#watch the thief and the cobbler people | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

racmune · 6 months

Text

heyyyy im racmune, i use he/him pronouns. i draw a lot and write fic sometimes! im a weird n i post whatevers :P

my inbox is always open n im pretty friendly, if you wanna send in an ask u dont gotta be shy!

art commissions: not open atm, subject 2 change

dni, excluding what should be obvious: support israel, te(rf), swerf, truscum, exclusionist, etc

i also block very liberally, if you dont fit this criteria n ive blocked you it aint personal

more about me

current hyperfixations: the scratched universe (STRAPS YOU TO A CHAIR AND FORCES YOU TO WATCH IT), scoutpauling, tf2, n web design :3333

likes include but not limited to: music, anime, fanfiction, video games, chattin w/ buds, sleeping, drawing, computers, ftm history n such :P

dislikes include but not limited to: rude people, intense unfamiliar tastes n textures ..... uhhhhhhhhhhhhh idk what else tbh

sideblogs

@last-seen-in-wonderland - pastel/cute aesthetic sideblog. for the art (somewhat inactive)

@gnu-metal - 90s-00s (some exceptions) internet/computers aesthetic. for the gender.. AND THE AUTISM.

tag list :P

blacklistable tags

#blood

#gore

#unsanitary

#body horror

#flashing lights

#eyestrain

#loud

#unreality

#liminal spaces

#fnaf movie - for spoilers

#spto - scott pilgrim anime spoilers

personal tags i guess?

#queue - my queue tag, mehh ill make it a pun at some point

#fave - fave posts tag

#favefavefave - super/ult fave posts tag

#andy rambles - my text post tag

#ask - ask tag

#anon - anon tag (non-anons are tagged by username but tooo many to list here)

#tagged/sent - posts sent to me via dm or that ive been tagged in :3

#racmune art - my art tag

#racmune fics - my fic tag

#commissions - art commissions ive done and posts relating to my commissions

#clips - tag for game clips

#scoutposting - my scout tag :3c

#mongusposting - mongus tag

#friend art - art made by friendsss

#trans scout - tag for scout being trans (i dont use this tag as much anymore)

#ftm stuff - tag for ftm related stuff :P history, art, etc

#rule 63 - genderbend tag

#art inspo - tag 4 my art inspiration

#later - tag 4 posts i want to come back to

#gif - gif tag

#gifset - tag 4 posts with more than one gif... this is not what a gifset is but its what ive been using this tag for oops

#stim - stim tag

#mecore - stuff that is genderful.... "MEEEEE"

#important - important posts (i dont use this as much anymore either)

