check out Jay Stephens' blog Monsterama, which is hosted right here on Blogger. Click the handy link in our Graveyard section here on the Harbinger to meet the groovy-ghouly creator of the Saturdays and read his ruminations and remembrances on monster culture! It's cryptid craziness galore, so make sure you don't miss out!
Sincerely,
Frankie Franken
The Secret Saturdays premieres tonight on Cartoon Network. Join us in watching and help to make this cartoon a monster hit! And don't forget to keep watch here at the Harbinger for a review of the first episode among the special treats in our 31 Days Of Halloween!
Hey, y'all, and Happy Halloween out there! My name's Petronella Nightshade, but everbody calls me Punkin, and I am speakin to you through this here computer blog. We welcome you to The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween, which is us and our Mad Doctor (Mr. John) celebratin the season with a whole bunch of stuff, reviewin horror movies and writin essays and first one thing and then another, and we's all puttin it up on this blog all month. This here is my first review of a movin picture, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and the reason I am doin it is cause Bethany read the title and didn't want to do it, even though it had vampires in it. I think it had somethin to do with the words vampire and slayer, and them bein so close together. Since Bethany is a vampire you can see how she wouldn't care for somethin like that. But she told me all about how to do movin picture reviewin, so I am givin it a go.
Vampires is uncommon strange folk. It's all that havin to be inside all the time durin the day and never seein the sun, I think. It wears on a body and gives them strange notions, and though most vampires I know in Morlock Heights has become fairly civilized, ever now and then you run across one of them that's got wrong in the head. The main vampire in this picture, Lothos, is like that, struttin around and posturin and talkin about destroyin the world. But I am gettin ahead of myself.
This picture starts with a girl, name of Buffy Summers, who is what educated folks call a Typical Teen. She lives 
out in California and is on the cheerleadin squad at her school, which means that she has a bunch of popular friends, a handsome feller who plays basketball on the school team, and goes out shoppin at the mall a lot. Everthing's fine until this shabby lookin feller called Merrick comes round and tells her that she's got her a destiny, which is to be a Slayer of vampires. But Buffy don't want to be no Slayer; instead she wants to do somethin else, and she tells Merrick that she ain't gonna be no Slayer and he got him the wrong girl. Merrick says she's got her a birthmark that says she's s'posed to be the Slayer, and Buffy tells him that she went round the doctor's and got it took off. Well, poor old Merrick just about faints at that, but he takes her out to the graveyard where a vampire's risin up, and even though she don't know what she's doin she kills it and finds out that not only is she a Slayer but durn good at it. Merrick tells her that she's got to start trainin, cause somethin bad's comin. And that somethin is Lothos, who's wantin to destroy the world with his mean old self and has got him up a whole passel of vampires, includin this one little feller named Amilyn who is like Lothos' best buddy and goes around for half the picture with just one arm cause this other feller named Pike that Amilyn thought he was gonna eat started fightin him and tore his arm off. Which is just what I would have done, cause I wouldn't want no vampire tryin to eat me, and anyway old Amilyn was more concerned about his jacket gettin tore up than losin his arm, which is just plain silly. I guess vampires is different out in California.
Anyhow, Pike, who ain't popular like all of Buffy's friends, starts hangin out with Buffy cause he's the only other one that knows about the vampires, and pretty soon Buffy starts likin him instead of the basketball-playin boyfriend, which is how things usually go when you meet someone that you got somethin in common with. She spends a lot of time savin his behind from evil stuff too, cause in most horror pictures it is usually the feller who saves the pretty girl, but since Buffy is a Slayer and got supernatural powers and all, in this picture it is different. When Lothos kills Merrick in front of Buffy, she knows somethin has to be done. She's got to get him, and get him she does, in a big old showdown at the school dance.
Kristy Swanson plays Buffy, Donald Sutherland is playin Merrick, and Rutger Hauer plays old Lothos. Luke Perry is the one that's playin Pike, who I thought was more interestin and a better match for Buffy than the feller what played basketball. Paul Reubens plays the little feller Amilyn, and I read up some on him and found out that for a long time he was playin this oddball feller in a suit named Pee-Wee Herman, and so I guess he was playin a vampire cause he wanted to do somethin else for a while. But in this movie he had a Stanislavski moment, cause when Bethany was tellin me how to write reviews she told me all about this feller named Stanislavski who was this great actin teacher and everbody wanted to study under him, and so when Amilyn gets staked by Buffy and dies he starts rockin back and forth and clutchin his chest and rollin his eyes and goin oooh eeee arrrooowww like some big old cat, so I decided he was havin a Stanislavski moment. It was one of the best parts of the picture, to my mind.
