Here's something to chew over until the return of the anti-caption contest. Emdashes has unearthed the next phase in the Cartoon Bank's plot to wring ever more cash out of New Yorker cartoons.
RingTales are single-panel cartoons turned into five-second animations (plus the all-important ad tacked onto the end) for delivery via podcast, mobile phones, web syndication, etc. There are ten samples available on the site and they're undeniably well done. Most don't actually improve on the non-moving, non-speaking originals � I won't be voluntarily downloading them anytime soon � but I probably won't be disgusted if they start appearing in the margins of my favorite web sites. I may even click on them sometimes, which I never do with any other ads.
And if anyone out there wants to strip the sound from these samples and create new dialogue for them, that's something I'd really be interested in.
Update: I just noticed that one of the RingTales is the classic, On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. It might be wiser to stick with the less famous and beloved cartoons. For one thing, I am oddly distressed by the dog's delivery of his line, with a slacker cadence and the emphasis on knows. I've just never heard it that way in my head. I don't terribly mind the second dog's weird non-verbal response, but it is distracting to "learn" that the dog's message to his online pals is the somewhat corny, "All I'm wearing is a fur coat."
