#peab0

[radwolf76]

FLASHBack: Week 55 [First-Class FLASHBack] - Kenya

First of, apologies to everyone for missing last week, I was waylaid by a migraine. So while we try to open every month here on FLASHBack with something from one of our First-Class artists, this time First-Class FLASHBack got delayed until the second Thursday of the month. We're again going to look at the work of Jonti "Mr. Weebl" Picking.   One of Weebl's most popular song loop Flashes was released on 28 January 2004, Kenya. Normally on FLASHBack, I like to link to the creator's own video conversion of their work if available, but as I've said before, the looping nature of Weebl's songs warrants linking to 10 hour versions to get the full effect. That, and Weebl's YouTube Channel's own version has been sanitized for all-ages audiences.

In the original, the narrative tension between Kenya and its rival Norway was emphasized by a sequence that was captioned with "If Kenya was to physically urinate all over Norway* as well as metaphorically then the orange dotted line on the right would indicate the most probable trajectory to ensure a good coverage. *This is a fairly rare occurance though." -- Weebl's YouTube version omits the caption and the orange dotted line, leaving just Kenya bouncing on the map.

Along these same lines, the safari tour bus at the end was labeled "Holy crap. Lions! Tours" originally, and is unlabled in the YouTube edition. (While similar in form to the "Jesus Christ! It's a Lion! Get in the Car!" meme, "Holy crap. Lions! Tours" predates the earliest documented instance of it by a year and a half.)

This was not the first time the label on the tour bus would be omitted. On 8 May 2005, Weebl posted a Live Action version made by enthusiastic fans. On Weebl's site, the cast was credited only by first name and/or initial: Laura was the Lion, the Tiger was Brandy, Zan was Norway, and M pulled down the dual roles of Kenya and Zebra.   Also in 2005, on 31 October, Weebl announced that he would be taking pre-orders for plush toys of the Lion and Tiger (along with Weebl, Bob, Chris the Ninja Pirate, Badger, and Magical Trevor), becoming one of the first Flash artists to begin to sell non-clothing merchandise for his animations. When the plushes actually went on sale, he had an animated banner ad specifically for Lion and Tiger that claimed they were "100% Yiffable!" before changing its caption to read "You sick freaks." (If you don't understand what that means, BE GLAD.)   The year before, Weebl would close out 2004 with an Advent Calendar of animations, Day 19 of which was a Flash titled Lapland: Where can you find Santa?. This time the focus of the song is Finland's northern most region (which is still posited to be better than Norway). Lions and Tigers have been replaced by Santa and Snowflakes. Curiously, Weebl did not sanitize this animation when he placed it on YouTube, keeping references to strip clubs and the "Holy crap. Santa! Tours" label on the tour bus.   On 20 November 2008, in response to the the piracy crisis off the coast of Somalia prompting a declaration from the UN Security Council earlier that year, Weebl and fellow animator Wonchop released a Flash based on an idea by Weebl's creative partner Skoo. Somalia focuses on an African nation bordering on Kenya, and replaces the Lions and Tigers with Pirates. As always, they have to get in a dig at Norway (it's where Long John is being deported to).   On 24 July 2009, Weebl posted an animation by his Flash collaborator, Peab0. Kenya Remix was part of a series where Weebl had his fellow animators post versions of classic Weebl Flashes in their own distinct styles. Peab0 took the opportunity to incorporate the aforementioned "Get in the car!" meme, and to also incorporate a frequent criticism of the Kenya flash, that being the fact that tigers are not actually native to Kenya, or anywhere on the African continent. Lion-O and Tigra from the original 80s version of Thundercats get a cameo. The safari has traded in the tour bus and horns for a more appropriate vehicle for driving the savannah, but it's not sturdy enough to withstand a pride of curious big cats.   That's it for Kenya, next week we'll resume the usual schedule by going back to Somewhere in Nevada.

