Chopper and Hops Part 2: Character sketches!

Hey kids, 

In my continued attempt to take you step by step through my and Mel's working on a project, I bring you part 2 of our submission for the Nickelodeon Shorts Program, the first character sketches and my and Mel's e-mails back and forth. The Images above are from those e-mails and referenced in the text below of said e-mails. 

This is the best part. I love Mel's ideas. I love this part, prior to the rejection, where the ideas flow. This is the part where hope lives. :D 

-Ed 

Anyway, here are the e-mails (typos and all):

Melissa:

"Hey Ed,

All 3 characters are doodled here.

(See Image 1)

The unicorn cousin is the fully dresses with tank tank, shorts, stockings and boots.

Hops has a surfer necklace with shorts, and Chopper has glasses, a pilot cap, and a bow tie.

Let me know what you think and redirect me if you have any ideas in mind.

Im going to try to do a storyboard/pitchboard this weekend. I have all the sketches laid out.

I'll also address anything i might have forgotten in previous emails.

Mel"

Ed:

"Hey Mel,

These look great. Just a few notes.

Chopper looks great, but a little too nerdy. I want to stay away from being like Spongebob or Harvey Beaks "sweet guy" thing. Chopper should be more like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, or Ellie from Up when she was a kid:

(See Image 2)

Bittercup is drawn beautifully, but a, I'm worried she looks a little to similar to the unicorns on Regular Show:

(see Image 3)

Also I think she's too sexualized. I want her to be more 'plain', It always erks me that when they draw cartoons the girls, like Lola Bunny have to have hips and boobs, while the biys, like Bugs, look like gawky teenage boys:

(see Image 4)

Look at Bugs' gut and Lola's cut off baby-tee. >:(

It's why I love Slappy Squirrel and Hate Minera Mink. Slappy looks like a Looney Toon:

(See Image 5)

Again, I like Daria because, as I one read, she was one of the few female role models that taught girls it's ok to be plain:

(See Image 6)

If you haev time, and I know I'm a pain in the ass :) but....her are some quotes I love about Daria from the character's wikipedia page. The first few are abiut here on Beavis and Butthead, but the later ones get much better. The last one is my fave:

She was one of the very few characters that would willingly seek them out

On multiple occasions, she took it upon herself to explain simple concepts to them

Butt-head would sometimes treat her with some degree of respect, following her advice in "Sprout" and chuckling "Daria's cool!"

as sharp as B. & B. are dimwitted

the prematurely wise girl who could be counted on to put their idiocy in perspective

She is an unfashionably dressed, highly intellectual, entirely pessimistic about life altogether, cynical, and sarcastic teenage girl who is portrayed as an icon of sanity in an insane household

the anti-cheerleader, the un-social climber, the jaundiced eye in a cartoon world of too much makeup and superficial crayon colors

Daria states in the first episode that she does not have low self esteem: she has low esteem for everybody else

The secret of Daria's popularity (everywhere but in her own home and school) may be our collective alienation

Apparently everyone, with the exception of a very few people who were hit on the head when they were very young, felt like they were outsiders. You either identify with her as an outsider or you sort of envy her ability to navigate her life as an outsider and stay sane

In short, Daria is the perfect anti-Barbie Doll. Merchants of fashion and cosmetics are beneath her contempt. Her refusal to be Miss Goody Consumer borders on the truly subversive

She is every glorious misfit I ever knew

Daria "seems more tortured and neurotic, if only because it's more clear that the airheads have won."

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with Daria, just because she can't or won't hang out with the cool kids

to surrender is to be normal, to sacrifice your brain in the rush to be popular and wear uncomfortable shoes that make your legs look hot. Daria, as always, keeps her integrity. She wears sensible shoes, and finds her intellectual reward in not being hot""

Melissa:

"Hahaha. Okay. I got it. I'll rework the designs a little more.

More soon!

Mel"