Todd Graham | |
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Born | Todd Graham August 27, 1965 Peterborough, Ontario, Canada |
Alma mater | OCAD University |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1987–present |
Website | idiotgallant |
Todd Graham is a Canadian comedian and filmmaker best known for creating the cult 1987 short film, Apocalypse Pooh, a bizarrely comedic mash-up of Disney's Winnie the Pooh and Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now . [1] [2] [3]
Graham was born in Peterborough, Ontario, and attended OCAD University in Toronto. [4]
Graham has performed at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, [5] JFL 42, and Just For Laughs. His debut album, Bustin' Loose!, was released on Comedy Records in 2019 and supported by a record store tour throughout Toronto. [6] Todd is part of Comedy Records' roster and was featured on the label's 10 Year Anniversary album. [7]
His Just for Laughs: All Access show was nominated in 2017 for Best Taped Live Performance at the Canadian Comedy Awards. [8]
In 1987, Graham created the 8-minute [9] video Apocalypse Pooh, considered by many to be one of the earliest examples of a mashup video as it combines footage from Disney's Winnie the Pooh shorts (each directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, released between 1966 and 1977 [9] ) with audio from Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now . At emphatic moments, the juxtaposition is reversed, with Coppola's images accompanying Reitherman's soundtrack. [9] He also made Blue Peanuts (a combination of the animated Peanuts specials and David Lynch's Blue Velvet ) and Hey, It's the Anarchies (a mix of The Archies and The Sex Pistols). [10] [2] While his video works went underappreciated at art schools in his own country, they were received better in the US to the point of being shown in New York City's The Kitchen. [2]
Scott Mackenzie of CineAction wrote in 2007 that the film was exemplary of the new avant garde, "a potent synthesis of the radical politics of the 1960s and 1970s with character animation Hollywood cinema at its most surreal and uncanny" as a vehicle to examine the "horror and allure [of the Vietnam War] in mainstream cinema". He also noted that the film came at a time when "barriers between media were disintegrating" and called it "the godparent of today's mash-ups". [9] Ken Newman of Sight & Sound praised the film for being "brilliantly edited". The film is considered an underground cult movie whose reputation is based solely on the depth and scope of the bootleg video circuit. [11] A digitally remastered version was completed and released online by producer Brad Bell in 2010. [12]
Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and Winnie-the-Pooh stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney adaptations of the Pooh stories.
Eeyore is a fictional character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. He is an old, grey stuffed donkey and friend of the title character, Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore is generally characterised as pessimistic, depressed, and anhedonic.
Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is Winnie‑the‑Pooh's closest friend amongst all the toys and animals featured in the stories. Although he is a "Very Small Animal" of a generally timid disposition, he tries to be brave and on occasion conquers his fears.
Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. He is a young kangaroo and his mother is Kanga. Like most other Pooh characters, Roo is based on a stuffed toy animal that belonged to Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne. Though stuffed, Roo was lost in the 1930s in an apple orchard somewhere in Sussex.
Piglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film produced by the Japanese office of Disneytoon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The animation production was by Walt Disney Animation Japan, Inc. with additional animation provided by Gullwing Co., Ltd., additional background by Studio Fuga and digital ink and paint by T2 Studio. The film features the characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh books written by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard and is the third theatrically released Winnie the Pooh feature. It was released on March 21, 2003, to generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $62.9 million worldwide. In this film, Piglet is ashamed of being small and clumsy and wanders off into the Hundred Acre Wood, leading all of his friends to form a search party to find him.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a 1926 children's book by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The book is set in the fictional Hundred Acre Wood, with a collection of short stories following the adventures of an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, and his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. It is the first of two story collections by Milne about Winnie-the-Pooh, the second being The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne and Shepard collaborated previously for English humour magazine Punch, and in 1924 created When We Were Very Young, a poetry collection. Among the characters in the poetry book was a teddy bear Shepard modelled after his son's toy. Following this, Shepard encouraged Milne to write about his son Christopher Robin Milne's toys, and so they became the inspiration for the characters in Winnie-the-Pooh.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a 1977 American animated musical anthology fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It was first released on a double bill with The Littlest Horse Thieves on March 11, 1977.
