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popculturebuffet · 5 months ago

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The Book of Bill Review: Bye Everyone He'll Remember You All in Therapy (Comission for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy people and man it's good to be back. After a week's vacation i'm recharged and ready to plunge back into reviewing stuff. For those of you new here i'm Jake, I review various media , mostly cartoons and comics.

Over a week off filled with batman, persona 5, more batman, Truthful Timmy the Blowjob Queen of Saskatoon, and more, I picked up a certain book since my money dropped: Yes folks thanks to a generous friend who also enjoyed the hell out of this book it's time to talk about mildly curesed new york times #1 bestseller The Book of Bill.

The Book of Bill is the latest in something Disney has been doing for a while, some of the only merch they really make for their telveision animation series: Journals! Specifically books following a character from the show in the first person and helping drop some juicy lore. I naturally have all three previous major ones: Journal 3, The Big Book of Spell and Marcy's Journal. There was also one for Ducktales I need to get at some point and an early Star Vs book, but these big three are the important ones, making real books from the show canon and not only being cool props to own, but also nice bits of canon after the show ended. Or in star vs case as the show slowly burst into flames.

Book of Bill continues that trend yet also breaks it: This book is coming out 8 years after the series ended, is an entirely new creation, and is geared towards adults even having a warning label. Granted it's more a pg-13 than the hard r said warning label implies but the fact disney is acknowledging a product from less than 15 to 20 years ago has nostalgic fans is a victory in itself.

And said victory was followed by an even bigger one with the book recently topping the New York Times bestseller list, even topping "we gotta see what that couchfucker is about just in case". This is a huge victory lap that makes me hope we'll get even more content from various disney shows in book form. At the very least it makes the owl house art book an even easier sell and at most i'm hoping Owl House gets more content now, and I wouldn't say no to Hirsch returning to gravity falls if he has another idea. While i'm used enough to Disney's bullshit to see them ignoring this obvious sign, it could really get them to take kids content from this era more seriously or at least try to get it's creators back to get more of that sweet dollar dollar bill ciphers ya'll. Either way this could be a great thing.

Even if it dosen't lead to more books, Book of Bill is great on it's own and something i'm happy to dive into. And since I know it's harder to get the book outside of the us this is also a chance for those of you outside it to get a peak inside. So let's begin as tonight it's gonna get weird.

Book of Bill is diffrent from the other books in that while it follows a narrative, the first half is mostly just bill shenanigans while the second gives us his history from when he was a baby boy baby to he and Ford's messy breakup involving live snakes, it's a small world and jars of spiders.

It works perfectly too: I forgot how much fun bill was till he burst through the page to greet me

Like bill himself the book deftly ballances comedy and horror. Like gravity falls it leans more to the former, as most of bills antics are just him being unsettling and charming as always, but we get plenty of truly disturbing stuff from his collection of heads to a mouth suddnely popping up demanding blood to this lovely bit showing all the many realities where the pines kids didn't exactly win

Also yeah, outside of Bill's fate, the book dosen't move past where Gravity Falls was on the timeline in the extended Disney Television Universe. It does firmly confirm it's all one universe as we get some refrences to owl house with some tapestry showing off the titan and my boy

As well as a cameo we'll get to later. But it's clear Hirsch, for now has no plans to tell us what happened to errybody after the show aside from bill himself and honestly? That's fine. I'd rather he did a full revivial or book about it at some point than drop it in here and before the nightmare fuel sets in the sleep image of the two on the bus with waddles is adorable.

Back on point the book will hit you with horror well but is maily just a non stop parade of good jokes for the first half. The framing device is simple: Bill created this book and Ford found it shortly before he and Stan went off to make movies, make songs and fight around the world. He tried destroying it but befitting spooky books it kept coming back and so he put in an ash williams style warning telling the reader for the love of god don't read more. And like that idiot from evil dead 2013, I didn't listen and pressed on as i'm sure any of you who got the book did too. I mean we already paid our 20 some dollary doos right?

So the book has bill giving the reader advice, trying to trick them and general other wacky nonsense. This book is DENSE with jokes, and there was hardly a page that wasn't meant to be truly horrifying that didn't have one on it. And sometimes even them. Highlights for me from the first half include his self interview where he deflects being phineas' father, dating a howling void and other hot goss, his entire chapter on silly straws (if you murder someone with one it becomes a serious straw), his having you murder an elf for him, dividing a number and brutally murdering it, and Ford claming he'll tell you how to turn ducks into nuclear bombs.. with Bill doing that immediately after and likely being fully aware of what he was doing.

My faviorite bits are him fleshing out his "reality is a hologram" statment

Every bit of this joke works from me from the reveal, to perfectly nailing the classic pokemon trading card style for this gag. Good stuff. Also not sure why the multiverse has only 50 hp, better not to ask.

The other bit I love the most is bill trying to help the readers love life with advice so good it got this book classified as advice

And helping the love cage with some wonderful bilintines

I"m sending I don't want to die alone to my next crush!

This section really is just a vehicle for jokes and general bill chaos for the most part and it does so gloriously. If you liked bill, your gonna love this thing and if you love him.. he'll never love you back but you'll still enjoy this.

The first half does have a few little pitterpats of lore. One of the biggest.. is that we get more dipcifica

Also Dipper's search history as a whole and while some parts I'd rather forget if my brain would let me, there's a lot of good gags here. But yeah Pacifica Northwest Pagent Video. man is crushing. And also mildly creepy but it's still a step up from looking up Wendy's instagram and other things i'd rather not get into because

This segment goes into the casts dreams, most in depthly Dipper, Mabel and McGucket. That last one is just a really hautning page of how much of a tornado his mind is ... bill BARELY got out. Dipper is naturally bill laughing at his embarassment and revealing he put a bunch of fake author images in his head for funzies.

