So finding out the Chip and Dale movie *exists* got me thinking about a dumb idea I had about 10+ years ago. Basically it was a similar story to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In my story though, the cartoonists had all kinds of powers. If a Cartoonist decided to be a criminal they were near unstoppable because you know, cartoon physics. Some of them were heroes though so it kinda balanced them out eventually. There are hardly any criminals in the present, outside of 'selling' their toons (yes, even the characters themselves, not just merch), and toon hookers putting real hookers out of business. (for obvious reasons, cause again, toon physics) The idea itself is simple enough, but there's a few things keeping me from writing it or developing it further. For one, it's way too similar to Roger Rabbit, and I want the story to stand on it's own without people drawing too many similarities from it. The other one is I don't really have an actual conflict and I want the Narrative to have a proper narrative conflict to go with the emotional one of the MC. I think one of the bigger differences is once the Cartoonist that Drew a toon dies or retires, the toon basically vanishes forever. Though usually they only vanish if the Cartoonist dies. (which happens a lot with the good guys vs bad guys cartoonists) The toons of the artists that retire stick around long enough to take care of their creator until they pass on but after that they vanish. In this part of the story there hasn't been a 'genuine' cartoonist that could bring their creations to life in decades. I still got two other ideas to write before I take a crack at this one so I got time. But I dunno how to feel about doing something that's been done not once, but twice, both times done better than I could ever do it.
Civil rights, emancipation, wrongful creation suits (a toon suing its creator for drawing it deformed or handicapped), copyright (when you find you have an almost identical twin brother who was drawn in a sweatshop in North Korea)... Lots of good room to maneuver here.
That's the kind of thing I'm going for, a different take rather than a 'perfect' vision of this kind of world. I just don't know how far I want to take it. Do I play it realistically or do I put a more cartoonish spin on it. A funny bit would be the Toon Justice system literally being a Kangaroo Court. (dumb joke, but it'd be pretty funny) Though, it might be funnier if the attorneys were simply kangaroo's and the actual court stuff was played completely straight faced. (that way the 'are you serious' joke goes both ways) I like the idea that it isn't all 'happy fun times' with this scenario. The question is how far in the future of the timeline I want the story to take place in. Maybe have it be that all that nonsense created a 'cartoonist crash' similar to how the gaming crash happened after too much nonsense? Like imagine a world where cartoonists caused so much chaos, then all of a sudden it just sort of...stopped. Entirely, and suddenly after years of silence artists with the 'gift' start appearing again. Could be interesting, I might start taking some notes to reference later.
I really like the idea of a Kangaroo Court, but with kangaroos being utterly humorless and rigorously dedicated to The Law. Like a Kangaroo Court is where only the weightiest and most serious matters are considered, and the rulings are so carefully weighed and written such that no one, but no one, can doubt that they were fair and just. (Kind of a contrast to the current controversy in the US which we needn't get into here). Maybe the Kangaroo Court is some sort of court of really, really last appeal, capable of overturning laws within any jurisdiction in the world.... If you don't write this, I'm stealing it!
I like the idea enough that I'll probably use it lol I just think it'd be interesting taking something that should be all laughs, and playing it straight faced. I've got one project I've made it my new years resolution to finish the draft of before the end of the year. After that I have a choice of three projects (this one and two others) to work on. The trick would be to find a place to put that in the story.
Wow in terms of "toons" I don't have that much experience. I certainly remember Roger Rabbit which is a big deal at the time and had some controversy with it. Do you remember Toys with Robin Williams? He used all these forgotten about toys that were once beloved, to fight a "war" of sorts against modern, technological toys. What if somebody discovers a trove of never used cartoon characters? Characters that were created for some of the hundreds of movies that were never made. And then you could bring these forgotten characters to life. Also, another interesting thing to me, is that when we think of cartoons, we tend to think of Disney. Moreso, we think usually 1950s until the present. Well illustrators have always existed. Surely people would have been drawing cartoon characters for centuries. What if an illustrator brought to life toons from different centuries, different countries. Then you would fall into some dort of good vs evil premise. I don't think I have seen that done before although it is possible because I haven't seen a lot from this genre. But it would move you away from the Roger Rabbit similarities.
