Stage 2 thematic research

Grizzly tales for gruesome kids 

This video loosely relates to one of the characters from my story as they both share a theme of being trapped inside of something. The boy in this video is obsessed with computer games, so much so that he would later wish that he could live in cyber space and get away from his nagging parents. The boy eventually gets sent instruction over the internet from a mysterious figure named 'the post man' to scan his body into the computer and send it away in an email. Upon that happening the boy gets sucked into his computer monitor where he is greeted by his desktop interface, the interface scans him for virus's and then throws him into a pit of trojan worms so that the boy can be debugged before going into cyber space. The boy was stripped down to his bare essentials, an eye ball, two hands, a brain and a box of fluid to keep it all in. The boy would float around cyberspace with all the other 'brainboxes' and play whichever game he desires. A evil computer virus then attacks and the boy panics, he types in a code and the mysterious figure posts the boy back through his computer and into the real world, though the boy now looks as he did when he was in cyber space. His mother was not shocked to see his new form, in fact she was delighted as now she had him right where she wanted him, she would place him in a box of water away from his computer and would lock the door to prevent the cat from mistaking one of his eyeballs for a gold fish.  

This episode was particularly scary for me as the little boy was named Jack so in an odd way i felt as if i was the boy in the story. Jack loves to talk, he interrupts people all the time and never gives his tongue a rest, his parents got so annoyed with him that they decided something must be done to sort him out. They hire a creepy looking magician to maybe distract Jack with magic tricks so he might just shut up. The magician is also a puppeteer and he shows Jack some of his dummies, one of which talks without the old man helping it, the dummy then jumps out at Jack and tells him to not make the same mistake he once did. Jack ignores the warming and meets up at the magicians house for a free magic lesson, the man then makes a wooden jacket for Jack which acted as a small coffin for his body, Jack got changed into a puppet. Jacks parents came along the puppet in a store and bought it because it reminded them of their son who had been missing for weeks. The puppet was in fact Jack but he could not speak because his mouth was zipped shut.

In this episode of the Grizzly tales, a boy is obsessed with prank calling and is always on his phone. one day 'the gas man' phones the little boy and tries to sell him some helium with his key selling point being that the boy could potentially make the best prank calls ever as he could pretend to be an alien. The little boy had always dreamed of impersonating the queen for a prank call and buys the helium as he thinks that it will aid him in doing so. The boy soon realizes that helium soon wears off and is constantly inhaling the stuff to keep up his squeaky voice, the boy eventually floats off into space because of the mass helium intake and ends up on a satellite, his phone then dies and he can never make a prank call again.    

Stage 2 inspiration - 7 deadly sins

I just gathered together some character references from existing cartoons, films and books in hope that it would help me later on with my characters that will represent the seven deadly sins. 

Mike Teavee - Charlie and the chocolate factory. Mike is a little boy who is obsessed with violent video games and television programs and refuses to come away from his spot which evidently is in front of his telly. This restricted life was encouraged by his parents as they thought that it would be easy to find him if he is always in the same place, they could also just set down his food right next to the telly, what they didn't realize was that a long exposure to the fictional violence would soon rub off on a young Mike. This little boy always has a scowl on his face and when he did eventually leave the house to go to the chocolate factory he brought with him no less than 18 fake cowboy pistols as he was clearly way too attached to some of these films.

Daffy Duck - Looney Tunes.
Daffy Duck is one of the classics from Warner Bro's cartoons, he is usually partnered up with Buggs Bunny and the pair really do make for some good comedy. Daffy is always aggressive towards Buggs and the other looney tunes, this is probably because Buggs gets all of the fame and Daffy is always left with an anvil getting dropped on his head. Despite Daffy being incredibly aggressive he would have a hard job bringing harm to anyone because he is pretty weak, also his mouth usually gets him in trouble with the stronger looney tunes in which case Daffy runs away like a little girl. 

Kevin - Ed, Edd n Eddy.
Kevin is the neighborhood bully who is always trying to impress the girls by acting like a complete and utter jackass to the three main kids of the show (Ed, Edd and Eddy).
Kevin always wears a baggy green jumper and what look like black tracksuit bottoms which to me shows that he is dedicated to sports and maybe wants to show off his athleticism to the girls. Kevin fits into the stereotypical jock character by always carrying around a football and showing a keen interest in working on his 'ride' which in this case is a chopper pedal bike. Kevin is easily annoyed and is forever after the three Ed's for scamming the other kids of the cul-de-sac and is often shown with a red face and sometimes even steam coming from his ears. 

