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POSTS FOR “December, 2008“Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
December 12, 2008 1:30 am
Big animation day in L.A. – three (count ‘em, three) animated features open to qualify for an Oscar nomination: • Dragon Hunters at the Laemmle Grand 4 Plex at 345 S. Figueroa, in downtown L.A. • $9.99 at the Laemmle Music Hall at 9036 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. • Delgo at The Bridge, 6081 Center Drive in West L.A. One week only! If you check any of them out, let us know what you think. Please leave comments below. (Thanks, Eric Graf) 14 Comments » posted in Feature Film December 11, 2008 1:45 pm
Check out this great article on Hanna Barbera from the September 1960 issue from Popular Mechanics (that’s Carlo Vinci above shown animating Fred Flintstone). I found it using the new feature on Google’s Book Search which now includes magazines. It’s unclear how many magazines are currently in their system, but at launch it seems to include New York magazine, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Ebony, Jet, Vegetarian Times, and Baseball Digest. For example, a quick search for Disney or Animation brings up articles like this 1945 classic from Popular Science about how Disney combines live action and animation. This looks to be a great resource for us as they add more periodicals. (Thanks, Bill Robinson) 5 Comments » posted in Internet/Blogs December 11, 2008 10:30 am
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (aka a group of anonymous journalists who cover Hollywood for international publications, but nonetheless produce a glitzy influential awards show that is somehow a bellwether for the Oscars) has announced their nominees for the 2008 Golden Globes. For Best Animated Feature Film they have nominated Bolt, Kung Fu Panda, and Wall-E. The winner will be announced Sunday, January 11th, 2009 on NBC. 15 Comments » posted in Feature Film December 11, 2008 12:05 am
Favorites of 2008? Cartoon Brew co-editor Amid certainly chose several that could have/would have made the top of my list. However, upon careful reflection, I can truthfully claim that the following alternates are not only my personal favorites of the year – but will remain favorites of mine for years to come. ANIMATED FEATURE As Amid pointed out, I loved Sita Sings The Blues. But, as Sita wasn’t widely released this year, nor qualified for 2008 Oscar or Annie recognition, I decided (for this post) to be swayed by traditional commercial releases. Of those, Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda was the most entertaining movie I saw all year. I felt the entire film, from beginning to end, worked perfectly – as an adventure, as comedy, with delightful eye candy art direction, great voice acting and wonderful character animation. The 2D opening sequence was icing on the cake. It’s Dreamworks best film and it revived my hope that Jeffery’s studio can compete aesthetically (as well as commercially) with Pixar. TV SERIES It’s hard to believe that both Amid and I selected shows from Adult Swim. You haven’t heard me rave about Robot Chicken on the Brew, but I’ve been quietly monitoring the show this year and have concluded its the most consistently funny animated series I’ve seen in a long time. Sure, there have been several killer episodes of The Simpsons and King of The Hill this season, but I’ve been won over by Chicken’s delightfully crude stop motion animation and equally crude humor. The two Star Wars specials were the series personal best. All of it well worth your fifteen minutes. SHORTS I saw a lot of shorts this year, but two really stood out. I saw Skhizein (pictured above) in Ottawa and it really blew me away. Jeremy Clapin’s 3D/2D tour-de-force about a man hit by a meteorite and finding himself existing 91 centimeters away from his own body. I’m still thinking about it. Great concept, well done. Oktapodi was my other big favorite. Created by the students at the French animation school Gobelins, this film has everything: suspense, humor, heart, great design and a hilarious, ridiculous concept – perfect for animation. BOOKS Who says print is dead? Collected wisdom in the form of books is still alive and appreciated by those (like me), who prefer to linger over dedicated research and desired images otherwise unattainable in any form. That said, my favorite reads this year were actually several non-animation pop culture references (Mark Evainer’s Kirby, King of Comics, Martin Pasko’s The DC Vault, Grace Bradley Boyd’s Hoplalong Cassidy, An American Legend, among others). But among the animation books, my favorite has to be Jon Gibson and Chris McDonnell’s Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi. An