Cha-Ka Has A Sna-Ka

A really quick little illustration (about an hour). I'm definitely in "Land of the Lost" mode this week-- the TV show, not the movie. I wanted one more shot at Cha-Ka before Will Ferrell sullies his name forever.

For years I've wished someone would do a big screen version of LOTL with a proper budget. I was excited when I first heard the news that they were finally making a movie, but then cringed when I read that it was going to be a WIll Farrell vehicle. Why couldn't they have made it a straight action-adventure? Why did they have to turn it into another fart comedy? And why did they have to change Cha-Ka from an innocent little ape boy to a horny breast-groping adult?

Oh well. I can still watch my DVDs of the old series.

Speaking of the old TV series, as I mentioned a few posts ago, when Cha-Ka and his family spoke, they weren't just saying "Ooga booga." The producers hired a linguist to come up with a simple language for the Pakuni. You can see some of it here. My favorite Pakuni phrase was "Uganza besasa," which means "big magic." I loved the way Cha-Ka would say it; "Oooo-GAN-zaaa bee-SAH-saaaaa!"

By the way, you may wonder why I drew Cha-Ka's ear way up on the side of his head like that. Believe it or not, that's the way his ears were on the TV show!

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.
Here's the original sketch for Cha-Ka. The final drawing changed quite a bit, most likely because I drew the sketch from memory, and then did a little bit of research for the final drawing. His hair got poofed up a lot more, I moved his ear up higher to be TV accurate, and I took the bamboo shoot out of his mouth.