Killer Bean: From Pellets to Grains

News about the imminent appearance of a roguelike shooter Killer Bean caused me a flurry of seemingly forgotten memories. In my head, like a kaleidoscope, frames of a short cartoon flashed through my head, telling the story of a militant anthropomorphic bean that alone bent down an entire mafia. Moreover, what tormented my memory most of all was a nuance noticed in my youth: trousers are disgusting for characters with a bean-grain shape, and therefore they shamelessly show off the lower part of their body, which is painfully similar to a sirloin.

Hello everyone, Cheezzy purple beard is here, and let’s find out a little about the appearance of the bean killer. Who became the prototype for him, why is the hero in the bean-grain form, and also what does the cow, who knows how to do kung fu, have to do with it?.

The story of the emergence of a food killer begins long before the idea itself. The starting point should be considered 1973, which was marked by the birth of the future author of the bean killer – Jeffrey Lew, who later shortened his name to Jeff. The formation of a creative personality, the awareness of the craving for creation, which usually fits into two lines in many sources, was once described in detail by the animator on the now defunct website “3D Festival”. But, as they say, everything that was on the Internet remains on the Internet.

From a very young tender age, Jeff watched exclusively action films. He was imbued with a love for martial arts, in particular oriental ones. Therefore, as soon as he had the opportunity to film something in high school, he didn’t think twice about it. Using a video camera borrowed from his father, the future animator and his friends began to rivet parodies of their favorite action films on a production scale. Of course, instead of movie masterpieces, stupid, stupid films were released. As an example of the extravagance of the resulting paintings, Jeff remembered the name of one of them – Cyborg Ninjas Gone Bad.

Graduation from school led to a natural separation from friends, and to a difficult choice of a future path. As a result of much thought, the next step in the animator’s development was studying at Columbia University to become an electrical engineer. Yes, not everyone works in their specialty.

Interview with Jeff Liu on the 3D Festival website, via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20030326193919/http://www.3dfestival.com/story.php?story_id=821&page=5

While studying the exact sciences, Jeff did not forget about his own creative nature. Fully aware of the absurdity of staged battles in home films, he plunges headlong into martial arts in order to prevent this from happening in the future. It takes four years to learn taekwondo, another one to learn karate, and after graduating from college, Jeff becomes interested in kung fu.

As the animator himself admits, martial arts training allowed him to better understand the body and how it moves. The skills acquired not only helped in creating animation, but also predetermined the genre of future work.

In parallel with studying martial arts, Jeff is trying his hand at acting. As described on the website dedicated to the second short film about the bean killer, the animator filmed quite a lot where. Of course, there is no talk of any main roles. However, great cinema did not pass by the creator. Among the extras in the last shot of the American comedy "Wong Fu, with gratitude for everything! Julie Newmar", in which Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze appeared, you can find Jeff. True, no matter how much we poked our eyes with a beard, no matter how closely we looked closely with a magnifying glass, we could not find a future animator. Eh, apparently, our undoubtedly eagle-eyed gaze is being replaced by old-age night blindness.

There’s Jeff around here somewhere

Website for the second short film

After graduating from college, Jeff gets a job as a web designer. He spends all his free time, including a little bit of sleep, studying computer animation. Having gained a little experience in this matter, Jeff finally decides to create a short film. And before we touch on it, let’s take a look at the animator’s creative soup from which the bean killer emerged. Fortunately, Sherlocks from the Internet still managed to find one of the creator’s early sites.

Jeff Lew’s website

Jeff Lew’s website

On the fragmentary page that has been preserved you can see Jeff’s first works. Although not even that. Because, unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the characters, but please get acquainted with their background.

The legendary Space Marine Xemo represents the very first human model created by the animator. Once upon a time, this brave warrior planned to wear green hair and emphasize his cool style with volleyball glasses, but fate decreed otherwise. The young rebel suddenly matured, preferring a more restrained appearance.

The second character born from under Jeff’s mouse cursor is the fatal, charming Sky Lark, who earns her way through espionage for a slice of gorbuka with caviar. Moreover, she trades not just anywhere, but in the rotten, lying city of Blue City, whose inhabitants are under the yoke of tyranny. Although it is not destined to see images of a beauty through the years, it is possible to imagine common features. For which I thank my fellow creator, who added a little behind-the-scenes knowledge to the hero’s description.

