Flying Squid Studios
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flying Squid Studios ("Cartoons to rot your brain!") is the company and website created by Daniel Geduld.
The website boasts multiple cartoon parodies, including The Skeletor Show viewable on YouTube, Super! shown on lulu.tv and Star Trek: Infinitive Split also on lulu.tv.[1] Flying Squid Studios also produces content for Hanna-Barbera.com including redubbings of cartoons such as The Herculoids[2] and for Radar Magazine's website. Flying Squid Studios is based in Los Angeles, California.
In August of 2007, Geduld was interviewed on National Public Radio about his cartoons and their popularity.[3]
Contents |
[edit] The Skeletor Show
This YouTube cartoon has gained notoriety as an internet meme with many thousands of fans. [4] [5]
The Skeletor Show is a spin-off of the original Masters of the Universe television series. The show is created and voiced by Daniel J. Geduld, under the username "everyonesvoice". Along with the Flying Squid Studios logo, another one is used before the opening titles, which is: "Blatantly plagiarized from FILMATION, please don't sue us".
A comical parody on the lines of Sealab 2021, the cartoon centers around the daily life of Skeletor. Here, Skeletor is portrayed as a comically-frustrated villain, more due to the incompetence and insolence of his evil employees than due to He-Man himself. Strangely, He-Man himself never shows up in The Skeletor Show (although his alter-ego, Prince Adam, makes an appearance in the trailer but does not speak).
One point of contention some critics have raised about the show is the fact that Geduld has changed all of the voices used in the original cartoon, most specifically the voice of Skeletor himself (his voice change is explained in Episode 1). Others see this as a part of the re-invention of the show. The characters have been substantially altered in both voice and character from the originals: Skeletor is bored and irritable, Evil-Lyn is a German transsexual, Beast-Man is a jovial Southerner, Mer-Man (renamed The Swamp Guy) is forgetful and stupid and sounds like Droopy, Trap-Jaw (renamed Baron Von Trapjaw) is a husky-voiced upper-class Englishman, and Tri-Clops (renamed Eye-guy) speaks in a very loud, robotic monotone. Orko also makes an occasional appearance, although he never interacts with the other characters.
Most episodes end with Skeletor answering questions people ask about him in the YouTube comments section, similar to the Strong Bad's E-Mails cartoons on the website for the Homestar Runner cartoons.
Geduld has created nine episodes and one trailer, ranging from one to five minutes in time.
Episode Details
No. | DURATION | EPISODE NAME |
---|---|---|
0 | 0:56 | The Skeletor Show Trailer |
1 | 2:58 | The Box |
2 | 4:00 | Evil, Thy Name is Lynn |
3 | 3:57 | Blind Date |
4 | 3:08 | Grammar |
5 | 3:02 | Breakfast |
6 | 3:27 | Drill Machine |
7 | 4:49 | Gem is Truly Outrageous |
8 | 5:15 | Sales Call |
9 | 5:18 | The Episode After Episode 8 |
10 | 4:20 | Deal With it |
Almost all of the music on The Skeletor Show is by the jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt. The theme song is entitled "Daphne".
[edit] Super!
Super! is a redubbing of the 1960s Filmation cartoons depicting D.C. Comics superheroes, redubbed and reinvented as new, comical superheroes.
Episode Details Episode Details
No. | DURATION | EPISODE NAME |
---|---|---|
1 | 3:03 | Specialboy |
2 | 2:06 | Seaman and Waterboy |
[edit] Star Trek: Infinitive Split
Star Trek: Infinitive split is a parody cartoon series based on Star Trek: The Animated Series. The humour includes nonsensical and toilet humour. Two episodes have been produced for lulu.tv. They are voiced by Daniel J. Geduld and Jon Wallace. Some of the characters introduced so far are Kirk and Scotty (both, apparently, drunk), Mr. Spock and Mr. Sulu, who appears to have a big chip on his shoulder. So far, we have never seen the crew outside of the Enterprise.
Episode Details Episode Details
No. | DURATION | EPISODE NAME |
---|---|---|
1 | 2:46 | The Solarian Incident |
2 | 2:24 | Who Mourns for Pavel? |
[edit] Other Productions
- Flying Squid Studios redubbed several Hanna-Barbera cartoons for their website, Hanna-Barbera.com and their video feature, SMB TV. The cartoons are under the HB Twisted category, although not all are currently available for viewing. Cartoons parodied included The Herculoids, the TV Cartoon Moby Dick[6], and Dino Boy.
- For Radar Magazine, Flying Squid Studios has produced several original animated cartoons in a Terry Gilliam style for their Radar-TV web videos.
- Under the former name of Minerva Media, Flying Squid Studios created and animated 10 cartoons called Inventoons for the Children's Television series, The Friday Zone on PBS. These were also in a Terry Gilliam style and were designed to teach children about the history of various inventions of common items found around the home such as the umbrella or the pencil sharpener.