Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, welcome to another Popular Poptropican interview! ⭐️ We have two guests today, Isaac and Theo, who together form the Dimension Bros. They’ve been making Poptropica (and other) fan videos (some of which are for ages 13+) on YouTube for over a year now, and are also known for heading up the Poptropica Month fan video event.

Welcome, Dimension Bros! Let’s pop into it.

What inspires you to create Poptropica videos?

Before we started, the only Poptropica YouTube videos you could even find were all just playthroughs and walkthroughs, nothing but gameplay. So we felt like there was just a huge hole for content in that area. Being one of the only channels making Poptropica videos that aren’t just playthroughs is pretty inspiring just due to the fact that it’s our job to fill that void that no one else seems to be filling.

The ~~Earth~~ Poptropica Help Blog is pleased to share this Dimension Bros video of Theo reacting to players’ Poptropicans.

What advice would you give to aspiring Poptropica YouTubers?

Solid advice for any YouTuber is just to focus on making content you want to make, and whatever is fun for you. But if you’re interested in Poptropica videos specifically, you could consider taking part in our Poptropica Month 2021 collab this September. All you need to do is make your Poptropica video, let us know about it, and we’ll add it to our playlist! Last year’s playlist has over 1,000 views, so taking part in Poptropica Month is a great way to give your channel a little extra boost from the Pop fandom! There’s a video on our channel about how to join.

Shameless self promo aside, as long as you’re enjoying the video-making process, people should enjoy watching them! It’s not hard to tell when a lot of love went into a video, and that’s all that really matters.

What do you enjoy about the Poptropica community?

Theo: I enjoy everyone’s dedication to keeping the memory of Poptropica alive. You’d think for a game that had a majority of its content removed, fans would’ve left, and a lot did, but some fans have stuck around and are keeping the fandom chugging along! Like the PHB continuing to write posts and hold events, and fan artists continuing to draw their favorite characters, it’s nice to see a small but dedicated fandom still be so active for what little is left of the game.

Isaac: Having been a part of a lot of fandoms throughout my time on the internet, I’ve always found it interesting how close all the Poptropica fandom is. For better or worse, everyone in the fandom has had at least one interaction with pretty much everyone else. I feel like this creates a really good sense of unity. Every time the creators do something dumb (like forgetting the name of one of their own characters) the entire fandom unites to complain about it. And in a weird way, that’s kinda nice.

Publick House: This place on Cryptids Island could use some customers. Come right in!

What do you hope for the future of Poptropica and its fandom?

Isaac: My main hope for the future of the Poptropica fandom is that everyone on the Poptropica Help Chat will change their nickname to “#ISAAC4MOD” in an attempt to “vote” me into office as the next PHC moderator 😉

Theo: In an ideal world, Poptropica would port all of the old islands and the game would be fully restored, but it looks like that’ll never happen. All I can hope for now is that more people take part in the Poptropica Rewritten project as an attempt to save Poptropica. (You can learn more about that project in another DB video we have on our channel.)

World Warriors: Welcome back to the stage of history.

What is your favorite feature (still here or gone) from the many years of Poptropica?

Theo: Obviously the feature everyone misses most is THE ISLANDS, but another feature I really miss are the minigames you got from the store. I’m pretty sure I spent more time playing Shrink Shot than I did playing any actual islands as a kid. Another feature I miss dearly are all of the personality questions you could answer on your friends page, as well as that whole page in general.

Isaac: While it may have made little impact on gameplay, I really liked when you had to go to Early Poptropica during the events of Counterfeit Island. This along with details such as Zeus destroying a bunch of the other islands during the events of Super Villain really made Poptropica feel like one big cohesive game rather than a bunch of small separate ones. (And if you know me, you know I love theorizing on the connections of all the islands.)

What is your favorite Easter egg/reference in Poptropica?

