Here I am at the Comic-Con International.  This is going to be a very short report, but with some really good pictures and a big announcement at the end.  Last night was “Preview Night”, which was a preview of the huge and unwieldy crowds that have descended on San Diego.  There were people walking around with cardboard shields with the movie logo of 300 on them.  That doesn’t begin to estimate the crowd.  Add up the figures on all those shields and you might be close.

But Wednesday was all about Master Replicas Muppet Photo Puppets for me.  First up, here is the final version of Animal, that growling drummer from the Electric Mayhem.

Animal is currently available for pre-order and while there are no firm promises, Travis of Master Replicas expects Animal to begin shipping this fall.  Here is a closer look at the detail in his face.

Next up is the current prototype for The Great Gonzo.  The color of his fur and tuxedo are still not right.  His tux is too pink and his fur is too gray.

They are still having problems with Gonzo’s nose.  It was originally made with reticulated foam, but that has a very short shelf life and can become brittle and crumble with age.  They are experimenting with other material so that it looks like foam but will not deterioate so quickly.  This version has some sort of mesh over it, but the concensus at the Con was that nobody likes the way this looks.  Because of this, Travis would not offer a guess as to when Gonzo will go on pre-order.

The biggest treat is in the next picture…

Yes, it’s the very first prototype of Fozzie Bear.  He didn’t arrive until partway through the evening.  Terry Angus, the fabulously talented builder, shipped him overnight.  He was so down to the wire that he didn’t have time to make Fozzie’s hat and he had to hand paint the material for his tie.

For a first prototype, he’s amazingly gorgeous.  I would take him almost as he is.  Travis and I decided his eyes and nose just need to be a little higher on his face, but Muppet expert Mike Moore, who made the eyes for Animal, Gonzo and Fozzie says that it depends on what picture you use for reference.  Every Fozzie they built was different.

And now for the big surprise.  As has already been announced, Animal and Gonzo are coming out this year, with Fozzie and Miss Piggy for 2008… but Travis hinted that they are planning a third puppet for next year, too.  I am pleased that he’s letting me break the news here… the third photo puppet for 2008 is…

Yes, it’s Rizzo the Rat.  With two big characters, they wanted to have another one in a more affordable range and Travis’ guess is that Rizzo will be priced about the same as Kermit.

There was also talk about accesory packs for the characters, but I’ll get into that in another post.  I’m Muppeted out for now!

I’m pleased to announce that I will co-hosting the Cartoon Voices panels on both Saturday and Sunday with the omnipresent Mark Evanier. Mark has graciously asked me to assist him in grilling… er, interviewing the two fine panels of professional voice artists. Here are the current line-ups, but at least one person is likely to switch days before this is set in concrete:

Saturday, NOON - 1:15 PM / Room 6B
CARTOON VOICE ACTORS I
A demonstration of the fine art of speaking for animated characters…with NEIL ROSS (G.I. Joe), ROB PAULSEN (Pinky and the Brain), WALLY WINGERT (Invader Zim), KATHY GARVER (Spider-Man), WILL RYAN (Disney), CHRIS EDGERLY (Harvey Birdman) and JOE ALASKEY (Duck Dodgers).

Sunday, NOON - 1:15 PM / Room 6B
CARTOON VOICE ACTORS II
Another demonstration of the fine art of speaking for animated characters…with TOM KENNY (SpongeBob SquarePants), MICHAEL BELL (Rugrats), APRIL STEWART (South Park), GREGG BERGER (Transformers), and MAURICE LaMARCHE (Pinky and the Brain).

Our fine cast will also be performing a cold reading of a famous radio script as a demonstration of their talents and versatility. A “cold reading” is an industry term for a first reading. In other words, when they read the script out loud for the audience, it will be the first time they’ve even seen it. If you’re attending the Con, these are must-see panels!

Here’s an e-mail I received from Christopher Cook:

On the Josie DVD: A 37-year-old cartoon like Josie definitely wouldn’t sell well in an era where kids crave pre-packaged Disney divas like the Cheetah Girls (who look more like teen versions of the Pussycat Dolls). The Archie Show comes out on DVD in two weeks, and only the most diehard grown-ups who remember it as a kid in 1968 will bother. Today’s kids? They’re still weaning on Hannah Montana.

I agree with this to a certain extent. Where I disagree is just who the target audience is for these vintage DVDs. I don’t think they’re aimed at today’s kids. They’re totally about nostalgia. But more than that, if a parent remembers a show fondly and passes it on to their children, they might enjoy it, too. A friend of mine has introduced his son to all sorts of classic and nostalgic cartoons and his son loves them. If the parent just turns on the TV and lets them watch whatever is on the Disney Channel or Cartoon Network, then they’ll never be exposed to other stuff, but if they’re like my friend… well, everything old is new again.

You could make this argument about any of the old TV shows that are being released on DVD. Who is I Love Lucy for? Certainly not for today’s kids. B&W?? You gotta be kidding. But they sold enough of these sets to warrant putting out a giant box of the complete series. So, there’s obviously a market for classic TV shows. Is Josie and the Pussycats a classic? Certainly not in the same sense as I Love Lucy, but Warner Home Video is betting that there’s enough fans left to make releasing it worthwhile.

The Comic-Con International is now less than two weeks away and four day passes are sold out. This is good. Not so much that there are no more, but that the idea of capping capacity has finally taken hold. I have been suggesting this for several years now. You can still buy a three day (Thursday, Friday and Sunday) ticket and it will include the Wednesday preview night, but even that’s almost as crowded as Saturday now. If they take my advice, next year there will be no on-site registration at all. You either register ahead of time or don’t come. Of course, if they do that and registrations start to close-out as fast as the hotels did this year, a lot of us won’t be going to Comic-Con any more.

Still, I’ll be there this year. I may be on a panel or two, but I’m not on the official schedule. When I find out, I’ll let you know so you can say hi. Just you, though. Not that other guy.

Way back last month… actually it was just this past Saturday… Gord Lacey and David Lambert of the wonderful TV Shows On DVD website posted the above artwork for the upcoming Josie and the Pussycats set. (You can see a larger version of it by clicking the image). I had posted here that there was something I found in the Warners’ film vault that should be included as bonus material on the set, something that almost no one in the entire world has seen or even knew existed. They begged Warner Home Video to contact me, but it was all to no avail. I brought it up to a few of my contacts and they just shrugged and said they didn’t have much of a budget for this title.

Well, I promised David and Gord I would reveal my find when the time was right and now seems as good a time as any.

Have you ever noticed that there are a few shots in the Main Title that stand out from the rest? They are close-ups of each girl playing their instruments, and are not lifted from the body of the show like most of the Main Title. The reason they look different is because they are rotoscoped. Rotoscope is a process that was invented by Max Fleischer whereby live actors are filmed, then each frame of film is traced by an artist, turning the live actors into cartoon characters. The shots of Josie and her Pussycat pals playing their instruments are rotoscoped.

How do I know, besides just noticing the obvious differences in the look of the animation? Because I found the live action reference footage. Yes, it actually exists. I never got to run it through a Movieola or projector, but I held it in my hands and there’s no question as to what it is. What would be fascinating to find out, though, since Cheryl Ladd did the singing voice for one of the Pussycats, was that her in the live action footage?

We’ll never know, though, because TV cartoons from this period just don’t sell well enough to get the deluxe treatment. In the end, you really can’t blame Warners. It doesn’t make sense for them to spend more money putting a set together than they could possibly make on it. No matter how much we want to see something, they are still a business, after all. But that footage sure would have made a cool bonus feature.