Most of your favorite things from childhood are garbage. New jack swing groups that aren’t Boyz II Men? Awful. The Secret of Nimh? NOPE. Your mom’s breasts? Ha. There are few exceptions to the rule, including Calvin and Hobbes, which is even better now than it was when you were 10. That’s why I’m equal parts ecstatic and distraught about the video below, made by Ugly Americans animator Adam Brown, who put together a cartoon based on one of the comic’s most famous strips using Bill Watterson’s own designs as keyframes. Ecstatic: Calvin and Hobbes brought to life, yay. Distraught: we’ll (probably) never see any new Calvin and Hobbes. Relieved: Calvin doesn’t talk.
According to Watterson in an interview with Comics Journal:
Isn’t it a bit scary to think of hearing Calvin’s voice?
Very scary. For all my admiration of the art, I really can’t decide if I ever want to see Calvin and Hobbes animated. I know I’d enjoy working with the visual opportunities animation offers, but you change the world you’ve created when you change the medium in which it’s presented. Books are almost always better than the movies made from them, because there are things books do well and things movies do well, but usually those things don’t overlap. The: same with comics and animation. Another, more personal reservation I have is that animation, by necessity is a team sport, and the fewer people with input into my work, the better I like it. And, finally, to see it done right, it would also take an awful lot of time and energy on my part, neither of which I’ve got a lot to spare. (Via)
Were this to be made into a TV show today, Luke from Modern Family would be the voice of Calvin. And in the live action film, Manny as Blor-Utar. Some things really are best left undisturbed.