Isaac: The entirety of Survival Island is a huge reference to one of my favorite short stories, “The Most Dangerous Game,” so playing through that is always enjoyable. I’m also a big fan of all the Marvel references in PoptropiCon, especially the Mighty Action Force card game, seeing as I’m a huge board/card game nerd. (Also, creators, if you’re reading this, you should make the MAF card game into a real thing!)

Theo: I really enjoy all of the references to Alcatraz in Escape from Pelican Rock. It’s no surprise that the island contains references to Alcatraz since the whole premise is based off the Alcatraz prison break, but having guards recite certain dialogue said in the prison, and having your Poptropican escape in almost an identical way to real escapees is cool. Also the PHB nod in that island is a fun easter egg too.

How do you feel about the Pop Creators fearing you?

Powerful.

*On a Dimension Bros post on Instagram* about the upcoming Pop Month being funeral themed, the Poptropica Creators jokingly called the duo “Dimension Foes.”

🌟 Would you like to be the next Popular Poptropican? 🌟

To nominate yourself or someone you know, contact the PHB with the following:

the name of your nominee (a Poptropica name or other screen name)
a reason why your nominee should be the next Popular Poptropican

Thank you for reading, and stay awesome, Poptropicans!

~🐠

Guest Posts, Pop 5

Pop 5: Islands Resembling Movies 🎥🍿

July 15, 2021July 13, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Barefoot Knuckle. Enjoy!

Okay, so I don’t know about you, but do you ever play a Poptropica island, and you’re like, “Huh, this reminds me of that movie I saw last week.” If not, then let me show you some of my favorite comparisons. These comparisons are probably just coincidental, and some of these islands were made before the movie, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to talk about!

Green Screen: Nothing like the magic of special effects.

1. Escape From Pelican Rock Island = Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

I mean, this movie is practically the island! You’ve got the evil doppelgänger who frames the hero for a crime they didn’t commit. Next thing they know, they’re in one of the most top guarded prisons in the entire world with a very committed warden with no hope of escape.

And while the hero tries to come up with a plan to break out, they make friends with the inmates. In the end they get to kick their evil twin to the curb on top of a tower and restore order. If you take away the musical numbers, the globe-trotting theme, Josh Groban, and the other guest star appearances from Muppets Most Wanted, you’ve got Escape From Pelican Rock Island.

2. Time Tangled Island = Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014)

I loved playing Time Tangled Island when I was younger (and before non-players weren’t allowed to play it). I also loved watching Mr. Peabody and Sherman with my parents as well. My dad watched the original Mr. Peabody and Sherman shorts when he was a kid, so this movie means a lot to the both of us.

In terms of similar plots, you have a time machine gone haywire, a journey through several time periods, and meeting famous people. Although we didn’t get to go to Egypt or the French Revolution, we did go to France to the Statue of Liberty. There may not have been a genius dog or a creepy wooden child (watch the trailer, you’ll see what I’m talking about) but the approach of a time-traveling adventure in both forms of media are very similar. In both, the characters got to try out Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine so, yeah.

There’s also a Meet the Robinsons (2007) feel when you get to fix the future and meet your future self.

3. Night Watch Island = Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)

I mean, it’s about a character who’s hired as a security guard being alone in a mall during a robbery that occurs at night. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t put in a Poptropican that looks like Kevin James on this island. Paul Blart: Mall Cop is rated PG, but there is a scene where, because Blart is diabetic, he starts getting a little crazy when he accidentally ingests alcohol. It was cool to have a hero who has a health condition though. Represent!

I do know for a fact that the movie was really funny and the segway scenes were boss. Unlike Night Watch, though, there was no snake. But there is a spray tanner scene and you get to see him just hanging out in the mall like you can do on Night Watch Island.

4. Cryptids Island = Missing Link (2019)

This is such a sweet film. And a very interesting island. Though they both have their differences, these two go hand in hand. Both involve the discovery of many different cryptids and they both investigate the Loch Ness Monster (the one in Missing Link is a lot meaner though), the Yeti (in both, the Yetis were a dead end), and of course, Bigfoot.

