Slate.com offers an awesomely easy way to breakdown you favorite characters into proper pantoned ethnicity! See full pic after the jump…

Goddamn, this is great. First thing I loved is how this interactive chart can help you be a better animated bigot!

Click on over here to play with Slate’s interactive version

Note how not all colored characters are created equal. Bart Simpson and Top Cat could both be categorized as “yellow,” yet real world wars have broken out between cultures of similarly distinguished pigmentation.

Plucky, Genie, Grinch, Gazoo, Turtles – Christ, my head is spinning!

Another thing I couldn’t help but notice is that much of the wheel (roughly half) comprises blue and green characters, and most of which remain all-time personal favorites. It reminds me of a rejected Muppet t-shirt design from a recent Threadless contest involving a kickass premium Muppet Green Album pack. You should probably buy that, actually.

Why are the so few shirts about rainbows?!

This might be old news for some of you, but NPR managed to post the world’s first preview of the all new Muppet album, featuring loving covers by popular artists.

Just beautiful… Some of my favorite Muppet songs of all time have been given the warmest possible treatment from some of the most popular music acts of the day (I’m only guessing – I’ve never heard of half these people) in order to prepare the world for the upcoming release of the new Muppets movie. Here’s the tracklist

“Muppet Show Theme Song” – OK GO
“Rainbow Connection” – Weezer feat. Hayley Williams
“Mahna Mahna” – The Fray
“Movin’ Right Along” – Alkaline Trio
“Our World” – My Morning Jacket
“Halfway Down The Stairs” – Amy Lee
“Mr. Bassman” – Sondre Lerche
“Wishing Song” – The Airborne Toxic Event
“Night Life” – Brandon Saller
“Bein’ Green” – Andrew Bird
“I Hope That Something Better Comes Along” – Matt Nathanson
“I’m Going to Go Back There Someday” – Rachael Yamagata

Standouts include Weezer’s Rainbow Connection (obviously) and Alkaline Trio, an old punk fav of mine performing one of the finest up tempo tunes in Muppet history. However, I gotta give it up to OK GO, a band I like far more for their videos than their music, for their wonderfully weird interpretation of the “Muppet Show Theme Song“.

Better still, My Morning Jacket went the obscure route and dared to cover a song from Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas! Makes me wonder… who currently owns the rights to the Muppets’ music catalog? The album is being released by Walt Disney Records, but Disney doesn’t own Emmet Otter, and its music has NEVER been released in any official capacity. Which is why I personally ripped the whole damn thing in a fit of internet anger last year. Your welcome?

Emmet Otter – Brothers in Our World (right click/save)

You can purchase the album from my provided Amazon links – which helps me out FYI – but if you’re like me, you’re really gonna want the premium package Threadless put together, which comes with a kickass t-shirt and poster.

BUY THIS!

I’ve made no secret concerning my love for Disney’s Epic Mickey. I mean, if for no better reason than it’s a sweet, sweet serenade to Disney fans of all ages. See the now unintelligible trailer below…

As far as I can tell, it was a “success” in the states, selling over a million copies following its release last December (yet the Junction Point development team was met with pink slips anyway?)

One of my favorite levels features a Matterhorn made of discarded Mickey merch, including nods to his old games!

Admittedly, it Epic Mickey was a tough sell. Taking into account the sub-PS360 visuals, as well as the waning interest in traditional games on the Wii and motion controls in general, I’m surprised it sold as well as it did.

Meet Pete Pan!

Since then Nintendo’s announced a new console, so I’d imagined Epic Mickey’s day was all but done… But I’m happy to report that Nintendo itself has enough faith in the title, it’s picking up publishing duties in Japan! This is kind of a rare thing for a game developed by a Western third-party, but it speaks to the quality of the title. Plus, judging by the success of Kingdom Hearts, Disneyana is far more ingrained into the culture of the Japanese, so it should be met with open arms.

If you haven’t tried it yet, DO IT, especially since you can get Epic Mickey on the cheap right now. I can’t recommend the game enough, especially the Collector’s Edition, which in addition to a kickass Mickey figure, contains the only DVD currently in print with classic, uncut Mickey Mouse cartoons on it.

Oh, Disney… Hopefully the Japanese are forgiving (of this screen from “Commando Duck“)

The 20th anniversary celebration of The Rocketeer continues with a look at the Nintendo games and a rather incredible fan film…

First up is this ridiculously cool animated short done by Joe Banana, a French artist, and certainly not a parody 1940′s detective character as his name would imply.