Mabel on the other hand is one of the funniest segments in the entire book as well as revealing exactly HOW he concoted the scheme. A nice thing we get , and that explains why he gave her her own fifedome.. is that bill actually likes mabel as a person. he likes her chaos, loves watching her dreams which is creepy but for him is about as close to kind as he can get. Problem is he went in AFTER the whole Sock Opera mess, so she hates him. Thankfully the people guarding her dreams are Xyler and Kraz, nature's perfect himbos. So he simply gives himself a hat and blonde hair, a neat jacket and the name chill cipher and gets them on board by eating his skateboard. And to his horror has to do a montage from saying no to drugs to teaching a dinosaur with shades to beleivie in himselef. Just imainging bill doing an over the top 80s montage while having the most pissed off uncomfortable look in the world.. it's going to help me sleep at night.

We also find out he found Mable's deepst darkest fantasy... a tape of Mariah Carrey's fantasy.

It's a genuinely good gag and bill finds out from them how down in the dumps she are, her wanting to let summer last etc.. and thus you can thank these himbos for the apocalypse.

Otherwise the only other little tidbits are in a bit on various dreams. We find out Ford is in love with logic (Bill quips he'd be a plansexual which.. accurate), Soos wants to change his name to pins, and Pacifica.. is suffering horrible ptsd. The big bit though is that dipper walked in on a conversation between his parents about something he wouldn't hear and Bill implies it was why they sent them away. It COULD be divorce, it could be somethign else entirely it's honestly hard to tell given both how little we get and the fact it's bill. Bill's about as trustworth as a snake wearing a top hat

On second thought make that Snake mayor stat.. then god emperor.

But yeah you can't really TRUST bill but it's a nice little seed of info nonetheless and it'd be weird if I didn't talk about it. That said I don't have much to say about it. The kids parents MIGHT have had a rough marraige though that would make sense why they cling to each other so much and make Mable's desperation to keep her brother around even more heartbreaking, so i'm all for it.

So then we get to that sweet juicy lore we woudln't stop bugging Alex for: Bill's history. And this may be my faviorite part of the book simply because there's a LOT of good gags and great visuals tucked in here. A crapton of artists who were VERY good at making something look real enough, as well as GF Vetran Emmy Ciecerga who drew all the gravity falls style art for this book and deserves a LOT of credit, make this book look gorgeous. There's all kinds of styles, from 20's newsclippings to photos to disturbing bill images, all of which needed a great graphic design to it. While none of the books so far are slouches in graphics, journal three itself looked gorgeous, this is far and way the best looking of them so far. Since it's bill their not constrained to one style, like marcy's was mimicking her art style (And later Anne's for her third of the book), journal 3 was. Book of Spells has come closest having each queen have a unique style but it still held to star vs.

This being bill this book goes all over the place: you've got brain teasers, photos, photoshopped nightmarish heads, a reaslitic mouth wanting your blood, all kinds of visual trickery that fits what a visually gorgeous nightmare bill could be. Like the other style, a very chaotic style that oscelates from people magazine to several pages of the great gatsby to punish you for wanting to know his weaknesses (get gatsby'd sucker!) all without breaking a sweat.

The history of bill section is where it really gets to shine once he gets to earth.. but before that.. we adress the elephant in the room. What happened to his home dimension?

Yeah one of the biggest bits of narrative blue balls of book of bill is we don't learn hardly anything about the second dimension and learn NOTHING about how it actually died. Both make perfect sense enough narratively to work and it's clear Alex, while great about answering the shows bigger and more importnat mysteries and not just jerking the audience about, does like to keep some things a mystery. The kids parents, shermy pines, why was thor crying that kind of stuff. While I WANTED an answer for my own works, I respect that it honestly worked better to not get one. We get just enough: bill climas to have been well loved by all in the way a flashback would show he wasn't, having seen the third dimension. It adds layers to him and ford's later friendship: both were outcasts with no one at one point or another. But Stanford at least had stan for a while before he was a dick about things.. bill seemingly had no one and is active denial he was hated and feared.

So he tried to merge dimensions.. and we have no idea exactly WHAT happened.. but not knowing.. is more horrifying. Bill tries to retell it but blacks out

It's very clear Bill has ptsd.. and somehow used urkel to kill people. I feared this day would come but never thought such a dread weapon would wind up in the worst hands imaginable.

It's a great section and I honestly like this... it makes the clear bait and switch work as alex knew what we wanted.. but gave us something more fitting the character.. the one moment bill GENINELY regrets.. but due to eons of lying to himself can't admit. He twisted the narrative to be that he freed a bunch of squares when really it was his first mass murder and the only one he clearly still feels bad about. While he was likely always a tad weird, this event is what snapped him into the monster he is, convicning himself their better this way and he did the right thing instead of truly dealing with his guilt. Bill has lied to himself so much he blacks out when even thinking abotu the truth because if he really thought abotu what he did and what happened, he'd have to rethink his whole sense of self. And Bill can't do that because he's built his whole self worth into his ego after this. That he was specail they just didn't get it and it's to the point he can't even be honest that he wasn't liked> he always had ot be great and special. It's honestly.. sad more than anything. That had bill not done this or simply not made what seems like an honest mistake just not to be alone he may of simply been able to escape and find kinship in ways that didn't involve gaslighting and evil overlord ship.

Sadly he did so we find out he found the nightmare dimension , conquered ita nd slowly gathered his henchmaniacas. We find out little btis; 8 ball has a crush on pyronica, pyronica wants to fuck smokey the bear for the sick thrill of pulling it off

Teeth is more a team pet.. all stuff i'm glad we have simply because the henchmaniacs never got fleshed out. Pyronica also has a phd. Bill also has a lawyer named dan crabbleman he uses as a scapecrab because of course. His version of peter I suppose.

Eventually though the good times stopped; While they had nightmare dimension prom (death toll 300), it ultimately was found the dimensionw as dying and we find out HOW bill ended up here and why he hates the time baby so much. .

Now granted the section with the time baby, only a few pages.. didn't do much for me. I've never really been a fan of the time baby: he comes off at least a touch evil, if less here since ANYONE comes off less evil when compared to bill, and the only joke they seem to have is he acts like a baby but is an elder god or something. He's one of the weaker weridos our heroes encountered.