This movin picture wasn't no big hit when it came out like Star Wars or somethin, but there was them that really did like it, and after seein it I am one of them. Joss Whedon, who's the feller what created Buffy and wrote the picture, went on and got to do a TV show with it, and it got real popular and had T-shirts and posters and dime novels and DVDs and funnybooks and them little action figures that folks buy and don't take out of the package, and all kind of stuff about Buffy. So I figure old Buffy did all right for herself, even if Bethany did call her a bunch of names that I can't write down here because young ones might be readin this. Anyhow, I am done here with this review and hope y'all like it. Blessings be to all of you, and see you soon cause I will be writin some more this month.
Sincerely,
Petronella Nightshade
Good evening, darlings, and thank you for reading. The other MonsterGrrls and I would like very much to welcome you to our 31 Days Of Halloween, in which all of us will log in each day through the month of October to bring you various news, reviews and other items connected with this most wonderful time of the year. We're kicking off today with a review of a movie from 2006, An American Haunting, which, ostensibly enough, was released on our Mad Doctor's birthday that year.
An American Haunting is not so much a retelling as a reimagining of an old American 
folktale, the Bell Witch of Tennessee. In 1817, the family home of John Bell in Robertson County, Tennessee, was haunted by inexplicable noises and poltergeist-like manifestations which were thought to be the work of a ghost, the spirit of a woman named Kate Batts. The spirit took particular delight in tormenting the Bells' youngest daughter Betsy (shown at right), and it is from this tale that Haunting takes its meat.
In the movie, John Bell (Donald Sutherland) is taken to Church court for the theft of Kate Batts' land, and let off lightly by the judges. Known in the village for claims of witchery, the offended Batts (Gaye Brown) tells him to enjoy his good health and the health of his family while he can, an admonition that takes a dark turn when strange manifestations begin to pop up around his home (including the by-now customary Frighteningly Symbolic Evil-Looking Child, played here by Madalina Stan). Many of the spooky occurrences seem to be focused around the Bells' teenage daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood, who also plays the disembodied voice of the Bell Witch), who bears the brunt of the haunting at the beginning. When the manifestations escalate into Betsy levitating from her bed, it becomes apparent that the Bells have a ghost on their hands. As John Bell slowly loses his mind and the family desperately tries to hold together during the gathering darkness, it becomes very apparent that the ghost may not be in fact a manifestation of the restless dead, but a different manifestation entirely--an entity created by Betsy Bell in order for her and her mother Lucy (Sissy Spacek) to remember an evil secret.
The movie is well-made but flawed, mostly due to its predilection that there was actually no ghost. Insteand of truly exploring the legend of the Bell Witch, the story is made into a rather spooky psychodrama by attempting to explain the "haunting" as a psychological manifestation of child abuse. While the actors all perform their parts well and the movie spins a decent yarn (including some very atmospheric and frightening scenes), once the spooks are explained away by the filmmakers' additions to the tale, it degenerates from a scarefest into some rather standard ruminations on The Evil That Families Do that sort of becomes an Early American version of Flowers In The Attic. An opening thread set in modern times concerning a troubled mother and daughter's discovery of artifacts from the Bell Witch hauntings, which bookends the movie and tries to create a 'shock' ending, does not help much either. I would have much preferred to see the original story as written down, performed as a 'period' horror movie of sorts. Still, the movie looks good, so I would recommend this for an off-evening, but not as the main feature of a Halloween celebration. Save only the best films in your collection for that, and for heaven's sake do avoid those godawful Freddy and Jason slasher films. Not Halloweeny at all, I'm sure. As for this, better luck next time.
BETHANY'S RATING:
A well-made and fairly acted film that is heavy-handed in its execution and tries to explore modern evil by unsatisfactory means. Not for kids, but the slowness of the film will ensure that they won't want to watch anyway.
I extend special thanks to Mr. Bob Collins, a friend of our Mad Doctor's who suggested this film for review quite a while ago. Do enjoy, darling, and we do apologize for being so late with this.