Thanks to MontrealNerd and that_skinny_guy for bringing this to my attention

This is just incredible. However, it’s starting to bug me that I keep seeing this linked around with headlines calling it The Rocketeer done “Pixar Style,” as if John Lasseter’s company is solely credited with the use of 3D computer animation. I mean, I get it: It instantly let’s your audience know what it is, while also capitalizing on a popular brand… but is it really done in Pixar’s “style?” (Although that kid certainly looks a helluva lot like a young Carl Fredricksen from Up.) Makes me wonder if blogs existed in the 40’s, would any piece of animation on YouTube be referred to as “Disney-style”? Whatever, that’s neither here nor there… back to The Rocketeer!

WOOOOSH

Lastly, we have an extended look at The Rocketeer on both the NES and SNES with salty commentary from the boys at GamesRadar, one of whom happens to be me.

We’ve got some found memories of the NES version, which while balls hard, features some great sprite pixel art and utterly fantastic music, but I wish we’d gotten more time with the Super Nintendo version. There are a fascinating amount of similarities shared between Nintendo and Disney as companies, however, there’s one thing Nintendo shied away from early on that Walt did not: NAZIS!

The SNES version appears on the left, DOS version on the right

Among many, many things Nintendo forbid on its early consoles, Nazi swastikas and regalia were expressly prohibited and required censorship in order to appear on the platform in the US. It still strikes me as odd that Nintendo found content objectionable that even the fuddy-duddies at Disney didn’t, but The Rocketeer’s hardly the first case of that… DuckTales, anyone?!

Yes, before Capcom’s DuckTales could see an American release, Nintendo demanded those filthy crosses be removed so as not to offend religious fans of the Disney Afternoon

Oh… when they’re not working on sequels to films I don’t like, Pixar can still get a “Wow…” outta me

What the hell? I’ve kept myself deliberately in the dark on Brave, but Pixar’s stab at a Scottish fantasy fable is looking pretty gorgeous. You can easily see why the film was originally titled “The Bear and The Bow” from the teaser trailer above which just unexpectedly dropped.

GRRRR!

And damn! I’m not sure I’ve seen a real world animal animated with that much detail. What separates Pixar from Dreamworks is full evident in that goddamn bear, IMO.

Click to see the poster all high-rezzy

Brave hits theaters almost one year from today, June 22, 2012, thankfully before the Monsters Inc prequel – ’cause I’m getting tired of sequels… WAIT, WHAT?! Toy Story 4?! What the hell, Pixar?

Long before acquiring Marvel, Disney’s first major attempt at the superhero genre went off with a bang and a whimper.

As a youngling who grew up on a steady diet of comics, I’m still a sucker for superhero movies. But while ten years ago the kid in me was yearning for my favorite heroes to finally reach the big screen, now the practice has become somewhat commonplace. I mean, I get it: Marvel’s newly-achieved mainstream acceptance, their relatable cast of characters, and the availability of CG all make their stories more adaptable than ever before.

So… as is the case for many people, the cape-and-power genre has lost a bit of excitement for me. Which is why you can imagine my surprise when I left Green Lantern – which had been fucking trounced by critics – having enjoyed the hell out of it.

A helluva lot of merch for a movie few remember

Everyone that I saw it with was equally baffled, since they too had read the negative reviews and expected the worst. Our conversation moved to a recent episode of South Park (the episode doesn’t go live online until July 8th) where Stan turns 10, loses his cynicism filter, and annoys the piss out of all his friends by finding, and pointing out, the stupidity in everything they used to hold dear.

Thankfully, I’m beyond that phase in my life (a truly obnoxious period that lasted from puberty through my mid-twenties. Sorry, world!), but the episode also spoke to getting older – and how as you get older, the things you hated become the things you love, and the things you loved become the things you hate. Which is an idea that just screams “The Rocketeer!” to me.

My kingdom for a Goofeteer pin or watch!

Okay, it’s not that I hated The Rocketeer when it first came out, I just didn’t love it as much as I thought I would. As a kid really into superheroes and all things Disney, this movie was marketed at me non-stop for what felt like years (which I hope explains all the media I’m embedding in lieu of movie stills.) But I couldn’t understand, or appreciate, exactly what Disney was trying to do with its first balls-out attempt at a blockbuster superhero trilogy.

You can still find evidence of The Rocketeer in Disneyland if you look hard enough

Ten-year-old me loved the idea of jetpacks and high flying heroics, but I regarded The Rocketeer much like the original Superman that I had watched repeatedly: “Pretty cool, but a lot of boring talking parts.”

I wasn’t at the age where I could appreciate a breathtaking recreation of 1930’s, or the fact that The Rocketeer was striving to be the most accurate and authentic comic book adaptation ever made, or the unbridled badassery of a film – a Disney film! – depicting the rise of the Nazis as a primary enemy, or the presence of an Anti-American, Errol Flynn-esque villain played by our then-James Bond!