There is also the presence of a rich man spending his fortune on finding these creatures. And may I say, both forms of media do a brilliant job with their villains. Missing Link has two villains, but Poptropica’s Gretchen Grimlock makes up for being just one with her ability to pop up from nowhere. She was more like Missing Link’s hitman Stenk in the novelization of Cryptids Island in that she was always trying to attack the main character wherever she went. In the game, she’s closer to resembling the movie’s boss villain, Lord Piggot Duncey, because she appears at the beginning and the end to claim what is hers. Surprisingly in both, you get to watch the villains fall to their deaths thousands of feet in the air.

And talk about Poptropica globe trotting! You get to take a boat out on the loch in Scotland to find Nessie, you get to meet Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest, and you get to climb the Himalayas to look for the Yeti.

5. Astro-Knights Island = Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

Just look at these two pictures. To quote The Office, “They’re the same picture.” In the first Star Wars movie, unlikely heroes take to the stars to rescue a princess and save a galaxy. Along the way, they battle aliens and come face-to-face with a half-robot villain who has the princess held captive and harbors a dark secret about their identity. Sounds like whoever developed the storyline for Astro-Knights Island was a Star Wars fan.

They both have a smart, strong, and independent princess who can defend themselves (Princess Leia using a blaster and Princess Elyana kicking Mordred to the curb), awesome spaceships, a cyborg villain, and at the end, the heroes receive medals in a fancy ceremony.

Any Star Wars fans in the Pop community will definitely enjoy the return of Astro-Knights Island now that they know the Jabba-weight it carries. In a way, I guess we always had a Star Wars Island. Too bad “Jedi Knight Island” would run into copyright issues.

Bonus: Fairytale Island (2021) = Happily N’Ever After and others

Check out my previous post where I compared Poptropica’s latest island to various movies and more: Fairytale Island: A storybook of many pop culture references.

That’s a wrap for this Pop 5! Stay tuned for the next posts about Pop Culture Islands where instead of comparing Poptropica islands, I’ll be comparing Poptropica characters to their popular media counterparts. Be warned, the next post may get a little… villainous.

(Try to guess who her Poptropican counterpart is in the comments.)

Oh, and also let me know what Poptropican villains you want me to draw for my next post. By the way, here are my drawings of Poptropican princesses with their Disney princess counterparts. (Click to enlarge!)

P.S. Before I go, let’s just take a moment to thank the kind soul who decided to put Napoleon Dynamite in Poptropica.

*If anything, he should have come in at the end of Mocktropica and somehow used his nunchucks to save the day. Or a bo staff. I hear he’s pretty good with those.*

Now that was pure poetry.

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Barefoot Knuckle. If you did, you might also enjoy her other guest posts here, including her Pop Fan Artist Spotlight!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨

Fanfiction, Guest Posts

Fanfic: The Princess and the Raven, part 2 👸🏻🐦

July 14, 2021June 15, 2022 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Shy Scorpion. Enjoy!

Hi again! I’m Shy Scorpion and earlier this month I wrote a fan-fiction called The Princess and the Raven based on a picture by a fellow Poptropican named Barefoot Knuckle. I said that I was going to continue it, so now I think it’s time. Hope you enjoy it, here we go…

An examination room in Dr. Snow White’s veterinary clinic. Dr. Snow White is holding a clipboard and a pen. While Ringmaster Raven sits in a chair and looks around with curiosity and judgement.

DR. WHITE:
So let’s start this off. How are you today, Mr. Ringmaster Raven?

RAVEN:
I prefer Mr. Raven, but I am completely fine.

DR. WHITE:
Good to know! But Mr. Raven, if you are completely fine, then why are you here today?

RAVEN:
As you know, I had quite the episode and was branded a criminal. Even though I am not in prison anymore, I am still watched closely everywhere I go by the Poptropica justice system. I have been told that I need a physical and mental check, and that you can CLUCK provide that.

DR. WHITE:
(smiles) Yes, I can. Now let’s start that physical exam?

