Shane Acker, the director of the atmospheric Oscar-nominated short 9, was a special guest at the ANIMATION SHOW screening in LA a couple nights ago. I had the opportunity to do a short Q&A with him on-stage after the screening and there were lots of excellent questions from the audience. One of the primary topics of discussion was about how 9 is currently being adapted into a full-length animated feature. I can’t think of a better short to be expanded into a feature. There’s plenty of cinematic vision in Shane’s original short as well as the sense of a fully developed world that’s just begging to be explored and fleshed out. Acker is also directing the feature and the producers include Tim Burton and NIGHT WATCH director Timur Bekmambetov.

The feature version of 9 is being animated in Luxembourg at Attitude studios and will be released by Focus Features. During our Q&A, Shane announced for the first time the voice cast for his film. The leads are Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Elijah Wood and John C. Reilly. If that voice cast is any indication, this isn’t going to be your typical paint-by-numbers CG feature and that’s something to be excited about. Focus Features, which is the art house arm of Universal Pictures, is also the distributor of Henry Selick’s upcoming flick CORALINE (currently being produced at Laika).

If you couldn’t make it to last summer’s incredible Tokyo The Art Of Disney exhibition, or couldn’t get a copy of the fantastic exhibition catalog (pictured above), you still have one more chance at it. Disney Japan is releasing a DVD/Blu-Ray copy of the exhibition on April 25th. Click here to see a trailer for it. The question is: Will it be accessible outside of Japan?

(Thanks, Celbi Pegoraro)

YO GABBA GABBA! has been picked up for twenty half-hour episodes by Nick Jr. The kooky live-action/animated preschooler variety show is produced by The Magic Store and W!LDBRAIN. It’ll begin production in April in Orange County, CA, and the show will premiere on Nick Jr. this fall.

YO GABBA GABBA! is created by Christian Jacobs, Justin Lyon and Scott Schultz. They started the Magic Store in 2005 and produced two half-hour episodes of YO GABBA GABBA! independently. The show became an online viral hit last summer (we even plugged it on the Brew in June 06) and Nick Jr. announced late last month that they were picking it up as a series.

Watch the original opening titles HERE, find out how to apply to work on the series, and stay tuned to the show’s brand-new production blog called Yo Blogga Blogga!

Here. Practice your inking skills with this 1934 Popeye Inking Chart direct, via a time warp, from the Fleischer Studios. And don’t forget to powder your cels.

(Thanks, Mike Van Eaton)

Cuppa Coffee president Adam Shaheen responded indirectly to my recent post, “Cuppa Coffee Wants To Ream Filmmakers” (Feb. 5), by writing a letter to Cold Hard Flash’s Aaron Simpson. Shaheen’s response can be read in its entirety here.

It’s a lengthy response but what Shaheen doesn’t discuss is more noteworthy than what he does. For one, he doesn’t address my primary complaint: why does Cuppa Coffee expect to receive exclusive rights to all the animated shorts entered in the contest, across all media, forever, without any obligation of compensating any of the artists?

The only response that Shaheen manages is, “Any short film that earns a development deal with Cuppa Coffee, would then naturally involve the author being integrated into an upfront deal that would be negotiated fairly between the two parties - again, a true negotiation that doesn’t present as being anything but that.” That’s essentially saying, ‘Yeah the contract you sign to enter the program is unfair, but if you win, we’ll then negotiate a more fair contract with you. And guess what, if you don’t win our development deal, we still own the rights to your film.’

With the explosion of online video, there’s new contests like this popping up every week - two other recent ones are iLaugh’s Shortfest and AniBoom’s Eyedoll contest. All of these contests have ulterior motives: either helping to build a company’s brand/library or getting free development out of artists. In every case, the benefit of the collective entries coming into these companies far outweigh the benefit returned to the individual artists who are entering the contest.

Frankly, I think it’s time to get over this silly and insulting notion that creating animation is a game. Animated filmmaking is not a contest and no piece of classic animation has ever been produced because of a contest. Animation is an art form and a business. Investing time and effort into creating quality work and backing it up with some basic business skills is the only proven formula for achieving success in this industry.

One final thought. In his letter, Shaheen writes,

“At the end of the day, would you rather own 100% of something that sits on Youtube, or would you prefer to relinquish your rights and use this piece as a launching pad for your career?”

Personally, if I was going to “relinquish my rights” to further my career, I’d rather relinquish it to a major network like MTV (as Mike Judge did for Beavis & Butt-Head), Nickelodeon (as John K. and Stephen Hillenburg did), Fox (as Matt Groening did), Cartoon Network (as Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken did) or Comedy Central (as Parker and Stone did) than to a Canadian production house looking to attach itself to my talent under the guise of a contest.

ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive has posted a rare 1938 animators handbook, the Disney Studios Artist’s Tryout Book. It outlines what each department does and what is expected of each employee. This book is fascinating, especially in comparison to the way studios operate today. Story Men are required to draw. Inking and Painting is the only department open to women. Special note is made of Television, which shows the studio was thinking ahead, to how animation would adapt to a new medium.Speaking of new mediums, ASIFA-Hollywood’s annual event, The Annie Awards, are being bestowed this Sunday in a star-studded presentation at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. VIP tickets are sold out, but I’ve been told there are still a few general seats available. The pre-show reception starts at 3pm, the award ceremony begins at 5pm and the gala post-event party (this year in a tent behind the theatre) starts around 7:15pm. See you there.

A lot of Aardman’s work in recent years has been too slick and labored for its own good, but one of their new series marks a wonderful return to their roots. PURPLE AND BROWN, a batch of interstitials produced for Nickelodeon, features two blobs of clay who engage in pointless activities and make a lot of noise. It’s a simple concept, beautifully animated and hilariously executed; one might say they’re reminiscent of early Henson work.

Over thirty of the shorts are available on this YouTube channel. A warning for the time-strapped: these cartoons are addictive - once you watch one, you’ll want to watch all of them.

UPDATE: Animator Keith Lango has an elegant little blog post where he writes about why he likes these Aardman spots. I agree with him completely.

(via Fous d’Anim)

Director/designer Marc Craste (JOJO IN THE STARS) has completed a new :60 CG spot for Lloyds TSB. Watch the commercial here (15mb). The idea and execution of the commercial isn’t as inspired as the stunning UK National Lottery spot that Craste directed last year, but the overall effect is still quite charming. It was produced at studio aka.

(via Feed)