Unofficial Buffy the Vampire Slayer productions
The fictional universe established by television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been parodied or paid tribute to by a number of unofficial productions, most notably fan films and adult films.
Fan films
Several notable fan films have been inspired by the Buffyverse. Although 20th Century Fox and its licensees are the only organizations legally allowed to create any commercial products with the name and trademark Buffy and Angel, related fan films have become more common, as computer and digital technology has advanced, to allow films to be produced for less money. Furthermore, the growth of the internet has allowed such films a way be distributed amongst a potentially wide audience. This has led to several productions which have received hundreds of thousands of downloads, an entry on Internet Movie Database, and at least some attention from external media. In 2006, the periodical technology magazine, Wired featured a two-page article about several of these films.[1] These films include Cherub, an internet series that parodies Angel;[2] a machinima series produced by Foiled Productions; Fluffy the English Vampire Slayer,[3][4] a short film described as "one of the first widely watched Whedonverse fan films";[1] and Forgotten Memories,[5] an Australian production, written by Emma Paige Langley and directed by indie actor and director Darren K Hawkins. Buffy – The alliance, a French fan film by Lmpp Production was planned for shooting in May 2010.[6]
Erotic parodies
The huge success of the Buffy franchise led to a number of erotic parodies in comic and film formats. None of these stories were licensed by 20th Century Fox as official Buffy merchandise, and none would be considered Buffyverse canon. These parodies have included:
- 1993 - Muffy the Vampire Layer, a pornographic movie spoof of the Buffy film.[7]
- 1997 - Buffy the Vampire Layer, a soft pornographic movie also spoofing the Buffy film.[8]
- 2000-2001 - Boffy the Vampire Layer, a trade paperback from Fantagraphics, collecting sexually explicit comic stories satirising Buffy.[9][10][11]
- 2004 - The Erotic Adventures of Buffy and Evil Vampire Willow, an explicit parody web comic focused on the escapades of Buffy and the vampire version of Willow Rosenberg.[12]
- 2012 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer XXX: A Parody, a hardcore pornographic parody directed by Lee Roy Myers, written by "Josh Wheldon" and starring Lexi Belle as Buffy. Other characters from the television series include Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Rupert Giles, Angel, Spike, Harmony Kendall, and Jenny Calendar.[13]
The 2000 Friends episode The One Where Chandler Can't Cry shows a brief scene from the fictional Buffay the Vampire Layer.[14]
Books
In 2007, French author Chloé Delaume wrote the gamebook La nuit je suis Buffy Summers (published by Éditions è®e),[15] which is only loosely associated to the Buffyverse, and stems from the alternate reality shown in the episode "Normal Again". The reader/player takes on the role of an unnamed amnesiac psychiatric hospital patient, who escapes from her cell, is confronted with supernatural surroundings, and is involved in a plot to raise the ghost of Nietzsche's Zarathustra in order to enslave humanity. The characters encountered during the adventure are avatars of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series characters. The author has claimed this is a work of fanfiction.[16] The themes explored are those of the relative nature of reality, psychosis, and the morbid fascination for power of the French literary establishment.
Podcasts
There are a number of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan podcasts that discuss and analyze the show, including: Buffering the Vampire Slayer (recognized as one of the top podcasts in production by Time and Esquire magazines[17][18]), Still Pretty[19], Dusted[20], The Art of Slaying[21], Unspoiled!,[22] Buffy Between the Lines[23], Potential Cast[24], The Buffy Rewatch[25], The Rewatcher, and Get Slayed.[26]
Canonical and legal issues
Joss Whedon has implied that materials associated with him are considered "official" and "canon".[27][28] 20th Century Fox also grants licenses for companies to produce official Buffy and Angel merchandise, these include books, comics, novels, toys and so on.
Buffyverse fan films such as these are not licensed by Fox, and they are not closely associated with any of the crew from Buffy/Angel.
References
- Newitz, Annalee (June 8, 2006). "Fan Films Reclaim the Whedonverse". Wired.
- "Caution Zero: About Caution Zero Network". Archived from the original on December 18, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
- "Fluffy the English Vampire Slayer". Internet Movie Database.
- "Buffy gets Fluffy". BBC Cult TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. September 17, 2001.
- Langley, Emma Paige (May 27, 2006). "About". Official Forgotten Memories site.
- "Buffy – The alliance". Lmpp Production. Archived from the original on 10 July 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
- "Muffy The Vampire Layer". Internet Movie Database.
- "Buffy The Vampire Layer". Internet Movie Database.
- "Boffy the Vampire Layer". Comic Book DB.
- Gordon, Joe (February 23, 2003). "Boffy the Vampire Layer by Bruce McCorkindale". The Alien Online. Archived from the original on February 7, 2006.
- Allen, Chris (December 5, 2002). "Breakdowns – Don't Eat Strangers". Movie Poop Shoot. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
- "Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Evil Willow Cartoons". whedon.info.
- "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: A XXX Parody DVD". Adam & Eve. Archived from the original on 2012-05-13. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
- "The 7 Best Instances of Doppelganger Sex - Page 4 of 4". 7 July 2011. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
- "La nuit je suis Buffy Summers". chloedelaume.net (in French). 12 December 2012.
- Delaume, Chloé. S'écrire mode d'emploi (PDF). Cerisy autofiction symposium, July 25, 2008 (in French). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 13, 2008.
- "The 50 Best Podcasts to Listen to Right Now". Time. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "The 15 Best Podcasts of 2018 (So Far)". Esquire. 2018-09-04. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "Still Pretty". chipperish.com. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "Dusted | StoryWonk". storywonk.com. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "The Art of Slaying – A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Retrospective". www.theartofslaying.com. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "Unspoiled! Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Spreaker. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "Buffy Between the Lines". www.buffybetweenthelines.com. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "PotentialCast". Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- "The Buffy Rewatch". The Buffy Rewatch. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- Stoetzel, Katey. "Get Slayed: A Buffy Podcast Podcast". ShoutEngine. Archived from the original on 2018-11-22. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
- Rudolph, Ileane (December 7, 2006). "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Is Back: The Complete Joss Whedon Q&A". TV Guide. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
- Whedon, Joss (November 9, 2005). "Joss to never learn how to work site! Man is complete Melvin! Mock him!". Whedonesque.com. Retrieved May 26, 2008.