What if a couple of guys decorated a van with colorful images, drove around the countryside, and invited children to come into their van to watch cartoons? Normally, I’d caution parents to be wary, but Spanish artists Carles Porta and Toni Tomàs are the real deal.

Their whimsical art project on wheels, Puck Cinema Caravana, is returning for its fourth season. They bill themselves as the smallest cinema on earth, and with only seven seats in their van-theater, they’re probably pretty close to that. The trailer above, created by Carles Porta, promotes this year’s programming theme, “Follies de la Simpatia a l’Absurd.”

Everything about Puck is thoughtfully designed from their promotional materials to the van itself. They also have great taste in curating films, and do a great job of introducing quality animated shorts to an audience that may not otherwise experience such films. This year’s all-star line-up of filmmakers includes Mark Baker, Grant Orchard, Torill Kove, Bruno Bozzetto, Alexey Alexeev, Juan Pablo Zaramella, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Txesco Montalt, Yann Benedi, Antoine Robert, Dorianne Fibleuil, Maud Sertour, Paulin Cointot, and Nathan Hall.

Puck travels around Spain throughout the summer months. Visit PuckCinema.com for more details.

Thank you Facebook, for allowing us to to see another side of Disney – off model Mickey’s, awkward Donald’s and suggestive Pigs – courtesy of postings from around the world. Just had to share some of my favorites:

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French newspaper Le Figaro confirms that Oscar-winning Dutch short filmmaker Michael Dudok de Wit (Father and Daughter, The Monk and the Fish) is directing his first feature film The Red Turtle. Dudok de Wit is long overdue for his shot at helming a feature, and whatever he comes up with, it’s surely guaranteed to be thoughtful, original, and high quality.

More intriguingly, Studio Ghibli is co-producing the film, along with French companies Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch. A few months ago, animator Roger Mainwood posted a 6-second animation test from the film:
[update: video was removed]

(Micahel Dudok de Wit photo by M. Hambledon; story via Catsuka)

Next month, The Hub network will debut another revival of a 1980s toy commercial, Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot. Their earlier series, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, sparked an unlikely following among adult males, otherwise known as the Brony phenomenon, but one fandom isn’t enough for the Hub.

They think their Care Bears show needs an adult male fanbase, too, and they’re shamelessly encouraging it themselves. Their PR firm sent us the following press release, which besides not understanding the distinction between drawn and CG animation, suggests names for potential male Care Bear fans:

Hey Amid-

What’s the Care Bears equivalent of a Brony? Belly-Bros? Care-Dudes? “Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot” premieres this June on The Hub TV Network and features the same re-imagined CG animation and spirit of friendship and caring that made shows like “My Little Pony Friendship is Magic” a cult hit.

“Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot” is a modernized, CGI-animated version of the classic animated cartoon, which hits its 30th anniversary this year! Re-imagined in the same vein as the Hub’s other hit television shows, everyone’s favorite bears and their iconic Belly Badges have been transformed with today’s technology into a series that kids and families can enjoy together. I’d love to see if you’d be interested in featuring the bears for the series launch this June.

I have art and clips available and can also do email interviews with Executive Producer Sarah Finn, our director and voice talent. Let me know if this interests you and I can send over some more details!

Thanks!
[PR flack]

This is likely the last time I’ll be mentioning Care Bears on Cartoon Brew’s homepage, but here’s a parting gift—the show’s teaser:

A funny thing has happened: as hand-drawn studio-produced animated features have all but disappeared from the American animation scene, European and Asian studios are enjoying a mini-renaissance of drawn feature films. The latest example is Ernest et Célestine, adapted from a French children’s book series about the unlikely friendship between a gruff bear with artistic ambitions and an intelligent mouse who doesn’t want to become a dentist. The clip above gives a taste of the film’s breezy visual style that mixes broken-line characters with watercolor-style backgrounds—animated in Flash no less.

Directors are Benjamin Renner, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, the latter two of whom directed the recent stop-motion feature A Town Called Panic. The 80-minute feature is a co-production between France (Les Armateurs, Maybe Movies, Studiocanal France), Belgium (La Parti) and Luxembourg (Mélusine Productions). Ernest et Célestine will have its world premiere this week at the Directors’ Fortnight, which takes place alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

Another extended film clip as well as a video showing the paperless production pipeline can be viewed after the jump. It’s all in French, but don’t let that stop you from taking a peek.
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There are people who hate stuff like this — and then there are the rest of us. Ethan Clarke’s wonderful and disturbing thesis film from CalArts:

As far as Pixar stories go, this one is pretty unbelievable. Pixar’s Oren Jacob and Galyn Susman recall how the studio almost lost the pre-rendered animation data for Toy Story 2 due to an accidental Linux command and faulty backup. The solution recalls a nostalgic time in the company’s history before they had become the industry’s most successful animation studio; it’s unlikely such a resolution would be possible today with the tightened corporate security at Pixar. Then again, I’m sure they have better back-ups, too.

(via Kottke)

It’s been far too long since Jérémy Clapin’s last short, Skhizein, an existentialist/mental illness drama that ranks among the more original pieces of animated filmmaking in the past decade. The trailer above is for his latest short Palmipedarium, which he’s readying for release in 2012. This new ten-minute piece was produced entirely with free, open-source Blender software. I can’t wait to see it!

Check out his earlier masterpiece below:

(via @FelixMassie)