Picha

JeanPaul Picha Walravens Brussels Belgium 2 July 1942 is a Belgian cartoonist comics artist animator and film director He is most famous for his adult animated films such as Tarzoon Shame of the Jungle JeanPaul Walravens quickly fascinated by drawing studied at the Institute of Fine Arts SaintLuc In 1960 he contributed his work as a caricaturist and cartoonist for many newspapers and magazines around the world including National Lampoon and The New York Times During this period he adopted the pseudonym Picha A passion for drawing led Picha to the world of comics He is the author of several books as Picha at Club Med 1971 or Persona non grata 1975 After this period he went on to animation In 1975 he codirected the film Tarzoon Shame of the Jungle a raunchy parody of the Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs The film was a huge success in its home country Belgium and in France but ran through troubles with the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate when the estate sued the creators of the film for plagiarism The estate lost the case when the creators stated that the film was a parody However when the film was released in the US the estate demanded that the film title and main character Tarzoon be changed due to the films nature degrading the Tarzan name In 1979 the now Rrated film was released under the title Shame Of The Jungle and was rewritten by Saturday Night Live writers Anne Beatts and Michael ODonoghue and was dubbed by John Belushi Johnny Weissmuller Jr Bill Murray and several others Despite these efforts the film was a critical and financial flop Pichas next film was the 1980 film The Missing Link Though it wasnt as successful as Tarzoon the film was entered into the 1980 Cannes Film Festival Picha also adapted the film into a comic strip In 1984 the film was released into the US under the title BC Rock Major changes to the film included newly written dialogue by the comedy duo The Funny Boys Jim Vallely and Jonathan Schmock recut footage different voices different instrumental score the absence of the narrator with the main character telling the story and nearly all the songs written and performed by Leo Sayer have been replaced by songs by other artists including Steel Breeze Hall Oates and Rick Wakeman in order to attract a wider audience Unfortunately the film was poorly promoted on video and faded into obscurity However this version manages to have a cult following to this day Pichas future work would never be released in American theaters or any home video format Pichas next film was 1987s The Big Bang After the small success of the film Picha left the movie industry to concentrate on writing for television Pichas television works included Zoo Olympics 19901991 Zoo Cup 19921993 and Buddy Buddy A Dogs life 1995 In 2007 Picha made a comeback with Snow White The Sequel a parody of fairy tales which most animated films were doing at the time Source Article Picha from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30