overdue tribute and a stunning visual feast, Gibson and McDonnell deserve kudos for shedding light on Ralph’s many accomplishments, from beginning to end. I’m also proud of my contributions to the continuing series of Harvey Comics reprints that Leslie Cabarga is compiling for Dark Horse Books. I’m particularly happy with my Introduction in the Baby Huey book featuring quotes from Martin Taras and Dave Tendlar along with several rare Herman & Katnip model sheets. Slowly but surely my master plan to bring recognition and respect to the artists of Famous Studios is coming to fruition. DVD RELEASES What can I say? I'm biased. These three DVD sets are my favorite videos of the year. (Full disclosure: I was a consultant and active participant in their creation). If you love classic cartoon shorts, these will give you hours of viewing pleasure. I told you about them in April, July and November and I’ll say it again. In an era of declining DVD sales, your purchase of Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6, Popeye Vol. 3, and Woody Woodpecker and Friends Vol. 2 do more than give hours of vintage animation goodness – they tell the studios that you want to see more. 30 Comments » posted in Ideas/Commentary December 10, 2008 9:30 pm
There’s a war brewing in the animation software world and Cartoon Brew is right in the thick of it. In fact, I only became aware of the no-holds-barred battle in the past few months because two of our biggest advertisers have been the dueling companies: Adobe and Toon Boom. The latter is currently making a serious run to overtake Adobe Flash as the preferred software package for 2D digital animators. Toon Boom’s new Animate software has an animator-friendly set of features and more importantly, it’s price-competitive with Flash. This isn’t a new development. We spoke of the animation community’s increasing dissatisfaction with Flash last January when Mucha Lucha creators Eddie Mort and Lili Chin announced they were switching to Toon Boom software. Australian animator Adam Phillips, of Bitey Castle fame, has reviewed the new packages from both companies—Toon Boom Animate and Flash CS4—and approves of both, though he’s more enthusiastic about Toon Boom Animate:
Phillips’ verdict on Flash CS4:
It’s no coincidence that industry website Cold Hard Flash recently hosted three launch events in LA, NY and Toronto celebrating the release of Toon Boom Animate. Not to mention the site’s primary advertising spots are taken up by Toon Boom. The bottom line is that this competition between software makers should lead to more powerful and efficient packages for the animation community. Hopefully both software makers will continue to use Cartoon Brew as a battleground for spreading their message. We could use the few extra bucks. Would be interesting to hear some animator perspectives in the comments—who’s switching to Toon Boom and who’s sticking with Flash? Speak up. 63 Comments » posted in Business, Flash, Toonboom December 10, 2008 5:09 am
This is the time of year that news and media organizations begin the avalanche of annual “best of” lists and the like. The thought of doing a “best of” list strikes me as arrogant, especially when it comes to something as subjective as art. So instead I present you with my personal picks of the year. I make no claim that these are the best of 2008; these are only the things that I enjoyed most during the past year. Also be sure to read Cartoon Brew co-editor Jerry Beck’s personal picks of 2008. ANIMATED FEATURE Let me begin by apologizing for not praising this film enough on Cartoon Brew (thankfully Jerry has). So let me just say it now: Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues is hands-down one of the most entertaining animated features I’ve ever seen. That fact is even more impressive because I went into the film thinking I wouldn’t be able to sit through an entire Flash-animated feature that looked like the image above. But Paley’s deeply personal story kept me captivated for its entire length, a rarity in my feature animation viewing experiences, and the animation only added to the story. There wasn’t a false note in the film. That it was made by one-person is nothing short of unbelievable. That nobody can see the film due to copyright issues is nothing short of criminal. TV SERIES Violence and animation: a tried-and-true combination that is taken to new heights in Superjail, a surprisingly well-done piece of TV animation that airs on [Adult Swim] of all places. ONLINE ANIMATION ANIMATED SHORT FAVORITE ANIMATION
Orgesticulanismus by Mathieu Labaye
Thé Noir by Serge Élissalde MUSIC VIDEO
Talkdemonic’s “Duality of Deathening” directed by Orie Weeks III.
