Three children discover a little magic before bedtime.

I found this old video that we shot years ago when spending time with family. Originally intended as an exercise it was filmed somewhat on a whim while babysitting, with no real attention to video quality. Although it was never meant to be anything that looked amazing, I decided to polish it up a little and post it anyway. Big thanks to Brent who threw together the music.

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Maybe it’s the stress of a few extra jobs lately. Or maybe it’s the late night glasses of chocolate milk before bed. Whatever the cause, I have been having some crazy whacked-out dreams lately. It’s as if my mind is trying to play back every single movie I’ve ever seen all at one time in one messy garbled smorgasbord full of confusing narratives, loads of terribly scripted dialog, and excessive examples of failed continuity. So basically it’s any Hollywood movie in the past several years. I don’t know what that says about me or my subconscious, but there ya go.

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Keep playing your drums. The music will follow.

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We have a contest winner! Last month we had our “Who Wants to Be In a Comic Strip?” contest, and many of you shared your favorite comic strip and entered! I wish I could draw everyone into the comic strip all the time. You guys are the coolest.

This year’s winner is………………………… (drum roll)………………………..

Devin Burgraff of Salt Lake City, Utah!

Congratulations Devin! You will be featured in a future Raccoon Toons comic strip!

Thanks to all who entered and participated! Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for reading me.

~Matt

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I have been having a lot of weird dreams lately. I suppose they could be the result of a creative mind trying to make sense of the troubled and uncertain future. But I think it’s more likely the result of  drinking a large quart of chocolate milk right before bed.

They do make for interesting dreams though. Sometimes I write them down. I did actually have a dream the other night where I switched bodies with my cartoon raccoon counterpart. That resulted in all kinds of mayhem. I also recently dreamed that I was protecting the city’s widows and war veterans from multitudes of thuggish street gangs. But I didn’t do it alone. Two starters from the San Francisco Giants helped me in my crusade against evil.

Often my dreams are in the forms of narratives, almost as if I am reading a book or watching a movie. Such was the case when I dreamed that the raccoon and I swapped places. Also with the time I dreamt that a plucky redhead was investigating the death and disappearance of her missing husband, only to discover sinister dealings at the cabin, and that nothing was truly what it seemed…

I think my mind dreams in these narrative types of ways so I can take one of these dreams and turn it into a best selling novel or million dollar screenplay if I should feel so inclined. It will probably be that big break I’m looking for. I remember reading once that the original story of “Frankenstein” was all dreamt by the author who first penned the tale. My mind is most definitely trying to follow this method of success. I suppose it’s also entirely possible that my mind does this because I watch a lot of TV at 1 in the morning, but that’s completely beside the point.

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Ok, I broke the 4th wall. I’m sorry. But I had good reason.

When I was a kid I read possibly every book there is to read about Walt Disney. Once in jr. high school, I even chose Walt Disney for my autobiography book report. The book, was in fact, not an autobiography, and I didn’t actually read it because I forgot about the assignment and the in-class essay until the night before. I ended up just writing the essay using only the knowledge I’d acquired about Walt Disney over the years without ever actually having read this particular autobiography…which again, wasn’t really an autobiography at all. Where I was required to use quotations I quoted or paraphrased actual quotes that I had previously committed to memory.

When all was said and done, I earned a “B+” on this paper on a book that was not only invalid for the assignment, but also one that I had never actually read. It was ironically, the highest grade I ever received from that particular English teacher, who for some inexplicable reason, just really hated my guts.

But I digress. My point is, I have always really loved and admired Walt Disney. In the 4th grade I did a report on him and dressed up in a suit and fake mustache. My report included posters with drawings of Mickey Mouse that I had made to illustrate the difference between how he looked in the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in 1928 (which by the way was Plane Crazy, and NOT Steamboat Willie thank you very much).

I think I let the fake mustache get to me, because it wasn’t long afterwards that I decided I really wanted to BE Walt Disney. That was my dream. I had great ambitions as a 4th grader. It was shortly after this that I created my very own cartoon characters. You know them here, as Michael and Wendy Raccoon.

It was my plan to do as Walt did, and create animated cartoons that surely the world would embrace as they did Mickey. Shortly thereafter, I would branch my newfound and lucrative stardom into my own animation studio just as Disney did. Then I would continue to build until my work was all over the movies and TV stations on Saturday mornings (because back then all the good cartoons were on Saturday mornings). Then, to complete my raging success, I would build my own theme park somewhere in California. There my raccoon characters would greet all of their adoring fans that would come from all over the world just to see them.

Somewhere along the lines I grew up a little, and realized that no one would ever repeat the talent, the entrepreneurship, and the lucky timing with technology to equal Walt Disney. So naturally I decided that I would just have to get Disney to distribute my cartoons, so that my characters could greet their adoring fans at Disneyland. It all seemed like a good plan.

And so here today, I have this little comic strip. The dream of a 10 year old boy. Forgive me if indulge him ever so slightly. The truth is, the older I get, the more I think I had it right in the 4th grade.

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I’m totally on vacation right now, but I went to a little extra trouble to upload this comic strip for you. That’s right, I care about you, the loyal visitors.

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