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is a 1966 American animated musical fantasy short film based on the first two chapters of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions, and released by Buena Vista Distribution on February 4, 1966, as a double feature with The Ugly Dachshund. It was the last short film produced by Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, ten months after its release. Its songs were written by the Sherman Brothers and the score was composed and conducted by Buddy Baker.
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 American animated musical fantasy short film based on the third, fifth, ninth, and tenth chapters of Winnie-the-Pooh and the second, eighth, and ninth chapters from The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. The featurette was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, produced by Walt Disney Productions, and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company on December 20, 1968, having been shown in theaters with The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was the second of the studio's Winnie the Pooh theatrical featurettes. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The music was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. It was notable for being the last Disney animated short to be produced by Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, two years before its release.
Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin is a 1997 American direct-to-video animated musical adventure comedy-drama film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Karl Geurs. The film follows Winnie the Pooh and his friends on a journey to find and rescue their friend Christopher Robin from the skull. Along the way, the group confront their own insecurities throughout the search, facing and conquering them in a series of events where they are forced to act beyond their own known limits, thus discovering their true potential. Unlike the film's predecessors, this film is an entirely original story, not based on any of A. A. Milne's classic stories.
Springtime with Roo is a 2004 American direct-to-video Easter animated musical fantasy adventure comedy-drama film produced for Walt Disney Pictures by DisneyToon Studios, and animated by Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines.
Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie is a 2005 American animated direct-to-video Halloween fantasy adventure comedy-drama film produced by DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures, featuring the characters from Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise. The sequel to Pooh's Heffalump Movie, this was the final Winnie the Pooh film to be produced by DisneyToon Studios before they moved to Tinker Bell films.
Travis Oates is an American voice actor. He was born in Modesto, California. He continued the role of Piglet in My Friends Tigger & Pooh and other Winnie the Pooh-related media after the death of John Fiedler in 2005. He and Jim Cummings were the only two voice actors to return for the 2011 film. He also was one of the original co-hosts of the G4TV original program Arena, a competitive gaming show with Wil Wheaton in 2002. Oates owns and manages the ACME Comedy Theatre in Costa Mesa, California. He directed the 2014 film Don't Blink.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story commissioned by London's Evening News for Christmas Eve 1925. The character is inspired by a stuffed toy that Milne had bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods department store, and a bear they had viewed at London Zoo.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a 1969 Soviet animated film by Soyuzmultfilm directed by Fyodor Khitruk. The film is based on chapter one in the book series by A. A. Milne. It is the first part of a trilogy, along with two sequels: Winnie-the-Pooh Pays a Visit and Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day.
Collage film is a style of film created by juxtaposing found footage from disparate sources. The term has also been applied to the physical collaging of materials onto film stock.
Winnie the Pooh is a media franchise produced by The Walt Disney Company, based on A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's stories featuring Winnie-the-Pooh. It started in 1966 with the theatrical release of the short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation is a 2021 musical based on the film franchise of the same name. The music and lyrics were written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman with a book by Jonathan Rockefeller. The production also borrows elements from the short stories of the same name.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is a 2023 British independent slasher film produced, directed, written, and edited by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. The first installment of The Twisted Childhood Universe, it serves as a horror parody of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh books and stars Craig David Dowsett as the titular character, and Chris Cordell as Piglet, with Amber Doig-Thorne, Nikolai Leon, Maria Taylor, Natasha Rose Mills, and Danielle Ronald in supporting roles. It follows Pooh and Piglet, who have become feral murderers, as they terrorise a group of young university women and Christopher Robin when he returns to the Hundred Acre Wood five years after leaving for college.