Marmaduke Explained explained
June 4, 2010 2:10 PM Subscribe
In response to the release of the Marmaduke movie (in theaters today; trailer, review), Joe Mathlete of Marmaduke Explained [previously] shares the story of how Marmaduke Explained came to be, including some insightful thoughts on being defined by Internet fame and what it's like to be "the Marmaduke guy."
Scooby Doo is the best cartoon Great Dane.
Excluding that CG nightmare they've used in the theatrical films, I agree with you. Scooby-Doo Where Are You? is one of the defining cartoons of my childhood. Scary, creepy, funny, and based in a belief that investigation will solve mysteries which confound the superstitious mind. The newer cartoons, with actual ghosts and stuff... not so much.
Why did they have to move Maraduke to LA for this film? Surely they could have made a movie based on the actual cartoon and not had to do some horrid Laverne & Shirley reboot thing to make it still appeal...
posted by hippybear at 2:22 PM on June 4, 2010
Excluding that CG nightmare they've used in the theatrical films, I agree with you. Scooby-Doo Where Are You? is one of the defining cartoons of my childhood. Scary, creepy, funny, and based in a belief that investigation will solve mysteries which confound the superstitious mind. The newer cartoons, with actual ghosts and stuff... not so much.
Why did they have to move Maraduke to LA for this film? Surely they could have made a movie based on the actual cartoon and not had to do some horrid Laverne & Shirley reboot thing to make it still appeal...
posted by hippybear at 2:22 PM on June 4, 2010
Marmaduke
Marmaduke
Marmaduke
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:23 PM on June 4, 2010 [4 favorites]
Marmaduke
Marmaduke
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:23 PM on June 4, 2010 [4 favorites]
Surely they could have made a movie based on the actual cartoon and not had to do some horrid Laverne & Shirley reboot thing to make it still appeal...
This brings to mind Michael Caine, discussing his role in Jaws: The Revenge - "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:28 PM on June 4, 2010
This brings to mind Michael Caine, discussing his role in Jaws: The Revenge - "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:28 PM on June 4, 2010
I loved this:
Side note – do you know why I never published a Marmaduke Explained book? If you do, congratulations, you’re not slow. You would be surprised how many people do not understand that I do not own the rights to do such a thing. However, I think United Features Syndicate dropped the ball by not realizing there was money to be made with such a thing. Really, I just wish their lawyers would contact me at all. The silence is killing me. Maybe that’s been their sick plan all along.
Sadly the explanation is probably closer to Hanlon's Razor.
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 2:28 PM on June 4, 2010
Side note – do you know why I never published a Marmaduke Explained book? If you do, congratulations, you’re not slow. You would be surprised how many people do not understand that I do not own the rights to do such a thing. However, I think United Features Syndicate dropped the ball by not realizing there was money to be made with such a thing. Really, I just wish their lawyers would contact me at all. The silence is killing me. Maybe that’s been their sick plan all along.
Sadly the explanation is probably closer to Hanlon's Razor.
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 2:28 PM on June 4, 2010
Surely they could have made a movie based on the actual cartoon
I'm not sure that's physically possible, considering that literally the only joke in Marmaduke is the fact that he's a really big dog. How could anyone possibly flesh that out into a feature length film? It seems like they added they whole Marmaduke-in-LA thing so that there would be at least some story to work with.
posted by albrecht at 2:29 PM on June 4, 2010
I'm not sure that's physically possible, considering that literally the only joke in Marmaduke is the fact that he's a really big dog. How could anyone possibly flesh that out into a feature length film? It seems like they added they whole Marmaduke-in-LA thing so that there would be at least some story to work with.
posted by albrecht at 2:29 PM on June 4, 2010
A nice post, I am very pleased that it lead me to this blog
posted by Think_Long at 2:30 PM on June 4, 2010
posted by Think_Long at 2:30 PM on June 4, 2010
That post depressed me. I need to go home, have a drink and think about my life now.
posted by yeti at 2:35 PM on June 4, 2010
posted by yeti at 2:35 PM on June 4, 2010
Yay, an Internet "celebrity" whose output I enjoy who doesn't come across as a total douche when I read him writing about himself. Wish that happened more often.