Regards,
Bethany Ruthven
The Morlock Heights Harbinger proudly announces a seasonal onslaught of manic proportions--The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween!! All month long in October, the Grrls (and their Mad Doctor, natch) will be logging on to present all manner of Halloween hoofaraw, including essays, news, monster movie reviews, and all sorts of stuff! Join the frightful foursome for the ongoing BOO-HAW-HAW each day here at the Harbinger!
After reading a slew of reviews on the new animated film Igor, starring the voices of John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Jennifer Coolidge and Molly Shannon, I can say this: almost none of them get it.This is not to say that my review is better than theirs, but they just don't get it. You have to have a certain frame of mind to watch this film, and you can't go in expecting anything. (For instance, the soundtrack contains monster-movie-esque music, the songs of Louis Prima, and "I Can See Clearly Now" as sung by blind orphans. Yes, blind orphans.) I was immediately stoked by this film when I first saw the animated trailer online, and quite frankly, I'm still stoked by it. (I have since learned there will be action figures--yes!!)
Anyway, on to our review. The kingdom of Malaria has been transformed into a barren wasteland by a mysterious and unexplained cloud cover, causing near-constant rain and eternal darkness. Since nothing can grow there, the bullying and overbearing King Malbert (Leno) comes up with a novel solution to keep Malaria's economy afloat: create evil inventions of mass destruction and blackmail the rest of the world into paying Malaria not to unleash them on other countries. (If this scenario sounds at all familiar to you, you are most likely going to vote Democrat and will probably end up not liking this rather un-PC movie anyway, so be quiet.) This instantly creates two classes within Malaria: the Evil Scientists, who are treated like celebrities and live rent-free in huge, luxurious laboratories, and the Igors, whose collective job consists mainly of indentured servitude, taking abuse, and switch-pulling. Get born with a hunch on your back, and guess where you'll end up. Because of these circumstances, no one in Malaria is kindhearted, friendly, or even nice.
One Igor (Cusack) who describes himself as "better-looking than the others" (and he's right), is unfortunately cursed with both creative abilities and common decency. Though Igor dreams of being an Evil Scientist, he is in thrall to the temperamental and incompetent Dr. Glickenstein (Cleese), and must invent in secret, creating existentialist Scamper (Buscemi) a sarcastic, suicidal and unfortunately immortal rabbit, and painfully stupid Brain (Hayes), a clumsy brain-in-a-jar who can't even spell his own name right. When Glickenstein is killed during field tests for the upcoming Evil Science Fair, Igor grabs his chance at fame and notoriety and begins working on an evil Frankenstein monster that will destroy all the other inventions at the Fair and be selected for Malbert's blackmail scam. Unfortunately, something goes awry and the resulting creation is a dainty behemoth-sized sweetheart named Eva (Shannon) who quickly decides her own calling: to be an actress. Igor misleads Eva into participating in the Fair, but his secret gets out and he is courted by Dr. Schauenfreude (Izzard), a stylish blowhard whose multiple winning streak at the Fair is maintained by stealing other scientists' inventions with the help of snobbish girlfiend Jaclyn (Coolidge). As Igor struggles with Schauenfreude's temptations and his growing affection for Eva, he discovers a fiendish plan that could change Malaria forever, and not for the better.
This movie is a witty and raucously skewered take on the Frankenstein tale that is a splendid early taste of Halloween dark chocolate. While reviews have been mixed on the film's level of humor (no one seems to understand the concept of gradually building whimsical comic anarchy anymore; it's possible that the Scary Movie And Others oveure killed this), it manages to be both kid- and adult-friendly in the same way that Rocky 
And Bullwinkle was, while at the same time raising a few important questions about celebrity, fame, beauty, prejudice, and the nature of good and evil (especially with its underplayed theme of smart good-guy nobodies versus evil maladroit somebodies). Yeah, most reviewers are ragging on the Nightmare Before Christmas-like design, but enough generations of spooky kids have seen that film and others by Tim Burton that he can now be considered an influence, and some of those same kids probably grew up to work on this film. Plus, the film's designers have also seen enough of Metropolis and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari to properly get their German Expressionism going on, so it's all good.
The voice cast also kicks it live and knocks it out, with standout performances coming from Hayes and Buscemi, who steal the show with their team of Brain and Scamper. Izzard and Coolidge mug and posture their way through, with Coolidge stealing some of Izzard's villainous thunder through her Paris-Hilton-meets-Natasha-Fatale portrayal of Jaclyn. Leno is solid but strangely not particularly memorable as Malbert, and Cleese invokes some of his demons from Fawlty Towers in his briefly seen but totally clueless Glickenstein. And Cusack and Shannon, who may seem on paper to be odd choices for Igor and Eva, maintain a constantly high energy level and own their characters for the whole of the film, making them totally believable.