Sid - Toy Story. This little cretin is one of the most spiteful kids throughout the fictional world. Sid is a psychopath child who likes to take apart toys, he then rebuilds them using jumbled up parts from other toys to create these deformed creatures. That's pretty creepy under normal circumstances but what makes it even worse is that Sid is from a universe where toys can talk and most probably feel what is happening to them. Sid isn't the best looking but he doesn't help by scowling all of the time; baring his braced teeth like a possessed dog. 


SLOTH 

Garfield- Garfield and friends. This cat is the epitome of lazy! all he thinks about is food and he just sits around in front of the television all day. Garfield is incredibly moody when his stomach is empty and he shudders at the thought of doing anything productive. I find Garfield's personality suiting as cats do often laze about and eat a lot of food and i think that humanizing him by allowing him to eat like a human gave him that extra level of laziness. Garfield also complains about Mondays as a normal person would on their way to their job which helped people connect with him and relate to him.   

Dwight Conrad - Futurama. This little guy is a smart and cunning child from the 31st century and is always seen playing pranks on his father Hermes. Dwight never wants to do any work because he believes he has better things to spend his time on, instead Dwight tries to think up some kind of scam or machine that would do the work for him. In one episode he is made to deliver newspapers around the galaxy, he had the genius idea of giving everyone their weeks worth of papers in one day (that way Dwight could take the rest of the week off). The idea was good until all of the papers started to stack up and cause a huge amount of waste around the galaxy.

Stinky - Hey Arnold. This guy was brought up on a farm and because of which he bares the stereotypical stupidity levels of a classic hillbilly. Stinky is tall, slim and has a massive nose which gives him a very distinct nasally voice which really drags out when he is talking. Stinky is often caught day dreaming and thinking of returning back to his farm when he should be doing other things. He lives a simple life and because of which has become lazy. 

Slowpoke Rodriguez - Looney Tunes. I remember this little guy from when i was little, Slowpoke is the cousin of Speedy Gonzalez the fastest mouse in all of Mexico. Slowpoke is always seen with a dull empty look on his face and he takes forever to do even the simplest of tasks, he speaks very slowly and always slouches.

GLUTTONY 

Eric Cartman - South Park. Eric is probably the most crudely made fat character on television today, South Park characters are made out of paper cut outs, they are then animated. Cartman has a harsh life and often gets picked on because of his weight though he is a bully himself so somewhere down the line he probably asks for it. There are several episodes that deal with Cartman's weight, one of my favorites being an episode where the four main characters get some KFC, Cartman quickly runs out before the other boys and eats only the skin of the chicken which supposedly is the best part.

Harold - Hey Arnold. This was a cartoon that i watched when i was younger, everyone in this cartoon had an oddly shaped body and head and i thought it would be interesting to look at because i like how the artist captured the mood of each character through their shape. Harold is an overweight bully, he always looks clueless and is incredibly stupid. I believe Harold bully's the other kids because of his weight, some episodes even dealt with him confronting his weight problems and going away to a fat camp, though he eventually gave into temptation and came back a whole lot fatter!. 

Humanized obese version of Bender - Futurama. Bender is a robot from the cartoon Futurama, there was one episode where Bender wanted to know what it was like to become a human, so the professor made a  machine which could do such a thing. Bender loves to gamble, drink booze, smoke a cigar and hook up with robot women or fembots as they are named in the cartoon. Bender soon realizes that his human body can't keep up with his robot like habits and he quickly becomes very fat, Bender then dies as a human. I looked at this character because of how extremely fat he is and how the artist dealt with such a thing. 

Chunk - The Goonies. This lovable lump is one of the most memorable fat kids in film history, his famous 'truffle shuffle' dance made him a favorite for most. Chunk wore some outrageous flowered shirts throughout the film which made him appear somewhat cute and clueless. It is Chunk who eventually saves the day though he does get himself caught by the Fratelli's first. Chunk befriends lovable giant; Sloth and through their shared love of pirate films end up breaking free of the fratelli's basement and saving the Goonies who by chance are trapped on a pirate ship.
Chunk differs from Augustus Gloop because it is Chunk's love for food that actually brings him and Sloth together as friends (Chunk offers Sloth a baby ruth bar!).

Augustus Gloop - Charlie and the chocolate factory. For my gluttony character i instantly thought of Augustus because of his pure greed and obsession with food. This kid literally adores food and he almost has a possessed look about him throughout Tim Burton's adaptation of the film (above image). The choice of clothing is also important here as stripes apparently make someone look wider which is a smart little way to convey that someone is large. Also his clothes are pristine and neat, meaning that he does not waste a single bite by missing his mouth and covering his clothes in food. Augustus eventually meets his end when his obsession becomes too much and he accidentally falls into a chocolate river where he then gets sucked up into a large pipe transporting him to various parts of the factory.