Concept art of a scrapped Disneyland Rocketeer attraction

With neither the historical context nor the pop culture references to appreciate all of this, to young me it just looked “old.” I had no idea what “art deco” was – how was I supposed to know that this was one of the greatest posters ever fucking made?!:

So, so beautiful…

Watching The Rocketeer today is truly awe-inspiring, as the film was made just before CGI became the standard in damn near everything…this movie is BIG! The practical effects and matte work are among the finest ever done, and the visually stunning look of the film easily holds up better than anything computer-rendered within at least 10 years of Jurassic Park.

I was so naïve to the sheer amazingness occurring onscreen that the outstanding animation sequence above was my biggest take-away from the movie. And even then I didn’t get the animation in-joke: it’s pretty clearly inspired by Walt Disney’s forgotten 8th animated feature, the amazing WWII propaganda saga Victory Through Air Power.

Big damn hero

If you’re one of the millions who can’t attend any of the 20th anniversary Rocketeer screenings occurring around the country, I highly encourage you to pick up The Rocketeer on DVD – if for no other reason than to prod Disney to release a HD Blu-ray loaded with special features. As it stands, the goddamned Laserdisc is still the biggest release it’s ever seen, and only because it contained a theatrical trailer.

I heard Magneto was getting his own prequel, but starting here could make for a very long movie. See the big ass version on below…

No, this you’re not witnessing the first cruel “Disneyifcation” of its Marvel brand! As we’ve seen already, the X-Men have had no trouble infantilizing itself, and Marvel’s even kicked around the idea of “Marvel Babies” long before Mickey got involved. You’re actually looking at a ridiculously professional looking piece of original fan art by 3D artist, Victor Hugo.

Click to see “MagNEATO!” in full, big ass detail

Hugo, who’s also whipped up some pretty beat ass CG Street Fighter illustrations, said he was inspired by the youthful treatment provided by fellow artist Skottie Young…

So, let’s go ahead and hope this is the first of many 3D treatments from Hugo. Really, really wanna see that Cyclops baby!

I do sincerely apologize to our baker’s dozen of regular readers for lack of posts lately. More importantly, I’d never be able to forgive myself if I didn’t acknowledge the birthday of one of my all-time favorite cartoon characters!

Happy Birfday, Double D! Art by Poschki

Yep, Donald Duck turned the rip old of age of 77 back on June 9th, so I thought I’d honor Disney’s ill-tempered water fowl with his very own Fan Art Friday, finding as many pieced of fan crafted pieces as I could scare up over at DeviantArt.com. If you dig any of the art below as much as I did, why not follow the provided links and let the artist know yourself?

Not sure why, but there’s a ridiculous amount of Three Cabelleros inspired art out there, such as this one by Henrieke

An irritated Don with comic book color scheme by Skrunch

I’m always happiest when Donald’s angry. Art by PaCoElMoRsA

For a change of pace, here’s the duck sullen and tweaked. Art by J-J-A

Okay, now that’s almost too sad. Art by Ubodan

Back to the happy with an amazing mosaic made up of cartoon still by CrystalMask. Click that shit to enlarge

World of WarCraft fans should get a kick out of mickeymonster‘s piece

Speaking of video games, akumath‘s duck sprite work rules beyond belief

And another Daffy clash by lzx. Anything that reminds the world of Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a good thing indeed

Another Caballeros shot by Firecat1996

Back to the sad and disturbing thanks to Johannek. Wait, did he just kill Daisy’s grave?

Okay, back to the cheerful. Hopefully this makes you as happy as it makes me. Thanks again to CrystalMask

An amazing sketch by zdrer456 recalling the amazing 1952 short “Donald Applecore“

Another sad one super fast by Utopicam and we’ll get you right back to feelin’ good

D’awwww… thanks for another Three Caballeros inspired piece, skyecrystal

Okay, one last cute one and we’re going to get into the weird… thanks Melian86

Awesome… just awesome paper planes

It’s like he’s guest starring on Ren & Stimpy! I’d probably get this tattooed on my body, Themrock

Jesus Christ… uh, thanks Cilluut

Can’t explain why, but this one might be my favorite. Amazing interpretation, UncleLaurence

Oh, I know why! ‘Cause I love Scrooge McDuck almost as much. Big ups to you Crabamoustache

More Don and Scrooge. This slick piece by endpiece

How ’bout some DuckTales/Carl Barks inspired art. Phenomenal, Frobman

BAH-NAH-NUH-NAAAAH! Duck, Don Duck by xXXxMarijexxXXx. Let’s do some Marvel ones!