#bangers - posts w over 100 notes :p

#1k - posts w over 1k notes

#2k - posts w over 2k notes

old dtiys

#racdtiys15

#racdtiys16

fandoms/stuff im into

#the scratched universe

#nope 2022

#emesis blue

#lil pootis

#uramichi oniisan

#danshi koukousei no nichijou

#cool doji danshi

#math

#poetry

#webweave

#john k samson

#mf doom

#re - resident evil

#aphmau

#mlb - miraculous ladybug

#tadc - the amazing digital circus

#paradigm game

#fnaf

#beetlejuice

#brokeback mountain

#i love you phillip morris

#dog day afternoon

#romeos 2011

#portal

#half life

#spiderverse

#the boondocks

#enstars

#hi-fi rush

#legend of zelda

#disco elysium

#scott pilgrim

#brba - breaking bad

#death note

#hbomberguy

#jerma

#rtvs - radio tv solutions

#eftf2 - escape from tf2

#bully game

#dungeon meshi

#sally face

#creepypasta

#thief and the cobbler

#ultrakill

#gay shame

ship tags

#scoutpauling - scout x miss pauling

#heavymedic - heavy x medic

#freedom fries - soldier x spy

#boots n bombs - soldier x demoman

#scoutcest - scout x scout

#flash fire - scout x pyro

#hop scotch - scout x demoman

#heavyscout - heavy x scout

#pyrosoldier - pyro x soldier

#soldierheavy - soldier x heavy

#helmet party - soldier x engineer

#fruit scones - soldier x medic

#american aviators - soldier x sniper

#demopyro - demoman x pyro

#texas toast - engineer x pyro

#pyropauling - pyro x miss pauling

#burn ward - pyro x medic

#bushfire - sniper x pyro

#pyrospy - pyro x spy

#demoheavy - demoman x heavy

#demoengie - demoman x engineer

#jagerbombs - medic x demoman

#sword van - demoman x sniper

#bomb voyage - demoman x spy

#engieheavy - engineer x heavy

#spoovy - spy x heavy

#science party - medic x engineer

#sniperpauling - sniper x miss pauling

#trucks n vans - engineer x sniper

#bushmed - sniper x medic

#napoleon complex - engineer x spy

#medispy - medic x spy

#adminhale - administrator x saxton hale

#zhannascout - zhanna x scout

#soldierzhanna - soldier x zhanna

#scoutmaspy - scouts ma x spy

#zhannapauling - zhanna x miss pauling

#adminsniper - administrator x sniper

#zhannascoutpauling - zhanna x scout x miss pauling

#tf2 deep fried desire - scout x fried chicken lady

#tf2 lady and the tramp - miss pauling x fried chicken lady

#swing and a missfire - scout x miss pauling x pyro

#engiedemoheavy - engineer x demoman x heavy

#soldierdemozhanna - soldier x demoman x zhanna

#masked mechanic - fixer x jumpsuit (the scratched universe)

#fruit punch - foster x p.rick (the scratched universe)

#purplephone - purple guy x phone guy (fnaf)

#scollace - scott x wallace (scott pilgrim)

#toddallace - todd x wallace (scott pilgrim)

#kowalkins - pete kowalski x jimmy hopkins (bully / canis canem edit)

#gabv1el - gabriel x v1 (ultrakill)

^other tags 2 be added but tumblr doesnt let me add any more hyperlinks so sorry abt that 0_o

#andy rambles

11 notes · View notes

dandunn · 4 months

Note

for the film ask game!! i have two, bc i am always curious if people have seen/heard of the Thief and the Cobbler. i rarely meet anyone outside my family that knows it

and then obligatory lupin iii question of Green Vs Red??? idk if that counts as a movie or a special but eh

Thief and the Cobbler

I have seen it! I remember watching the n*stalgia critic review of the chopped up hollywood version with mainstream actors and it got me curious enough to check out the recobbled cut. I remember the animation being really interesting but I probably couldn't tell you what the plot was.

The pacing of it kind of makes me think of MAD GOD - another animated film with a troubled production history that went on for decades. Interesting stuff. Shame Aladdin stole its thunder.

Green vs Red

I've seen G vs R uhm. About three times now. I do not understand why they made it the way they did. it's meta, it's confusing, I don't like what it implies for the Lupin series about how the protaganist might've taken over from the original Lupin and 'became' him somehow like girl what. Did the original Loop die? Is this all a dream??? girl what GIRL WHAT.

That being said the scene where Jigen rescues Goemon from the helicopter is the tits. I would like to see a cut of it where the scenes are actually in sequential order.

#i think i expected green vs red to have more standout trippy animated parts like the bit with fujiko #and the car fight on the roof but those scenes are kinda few and far between #ask a cowboy #thanks for the ask

4 notes · View notes

can-of-pringles · 1 year

Text

People on tiktok talking about this animated movie called The Thief and the Cobbler and I swear I've never heard of it before let alone watched it.

#the thief and the cobbler

28 notes · View notes

bluespider94 · 2 years

Text

Tack from the thief and the cobbler, traced by my drawing notebook, a unfinished movie that I think people should watch

#tack the cobbler #the thief and the cobbler

30 notes · View notes

woozyintyria · 1 year

Text

tag 9 people you’d like to get to know better!

tagged by @sleidog and @gift-of-astralaria, thank you both!

1. three ships:

Don't really have any canon character ships! I used to ship shizaya (Durarara!!) pretty hardcore back in high school though.

Don't really have any OC ships I'm buckwild about at the moment either. Haven't had the time or energy to devote to RP.

2. last song: Fire Inside (Funky VIP) - Apashe, RIOT

3. last movie: The Thief and the Cobbler (Recobbled, v4)

4. currently reading: Dungeon World manual, Trophy Dark manual (setting up for an incursion in Trophy I'm DMing on friday, and DW to build a later campaign!)

5. currently watching: my friend streaming on twitch! she draws, plays games, and watches spooky videos! Recently finished watching Princess Tutu with some friends as well, great show.

6. currently consuming: homemade bagel breakfast sandwich! for dinner!

7. currently craving: some kinda dessert ;A;

tagging a few cool folks! (from the sideblog ooooo) @vampiricsheep @partydemoness @brahameirsson @pfdiva

#tag game #looking at this makes me feel very boring lmao #also no pressure on doing these if I tagged ya

2 notes · View notes

augment-techs · 1 year

Note

What Are Some of the Movies that Unexpectedly Impacted Your Life? And Why? And Tag!

Feel like I've already answered this, but okay?

