mondojohnson

If you haven’t done so already, you must check out the new FX series Archer, the hilarious secret-agent toon by the creators of Frisky Dingo. Its all-star cast features Jessica “Play Misty for Me” Walters, Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler, and the funniest voice over actor EVER, H. Jon Benjamin (in the title role).

In tribute, here a a few Benjamin classics.

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Squidbilly Early Cuyler invades the “Carl’s Stone Cold Lock of the Century of the Week” show at adultswim.com. The “Carl’s Lock” shows may seem like a wacky parody to those of you NOT from New Jersey, but to those of us born there, this is reality television.

From the “better-late-than-never” files:

Roy Edward Disney, nephew of Walt, died December 16, 2009 at the age of 79. He is rightly credited with bringing back the hand-crafted artistic legacy of Disney, and also with bucking the greedy grotesqueries of the Michael Eisner years. It was his vision that brought us the beautiful, classically-animated Princess and the Frog (for instance).

But I think Roy Disney’s greatest gift was resurrection of the 1945 collaboration between Disney artist John Hench and Salvador Dali, Destino. Dali and Hench got eight months into the project before the financial strains of World War II put an end to the ambitious venture. In 1999, Roy Disney decided to have Destino finished, handing the priceless storyboards over to French animator Dominique Monfrey, who along with an army of animators completed the short. It is mostly hand-drawn, with a bit of computer animation. There are eighteen seconds of the original — the bit with the two tortoises.

Here it is, enjoy:

[Source: Wikipedia]

This evening Brittany Murphy is being laid to rest after her untimely death due to cardiac arrest.

I have always found her affable and talented in her screen roles, but her best and most lasting gig, in my opinion, was voicing the lovably ditzy Luanne Platter in King of the Hill. [Fun fact: according to my friend from Lubbock, Texas, Luanne got her name from a dish served in a Texas diner: the "Lu Ann Platter".]

This is all terribly sad, but let’s just think of Luanne jumping on a trampoline with Buckley’s Angel for eternity.

I went ahead and read Dan Brown’s fun ‘n formulaic The Lost Symbol, which was a brisk guilty pleasure. It shares chromosomes with all the other Dan Brown Beach Books: cinematic pacing, Shyamalan-ish twists, elaborate world conspiracies and clunky expository dialog. These are not knocks: I wasn’t expecting Gravity’s Rainbow, I was expecting a silly paperback thrill ride, which it provided nicely.

However, I am duty-bound by my devotion to The Venture Bros. to point out that one of the main plot elements in The Lost Symbol — a shadowy clique of history’s greatest minds protecting a glistening object that can either save mankind or destroy it — seems a ripoff of the VB episode “O.R.B.”. The Venture Bros. dished up as much action and intrigue (and of course, pants-pissing humor) in that 26 minute episode than Mr. Brown did in his whole book.

Here’s a clip from [adult swim], which gives you an idea. But find and watch the whole episode for full effect.

(Hat tip to The Universe Exists for My Amusement for the funny “demotivator” image above.)