Thankfully bill defeats him and the dinsoaurs would rebound eventually

And we'd only have to deal with time baby a few times after this before Bill kills him

So we then find out why Bill was spread about history. Turns out, not suprisingly, he landed in gravity falls which was perfect for his nonsense. In 30 Million BC he found a small tribe and befriended it's local shaman.. then kinda killed that good will when his first portal created the bottomless hole, let loose sea monsters and killed a lot of people.

This is also where something clever about the book comes about, something I hadn't noticed in the show till Bill's history made it clear: While Bill CAN manipulate a person fairly well he has a huge weakness besides tin foil or techno: He dosen't care enough to hide how unhinged he is. Bill by this point in the story, after eons of self denial and surrounding himself with people who either enable him or he tortured until they enabled him presumably, simply can't grasp that maybe giving a kid deer teeth or a head that's always scremaing isn't the way to make a good first or second impression.

And those moments from the show did set this up well: i'd always assumed he did that shit because it was fun. See the "Your insane!" "Sure I am what's your point?" exchange that's the second thing he ever says. But now I get it's .. well still part that, Bill likes fucking with people.. but it's also that he can't turn OFF his need to fuck with people. Even in this very book instead of giving genuine if shallow love advice he wants you to lock someone in a love cage or become johnny cobra arms. And I mean the second one is sound advice if you've got sufficent padding or a venom immunity, who dosen't want cobra arms, but this book really hammers home that Bill , while good at praying on people's desperation... is REALLY bad at actually keeping them on the hook unless their already as mad as he is or their desperate. He has one exception in ford but as this book, journal 3 and the series all establish.. Ford is also weird, dosen't really get people or social norms. Not saying all societal norms are good.. but maybe don't give your grandaughter a gun Sixer.

It dosen't detract from Bill's threat, as Ford comes to horrifying conclude later... no one actually BEAT bill pemrenantly. The shaman simply banished him and gave out the prophcey for the finale.. a prophecy that ended up not working. Bill constnatly gets shooed away or bribed by people to please shoo, shoo good sir shoo.. but it's not till stan after centuries of work on earth that someone actually BEAT him.

But it does humanize him, even if calling him human is not even a stretch it's just innacurate, but it's the term we got: Bill's ultimate weakness isn't his ego or collection of sily straws: it's that he simply CAN'T stop being him long enough for someone to actually buy into his shit. He actually had the founding fathers listneing.. until he called martha washington hot lips. He nearly gets the US Government to get him to the president.. but can't reissit talking about how fun it'd be to set all the nukes off at once. He makes a truly fun looking silly siphonies style cartoon.. but then it's time to relase the bees

Bill for better and for worse can't help but be himself. his schemes usually drive people to madness or away. He's good at preying on people's desperations and it ultimately needed him his three days of weirdmageddon.. but but he's not good at pulling the long con and only managed it once in his long career.

Thankfully while the book has plenty of great failures from bill from his computer to his do wop group the cipher tones (And the insuing country music backlash record calling him the devil. Please the devil threw him out because living with him is like living in a living nightmare).

There's a few slightly meatier episodes: There's his days in the dark ages.. and one of the few times someone actually got the better of him: he seemingly cons a dark wizard into joining him, sending some knights on a fetch quest to get his copy of monty python and the holy grail. How Disney got away with using the full title I have no idea but they did. God I hope it's not the same copy I have. Turns out though said wizard pulled a sandman and trapped him in a glass orb somehow woven with unicorn hair. Granted it does lead to bill goign on a rampage the second he's free but said rampage gets him banned from Europe so we'll call this one a draw.

The other is the anti cipheretes, a turn of the century group that means well and is engaging.. but sadly tried to preent their findings publicly and their leaders gets intionalized. It's honestly sad.. all this guy wanted was bill out of his head and they lost.

There's also said Silly Symphonies detour where the walt disney expy uses it's a small world (not named directly but barley disguised) to drive bill out.

It's another fun section, filling things in and letting bill fuck with history. He even gets a genuinely heroic moment

Yeah Bill deals with the puritans.. and they piss him off something bad, their lack of imagination making most useless to him, their society being horrifcally stuffy even by the cipher standard of "Stuffy assholes won't let me fill a theater with bees. Charlitans", so he helps an abused local housewive used as a footstool discover what laughter is and soon forms a coven. Said coven inacts a bloody coup, sure.. but it was puritan times, this is the only way a feminism could happen.

We then get the penultimate chapter in our story: At this point it's the 80's, do a lot of coke and vote for ronald regan and bill.. is at the end of his rope. His last scheme is easily one of my faviorites...

I know disney won't because they hate merch but I genuinely hoope a fan recreates these to own. Even the 3d model used here would be appricated for printing.

But then... fate threw bill a bone: he started laughing. Uncontrollably.. lights turned yellow his image was on every computer and breakfast cereal... someone.. opened up gravity falls again.

This is where Ford comes in: In a clever twist the next bulk is from Ford's perspective, with Bill having somehow found pages ford torn out. This is great for two reasons: the first is that it allows us to see their story more on the ground.. and the second is it's a resonable explination why pages that would've defintely told dipper who the author was were missing: Bill points out Ford tore them out due to his own shame and vanity. The former was on display in the last mablecorn, with him not telling dipper and only not getting mindwipped because the horrifying experinces recounted in those pages made him get a plate in his head. The second was in the book: Ford's biggest weakness and one Bill fully took advantage of.. was his ego. Ford thinks a LOT of himself and while he is impressive, it's his need to be seen, to be recognized after being ostrachized most of his life that makes him easy to play like a fiddle before bill and made him stubborn and dangerous after.

Ford can't admit he was wrong and had he left that vunerablity in there the show might of gone diffrently and weirdmageddon probably woudln't of happened.

It also covers in the one gap the journal glaringly left out, but again for plot reasons: that winter Ford was at his cabin. It's a geninely touching story: Ford feels lonely, and bad that he didn't get fiddleford anything before McGucket goes to see his wife back home, and spotted dipper and mable's footprints.. and ends up kidnapped by the krampus and having to rescue a bunch of children because of where he lives. What's heartwaring is fiddleford returns.. and while he fucked up his relationship by forgetting to get her a present, though the shippers certainly got one with this story arc, Ford decorates the portal to cheer him up.