The Thief and the Cobbler: The Miramax release might be an absolute fucking slap in the face for the original creator, but it was one of the few movies I really laughed at as a kid. And when I stumbled upon all the Recobbled Cuts on Youtube? I will never think of any movie that could compare to all the time and flawless artistic effort that went into it. Also the ending hits me like a train every single time. Sorority Boys/Connie & Carla/Flawless: These all tie as some form of mystery/comedy/drama that I wasn't supposed to watch, but ended up introducing me to the concept of the Trans community. Sorority Boys is...so very problematic, but the intent (and ending) somehow manage to stick the landing. Connie & Carla is, unfortunately, still mired in cis heteronormativity, but NONE of the transgirls die, and ALL of them are heroes. Flawless is probably the best film I've ever seen Philip Seymour Hoffman in, and there were ACTUAL transwomen in this. All of them have their problems, but I do love them for doing their best. Watership Down/Princess Mononoke: Both movies my parents rented for me, both showcasing blood and gore and ideological considerations WAY outside the sphere of what I should have been watching in grade school. Both in my top ten favorite movies ever, both likely what made me more empathetic as a person, and more considerate towards the natural world. Artemisia: My introduction towards feminist art, introduction to foreign film, introduction to the power of narration, introduction to how assault isn't always blood and cruelty, but another insidious kind of thing. (Also that a rape survivor's story can be twisted for the cinema, but I wouldn't know that until my VHS copy was traded for DVD and I realized a giant red flag in the plot.)

Kiki's Delivery Service: The concept of Burnout and the reality of making a way in the world that some people might not understand, but if it's important to you, you should pay no mind to others unless they care to help.

Tagging: @skyland2703 @lordkingsmith @theorangerangers @theonewhonothingknows @felonius-glitch @metalucie

#ask fill #prompt fill #movies #the cinema #lgbtqia+#ghibli #watership down #Artemisia #sorority boys #connie & carla #Flawless 1999 #the thief and the cobbler

5 notes · View notes

tropicalfreckles · 2 years

Note

Woah I'm so happy to see someone who also likes Little Nemo and The Last Unicorn! (the last one I've not seen yet unfortunately but it looks interesting 👀). Even though they're not my childhood films I do remember seeing them for the first time and being at awe for how good they were! My favorite one is Little Nemo because (like you said) I love the settings, the background and especially the characters. They're all so unique and enjoyable, especially Flip!

The last one is kind of hard to get your hands on, but I think kimcartoon has it! I have it on DVD somehow I don't even remember when I got it. I used to have all three on VHS but my dad threw out most of our VHS's when we moved and I started going to middle school. Also yes the color design on that film is just soooo good for Little Nemo. We disagree on one thing, cause I hated Flip as a kid and I still hate him LOL. For a lot of reasons. But I understand why people might like him or find him entertaining.

Fun thing too is all three are just adaptations from something. The Last Unicorn, obviously based on the novel and a series of books apparently? Little Nemo is based on olllldd series of comics, and I think the Princess and the Goblin actually is an adaptation from a novel? Don't quote me on that, but I have a vague memory of it. All I know is that I always wanted the rose stained glass door from the film.

While we're here, another old film I recommend to people that I watched as a child was the Thief and the Cobbler. Definitely go looking though for the ORIGINAL draft that I think a bunch of people worked on finishing for the creator of the film that never got to see his movie done in the way he wanted. I grew up watching the butchered edited version which I still kind of like but the actual original draft is superior.

#asks #tropi answers #we're getting on old films i used to watch as a kid today

2 notes · View notes

kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 6 months

Text

Today, Paramount delayed a handful of films, including the fourth theatrical SpongeBob movie (went from May 2025 to December 19, 2025).

The most interesting of the delays, and among the most inevitable, was MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONI- I mean... It's not going to be called that anymore.

This past summer's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE chapter was titled MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE. But now, Paramount is opting to call the eighth movie something else.

The home video release is on Halloween, too. It's too late to go back in and snip the PART ONE from the opening credits (plus it's on the case, too), unless a later edition cuts it out.

Like... It's set in stone, this movie is called DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, unless, like I just said, a later edition that comes out a little before the release of Movie #8 corrects the opening titles.

If so, that would also be rather fascinating. Some editions have it as PART ONE, some don't.

Hey! Another Tom Cruise action movie that happened to involve this film's director, Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed the 5th and 6th M:I movies), had a similar thing happen.

That movie was EDGE OF TOMORROW... Oh sorry, LIVE. DIE. REPEAT: EDGE OF TOMORROW... Maybe...

EDGE OF TOMORROW, which was originally supposed to be titled ALL YOU NEED IS KILL (which is the name of the manga it is based on), came out in June 2014. The tagline for the movie was "Live. Die. Repeat." EDGE OF TOMORROW is a classic case of a movie lots of people dug (critics & audiences alike, including this fella), but ruined by a misguided marketing campaign. It opened quite poorly for a movie that cost $178m to make, but it had really good legs over the summer and ended up doing okay. Maybe not profitable as a theatrical release, but good enough to spur on-and-off sequel talks.