[radwolf76]

FLASHBack: Week 25 - Savlonic

Time for us to check in with the titans of the Flash Animation genre, as the first Thursday of the month means First-Class FLASHBack. Because there was a request for this, we're again turning our sights on Weebl. Music has always been a big component in Weebl's Flashes, all the way back to some of his earliest Flashes from 2003 such as Scampi, or Bonjour (Caution: pixelated penis), to more recent works such as 2013's Business Cat (a song very similar to one that another of FLASHBack's "First Class" artists, Weird Al, would release a year later, Mission Statement, except Weebl's song contains 100% more cat.)   So, it was a natural fit, when in 2008, the exciting new electro-pop band Savlonic asked Weebl to make a music video for one of their songs. Electro Gypsy was released on July 17th of that year. Two thirds of the band, Roscoe Thunderpants and Evangeline D'isco, also did an exclusive interview for Weebl's Stuff website. (Drummer Kandi Flaus had a prior commitment. The video is loaded with references to pop culture, from a Flux Capacitor on the titular Gypsy's robotic horse (mounted in the orientation that Doc Brown originally sketched it, no less), to a Matrix homage (specifically the "We need guns. Lots of guns." scene), to a recreation of the Astro Cat Meme from 2006 using Evangeline as the cat, to a shout-out to Weebl's own parody of the trailer for the first Michael Bay Transformers, in the form of a movie poster for Big Ass Badgers II.   Except of course, there was no exciting new band. Savlonic was merely another invention of Jonti "Weebl" Picking's. He provided the voice of Roscoe Thunderpants, although the singer's look was modelled off of the keyboardist from the band Sparks, Ron Mael. Evangaline D'isco was voiced by his wife, Sara Darling, who was a radio presenter on the Station XFM, a title she shared with the likes of Russell Brand, Ricky Gervais, and Simon Pegg. Originally voiced by a pitch-shifted Sara Darling, Kandi Flaus's role would be taken over by Katt Wade. Virtual Bands were nothing new in the animation world though, not even in Flash Animation, as the Brothers Chaps, creators of Homestar Runner (and also "First Class" alumni), had spawned their own Virtual Band, Limozeen, six years earlier.   Savlonic's next song, Tiny Japanese Girl, was released on 22 April 2010. This video would take on a predominately red color casting for it's background, something that would become a signature in future videos (perhaps in an effort to distinguish Savlonic videos from Weebl's other songs). Mr. Thunderpants assumes the guise of the king of the kaiju, Godzilla, while Evangaline and Kandi don kimonos. Other Japanese clichés include cherry blossom trees, geta sandals, and Mount Fuji. At the end of the video, in keeping with the theme of the song: tiny Japanese girls, D'isco and Flaus take on the role of the two twin fairies that accompany Mothra, activating the giant lepidopteran to save Godzilla/Roscoe from the militarized monster patrol.   Their third song, Wandering Eye would be put out on 8 June 2011. This video marked Weebl handing animation duties over to another Flash artist, Peabo, who departed from the chibi stylizations of the previous two, rendering the band in more realistic proportions while still being generally cartoonish. For the first time Evangaline's bangs are lifted to show her eyes. Roscoe's moustache is given more width to make it less Hitler-like. Like last week, there is an implication of rodents being used for lewd purposes.   On 26 March 2012, Savlonic's fourth song, The Driver hit YouTube, and Newgrounds, as well as Weebl's own site. Roscoe's moustache has gone full-on painter's brush to further deter the Hitler comparisons. Peabo shows off some high technical prowess in this one, with panning rotations around complex-shaped vehicles, as well as some wonderful wind effect on everyone's hair and Roscoe's tie.   Computer Guy, their fifth song, would drop on 27 May 2013. Heavily inspired by the Tron franchise, this was also their reddest video yet. The band are performing at the whims of the titular Computer Guy, literally hardwired in to be peripherals to his system. Midway through the video, when he cranks up the rock out percentage sliders, we see Kandi Flaus actually drum with both sticks for the first time, showing how he has total control over them. No one machine is meant to handle that much rock however, and there's an overload and an explosion that disconnects the band. They bust out with some hoverboards (real hoverboards, the kind that don't have wheels because they actually fucking hover instead of just rolling on the ground like a decapitated segway), and fly over to his tower to do some perfect superhero landings (hard on the knees). At the end is a huge plot twist which I won't spoil here.   