Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Gawayn (Werewolf Transformation)

Welcome to the Halloween update! In the spirit of the holiday, this entry and the four below it are all about werewolves.
One thing I've discovered while working on this blog is that a lot of European cartoons are never aired in America, despite the low cost of dubbing. This is doubly frustrating because some of these shows have decent transformation scenes.
Gawayn, a comedic medieval fantasy cartoon, is a good example. In episode 20, a character is turned into a pig, while his friends are turned into pork-hungry wolves. Comments after the clip.



The scene is a nice surprise, since comedic cartoons usually feature instant transformations. But here they're played for mock horror and a bit more drawn out, especially in the lovingly storyboarded shots of the Asian character's feet, tail, and chest bursting through his clothes.

MercWorks (Werewolf Transformation)

Mercworks is a humorous webcomic, and it happened to recently feature a werewolf transformation. I won't spoil the joke for you, so click here and enjoy!

Space Cadets Halloween Howl (Werewolf Transformation)

Space Cadets is a decidedly adult-themed webcomic for a gay audience. A Halloween special involves one of the characters turning into a very excited werewolf. This is definitely not work safe, so don't say I didn't warn you! Those who like naughty lycanthropes can click here....

Dracula Meets the Wolfman (Werewolf Transformation)

Dracula Meets the Wolfman is a horror comic drawn (quite nicely) by Francisco Francavilla. A Brazilian werewolf fan-group has posted some pages here, and if you scroll down five images you'll see a transformation scene.

Dense Fear: Bloodline (Werewolf Transformation)

Dense Fear (how can an emotion be dense?) is a low-budget independent werewolf film, and it happens to feature a good and lengthy transformation scene. It's an obvious labor of love and shows the results an amateur filmmaker can get on no-budget production.

I'd love to embed the video here, but the assholes who run youtube have decided to make it impossible to embed a video that starts at a set time, so here's a cued link. An earlier version of the scene, shot a few years before, can be watched here.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Kutsal Damacana 2: Itmen (Werewolf Transformation)

Kutsal Damacana 2: Itmen is a Turkish comedy. Turkey is infamous for making films that are unintentionally hilarious, so be warned... I have no idea what the film's about, but it does feature a werewolf who gradually transforms. I've badly edited together the transformation scenes and have also included a long scene of the werewolf slow-dancing, because--well, how often do you see that happen? For those who don't enjoy dances with werewolves, watch up to 3:10 and then skip to 8:25 for the reversion scene. And remember, if you want to know what's going on, I can't help you. I suspect the filmmakers can't either...


Werewolf Transformation (plus dancing!)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Art of Lobo Leo

Here's some big news--Lobo Leo has updated his website! He doesn't update often, but when he does he gives you a treasure trove. And those of you who only know Leo through his webcomic Alpha Luna, about a female werewolf, might be glad to know that Leo gives equal time to male werewolves on his site.

Leo's art style has some anime influence, but it's very much his own and lovingly detailed down to the last strand of fur. He is an artist who's plainly fascinated with werewolves and deeply intent on capturing the process of transformation in all its sensual glory and excitement. This means that some of his art is not safe for work. His site is split up into four sections, all worth a visit:

* Drawings and Sketches is a rich storehouse, including several sequences of writhing lycanthropes.  
* Comics contains Leo's latest work, "Two Howls," a 21 page comic about a couple discovering each other's inner beasts on vacation. You need to pay $12 to see it, but it's definitely worth the money. The remaining comics are free and worth perusing.  
* Photomorphs contains several impressively realistic sequences--maybe the best of their kind on the web.
* Lastly, in Movies there's the "Downloadable Videos" section featuring animated versions of several photomorphs and drawn sequences.

News Update: Dutchbull Updates,Teen Wolf Season 2, and a fixed link

I have a video update planned for later this week, but first some news:

 * Dutchbull has updated his terrific Transformation video website! Of special interest are a wolf TF from Full Metal Alchemist and the werewolf transformation and reversion scenes from the direct-to-video  Werewolf: The Beast Among Us. The movie isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be--the werewolf hunters are stupidly anachronistic and the ending is cynically happy to make room for sequels, but the central character fits into the Wolfman tradition (and is played by a rather hunky young actor).The werewolf is CGI of course, but the technology seems to have improved.

* The finale of Teen Wolf season two aired while I was on vacation. Before I discuss it (spoilers ahoy!), allow me to continue being smug about how I predicted the show would be better than everyone else on the internet thought. And in season two the storytelling, direction, lighting, and acting have improved even further. So let's tip our hat to Producer/Showrunner Jeff Davis and his crew.

That said, I wonder if the storyline was worth all that effort. I don't think the Kanima (or however the hell it's spelled) merited a season-long story-arc. Davis has said this storyline was one of redemption for Jackson, but surely Jackson's appeal was in being an attractive bastard whose humanity showed only briefly and teasingly. Furthermore, having Jackson redeemed by his love for Lydia depends on the dubious idea that he actually loved her in the first place, when it's clear that the only person Jackson loves is himself.

Nor was the Kanima convincingly explained--why would a human on the path to transforming into another mammal be detoured into reptile form? Worse, the kanima seems to have eaten up the special effects budget and left none for the lycanthropes--not a good thing in a show called Teen Wolf. (And frankly, if we have to have other werecreatures on this show, why not weretigers? Or weredonkeys for comic relief?)

Though we got to see Jackson transform into beta werewolf form, we were denied seeing Derek turn into an alpha werewolf--by which I mean a real werewolf, not a human with pointy ears and sideburns. (The make-up for the beta werewolf is fine, but it's even less animalistic than that of the original Wolfman from 1941.)

Why was this? On his twitter, Jeff Davis was asked why Derek didn't turn into "that big bad Alpha like Peter did?" Davis answered "To be honest, the CGI is way too expensive and I prefer live actors." But unless MTV shrank the show's budget (highly unlikely, it was a hit!), then the special effects money must have been spent on that damn Kanima. In any case, it didn't make sense for Derek to not transform into a bigger, badder monster when fighting something so deadly.

Someone later asked "why did Peter turn into a full on wolf type creature when he was alpha but Derek didn't?" Davis replied "That will be explained in Season 3." I certainly hope so, just as I hope the new season, which will feature more alphas, will also feature some alpha transformations.

With that in mind, I have a suggestion for those of you who use twitter. If you could, why not ask Jeff (in the most respectful and positive manner that you can) whether we'll see any alpha werewolf transformation scenes in season 3? After all, a werewolf show without a good transformation is like a vampire film without any blood-sucking. Just remember to be polite and gracious with Jeff--he's already given us a great werewolf show.

* Having to often replace dead video links is a recurring annoyance, but I'll gladly do so to make sure you get your TF fix. Today I fixed the link for the werewolf transformation in Zombie Loan episode 7. If you haven't yet seen it, take a gander. And just to remind everyone, new posts are coming soon.