Warner Bros., who released the film, noticed that they screwed the pooch on this one. When the film was released on Blu-ray later that year, the packaging bore the revised title LIVE. DIE. REPEAT: EDGE OF TOMORROW... It loads on a PS3/4/5 with that title, too... Digital versions of the movie call it that when you boot it up... But watch the movie itself - disc or digital, and the title card just says EDGE OF TOMORROW... Like it did, theatrically...

So now we have a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie with "PART ONE" in its title, but its followup will not be called PART TWO. That's gonna look weird on my shelf, for sure! "Uhhh, where's part two?"

Anyways, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE VIII is now set to open May 23, 2025, taking SPONGEBOB 4's old slot. Filming was underway before the strikes, and it was never going to make it to next summer anyways, so this is good... And if you remember, DEAD RECKONING was set for a multitude of dates, waylaid by COVID-19 and other complications. Once thought to be a summer 2021 release with Part Two following in summer 2022, and then later a summer 2022 release w/ Part Two in 2023... We finally got it this year, with Part Two two years from now... MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE really is facing an impossible mission of just getting finished and being released. Weathering COVID, filming complications, two strikes...

For context, the first MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie came out in 1996.

So now DEAD RECKONING can possibly join the pantheon of movies that carried different titles/title cards over time. Some animated examples include:

The Fleischer studios' 1941 feature MR. BUG GOES TO TOWN, a Paramount release, which was known as HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN in the UK and on re-issues/TV airings

Disney's THE BLACK CAULDRON, re-titled to TARAN AND THE MAGIC CAULDRON for a test re-release that didn't materialize into a wider release

Disney's THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, which was titled THE ADVENTURES OF THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE for its one theatrical re-release, and its title card appeared on all video releases of the movie until 2010

The Miramax edit of Richard Williams' THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, titled ARABIAN KNIGHT in theaters, but THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER on home video

Speaking of other Paramount dates... It was clear as day that that QUIET PLACE prequel wasn't opening March 2024 alongside DUNE: PART TWO and SNOW WHITE and ELIO and KUNG FU PANDA 4 and GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE 2. (More of those should be moving, as the strikes are continuing.)

Bet we'll see more delays from the big studios. Sony already rerouted a ton of movies, like the aforementioned untitled GHOSTBUSTERS sequel (we have the poster at my cinema), SPIDER-VERSE 3, and a few random live-action titles. Paramount then made their move...

Who's next? I'm thinking it'll be Disney. No way they sandwich SNOW WHITE between their own ELIO and a bunch of other family flicks like KUNG FU PANDA 4... Plus, opening their LION KING Prequel two days after Universal's DESPICABLE ME 4? I don't think that's very smart. I think a lot of the live-actions/tech demos get some push, with animation largely staying in place. (Sony delaying BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE, I feel, had a lot more to do with the fact that it was barely in production and was never going to make that previously-announced spring 2024 release.) At the very least, I think the Pixars will make their spring and summer slots next year, I'd imagine INSIDE OUT 2 is far enough long and no re-recording of the cast needs to be done, but... We'll see...

But first and foremost, a good and fair deal needs to be reached so the strike can end.

1 note · View note

nightwere-mojo · 2 years

Note

4, 7, 17, and 24 for animation asks :)

4) Do you prefer watching feature length films or short films? I don't think I have a strong preference between the two, having enjoyed films on both sides. Maybe leaning towards short films simply for the ease of fitting in time, but I definitely think both have their merits, like novel vs novella in books.

7) What is the darkest piece of animation you’ve ever seen? I really had to think on this from the amount of Don Bluth and oddball animations I've run into: For my primary answer, I'll pick Paranorman (2012) for the twist that happens. If you know, you know. Two honorable mentions: -Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969) - saw this really young on my dad's VHS tapes, so even when I knew what to expect (there were several animations on one tape and I watched it through repeatedly) the impact and long droning piano note sure unnerved me! -The Brother's Grunt (1994) - this is actually Danny Antonucci's (Ed Edd n Eddy) first series. It's not really dark as much it is shocking, disgusting and gross, but it gets a mention for not only making me run out the room and hide as a kid when it came on MTV, but also triggering a panic attack when I tried to look it up again in 2009 (age 21). Needless to say I don't recommend, lol.

17) Why do you think animation is still largely seen as a “more childish” form of media compared to live action, even though there are many beloved adult animated films made throughout history?

