AGI Studio 1 - Week 4 - Related Works

Related works I've viewed this week.

Tome of the Unknown: Harvest Melody (2013)

Created by Patrick McHale as a part of the Cartoon Network Studios Shorts series. The short is about two brothers, Wirt and Gregory, and a talking bluebird named Beatrice, as they walk through a large forest called 'The Unknown' in search of a book which contains every forgotten thing. In an effort to find a better way than walking the group come across a car made of vegetables, and the Vegetable Man that owns it. In order to gain the car, Wirt offers to drive the Vegetable Man into the city as he has often dreamed of moving out of the countryside and hopes to meet a nice woman. They drive to the city and cause havoc by attracting a group of birds who attack the vegetable people. In the end Gergory scares the birds away and the group continue on their journey, leaving the Vegetable Man who has found a partner to settle down with. 

This short reminds me a lot of the Wind in the Willows cartoon I watched as a kid, but with more of a magical mythology to it. The short is set up as a vignette of a larger adventure. Wirt is played a bit as the 'straight man' of the duo, but still with some tendency to engage with the magic of the world and some selfish elements played for humour. 

The main driving force of the narrative is the Vegetable Man, with his wish to move to the city and find someone to date. Wirt and Gregory are then just there to fulfill a larger plot and bring the comedy. The short fades out with the group travelling onwards deeper and deeper into the unknown, which helps to set up a larger series. When Wirt notes that searching requires a lot of walking Gregory suggests finding a goose to ride, but ends up finding a car made of vegetables and remarks 'We're one step closer to finding a goose.' At the climax of the short Gregory finally finds the goose, who replaces the wrecked vegetable car. This is a nice way to tie the plot together.

The short uses call backs and all the problems are resolved by Gregory's naive optimism. Gregory has a habit of letting out a worried scream when he's found something great. At first it's used when he finds the vegetable car, and at the end it's used to both resolve the tension of the birds attacking and to signal that he has found a goose to ride on. The pace moves quickly, doesn't take more than a line or two from each character to move onto the next beat. There are plenty of sight gags, little bits of humour played off of the city-folk being made of farm crops. 

AJ's infinite summer (2014)

Created by Toby Jones as a part of the Cartoon Network Studios Shorts series. The short sets up a quintessential example of highschool summer holidays. It is set in a town named Downer, and the school is Downer High School. The plot follows AJ, who is determined to start off the summer with spontaneity, but ends up falling into a boring summer job. At the end he realises he is destroying the summer vacation and quits his job to rejoin his friends.

The short skews older, with a tone more like Regular Show, which is apt as Toby Jones worked as a writer and storyboard artist for that show. The show does use a three character leading group, but it is very much AJ and his two sidekicks. This is introduced by AJ as 'my two best buds, and favourite couple, who are cool enough to let me sit between them,' in a scene where the three are sitting at a random table in a park. For the rest of the short these two don't initiate much, but are instead there to either be called upon by AJ or to question AJ's antics. It's an unfortunate circumstance that leaves these two feeling hollow and without purpose. 

The short moves very quickly, giving joke after joke. Visual gags are plenty, with the opening scene showing a classroom of kids waiting for the final bell to ring. AJ is first, looking at his watch, then it pans across to a kid with a digital alarm clock, an hourglass, a pocket watch, a sundial, and then across to the next desk which contains AJ again, but this time he has a grandfather clock. Then when the bell finally rings we're shown outside, where the grandfather clock comes smashing through a window.

Some other gags include: AJ, following a code of 'summer spontaneity,' decides to do the first thing he sees which ends up being a bus ad to 'Get a Job.' When questioned on why he is going along with something so 'anti-summer' AJ reinforces that he made 'an oath to that bus.' AJ going home and calling out to his Dad, to have Dad appear from inside a fridge saying that he was 'just having a nap,' and then pulling a pillow out of the fridge, which acts like a jug, with the pillow pouring juice into a glass. AJ wearing a comically oversized business suit, and then running through town with his friends sitting on the wide shoulders. The running through town is also very 'flat' as AJ runs to a building, then proceeds to run up it's wall, across the top, and jump down to the other side. They then fall into a Sunglasses Shop, break out the side wearing glasses, and to finish the gag they break through an Un-Sunglasses Shop which removes the accessories.

In the short, business is mocked as people wearing oversized suits and eating pies. The most successful in the business have underlings to do their bidding. This leads to AJ taking advantage of and bossing around his two friends, until they call him out for ruining summer, and he retaliates that they are jealous of his success. All of the humour in the second half of the short is about this bizarre circus of what business and working in an office is. AJ is eventually promoted all the way to the top and meets the CEO; a wrinkled man wearing only underpants and kept alive by a tube feeding goop into his back. AJ is offered to take over as CEO, but at the last second notices that there's a furnace burning up beach balls to power the office. AJ sees this as symbolically destroying summer, and bursts out of the office building to reunite with his friends and continue on their summer adventure. 

Long Live the Royals (2014)

Long Live the Royals is an animated short made through Cartoon Network, eventually became an mini series like Over the Garden Wall, and Adventure Time's Stakes. 

The show features King Rufus and Queen Eleanor and their children Peter, Rosalind, and Alex. The short begins with the King welcoming guests to his Tournament of Games and Stuff banquet. The three children have no interest in this at all. The King asks Pete what event he will be competing in, but Peter responds in that whiny teenage way that it's all boring. Peter eventually sees a beautiful Duchess and is convinced to compete in the games to win her affection. He asks Rosalind to help him learn archery, but does not improve, so Rosalind suggests they visit the court wizard. This leads to Peter gaining a cursed magic arrow. At the tournament Alex steals the arrow beforehand and double curses it so that it will humiliate Peter. When the arrow is fired it rips right through the target and proceeds to fly through the crowd, before going right for the beautiful duchess. Peter jumps over and pushes her out of the way, causing the arrow to then go on to hit the King. In the end the King is bedridden with an arrow in his leg, Peter remarks that he got to make out with the girl, and the King wants to know who's to blame. So the kids blame it on the wizard, who gets locked up.

It's a mashup of contemporary life and 18th century royals. There's archery contests to win over a duchess, as well as mobile phones. This is another short with a relation to Regular Show, this time created by writer and storyboard artist Sean Szeles. Feels like an MTV show, with a mock intro 'previously on' segment. There's a modern element of trying to keep up appearances whilst the kids are bored and fighting with each other. The children constantly misbehave with Rosalind sneaking out to date a boy her parents don't approve of, Peter having no motivation or drive and has zero interest in his Dad's life, and Alex being a little gremlin who's always fighting with someone and causing trouble. 

A bizarre moment of word play as the beautiful Duchess says 'Pick an event' which Peter believes is referring to what his father said, but actually she said 'Pig in a vent' pointing up to reveal a non sequitur pig stuck in an air vent. There's Sir Gasps-a-lot shown at the beginning called back to when they do one of those cross cuts showing everyone gasping at a tense moment. The father cleaning his hand by rubbing it on the dog is used multiple times. A good bit with mixing up names "I think her name is Beth... or Katherine." "Betherine." When the kids cheat with black magic the Wizard says 'Just don't blame me if it goes horribly wrong,' then the episode gets wrapped up by the kids blaming it all on the wizard.