The bulk though is about Bill and Ford: While Fiddleford IS his friend, he's gone a lot because he you know has a life. We see a side we didn't really see too much in the journal but makes sense: Lonliness. Ford is just too dang weird and awkward to be around people, can relate and bill takes full advantage of that. We get to see bill play full on manipulative boyfriend as he preys on Ford's ego, need to not be alone and subtly tries to isolate him when stan comes up and after the heartwarming moment above. It's neat to see just how things went wrong, how Ford got played by bill. Like I said Bill can't hide who he is.. but it works here as Ford dosen't get people so while creepy as hell, Bill leaving a giant pile of dead rats in his name for his brithday and getting him karoke drunk is not a red flag. You also get the sense that while bill isn't remotely a good friend, person or triangle, Bill WAS fond of ford, he genuinely liked the guy and gets shitfaced when eh dosen't on "i'm totally fine juice" and crashes an interdimensional mexican restraunt. Also props to alex I didn't know I needed to see Ford and Bill hammered on seperate occaions but here we are.

Naturally it goes south and the post breakup is easily the most serious part of the book. There's still some great jokes, but it shows how horrifying bill can be. His first actions are, after Ford installs his lab's retinal scanner to keep bill out (since the pupil thing isn't just stylistic, it really happens), he beats the poor guys knuckles bloody trying to claw his way out. He revivies Zombies to stop ford at the mourge as it turns out he can control ANYTHING with a brain. That does lead to a really awesome moment I didn't see coming as Ford admits he's missing him.. but his aim is getting better

Yes they called back to THAT of all things.

It's then things get terrifying: Bill starts writing on ford's post it notes, taking his body at intevals since Ford let him in.. and it's something I just never thought of: while we saw what he could do to dipper, we knew it was a bad idea and he was able to get him out pretty quickly. This segment.. shows what happens when bill can come and go as he pleases. Fordapparenly would just pass out for a second and wake pu with notes.. and when Bill got tired of the post it note tag.. he went a bit further with what's easily my faviorite joke of the whole book

It's just so bill. Grante did' be terrified and probably dead from such a stunt, but it's still just.. so damn perfect.

Ford gets him back with it's a small world after all.. only for us to get to the most unsettlign portion of the book. Ford wakes up on the roof and finds bill left a tape. And while a portion of bills shenanigans, memoralized with polaroid are just hilaroius, like slapping a cop or getting a baby girl tatoo.. we also get shit like eating a jar of spiders (And as an arachnophobe the sentence I keep coughing up siders is.. a lot for me ) and hammering his own hand. We'd seen this kind of shit with Dipper.. but this is what he'd do when he dosen't necessarily NEED the body for himself.

The lowest though is Bill.. trying to call stan. And trigger warning for his next image as it's ... pretty fucking rough.

Yes Bill.. nearly sent a suicide note to stan over the phone in ford's name. It's only sheer luck and likely some lawsuits that saved it but it just hits so hard. Even as much as Ford hates stan.. he dosen't want this and is truly terrified. It strips away the wacky nonsense of bill and gets right to the point: bill is gaslighting and abusing ford, even making him forget his own name for a second, until he gets what he wants. The earlier parts showed him playing the more manipulative roll of abuser but now.. we see what happens when bill goes full on petty and vindictive and there's nothing humorous about it.

Thankfully ford got the plate in his head, he called stan, you know the rest.

It's here the book reaches it's climax: Ford contacts the reader again.. but in a nice bit while he begged them before.. he can't blame them. THe post weridmageddon character development shown in journal 3 stuck: he was where they were. Not only that while he hid the book from his family they found it and instead of turning all into bills.. they just laughed. They'd all grown enough to just find his attempts at playing them funny. They all took his embarssing past in stride. As Stan perfectly puts it "So you messed up a bunch. Guess that really makes you a pines". Stan of all people has EVERY reason to never let ford live this down.. yet does because he gets it. Everyone fucks up and it helps Ford see he's human.. and so's bill. Well again eh's a triangle man but he's ultimately as Ford puts it "A sad theater kid desperate for attention". This book isn't some grand demonic tone: it's the sad last effort of someone who already lost.

We get some fun letters from each pines: dipper and mabel both encourage the reader, and Mabel, even if she threatens to fucking murder bill if he goes after her brother again.. even offers Bill tips on getting over ford. Dipper sympathizes with the reader and also threatens to murder him. And stan.. well stand does what he does best.. promote the mystery shack. Yes even when he's not the owner he can't help plug it. But he also gives bill the biggest kick to the nuts of all: he dosen't care. He hasn't had the personal trauma the others have and just sees bill as another werido trying to steal his wallet like every other thursday in this town. Stan Pines murdered one of the greatest villians in history.. and he somehow tops that by not even carring.

We get Bill screaming STANNNLEEEYYY again, having been beaten and the reader convinced not to swap places with bill. Not only that Stan and co also figured out something important: If bill isn't dead but IS trying to escape.. where he is cant be good.

And we finally find out what happened to him. Which is a mild suprise as while it's VERY nice we found out, as seen in the rest of the book alex is keen to keep some secrets close to the chest. He teased at bill's possible return: the statue in the finale, the axotitl he invokes showing up in a non canon choose your own adventure story, that sort of thing... but it wasn't guarnateed going into this book we'd learn. Thankfully Alex, as ever knows when to not tell us stuff and when it'd be a real dick move not to and not in a funny way.

Bill made a deal with the axitotl to reincarnate. For those less familiar, all two of you the axitotl is some mysterious god taking the shape of that adorable creature whose as kind and benevolent as that sounds and even gave BILL a second chance.