Disclaimer that I fear the following is out my ass, and from a Western perspective for sure, but I'll take a stab:

If I took a guess I think some factors include: the overwhelming shadow of Disney and maybe like studios, American culture starting with and ingraining the idea historically, stereotypes driven by advertisements and capitalism (basically asking which segment makes the most money and aim to them, kids can't or don't have interest in live action, the target marketing zones in to kids and kiddie nature (and their families) to the detriment of mature animation which gets sidelined or even judged as "weird"…)

I think it's gotten a little better after the rise of anime in the 2000s, which I know is seen as more of a "teenager to young adult" medium. (Or at least that's how their target market). But I think it may have built somewhat of a bridge? I know Netflix was axing animations now but seeing more things like "Arcane" or "Love Death Robots" becoming more known before that happened...

24) Gush over an animated film (feature length or short) that you find highly underrated!

I worry people may have different definitions of what underrated is, especially with the internet making many older animations more accessible, but, …

The Secret of NIMH (1982)! I think this was my earliest exposure to anthro characters outside of Disney. Besides the dark and detailed aesthetic, there's a lot of glowing light effects (glowing eyes, light bulbs) that look great and really pull off the mood of the mystical places sized for small mammals, as well as the "wizardly" characters.

Also worth mentioning, The Thief and the Cobbler (60s-80s) for the masterpiece parts of mega-detail and perspective that we managed to get out of that despite being unfinished 😔 Dude, the war machines from hell. Man

Finally I want to mention: There is a series of early 3DCG animation called "The Minds Eye" (1990) (also called Short Circutz in Canada?) that I really enjoyed. There's no story, but the visuals, at least to little me at the time, were mesmerizing. My favorite is "The Temple" which I would daydream about while running around somewhere. I'll go ahead and end by embedding The Temple here:

youtube

#ask games #animation #I forgot the early sea punk aesthetic got included in the end of that clip

1 note · View note

thefloatingstone · 3 years

Note

actually animation! i always thought that drawing one pose per page is more easier than using an animation programm but seeing some videos about the programms make me wonder.. how do they make it look so smooth?? and satisfying??

(and thank you! sometimes i like more to ask people than google cuz it sucks and people love to share!)

UUUUUUGH of course tumblr deletes my entire post when I try to add a gif. ANYWAY AS I WAS SAYING! It really depends on what's getting animated. Animating every single frame at 24 frames a second on 1s gives you complete control over every single drawing, but it's incredibly labour intensive. And even the highest grade 2D animated films I know of don't have every single scene be animated on 1s because it isn't practical and not every scene requires that much movement. the ONLY movie I know of completely animated on 1s is The Thief and the Cobbler and it was never finished. (although I highly recommend the Recobbled Cut of the film because it's fantastic) (and tumblr deletes my entire post if I add gifs so just bear with me)

Most TV animation these days (and even a few 2D feature films) will use a combination of hand drawn animation with traditionally drawn in betweens, but will use animation programs' built in "tween" system to have the computer create animation effects. This cuts down a LOT on animation, but animation programs can only tween cut-out drawings. So you have to draw the arms separately, the head separately, the legs separately etc etc and tween them all individually. You then have to go in and tweak the computer tween because, being a computer, it can be extremely unnatural and robotic looking or it could have interpreted the tween badly.

However this means that you can get shots done much faster simply because it takes less time to tween individual scenes than it does hand animation them, even if it does not give you as much control and is usually still unnatural looking and easy to spot when something is drawn versus if it's been tweened

(Wander over Yonder uses a mix of tweens and hand drawn frames)

and then lastly the new thing some people are experimenting with, is taking animated sequences at whatever frame rate, and running them through an AI upscaler or other AI program to artificially boost the frame rate to higher than what it was drawn at.

Good examples of this are to go onto youtube and check out people who have taken old anime intros from the 80s and 90s and upscaled them to HD and used an AI to extend them to 60 frames per second (which is what video games run at but is not pleasant for either animation which would be impractical OR film which is uncomfortable to watch and can induce headaches.)

It's an interesting experiment but it's actually really bad animation wise, both because of the uncomfortable watch it creates and the headaches, but also because these 60fps upscale AIs can severely fuck up the animation itself, just as HD upscale AIs can fuck up the art of a show (do I need to show the HD version of usagi's house again?? BECAUSE I WILL!!!)

(it's so ugly...)

But yeah, some people are experimenting using this as a toon to create smoother animation but it's generally not really a good idea if you like.... actually understand animation and you're not just some IT guy who things more frames = better animation somehow.

Actually here's a dude who made a video about it explaining it better than I could

youtube

#animation #C-Puff answers #This post better work or I'll scream I had to re-write it so many times

163 notes · View notes

letterboxd · 3 years

Photo

Blurring the Line.

As a new Space Jam film beams down to Earth, Kambole Campbell argues that a commitment to silliness and a sincere love for the medium is what it takes to make a great live-action/animation hybrid.

The live-action and animation hybrid movie is something of a dicey prospect. It’s tricky to create believable interaction between what’s real and what’s drawn, puppeteered or rendered—and blending the live and the animated has so far resulted in wild swings in quality. It is a highly specific and technically demanding niche, one with only a select few major hits, though plenty of cult oddities. So what makes a good live-action/animation hybrid?

