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Two HB 70's tributes in one day? What's up with that, you may be asking? Well, it's like this: I had the Hong Kong Phooey trib done yesterday, and I camped out in front of the TV last night and scrawled out this Grape Ape piece while watching Pirates of The Caribbean. So I'd originally intended to post one of these per day, but I had this piece all done and rather than just have it sit here, figured screw it, I'll just post it anyway.

I took some liberties with this trib. Much as I loved the original, I saw stuff I wanted to change for my own satisfaction. I did a rehaul on Grape Ape himself, making him look more like an actual gorilla rather than the ambiguous anthropomorphic giant purple clone of Gleek the Space Money (Superfriends) that he appeared as in the original show. Big difference between monkeys and gorillas, after all, and by all accounts, Grapey's supposed to be a "Gorililililililia!!!!" I also tweaked Grapey's color. In the cartoon, his color came awful close to being in the pink range rather than the purple. So I made sure to keep the big guy REALLY purple. With Beagle Beagle, there wasn't much to change, really. White dog, black ears, red cap with yellow trim. Voila, done and done. Anyway, I hope I did justice to the original concept, regardless of my alterations.

On a related note, I'd like to dedicate this piece to the memory of Grape Ape's voice, Bob Holt, possibly the most underrated voice actor of our time. Holt had worked since the 60's, doing a lot of voices for Depaite-Freleng's studio (they created The Pink Panther cartoons and others). He had his voice in countless Hanna Barbera cartoons besides Grape Ape, and in 1976 voiced the wizard Avatar in one of my all-time favorite animated films, Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. Holt's last great accomplishment before his death in 1985 was helping to voice the slew of malevolent Mogwais in Joe Dante's Gremlins. Besides a dead-on impersonator of Peter Falk, I hadn't originally realized the range of Holt's abilities. On Grape Ape, I'd first believed the character to be voiced by Disney regular Candy Candido, who had a gravely baratone voice that seemed impossible to recreate. When I found out it was Holt, I knew this guy was the real deal, of Mel Blanc/Frank Welker/Jim Cummings stock. It also made me sad that no one ever mentioned him in the pantheon of great voice talent. So here's to the man who gave more than people knew, and deserved better recognition for his efforts.

Description
Two HB 70's tributes in one day? What's up with that, you may be asking? Well, it's like this: I had the Hong Kong Phooey trib done yesterday, and I camped out in front of the TV last night and scrawled out this Grape Ape piece while watching Pirates of The Caribbean. So I'd originally intended to post one of these per day, but I had this piece all done and rather than just have it sit here, figured screw it, I'll just post it anyway.

I took some liberties with this trib. Much as I loved the original, I saw stuff I wanted to change for my own satisfaction. I did a rehaul on Grape Ape himself, making him look more like an actual gorilla rather than the ambiguous anthropomorphic giant purple clone of Gleek the Space Money (Superfriends) that he appeared as in the original show. Big difference between monkeys and gorillas, after all, and by all accounts, Grapey's supposed to be a "Gorililililililia!!!!" I also tweaked Grapey's color. In the cartoon, his color came awful close to being in the pink range rather than the purple. So I made sure to keep the big guy REALLY purple. With Beagle Beagle, there wasn't much to change, really. White dog, black ears, red cap with yellow trim. Voila, done and done. Anyway, I hope I did justice to the original concept, regardless of my alterations.

On a related note, I'd like to dedicate this piece to the memory of Grape Ape's voice, Bob Holt, possibly the most underrated voice actor of our time. Holt had worked since the 60's, doing a lot of voices for Depaite-Freleng's studio (they created The Pink Panther cartoons and others). He had his voice in countless Hanna Barbera cartoons besides Grape Ape, and in 1976 voiced the wizard Avatar in one of my all-time favorite animated films, Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. Holt's last great accomplishment before his death in 1985 was helping to voice the slew of malevolent Mogwais in Joe Dante's Gremlins. Besides a dead-on impersonator of Peter Falk, I hadn't originally realized the range of Holt's abilities. On Grape Ape, I'd first believed the character to be voiced by Disney regular Candy Candido, who had a gravely baratone voice that seemed impossible to recreate. When I found out it was Holt, I knew this guy was the real deal, of Mel Blanc/Frank Welker/Jim Cummings stock. It also made me sad that no one ever mentioned him in the pantheon of great voice talent. So here's to the man who gave more than people knew, and deserved better recognition for his efforts.