He isn't, thankfully stupid.. and thus after a lifetime of lopsided deals.. just like with Stan moments before making this one.. Bill gets hit with a bad one. And the thing is unlike Stan who just flat out tricked Bill like Bill played so many people, the Axitotl didn't lie: it told bill he'd have to repent. It was bill's own ego that assumed he could scheme his way out

Instead bill is now inside the Theraprism, a maximum security dimensional prison that takes all commers and is filled with sterotypical therapy activites like arts and craft and constant group sessions. And while a tad unsettling it's honestly.. nicer a fate than I expected. It's still pure hell for bill.. but the place isn't EVIL. it geninely wants to help it's patients, even the worst people imaginable and while there's things like a sensory deprevation void, it's clearly because this place is essentially arkham asylym but ran compitently and with actual care towards ehabilitation. To let those who genuinely repent reincarnate.. granted there are options like "cloud of spore sor a butterfly" but I get that maybe Freddy Kruger dose'nt need to come back as a wolverine and possibly maul faces. Let him get a chance at that third time around.

But for Bill.. a place to self reflect, heal and come back as something powerful.. as hell. There's no ESCAPE: whatever's running this place is clearly powerful enough to hold fucking BILL down. Darcy's helmet is there too in a nice little cameo and I wouldn't be suprised if every dead disney villian deemed enough of a threat was here. Honestly making Bill and Belos room together is the punishment they deserve. or belos does, Bill would get a kick out of having someone to torment so maybe just let him do it in moderatoin. As a treat if he participates in group.

It's Bill.. trapped in his own personal hell... a place he can't escape through manipulation, surrounded by people he dosen't respect, with the only way out being self reflection and a cursed arts and craft project that was quickly confiscated before it coudl take the reader. Bill's fate was already great in the show.. but this improves on it> Bil got conned twice and is trapped in a hell he could easily escape but never will because he just.. can't grow. He won't. He refuses to. His ego can't take it. So all that's left in the book is bill pathetically whimpering that SOMEONE wil lcome from him.. but with his henchmaniacs thinking he's dead and having spent his life burning bridges.. no one ever will.

This book is amazing. Read it if you can. A truly great little followup that fills in some gaps, is packed densely with jokes, has some really effective horror and has a truly amazing ending. Check it out if you haven't and if you can.

Thanks for reading

#the book of bill #gravity falls #bill cipher #ford pines #stan pines #alex hirsch #disney #horror #comedy

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lazytitans-world · 8 months ago

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Wish: The Series (Full Layout) & Wish AU

This is my pitch for a Wish sequel series that would be made through Disney's Television Animation team. I was inspired to see if the concepts seen in the Art of Wish book could work in the world that was created for the movie. The series would take place just after the movie and would last for (hopefully) three seasons with the possibility of shorts being made as well.

Keep in mind, all these are just story outlines. I have not written any dialogue or scripted any scenes; these are just the story beats that I want to tell.

I welcome all your thoughts and criticisms as I want to improve my story telling style in case of any future projects.

One day I might actually write a proper script for the pilot episode but that is a long time away. For now, feel free to look over each season and give any feedback you feel would help flesh out this idea.

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

Wish AU: This is my attempt at a version of Wish that utilizes some of the scrapt concepts such as the hamlet and the human Star design. The story has a lot of the same beats as the movie with some tweaks to certain moments, characters and song placements.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

#disney wish #disney #wish #wish 2023 #asha x star #wish disney #star wish #wish asha #asha #tv series

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disneytva · 8 months ago

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The Hollywood Reporter Unveils Preview To The Art Of Futurama

Maybe the drawings were a little crude, but all the characters were there

Abrams ComicArts, one of the leaders in the trendy format, will release The Art of Futurama, billed as the first art book to delve into the development and history of the acclaimed sci-fi comedy.

The book will be replete with the cool behind-the-scenes visuals the Art of books are known for and will come with commentary from creator Matt Groening, showrunner David X. Cohen and producer Claudia Katz.

📚The Art Of Futurama - October 8, 2024

AbramsComicsArts

Disney Publishing Worldwide

Disney Press

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From Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Disenchantment, the first art book that delves into the development and history of his beloved TV series, Futurama—timed for the show’s 25th anniversary The world of Futurama comes to life in this deluxe art book, with commentary from the show’s creator, Matt Groening, showrunner David X. Cohen, and producer Claudia Katz. Just in time for the show’s 25th anniversary and the new season on Hulu & Disney+ , this first and only Futurama art book examines the first seven seasons of the series, which first aired on Fox in 1999. Readers can dive into the development and visual history of all 150 episodes, including brand-new content, never-before-seen concept art, sketches, developmental work, and a complete episode guide. TV Guide named Futurama one of the Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time. This comprehensive visual history is a must-have for any animation, television, or sci-fi aficionado.

#Futurama #Matt Groening #David X Cohen #30th Century Studios #30th Television Animation #20th Century Studios #20th Television Animation #AbramsComicArts #Disney Publishing Worldwide #Disney Books #Disney Press #Disney Hyperion #20th TVA Art Books

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ariel-seagull-wings · 10 months ago

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ALICE'S WONDERLAND BAKERY

@themousefromfantasyland @princesssarisa

Alice's Wonderland Bakery is a preschool series for Disney Junior, which premiered on February 9, 2022. It is placed in the same canon as the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland.

The series revolves around Alice, the great-granddaughter of the original Alice Pleasance Liddell, who is a young baker working at the Wonderland Bakery. As she explores the kingdom on various culinary adventures, she is accompanied by Fergie the white rabbit, Hattie, and Rosa—the Princess of Hearts.

The teapot-shaped Wonderland Bakery has a kitchen where some of the equipment are animated, namely the oven and the mixer. The bakery also has a pantry which is vertical tunnel where the ingredients are on shelves on the sides, and anyone who enters will mostly float inside as if they are in space. The desserts (and to a lesser extent foods) the characters make are mostly magical, resulting in either troublesome or pleasant effects.

Alice's Wonderland Bakery is based on Disney's animated feature Alice in Wonderland (1951), which in turn is based on the Alice book series by Lewis Carroll.

In the film, there is a scene in which the Mad Hatter hosts a tea party with teapots that pipe music, hats producing three-layer frosted cakes, and exploding firework candles in the sky.