To borrow words from Hayao Miyazaki, “live action is becoming part of that whole soup called animation”. Characters distinct from the humans they interact with, but rendered as though they were real creatures (or ghosts), are everywhere lately; in Paddington, in Scooby Doo, in David Lowery’s (wonderful) update of Pete’s Dragon.

The original ‘Pete’s Dragon’ (1977) alongside the 2016 remake.

Lowery’s dragon is realized with highly realistic lighting and visual-effects work. By comparison, the cartoon-like characters in the 1977 Pete’s Dragon—along with other films listed in Louise’s handy compendium of Disney’s live-action animation—are far more exaggerated. That said, there’s still the occasional holdout for the classical version of these crossovers: this year’s Tom and Jerry replicating the look of 2D through 3D/CGI animation, specifically harkens back to the shorts of the 1940s and ’50s.

One type of live-action/animation hybrid focuses on seamless immersion, the other is interested in exploring the seams themselves. Elf (2003) uses the aberration of stop-motion animals to represent the eponymous character as a fish out of water. Ninjababy, a Letterboxd favorite from this year’s SXSW Festival, employs an animated doodle as a representation of the protagonist’s state of mind while she processes her unplanned pregnancy.

Meanwhile, every Muppets film ever literally tears at the seams until we’re in stitches, but, for the sake of simplicity, puppets are not invited to this particular party. What we are concerned with here is the overlap between hand-drawn animation and live-action scenes (with honorable mentions of equally valid stop-motion work), and the ways in which these hybrids have moved from whimsical confections to nod-and-wink blockbusters across a century of cinema.

Betty Boop and Koko the clown in a 1938 instalment of the Fleischer brothers’ ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series.

Early crossovers often involve animators playing with their characters, in scenarios such as the inventive Out of the Inkwell series of shorts from Rotoscope inventor Max Fleischer and his director brother Dave. Things get even more interactive mid-century, when Gene Kelly holds hands with Jerry Mouse in Anchors Aweigh.

The 1960s and ’70s deliver ever more delightful family fare involving human actors entering cartoon worlds, notably in the Robert Stevenson-directed Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Chuck Jones’ puntastic The Phantom Tollbooth.

Jerry and Gene dance off their worries in ‘Anchors Aweigh’ (1945).

Mary Poppins is one of the highest-rated live-action/animation hybrids on Letterboxd for good reason. Its sense of control in how it engages with its animated creations makes it—still!—an incredibly engaging watch. It is simply far less evil than the singin’, dancin’ glorification of slavery in Disney’s Song of the South (1946), and far more engaging than Victory Through Air Power (1943), a war-propaganda film about the benefits of long-range bombing in the fight against Hitler. The studio’s The Reluctant Dragon (1941) also serves a propagandistic function, as a behind-the-scenes studio tour made when the studio’s animators were striking.

By comparison, Mary Poppins’ excursions into the painted world—replicated in Rob Marshall’s belated, underrated 2018 sequel, Mary Poppins Returns—are full of magical whimsicality. “Films have added the gimmick of making animation and live characters interact countless times, but paradoxically none as pristine-looking as this creation,” writes Edgar in this review. “This is a visual landmark, a watershed… the effect of making everything float magically, to the detail of when a drawing should appear in front or the back of [Dick] Van Dyke is a creation beyond my comprehension.” (For Van Dyke, who played dual roles as Bert and Mr Dawes Senior, the experience sparked a lifelong love of animation and visual effects.)

Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and penguins, in ‘Mary Poppins’ (1964).

Generally speaking, and the Mary Poppins sequel aside, more contemporary efforts seek to subvert this feeling of harmony and control, instead embracing the chaos of two worlds colliding, the cartoons there to shock rather than sing. Henry Selick’s frequently nightmarish James and the Giant Peach (1996) leans into this crossover as something uncanny and macabre by combining live action with stop motion, as its young protagonist eats his way into another world, meeting mechanical sharks and man-eating rhinos. Sally Jane Black describes it as “riding the Burton-esque wave of mid-’90s mall goth trends and blending with the differently demonic Dahl story”.

Science-classroom staple Osmosis Jones (2001) finds that within the human body, the internal organs serve as cities full of drawn white-blood-cell cops. The late Stephen Hillenburg’s The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004) turns its real-life humans into living cartoons themselves, particularly in a bonkers sequence featuring David Hasselhoff basically turning into a speedboat.

David Hasselhoff picks up speed in ‘The Spongebob Squarepants Movie’ (2004).