The deadly spy in https://euphoriawins.uk/bonus/ all the drawings that have now sunk into oblivion was depicted not in full growth and with an absolutely serious face. Probably, the charming girl would have captivated men with great pleasure with her smile and slender wasp waist, but it was not possible for her to do this. No, not because of my father’s strict upbringing, or some of Jeff’s views. It’s just that the animator, having spent a lot of time creating the character, was never able to give the spy teeth and legs. Although in the future I still planned to finish drawing.

Jeff Lew’s website

Jeff Lew’s website

Jeff Lew’s website

The bean killer, nicknamed Jack Bean, became Jeff’s first 3D model. On his old website, the animator describes him as the coolest hero possible. A killer whose first pistol is engraved with the offender’s name, and the second with his last name.

Here you can also see the emerging comic universe (let’s call it that), which will run like a red line through all the works of the bean character. The fact is that for many years the author, advertising cartoons about hot beans, will create an allusion to the films. Like, in reality, Jack Bean is a rather violent fellow, but everything that happens on the screen is a film recorded on a video camera. In this connection, incidents from the filming will be told on the pages of the site, and a little later on YouTube the main character will talk about how this or that scene was filmed.

This kind of presentation of cartoons, it seems to us, was explained by Jeff many years ago. On an old site dedicated to the second part of the bean saga.

Having said goodbye to college, the future animator suddenly realized that acting did not bring him income. Then, in search of crisp bucks, Jeff rushes into the maelstrom of web design, but he is in no hurry to bury his dream of cinema, in particular the director’s chair. That’s why, wanting to make his own film, the creator turns to animation. As for a cheaper, in his opinion, alternative. Subsequently, the dream of creating a film was reflected in the peculiar presentation of cartoons, ala everything that happened we filmed in reality.

Here, on the website about the second short film, Jeff shared the idea of ​​​​creating a cool killer. Its round, bean-like shape with arms and legs is the result of its low skills in animation software at the time. Because you can’t imagine a simpler character. But the hero himself, his personality, his habits, according to the author, were borrowed from the John Woo film "Hitman". From a work about a charismatic professional killer who finds himself hostage to his own feelings. And, yes. There is no connection between Bean Jack and John Wick. Because, as the deadly bean himself said in the top ten of his best murders, Keanu Reeves’ character is no match for him.

Top 10 Killer Bean Kills [4K]

For the first time, Jack Bean appeared in a short short film called “Interrogation,” which didn’t even reach three minutes. The main character, according to a simple plot, is captured by enemies and brilliantly extricates himself from a difficult situation. Of course, he is helped in this by his precise eye, dexterous fingers and two powerful pistols. True, the protagonist appears to the viewer not in his best shape. Instead of an anthropomorphic bean or a coffee bean with legs, we will see a red ovoid, which lacks the letter “M” on its belly to fit into the image of the popular multi-colored dragees.

Original Killer Bean – Remastered

The short film received minor success abroad, but most importantly, it became a teaching tool for Jeff. A successful breakthrough that set a positive dynamic for the creator. After all, after about two years he gets his first professional job as an animator. Thus becoming closer to the dream.

Over the next six years, Jeff worked hard on major Hollywood blockbusters, while working on the continuation of the story of the bean killer. And before we touch on the second part of the food killer, let’s take a look at the author’s creative research. Because there is something interesting there, close to our once youthful heart.

Reading Jeff’s biography on various sites, both current and deceased, you want it or not, but you come across the same thesis. They say the most iconic work to which he was lucky enough to use his computer mouse is "The Matrix Reloaded". Jeff was the lead animator responsible for most of the main character animations and also contributed to the visual effects. Of course, we won’t argue. The Matrix is, of course, a legendary saga, but purely for us, subjectively, there is a more important work.

In the 2000s, when memes were shared through the infrared ports of phones, when short videos recorded on a disk or floppy disk were passed from hand to hand, then it was customary to carefully store especially liked videos. Moreover, the funnier or creepier, the better. After all, at the moment of boredom suddenly falling on you and your friends, or in an awkward moment of stalled communication with a girl, you could always amaze your interlocutor with your sophistication by demonstrating a saved video.

Oh, what kind of videos have not migrated from one computer to another?? From cartoon excerpts to speeches by politicians prohibiting shooting in Baghdad. And among all this diversity, we clearly remember the fight of some kung fu monk with a cow. The horned animal, in a manner unusual for cows, famously presented people with blows and dairy products. The video instantly became a hit. The only thing, however, no one knew, and no one even thought about where this scene was taken from. Because why? It’s funny, but the rest is not so important.