Disney Television Animation decided to produce a heritage project based upon the scene, which would also take inspiration from the sense of connection brought by food.

Creator Chelsea Beyl said:

"I started thinking about all the whimsy, the comedy, and the peculiar characters that are in the original movie and thought, 'Wow, preschoolers are going to love this' ... It's silly. And then we're combining all that with baking, which, of course, kids love to do as well."

In May 2021, Disney Junior greenlit the series, to air on the network in 2022.

According to co-executive producer and art director Frank Montagna, the shift in storytelling from a 1950s 2D-animated film to a 2022 computer-animated preschool TV series was unexpectedly simple. He stated that there are many enjoyable activities in Wonderland, such as the tea parties, cards, and mazes.

The team removed the frightening elements from the original film and kept the entertaining ones. Throughout the book and the film, there are references to the words "Eat me" and "Drink me". Because of this, Montaga came up with the idea of fusing Alice in Wonderland with a bakery when Beyl initially presented the show to him. The show highlights the importance of food, which is used as a form of creativity and self-expression; Alice makes friends and learns of other cultures through food.

Beyl stated that "food [is] essentially [Alice's] superpower ... [and] how she connects with all these curious and peculiar characters." The series pays homage to the original Alice, who is always thinking, by having its version of Alice constantly trying to figure out things.

It did not take Montagna long to come up with the design for Alice's Wonderland Bakery since the original Alice in Wonderland "has always been such a core part of [his] being".

Since the original designs were so shaped-driven and everything was already round, bouncy, and rubbery, he found converting them into 3D models rather easy.

The team at ICON Creative Studio, according to Montagna, worked tirelessly to give the show a "bouncy and rubbery" feel, particularly with the Cheshire Cat—the only character from the 1951 film to appear in the series. Montagna believed that the team truly needed him to embody his role from the original film. Since television computer animation budgets were rather small, many factors needed to be considered carefully. For the character to be correctly rigged, the team would need to be very clear about how they wanted the character to look.

The team wanted the characters to truly reflect modern-day children, which also required giving them origins that Carroll may never have imagined.

Beyl sought to reimagine some characters from the original film to enrich Wonderland with a wider range of cultures.

The Hatter family's character design, kitchen—as well as the recipes Alice and Hattie cook together—are drawn from Japanese culture. Meanwhile, several aspects of the Hearts family were influenced by Cuban cuisine and culture, including their dialogue (which includes Spanish words), clothing, palace, and set design.

The show later introduces a Persian-influenced caterpillar family. Certain characters are also gender flipped.

Numerous foods from different cultures are featured in the series, including pastelitos (Cuban), mochi (Japanese), carrot calzone (italian), grape gazpacho, huevos habaneros (spanish) and kuku sib zamini (Persian).

The series references several iterations of Alice in Wonderland, including the 2010 film directed by Tim Burton. The White Rabbit hole served as the model for Alice's pantry, which features an endless supply of food items. For the ingredients, the team aimed to combine wacky Wonderland-style elements with real-world meals. Examples of this are "Bread and Butterflies", "Disa-pears", and "Rea-pears". Since nothing is impossible in Wonderland, the team were able to incorporate many unrealistic ideas of food into the show, including an upside-down cake.

On June 6, 2023, it was announced that Kathryn Beaumont (who voiced Alice in the 1951 Disney film) would be making a guest appearance in the 22-minute special "Alice's First Day in Wonderland".

#disney #disney junior #western animation #alice in wonderland #alice's adventures in wonderland #alice's wonderland bakery

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demifiendrsa · 2 years ago

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Star Wars: Visions volume 2 will stream on Disney+ on May 4, 2023.

Volume 2 shorts:

Title: “Sith”

Studio: El Guiri

Writer-director: Rodrigo Blaas

Rodrigo Blaas is an Emmy Award®-winning director who has spent more than 20 years in animation. After co-founding Stromboli Animation in 1997, Blaas joined Blue Sky Studios in 2000, working on the feature film Ice Age, before transitioning to Pixar Animation Studios. There, he worked on such projects as Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and Wall-E (2008) and on the Oscar®-nominated short film La Luna (2011). More recently, Blaas partnered with Guillermo del Toro to develop the award-winning series Trollhunters, served as creative director for Mikros Animation Paris and, in 2021, created El Guiri Studios in Madrid with his partner, Cecile Hokes. He also wrote and directed 2009’s award-winning short film Alma.

Title: “Screecher’s Reach”

Studio: Cartoon Saloon

Director: Paul Young

Paul Young is a co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, an IFTA winner and Oscar®, Emmy® and BAFTA nominee. He produced the animated features My Father’s Dragon, WolfWalkers, The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and The Breadwinner as well as award-winning TV series including Puffin Rock, Dorg Van Dango, and Viking Skool.

Title: “In the Stars”

Studio: Punkrobot

Writer-director: Gabriel Osorio

Gabriel Osorio majored in Fine Arts at Universidad de Chile, later specializing in 3D animation. After working in commercials, movies and television series, he founded Punkrobot Studio. Since 2008, he has directed projects for children’s television including Flipos, Muelin y Perlita, Soccer Girls, and television spots. In 2016, his short film Bear Story became the first Latin American project to win an Oscar® in the animated short category.

Title: “I Am Your Mother”

Studio: Aardman

Director: Magdalena Osinska

Magdalena Osinska is an award-winning director who has been with Aardman for eight years. She has directed stop-motion, CGI, 2D and live-action commercials including Wallace & Gromit’s “The Great Sofa Caper” and “Share the Orange.” Osinska directed development of the children’s series Joyets and has also directed films including Spirits of the Piano and Zbigniev’s Cupboard. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK, as well as the Polish Film School in Lodz and Art College in Warsaw, Osinska is currently developing the feature film Jasia, based on her grandmother’s memories of WWII Poland.

