Wikipedia

ZooPhobia

This article is about the webcomic. For the irrational fear of animal species, see Zoophobia.

ZooPhobia is an American webcomic originally published in 2012 by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano, from which she later loosely adapted characters and plotlines for her animated musical television series Hazbin Hotel.[2][3][1] It follows a young woman named Cameron, who travels to an interspecies sanctuary named Safe Haven. Two ZooPhobia short films, "The Son of 666" and "Bad Luck Jack", were released in 2013 and 2020, respectively.

ZooPhobia
Promotional poster/banner
Author(s)Vivienne Medrano
WebsiteZooPhobiaComic.com
Current status/scheduleEnded
Launch dateJuly 3, 2012[1]
End dateMarch 19, 2016
Genre(s)Fantasy, slice of life, comedy horror

Plot

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Cameron, a neurotic young woman, is sent to an island sanctuary named Safe Haven by accident after she desperately pleas for a counseling job.[4] She discovers that she cannot leave the island, as doing so would cause it to lose its magic. She spends the duration of the comic trying to lessen her fear of the animals (zoophobia) in Safe Haven, trying to adapt to the unfamiliar environment she was thrown into.[5][3]

Characters

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See also: List of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss characters
  • Alastor, a deer demon who was later removed from ZooPhobia to be placed in Hazbin Hotel.
  • Angel Dust, a spider demon who was later removed from ZooPhobia to be placed in Hazbin Hotel.
  • Autumn, a deer who often quarrels with Rusty.
  • Cameron "Cam" Walden, a human woman who came to Safe Haven by accident. She is zoophobic, with her fear of animals making it difficult for her to integrate herself into the society of Safe Haven. She is the guidance counselor at Zoo Phoenix Academy (ZPA).
  • Damian, a demon and the mischievous son of Lucifer, who is secretly attending the ZPA.
  • Jack, Damian's cousin, a superstitious jackal cursed with bad luck for eternity, despite being unable to die. Most people avoid him, fearing they will be hurt by his bad luck, but he has a small group of friends.
  • JayJay ("JJ", "JiJi", "Blue Jay"), a party-loving werewolf girl.
  • KayCee, a mysterious, all-powerful being who sends Cameron to the ZPA.[6][7][8]
  • Kayla, a theater-loving kangaroo, student at ZPA, and the girlfriend of Zill.[9]
  • Lucifer, leader of the underworld and father of Damian.
  • Nightengale, a member of JayJay's werewolf party posse.
  • Raven, a member of JayJay's werewolf party posse.
  • Reuben ("Rusty"), a stereotypical bully and a dog.
  • Robin, a member of JayJay's werewolf party posse.
  • Spam, a music-loving fox.
  • Vaggie Motha, a demon who was later removed from ZooPhobia to be placed in Hazbin Hotel.[10]
  • Vanexa, a pessimistic purple cat.
  • Zill, an animal of unknown origins. Zill is kind and friendly to many, including his best friend, Jack. He is dating Kayla.

Release

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Although the comic was originally released in 2012, Medrano mentioned creating a webcomic in December 2010.[2][11] The comic went on hiatus for an indefinite period in November 2016, reportedly because Medrano wanted to focus on developing her unpublished Angels and Demons arc of ZooPhobia into an animated series, which later became Hazbin Hotel.[1][12][13] In April 2017, Medrano said that the comic would get a "complete reboot",[14] and hinted at the same in a July 2018 Tumblr post.[15]

Short films

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"The Son of 666"

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On January 7, 2013, Medrano announced the development of an animated short film prequel to ZooPhobia as her thesis film for her third year at School of Visual Arts, to follow a younger Damian and his father Lucifer.[16] Titled "The Son of 666", and written, directed, and animated by Medrano herself,[17] the two-minute short film was released to her YouTube channel on April 15, 2013.[18]

"Bad Luck Jack"

