Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness (trailer) is a 90-minute 3D kids animated adventure-comedy film. Released in 2022, it's important to note that this is an nWave Studios producion, a Belgian company whose output since 2008 has consistently ranged from "awful" to "thoroughly meh".

It's rare for their average IMDB score to go higher than 6 out of 10. This one was directed by Benjamin Mousquet and Ben Stassen, written by Dave Collard, and was very loosely inspired from graphic novels by Chris Grine.

I think Chickenhare has been the studio's... "best" work so far, but that's not saying much. Their second-best would probably be either The House of Magic (2013) or Son of Bigfoot (2018).

What I find fascinating about Chickenhare is that it's just on the edge of being okay. Most of its elements use well-worn tropes that you typically get in kids films, but other things are... different. Cheerfully absurd. It's not taking itself entirely seriously. It's solidly aimed at a young audience - but there's this odd, subtle undercurrent that only adults might notice, when they're not being bored. It's really difficult to put into words.

"Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the most disappointing thing since my son."
- Mr. Plinkett

"Zootopia is definitely better than one of the most despised movies of the last decade!"
-some guy

Since we only had five reviews of the first Zootopia movie, you think not much else could be said about it, but, actually, it's been almost a decade, and Disney movies collect bad faith readings like Flayrah collects Zootopia reviews, and I'd like to address a few of those.

First, starting small, there's the "what do the predators eat?" thing which for some reason you still see bandied about like that's a clever observation, despite the movie's climax hinging the main predator character carrying a snack with him. Turns out, they eat food. Moving on, people like to complain about "copaganda", but, honestly, even if you accept all cops are bad, they have jobs that put them in dramatic situations regularly, so people are going to tell stories about them. That, and I've recently seen complaints that the Godfather parody glorifies criminals, so tie goes to the movie. The big one is the assertion that the main metaphor equates specific races (usually African American or black) with predatory species, when the metaphor is about minorities in general, and the movie does not specifically code most characters racially (though you could possibly argue the lead characters are pretty white-coded). An ironically bad faith defense here is that, when Disney racially codes an animal character, it's very noticeable, though they've mostly cut that out (mostly). Which brings me to the final complaint against Zootopia, which is that it is a Disney movie, and to that, all I can say is, well, nobody's perfect.

Zootopia 2 is the sequel to Zootopia, which makes sense. (The movies are also known as Zootropolis in certain regions, which makes less sense.)

Mahavatar Narsimha (clip) is the first in an intended series of 3D animated films from India, with the goal of telling the stories of the ten avatars of Vishnu. Released in 2025, it's directed by Ashwin Kumar, written by Jayapurna Das, and produced by Kleem Productions.

First and foremost, this is a religious film that takes its spiritual roots from Hindu mythology pretty seriously. It clocks in at over two hours long, and honestly I didn't have the patience to watch it from start to finish. I don't think I can objectively review such a film. I don't know the mythology, the religion, the symbolism or the culture that it's based upon.

It's struck a strong chord in India, becoming its highest-grossing domestic animated film in less than two weeks! So that's a positive sign. Whether you should try watching it - I can't say. This review will be a short summary that points out the anthropomorphic beings that appear.

Goldbeak (trailer) is a 90-minute 3D animated kids film. Although it came out in China in 2021 (original title: 老鹰抓小鸡), it's taken an unusually long time to get distributed, sometimes pretending that its year of release is more recent. It was produced by Liang Zi Film and Nigel W. Tierney, directed by Tierney and Dong Long, and written by Robert N. Skir, Jeff Sloniker, and Vivian Yoon.

In a world of mildly anthropomorphized birds, Goldbeak is an orphaned eagle who's raised by chickens in a rural village. He wants to fly, but most of the villagers don't help. They treat him as an outsider and eventually kick him out. Accompanied by his adoptive sister Ratchet (a gadgeteer genius), he makes the journey to the capital, the creatively-named Avian City.

Along the way he finds a mentor hermit who teaches him to fly. It turns out that Goldbeak is the long-lost nephew of the city's mayor. Then he wants to join the Eagle Scouts, an elite flying squad, but their leading member hates his guts. The mayor turns out to have sinister plans...

Time estimate: 8 hours
Available: Steam,PlayStation
Game Type: Visual Novel w/ World Exploration

It starts like most noir stories, with a raccoon private detective asked to check up on a wife’s spouse who she suspects of cheating. But what starts off a simple case may lead to something far deeper than the private detective had in mind. Tails Noir (formerly known as Backbone) is an exploration and visual novel-like game where you take control of a private eye raccoon as he investigates a local speakeasy-like club called the Bite.

