This is the marvelous Dodo we are going to see on Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in March. Even before this image was out, I knew I was going to love the film: it has a dodo and it’s directed by Tim Burton, what makes the story a slightly darker and twisted.

I found that image on this empire article: New Alice In Wonderland Stills And Video. Yes, there is one more featurette video on the site, with more new images. The tiny article also: Highlights this time include a look at the creation of Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both Matt Lucas) and art of the Dodo, the Cheshire Cat and another look at Anne Hathaway’s White Queen.

The other 2 images of my interest can be checked bellow:

The article ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Exclusive: How Tim Burton’s Characters Progress on Moviefone shows how the two images above were created. And in case you didn’t watch, here is the link to the trailer.

Marcello Cazzaniga sent me a nice e-mail with 2 those lovely dodo images:

I am Marcello from Italy I always follow your blog, I love Dodo.
I play figure ice skating in Italy, with some other adults like me …we are not so artistic so we use to call us Dodo group, because we are near to the extinction
But our motto is “I can’t fly but I can slide”.
I send you some images of some dodos that I designed for some pins and cards.
I hope you will appreciate them.

Sure I did! And thanks for sharing them Marcello.

Beautiful black & white picture of a Dodo statue by David Champion, aka, biker500, with a pinhole camera.

Well it’s what they think a Dodo looks like round here. Pinhole image on 135 Rollei Retro 100. Six second exposure.

Hello Kitty cartoon also has its own version of Alice in Wonderland: a 24min. episode. The cartoon was uploaded in 3 parts by aayla666, and I made a playlist with it on YouTube. You can watch the complete episode below in sequence. (via the NSFW ofellabuta)

No time for the video? You can go directly to the dodo images I saved from the video on the following gallery:

Le dodo appartement by  Mai Kangas on Flickr. And now, thanks to Mai, we know where he is living in Mauritius. I should call him.

Conservation Status – Animals, Fantasy, Zombies T-shirt by Aled Lewis.

This design was originally based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species but I noticed how many awesome creatures they missed out. So I added them in. I plan on screen printing these in the New Year and selling them via my website, so check back if you’re interested. Thanks!

I don’t care much for auction, unless is something really impressive, like the image above: A dodo. Yes, a dodo, but not a regular dodo image, a dodo watercolour from the Dutch School. The Dutch, the same people that colonized Mauritius, and a drawing is from the 17th Century, which means that the chances of that painting had a real dodo as a model were pretty high.

The Lot Notes from Christie’s page:

This previously unpublished drawing of a dodo is an important and interesting addition to the known images of this iconic extinct bird. First recorded by Dutch mariners who explored Mauritius in the last years of the 16th Century, the dodo was extinct by 1700, and has fascinated the popular consciousness ever since. Early images which are extremely rare, can usually be linked to one of a handful of prototypes. However, this vibrant study has no relation to any of the known visual sources. It rivals in vivacity the representations by Jacob Hoefnagel (circa 1610; National Library of Austria) and the head study, possibly from life, by Cornelis Saftleven (1638; Boymans Museum, Rotterdam; E. Fuller, Dodo: From Extinction to Icon, London, 2002, pp. 80-81, 111). The possibility that the present drawing was also sketched from life, while unlikely, cannot be completely discounted. Live dodos are known to have been transported from Mauritius as curiosities. A dodo was recorded at the menagerie of the Mogul Emperor Jahangir in about 1625 (Institute of Oriental Studies, St Petersburg; Fuller, op. cit., pp. 94-5); and, in about 1638, Sir Hamon L’Estrange saw a live dodo exhibited in London (Fuller, op. cit., p. 69). The present drawing is unusual, however, in the lightness of the plumage. It has some similarities to the colouring of the bird shown in a watercolour by Pieter Holsteyn (Teylers Museum, Haarlem), dating from the 1630s. Traditionally called the White Dodo of Réunion, the bird in the Teylers drawing is now thought to show an albino specimen (Fuller, op. cit., p. 170), which may also be the case in the present drawing.

The inscription on this drawing, ‘Dronte’, was the Dutch 17th-century name for the dodo, although at this period it was also used in a number of other languages including French and Italian.

So, I was fascinated for that incredible preciosity, but, there was a little problem, the price: Christie’s estimated it around £5,000 – £7,000. Actually my first thought was: that is too cheap for what it really is. I asked for donations, but, oh well, got none. And since I didn’t have all that money on my walled on that moment, I didn’t buy it (if I was millionaire I would easy try to buy it).

In the end, I didn’t buy it and the estimated price was really low: it was sold for £44,450. A much more reasonable price for it, in my humble opinion. It deserved a even higher price, however, I’m not the best person to estimate the price of a dodo image.

If you want to appreciate a bigger version of it, go to explore the Christie’s Zoom Image page.

The ads images are from the following pages of Ads of the World: Bourbon Beer: Music, Bourbon Beer: Picnic and Bourbon Beer: Fishing; and from Flickr: Sa mem’Dodo! uploaded by mwanasimba. For even more ads or photos of La Dodó, visit the Flickr community La Dodo lé la.

The animator and designer Evan Boucher sent me a link to one of his old projects: DIGM 560: Advanced Applications in 3D Interactivity featuring Dodo’s Electrode Induced Behavior Study. You can play with the dodo checking his reactions when certain areas of his brain are stimulated, making him happy, angry, frightened or sad. Sad dodo is too sad, better keep only on the 3 previous emotions.

More images of his dodo project below:

I have no idea how or when did I found this, but probably a long long time ago a saved a link the following PDF: Fiches Thématiques De la Bibliothèque du MHNG nº2 – Le Dodo. The MHNG in question is the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de la Ville de Genève. I tried to find a page that links to that PDF without any luck, so I choose share it directly.

The thematic card is all in French, but if you already know the dodos history there are not many news on it. It tells the sad story of our so much loved bird, the researches all over the years, more ornithology info about it, suggestion of books, and 3 images. One is the cute dodo above, and the other two are:  Facsimile of Savery’s figure of the Dodo in his picture of the Fall of Adam in the Royal Gallery, Berlin and a dodo image from The dodo and its kindred by A.G.Melville (1848).