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On September 30, 2020, Medrano released a second animated ZooPhobia short film on her YouTube channel, titled "Bad Luck Jack" and 12-minutes-long. It was funded by crowdfunding from her Patreon. The short featured various characters from the webcomic and music by Gooseworx.[2][1] Medrano said the animated short was "very special" to her.[19] Two songs in the short, "Make a Start" and "The Curse" were written by Sam Haft, while Parry Gripp wrote the song "Monster Fighting Time".[1] Bryson Baugus voiced Jack, Joe Zieja voiced Zill, Reba Buhr voiced Kayla (with Cristina Vee providing Kayla's singing voice),[20][21] and Benjamin Diskin voicing Rusty. The short was co-written by Medrano and Amanda Heard, and was animated by Medrano and her production company SpindleHorse Toons.[1]

Music video

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On October 30, 2014, Medrano released a music video set to "Die Young" by Kesha and Becky G, following the werewolf JayJay hosting a party with other ZooPhobia characters.[22] By November 2019, the animation would accumulate over 50 million views.[23] The video was taken down following the release of the season 1 finale of Helluva Boss "Queen Bee" (in which Kesha appears as Queen Bee-lzebub) due to copyright issues.

Audiovisual adaptation

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On March 2, 2016, Medrano announced ZooPhobia: The AudioVisual Adaptation to be in development, adapting the existing and unpublished comic as a semi-animated web series. It was to be scored by Gooseworx, voice directed by Connor "Connorhea" Cheely, and star Whitesin as Cameron Walden and Megan "Inky" Youmans as KayCee.[8] It has not seen completion as of 2024.

Reception

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Larry Cruz of CBR compared the journey of the protagonist, Cameron, to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.[3] Cruz also praised Medrano's artistic style as "visually appealing", calling it unconventional like a "John Kricfalusi cartoon" and called the storytelling "decent". He also criticized the story of Cameron overcoming her intense fear of animals to be "a little rushed", and said that the designs of the animal characters were too similar to each other. Ahmar Wolf of the Furry Times called the webcomic unique, adding that "whether you think it is good depends on your taste", praised the artistic style, and argued that the storyline is "out there", making it a comic you will either "love or hate".[5]

Dan Short of Animated Views differentiated the animated short, "Bad Luck Jack", from Medrano's other works, saying that it is "equivalent to a Disney Channel program like High School Musical" because it is "wholesome, super tame, contains no sexual references, and has no profanity," making it family-friendly.[1] Short also wrote that the short is visually appealing, and could serve as an introduction to those not familiar with the series. He stated that Kayla stands out because of her Australian accent, and praised the voice cast and musical numbers. Short concluded by calling the short "perfectly enjoyable".