Screw the reviewers. Screw the fact that there's been almost no press for this film, and screw the grumblings about Burtonesque character design and the film's atypical nature as compared to other CGI animated offerings. Go see this film. See it twice so you can catch all the jokes; it's not a typical kiddie film, but a movie about Evil Scientists and Igors ain't gonna be anyway. And there's gonna be action figures.
PULL THE SWITCH!!!
POST-MORTEM: We've just learned from dreadcentral.com that the action figure line has been canned by the Weinstein Company, who made the film. Guess all the Evil Scientists moved to Hollywood.
Hello, everybody! Frankie Franken here, and we've just seen the trailer for the new film Igor, coming from MGM in September. Igor follows the adventures of a talented Mad-Scientist's-assistant (John Cusack) in the kingdom of Malaria, where Mad Scientists are celebrities who create evil weapons and monsters, and Igors are... just the
hunchbacked guys who pull the switch. In a way-cool take on Frankenstein, one Igor (who is much more talented than his master) must overcome prejudices and other Mad Scientists to achieve his dream of becoming a Mad Scientist himself. When he gets his chance, Igor's creation turns out to be a monster girl (wow!) named Eva, who has other things in mind than being someone's weapon.
Our own Mad Doctor John is hot to see this great movie, and we think it's going to be really cool too--a nice early treat for Halloween! Check out the trailer at http://www.igor-movie.com.
Note: The Mad Doctor is also providing information on this film at Notes From The Monster Shop, and his new animation blog The Powerhouse Files. Check them out.
Also, click the Igor poster to see a video exclusive from Dread Central with Igor director Anthony Leonidas!
Have seen the trailer for the new film Igor, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation to this film, coming from MGM in September. Igor follows the adventures of a talented Mad-Scientist's-assistant (John Cusack) in the kingdom of Malaria, where Mad Scientists are celebrities who create evil weapons and monsters, and Igors are... the hunchbacked guys who pull the switch. In a wild, wacky and very creative inversion on the Frankenstein story, one Igor (who is much more talented than his master) must overcome prejudices and other Mad Scientists to achieve his dream of becoming a Mad Scientist himself. Teaming up with sarcastic lab rabbit Scamper (Steve Buscemi) and the unfortunately stupid brain-in-a-jar Brain (Sean Hayes), Igor eventually gets his chance to create his own monster, Eva (Molly Shannon), who turns out to be exactly not what anyone expected.
Some wags on Youtube (which is where I saw the trailer) were blabbing on about how this seemed to be a monster-themed version of Ratatouille, but for my own part, I think there's much more at work here. It's arriving in theatres on September 19, just in time to open the Halloween season, so I'm throwing in with this cool-looking and inspired-sounding little movie. Further highjinks are sure to ensue, so I'll fill you in as it all becomes available. Check out the trailer for yourself at http://www.igor-movie.com.
Note: We will also be providing information on this film at The Morlock Heights Harbinger and The Powerhouse Files. Check them out.
Have seen the trailer for the new film Igor, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation to this film, coming from MGM in September. Igor follows the adventures of a talented Mad-Scientist's-assistant (John Cusack) in the kingdom of Malaria, where Mad Scientists are celebrities who create evil weapons and monsters, and Igors are... the hunchbacked guys who pull the switch. In a wild, wacky and very creative inversion on the Frankenstein story, one Igor (who is much more talented than his master) must overcome prejudices and other Mad Scientists to achieve his dream of becoming a Mad Scientist himself. Teaming up with sarcastic lab rabbit Scamper (Steve Buscemi) and the unfortunately stupid brain-in-a-jar Brain (Sean Hayes), Igor eventually gets his chance to create his own monster, Eva (Molly Shannon), who turns out to be exactly not what anyone expected.
Some wags on Youtube (which is where I saw the trailer) were blabbing on about how this seemed to be a monster-themed version of Ratatouille, but for my own part, I think there's much more at work here. It's arriving in theatres on September 19, just in time to open the Halloween season, so I'm throwing in with this cool-looking and inspired-sounding little movie. Further highjinks are sure to ensue, so I'll fill you in as it all becomes available. Check out the trailer for yourself at http://www.igor-movie.com.
