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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 29, 2017 12:18:42 GMT -5
Random Fact #4091: One of the oldest and most widely recognizable Transformers sub-groups is the Dinobots. A five-Autobot quintet consisting of Grimlock (a robot Tyrannosaurus), Slag (a robot Triceratops), Sludge (a robot Apatosaurus), Snarl (a robot Stegosaurus) and Swoop (a robot Pteranodon), they are a close-knit group of heavy-duty Autobots who place strength above all in combat. Although they are a sub-group of Transformers characters, unlike the Constructicons they are not a combiner group. Fans would often come up with ideas for what a Dinobot combiner would be like. The idea did once come to fruition in a “what if?” mini-comic that came with the original Kid Rhino Season 3 boxsets called “Transformers: the Beast Within” in which the Autobots suffer heavy casualties fighting the Decepticons and in an act of desperation Grimlock has the Dinobots tear themselves apart to merge into a monstrous abomination simply called the Beast. tfwiki.net/wiki/Beast_(G1)After the Beast destroys Predaking, Devastator, Bruticus and Menasor the remaining Decepticons are forced to retreat. The double-edged sword of the Beast is that for having such horrendous power it is also a mindless brute—it turns to killing the Autobots as it has only death on its mind. Optimus Prime has Skids, Ratchet, Jazz, Bumblebee and Ironhide loaded in his trailer but the Beast rips through his trailer, killing Skids. Jetfire then saves them before Optimus dupes the Beast into falling off a cliff to his death. Dylan Gibson said he wanted it to look like an absolute horror, explaining the fact most characters appear as corpses and the Frankensteined appearance of the Beast. To that end, he succeeded. Hasbro has repeatedly stated there there was no Dinobot combiner; it is not known if they were not aware of this comic or if they wanted to forget about it like everyone else. In 2017 they would give us an official, less horrifying and more traditional Dinobot combiner called Volcanicus. tfwiki.net/wiki/VolcanicusAnd the fandom rejoiced.
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Post by RaceFanX on Dec 10, 2017 23:13:54 GMT -5
Random Fact #4,092
Patriot and Epsilon seem to have fallen into the roles of my primary 101 fan characters. Surprisingly while they have that in common they've interacted very little outside of a non-canon "Alternate Ending" to my fic London Calling where Patriot was the "final dog" instead of Lucky to face him. A "canon" fight between the two was an idea I kicked around for a possible third Epsilon fic; since Epsilon is stronger than Patriot in in almost every version of this concept Patriot would try and even the odds with some form of melee or fantasy weapon.
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Post by Belchic on Dec 19, 2017 14:38:33 GMT -5
Random Fact #4093:
In Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride, the face of the character, Madame Leota, was played by Disney imagineer, Leota Toombs (hence the name origin). On Haunted Mansion Holiday, Leota was played by Toombs’ daughter, Kim Irvine.
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Post by Belchic on Dec 22, 2017 17:30:31 GMT -5
Random Fact #4094:
In Disney’s 1938 Ferdinand short, Walt Disney provided the voice of Ferdinand’s mother. Ferdinand himself was voiced by Disney animator, Milt Kahl.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Jan 7, 2018 12:32:12 GMT -5
Random Fact #4095:
Early in Zootopia, after Nick gives Finnick his cut of the scam money and we hear Finnick speak for the first time, the song Finnick plays in his van is "Parlez-Vous Rap" which is performed by Bloodpop and Daveed Diggs.
This is appropriate as Fennec Foxes are the national animal of Algeria, and in that country French is a major language.
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Post by Flowgli on Jan 9, 2018 10:31:04 GMT -5
Random Fact #4,096:
The word “wherefore” has been mistaken as a word that means “where” in some retellings of Romeo And Juliet, even sometimes deliberately for comedic effect. However, the word “wherefore” does not mean “where”; it means “why”. So, when Juliet asked “Wherefore art thou Romeo?”, she wasn’t asking “Where are you, Romeo?”; she was asking “Why are you Romeo?”, or “Why did you have to be a Montague?”
