blargh. In French: le blarghe.

[dolari]

Closetspace #2 has been put to bed. While I'm not completely dissapointed in it, several of the panels could have been done miles better. This comic is just not rolling off the pencil like AWFW is. Once we get into the "Present Day" though, I'm hoping things'll get easier. I'm thinking the main problem is, I've NEVER drawn these characters at age 40. Ever. Not even practice runs. Plus I picked a very bad pose for one panel, which was almost impossible for me to pull off. ::sigh:: It WILL Get better.....

Okay, so the ineer animation geek within me wrote a letter to the Supervising Animation Producer at Marathon in France. And maybe another animation type at the company. IT was just your standard "I like your animation Email, with all the collocquialism pulled out because I have no idea if these people would understand Deep South Texan English.

Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 05:27:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jenn Dolari <dolari@dolari.org>
To: nroux@marathon.fr
Subject: Totally Spies!

Hi!

Just a little note - I was flipping through the channels on TV the other
day, when I came across Totally Spies! I've been a HUGE fan of animation
since I was a little kid, and the animation on the series just blew me
away.

After watching a few episodes, I convinced myself that it was Japanese
anime' done for America, which was something Robotech tried to do some
years ago. I really was astounded by the animation in Totally Spies.

After a bit of searching on the web, I find out it's a French production!
A complete surprise to me! I'm very glad that someone out there is doing
excellent animation outside of Japan. Does France have any other
animation series of this quality? The only other French production I ever
saw was an English version of Les Mondes Engloutis (Spartakus and the Sun
Beneath the Sea), which I loved as a child (I'm 27).

Great work! And I love the show!

Jenn
Not All Warriors Are Called "Sir!"
http://www.dolari.org - jenn@dolari.org

Hell's bells I got a reply!

Date: Thu, 02 May 2002 10:17:08 +0200
From: David Michel <dmichel@marathon.fr>
To: Jenn Dolari <jenn@dolari.org>
Subject: Re: Totally Spies!

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Dear Jenn

Thank you for your kind words. We are one of the first French company that
started the Franimé (French Animé) trend. You might also be interested in a
series called "Funky cops" produced by another French animation company. It
should be on air in Europe this fall. I don't know about the US broadcast
yet.
Again, thank you very much
David

So it's called Franime', eh? Actually, I'm looking forward to seeing more of it. It's not so much tha tI want to see anime' rule the world...I want to see QUALITY animation. Most animation suffers from "we dont' have enough money to animate well" syndrome. But Batman TAS took that and turned it into an easy to draw style that is visually stunning. THAT'S quality. Jackie Chan Adventures - THAT'S quality. To me Ren and Stimpy were also visually good, but the copycats that came after them were lacking. And I never liked the style of Flinstones, Jetsons or a billion Hanna Barbera cartoons. As much as I love the Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack, it hurts my eyes to see that animation.

Anyways...my day was semi hectic. We had Fried Chicken...for the SIXTH TIME in two weeks. And why couldn't it be GOOD chicken. Meh.

I worked on my second cousin's Sweet Sixteen leaflet. Yay. At least it was fast.