Saturday, October 21, 2017

Update Time (and commentary on Teen Wolf's ending)

Welcome to the October update! I was away for much of the month, so Daymon once again rescued the blog, and is responsible for a majority of the posts. And many of them were suggested by our readers, whose contributions were of the highest value. Thank you all! Many of items this month are werewolf related, but hey, it's October, so why not? Feel free to scroll down to them now, instead of reading the long-winded commentary that begins in the next paragraph...

Teen Wolf has finally ended its long run, which began in 2011. Unlike many naysayers I was confident the show would be a success, since MTV was bringing in outside talent. Not only was I right, but the show's first three seasons were genuinely good TV (its quality began faltering afterward, thanks to continual cast changes, sloppy writing, and indiscriminate use of mythology). But I disappointed in one crucial area: Teen Wolf never gave us a good transformation scene, despite casting so many gorgeous actors as werewolves.

Nor did it give us a good series finale. The final episode was choppy, predictable, and unsatisfying, stuffed with forced fanservice and visual cliches like the final shot. Old cast members were brought back but not given memorable things to do, while the loose ends of the plot were shrugged aside. And of course the damn thing ended with Scott repeating his most stupid line of dialogue, "You're not a monster, you're a werewolf."

That was the fundamental flaw of Teen Wolf--it perpetually denied the monsterhood of its werewolves. That's why Scott, despite being the Alpha, never transformed into anything that looked much like a wolf. That's why Jeff Davis, despite promising that the werewolves would have three forms, dropped the most interesting--and most monstrous--form after the first season.

The dramatic interest in a werewolf is that it's a monster AND human at the same time: a human who can change into a monster and a monster whose true form is human. Remove the danger from a werewolf--the danger of losing control and giving in to bestial desires--and it becomes boring;  lycanthropy becomes just another superpower. The British Being Human, which couldn't afford CGI, proved you could fill a TV show with excellent transformation scenes created by practical effects. I had hoped Teen Wolf would take advantage of this breakthrough, given its subject matter. It never did, and I'm starting to fear no other shows will either.


The Monster Project (Werewolf Transformation)

My thanks to the anonymous reader who suggested this.

The Monster Project is a found-footage horror film, so there's lots of jerky camera work and night-vision. But these otherwise annoying elements keep the film's werewolf mysterious and undoubtedly make the special effects (already higher-quality than expected) look better.

For reasons too silly to explain, the film rarely shows the werewolf in human form (he's a Native American policeman), so the first two shots in this edited clip are from earlier on. The video artifacts and few seconds of blackness are from the original. 
As for the transformation, watch for some muzzle growth after the shirt-ripping scene.


Tu mourras moins bête (Age Progression)

Daymon here with a suggestion from an anonymous commenter for an online french Edutainment series called Tu mourras moins bête, which has an age progression scene in the episode "Pourquoi les ados sont-ils si mous?". The video doesn't allow embedding, so watch it here.

Marvel's Spider-Man (Werewolf transformation and Reversion, Muscle Growth and Reversion)

The co-editor here with some transformations from Marvel's Spider-Man, found in the episode "Halloween Moon." The premise has the gamma-powered Man-Wolf infecting several students. After he's defeated his lycanthropy is transferred to the Hulk, whose werewolf transformation reminds me of an old comic I read. This new series has already gifted us with two transformation episodes, so maybe we'll get a few more down the line...

A Goofy Movie (Age Progression/Monster Transformation)

My thanks to Kivuli for recommending this clip and to Daymon for locating the video.

I suspect that many children's minds were scarred from watching this notorious scene from A Goofy Movie (1995), where Max transforms into his father Goofy. From our point of view it's age progression. From Max's it's a monster transformation.



Amazing World of Gumball (Human Reversion)

By Daymon 

Our thanks to The Ultimate Crusader for suggesting this unique transformation scene from the Amazing World of Gumball episode, "The Line," where the family horrifically transforms into a WASP-ish nuclear family while wholesome songs are played:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2017 (Werewolf Transformation and Reversion)

Daymon here with a werewolf transformation and reversion suggested from Anon, from the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, in the episode "Crypt of Dracula":

Tara Duncan (Werewolf Transformation, Post 2)

Daymon here, with a small transformation from the French cartoon Tara Duncan (which was featured in an earlier blog post), found in the episode, "The Cup of Invincibility." Voila:

Art Round-Up (Various Animal Transformations)

Most of the art in this post is brought to you by helpful readers. Keep in mind that some of it is NSFW. There are four sections.

Section 01 is a selection of art found by Kivuli, from various artists.
The first works are animations and gifs:
Dog * Dragon * Lizard * Dragon 2 * Dog * Donkey * Werewolf * Werewolf 2 [thanks Daymon!]* Anthro Cat Body GrowthDog-to-Werewolf  * Dragon 3 * Anthro Muscle Growth

Moving to youtube, here's another werewolf:



And yet another werewolf video (definitely homemade!), followed by "Jason Muscle Growth"




We now move on to one-page werewolf transformation sequences:
A Classical TF * Demon-Werewolf * Cursed * Bigby from The Wolf Among Us * Therewolf * Phases of the Moon * Curses Are a Pain * Feral Changes * Character Origin * Queer Werewolf


Section 02 features art recommended by Antony. His first pick is the sequence "Truttle Bear" by Dragon-Storm:01 * 02 * 03 * 04 * 05 * 06

Next is "Deer Project" from Yukibenproject:
01 * 02 * 03 * 04 * 05

Third comes several pieces from Killpanda ("I really like his style"). A couple are NSFW:
Tiger * Deer * Wolf  * Wolf 2 * Horse  * DragonBear


Section 03 is art recommended by yours truly. Apologies if any of the pieces are repeats!
-- Two by Warmbodies: Donkey Pleasure and The Moon
-- The werewolf sequence "Supplements" by Loboleo: 01 * 02 * 03 * 04 * 05 * 06
-- A werewolf TF animation gif by Scrappyvamp and another by Moondoggie
-- Two of Silverclaw's most recent sequences: "Bad Dogs!" 01 * 02 * 03 and "Party Barn," involving a donkey and Border Collie 01 * 02 * 03
-- "Kiss of the She Wolf" by Scrappyvamp: 01 * 02 * 03 * 04 * 05 * 06
-- Minotaur madness in "Call of the Labyrinth" by Capras: 01 * 02 * 03 * 04 * 05
-- "Dog Shampoo" by thedinopharoah
-- A monster (Behemoth to be exact) emerges in "A New Man," by SayUncle: 01 * 02 * 03 * 04 * 05


The final section is brought to you by Daymon, who has found the following animated short here. The werewolf TF is sadly short but the animation is well done:



Chained from Mark Lin on Vimeo.