Mobisodes! News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 15th September 2007, 12:53 Once again, thanks to the prolific Jonsmad for this excellent scoop. Remember the Mobisodes mentioned in a DVD Update a few weeks ago? Well, here are the guys who are making the damn things! There’s a handy boxout on the site which reveals rather more than you’d expect: Red Dwarf Classic scenes from the cult BBC TV series, distilled by LSM into short, animated clips for mobile phones. So it seems it’s going to be actual recreations of scenes rather than any major new material. Which is fair enough. Dwarf‘s not properly forayed into the world of animation before, so this should prove to be an excellent little taster. If you fancy a brief gander at how it’ll all look when moving take a look at their showreel for a few choice cuts, including a Red Dwarf pass (joyously UN-pencil like, but that’s thankfully the norm these days) and what seems like part of the ‘Lying’ scene from Camille. I’m still unsure about the art and animation style (and, frankly, LSM seem to think they’re far funnier than they actually are) but I’m sure it’ll be a good bit of fun, at least. Who knows, if this goes well we might end up with some brand new Dwarf in the future. You hope.
Oh, yeah! They did some stuff for Modern Toss! I’m not sure how much I liked the tiny clip they showed of the RD stuff (Lister looked like a 104-year-old) but perhaps I’m being too harsh.
So are we dinosaurs without mobile phones S.O.L., or are they planning to see how the animations do on mobiles and go from there? Recreations of existing scenes or not, I’d still be interested to see them, although given that image of Kryten, and daphne’s feedback on the bit she’s seen, seems like they might be more than a little frightening!
There is a picture of a hawian shirted lister which suggests a clip from the 1st couple of series is in there too. Cant wait to see other characters in the animation too. Plus the picture of Kryten on their site suggests the “changing the bulb” scene is one of the first scenes to be adapted. Baby cow did some animated Paul Calf cartoons drawing pictures over stand up audio clips, there were interesting enough short peices, and I’m guessing this will be along the same lines with the original series audio. The visual being designed to work well in small closeup in a way just putting the show onto a small screen cant. On the later seinfield dvds the had an extra that was stick men animation set to audio from the original episodes and these were quite good sometimes when the dialouge described unseen events and the animation showed a cartoon mad exageration of what was being said. It would be good if these mobisodes could do something like that, though im guessing they will be a bit more limited in that scope animation wise.
I’m not interested in them cherry picking clips out of context and animating to them. I want new material, dammit!
I’m with Dave. Mobisodes (ugh, horrible name!) are cool in the way that they’re keeping Dwarf alive in some way. I whole-heartedly support that. But, that said, it’s not a venture that’s exactly going to make me go ape with joy. I’m stubbornly–very, very stubbornly–reserving my excitement for the eventual announcement of filming dates for series IX. And the update of the blue midget page on TOS.
> and, frankly, LSM seem to think they?re far funnier than they actually are Let’s face it, everyone thinks they’re funnier than they actually are. Myself included. And all of you. Have you ever stood listening to someone recount something that’s happened to them (I believe in layperson’s terms that’s called ‘telling a story’) and they keep laughing themselves every two seconds because they think their story’s really funny, when really you just want to slap them because it’s about as funny as, well, a stomach ulcer? I’m sure you have. And I’m sure you’ve been the one telling said story on several occasions. You’re not funny. I’m not funny. No-one is. We only ever laugh at someone out of forced politeness which often derives from the delusion that if we pretend to find this person’s stories and jokes funny we might actually get to penetrate them sometime. You know, cause and effect and all that.
> I?m stubbornly?very, very stubbornly?reserving my excitement for the eventual announcement of filming dates for series IX. And the update of the blue midget page on TOS. I think we’ll have the Movie, a special AND IX and X before that page is updated.
Radio Times has a free download of a mobisode. The “smeg head” scene. http://www.radiotimes.com/content/features/red-dwarf-mobisodes/