Note: We will also be providing information on this film at The Morlock Heights Harbinger and Notes From The Monster Shop. Check them out.
For the first time anywhere, I present a self-portrait showing full Mad Doctor mode... and despite the grimly fiendish expression, don't worry; I really do like other people. It's just that I can't always eat a whole one...
We here in the Monster Shop are very stoked about the upcoming release of The Secret Saturdays, a new cartoon soon to debut on Cartoon Network. Created by Jay Stephens, this cool new show depicts the adventures of a family of cryptozoologists who strive to protect the world from ancient monsters and secrets, while simultaneously protecting said ancient monsters and secrets from greedy humans.
Cryptozoology, or the study of undiscovered animals, gets unjustly laughed at in scientific circles due to its concentration on what is known as "mega-fauna" cryptids. Mega-fauna cryptids are not things like undiscovered species of beetles or other insects, but big animals--in short, things like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. The earliest evidence of cryptozoological aspects in 'toons is most likely Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest, which is one of The Secret Saturdays' inspirations. Created by Doug Wildey, 
Jonny Quest details the adventures of the title character, a resourceful lad who travels with his father Dr. Benton Quest, pilot/adventurer Roger "Race" Bannon, Indian pal Haji and bulldog-pup Bandit on missions and adventures that span the globe and sometimes have them running into lost civilizations and ancient legends. Predating JQ, in the comic book format,
was Jack Kirby's Challengers Of The Unknown, sometimes said to be a trial run for what would eventually become The Fantastic Four. The Challengers were a group of adventurers who, after miraculously surviving a plane crash unharmed, decide that they are living on borrowed time and band together for adventures that take them not only to battles with monsters and ancient beings, but to alternate universes and even across time and space. To be involved with a branch of what is known as "pseudo-science", the Saturdays have a hell of a cartoon pedigree.
Because there is no scientific proof that cryptids exist, and because most evidence for these creatures largely consists of unreliable eyewitness accounts, cryptoozoology is considered a pseudo-science. Yet at the same time, much of the Earth is still unexplored, especially its oceans and seas.
And one thing that is perennial about the human condition is that we have a need in our lives for monsters, myths, the supernatural, and the unexplained: things that cause us to suspect that there is another world beyond the one we know, things that fill the heart with wonder and the eyes with stars. Religion gets blamed, and often unfairly, for being the cause of unrest in the world, but even though every atheist I know would grind their teeth at this statement, we need a God. We need great big things like God, because sometimes we can hide under them from real evil. We need to know and believe there are forces for good in the world that work in our favor, and we need monsters to represent our worst fears and our greatest evils, or even to represent the evils in ourselves that we can't face.
And sometimes--many times, in fact, the monsters wind up being the good guys, or at least an indicator of our need and capacity for redemption. And never is this more present than in cartoons. Take the case of Hal Seeger's Milton The Monster, who showed up on Saturday morning screens back in 1965, but was actually in the production stages as far back as 1964, pre-dating both The Addams Family and The
Munsters. Created by goofball mad scientists Professor Weirdo and Count Kook, Milton was an amiable Frankenstein who got overloaded on "tincture of tenderness" during his creation, making him sweet and lovable--and usually the victim of his creators' schemes. Other monster toons have proliferated as well; master cartoonist Alex Toth's The Herculoids were a team of 
super-powered creatures who protected their home planet of Quasar from encroaching aliens and outer-space bad guys. The Addams Family, depicted on TV as a clan of macabre and monsterlike individuals who were also the ultimate loving and cordial family, got their own Hanna-Barbera animated series in '73, traveling the country in a Victorian-styled RV and helping out folks in trouble. Though dismissed as a Scooby-Doo clone, the aptly-named Fangface was an actual werewolf who was on the side of good, and he and his gang of pals often ran into real strange creatures--not just crooks in monster suits but actual supernatural occurrences. And during the '80's there was the Drak Pack, in which the teenage descendants of legendary monsters, led by a reformed Count Dracula, used their supernatural abilities to atone for the sins of their ancestors by defending the world from evil.
So I think there's a need, if not a scientific basis, for cryptozoology, for wonder, for anything that causes us to try to be better, braver, or smarter, or helps us deal with the unknown.
And cryptids are real. If you don't think so, then check this out.
(Note: click on any picture to see it full-size.)