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Post by Belchic on Jan 29, 2018 18:26:49 GMT -5
Random Fact #4097:
The animators who worked on the music video for Peter Gabriel’s 1986 hit, “Sledgehammer”, were members of Ardman Studios!
Did you know that, pups?
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Post by RaceFanX on Feb 10, 2018 21:46:02 GMT -5
Random Fact #4,098
It it seemed unusual that when Disney made a Robin Hood animated movie they made Robin Hood a fox it's worth noting that the film didn't start out that way. Walt Disney initially wanted to make an animated film based off of the 12th Century European fables about the mischievous Reynard the Fox. The problem was that while Reynard is the hero of his tales he's hardly a moral paragon. While Disney thought about it as early as 1938 nothing ever came about it. In the early 1960s Disney almost made a film that would have featured Reynard as the villain so they could pit him against another famous anthropomorphic character, Chantecler the Rooster, in a musical film. It ultimately didn't get made so the studio could do "Sword in the Stone" instead.
After Disney's death and finishing up the last film Walt signed off on, Aristocats, the animators looked to do a fable-inspired flick and decided to do Robin Hood with a twist by using some of the elements thought up earlier for the failed Reynard project, making the fox character Robin Hood instead of Reynard would allow them to have the slick fox character they wanted but have him use his skills to protect his community rather than screw it over.
Random Fact #4,099
Walt Disney gave some serious thought to animating a couple Reynard fables as part of Disney's 1950 live-action film version of "Treasure Island." The initial plan was that Long John Silver would recount Reynard's tales to Jim; allowing them to insert in the cartoons "Song of the South" style. This idea was eventually nixed and "Treasure Island" became Disney's first fully live action movie.
Random Fact #4,100
Don Bluth, an ex-Disney animator who worked on Robin Hood (and notably didn't like it), later made his own animated film feature about Chantecler. Said film was "Rock-a-Doodle," the movie that famously bombed at the box office in 1991 and killed off his studio with it.
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Post by RaceFanX on Feb 11, 2018 18:42:07 GMT -5
Random Fact #4,101
July 4, 1826 was a big day in the United States of America as the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. By this time several of the country's founding fathers were long dead (neither George Washington or Benjamin Franklin saw 1800) but Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were both still alive even though they were in ill health. The lead up to the Fourth that year saw the country holding its breath hoping the two former presidents would both live to see the historic day and while that would occur the two fabled rivals both died before it was over. Just after noon that day Jefferson passed away from illness. Just five and a half hours later Adams also died, word about Jefferson's passing didn't reach him in time and his last words were ironically "Thomas Jefferson survives."
Random Fact #1,402
Calvin Coolidge was born July 4, 1872 making him the only American president to literally be "Born on the Fourth of July."
Random Fact #1,403
In 1989 Tom Cruise starred in Oliver Stone's movie "Born on the Fourth of July." Cruise's birthday coincidentally is very close to that, he was born July 3, 1962.
Random Fact #1,404
The 1974 hit "Fox on the Run" by the British band Sweet is about the band dealing with groupies in the form of "foxes," a slang term for attractive women. The German cover version of the song "Fuchs geh voran" by the German band the Scorpions weirdly took the title literally, it's about a fox dodging fur hunters.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Feb 12, 2018 11:57:32 GMT -5
Random Fact #4104:
In the beginning of the Peanuts comic strip, there was a wide assortment of characters to play off of Charlie Brown. As expected, some characters would be widely recognizable and others would become relics of the past. Amongst them:
- Shermy was originally supposed to be a boy who was like a Minnesota Fats for Charlie Brown--anything Charlie Brown would love to do he could do better. He would start to be phased out as early as the late 1950s. He is memorable for having just one line in A Charlie Brown Christmas (lamenting that he was always cast as a boring shepherd). His last appearance was in 1969 and was last mentioned in 1977. Charles Schulz did not mind getting rid of him though as he was down to using Shermy only when he needed a character with almost no personality.
- Patty (the other Patty--not Peppermint Patty) was originally the Mother Hen and the Alpha B*tch. Her last speaking part was in 1976 and was then reduced to occasional cameos. When You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown was revived for Broadway in the late 90s her role was written into Sally's character.
