Post by RandomMe98 on Nov 1, 2019 0:14:31 GMT
This isn't a general thread about the series, because the concept of it in its classic configuration, of it being a CN show and all, was lost to time.
The year is 2011. I recovered from my “I hate Cartoon Network” symptoms and the schedule was improving. I was the channel’s biggest fan (but I didn’t talk too much to friends about that) and I had the following in my mind: if there are cartoons where the main character is a mermaid, why not make one where the main character is a merman?
Anyway, Darwin the Merman was born from a dream I had before waking up on the morning of November 1st, 2011. That dream had nothing to do with what would be Darwin.
I was leaving my school and I noticed that there was a weird arcade nearby. I entered and turns out that it was purple and had some cabinets and some weird stairs. I got up those stairs and I went to someone else’s house in turn. I had to rest in a bed.
That morning, and without any relationship to the dream, I imagined myself. As a merman. Named Darwin. Living with a younger brother. And a merman from Flapjack.
And then I started thinking on what would the show be like. I already had an idea for the theme song:
A full minute of a theme song would work for a CN song, but that would actually be shortened becuase of their policies to shorten up their theme songs.
Initially, Darwin was supposed to have a look inspired by Flapjack if he was a merman (as the final episode, Fish Out Of Water, clearly evidences), but then I changed it to a different look with a square nose.
In late December, someone on Deviantart under the name of kmy1205 posted what could end up being the best design for Darwin. I picked up a humanization of Flounder ar a merman. Let me explain: he has blue and yellow hair, his head was round, he was wearing a yellow shirt (which my design refuses) and his tail was blueish-gray with the tip being blue and yellow. Days later, I went to cut my hair and when they put hair gel on me, I felt like I was Darwin because I had the idea that his “hair aroma” was just like some hair gel they put on me. Darwin the Merman’s popularity grew from mental level to personal level.
I started to think on his sister. I thought on a red and yellow color scheme on her hair, seashell bra (half-red and half-yellow) and her tail, with a significant part of it being peach colored. Initially her name was supposed to be Eivlys, because of this:
Eivlys. Yes, Eivlys. Star of a poorly animated music video that aired only and exclusively on our Nickelodeon during commercial breaks. This was originally intender to be her theme. It was dropped, for no aparent reason whatsoever.
Anyway, Darwin needed someone stronger. An older brother. I called him Kevin because of the character on the various Ben 10 shows.
Not too long before Darwin’s older brother was created, I had to use chats to express my ideas twice. Considering that I already recorded with Vocaroo, I decided to use Chatfoo considering that it was being advertised on Vocaroo for some time. Only recently I knew that Chatfoo closed. If you type “Chatfoo” on Google, you’ll see my two chats. That was one of the best days of my life with my fake cartoon. Some of it is NSFW, so read it at your own risk.
cartoonnetworkhqschedule.blogspot.com/2012/07/amusing-idea-for-show.html
cartoonnetworkhqschedule.blogspot.com/2012/07/darwin-merman-on-chatfoo.html
Cringe text in Portuguese, even though none of the text is NSFW, read it at your own risk:
formatosbizarrosdatvemportugal.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-minha-historia-com-o-darwin.html
I started to pick the best design for Darwin: the aforementioned drawing of what would Flounder look like as a merman posted by kmy1205. I imagined him without any shirt.
I expanded my expressions on the awful blogs I had in 2012: that fall, I posted a lot of what remained of that wonderful artwork: now it existed in smaller sizes. I started to give ideas for more characters. I also renamed Eivlys to Bea, because Eivlys wasn’t a good choice.
I joined Toonzone in late December 2012 and slowly wanted to give Darwin some “focus” on some forums nobody wants to read. In late May/early June, I published a partial script, but no one answered me.
But anyway, Darwin the Merman was inspired (in a way) by Fish Hooks, and it probably served as a demented idea that will come true one day. Maybe not.
However, what initially was a dream (the first Portuguese to make an animated series for Cartoon Network and to be produced within Braga) turned out to be a complex set of scenarios and situations that made the dream impossible in the first place.
Over time, I had realized that my dream was technically impossible: even at such a young age I wasn't able to make an animated series, let alone having bad drawing skills. The fact that the series was for Cartoon Network was because it was a "promising" channel back then, but things started to go backward by 2013, and far worse after 2015. The idea of having my series shown to millions of viewers worldwide on a "decadent" channel was gone to me and I fictionalized Darwin into my world.
These were the main characters.
