Trailer for - Calvin and Hobbes the movies

[Colin YNWA]

Now there's gold and there's gold and this here is gold... the good one, the second one... which is the good one... or better one at least... oh just watch it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=17qyaXOFZXg

You know the really chilling thing is there a Hollywood executive somewhere who doesn't get this is joke and is wonder if someone has that Bill Waterson's number cos this idea has legs... there really is.

I found this here

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/04/calvin-and-hobbes-parody-trailer-takes-aim-at-hollywood/

by the way.

[von Boom]

I want this film NOW gruddamit!

[Richmond Clements]

That's great. Clever on many levels.

[Sideshow Bob]

I absolutely loved the Calvin and Hobbes books when I was younger,....and to be perfectly honest..they are still a good read today.....Beautifully drawn, all be it,  'sparsely' drawn,  but wonderfull because of it.  Highly recommended to 'children' ( and adults ) of all ages...

I know it was a 'spoof' but actually wouldn't mind a 'Tim Burton type' movie of this, in the style of The Nightmare before Christmas.....provided that it didn't involve Helena Bonham Carter of course.....But no live performances.....Got to be an animation version..

[M.I.K.]

Calvin and Hobbes has always reminded me of one of the stories from Tales That Witness Madness.

[shaolin_monkey]

Ha! Excellent!

I love Calvin and Hobbes.  It just so happens I have three of the collections on my bedside table right now.  One if the things I love about Bill Watterson was his utter refusal to market C&H.  You will never see a cuddly toy, jigsaw puzzle or spin-off cartoon about them. The man has principles!

That said, my kids hate the fact they can't get figurines of them, or Suzy Derkins.

[shaolin_monkey]

Quite an interesting read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes


Syndication and formatting
From the outset, Watterson found himself at odds with the syndicate, which urged him to begin merchandising the characters and touring the country to promote the first collections of comic strips. Watterson refused. To him, the integrity of the strip and its artist would be undermined by commercialization, which he saw as a major negative influence in the world of cartoon art.[12]
Watterson also grew increasingly frustrated by the gradual shrinking of available space for comics in the newspapers. He lamented that without space for anything more than simple dialogue or sparse artwork, comics as an art form were becoming dilute, bland, and unoriginal.[12][13] Watterson strove for a full-page version of his strip, in contrast to the few cells allocated for most strips. He longed for the artistic freedom allotted to classic strips such as Little Nemo and Krazy Kat, and he gave a sample of what could be accomplished with such liberty in the opening pages of the Sunday strip compilation, The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book.[14]
During Watterson's first sabbatical from the strip, Universal Press Syndicate continued to charge newspapers full price to re-run old Calvin and Hobbes strips. Few editors approved of the move, but the strip was so popular that they had little choice but to continue to run it for fear that competing newspapers might pick it up and draw its fans away.[15]


This half-page layout can easily be rearranged for full, third, and quarter pages.
Upon Watterson's return, Universal Press announced that Watterson had decided to sell his Sunday strip as an unbreakable half of a newspaper or tabloid page. Many editors and even a few cartoonists criticized him[16] for what they perceived as arrogance and an unwillingness to abide by the normal practices of the cartoon business. Watterson had negotiated the deal to allow himself more creative freedom in the Sunday comics:
I took a sabbatical after resolving a long and emotionally draining fight to prevent Calvin and Hobbes from being merchandised. Looking for a way to rekindle my enthusiasm for the duration of a new contract term, I proposed a redesigned Sunday format that would permit more panel flexibility. To my surprise and delight, Universal responded with an offer to market the strip as an unbreakable half page (more space than I'd dared to ask for), despite the expected resistance of editors. To this day, my syndicate assures me that some editors liked the new format, appreciated the difference, and were happy to run the larger strip, but I think it's fair to say that this was not the most common reaction. The syndicate had warned me to prepare for numerous cancellations of the Sunday feature, but after a few weeks of dealing with howling, purple-faced editors, the syndicate suggested that papers could reduce the strip to the size tabloid newspapers used for their smaller sheets of paper. ... I focused on the bright side: I had complete freedom of design and there were virtually no cancellations. For all the yelling and screaming by outraged editors, I remain convinced that the larger Sunday strip gave newspapers a better product and made the comics section more fun for readers. Comics are a visual medium. A strip with a lot of drawing can be exciting and add some variety. Proud as I am that I was able to draw a larger strip, I don't expect to see it happen again any time soon. In the newspaper business, space is money, and I suspect most editors would still say that the difference is not worth the cost. Sadly, the situation is a vicious circle: because there's no room for better artwork, the comics are simply drawn; because they're simply drawn, why should they have more room?[17]
[edit]Animation
Watterson did consider allowing Calvin and Hobbes to be animated, and has expressed admiration for the art form of animation. In a 1989 interview in The Comics Journal he said:
If you look at the old cartoons by Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, you'll see that there are a lot of things single drawings just can't do. Animators can get away with incredible distortion and exaggeration ... because the animator can control the length of time you see something. The bizarre exaggeration barely has time to register, and the viewer doesn't ponder the incredible license he's witnessed. In a comic strip, you just show the highlights of action—you can't show the buildup and release ... or at least not without slowing down the pace of everything to the point where it's like looking at individual frames of a movie, in which case you've probably lost the effect you were trying to achieve. In a comic strip, you can suggest motion and time, but it's very crude compared to what an animator can do. I have a real awe for good animation.[12]