Also, Joe Mathlete Draws a Nipple on Ziggy's Nose So That His Nose Looks Like A Titty has made my day.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:36 PM on June 4, 2010
Also, Joe Mathlete Draws a Nipple on Ziggy's Nose So That His Nose Looks Like A Titty has made my day.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:36 PM on June 4, 2010
That was a fun read. I'd not previously been tempted to click on anything related to Marmaduke, but I am now of the belief that, if only because of Joe Mathlete, Marmaduke has not been a total waste.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:08 PM on June 4, 2010
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:08 PM on June 4, 2010
Why did they have to move Maraduke to LA for this film? Surely they could have made a movie based on the actual cartoon and not had to do some horrid Laverne & Shirley reboot thing to make it still appeal...
Of the many, many, many things likely to be wrong with this movie, I doubt fidelity to the source material will be one of them. Allow me to instead postulate ways that they could have gone even further afield in an attempt to improve the franchise:
"Maraduketation": Directed by Spike Jonze, screenplay by Charlie Kaufmann. Nicolas Cage plays Brad Anderson, an aspiring newspaper cartoonist whose attempts to write a movie script based on his unpublished comic about the exploits of his real-life dog, voiced by Owen Wilson, seem to cause the very nature of his reality to unravel. Also, the dog, who is quite large, occasionally comically destroys things.
"The Marmaduke Limited": Directed by Wes Anderson, screenplay by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. Three canine brothers, voiced by Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman, reunited for the first time since leaving the pet store, embark on a cross-country journey to California, slowly reforging their family relationship along the way. Also, the dog, who is quite large, occasionally bowls over or otherwise frustrates his owner, played with a deadpan comic irascibility by Bill Murray.
"Marmaduke Episode I: The Canine Menace": Directed by George Lucas, screenplay by Alan Smithee. In this prequel to the hit movie "Marmaduke", which has been retroactively subtitled "Episode IV: A Poo Hope" some twenty years after its original release, the audience is transported to the dying days of the Republic in the long ago, far far away, town of Tatooine, Indiana, to at last glimpse the puppy-mill origins of young Anakin Dogwalker, better known to audiences as the quite large, comically clumsy and possibly evil Dog Lord of the Sit, Darth Marma.
"Marfield: The Movie": Directed by some poor schmuck or other whose name I don't even want to bother Googling, this is literally "Garfield: The Movie" with Marmaduke's head crudely photoshopped on top of Garfield's in every frame.
posted by arto at 3:11 PM on June 4, 2010 [12 favorites]
Of the many, many, many things likely to be wrong with this movie, I doubt fidelity to the source material will be one of them. Allow me to instead postulate ways that they could have gone even further afield in an attempt to improve the franchise:
"Maraduketation": Directed by Spike Jonze, screenplay by Charlie Kaufmann. Nicolas Cage plays Brad Anderson, an aspiring newspaper cartoonist whose attempts to write a movie script based on his unpublished comic about the exploits of his real-life dog, voiced by Owen Wilson, seem to cause the very nature of his reality to unravel. Also, the dog, who is quite large, occasionally comically destroys things.
"The Marmaduke Limited": Directed by Wes Anderson, screenplay by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. Three canine brothers, voiced by Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman, reunited for the first time since leaving the pet store, embark on a cross-country journey to California, slowly reforging their family relationship along the way. Also, the dog, who is quite large, occasionally bowls over or otherwise frustrates his owner, played with a deadpan comic irascibility by Bill Murray.
"Marmaduke Episode I: The Canine Menace": Directed by George Lucas, screenplay by Alan Smithee. In this prequel to the hit movie "Marmaduke", which has been retroactively subtitled "Episode IV: A Poo Hope" some twenty years after its original release, the audience is transported to the dying days of the Republic in the long ago, far far away, town of Tatooine, Indiana, to at last glimpse the puppy-mill origins of young Anakin Dogwalker, better known to audiences as the quite large, comically clumsy and possibly evil Dog Lord of the Sit, Darth Marma.
"Marfield: The Movie": Directed by some poor schmuck or other whose name I don't even want to bother Googling, this is literally "Garfield: The Movie" with Marmaduke's head crudely photoshopped on top of Garfield's in every frame.
posted by arto at 3:11 PM on June 4, 2010 [12 favorites]
Why don't they just put Marmaduke to sleep?
