Comments on: Monkey!

Monkey!

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:17:49 -0800

Jamie Hewlett of Tank Girl and Gorrilaz fame has created the animated film that will be used to introduce the BBC's coverage of the summer Olympics with music by his fellow Gorrlaz compatriot, Damon Albarn, inspired by Monkey, the cult classic television program.

Better quality version. Hewlett Interview. Hewlett's art. Previous Monkey inspired work.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:23:14 -0800

"gorillaz" has one 'r', an 'i' and two 'l's.

By: spec80

spec80 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:30:53 -0800

This is fun. Thanks! You know, I always wondered how much harder it would be to sing in Chinese because of the tones. Or maybe they just ignore tones in songs and I am overthinking...

By: dw

dw — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:41:45 -0800

Meanwhile, us poor Americans will hear this 10^17 times in August.

By: RufusW

RufusW — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:50:15 -0800

I like Williams' tune..... which of his own films did he steal it from?

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:52:42 -0800

It's no Animalympics... but I guess they probably couldn't get Graham Gouldman, so it'll do.

By: rusty

rusty — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:53:33 -0800

Needs moar Del tha Funky Homosapien.

By: batmonkey

batmonkey — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:53:34 -0800

I'm just here for the Monkey. Mmmm, Great Sage of Heaven!

By: schwa

schwa — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:07:47 -0800

The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:09:39 -0800

Wait. Monkey (aka Journey to the West) is not a cult classic television program. Or at least not primarily. It's one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature (I stole that line from the Wikipedia article). It's one of the most super-awesome books I've ever read, and it stuck with me so strongly when I was little. Read it.

By: schwa

schwa — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:21:05 -0800

"Say the two words "Monkey Magic" to a man in his late 30s and he'll turn into a child, putting on a funny voice and then moving his lips in exaggerated fashion." Oh. That would be me! I live in the US now and am surrounded by unfortunate folks who didn't grow up watching Monkey. I've tried to explain it and people just don't get what was so special about Monkey. Although a Japanese co-worker of mine did remember the TV-show but of course it didn't have the outrageous BBC2 dubbing.

By: batmonkey

batmonkey — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:25:00 -0800

dammitjim: Agreed. Journey to the West should be sought out by anyone loving any kind of reading. I may be a bit biased based on a lifetime of loving (and learning from) that story, but I truly feel that way.

By: schwa

schwa — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:26:18 -0800

And I just found out the Monkey: Journey to the West opera was playing in my state and I just missed it by a month.

By: cazoo

cazoo — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:26:00 -0800

Eh, it's no Alakazam.

By: fermion

fermion — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:51:36 -0800

dammitjim, I assume you're referring to the excellent Arthur Waley translation? Or are there others equally good?

By: InterfaceLeader

InterfaceLeader — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:30:44 -0800

Damon is a genius. I really hope I can see the opera! Kudos to BBC for getting this cartoon instead of some regular montage.

By: hamfisted

hamfisted — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:55:31 -0800

Didn't Genndy Tartakovsky get to the Monkey tributes first with his Dial M for Monkey spots from the old Dexter's Lab cartoons?

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:39:36 -0800

I'm kind of digging the new Tank Girl stories that IDW have been putting out – I was a bit a little reluctant at first – it's not Hewlett art, and Hewlett really made Tank Girl work, abd and, well, I'm just not that into Ashley Woods stuff. But now comics art cameleon Rufus Dayglo is on art, and doing a pretty mean job at art that's Hewlett-like but still his own, and it's like it's, what, fifteen years ago?, and I'm reading Deadline again. Alan Martin must have been frozen in a block of ice for all that time or something. It's in the Judge Dredd megazine from next month onwards as well. Hurrah!

By: Squid Voltaire

Squid Voltaire — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:33:46 -0800

Thirding Journey to the West. I read Anthony Yu's abridged translation (cut down to 500 pages from four volumes). Really, really good.

By: ntk

ntk — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:32:21 -0800

It's true that the book precedes the cult TV show, but the animation is clearly directly inspired by the television programme's style..

By: Hal Mumkin

Hal Mumkin — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:14:58 -0800

OMG OMG OMG! I was obsessed with Animalympics for much of my youth. Haven't seen it in years though. Thank you vorfeed for linking to that. And similarly curse you schwa for pointing out that, had I known about it, I could have seen that too. Argh. And I say that as someone married to the proverbial man in his late 30s, who made us work our way through the 13-DVD box set over a few weekends.

By: holgate

holgate — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:34:52 -0800

Snaffled the BBC coverage of the opening ceremony. Actually had a lump in my throat, because like schwa, the childhood memory of blowing at my mingers, waving a bamboo pole and shouting 'Pigsy!!!' in the playground marks me out as some kind of weirdo. I agree with those who recommend the book (I know Waley's abridgement) but the dubbed series has its own resonance. (This is what happens when people my age commission and design titles.)