DR. WHITE takes a stethoscope to measure RAVEN’S heart rate. Next she looks in his ears, eyes, and mouth. She takes many notes on her clipboard, all while she and Raven ask back and forth questions.

RAVEN:
CLUCK Why did you decide to open a veterinarian office?

DR. WHITE:
I’ve always loved animals, and opening a doctor’s office where I could help them was a dream come true.

RAVEN:
(mutters to himself) CLUCK Must be nice for a dream to come true.

DR. WHITE:
(looks sadly at him for a moment, then brightens) Well, Mr. Raven, you are in excellent shape and are very healthy and strong. Good job! Now we’re going to do the mental exam. Please answer honestly, it makes my job a whole lot easier.

RAVEN:
(loses self-confidence) Do we CLUCK have to? I CLUCK really don’t feel CLUCK like it today.

DR. WHITE:
(thinks for a second) Look, Mr. Raven, I get that your life has been pretty rough and that you have done some pretty bad things. But I once read a fortune cookie that said “A bad start doesn’t dictate a bad ending.” So just try! I know you can do this.

RAVEN:
(looks stunned for a second) Okay, let’s do this.

Well, that’s it for now! Check out the original post by Barefoot Knuckle and the first part of The Princess and the Raven here. I hope you enjoyed this! Be on the lookout for the next part!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Shy Scorpion. If you did, you might also enjoy Barefoot Knuckle’s post which inspired this one!

Clubhouse, Guest Posts

Clubhouse Tour: Silver Gamer 🏡

July 14, 2021July 13, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Silver Gamer. Enjoy!

Hi, what’s popping? Before I begin, I want to give a quick introduction. (Might share more in a future My Place in Poptropica post.) I go by the Poptropica name Silver Gamer, and my username is Wolf_Hunter77. Here’s a quick picture of my Poptropica family:

So there’s me, my pet dog (trained on Red Dragon Island), and my dryad (which is what caused me to need a heavy duty contact lens when we went to catch it).

Let’s begin the tour! Below you can see the entrance is very grand and amazing. (Everyone reads the sign, because I never have guests.)

Next let’s see my room. It has some good books and a good bed, and above is my area where I read the books, pet my dog… and hope my dryad is happy, so it doesn’t sting me and end up dividing the house between my overly protective canine and my deadly mutant fairy again. That fight ended when my dog wasted my coins by hiring the lumberjacks.

Next is the museum. I have many stolen—I mean rare—artifacts here, such as Poptropica’s first rocket found on Lunar Colony, a crystal skull from Nabooti, a painting of the Mordred from the museum on Counterfeit, a statue I found on Super Villain, a dragon from the treasures of Astro-Knights, and a sacred tome from Vampire’s Curse.

Now for the gaming setup, it has the latest and greatest things, such as the newest computer from the Time Tangled future, a great chair from the store, and speakers from Game Show. On the computer, I play Legendary Swords, because that’s the only game that will work. Also if you want to know how I get wifi — it’s from the pineapple.

Now for the last part of the tour, I will show you my TV room. My TV room has the best TV in Poptropica, which I found on Zomberry, and my couch I stole from the Baron. As for my closet, that’s where my dog hides when he’s at war with the dryad.

So to finish the tour I will do two things: 1) revile the fact that all of the islands I have mentioned, I have not visited; and 2) show the greatest minds in Poptropica!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Silver Gamer. If you did, you might also enjoy other clubhouse tours we’ve featured, like this one from Silver Horse. Consider sharing yours, too!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!

Clubhouse, Guest Posts

Gamer Clubhouse Tour: Theo’s Ghost 🏠🎮

July 12, 2021July 11, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Theo’s Ghost. Enjoy!

Greetings PHB readers! I’m Theo, my Poptropican’s name is Perfect Ghost, and the name I use online is a combination of the two, Theo’s Ghost. You may know me from the YouTube channel Dimension Bros, where me and my best friend Isaac make Poptropica (and other) YouTube videos (for ages 13+). But today isn’t about my YouTube career.

