Noo Noo design for my AU. I should really give my AU a name. Later but noo noo is more human robotic like because I thought it was cooler then a blue vacuum killing everything. In the 'story' I'm writing/drawing he built his body himself to be human as he yearns for it. He's still ugly. He's not coloured because I'm not doing all that.
this was mostly a test to see if I could make stamps differently (it turned out pretty good I think) also noo-noo is very cool 👍
f2u! creds not needed (this includes being re-uploaded to hoarding blogs, being edited, being re-colored, etc.), but creds very appreciated :) Just please don't claim as your own!
I think making Noo-Noo a robot teletubby is so much easier to draw and/or write. Like am I supposed to write "Noo-Noo laughed and scooted away." Like, I am NOT drawing a vacuum or writing one. Plus, how would he ever be able to make the virus when he's a vacuum? He doesn't have arms to do any of that.
Around the time of my tenth birthday, a British friend told me about a show called Teletubbies. Nothing he said sounded real, especially the part about it being massively popular. Imagine my surprise, just weeks later, when my younger sister was watching PBS and I saw that this show existed, was exactly as he'd described it, and would soon make its American television debut. I lost my mind.
I was obsessed, catching every episode I could, talking about it with my likewise astounded friends on the playground. How was this a show? Why was is so compelling?
I thought my interest had run its course, but this morning, I watched the first episode of the Teletubbies Netflix reboot, and I have thoughts:
◦ The sun baby no longer has a yellow/orange filter. It's just a regular baby head with solar flares behind it. It's cuter than the old way, and it shows off their commitment to racial diversity, which is good and makes it a worthwhile change, but the smooth gradient they used to crop out the baby looks bad. It was easier to cheat that effect when the tinted baby more closely matched the sun.
◦ More importantly, the sound of the baby sun's laughter doesn't match the image of the baby sun at all. You couldn't get a baby to laugh on camera?
◦ I hate the new Teletubbyland. It's no longer a set. It's not a real place I could visit. It's all CG, and they've cranked up the saturation. It looks awful, and again, the compositing is rotten. The Teletubbies do not look like inhabitants of an idyllic land. They look like dorks jumping around in front of a green screen.
◦ There are still real bunnies hopping around Teletubbyland, but since Teletubbyland is no longer real, it's really just blurry bunny videos playing on top of a hideous CG eyesore.
◦ The costumes mostly look good, except for the tellies on their tummies. This change probably happened in an earlier iteration of Teletubbies, but since I haven't seen much since outside of the original run, I can't say. I mean, I could spend a second doing an image search, but I'd rather spend ten times as long explaining why I can't say. Anyway, the problem is that television sets have changed in the 1990s. They've gone from a 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9, and that translates to tummy tellies that occupy far less vertical space. It throws off the entire visual design.
◦ More over, they're not properly sewn on to the costumes?? When the Teletubbies bend or sit, the whole TV part bends outward so you can see behind it, like they were just safety pinned roughly in place but the costume department didn't get around to finishing the job before shooting.
◦ The chosen Teletubby's antenna and TV light up, just like before, but now it has a big, YouTube play button that another Teletubby needs to press. I have no issue with this update for video playback in the Internet age, even if it seems a bit silly that they've retained the imagery of an antenna. My concern is that there are clear visual and audio clues to inform the audience that one Teletubby has been chosen by a higher power to receive and display the signal. Who is deciding which Teletubby gets to press play? Does each Teletubby have a designated partner? Is it just which ever one happens to be closest, or the one who moves fastest? Perhaps more episodes will reveal a pattern. Or perhaps they'll reveal carelessness.
◦ The videos on the tummies. Originally, they were ordinary British kids welcoming us in to their ordinary lives. "Come and see us play," they'd mumble before politely sitting down for a lesson in their preschool. This was raw, documentary filmmaking. In the episode I watched, "Bubbles," we get a highly produced music video starring an adult, American woman on a garish set, accompanied by the spawn of pushy stage parents. Ready for the twist?
◦ These horrible music segments are amazing. The Bubbles song is like nothing like you'd see on classic Teletubbies, and that means it's the one part that has its own identity. It is not surreal like Teletubbies, but it is surreal. It is the standout segment of the episode. Mark my words, Netflix Teletubbies songs will be the hottest TikTok trend by the end of the week, if not the end of today.
◦ I didn't know if they'd show it twice. "Again! Again!" is one of the things that put Teletubbies on the map, but the Netflix episodes are half the length of the original. Sadly, none of the other segments get to happen againagainagain, but the Bubbles song does. Yes!
◦ Every single shot in this show does that obnoxious thing where they crank up the playback speed for a second and then slooooow it down, like it's a direct-to-DVD sequel from 2004. One of those where the first one wasn't really that popular, but it's a known property and the rights were cheap, so it will probably turn a profit even though none of the original cast and crew returned. This is the state of Teletubbies in 2022.
◦ The Teletubbies never. Shut. Up. Remember all the silence in the original? They got rowdy, don't get me wrong. But sometimes they just...were. Or they'd mumble to themselves, but softly, soothingly. American Teletubbies are deathly afraid of any situation that might leave them alone with their thoughts.
◦ The Noo-noo has a new look, and it's pretty sharp. I'm not saying it's better than the original, but everyone needs to shake it up now and then, and Noo-noo knows how to shake it up. I don't even care about the chipped paint on the front vent.
◦ I'm aware of Tiddlytubbies. I appreciate them conceptually, but I've never clicked with the execution, and that has not changed today. On a show with a lot of notably bad CG, these little abominations are the worst, no contest.
◦ Oh, I almost forgot! The inside of the Teletubby's home is a real set! Possibly a computer-enhanced set, but there are real photons bouncing against both the Teletubbies and the floor! It don't even care that it looks worse than the cheap old British set in every way. It's an actual location!
◦ I didn't notice until a familiar name jumped out in the credits—the narrator is Tituss Burgess. Now, Tituss is probably an affordable actor, especially for someone of his talent, but what do you get from putting a name in this role? His voice is pleasant. I like him in everything, including this, but it's not a demanding role. Are you expecting legions of Tituss Burgess fans who would otherwise ignore Teletubbies to sign up for Netflix subscriptions en masse? Is he such a fan that he offered his services pro bono? You've cheaped out on everything else. Why did you hire someone who is, if not a real celebrity, at least enough of a celebrity to land a spot on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune?
◦ And finally, the personalities. Each Teletubby still has a unique name, hue, height, and antenna shape, but what of the soul? Watch the original Teletubbies play, and you will see that Dispy's movement's are nothing at all like Po's. Perhaps I'm being unfair. I've only watched a single episode, and it was only fifteen minutes. But the old show didn't need fifteen minutes to show me that every Teletubby is beautiful and special.
This is not a pale imitation of a classic. It is an assault on the senses with no understanding of what it's trying to imitate.