After this he was asked if it was "a bit scary to think of hearing Calvin's voice." He responded that it was "very scary," and that although he loved the visual possibilities of animation, the thought of casting voice actors to play his characters was uncomfortable. He was also unsure whether he wanted to work with an animation team, as he had done all previous work by himself.[12] Ultimately, Calvin and Hobbes was never made into an animated series. Watterson later stated in the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book that he liked the fact that his strip was a "low-tech, one-man operation," and took great pride in the fact that he drew every line and wrote every word on his own.[18]
[edit]Merchandising

Bill Watterson insists that cartoon strips should stand on their own as an art form, and has resisted the use of Calvin and Hobbes in merchandising of any sort.[7] Watterson explained in a 2005 press release:
Actually, I wasn't against all merchandising when I started the strip, but each product I considered seemed to violate the spirit of the strip, contradict its message, and take me away from the work I loved. If my syndicate had let it go at that, the decision would have taken maybe 30 seconds of my life.[19]

Almost no legitimate Calvin and Hobbes merchandise exists outside of the book collections.[20] Exceptions produced during the strip's original run include two 16-month calendars (1988–1989 and 1989–1990), and the textbook Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes,[21] which has been described as "perhaps the most difficult piece of official Calvin and Hobbes memorabilia to find."[22]
On July 16, 2010 the United States Postal Service released a set of postage stamps honoring five comic strips, one of them Calvin and Hobbes.[23]
Uclick, the digital division of Andrews McMeel Universal, offers licensed prints of Calvin and Hobbes strips through its website GoComics.com.[24]
The strip's immense popularity has led to the appearance of various counterfeit items such as window decals and T-shirts that often feature crude humor, binge drinking and other themes that are not found in Watterson's work.[25] Images from one strip in which Calvin and Hobbes dance to loud music at night were commonly used for copyright violations.[26] After threat of a lawsuit alleging infringement of copyright and trademark, some sticker makers replaced Calvin with a different boy, while other makers made no changes.[27] Watterson wryly commented, "I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo."[19]
[edit]

[JOE SOAP]

You know the really chilling thing is there a Hollywood executive somewhere who doesn't get this is joke
by the way.

Something about that fake-trailer tells me the people who made it aren't so sure they see it as a joke, at least not 100%, and judging by the comments on that video a lot of others don't either.

[Steve Green]

Yeah, I'm amazed he's managed to keep control of it.

I vaguely remember a Dredd story with C+H in it - think it was a Robbie Morrison one?

[Sideshow Bob]

Great post..Shaolin_Monkey...
Very informative and extremely interesting...Cheers, mate.
Bill Waterstone obviously felt very strongly about his characters / creations and how they were treated....and his refusal to allow merchandising shows just how much he cared for them....
He could have made 'shedloads' of cash from allowing various toys etc....Bit of a shame though as some limited editions would have been nice...my kids loved it.

[shaolin_monkey]

Interestingly, the lack of C&H merch has meant many people turned to their own crafting skills to make soft toys, fridge magnets and even tapestries!

Check it out:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?action=tags;sa=showtopics;tag=calvin_and_hobbes#axzz2PgWZiG6S


This is one of my faves:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=342654.0#axzz2PgWZiG6S

[shaolin_monkey]

Bloody hell, you know what, I suddenly remembered I did my own C&H back when I was 15 yrs old and mucking around with silkscreen printing! Wow, major nostalgia trip!

I took one of the black and white full page strips Watterston did, a whimsical piece about them exploring the countryside together, and how the company of each other made it all the more beautiful.

I made four A3 stencils, for the black outlines, the brown of trees, a lime green and a light blue.  I ended up with my own version of that page in colour blown up to A3 size that I mounted and put up in my bedroom.  It travelled with me everywhere, but I lost it in a bedsit move in my early twenties.

Also, when I was about 20 yrs old  I painted a girlfriends DMs, Calvin on one boot, Hobbes on the other, with acrylics.  They were incredibly popular with her friends, but I refused to paint any more for anyone else.


My god, my memory sucks - it took a mock trailer and a website about other people crafting C&H stuff to remind me I'd done the exact same thing myself!!!

[Sideshow Bob]

Great stuff,  and some really good versions of Hobbes in the Crafts sections in your link...Thanks for that.

What surprises me though is :  There obviously was / and still is a huge demand for Hobbes as a Stuffed Toy for children......Surely Bill could have authorised some 'reputable' firm ( of his chosing ),  to produce licensed versions of his creation, that met his high standards, and shared his creation beyond just the comic strip.......Obviously there  would be 'inferior rip offs' as there always is, ( who can be dealt with legally ), but  ( and no disrespect to Bill and his principles here ) it just seems ever so slightly 'mean' to deprive the world of what would have been a thing of joy.....Certainly for my kids ( and thousands of others) anyway....

By the way, Shaolin_monkey.....Calvin and Hobbes painted on your girlfriends Docs.....Brill !!!!