And only now, almost twenty years later, while working on material about a round killer, we learned about the existence of a comedy "Kung Po: Get Punched". As it turned out, the fight with the cow was taken from this film. Moreover, the staging and implementation of the brawl fell entirely on the shoulders of Jeff, who was hired by the director of the film.

Kung Po: Get punched

Of course, in addition to these two films, Jeff worked on a number of works, but let’s still return to our irrepressible bean, which turned into a coffee bean in the sequel. At least on the outside.

In the second short film, called "Party", the main character clearly demonstrates what happens to noisy neighbors if they disturb a hired killer’s sleep. Just like according to Zemfira’s behests.

The cartoon, with its huge number of cool scenes and unrestrained action, has naturally become the standard for cool videos in our yard. And this also takes into account the absence of the Internet as such among the overwhelming number of acquaintances. What can we say about the West??

Jack Bean broke into many tops. American television program "At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper", telling about all the new films, called "Party" one of the best works on the web. Dozens of festivals unanimously gave Jeff’s brainchild first place. And the killer himself settled on magazine covers. It is not surprising that such media promotion led to an unprecedented increase in fans, the emergence of an online store selling animation merch, and, as a result, preparations for work on the third series.

Killer Bean 2.1 – The Party (HD)

Experienced in animation, Jeff finally decides to throw off the shackles of short films and take on full-length films. The work ahead was large-scale, but the animator had no idea how immense it would be. To create "Killer Bean Forever" it took five long years.

Jeff pored over the keyboard for 14 hours a day seven days a week, while raising his children. All accumulated savings, as well as possible loan amounts, fell on the altar of production. Moreover, sales of animation courses, which the author has been pursuing almost since his appearance on the Internet, did not help either. I had to take a part-time job so as not to stretch my legs from hunger.

Things were no better with technology. Of course, Jeff couldn’t afford an entire rendering farm, which was owned by large studios. In connection with which he was, in fact, deprived of the right to make mistakes. Redrawing finished frames resulted in huge costs, not only monetary, but also time. His five quad-core computers have been regenerating non-stop for two years. And the heat emanating from operating equipment could easily replace winter heating.

Of course, it’s a little wrong to say that Jeff single-handedly created the third part of the bean killer. However, other specialists also contributed their efforts to bring the picture to life. That’s right. Yes, but a huge layer of titanic work fell on Jeff’s shoulders like an unbearable load.

Killer Bean Forever 4K – Official FULL MOVIE

In 2008, the killer bean, which should most likely be called the coffee bean, appears on the screen of the Toronto International Film Festival. And later, in 2009, the full-length cartoon became available to the general public.

Viewers warmly accept Jeff’s new work. And the number of loyal fans begins to number in the thousands. In time… well, yes, in time. Ten years later, roughly speaking, the animator loads “Killer Bean Forever" to your YouTube channel, thereby awakening almost extinct interest in the work.

With the help of popular foreign bloggers, fans of the feature film are flooding the Internet with memes about Jack Bean. Social networks, Orthodox YouTube, even TikTok, which irritates the older generation, are simply oversaturated with scenes with a cool mercenary. Fans meticulously studying the cartoon also add to the excitement.

For example, one of the fans calculated the approximate height of the main character. Here we will make a reservation that since we are humanists with a beard to the core, we leave the veracity of the above reflections to the public to judge. So, the scene where the main character leans on a presumably standard industrial oil barrel is taken as a basis. The steel cylinder is divided into three equal parts by rings, and therefore, knowing the usual size of such a container, the height of the main character is about 4 feet and 6 inches. Quite a funny observation. If that’s the case, of course.

Of course, Jack Bean’s story doesn’t end with a successful feature-length cartoon. Ahead of him lay a neglected series that lasted only two episodes, a mobile game that did not gain much popularity, and a YouTube channel approaching one million subscribers.

Let’s be honest, by now the cool killer has lost his former glory. However, we hope that everything will change soon. Jack Bean will once again rise from the thermonuclear ashes of oblivion and rush upward to the firmament of adoration. And my beard and I will be able to touch a freshly baked bagel and have a blast shooting at the bandits terrorizing the grocery world.