The absurdity behind the collision of the drawn and the real is never better embodied than in another of our highest-rated live/animated hybrids. Released in 1988, Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit shows off a deep understanding—narratively and aesthetically—of the material that it’s parodying, seeking out the impeccable craftsmanship of legends such as director of animation Richard Williams (1993’s The Thief and the Cobbler), and his close collaborator Roy Naisbitt. The forced perspectives of Naisbitt’s mind-bending layouts provide much of the rocket fuel driving the film’s madcap cartoon opening.

Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, Roger Rabbit utilizes the Disney stable of characters as well as the Looney Tunes cast to harken back to America’s golden age of animation. It continues a familiar scenario where the ’toons themselves are autonomous actors (as also seen in Friz Freleng’s 1940 short You Ought to Be in Pictures, in which Daffy Duck convinces Porky Pig to try his acting luck in the big studios).

Daffy Duck plots his rise up the acting ranks in ‘You Ought to Be in Pictures’ (1940).

Through this conceit, Zemeckis is able to celebrate the craft of animation, while pastiching both Chinatown, the noir genre, and the mercenary nature of the film industry (“the best part is… they work for peanuts!” a studio exec says of the cast of Fantasia). As Eddie Valiant, Bob Hoskins’ skepticism and disdain towards “toons” is a giant parody of Disney’s more traditional approach to matching humans and drawings.

Adult audiences are catered for with plenty of euphemistic humor and in-jokes about the history of the medium. It’s both hilarious (“they… dropped a piano on him,” one character solemnly notes of his son) and just the beginning of Hollywood toying with feature-length stories in which people co-exist with cartoons, rather than dipping in and out of fantasy sequences. It’s not just about how the cartoons appear on the screen, but how the human world reacts to them, and Zemeckis gets a lot of mileage out of applying ’toon lunacy to our world.

Bob Hoskins in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ (1988).

The groundbreaking optical effects and compositing are excellent (and Hoskins’ amazing performance should also be credited for holding all of it together), but what makes Roger Rabbit such a hit is that sense of controlled chaos and a clever tonal weaving of violence and noirish seediness (“I’m not bad… I’m just drawn that way”) through the cartoony feel. And it is simply very, very funny.

It could be said that, with Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis unlocked the formula for how to modernize the live-action and animation hybrid, by leaning into a winking parody of what came before. It worked so perfectly well that it helped kickstart the ‘Disney renaissance' era of animation. Roger Rabbit has influenced every well-known live-action/animation hybrid produced since, proving that there is success and fun to be had by completely upending Mary Poppins-esque quirks. Even Disney’s delightful 2007 rom-com Enchanted makes comedy out of the idea of cartoons crossing that boundary.

When a cartoon character meets real-world obstacles.

Even when done well, though, hybrids are not an automatic hit. Sitting at a 2.8-star average, Joe Dante’s stealthily great Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) is considered by the righteous to be the superior live-action/animated Looney Tunes hybrid, harkening back to the world of Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin. SilentDawn states that the film deserves the nostalgic reverence reserved for Space Jam: “From gag to gag, set piece to set piece, Back in Action is utterly bonkers in its logic-free plotting and the constant manipulation of busy frames.”

With its Tinseltown parody, Back in Action pulls from the same bag of tricks as Roger Rabbit; here, the Looney Tunes characters are famous, self-entitled actors. Dante cranks the meta comedy up to eleven, opening the film with Matthew Lillard being accosted by Shaggy for his performance in the aforementioned Scooby Doo movie (and early on throwing in backhanded jokes about the practice of films like itself as one character yells, “I was brought in to leverage your synergy!”).

Daffy Duck with more non-stop banter in ‘Looney Tunes: Back in Action’ (2003).

Back in Action is even more technically complex than Roger Rabbit, seamlessly bringing Looney Tunes physics and visual language into the real world. Don’t forget that Dante had been here before, when he had Anthony banish Ethel into a cartoon-populated television show in his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Another key to this seamlessness is star Brendan Fraser, at the height of his powers here as “Brendan Fraser’s stunt double”.

Like Hoskins before him, Fraser brings a wholehearted commitment to playing the fed-up straight man amidst cartoon zaniness. Fraser also brought that dedication to Henry Selick's Monkeybone (2001), a Roger Rabbit-inspired sex comedy that deploys a combo of stop-motion animation and live acting in a premise amusingly close to that of 1992’s Cool World (but more on that cult anomaly shortly). A commercial flop, Back in Action was the last cinematic outing for the Looney Tunes for some time.

Nowadays, when we think of live-action animation, it’s hard not to jump straight to an image of Michael Jordan’s arm stretching to do a half-court dunk to save the Looney Tunes from slavery. There’s not a lot that can be fully rationalized about the 1996 box-office smash, Space Jam. It is a bewildering cartoon advert for Michael Jordan’s baseball career, dreamed up off the back of his basketball retirement, while also mashing together different American icons. Never forget that the soundtrack—one that, according to Benjamin, “makes you have to throw ass”—includes a song with B-Real, Coolio, Method Man and LL Cool J.

