Hello! Sorry I'm only in the background these days. (OU course taking up time.) Please feel free t...
Hello! Sorry I'm only in the background these days. (OU course taking up time.) Please feel free to remove me from your lists if you like, to share your love around with the new Ciao bunnies! I will not be offended! Jo xxxx
Member since:28.06.2005
Reviews:43
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"There are a few things you need to know about Flanimals. And when you do, I'd keep them to yourself if I were you." So begins the weird and wonderful made-up world of Flanimals.
I dipped into this bizarre hardbacked book when my husband received it as a Christmas present. It's a really easy to flick through book full of imaginary creatures called 'Flanimals', thought up from the mind of Ricky Gervais. The illustrations are by Rob Steen and are bright, bold and very comical. The pictures leap from the page to tickle your fancy, with their extreme body parts and bright colours. These are exactly they type of monsters I used to imagine in my head as a child of about eight or nine, so I would think that is a great age group to buy the book for. The 'observations' underneath the pictures are generally nonsense, written in the style of a nature spotter's guide. These are very funny because they can appeal to different ages at different levels. For example: "Munge Fuddler" (Flange Snatchling). Despite being too mungey for it's own good, it persists in fuddling everything it sees. Everything gets battered when it fuddles the wrong thing." I had to make sure I typed "Munge Fuddler" very carefully!
Ricky Gervais' website says this about the book: "Flanimals were first sighted by Ricky Gervais a long time ago. He drew some rough sketches and made notes about their behaviour.
Then, Ricky asked his friend Rob Steen to draw them properly, exactly as they appear in their natural habitat. The result is now two beautiful, informative and compendious volumes which are sure to delight, disgust and distress all who read them." This review is about "Flanimals". "More Flanimals" is the next book.
The Author ------------------ Ricky Gervais is best known for his stand-up comedy and especially for his writing, directing and starring in his TV comedy, "The Office" , and "Extras". I would say that you don't need to particularly be a fan of his to enjoy the book. It stands alone as an amusing work.
The illustrator ---------------------- Rob Steen. You can see some more of his work through a link from the Flanimals section of Gervais' website. I have been unable to find out too much about him, which is a pity as the illustrations are brilliant. You can view some of Gervais' preliminary illustrations and see how they were brought to life by Steen. (see pics below)
The Content --------------------- ♣ Chapter One..... Spotter's guide
Each page has a colour monster with the 'observations' in black bold type underneath. There are 26 Flanimals. I have included a few photos at the bottom, but I'm not going to reveal all because it would obviously spoil any prospective buyer's enjoyment of the book. You've found out what the Munge Fuddler is, but you'll have to imagine what this one looks like until you see the book!
There are Flanimals such as the Gum Spudlet, the Sprot Guzzler, and also the Offledermis which was "born completely inside out.".... Find out why in the book! You may also be interested in the reason the Plamglotis swallows its own hands. The expressions on the Flanimals faces say a lot!
♣ Chapter Two..... Flanimal behaviour
Now you know your Flanimals, it's time to find out about their habits. There are many animated humorous pictures with the very funny explanations to go with them here. For example, the Newborn Plamglotis is a sorry sight. "Everyone finds newborn babies messy, disgusting little creatures, apart from the mother that is. This is not the case with a newborn Plamglotis - its mother finds it disgusting too." I'm not going to spoil any more, but I will say you've got to see the Baby Munty Flumple.
Chapter two is clever because the different Flanimals are linked to each other in their behaviour and how they relate to each other. I have found myself flicking back to chapter one to remind myself about them. There are some great action pictures of the Flanimals interacting with each other.
♣ Chapter Three..... Flaminal testing
This is where your newly learned Flanimal knowledge is tested. A fun quiz, including Flanimal footprints, and questions such as "If a Puddloflaj's eyes pop out, why can't it pick them up?" and "Which Flanimal's babies make the best water bombs?" If you are anywhere near interested then it's all in the book!
The Flanimal scale chart at the end has a human sillhouette up against the Flanimals, and surprisingly, they are quite large creatures! I for one am glad that a Mernimbler doesn't really exist!
♣ Other Flanimals
To finish, Mr Gervais very cleverly leads you to the next book by telling us he'd love to inform us about some of the other Flanimals, but the book ends here. ("More Flanimals" also does this!).
The Price ---------------- Published by Faber and Faber Ltd. The inside cover states the UK RRP is £9.99. There is a link from Ricky's website to Amazon where they sell it for £5.99. You may be able to hunt around the cheaper book shops and find it for less. There is also an audio CD read by Ricky, a limited edition set of collectibles and a range of t-shirts. I don't know where the t-shirts are available from.
If you want to know more, then Ricky's website is www.rickygervais.com
The Verdict ------------------
Now then, the age range for the appeal of this book I'd say is very wide. As I mentioned, my thirty-something year old husband got given this book as a present from my sister. As it happens, he was also given "More Flanimals" by his Dad! Our family must have homed in on his, should I say, childish, sense of humour! I can imagine it's a great stocking filler for a child of about seven upwards, although, my children aged two and three have been pouring over them today. They have been absolutely fascinated by the outrageous pictures. There are nice wobbly tongues, teeth and big eye-balls to catch their attention. Quite a good change from teletubbies or Fimbles which are just as 'made-up'. In fact, the Flanimals remind me of the creatures from the old "Trapdoor" series of plasticine animations, if you've ever seen those. The humour is also quite similar in an offbeat, tongue in cheek kind of way.
I suppose I'd better add at this juncture,that not everyone will find it suitable for little children because of the violence in the book! You may not want your child to know what happens when a Mernimbler meets a Flemping Bunt-himmler!
It's an easy book to dip in and out of for a few quick laughs. As a present I would say it was good value if you buy it at the lower price. It's not a book that you will always want to be reading, and I don't think you'll need to refer to the habits of a Clunge Ambler very often, unless you do happen to see one in your garden! I think an older child would love to have this in his or her collection.
I like this for a bit of fun. Joanna.
Pictures of Flanimals - Ricky Gervais
preliminary Mernimbler sketch
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Mar 4th, 2006
exceptional by (22%):
very helpful by (78%):
