Top Plug… OF THE FUTURE

We don’t have specifics to announce yet, BUT — despite having to navigate some busy schedules, it looks like we’ve confirmed a LIVE SHOW IN THE MIDWEST later this year (and possibly more to announce in the future). Meanwhile, we’re all enthusiastic about the possibility of a Flop TV season THREE. Nothing’s set yet, but watch this space — it’s the best way to keep up with our ventures!

Last Chance Mailbag

Let’s dip into the ol’ unanswered letters bin and see what we can find!

Hey Peaches. Not sure if this is more of a letter segment letter or a request for a mini, but I’ve gotta say what all us listeners are thinking: more Dan, more Dan, mordan!

Specifically, Elliott and Stubert have each given lengthy voice to their passions over the years, be it comics lore, 40K, or eating a diet of fruits & nuts, but Dan has mostly stayed clammed up about his passions. I would love to hear Dan totally nerd out over animation, a thing I’m pretty sure he’s a big fan of. Are there specific artists that he thinks should get more attention than they do? Any shorts or collections he’d recommend?

Jon

Thanks Jon! I feel like Flop Secrets is a good place to answer this, because it’s written by me (Dan)! I’m not sure you’re right that folks need more of my obsessions, but if they do, check out Special Interests, my newsletter all ABOUT my obsessions.

I have a tendency to get really into stuff in bursts and then abandon it whenever I feel I’ve achieved something close to competence (or when I feel like I have NO aptitude and get discouraged). I used to think I just had a “jack of all trades, master of none” quality, until my middle-age ADHD diagnosis explained this!

That said, the stuff I REALLY love? I do tend to stick with (or gorge on, drop for a while, and then circle back to later). Some non-animation stuff:

• I love to play guitar (I’m an utterly mediocre rhythm guitarist, but never progressed much further) and sing along with my strummings — I met my wife doing karaoke, and we still go as much as we can. We’re SINGIN’ NUTS!

• I do a lot of cooking and baking — I worked my way through the entirety of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, which I recommend to anyone who wants to learn how to make delicious bread. Since I married Audrey (whose family is Filipino), I’ve gotten more into Asian cuisines, which I found daunting before, but her honest assessment of my highs and lows has accelerated my skills.

• I drew a lot as a kid, and I always kept it up to some degree, but in a weird way I think I devalued it because it came fairly naturally, and I turned my creative focus to writing. However, right before and (especially) during the pandemic, my interest came roaring back. You can check out my art here. Also, I recently-ish got into acrylic painting, and really took to it, which (of course) means I stopped and haven’t done it in a while. But I hope to pick up a brush again soon!

As for animation…

You’re right that I’m a bit of a cartoon nerd, although I’m not sure that I go that deep — my recommendations are probably helpful to most, but the REAL toon-heads would likely scoff and say “Well, obviously.” But I’ll give it a shot.

The first place to start is probably the classic Warner Brothers cartoons — I’m not a huge fan of the stuff directed by Friz Freleng or Robert McKimson, though they certainly have some gems in their catalogue. Chuck Jones is arguably the most famous WB animator, and (while that’s partly because he was a self-promoter) it’s mostly deserved — The Dover Boys is my vote for maybe the funniest cartoon short ever. But don’t sleep on the even-wackier visions of Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, and Tex Avery.

John Hubley, a former Disney animator, has his fingerprints all over American animation — he co-created Mr. Magoo at UPA and helped set that studio’s mid-century ultra-graphic-design-y style, working on shorts like Gerald McBoing-Boing and directing Rooty-Toot-Toot. He also created the “I want my Maypo” kid for commercials (if you like this “flat” cartoon look, also check out the Jay Ward stuff like Rocky and Bullwinkle). Later on he did stuff for Sesame Street and independent shorts like the lovely Windy Day which you can also find on the Criterion channel.

Then there are the animators who were geniuses but had a “mixed” career, like the legendary Richard Williams, animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, who also labored for decades on his personal project The Thief and the Cobbler, only to have it heavily chopped and altered by Miramax (an unofficial restoration, “The Recobbled Cut,” is a visual marvel, but the narrative thrust isn’t quite as brilliant). Or Don Bluth — his Secret of N.I.M.H. is one of the most gorgeous-looking traditional animated movies ever, but he never quite equalled it. The work he did for An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Anastasia, and the unplayable-but-beautiful video game Dragon’s Lair is all pretty grand, but mostly it was a long slide into reduced budgets and junk like The Pebble and the Penguin, or A Troll in Central Park.

This is long. I haven’t even gotten into some of the great stop motion animators, like Will Vinton, Henry Selick, or Nick Park (or — on the SFX side — Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen, or Phil Tippitt). Or the weird stuff that came from Soviet animators, or shorts funded by the National Film Board of Canada. Or the avant-garde, creepy stuff made by Jan Svankmajer or The Brothers Quay.

So I won’t. I’ll just say — thanks for asking!

Next on the Podcast

6/7 - We talk about the vaguely-Valentine’s-themed action movie LOVE HURTS with beloved comeback king Ke Huy Quan. The movie isn’t that great, but at least Quan is, AND Elliott does a bit in this one that nearly killed Dan with laughter.

6/14 - In honor of the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps, Elliott answers the question, “Hey. The Silver Surfer and Galactus… what’s their deal?”

You Made it to the End!

An impromptu screening of Bring Her Back led to Stuart filming an extremely short Blank Check/Flop House crossover. Check it out on our show Instagram and watch Dan rival Jack Doneghey in the area of “not knowing what to do with his arms on camera!”