Furry Halloween recommendation! Night of the Zoopocalypse is a 92-minute film from 2024, co-produced between Canada, France and Belgium by... quite a lot of animation studios (we'll get to that). It was written by James Kee and Steven Hoban, and directed by Rodrigo Perez-Castro and Ricardo Curtis.

This is an animated comedy horror film for kids. It walks the fine line between those genres with perfect precision (specifically zombie apocalypse), and it works! It appeals to adults too; I'm not a fan of horror at all, and I loved it! Rotten Tomatoes rates it 88% / 82%. I'm not linking to a trailer, because I'd like to keep some things a surprise.

If you're looking to introduce kids to the horror genre, this is the film to do it with. In the past I might have said - reluctantly - Coraline, from the Laika studio. Most of their animated films tend to get... dark, but I'd also say they veer into the grotesque, and that's not so fun. Zoopocalypse doesn't do that. It's got slobber and slime here and there, yet surprisingly, no blood. And still, it works!

The basic premise is that a meteor fragment lands in a zoo during the night, turning an animal into a contagious, evil zombie monster who soon converts most of the other animals, except for a small group who must figure out how to survive. There are no humans in the movie, aside from some families and one zookeeper at the beginning, who leave at closing time.

In a sequel to a pair of stories I wrote many years back (good god, I'm old now), we're now seeing things play out in reverse. Childrens' animation on Canadian television is now on life support or effectively dead, thanks to a slew of channels from Corus Entertainment and WildBrain Studios (representing the vast majority) getting the plug pulled as of September 1, as reported by Montréal broadcaster Steven Faguy's blog.

This latest round of censorship started in late June when Fansly announced that they were removing adult furry content from their services at the call of their payment processors MasterCard and Visa. But not content to just go after the fledgling services that are derived from OnlyFans, the processors also set their sights on larger targets including the gaming markets of Steam and Itch.io in late July.

In their statement, Fansly indicated that the card services equated adult furry content with "simulated beastiality”:

Policy Clarifications:
Anthropomorphic Content - Our payment processing partners classify some anthropomorphic content as simulated beastiality. As a general guideline, Kemonomimi (human-like characters with animal ears/tails) is permitted, but full fursonas, Kemono, and scalie content are prohibited in adult contexts.

-Fansly policy update

However, it should be noted that if (and only if) furries who are engaged in consensual adult acts can be referred to as simulated beastiality, then it would also be accurate to refer to MasterCard and Visa, who charge well over 20% in interest on money borrowed through their services to the often fiscally-illiterate general public, as "simulated slavery services". It's a bit harsh, and in both cases from a technically legal standpoint, inaccurate.

Mom’s Cat is an intense, yet quiet, short film by Hungarian writer/director Annabella Schnabel, who produced it for her diploma project at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest (you can watch a preview here). It has already garnered several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the 29th Chicago Underground Film Festival, First Prize at the 19th Pannonfíling Film Festival, Best Short Film at the 8th Nefiltravane Kino Film Festival, and Best Young Director at the 13th Short to the Point International Film Festival. It was screened at several Oscar-qualifying festivals, such as the 70th Melbourne International Film Festival, 40th Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, 52nd Nashville Film Festival, and the A-listed 43rd Moscow International Film Festival, earning a spot on the 2023 Student Academy Awards long list. I had the opportunity to watch this 18-minute film, and I can say the plaudits are deserved.

Recently an opinion piece was published here by Cassidy Civet about alleged fraud in the fandom and its infestation of furry spaces. I feel many would believe that it is beneath this platform to have released it to the general public as it is “obvious” that its intention was not to foster improvements within the community, but instead to act as a platform for the author herself in order to rant about the situation she finds herself in when it comes to her desired musical career in the fandom. Which we'll cover is mostly true. However, I do think allowing such a piece to publish can act as a springboard for a larger conversation on situations that actually has come up in the fandom from time to time.

This is where someone with a stage addiction gets caught up in the euphoria and gets poisoned by narcissism and typically guises it as altruism and virtue.

This may seem harsh as a counter statement to Civet’s article, especially since sprinkled in there are genuine concerns that other furries do hold. But the way in which they are presented leads to her own words countering herself in such a way where when all of them are put together, all that truly remains is a rant about our convention boards having agency on those they are allowing to have a stage and what can appear to be purely sour grapes towards those that are getting it.