Title: “Journey to the Dark Head”

Studio: Studio Mir

Director: Hyeong Geun Park

Rising star Hyeong Geun Park had already made a name for himself when he entered the Korean animation industry in 2017, thanks to his strong drawing and animation sensibilities. He has directed animation for dozens of cinematic game trailers and has since expanded into animated series, working on projects including Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Book 3 (2022) and Lookism (2022). Journey to the Dark Head is the first title he has executive produced from start to finish.

Title: “The Spy Dancer”

Studio: Studio La Cachette

Writer-director: Julien Chheng

Julien Chheng is CEO of Studio La Cachette, an Emmy Award®-winning French animation studio he co-founded in 2014 with fellow Gobelins school’s alumni Oussama Bouacheria and Ulysse Malassagne. Chheng was trained in visual development at Disney and has worked as a character animator on acclaimed 2D animated features The Rabbi’s Cat, Mune, and the Academy Award®-nominated Ernest and Celestine. In 2021, he won an Emmy Award® as animation executive producer of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, for which he also served as animation supervisor. In 2022, Chheng directed with Jean-Christophe Roger the Cesar-nominated feature Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia.

Title: “The Bandits of Golak”

Studio: 88 Pictures

Director: Ishan Shukla

Ishan Shukla started his career as a CG artist in Singapore. For more than a decade, he spearheaded projects ranging from TV commercials to series and music videos. His 2016 animated short, "Schirkoa," was long listed for the Academy Awards® after receiving dozens of awards and playing at 120 international festivals, including SIGGRAPH Asia where it was named Best in Show. He then set up his own animation studio to work on adult-oriented animated feature films including a feature-length version of Schirkoa, set to hit festivals in summer 2023.

Title: “The Pit”

Studios: D’art Shtajio and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Writer-director-executive producer: LeAndre Thomas

Co-director: Justin Ridge

LeAndre Thomas is an award-winning writer and director from Oakland, Calif., whose most recent film won Best Director at the Pasadena International Film Festival. In addition to his independent films, Thomas is a part of the franchise studio team at Lucasfilm Ltd. where he has worked for more than 11 years being credited on recent titles such as Light & Magic, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, and many more.

Justin Ridge executive produced the Emmy®-nominated series Star Wars Resistance. His credits also include Star Wars Rebels, Storks, The Cleveland Show, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Title: “Aau’s Song”

Studio: Triggerfish

Writer-directors: Nadia Darries and Daniel Clarke

Nadia Darries is a director, animator and co-founder of Goon Valley Animation, with an avocation for songwriting. Born in the Cape Flats in South Africa, Darries has worked on high-end animated film and motion design as an animator, project manager, creative director and director since 2015. Her experience includes animating at Triggerfish Animation Studios on the award-winning BBC films Stick Man, Revolting Rhymes, and Highway Rat.

Daniel Clarke is a Cape Town-based director and artist working in animation, film and illustration. He started his career in animation in 2008 at Triggerfish Animation Studios, where he has served as production designer, art director and director on projects such as the feature film Khumba, BBC’s Stick Man, and The Snail and the Whale. In 2018, along with James Clarke and Daniel Snaddon, he completed the graphic novel Kariba.

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adarkrainbow · 7 months ago

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Lost media quest: H&G Epic Tales (part 3)

Last time I ended my post while exploring the defunct epictales.com website. There was one page of this website (preserved in the Wayback Machine) that I did not add in this post: the About page.

The About page not only describes the Epic Tales line, but also lists the full staff that worked on this project. Here is what the website contains:

EPIC TALES™ is a developer and publisher of interactive storybooks for the iOS platform. EPIC TALES presents its own unique interactive adaptation of the imaginative and magical stories found in fairytales, folklore and world mythology.

All of our tales are narrated by our central storyteller, a most likeable dwarf named Silvertongue who used his magic to let our books and stories come to life. Each storybook offers stunning hand-drawn animations, a revamped storyline, original music scores, and spellbinding interactive environments that are sure to draw readers deep into the story.

EPIC TALES allows you to not only enjoy magical worlds and enchanting tales, but to experience them more closely than ever before.

We, the people at EPIC TALES, are always inspired by stories that fuel our ideas and imagination. We are storytellers, animators, and composers that gladly indulge ourselves in folklore, mythology, and the many tales and stories that have captured our imagination for generations. The result is a talented team of people driven to create original storybooks that are filled with whimsical characters, spellbinding environments, and interactive surprises. By combining creativity with technology, and talent with expertise, we hope to constantly produce exciting tales that bring every page to life. EPIC TALES is a joint venture between Cloud Castle Interactive and Anikey studios.

EPIC TALES Paul Hanraets, Founder of EPIC TALES and producer

Albert ‘t Hooft, Partner and creative director

Paco Vink, Partner and lead artist, animator

TEAM MEMBERS Lou Attia, Narrator and voice actor

Martin van Spanje, Software engineer

Joost van den Broek, Music composer

Arjen Schut, Sound designer

Sjan Weijers, Background clean-up artist

David Muchtar, Animator

Jelle Brunt, Animator

Ruben Zaalberg, Animator

The website also briefly offers descriptions/curriculum of the staff members:

Paul Hanraets Paul Hanraets has been a creative entrepreneur since 2002 when he co-founded Red Road Media, a media agency specialized in video games. Successful projects undertaken by Red Road include: Benelux largest annual game event Gamexpo, the tv show GAME FACTS broadcasted by TMF/MTV and the freely distributed game magazine Games Guide. In 2008 Paul founded Cloud Castle Interactive and was involved in the development of smaller game projects which further awakened his passion for the creative industry. As an immediate result Paul founded EPIC TALES, a developer of interactive storybooks for IOS and GAMBITIOUS an equity based crowdfunding platform dedicated to the games industry.

Albert ‘t Hooft & Paco Vink Albert 't Hooft and Paco Vink both studied traditional animation at the Willem de Kooning Art Academy in Rotterdam before they founded Anikey Studios in 2007. Anikey is an award winning animation studio which specialises in hand drawn 2D digital animation. Anikey creates independent and commissioned animations for television, films and games which have an emphasis on story, characters and fun. Anikey's first two independent films 'Paul & the Dragon' and 'Little Quentin' won several awards at international film festivals. In addition on working on the new EPIC TALES titles, Anikey is developing the first hand drawn animated feature film in the Netherlands since 30 years.