So. I was hoping to get some more website stuff done that day, but the rain came and then behind it came a thunderstorm, which meant that the computer, the Internet and so forth all got shut down immediately to avoid getting fried by errant lightning. So I took advantage of this brown-out to spend some downtime putting together Dracula: A Toy Theatre By Edward Gorey, which I had hunted for and finally found, and then been unable to properly deal with because I'd gotten busy.
Toy theatres are pretty cool. Emerging with the rise of mass printing, these were originally sold at real performance or vaudeville theatres during the 18th and 19th centuries, and most of these were fairly elaborate works of art and illustration. People took them home, put them together and performed their own little plays. Dracula showcases Edward Gorey's costume and set designs for the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula, which starred Frank Langella. Those of you who watch Mystery! are familiar with Gorey's work; the animated opening sequence is derived from his artwork.
The Gorey toy theatre includes three scenes, fifteen figures and props that you put together, plus a four-page booklet (more a pamphlet, actually) that outlines the basic action of the play and gives some background on Edward Gorey, all in a nice bookshelf-quality box. My familiarity with Dracula is not from the play, but mostly from Stoker's original novel and myriad movies, so I was kind of irritated that the female lead was Lucy Westenra, or rather Seward, as the play combines hers and Mina Harker's characters.** However, Mina writes a diary that composes half the novel, and if anyone has ever seen the beautiful if overwrought and somewhat ham-handed movie Bram Stoker's Dracula featuring Gary Oldman as Drac, then it's easy to call Lucy (played by Sadie Frost) the most obnoxious character, as she spends most of her onscreen time behaving like a total horndog and driving her suitors into various extended expressions of masculinity. Quincey Morris (Bill Campbell), presented in this movie as an Old West American, shows plenty of Ah-Luvs-Ya-Miz-Scawlet love, while Dr. Seward (Richard E. Grant) gets obsessive and shows Weird Geeky Intellectual Love, expressed by the scene where he shoots up with opium while giggling insanely and listening to hot classical music on his recording phonograph. Lord Godalming, played by Cary Elwes, is a stiff-upper-lip sort, so he doesn't do much besides be really British at her.
But I digress. The photo below shows the play props, all exquisitely and simply done, consisting of Lucy's Bed, The Doctor's Couch, The Dank And Noisome Tomb,* and two Carpets For The Library And Boudoir. The Dank And Noisome Tomb was actually the easiest thing to put together, while The Doctor's Couch had me scratching my head and fumbling for a few minutes before I finally grokked how it was supposed to be folded.
The fifteen figures include the main characters: Jonathan Harker, Dr. Seward, Lucy Seward (who is Dr. Seward's daughter in the play), Professor Van Helsing, and Drac in various poses and costumes for the three acts that make up the play, plus Miss Wells the maid, the tortured and maddened mental patient and vampire stooge Renfield, and Butterworth, who is Renfield's keeper and generally looks like he'd like to beat the crap out of Renfield. As per the booklet, at the beginning of the first act, Mina has already been a light supper for Dracula, with plasma for afters.
All the costumes have a definite 1920's-30's Agatha Christie feel, which stands to reason since the 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi is pretty much in that time period. Still, the most curious of these were the figures for Act III, which (as per instructions) takes place in A Vault. I cannot see anyone going vampire hunting in evening dress.
There are three figures of Drac in different poses, which I dubbed Normal Drac (for when he's misleading people into thinking he's just an eccentric rich dude who lives in an old church and really likes his opera cape), Sleeping Drac (for those daytime naps after a night on the town), and Working Drac (pretty obvious). Sleeping Drac was a bit strange to me; I felt that instead of being in a stand like the others, there should be a tab-and-slot arrangement so it could fit on The Dank And Noisome Tomb for that added touch of realism.
A shot of the secondary characters: Miss Wells the maid, Renfield and Butterworth. I think Butterworth is a bit put out with Renfield.
After the props and figures were done, I did the scenery. This part was easy: you stand up the set pieces, fold down the floor and tape it together, then tape the three scenes together so that it forms a model that can be turned back and forth for each scene. I opted to leave the scenes separated, as I did not want Yet Another Dust-Catcher in my house, and wanted to store most of the stuff in the box. (I guess that Dank And Noisome Tomb will be a display piece.) I also reconfigured the floor taping so that a small crack was left in the floor seam, then taped both the top and underside of the floor, creating a hinge that made for easy refolding and storing in the box. A burnishing with the handle of my X-Acto knife made the invisible tape substantially more invisible.