Duck Ock by raheight

He’s like the last person who should be holding that hammer. By Smudgedredd

Very nice, Markside

Okay, we saw a lot of this after Disney bought Marvel. But let’s be honest, Donald as Hulk is the most approprite. Good on ya, aeolus06

Oh! Did you think me and lokiescape would let you get out of here without a few semi-disturbing depictions?

And I’ll leave you with this Kingdom Hearts inspired ladyboy cosplay. Thanks Hopie-chan

That’s it! And once again, a very happy birthday to the world’s most famous duck. And the last thing you should to to celebrate DD’s B-Day is watch none other than “Donald’s Birthday.” It’s the amazing 1949 cartoon that’s probably most famous for being awesome enough to force kids to smoke!

Like Green Lantern references? Then you’re gonna love this new Muppet movie teaser! More kickass The Muppets trailers below…

Good God, I’m so proud of how well Disney is marketing the new Muppet movie! Not only does today’s trailer spoof the upcoming, heavy-handedness of DC’s latest comic adaptation, it pokes fun at it’s own promotional insecurity. Thus far, teasers and trailers for The Muppets haven’t revealed much of anything as far as plot details go, and instead have taken a much sillier road. I can’t imagine what it must of been like to see the trailer below in theaters with no warning that it was related to a film starring the world’s most famous puppets.

The trailer plays for almost a minute as a typical Hollywood RomCom of the shittiest caliber – then BOOM! – Miss Piggy! But that’s what the Muppets do best: Send up popular culture. I’m not a fan of Kermit and Co. being shoehorned into classical adaptations such as Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, etc., and I’ve quite controversially (for this site, anyway) gone on record stating my distaste for wasting these characters on cliches and Holiday standards. When you do that, The Muppets become standard.

And they’re not! The Muppets are a reactive force against modern entertainment, with an added mix of earnest heart and adorable failure. I love these trailers. Muppet Studios has done a sensational job in keeping with the true spirit of these characters in general, and the movie’s marketing is doing an equally fantastic job towards setting up these sincere showmen with tongue-in-cheek expectations they can’t possibly live up to. After all, The Muppets just want to put on a show for the nice people, only to be kicked in the ass by the pitfalls of the entertainment industry. Or at least, that’s The Muppets to me anyway…

Oh, those legs

After years of pained curiosity, I’ve wrapped up a personal enigma for good…

Having only recently purchased damn near the entire Disney Afternoon on DVD, I just stumbled upon a startling realization: My memories of the Disney’s DuckTales are fuzzier than an Italian kiwi.

Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby – DON’T TEST ME

Oh, all the main characters are there to stay in my brain, but recollections of actual plotlines and events… buh? But that’s not even the epiphany! Being totally honest with myself, a majority of my DuckTales warm-n-fuzzies extend not from the show, nor the Carl Barks comics on which it originated, but Capcom’s phenomenal NES game!

Listen up, people! This pertains to THE MOON…

Almost every gamer knows exactly what I’m talking about, as the 1990 classic is still held in ridiculously high regard. We can spend all day attributing that to any particular nuance, however, it’s clear to me that I’ve probably spent about as much time with the DuckTales game as watching the series. Or, at least, I’ve certainly played the game more frequently and recently.

Of course, I can’t remember the last time I caught an episode of DuckTales on TV… Plus, I’m willing to bet younger gamers, who’ve played it out of due diligence and/or out of curiosity as to why it still appears on “Best of” lists two decades after you could obtain a copy of it legally, probably haven’t seen the show either. Well, having blown through a couple of the DVDs, I can finally close the book on one of the game’s mysteries: What the hell is this thing?!

WTF?!

I mean, I understand Himalayan goats and duck mummies thematically, but that alien seemed very specifically designed. I’ve always found his presence a bit confusing, luckily the first disc of on DuckTales Vol. 1!

Meet Overlord Bulvan!

During the episode “Where No Duck Has Gone Before,” Gyro Gearloose accidentally builds a real rocketship on the set of a sci-fi TV show and jettisons Launchpad and the boys into space where they end up abducted by aliens…

CONFIRMED! Right down to the spats and “gun” belt

Tadaa! We have our answer. The aliens Scrooge cane-kills in the game’s famous Moon stage do in fact have a root in the TV series! (Hey, this is a HUGE personal discovery!) The conquest bound aliens hail from the planet Kronk, and if you look closely, the in-game version appears to be a palette-swapped, or rather, a film negative version of their leader Overlord Bulvan!

lol, teleporter humor!

Kind of blew my mind after all these years, so I figured I had to share