#dav pilkey

so! its been 5 years since the release of the Captain Underpants movie! and that… that just feels wild.

the spring/summer of 2017 was one of the most transformative periods of my life - and somehow, that wasn’t because i’d just entered college. no, it was because of an adorable, low-budget, shamelessly silly little movie. it was because of all the driving-age people who suddenly remembered “woah, this was my life as a kid!”. it was because of those people looking back and rediscovering how creative, how encouraging, how radical children’s literature can truly be. almost overnight this site was awash with gorgeous fanart and eye-opening theories and heartfelt thank-yous to Dav and Dreamworks. it was as fun as it was unexpected.

and i had so much fun riding the wave! i bought first-edition copies of the books just to see what was changed over the years. i took screencap requests and made edits about literaturetheory and threefanmixesandan ask blogandan accidental viral hoax that’ll haunt me till i die. i made so many new friends.

and through it all, i learned the answers to questions that had scared me for way too long; about my neurodivergence, my worst school days, and what i wanted to do with my life.

does anyone remember that opportunity i mentioned back as Miss Givings? ill be honest - im still working at it five years later. theres been many obstacles, a big one being myself. but as discouraging as the setbacks have been, its still a great comfort to know im headed somewhere with purpose.

i havent engaged much with the fandom since maybe mid-2019. aside from my other interests and obligations, the main CU tag’s content tends to skew a bit younger these days. and thats great - kids are who the series is meant for! (man tho, you guys sure love Melvinborg lol.)

but anyway, im sending this post out for anyone else from 2017 who just might check the tag today. and if that describes you: hey. i remember yall. i still think of yall, and all the weird fun things we made and said and did. and we probably cant go back to how it was, but im so glad it happened and i cant thank you enough.

and if Book 13 or The Second Epic Movie ever happens… i may not make as much noise as before, but i promise i’ll see you there.

its been 10 days since the movieversary but my CU hyperfixation’s still going so heres another one of those Scattered Thoughts posts (minor movie spoilers!)

• So i updated the playlist at treehouseblogsinc this week! Idek if Wikplayer still works for most people, but this streak’s five years long and i aint quittin yet! (Usually i just replace song links when they break, but this time i removed a song too cus the guy it references has been Bitch lately)
• Speaking of, i did my semi-annual reread of the whole blog too and… man :’’’) Its still mind-blowing how many people played along (and got pissed at Melvin when he took over lmaooo). All the silly, sweet, and angry asks i got there still warm my heart to this day
• You know what else i still do to this day? Draw things Pilkey-style! Sometimes i try to follow a rigid anatomy when i draw and feel stuck when it doesnt look right. When that happens, i step back and make a quick Pilk-ish sketch as a reminder to keep things loose. Works every time :)
• Something i still love about the movie and the months leading up to it is how much of it felt like a grand… I dont wanna say joke, cus that kinda implies they didnt care when its obvious they truly did. Lets go with prank— it all felt like a grand prank! Like the decisions they made worked in the end, but were also super funny to read and hear about. Like oh my god, they rented Abbey Road Studios to record a choir playing kazoos and singing the word “underpants!” They got the biggest up-and-coming horror director to voice white-ass Melvin Sneedly. (Tho i guess now it can be argued that he’s white-passing in movie!verse, so thats cool)
• My fave example of this is how they got Lil Yachty for the album. On one hand, whatever chunk of the limited budget they spent to get him probably could’ve been put to better use, like actually animating the Turbo Toilet fight or something? (While moving the Flip-O-Rama to another scene of course.) On the other hand, its hilarious that they got him to rap the word “cool” 15 times to a cover of Oh Yeah, and then didnt even put it in the movie. Its like George and Harold themselves wrote the stupidest lyrics possible just to see if he’d agree to them, and he did?? Thats comedy gold???
• Why didnt i bookmark all the production stuff posted to Instagram. There was so much cool stuff i wanna see again but the search function there is still garbage and uuuughh
• So i dont remember if it was production art or fanart but theres this one Instagram post i saw once thats lived in my head ever since. it looked like the cover of Action Comics #1, but with Captain carrying a school bus. If by some miracle somebody has it saved, please send it to me ill be forever in your debt
• Imstill scared of getting what’s coming to me when the Dog Man movie drops, but now im also wondering if theyll still have George and Harold as a framing device. Ngl i havent caught up with the new books in a hot minute, but ive heard that the boys have stopped appearing in them? if that’s true, that’s Dav’s choice and i have to respect that. ….but also i really wanna see them in CG again. pretty please dreamworks, i miss my sons so much
• It mustve been a while since i last watched the movie, cus when i did on the 2nd, the Origin Issue sequence like… broke me all over again. i wrote about why its so great once for a thing that never got made actually, lemme dig that up and paste it in here

The score begins with chiptune and kazoos, two common motifs for childhood whimsy, and already a great fit for this sequence’s simple, handdrawn look. 

But it doesn’t stop there! It goes from what sounds like just two or three people playing kazoos… to a whole chorus of them… which gives way to a full-fledged orchestra. It’s as dramatic a transition as… oh, say, a one-man children’s book to an animated movie by one of the top studios in the industry.

And in turn, as the comic continues, we’re brought closer and closer to the panels until the white gutter between them vanishes, and they engulf the screen. The medium through which this story’s being told has faded from awareness; all that exists now is the story itself. 

But just as suddenly, we’re brought back to our true surroundings. The orchestral music ends, the chiptune returns for one last gentle sting, and we remember this epic tale’s humble origins: a comic book, written and drawn by two 4th graders. *sniff*

• Another Score thing i love: you know how Captain is one big Superman parody? I think Shapiro mightve had that in mind when he composed his theme tune, because it starts with a triumphant first three notes (the “Underpaaaaants” part) — justlikesome ofSuperman’s! I dont know the right musical terms but cmon, theres a pattern there! And its so touching that they found Captain worthy of a song of that caliber!! Like yes, he IS a true superhero!! heres the epic theme song to prove it!!
• Oh wow okay. So to dig up that Writing Thing, i had to open some folders i havent touched in years. And there were outlines for 10 different fanfics in there. I remember not really meaning to finish them ever, just writing them down cus the ideas wouldnt leave me alone. Hell i still dont have time to finish them now
• But.Man now i feel bad for never doing anything with them. I have half a mind to post the outlines at least?? Cus someone out there might get a kick out of them?? You know what, if this hyperfixation doesnt peter out in another few days ill probably do it
• Speaking of things i havent looked at in years, i listened to this song while typing all this and im tearing up now send post