Last week I checked out the CalArts Producers’ Show, the year-end screening where the best student films from the school year are screened theatrically. I hadn’t been to the show in three or four years so it was nice to see things with a bit of a fresh eye. Sad to say, but the overhwelming impression I got from this year’s batch of films is that CalArts is increasingly a school that is coasting along on its reputation than on the quality of work its current students produce. That hard-earned rep will expire sooner than later if they continue in this direction; CalArts needs to recognize that they no longer have a monopoly on teaching character animation and must significantly up their game if they wish to stay on a par with all the other animation schools around the globe. I’ll attempt to expound on the school’s problems in-depth at some later time, but for the moment, I wanted to focus on some of the positive individual achievements from this year’s crop of students.

A number of this year’s CalArts student films are turning up online and I’ve posted four of the better ones below—Off the Wall, Siren’s Melody, One Last Song and This World.

Among the films that aren’t posted online, a few honorable mentions: Them Their Eyes by Mario Furmanczyk featured the most competent Disney-style character animation, Captain Scratchy Beard by Brigette Barrager offered the most distinctive sense of character design, Slum Noir by Jahmad Rollins stood out for its mature storytelling vision, exciting animation and hardcore draftsmanship skills (I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on his future work), and Nicole Mitchell’s Zoologic was easily the strongest overall film, and one of the few shorts in the program that displayed a solid understanding of how to stage a gag, pace a story, and give the audience a payoff.

Off the Wall Episode 1: “Lady Troubles” by Alex Hirsch

Siren’s Melody Lorelay Bove

One Last Song by Dimitri Frazao

This World by Noel Belknap

As enthused as I am over the big budget, widescreen Hollywood animated blockbusters en route to the cineplex this summer, I’ve been keeping my eye on this little black & white hand-drawn film based on Iranian author Marjane Satrapi’s comic book autobiography.

We’ve posted about it before, Persepolis is a coming-of-age story of a young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution and follows her to Austria as a teenager at school, where she struggles to overcome stereotypes and predjudices. What it lacks in Hollywood visual pyrotechnics, it more than makes up for it with an intelligent story and realistic characters. It looks to be one of the most refreshing films of the year.

Check out the blog with many behind-the-scenes podcasts, the trailer (embedded below) and these clips (in French): Clip 1, Clip 2, Clip 3.

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud co-wrote and are co-directing the film, which is coproduced by 2.4.7. Films and the Kennedy/Marshall Company.

New trailer (with actual footage from the film) posted here.

Courtesy of Hollywood Elsewhere: direct from the Cannes Film Festival yesterday, audio of Jerry Seinfeld (with Jeffery K.) discussing the origin of the film and his take on the process of animation.

Oh, and the Art Of book is available for pre-order.

Don’t know if you’ve heard but CalArts is finally catching up with the times and renaming itself the California Institute of Motion Capture. Glen Keane and James Baxter are involved in the new school too. Check it out.

PS: This was the opening intro at last week’s CalArts Producers’ Show and it got more laughs than just about anything else shown that evening.

Brew reader Dave Stuckey has uploaded yet another crazy rare Ward Kimball clip: a Firehouse Five Plus Two performance from the MGM film Grounds for Marriage (1951). Just try to keep your toes from tapping, I dare ya. The cheesy acting inbetween the FF+2 comes courtesy of Van Johnson and Kathryn Grayson. Thanks Dave!

We may never see a Bill Watterson-approved animated version of Calvin and Hobbes but the following student film from Italy is a nice unofficial attempt. The animation was done by Donato Di Carlo at the CFP Milano film school.

(Thanks, Brian Jones)

Ok, so imagine you’re the post office and you need to make three animated shorts to illustrate the following concepts: new parcel rates, post office savings accounts,and the value of posting your letters early. Sounds like a barren creative landscape. However, when given the opportunity, a talented commercial artist can take even the driest subject matter and interpret it in innovative and imaginative ways. Take a gander at these three shorts from the 1930s—A Colour Box, Rainbow Dance, and Trade Tattoo— directed by Len Lye, which illustrate the themes mentioned above. These films shatter every preconception about what an informational piece of commerical animation should look like while succeeding brilliantly in getting their points across.They were created for the UK’s state-sponsored GPO Film Unit, which was headed by the visionary filmmaker/producer John Grierson, who later was instrumental in establishing the National Film Board of Canada.

It boggles the mind that anything like this could have ever been made, though that probably says more about the sorry state of contemporary creativity than anything else. Why must visual experimentation in commercial animation today be the exception and not the norm? I’m not suggesting that every commercial has to be an avant-garde trip like Lye’s, but it also need not be the aesthetically lethargic and redundant fare that one sees over and over nowadays. If there’s a lesson to learn from Lye’s inspiring treatment of such mundane material, perhaps it’s that there’s no such thing as weak material, only weak interpretation of material.

A Colour Box (1935)

Rainbow Dance (1936)

Trade Tattoo (1937)

Here is one of the best MySpace pages I have seen devoted to a classic cartoon series.

Forgotten Flintstones contains a lot of fun images, facts, sound bites, and video devoted to offbeat Flintstonia (is that even a word?). Classic toys, commercials, and in-depth profiles of supporting players—including Jay Bondrock, Ann-Margrock, Gary Granite, Rock Quarry, Hot Lips Hannigan, Professor Rockimoto, The Wayouts and Ed Sullystone.

What more can I say? Yabba Dabba Doo!