Here is a shot of Act One, Dr. Seward's Library. As you can see, there is a repeated bat motif throughout the scenery, suggesting the unseen presence of Dracula and Encroaching Evil.
Act Two, Lucy's Boudoir.
The bat motif gets really heavy in Act Three, A Vault. It would be hard to walk into this sort of place without having a "we're as doomed as doomed can be" feel, even if you're dressed in a snappy evening suit.
So there you go. At this point some imagination was bound to take over, so our last picture above is a scene from my own production of Dracula with set designs and costumes by Edward Gorey, in which an itinerant dragon, unimpressed with the cardboard performances of the actors and distressed by the liberties taken with Stoker's original work, seeks to dismantle the production in the middle of the third act. Further highjinks are sure to ensue.
*No, it really is called that on the back of the box.
**This same type of compression also happens in the theatrical version of Frankenstein, which I have read, and which has no monster creation scene and confines the lab to a single door on the stage. Sorry, but if I was directing it we'd have that laboratory set and that creation scene, and the audience would just have to hunker down. Some things are sacred.
Special thanks to Claudia and Charlie White, who let me use their digital camera and helped with this photo essay.
Hello, everybody! Frankie Franken reporting here with news on an awesome new cartoon coming out this fall on Cartoon Network--The Secret Saturdays!
The Secret Saturdays details the adventures of a cryptozoological team who travel the
world to protect ancient secrets and monsters (called "cryptids") from humans who would otherwise destroy or exploit them. Consisting of Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday, and accompanied by loyal cryptids Fiskerton and Komodo, the Saturdays team tries to stay one step ahead of madman cryptid hunter V.V. Argost in their exploits. The cartoon was created by Jay Stephens, who also is drawing and writing comic stories featuring the Saturdays that will appear in every other issue of DC Comics' Cartoon Network Action Pack until the show's premiere in the fall. The latest issue, #26, features the first of these stories, showcasing Stephens' excellent character designs and artwork.
We're excited about this cool new show, and we hope you will be too! Stay tuned here for more news on the upcoming Secret Saturdays!
Well, our Halloween juggernaut's just getting started (after all, it's only Day 4), but gosh all fishhooks, I've just seen the most inspiring thing, one that fits right in with what we're doing. It's the premiere episode of Cartoon Network's new show The Secret Saturdays, and I never thought I'd say this about anything, but... I'm feeling so chipper.
ongoing searches for monster culture stuff on the web, and after reading the concept I thought this would be a hoot. Now, after seeing the final product, which will be among the new series CN has on its Friday-night block of programming, I'm completely in love. This show, though it wears its influences on its sleeve with unabashed geeklike pride, has taken the best elements of Jonny Quest, The Herculoids, Challengers Of The Unknown, The Fantastic Four and The X-Files and distilled them into a completely original creation. No derivation of popular franchises here; Saturdays is its own game.
Weird World and comes across like an unholy combination platter of Doctor Doom, Boris Karloff and Snidely Whiplash (if you don't believe this last part, just listen to him do his Evil Sneering Laugh). Argost's main concern in this episode is to gather the pieces of the Hur Stone, which will control all cryptids (or unexplained natural monsters such as Bigfoot and Chupacabra) and put them under his rule, with the goal of controlling the world.
muted color palette to its percussive and sprightly bongo-jazz score, but it is in the writing and characterization that it truly shines. Doc and Drew, despite their passion for adventures and scientific discoveries, show genuine concern and love for their son, while Zak behaves as precociously as any other boy in a family of adventurer-scientists would. The family dynamic is palpable, and drives the show quite well, deriving much situational humor (when Drew is questioned by her husband about why she threw the TV at a villain ransacking their HQ, her response is, "I'm sorry, I just get in a zone") and creating a real bond between the viewer and the characters. Argost is a great villain with a hilariously slimy upper-crust demeanor (he drops various foreign-language words and phrases continually in his speech) that recalls some of Hanna-Barbera's best Saturday morning villains, and there is a certain not-too-subtle commentary made by Argost's status as a reality-show host. The Herculoids-like menagerie of Fiskerton, Komodo and Zon all provide great support and comic relief, and promise great times ahead (and I want a Fiskerton stuffed doll, if not a full set of Saturdays action figures). There's no doubt about it: this show is going to be a monster, and because it's animated is not an acceptable reason for not watching it. After the cancellation of Teen Titans and Justice League and the subsequent takeover of CN's adventure blocks by incomprehensible anime, this show may well be the redemption of Cartoon Network.