Lou Attia Working with the likes of Disney and Sesame Street, Lou Attia has been a professional voice-over artist for over 15 years. After studying professional vocals in London, England, Lou landed a radio host position at 104.2 Nile FM in Cairo, Egypt where he became Creative Director and then Program Director of the station. Throughout his seven years on the air, during which his morning show went on to be the No.1 listened to radio show in a city of 16 million, Lou continued to do voice-overs for numerous commercials, shows and features. In 2010 Lou moved to Toronto, Canada where he is currently a full time voice-over artist, writer and TV show host.

Martin van Spanje Currently co-owner of LayerGloss Digital Publishing, Martin used to program and design on 8-bit Sinclair machines in the eighties. Then came Macs, digital audio, ten years of IT-projects and finally, iOS. Nowadays he lives his life surrounded by Objective-C code, and he sometimes thinks cornflakes look a bit like people. Oh, and he doesn't do Twitter.

Joost van den Broek Joost van den Broek is a producer, composer, arranger and keyboardplayer based in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Starting out as a keyboardplayer for several metalbands like After Forever touring all over the world, he finished his conservatory with honour in musicproduction, keyboards and classical arrangement. Since then he been working as a freelancer in his own studio on several productions, compositions and arrangements, for acts/events like: Ellen ten Damme, Symphonica in Rosso, Wende Snijders, Games in Concert, Ben Saunders, Qlimax. Epic moviescores and/or/in combination with (pop/alternative)rock is what defines his style the most.

Arjen Schut Arjen Schut is a sound designer based in Hilversum, The Netherlands. As a freelancer Arjen has worked on numerous projects, both on location and in his own studio. Arjen is involved in sound effect creation for all sorts of media, but has a strong focus on interactive and animation projects. International blockbuster Killzone 3 being one of the larger projects.

I have taken upon myself to contact some of these artists, just in case they were open about talking or sharing information about the animation they worked onto. Is it a bad idea, or a good one? I don't know but that's the most straightforward direction one can take. I will warn you if I ever receive any response, positive or negative.

I forgot to link before the official page, on the Anikey Animation website, for their work on Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales. Not only does it contain large, high-quality screenshots of the artwork, but their "Production" page also has one concept art for the storybook. They also list the credits of the app as such:

Title: Epic Tales - Hansel & Gretel

Release: 2012

Directed by: Albert 't Hooft & Paco Vink

Animation by: Jelle Brunt, David Muchtar & Ruben Zaalberg

Backgrounds by: Paco Vink & Sjan Weijers

Music by: Joost van den Broek

Sounddesign by: Arjen van der Schut

Producer(s): Paul Hanraets for Cloud Castle Interactive

AppAdvice still has a page dedicated to the application. There is also a review by the MacTrast website that is quite interesting because, while today the pictures contained within it are "dead files", in the Wayback Machine you can fetch them back, and they are pretty rare screenshots of the game! Here's an additional Dutch article I forgot to add earlier. Again, not much to add since they all basically just announce the game's release and rephrase the storybook's commercial description.

I also don't think I have added this to my previous posts, but Cartoon Brew also had a page for the app's launching, which contained this text:

The Hague, the Netherlands — April 24, 2012 — Hansel and Gretel – Epic Tales animated storybook is the first in a series of tales as told by Silvertongue, the likeable dwarf and storyteller, and is now available on the Appstore for IPad and IPhone.

Hansel and Gretel – Epic Tales animated storybook offers a world filled with whimsical characters ranging from pesky gnomes to witty dwarfs; from brave children to wicked stepmothers and cunning witches.

“But we are not just another fairytale App,” says Paul Hanraets, founder and producer. “What sets Epic Tales apart from other storybooks are the incredible production values. Each of Epic Tales storybooks are digitally hand-drawn by our award winning animators, and offer stunning 2d animations, professional voice acting, original music scores and ambient sounds by game industry veterans. These elements combined offer spellbinding interactive environments that are sure to draw readers even deeper into the story.”

“Of course, our alternating witty and wacky humour and the high quality of our animations are amongst the things that separates Hansel and Gretel from other storybooks,” says creative director Albert ‘t Hooft.”However, what ultimately distinguishes Epic Tales is the implementation of our central storyteller, Silvertongue the dwarf.” Using the magic of pesky gnomes, Silvertongue brings the stories to life and narrates them.”Silvertongue used to be quite the adventurer, travelling the world in search of the most intriguing tales and stories, and now looks after your storybook collection in his humble bookstore. He is a truly gifted storyteller who can take an audience from a gasp of fright to a roar of laughter in just the twist of a phrase.”

Epic Tales is a series of high quality, interactive fairytales that allows you to not only enjoy enchanting tales, but to experience their magical worlds more closely than ever before. Children will love the sense of wonder and discovery,while adults will certainly appreciate the clever and wacky humor.

A final piece to add to the dossier so far is Muchtar Productions' page for Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales. Muchtar Production is the WordPress website of David Muchtar, a 2D animator and illustrator who worked on the Epic Tales animation as a (I quote) "Rough and Clean-up animator". He notably put within his portfolio an important number of concept art for the game's character designs. But, as with last time, I will keep it for the NEXT post!

Or... an almost final piece. I wanted to keep this for a much later post, but I ultimately decided to share it here. I vaguely described before one unofficial source for content about "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales". And that is an online review, a Youtube video, by a Youtuber named "Crazy Mike" specializing in app reviews. Here is the video, and the reason why this video is important (beyond it being the last remaining video review - unless I manage to get back the one from the defunct website) is because so far it is the only visual recording we have of the app outside of the trailers. Not only that, but at one point Crazy Mike opens the list of chapters within the app - which gives us a full glimpse of the story's main episodes, with thumbnails of each "tableau". Mind you, it is tiny details at the bottom of the screen so we can't get much of it... But with all the additional material I gathered, it will be a key element in my reconstruction of what the storybook looked like and was about.