Bjork’s “Wanderlust” directed by Encyclopedia Pictura
Autokratz’s “Stay the Same” directed by Laurie Thinot OPENING TITLES When will CG studios recognize that the opening and end credits are not the only parts of their films that should be interesting to look at? Case in point, the appealing (if a bit too ‘tweeny’) opening titles to Kung Fu Panda. A joy to watch, but I’m waiting for the CG equivalent of this. The technology in CG is already there, the creativity isn’t. DISCOVERIES ANIMATION STUDIO ANIMATION BOOK ANIMATION BLOG (CONTINUING) Michael Sporn’s Splog: The personal blog of Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning animation director Michael Sporn is truly a thing of wonder. Updated every single day for three years running, it is a phenomenal resource of ideas and artwork. His passion for the art form comes through in every post. ANIMATION BLOG (NEW) ANIMATION BLOG (NEW – HONORABLE MENTIONS) Spectorphile: A blog about animation legend Irv Spector created by his son Paul Spector. ANIMATION ART EXHIBIT Whenever I’m depressed about the state of the art form, I only have to watch a film by the Hubleys like Tender Game or Moonbird to regain my enthusiasm for the medium. Despite being intimately familiar with their work, I still wasn’t quite prepared for the awesomeness of seeing John Hubley’s background paintings and storyboard panels from Adventures of an * (1957). The exhibit covered all of one wall in the basement of the Museum of Modern Art this past summer, but that’s all that was needed. Hubley’s work represents animation at its most artistic and daring, and offers a guide for where we still need to take this art form. Piece after piece, Hubley discarded animation’s tendencies for crude mass-produced imagery and created a vision of uncompromising individuality and aesthetic beauty. More art from the exhibit can be seen at Michael Sporn’s blog. 24 Comments » posted in Ideas/Commentary, David OReilly, Johannes Nyholm, Mike Maryniuk December 10, 2008 3:21 am
Disney is prepping Beauty and the Beast for a 3D release in 2010. Producer Don Hahn spoke to SlashFilm.com about why and how the studio was reformatting Beauty and the Beast for 3D screens. The ‘why’ part is fairly obvious—Disney is in the business of making money and they’re not exactly raking it in at the box office with their current batch of features. In corporate speak, Hahn translates that to: “It’s a chance to take a title that’s very beloved by the audience and try to share it in a way that people haven’t seen before.” The ‘how’ part is more interesting. Apparently because it was all composited on separate layers and level using the studio’s early CAPS system, they can now separate those layers into a depth of field to create a 3D experience. Says Hahn:
12 Comments » posted in 3-D, Disney December 10, 2008 2:26 am
Sorry this is a bit hard to see, but it’s an early pencil test of Tissa David’s “Candy Hearts” sequence from Richard Williams Raggedy Ann and Andy (1977). I meant to post this last year when we acknowledged the film’s 30th anniversary, but I couldn’t find it then. Copies if this (in 16mm) were floating around the New York animation community in 1976 and I was lucky enough to snag a dupe copy back then. It’s interesting to compare it to the finished version. It’s one of the few animated features never released on DVD and that’s a real shame. Michael Sporn has written extensively about the film on his Splog, and of course John Canemaker wrote a wonderful companion book detailing it’s creation. |
EVENTS
RECENT BREW TV EPISODESBy Sitji Chou. A man tries to understand the futility of creating human connections when they’ve been impeded by the microcosmic void between material particles. By Nikolas Ilic. A story of a Scottish sheep farmer who shears his sheep and tosses them cliff side… By Dylan Hayes. Lesson 1: Everyone gambles, not everyone loses. Lesson 2: The world is full of traps. Lesson 3: You cannot win if you don’t take risks. By Jean Yi. A personal and humorous exploration of being the ‘Nice Girl’ and coming to terms with the label and all its different meanings. ANIMATION TWEETS
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