Since then I have fictionalized the series into a fictional world of mine: narawiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Darwin_the_Merman
The year is 2011. I recovered from my “I hate Cartoon Network” symptoms and the schedule was improving. I was the channel’s biggest fan (but I didn’t talk too much to friends about that) and I had the following in my mind: if there are cartoons where the main character is a mermaid, why not make one where the main character is a merman?
Anyway, Darwin the Merman was born from a dream I had before waking up on the morning of November 1st, 2011. That dream had nothing to do with what would be Darwin.
I was leaving my school and I noticed that there was a weird arcade nearby. I entered and turns out that it was purple and had some cabinets and some weird stairs. I got up those stairs and I went to someone else’s house in turn. I had to rest in a bed.
That morning, and without any relationship to the dream, I imagined myself. As a merman. Named Darwin. Living with a younger brother. And a merman from Flapjack.
And then I started thinking on what would the show be like. I already had an idea for the theme song:
A full minute of a theme song would work for a CN song, but that would actually be shortened becuase of their policies to shorten up their theme songs.
Initially, Darwin was supposed to have a look inspired by Flapjack if he was a merman (as the final episode, Fish Out Of Water, clearly evidences), but then I changed it to a different look with a square nose.
In late December, someone on Deviantart under the name of kmy1205 posted what could end up being the best design for Darwin. I picked up a humanization of Flounder ar a merman. Let me explain: he has blue and yellow hair, his head was round, he was wearing a yellow shirt (which my design refuses) and his tail was blueish-gray with the tip being blue and yellow. Days later, I went to cut my hair and when they put hair gel on me, I felt like I was Darwin because I had the idea that his “hair aroma” was just like some hair gel they put on me. Darwin the Merman’s popularity grew from mental level to personal level.
I started to think on his sister. I thought on a red and yellow color scheme on her hair, seashell bra (half-red and half-yellow) and her tail, with a significant part of it being peach colored. Initially her name was supposed to be Eivlys, because of this:
Eivlys. Yes, Eivlys. Star of a poorly animated music video that aired only and exclusively on our Nickelodeon during commercial breaks. This was originally intender to be her theme. It was dropped, for no aparent reason whatsoever.
Anyway, Darwin needed someone stronger. An older brother. I called him Kevin because of the character on the various Ben 10 shows.
Not too long before Darwin’s older brother was created, I had to use chats to express my ideas twice. Considering that I already recorded with Vocaroo, I decided to use Chatfoo considering that it was being advertised on Vocaroo for some time. Only recently I knew that Chatfoo closed. If you type “Chatfoo” on Google, you’ll see my two chats. That was one of the best days of my life with my fake cartoon. Some of it is NSFW, so read it at your own risk.
cartoonnetworkhqschedule.blogspot.com/2012/07/amusing-idea-for-show.html
cartoonnetworkhqschedule.blogspot.com/2012/07/darwin-merman-on-chatfoo.html
Cringe text in Portuguese, even though none of the text is NSFW, read it at your own risk:
formatosbizarrosdatvemportugal.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-minha-historia-com-o-darwin.html
I started to pick the best design for Darwin: the aforementioned drawing of what would Flounder look like as a merman posted by kmy1205. I imagined him without any shirt.
I expanded my expressions on the awful blogs I had in 2012: that fall, I posted a lot of what remained of that wonderful artwork: now it existed in smaller sizes. I started to give ideas for more characters. I also renamed Eivlys to Bea, because Eivlys wasn’t a good choice.
I joined Toonzone in late December 2012 and slowly wanted to give Darwin some “focus” on some forums nobody wants to read. In late May/early June, I published a partial script, but no one answered me.
But anyway, Darwin the Merman was inspired (in a way) by Fish Hooks, and it probably served as a demented idea that will come true one day. Maybe not.
However, what initially was a dream (the first Portuguese to make an animated series for Cartoon Network and to be produced within Braga) turned out to be a complex set of scenarios and situations that made the dream impossible in the first place.
Over time, I had realized that my dream was technically impossible: even at such a young age I wasn't able to make an animated series, let alone having bad drawing skills. The fact that the series was for Cartoon Network was because it was a "promising" channel back then, but things started to go backward by 2013, and far worse after 2015. The idea of having my series shown to millions of viewers worldwide on a "decadent" channel was gone to me and I fictionalized Darwin into my world.
These were the main characters.
Since then I have fictionalized the series into a fictional world of mine: narawiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Darwin_the_Merman
