I remember this site from a few years back and it’s now back online in blog form. The Journal of Cartoon Over-Analyzations doesn’t just analyze cartoons, it over-analyzes them and discovers hidden subtexts to cartoon characters that weren’t evident to even the creators themselves. A lot of it is tongue-in-cheek and seemingly designed to make fun of the pseudo-scholarly dissertations that so many academics have written about cartoons in recent times. Topics include: “My Little Pony is a lesbian-feminist separatist colony,” “Alchemical Symbolism in Smurfs,” and “Chromatic Sexism and Animated Felines.”

As a follow up to my Major Woody post (below), Steve Moore submitted this outrageous example of potential trademark infringement from Ocean City Maryland, Big Pecker’s Bar and Grill:

This place is for real, and boasts a large line of merchandising.

P.S. Steve Moore’s latest Flip Magazine is up, this month with a profile of flash animator Xeth Feinberg, artist Fred Warter, several tributes to Ollie Johnston and even gardening tips!

Q: What do you get if you combine Jessica Rabbit and Winnie Woodpecker?

A: The logo for Major Woody’s Bar in downtown Columbus, Ohio and a very disturbing image.

This image just makes me smile.

Shirt.woot, a website devoted to offering tee shirts with unique designs, had this doozy up the other day, Finding Technicolor. It was drawn by New Zealand based illustrator David Creighton-Pester, and I love the Terry/Van Beuren feel to it.

On an unrelated T-shirt note, Pen Ward has completed his collection of 12 tee-shirts devoted to his incredible Frederator short Adventure Time. Check them all out here.

(Thanks, Travis Gentry)

The second contestant’s answer on this “Final Jeopardy” question is quite possibly one of the worst answers I’ve ever heard on a gameshow. (via)

In North America, more kids think of Popeye as a Fried Chicken resturant chain. In Chile, Popeye represents a bar of soap. Brew reader Diego Cumplido sent this in. “I remember doing little sculptures in school made of Popeye’s Soap when I was a kid. It reads “since 1949″ and “the power of cleaning”.

If you find unusual food or product merchandising using classic cartoon characters (aka characters no longer running on American television), please share an image with us.

Nostalgic for a Looney Tunes fix? Need a new Scooby Doo tumbler or a Tweety and Sylvester bookend? Brew reader Michael Levine and his wife just got back from traveling in Hong Kong. In Macau they stumbled upon an actual - gasp! - Warner Bros. Studio Store! Says Michael:

“I thought the pics of Chinese landmarks with Bugs and Tweety on them would interest you. I guess images of historic areas with Looney Tunes characters on it, are what people want - ?.”

As we cartoon fanboys anxiously await a big Disney Oswald merchandising blitz, it’s a bit disheartening to learn that one initial line of upscale merch is being directed exclusively towards the ladies.

Oswald footwear is currently being sold in the finest Paris fashion boutiques, via Brazilian shoemaker Melissa. These “Ultragirl peep-toe flats”, adorned with a retro Lucky Rabbit design, are apparently all the rage.

Can sneakers be far behind?

(Thanks, David Gerstein)

Is this the fate of Bugs Bunny?

Suicide Food is a blog that tracks food marketing that depicts animals (usually cartoon animals) who cheerfully wish to be consumed, cataloging all the real life Cluckin’ Chicken’s out there.

They’ve just done a post on a Spanish fresh rabbit meat market using a grotesque amateur sign picturing Bugs Bunny’s head on a skinned rabbit carcass as a come on. Yeeeeecccchhh!

(Thanks, Doran Gaston)

Previous Entries