1st February 2003

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Happy Mucha Lucha Australian Premiere!

The Tibet Game

The Premise
You are in Tibet and have:

• No karma.
• 1000 Chinese dollars, called Renminbi (RMB).
• Three illegal photos of the Dalai Lama.

The Goal

You want to get rid of your possessions (money, photos, etc.) and build your karma to reach Nirvana.   As you do good things, your karma will build …. etc.

The panoramic shots of Tibet in this game are intriguing. (make sure you check the ‘low bandwidth’ option). You can select new destinations within Tibet, visit monks and nuns, pick up secrets; and there are always Chinese undercover police searching after  ‘illegal’ photos…

Apparently, once you arrive in Nirvana, you can replay the game in Bodhisattva mode with a full view of Nirvana and extra visual sights. But as neither of us are what you call “gamers”, I doubt we would have the patience to get even halfway to Nirvana.

I wonder if Joel (our ML Line Producer) knows about this game …

SOMEBODY GIVE THE FLEA A HUG!

A gift we received today, from Gavin (who works here at Fwak!). Lovingly hand-made … isn’t it sweet?

Wrestling Observer  – Scroll right down to the bottom of the page:– Mucha Lucha debuts in the U.K. on the Cartoon Network on Monday at 4 p.m. !

Spotted in this Gazette Online article – “Memorable moments – a few thoughts on the best and not so best cultural experiences of 2002″. In the ‘Animation’ category…

NEW ADDITION: The character Meatwad, from Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” This childlike, anthropomorphic wad of meat (with a voice that has to be heard to be believed) is one of the funniest things about Cartoon Network’s excellent Sunday night “Adult Swim” program block.

Runners-up in this category are Flea and Ricochet, tiny masked grapplers from Kids WB’s “Mucha Lucha!” cartoon; and Skrat, the sabre-tooth squirrel from “Ice Age.”

• The Krypto designs we’ve been doing for WB. The designs are not final and we wouldn’t want to step on any toes. We also still have to design the ‘sidekick’ and ‘love-interest’. (hey, it’s a ‘superhero’ cartoon…)
• Scenes from Lava Palaver with music by Eddie and Michael (on piano). Unfortunately it’s a technical impossiblity. Let’s just say there are lots of exotic bird sounds, hawaiian-style slide guitar, drums and beats to go-go…
• Inked pages from the Mucha Lucha DC Comic Issue #1, which came in the post today. They look muy especial. Maybe we’ll post some pics when we have the corrected and final colored copy.
• Sample Mucha Lucha character designs that Jorge has been sending us. Jorge has been hired by WB Animation for the show’s second season, and already he’s taken to the style and producing some gorgeous artwork.
• Jorge and Sandra (Mexopolis) are also producing a 3D animated pilot for Disney - Again, we don’t have anyone’s permission to share these designs with the world…

It’s BOOSKA!

Booska TV (1966)

Our blog has a new subscriber (thank you!) – Check out Darren’s website where you will find some interesting asian pop cultural references, commentaries, and pictures.

¡Mucha Lucha! in Ireland? This schedule seems to be from a Gaelic TV network.

LIVE THE JAMES BOND LIFESTYLE

A recent discovery: the bondlife xanga site, a weblog about all things Bond - the man, the movies, the lifestyle… But there’s more. On visiting bondlife.com, I learnt that Paul Kyriazi is a movie director who runs motivation seminars and has written a book ‘How To Live The James Bond Lifestyle’.

The complete serious seminar that will upgrade your life to that of James Bond.

Believe me, he is deadly serious. (amazon.com reviews)

¡MUCHA LUCHA! in the Foxtel Guide

From the Feb issue of the FOXTEL TV mag. What it says:

Kids! Don’t miss this new hit comedy animation series. It’s fast paced and really fun. The series revolves around three wrestlers who never take off their colourful masks and are always getting into wacky wrestling adventures. ¡Mucha Lucha! is the brainchild of the Australian company FWAK! Animation. On its release in the US this year it became a smash hit series. Now Latino-masked wrestling and its code of honour, all about family, tradition and donuts, comes to Cartoon Network and will screen at 8am and 4.30pm on weekdays and 8am on weekends. It’s awesome!

And here is the full page Foxtel ad, which looks estupendo.

(Will be adding these to the ML Press page)

The NEW WEBSITE is done! Because I can’t help myself, there may still be minor tweaks here and there.

WHAT’S NEW:
(the main stuff)

• All projects are organized into 3 categories: ”Current work”, “Past work” and “In Development”. This is so there is no confusion as to which shows we are actually working on, and which shows we would LIKE to work on but not yet.
• New page layouts for all projects. Each project now has its own (html) page so you can visit any project directly without having to go through the main site.
• Introducing Cosmic Baby (Cartoon Network Asia-Pacific) & Superior Pets (designs for a scrapped WB show idea). Also a Lucha Links  page to explain Lucha Libre to the uninitiated.
• In terms of content, everything else is more or less the same.

Today we did two ¡ML! interviews – with Sunday Telegraph and Media Week Magazine. The one question that really got me thinking was: “Who do you look up to, in Animation?” (in Australia)

It occurred to me that, unlike the Chuck Joneses, Genndy Tartakovskys or John K.s of America, the names of local animation directors I have worked with and highly respect (e.g. Arthur Filloy, Michael Dunn, Nobuko Burnfield, Don Ezard) would mean NOTHING to the general public.

I remember one time Eddie received what we thought was Fwak! fan mail. But it turned out the kid was only interested in us because we knew Gabe Swarr  (ex-Spumco director, and storyboard artist on ¡ML!)

YOU’VE GOT MAIL!

Everytime we receive new e-mail, an unenthused female voice would alert us from Eddie’s computer: “YOU HAVE E-MAIL“. Mine would just go DING DONG. Well, that’s all gonna change now. At this website you can download wav files from a huge list of “e-mail notification messages”. Our favourites are Mail15, Mail17 and Mail28. 

… The new Fwak! website is about 80% ready. The deadline I have given myself is February the 1st. (Chinese New Year & the ¡Mucha Lucha! Australian premiere) Here is a SNEAK PREVIEW  of things to come. Please note that not all the links work yet. The general feel is also less busy and animated than the current website. (Hopefully this doesn’t translate as less interesting. The animated movies are all still in the same place) We wanted to keep everything simpler, avoiding slow loading times wherever possible.

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‘Defying categorisation, Jamie Leonarder is performer, diversional therapist, broadcaster, streetworker, nightclub impresario, archivist, champion of outside culture, with his own band made up of former psychiatric patients and eccentrics.’ (SMH TV guide)