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Author Topic: Personalized Arthur Episode - my review  (Read 681 times)

JAO93

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Personalized Arthur Episode - my review
« on: December 28, 2013, 01:16:52 am »
So a while back a user called Earwig posted about an Arthur episode where one drawn character didn't have a head. The idea was someone could send in their own photo to be mapped onto the character. Such a thing never aired on PBS.

I dug it up myself, though I think one of these was posted on here before - oh well. I couldn't believe this was actually made, as opposed to being some benign plan that was shelved before it was developed.
When I grew up watching Arthur, I can't recall seeing this promoted in any form. It obviously dates from Season 5, going from Puberty-Yarmush's voice and the slightly jaundiced animation (a"highlight" of season 5). Apparently it was done for PersonallyYoursBooks.com - they do other jobs similar to what was done for Arthur.

Teaser video:
One episode:

When I first saw it, I thought it may be a fake (or one of those wretched but oh-so delightful parodies). But inspection of the specimen has revealed it to be plenty legit - sadly. The photo-mapped head looks very cheesy. It would have been better (though perhaps more expensive) to render the kid as an animal-person the proper way. The name "ANDY" is also badly dubbed in - only two audio bits of "ANDY" are used, and it is tacky.
There are also many songs featured in the one known episode - it's not that great, only Buster's song is passable.

What is shown of another example in the teaser video is no better - only a kid D.W.'s age could think it was such an amazing thing.
The character all seem more gimmicky than usual - I can't exactly put my finger on it, but it goes beyond a typical episode. Maybe it's Arthur's dad's terrifying recipes... he's usually a decent cook.

It was an interesting (not necessarily good) idea, but it's really let down by how cheaply made it is. I don't know how many episodes were done, though I doubt very many were eventually made. The cited website doesn't seem to offer the Arthur DVD anymore, so I presume the offer has been discontinued. Maybe young kids would have liked it, but I think they could have done better.

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Rummy

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Re: Personalized Arthur Episode - my review
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2013, 01:41:47 am »
I wish I could make my very own Andy episode, I'd spend all day re-watching the episode with different hilarious faces I edit on there.
I'm a man of a few words, that is all.

ralfsmouse

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Re: Personalized Arthur Episode - my review
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2013, 08:55:18 pm »
The personalized episode is passable at best. The one you posted here is the only one animated, and in my opinion, the characters do seem a bit off. My ideas is that they used a different form of animation, the same one used in the animated bits of Postcards From Buster. You can usually see the animation when the ears of the aardvarks move more often than they usually do, and by the slightly choppier movement of everything. The sound bit with the person's name also could have been dubbed a lot better.

It would have been impossible to do this with an animal-ized picture, or at least without great expense. The picture and sound are all put in in post-production. You can tell because you can never see anybody's lips when they say the name of the person, and the picture of the person are just keyframed to the spot on the neck area.

MomaLuigi

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Re: Personalized Arthur Episode - my review
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2014, 04:07:58 pm »
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A Lotta Moms

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Re: Personalized Arthur Episode - my review
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2014, 06:59:04 pm »
Quote
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