Instead it’s going to be a tour of my clubhouse! I’ve seen quite a few clubhouse tours on the PHB and since the Poppies 2021 have a “Coolest Clubhouse” category, what better time than now to showcase my clubhouse to all of the wonderful PHB readers out there! I’ve shared screenshots of my clubhouse on Discord in the past, so you may already recognize it, but no one has ever seen the full clubhouse in all its glory, until today.

However, I must specify that my clubhouse is not your typical Poptropica abode. My clubhouse is more of an art piece rather than a cool place I’ve designed for my Poptropican to live. It’s meant to be more for aesthetic value than to actually serve any function to Perfect Ghost. It’s the clubhouse equivalent of high fashion. Clothes you see on runways aren’t meant for practical use, but rather for appreciating the design and artistry that it took to create them, while normal clothes like t-shirts and such are for practical everyday use. So now that we’ve established what my clubhouse is, let’s take a look.

The clubhouse was built around one specific piece: the “eat sleep game repeat” poster that can be found in the store for only 100 credits. This poster really called out to me and I just knew I had to fill my clubhouse with it.

The entryway is surrounded by the “eat sleep game repeat” posters, to set up the observer for what they are about to experience when they come into my clubhouse. And apologies for the low resolution images, the Haxe version of Poptropica doesn’t lend itself well to taking nice screenshots.

As you saw above, the main section of the clubhouse is filled with nothing but “eat sleep game repeat” posters, as they fill up a majority of the wall space. I think the black contrast against my pink/purple gradient wallpaper is a lovely visual experience. Plus, the sheer overload of “eat sleep game repeat” posters is sure to elicit some form of emotional response from all who view it. I know whenever I look at the absurd amount of posters I have, it fills me with a lot of joy, and I hope it does the same for you lovely PHB readers.

But don’t be fooled, there are more than just posters in this clubhouse.

Here is what I like to call “the gamer zone.” It’s just a gamer desk and gamer chair from the store in the bottom right hand corner of the room, but I think it’s a nice touch. It is, of course, surrounded by “eat sleep game repeat” posters, as they are the main visual motif of the clubhouse. Now, you may be wondering, how can one eat, sleep, game and repeat if all the Poptropican is afforded is but a lonely desk?

Well, the soda cup in the cup holder is clearly filled with some nutritious beverage for keeping one alive (eat), the gamer chair is excellently padded and extremely comfortable (sleep), and of course the PC is there to play lots and lots of Poptropica (game), and you need no external object to repeat. The gamer zone is more than just the dedicated gaming area, but the dedicated living area, as the zone is designed to keep the gamer alive.

To the left side of the clubhouse we have more sparsely placed “eat sleep game repeat” posters. Now you may think this is because I was either running out of credits or got lazy, but you would be wrong. I still have thousands of credits in the bank as I am very Poptropica-rich thanks to my membership, and I would never allow myself to get lazy when it comes to creating an art piece such as my Poptropica clubhouse.

The sparsity of the posters on the left side is to represent drifting further from the gamer zone which is on the right. The further the gamer drifts from his gaming chair and gamer desk, he loses sight of his mission, which is to eat, sleep, game and repeat. Thus, the poster is in less abundance.

In the top right corner of the room there is a single bunch of mushrooms. These are to represent the fungus that non-gamers are like on society, and how their non-gamerness is like dirt upon a nice wood floor.

And that’s it! That is my clubhouse tour completed, and hopefully you have a better understanding of the world now that you’ve seen my art. This clubhouse costed me a lot of credits, and it was also excruciating using the Poptropica clubhouse decorator tool to place down all of those “eat sleep game repeat” posters, so showing my clubhouse some appreciation by helping it win the Poppies 2021 award for “Coolest Clubhouse” would be poggers!

Anyway, that’s all from me. Now go eat, sleep, game and repeat!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Theo’s Ghost. If you did, you might also enjoy other clubhouse tours we’ve shared here on the PHB.

Author: Slanted Fish

Popular Poptropicans: Dimension Bros