On 11 February 2014, a Kickstarter was launched for a Savlonic album in digital and physical forms. It raised £34,768 against it's £12,000 goal, resulting in an album titled "Red". It consisted mostly of the existing five songs plus remixes of the same. A sixth song was produced new for the album, and on 22 August 2014, Spelunker was released. Peabo gave Evangaline a new hairdo this time around, and Kandi has a new style as well. Roscoe's and Evangaline's cave explorations are supported by top-side assistants Damian Bevan and Andrew Neidig, who both donated £1,000 or more on Kickstarter to be in the video.   On April Fools day of 2016, Savlonic launched another Kickstarter for a second album, titled Neon. This time around they shifted their branding to the retrowave/synthwave/outrun aesthetic. Weebl also brought in another new Flash animator to collaborate with, Anthony "Kr3id" Price. They were able to raise £40,778 of their £30,000 goal. On 19 September 2016, a video for the track Broken was released. As before, the video featured cameos by the highest paying kickstarter backers. The song is about hard feelings over a strained relationship and the video's premise is that these feelings come out in the middle of a recording session. Kandi, upset over the band being on the verge of falling apart, again begins to use both drumsticks, and as before, eventually destroys the stage with the force of her rockin' beats. Before that happens however, Evangaline and Rosco both use their keytar and microphone as futuristic weapons to trash the studio. When the band is plunged into the undeground tunnel below their studio when everything falls apart, D'isco and Thunderpants turn their musical weapons on each other while a disgusted Flaus decides to hop into the band's car and drive off, homaging both The Driver (the car), and Wandering Eye (her keychain).   2016 was a busy year for Savlonic, as there was also a release of a remix album for Neon, and also an album called the Rosco EP, which was a collaboration between Jonti Picking and Daniel "Kaspar Funk" Dobbs. Then, at the beginning of 2017, the second video from the Neon Album was released on 6 January. Hi-Lights picks up where Broken left off, with drummer Kandi Flaus driving away by herself. This marks the first time that Katt Wade takes over voicing Kandi. While the video starts out as a pure example of the Outrun aesthetic, two thirds in, there are hints of her car being chased by some ghostly green-eyed dark specter of some kind. We're only shown hints of it following behind her car, with Kandi glancing worriedly in her rearview mirrors. At the end of the video, she's apparently captured, and shown bound to some kind of sci-fi table as we catch more reflections of the ghostly green faces in her eyes. The video ends with "To Be Continued."   However Savlonic's next video would not pick up that storyline. Instead, on 19 January 2018, I Was Made for Loving You would be released to promote the band's cover tunes album, Emulat0r. The video itself is not much to speak of as it's just the band painted up to look like the song's original artists, KISS. They stand there while an elaborate stage rotates around them. It was a bit of a return to form for Weebl, as many of his early Flashes were based on simple looping visuals. A few weeks later on 2 February 2018, a video would drop for Johnny Massacre's track Beastman Blitz, which featured samples from Savlonic's Broken. This video marked the first time that the virtual band had been integrated with a live action person.   In May of 2018, Weebl went back to kickstarter to raise funds for yet another Savlonic album, Black Plastic, raising £37,055 of a £32,000 goal. Nearly eleven months later, on 18 Mar 2019, Weebl would team up with Arkanell to release a video for the song Action Causes Reaction, animated not in Adobe Flash, but in the Unity 3D engine. The change in toolsets was needed to support the making of a video in 360 VR. The video is heavily Tron themed, but it also has a blocky, voxelated look similar to Minecraft.   That's about all I have on Roscoe Thunderpants, Evangaline D'isco, and purple-haired drummer Kandi Flaus. Next week, a different purple haired girl, and her angry squirrel.