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:14 PM on June 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:14 PM on June 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
"Marfield: The Movie": Directed by some poor schmuck or other whose name I don't even want to bother Googling, this is literally "Garfield: The Movie" with Marmaduke's head crudely photoshopped on top of Garfield's in every frame.
That made me laugh aloud in a way that may have made my colleagues suspect I am not completely engaged in modifying a specific company web page.
posted by everichon at 3:17 PM on June 4, 2010
That made me laugh aloud in a way that may have made my colleagues suspect I am not completely engaged in modifying a specific company web page.
posted by everichon at 3:17 PM on June 4, 2010
"Marfield: The Movie":...
Thus, the seventh seal is broken, and judgment hath come...
posted by Thorzdad at 3:29 PM on June 4, 2010
Thus, the seventh seal is broken, and judgment hath come...
posted by Thorzdad at 3:29 PM on June 4, 2010
I love Marmaduke Explained, but, at its core, the only explanation that is ever necessary is "Marmaduke is an asshole"
posted by Copronymus at 3:52 PM on June 4, 2010
posted by Copronymus at 3:52 PM on June 4, 2010
I prefer the Comics Curmudgeon's take on Marmaduke as a human-flesh-hungry hellbeast. I'd watch *that* Marmaduke movie.
posted by anthom at 5:12 PM on June 4, 2010
posted by anthom at 5:12 PM on June 4, 2010
What next? The Snuffy Smith Movie? Maybe Hagar the Horrible can cameo.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:23 PM on June 4, 2010
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:23 PM on June 4, 2010
Sarah Jessica Parker as Mary Worth in "Spinsterhood and the City"?
posted by arto at 9:21 PM on June 4, 2010
posted by arto at 9:21 PM on June 4, 2010
Well, that was impressively candid and self-effacing.
Plus, it gives me a chance to share maybe the single most inspired gag ever on Roseanne that I still can't believe was even on Roseanne and whose existence on Roseanne was so improbable that I'm willing to out myself on the blue as a semi-regular viewer of Roseanne back in the day just to share it.
That gag: Darlene is at art school, living with her boyfriend David for some elaborate, incorrigibly sitcom-improbable reason I can't remember. Back home in Bluecollarville, her parents keep coming up with reasons to call her so she and David can't get intimate. At some point, Roseanne decides that day's Marmaduke cartoon is so good she just has to call Darlene and explain it to her. Then as she's talking to Darlene on the phone, Dan - her husband, played of course by the awesome-in-any-role John Goodman - comes along, makes a casual scan of the newspaper on the table, and erupts into the most delighted grin in the history of television. "That darn dog!" he exclaims.
That's right, kids. Whatever else you may vaguely remember about Roseanne, it once perpetrated an inspired Marmaduke gag.
posted by gompa at 1:05 AM on June 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
Plus, it gives me a chance to share maybe the single most inspired gag ever on Roseanne that I still can't believe was even on Roseanne and whose existence on Roseanne was so improbable that I'm willing to out myself on the blue as a semi-regular viewer of Roseanne back in the day just to share it.
That gag: Darlene is at art school, living with her boyfriend David for some elaborate, incorrigibly sitcom-improbable reason I can't remember. Back home in Bluecollarville, her parents keep coming up with reasons to call her so she and David can't get intimate. At some point, Roseanne decides that day's Marmaduke cartoon is so good she just has to call Darlene and explain it to her. Then as she's talking to Darlene on the phone, Dan - her husband, played of course by the awesome-in-any-role John Goodman - comes along, makes a casual scan of the newspaper on the table, and erupts into the most delighted grin in the history of television. "That darn dog!" he exclaims.
That's right, kids. Whatever else you may vaguely remember about Roseanne, it once perpetrated an inspired Marmaduke gag.
posted by gompa at 1:05 AM on June 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
For anyone who thought that Marmaduke Explained was speaking rhetorically when saying that Marmaduke repeats gags, here are two cartoons less than a year apart.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:05 AM on June 5, 2010
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:05 AM on June 5, 2010
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