News from the World (April 2016)
This year 2016 is, what some call in the fandom, the Year of the Furry. Disney aims, covertly, their film Zootopia / Zootropolis to the furries demographic (link⇒). And why not? After about eighty years of what is almost a monopoly in the world of Western animation on the big screen (until computer animation revolutionized the sector), they have the sales from children and families assured. So, without leaving them aside, making an attempt to increase its audience is an economically sound idea. Not to say, an awesome one!
Disney’s creative staff is familiar with furry, or even furries themselves (link⇒), although that’s probably not something they want to discuss openly, at least not using the word “furry”. Byron Howard (co-director of Zootopia) is an unconditional fan of Robin Hood (1973), a character in which he based Nick Wilde (fox co-star of Zootopia). When he pitched the idea of the film in 2013 to Disney’s chief of creative staff John Lasseter, John was so excited, he enthusiastically hugged him, and lifted him into the air Simba-style (link 01 ⇒) (link 02 ⇒). It has also shown to be immensely loved by furries, who organized events to watch it together in groups in movie theaters around the world. Up to this day, Zootopia is the third film with more submissions on FurAffinity, above Balto (1995), How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and Kung Fu Panda (2008).
But the list goes on. The Jungle Book, released April 15th, receives overwhelmingly good reviews. Critics and fans call it “The best adaptation of the book that has been done to date” (link⇒). Dreamwork’s Kung Fu Panda 3 also gets good reviews, which is unusual for a sequel. And there are still more: Finding Dory; a sequel to the recent adaptation of the Ninja Turtles; another Ice Age film; The Secret Life of Pets; another adaptation of Disney similar to the Mowgli one called Pete’s Dragon (remake of the animated original from 1977); Storks, produced by Warner Bros.; and more (link⇒).
It’s also worth mentioning, this same year, what for many Spanish furries is a major event. The first Spanish fully-fledged furry convention is announced, Furrnion (link⇒), to be held in Madrid in January 2017. Attendee registration / ticket sales are estimated to begin next month (May). There will be international attendees, and the official languages of the convention will be both English and Spanish. The board of the convention is headed by greymuzzle Salmy, the technophile Tronchy, and artist Sierra the Cheetah (which Google’s search leads inexplicably to aircraft models (link⇒)) (hint: he’s a pilot).
On another subject, the group of furries from Vermont, USA (VermontFurs), protest in fursuit against a local law imposed in the 60s forbidding being masked on the streets. The law originally was intended to deter demonstrations from the masked racist organization KKK. After discussions with the media and local councilors, they managed to change the law to forbid only being masked with criminal intent, thus allowing fursuiting. They announced their victory on FA (link⇒) and Twitter (link⇒), and they celebrated with a furmeet.
Meanwhile, last March, Canadians celebrate their VancouFur convention. At the same time, a group of Syrian refugees were staying in their same hotel. Although, initially, the organizers suggested being cautious and distant, Syrian children and families loved the cultural exchange, and the hotel was filled with hugs from children and fursuiters, news that filled newspapers around the world (link 01 ⇒) (link 02 ⇒).
In February, Sarah Dee, fursuit creator from Menagerie Workshops (link⇒), is interviewed in the British national newspaper The Guardian (link⇒). In the interview she explains she’s been working on the craft for years, having created more than 300 fursuits.
And we receive a movie from the fandom itself. The furry filmmaker Dominic Rodriguez, whose nickname is Video, directs a very special documentary called Fursonas, which focuses on the personal lives of some members of the fandom in his hometown, Pittsburgh. The documentary is projected at the Sundance Film Festival (Salt Lake City, Utah, US). It will be distributed later, on video-on-demand (movie streaming services) (link 01 ⇒) (link 02 ⇒).
With all these good news, we celebrate our website is finally 100% Spanish-English bilingual, and will remain so in the foreseeable future, to ease cultural exchange with the furry fandom world wide. We have juicy articles scheduled! Stay tuned to the first Spanish furry news website!