Awards

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The animated short "Bad Luck Jack" won a Ursa Major Award in the "Best Dramatic Short Work" category in 2020.[24][25][26] The Ursa Major awards are given in the field of furry fandom works and are the main awards in the field of anthropomorphism.[27][28] The short was also listed as a "Recommended Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work" on the Ursa Major Award website.[29]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Short, Dan (October 5, 2020). "ZooPhobia: Bad Luck Jack". Animated Views. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c VivziePop (September 30, 2020). "ZooPhobia – "Bad Luck Jack" (Short)". YouTube. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Cruz, Larry (January 10, 2013). "'ZooPhobia': Fear of an animal planet". CBR. Archived from the original on March 27, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  4. ^ "ZooPhobia". The Webcomic List. June 2, 2013. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Wolf, Asher (January 10, 2013). "ZooPhobia Webcomic". Furry Times. Archived from the original on March 27, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  6. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (August 9, 2012). "fff I'm happy I can finally post lil things of KayCee; shes one of my favs to think about mmhm ^^". Retrieved August 9, 2012 – via Tumblr.
  7. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (January 21, 2013). "Livestream doodles: Alastor has a huuuuuuge crush on KayCee so doodled them lots xD also all around played with drawing him and such". Retrieved January 21, 2013 – via Tumblr.
  8. ^ a b Medrano, Vivienne (March 2, 2016). ZooPhobia: The AudioVisual Adaptation (Teaser). VivziePop. Retrieved March 2, 2016 – via YouTube. My SVA 3rd year film! Yes I've been doing Hell-cartoons this long haha!
  9. ^ Medrano, Vivienne. "Characters". Official website of ZooPhobia Comic. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  10. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (December 6, 2016). Speed Draw – Vaggie Motha – VivziePop. VivziePop. Retrieved December 6, 2016 – via YouTube.
  11. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (December 7, 2010). "Webcomic Ventures". Frightening Enthusiastic. Blogspot. Archived from the original on March 27, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  12. ^ Medrano, Vivienne [@vivziepop] (November 14, 2016). "I'm sorry guys, ZooPhobia is over until I have the time and energy to reboot it. The only art for it is exclusive to Patreon. :c" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2021 – via Twitter.
  13. ^ Miller, Caroline (March 20, 2022). "A24 Reveals Character Images for Raunchy Animated Series Hazbin Hotel". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on March 22, 2022.
  14. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (April 27, 2017). Messy ZooPhobia Ramble. VivziePop. Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved March 27, 2021 – via YouTube.
  15. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (July 8, 2018). "Since people are pointing out to me ZP ended on a cliffhanger of sorts!". VivziePop: The Silly Blog and Art of Vivienne Medrano. Tumblr. Archived from the original on March 27, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  16. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (January 7, 2013). "I wanted to make at least ONE film involving my characters, i figured a little blerb about Damian would be a blast cause he's a fun concept and I feel would make a fun film. But my teacher raised a good point, that without more backstory/info Damian doesn't look very related to his father, So I played around with their designs for the film. It takes place when Damian is a tad younger, and there are canon reasons he'd look a bit different but I haven't gotten these okayed yet. If my teacher thinks the designs are still not working enough i may just do a different film all together, cause I couldn't really bare to change either design too drastically. Though, what ever film I do end up doing I will work insanely hard on". Retrieved January 7, 2013 – via Tumblr.
  17. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (February 11, 2013). "and a quick attempt at something fun for the opening title of the film, if I can spruce this up with colors it may look neat! Also whats a better title? "Son of 666" or just "666" I dunno :B". Retrieved February 11, 2013 – via Tumblr.
  18. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (April 15, 2013). The Son of 666 – SVA (Third Year Film). VivziePop. Retrieved April 15, 2013 – via YouTube. My SVA 3rd year film! Yes I've been doing Hell-cartoons this long haha!
  19. ^ Medrano, Vivienne [@vivziepop] (September 30, 2020). "Our newest cartoon is out!! This one was very special, we have been working on it for a long time and it felt weird but wonderful to return to these characters that dominated my early years. We've come a long way 🥰 Thank you to my amazing team for creating this with me. Enjoy!!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved March 27, 2021 – via Twitter.
  20. ^ Baugus, Bryson [@BaugusBryson] (September 30, 2020). "You can hear me as the loveable Jack in @VivziePop's latest short, "Bad Luck Jack"!! I hope you guys like it! Also thanks to my bud @kellengoff for casting me in such a fun role!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020 – via Twitter.
  21. ^ Buhr, Reba [@RebaBuhr] (September 30, 2020). "I'm the speaking voice of Kayla (singing provided by @CristinaVee) in @VivziePop's new animated short ZooPhobia. I want to give a shout out to all the animators because I live for beautiful animation like this!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Medrano, Vivienne (October 30, 2014). "Die Young" – Fan Animated. VivziePop. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014 – via YouTube.
  23. ^ Short, Dan (November 7, 2019). "Hazbin Hotel [Review]". Animated Views. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  24. ^ "Voting". Ursa Major Awards. Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  25. ^ dronon (March 14, 2020). "Voting opens for the 2020 Ursa Major Awards". Flayrah. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  26. ^ O'Reily, Rod (May 2, 2021). "The Ursa Major Awards for 2020". Flayrah. InFurNation. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  27. ^ TheChainedWolf (March 14, 2020). "Ursa Major Awards 2009: predictions and forlorn hopes". Flayrah. Furtean Times. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  28. ^ Patten, Fred (July 21, 2013). "The Ursa Major Awards". Cartoon Research. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  29. ^ "Recommended Furry Art and Literature List". Ursa Major Awards. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
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