Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The 13th Ladybug

If you're familiar with Sesame Street's classic "Ladybug Picnic" segment, you already know that twelve ladybugs attended the picnic for an afternoon of sack-racing, rope-jumping, and the inevitable whine-a-thon concerning the over-pricing of furniture and rugs. The ladybugs seemed like a fairly likeable bunch, but then it occurred to me... unless fate is repeatedly crossing my path with the paths of the exact same ladybugs, there are quite possibly hundreds of ladybugs out there... or at least more than twelve. So what about all the ladybugs who didn't get invited to the exclusionary, elitist picnic? Still waiting by the phone... crying... thinking of "knock-knock" jokes they might have told. What about them? I'm beginning to think that that fire wasn't an accident. (The fact that they had marshmallows kind of tipped me off).

Sesame Street is the best show ever for kids, or at least it was before Elmo moved in and ran Grover out of the neighborhood. I know some of you disagree because your kids like Barney or the Wiggles. Yeah, well - they'd probably like rum if you gave it to them too. That doesn't make it right.

22 comments:

Lindy Rae said...

It's so very heartbreaking. Poor little ladybug.

Anonymous said...

OMGOSH! I seriously forgot about this! LOL! So fun watching it again. Definitely a trip down memory lane. I agree that Sesame Street is awesome. However, we definitely are a WIGGLES family as well. Absolutely NO Barney allowed in this house. I get all proud inside when for some reason the channel is changed to Barney and BOTH of my kids say "who's THAT?" Such a proud moment. Yep...no Barney for us. Hey..speaking of Sesame Street.....when my little girl wore her hair in pigtails, she looked like one of the little bugs that lived in the milk carton on Sesame Street. Do you remember their names??? Was it tweedlebugs? I can't remember. THAT was definitely one of my fave Sesame Street segments. OOoooooh..and the one of Ernie inside of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid. Remember the statue that looked like Ernie that kept moving? *sigh* Memories. :-)

Sam Nielson said...

This is the awesomest post description ever. Thanks for the laugh.

Todd Oman said...

Even though I have never seen this story your drawing still looks great. I never knew lady bugs had such long eyelashes.

Anonymous said...

This may already be known, but "Ladybug Picnic" was written and performed by animator William "Bud" Luckey, now a character designer for Pixar. He wrote, played banjo, and voiced the Jackalope for the short "Bounding," shown before The Incredibles. This was all included on The Incredibles DVD extra features, which are, appropriately, incredible.

Oh, and I love the blog, I'm an avid visitor. All of the work is fantastic.

Dave Dick said...

haha! As usual, wonderful, entertaining, artwork !

Ron Jensen said...

yeah, 13 is an unlucky number.

I don't let my kid watch any shows for children period. Mr. Rogers died and they all went down hill after that. Except veggie tales. It may be against my religion, but its the best we have got.

Jarrett said...

Guh.. I feel so.. EXCLUDED! Man, this is a very nice and very sad piece. I seriously feel for this ladybug.

Ben Reynolds said...

hahahaha!! Awesome. Your blog rules dude.

Unknown said...

hahaha awesome! sesame street was a staple in my house. Anuther good one was electric company. I forgot how fun that was til my mother in law bought me 2 box set of it. I never found out why she did....

Loving the jugglin bunny. disturbing but extremely entertaining. Glad to come back and find some great post waiting!

yousaidis said...

Your ladybug makes me want to cry, it's so cute!
This is the first time I've read your blog, and it won't be the last...

Have you heard of MyToons.com? I think it'd be a cool way to keep all your work up and organized for everyone to see. Just a suggestion!

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Michelle said...

The ladies bug picnic use to be one of my favorite clips and still brings back a lot of memories.
Spring and the befining of fall bring out the ladybugs (actually I think they are the ladybug/beetle mixed let go to kill the tent worms) in our area and I think of this song everytime...1 2 3... 4 5 6 and they all played games at the ladybugs picnic.

Anonymous said...

You alive?

Gary Fields said...

shane, great work. very don bluth looking to me. very animated! love the fling pig.

Anonymous said...

Love your statement about the old vs new Sesame Street. You won't get any argument from me.

Love the ladybug piece too - and all your work!

Vhrsti said...

Wow! Great illo!

Tina Poe said...

Poor thing! I love the lighting in your illustration!

xenos said...

an oldie but a goodie. still love it and the concept. even made my wife laugh out loud when i showed it to her. great job shane.

mcscrub said...

lest us not forget disneys ugly bug ball maybe here date was eatten by the itsy bitsy spider ...love alll you work

claudine hellmuth said...

wonderful!! so creative!

Kim de Young said...

Well, I say all of the thousands, um millions of univited ladybugs should have their very own picnic and not invite those 12 bouncy snobby ones. All hail grover (Elmos sucks)

Brine Blank said...

Your kids would like rum if you gave it to them but that doesn't make it right...that is perhaps the quote of the year...and so true...I was horrified to learn elmo had taken over the show to such a degree...and barney was never welcome in my house for my kids...at least back in the day Grover and crew were 'smartly' childlish...with the modern fair I say teach a kid to be stupid and they'll grow up that way...no wonder there is such a high dropout rate in college...my rant is now over...great illo and concept by the way...