Michael Jordan and teammates in ‘Space Jam’ (1996).

Space Jam is a film inherently born to sell something, predicated on the existing success of a Nike commercial rather than any obvious passion for experimentation. But its pure strangeness, a growing nostalgia for the nineties, and meticulous compositing work from visual-effects supervisor Ed Jones and the film’s animation team (a number of whom also worked on both Roger Rabbit and Back in Action), have all kept it in the cultural memory.

The films is backwards, writes Jesse, in that it wants to distance itself from the very cartoons it leverages: “This really almost feels like a follow-up to Looney Tunes: Back in Action, rather than a predecessor, because it feels like someone watched the later movie, decided these Looney Tunes characters were a problem, and asked someone to make sure they were as secondary as possible.” That attempt to place all the agency in Jordan’s hands was a point of contention for Chuck Jones, the legendary Warner Bros cartoonist. He hated the film, stating that Bugs would never ask for help and would have dealt with the aliens in seven minutes.

Space Jam has its moments, however. Guy proclaims “there is nothing that Deadpool as a character will ever have to offer that isn’t done infinitely better by a good Bugs Bunny bit”. For some, its problems are a bit more straightforward, for others it’s a matter of safety in sport. But the overriding sentiments surrounding the film point to a sort of morbid fascination with the brazenness of its concept.

Holli Would (voiced by Kim Basinger) and Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) blur the lines in ‘Cool World’ (1992).

Existing in the same demented… space… as Space Jam, Paramount Pictures bought the idea for Cool World from Ralph Bakshi as it sought to have its own Roger Rabbit. While Brad Pitt described it as “Roger Rabbit on acid” ahead of release, Cool World itself looks like a nightmare version of Toontown. The film was universally panned at the time, caught awkwardly between being far too adult for children but too lacking in any real substance for adults (there’s something of a connective thread between Jessica Rabbit, Lola Bunny and Holli Would).

Ralph Bakshi’s risqué and calamitously horny formal experiment builds on the animator’s fascination with the relationship between the medium and the human body. Of course, he would go from the immensely detailed rotoscoping of Fire and Ice (1983) to clashing hand-drawn characters with real ones, something he had already touched upon in the seventies with Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, whose animated characters were drawn into real locations. But no one besides Bakshi quite knew what to do with the perverse concept of Brad Pitt as a noir detective trying to stop Gabriel Byrne’s cartoonist from having sex with a character that he drew—an animated Kim Basinger.

Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) attempts to cross over to Hollie Would in ‘Cool World’ (1992).

Cool World’s awkwardness can be attributed to stilted interactions between Byrne, Pitt and the animated world, as well as studio meddling. Producer Frank Mancuso Jr (who was on the film due to his father running Paramount) demanded that the film be reworked into something PG-rated, against Bakshi’s wishes (he envisioned an R-rated horror), and the script was rewritten in secret. It went badly, so much so that Bakshi eventually punched Mancuso Jr in the face.

While Cool World averages two stars on Letterboxd, there are some enthusiastic holdouts. There are the people impressed by the insanity of it all, those who just love them a horny toon, and then there is Andrew, a five-star Cool World fan: “On the surface, it’s a Lovecraftian horror with Betty Boop as the villain, featuring a more impressive cityscape than Blade Runner and Dick Tracy combined, and multidimensional effects that make In the Mouth of Madness look like trash. The true star, however, proves to be the condensed surplus of unrelated gags clogging the arteries of the screen—in every corner is some of the silliest cel animation that will likely ever be created.”

There are even those who enjoy its “clear response to Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, with David writing that “the film presents a similar concept through the lens of the darkly comic, perverted world of the underground cartoonists”, though also noting that without Bakshi’s original script, the film is “a series of half steps and never really commits like it could”. Cool World feels both completely deranged and strangely low-energy, caught between different ideas as to how best to mix the two mediums. But it did give us a David Bowie jam.

‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ is in cinemas and on HBO Max now.

Craft is of course important, but generally speaking, maybe nowadays a commitment to silliness and a sincere love for the medium’s history is the thing that makes successful live-action/animation hybrids click. It’s an idea that doesn’t lend itself to being too cool, or even entirely palatable. The trick is to be as fully dotty as Mary Poppins, or steer into the gaucheness of the concept, à la Roger Rabbit and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

It’s quite a tightrope to walk between good meta-comedy and a parade of references to intellectual property. The winningest strategy is to weave the characters into the tapestry of the plot and let the gags grow from there, rather than hoping their very inclusion is its own reward. Wait, you said what is coming out this week?