hmmmmm...i sure would like to see them, but i don't wanna talk you into doing something you don't wanna do ^_^
Umm... I thought you had seen them already. Also, I'm more than willing to show them- I was actually asking your permission! I don't wanna seem monotonous or self-promoting (even though I do like showing off)...
Well, since it's okay, here they are again-
I found Car Toon Spin to be very, very influential on me, especially when it comes to a spooky, dark, gritty noir atmosphere combined with the zaniness and insanity of classic cartoons. It's a disturbing combination, really. So here are the photos again:
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/Car%20Toon%20Spin/?action=view¤t=toonspin1.pngsmg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/Other%20Car%20Toon%20Spin/?action=view¤t=SS850768.jpgOne new character is a guy named Marty, who appears to be a stagehand for the Ink & Paint Club. Of course, the rest of Mickey's Toontown gives me plenty of ideas as well.
And the comics, of course... besides the obvious advantage of having other Disney weasels to expand the Toon Patrol's universe, there are other elements as well.
This one, "The Trouble with Toons!", is mostly useful because of the new characters Rick Flint, an ex-cop detective, and more importantly Duke, the owner and/or manager of the Ink & Paint Club.
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/The%20Trouble%20with%20Toons/?action=view¤t=trouble_with_toons1.pngThis one, "Good Neighbor Roger", has some interesting insight into the irrational fear of weasels, revealing the ugly face of sheer prejudice and demonization. Also, we see that a weasel CAN be a good guy.
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/Good%20Neighbor%20Roger/?action=view¤t=good_neighbor1.pngAnd for anybody wanting to know what
Disney thinks a female weasel looks like, "Beauty Parlor Bedlam" is the only place to go. It also shows that at least one weasel has been overshadowed by a non-weasel toon: Jessica has been getting roles instead of Winnie here. So one can assume that weasels want to have more screen time, but other species of toons have taken most of the available roles from them.
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/Beauty%20Parlor%20Bedlam/?action=view¤t=beauty_parlor_bedlam_cover.pngThis one is fascinating because it reveals that weasels
deliberately make themselves no-good hoodlums (perhaps for the sake of rebellion), similar to the Blue Meanies of
Yellow Submarine. So in many ways, it's their own faults that they're so frowned upon. Also, even though this is supposedly the weasels' first "solo" story (it has no proper title, darn it!), they are still playing second banana to stupid hick
rabbit.
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/The%20Weasels%20first%20solo%20story/?action=view¤t=first_solo1.pngThis one isn't really canonical because it's an alternate version of the movie, but it still gives a slightly different reading to Judge Doom's plans and encounter with Eddie. Most importantly, though, it gives us our first clue to what he truly looks like.
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/WFRR%20graphic%20novel/?action=view¤t=wfrr_gn1.pngThis one is definitely the most important of all. And that's because it tells us just about everything we want to know about Judge Doom and his true identity! I don't think it'd be right to come up with something different anymore. It also tells us how to bring back a Dipped toon!
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/The%20Resurrection%20of%20Doom/?action=view¤t=resurrection_of_doom1.pngAnd these are useful for anyone wanting to have a better idea of what he looks like (I
still think he should be yellow), as well as giving a bare bones version of his backstory, which mostly concerns his appearance and abilities.
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v428/tymime/Weasels/Judge%20Doom/?action=view¤t=doom1.pngIt's also highly recommended to read or watch anything by Disney with a weasel in it, although the ones above are the most insightful. I think watching
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (and perhaps reading
The Wind in the Willows) is indispensable, since it's the roots of the Toon Patrol.
I didn't find Gary K. Wolf's
Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit? to really bring anything new to the universe, and I don't think it's entirely canonical anyway. But it does address the possibility of toons being turned into humans and vice versa through the use of a potion called "Toon Tonic". It also describes the use of Dip-tipped bullets for the sake of killing a toon with a gun.
Outside of the Roger Rabbit franchise, I'm heavily inspired by
Tiny Toon Adventures, which explores many of the possibilities and implications of toon physics. And most importantly, the manner in which a toon can be born or killed (in the angelic soul sense).
I've also taken some inspiration from a PC video game called
Toonstruck, where Christopher Lloyd plays a cartoonist who visits the toon world he created. There are characters who were brought back from the dead and only exist as incomplete sketches.
The series
Bonkers is about a toon who interacts with humans as well, so that should have plenty of stuff...
The series
House of Mouse takes place in the same world as Roger Rabbit, where Mickey runs a club and entertains other toons, so we pretty much get to see what the characters do offscreen.
To get that classic cartoon authenticity, I've watched DVD collections of Disney and Warner Bros. theatrical shorts, and I hope to get ones of MGM, Universal, Columbia, and various other second rate companies. I also read and want to collect funny animal comics by Disney, Warner Bros., DC and others.
For both those things, there are some incredibly useful blogs that post obscure cartoons and comics. Here's one of them (I'll find the others soon), focusing on Donald Duck masters Carl Barks and Don Rosa, and Mickey Mouse master Floyd Gottfredson:
disneycomics.free.fr/index.phpI also recommend watching classic live action comedies, which many cartoons are rooted in, like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Fatty Arbuckle, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, the Marx Bros., and W.C. Fields.
Noir, crime drama, mystery and detective films are also good, like
The Maltese Falcon and anything with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Edward G. Robinson, and James Cagney. Detective pulp fiction is good too, although admittedly I haven't read any.
I also like including elements of old-school horror, but I doubt very many people are gonna put vampires in their fics (not that I would)...
EDIT: Okay, here's one of those blogs I talked about. TONS of obscure and hard-to-find theatrical shorts, screenshots of such, and scans of comic books. Looking at lesser-known cartoons I think gives you a broader sense of what cartoons are generally like- which is the main reason why I'm collecting most of the Disney Treasures DVDs.
classiccartoons.blogspot.com/