- Violet held out longest, losing her purpose by 1984. By this point Peppermint Patty and Marcie were introduced and they started to evolve into engaging characters.
These three characters, at one point in time, were originally supposed to be foils for Charlie Brown in some manner but as other characters came into the strip, plus the fact Lucy evolved into Charlie Brown's primary foil they would lose their point.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Feb 25, 2018 0:18:37 GMT -5
Random Fact #4105:
Many of the kids of Springfield on The Simpsons are recognizable and even household names. One lesser-known character is Database, mainly because his appearances on the show are considerably more sporadic.
Database was created to be a parody of Julia Sweeney's character Pat, a sketch from Saturday Night Live who first appeared on the show in 1990. A major joke involving Pat was the character was completely androgynous--lots of jokes involving the character were below-the-belt humor revolving around reproductive organs and no one knowing if the character was a man or a woman.
Database's first appearance on the show was a bit late, as he was first seen in the Season 6 episode "Bart's Comet", which first aired in February 1995, and Pat's final appearance in any form of media was back in August 1994. Despite this, the reference was still fresh in people's minds and the joke connected with viewers.
For the uninitiated, that final appearance Pat made was in the 1994 movie It's Pat: the Movie. The movie was an unfunny comedy hated by critics and moviegoers alike and was a bomb--often judged as one of the worst films of 1994.
As of late, Pat has fallen out of pop culture osmosis and part of the joke Database stood for is lost. He can still be funny if all you see him as is a funny-looking nerdy kid with a weird voice.
Intentional or not, his name is revealed to Kyle, the same name as Pat's obsessive neighbor from the movie.
Nowadays, because Pat is seen as a transphobic premise at worst, or insensitive towards nonbinary people at best, the character is probably best left in the past.
Random Fact #4106:
Matt Groening has stated that Database is his least favorite character on the show.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 1, 2018 19:08:52 GMT -5
Random Fact #4107:
On April 1, 1979, the Pinwheel Network relaunched onto cable TV with a new name: Nickelodeon.
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Post by Belchic on Apr 4, 2018 16:09:45 GMT -5
Random Fact #4108:
Disney’s Pocahontas (1995) originally had a song in it called “If I Never Knew You”. This was planned to be the movie’s hit love song, and it was going to be sung by Pocahontas and John Smith during their last moment together the night before John was to be executed. The whole segment was filmed for the final film. However, before the movie’s official theatrical release, the film was shown to a test-screening audience. The kids in the audience were bored to death during this song, so it was decided to cut the song from the film for its original theatrical release and its home video release. In 2005, the song was restored on the 10th anniversary DVD as well as DVD and Blu-Ray releases that followed it.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 8, 2018 22:32:22 GMT -5
Random Fact #4109:
On The Price is Right, one of the most popular prize-winning games contestants can play is Plinko.
To play the game, the contestant can win up to 5 Plinko chips and with the highest amount on the board typically being $10,000, right between two $0 spaces. This space can be hit 5 times using said chips on a peg board and typically the contestant can win a max of $50,000.
However, the rules of the game explicitly state that the only way the game is truly "won" is if the contestant actually wins the top dollar amount, which is more or less impossible.
Despite this, the game is highly popular and sought after to play, even if the game is technically considered unwinnable.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Apr 9, 2018 9:42:57 GMT -5
Random Fact #4110:
In the 1988 film Poltergeist III, Carol Anne's uncle Bruce has a daughter named Donna from a previous marriage, and she has a boyfriend named Scott. Over the course of the movie Donna and Scott are pulled through a Portal Pool together with Carol Anne and into the Other Side. By the end of the movie, Carol Anne and Donna are returned safely to their family but Scott, as far as we know, is still trapped there.
This story took on new life through the web as fans would offer their theories on what ultimately happened.
As if the movie wasn't problematic enough as it was, when asked, the film crew reluctantly admitted that when they did a last-minute reshoot of the ending, they simply forgot about him.
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