So let’s take these issues from another angle to try and separate the chaff from the wheat.

Nimona (trailer) is a 99-minute American animated movie released in 2023. It was eventually directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, with a script by Robert Baird and Lloyd Taylor (plus additional writers), and was adapted from a webcomic/graphic novel by ND Stevenson. Originally it was produced by Blue Sky Studios, whose parent company was acquired by Disney before the project was finished. Disney cancelled it, likely due to its overt LGBTQ+ themes, and closed down Blue Sky to focus on their own, pre-existing animation studios. Luckily, they were willing to let Netflix acquire the rights, and it was completed by DNEG Animation and Annapurna Pictures.

And I am the wrong person to be reviewing this movie.

In my years of writing reviews, this is the second time this has happened. The first time was when Kyell Gold sent me a copy of Green Fairy to review. By no fault of Kyell's, or the story itself, aspects of the book set off multiple buttons in my head due to personal experiences from my past. This caused my brain to mis-map story elements, and it didn't work for me. I tried writing a review, and I couldn't bring myself to publish it at the time. It wasn't fair to the book, nor to Kyell's writing craft.

And so now I'm facing a similar dilemma with Nimona. This time, I'm going to attempt a review, but without all of my internal brain slop. You'll be getting some of it, but believe me when I say I'm leaving a lot out. (Deep breaths. Focus on the positive.) At this point the film is two years old and I'm assuming that most folks here have seen it, so I'm not going to be shy about major plot details.

However, despite my personal opinions, let me be clear: If you haven't watched this film, it's worth a watch. It's good. It's just I'm not the audience it's for. And that's ok! I still appreciate it for what it is. Stop reading here to avoid spoilers.

Quote: "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."

- Mark Twain

A Preamble; I remember when I first joined the fandom, and decided I wanted to be a musician within it. No one was really making Pop music like I wanted to make, and the day I decided to abandon using my “human” name in my art was the climax of an internal months-long struggle. I also decided if I was going to put music out there for people to listen to, that I would fund it entirely myself. I didn’t want to start my time in this community by asking for money, or borrowing, or anything like that. Maybe it’s a symptom of how I was raised, but regardless I held true to that goal and managed to release 2 full length, studio recorded, mixed, and mastered albums. All I’ve ever had is a Patreon, and my supporters' names have been permanently etched into the inside cover of both physical CD releases. I had sought to make my work as professional as possible, and hoped that this sheen of professionalism would be appreciated by the community I was just beginning to join.

Skipping ahead over the dirge years of COVID in which most cons were frozen, things are relatively back to normal now (even if they really shouldn’t be). Thus the fandom carries on! But these past few years have been transformative for many of us, and brought to light the side of the furry fandom I had long heard about but was now witnessing in full view.

On the menu today is: Cult Of (The) Lamb with a side of Science Dog.

Sound good? Well then, let's partake of a somewhat kosher dinner of allegory. Notice that these works have firm connections to other media. As is only right, we'll open with the appetizer.

"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day."
-Chikn Nuggit, "An episode made for Tik Tok in case the app gets banned for real"

"I missed."
-Pepé Le Pew, "For Scent-imental Reasons"

Animation, at least in America, feels a bit weird right now. Maybe a bit unhealthy, but not in a "sick and dying" kind of way, but in a "your diet is messed up" kind of way. My most recent review besides this one is Flow, a micro-budget independent movie from Latvia made with Blender, while The Day the Earth Blew Up is the latest iteration of major studio Warner Bros.'s most famous IP, featuring marketable characters older than World War II. And yet, somehow, the former review feels like an unnecessary noting of something everyone was already aware of anyway, while this review feels more like a spotlight on a small unknown that deserves a wider audience.

"'Cause the good old days weren't always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems"
-- Billy Joel, "Keeping The Faith"

I would submit that the ways in which we use our oh-so-superior creative tools nowadays, from spellcheck to AI, reveals far more tolerance for the past than we'd care to admit. All across social media you'll find more "icebergs", "rank" lists, and things "you didn't notice" than you can shake a VR trigger at. Proof springs eternal, oddly enough within the very works of art that are cranked out. This is certainly evident in the comics reviewed below (Scrapper and The Ruff and Reddy Show), which, to beg your pardon, are more analog than digital in nature.