"Daffy's Rhapsody" talkback
"The Snow Queen" trailer
"Arrietty" Will Be Ghibli's Biggest US Release Yet
Ricky Garduno, RIP
Follow @CartoonBrew on Twitter
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS
Follow Cartoon Brew on Facebook
|
|
|
|
POSTS FOR “March, 2009“Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
March 6, 2009 8:15 am
…but you can see it here first: (Thanks Chogrin) 40 Comments » posted in TV 
March 5, 2009 2:13 pm
The Onion reports that Barack Obama has been outfitted with motion-capture sensors and that his entire presidency is being recorded in 3-D. While the article is obviously in jest, I wonder how far away we are from the day where all of our lives will be recorded in digital form giving us the option to virtually replay personal events from different perspectives and to create different outcomes. (via Motionographer) 9 Comments » posted in CGI, Cartoon Culture
March 5, 2009 1:23 am
One of my favorite sources for learning about obscure foreign animated features is TwitchFilm.net. Certain films though are perhaps best left undiscovered. Case in point: the forthcoming CG effort called The Legend of Milu Deer: Princess Yoyo directed by Guo Weijiao. The film is largely a response to DreamWorks’s Kung Fu Panda. The success of a Chinese-themed story produced by an American company miffed a lot of Chinese citizens and has inspired them to make more (if not better) use of their cultural symbols and traditions. The film is being produced by the Zhonke Weiwo Digital Technology Co. in collaboration with the Scientific Art Center of the Institute of Automation in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to the film’s official website, they are employing “special effects such as 3D deformation, hair, fabric, particles, groups animation, motion capture, and network rendering, which reaches the [most] advanced level in the world.” Apparently, the world they are referring to is the one of 1990. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is planning to offer this movie as a “present” to the people of China for this year’s 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. If this is a present, I’d hate to think how they punish people in that part of the world. The trailer: 50 Comments » posted in CGI, Feature Film, China, Mo-Cap, motion capture
March 4, 2009 2:35 pm
The Japan Times has a long, and at times sensationalistic, article describing how the Japanese animation industry is struggling to survive and why their “animation bubble” is about to burst. A vast number of reasons are offered. I don’t know enough about their industry to properly assess which reasons are accurate and which are overblown, but some of the reasons covered in the article include a sluggish economy leading to lower production budgets, too much adult content turning off general audiences, piracy and fansubs in the West, lack of financial incentives for show creators, shady business practices by production studios, and low pay for the average animation worker. I was also surprised to read that 90% of their animation work is outsourced to countries like China and the Philippines. Maybe the US animation industry isn’t that bad after all. (Thanks, Karl Cohen) 50 Comments » posted in Anime
March 4, 2009 12:10 pm
If you are in L.A. or plan to visit between now and August 9th, check out the incredible super hero exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center, Zap! Pow! Bam! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books 1938-1950. It’s an incredible exhibition of golden age original art, character merchandise and rare comic books in a fantastic museum installation. There is also a companion exhibit, Lights! Camera! Action! Comic Book Heroes of Film and Television which focuses on live action and animated super heroes, including material from Popeye, Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy. This portion of the exhibit features original movie posters, movie costumes (Superman and Batman) and the Bat Cycle (from the 1966 TV series). Comic book legend Jerry Robinson (Batman) will give a Curator’s Talk on Thursday night (March 5th, moderated by Mark Evanier) at 8pm. Highly recommended – for more information check the Skirball Center website. 1 Comment » posted in Events
March 4, 2009 12:05 am
Man, those guys at Famous must have really hated their wives. By popular demand, I am posting the 1961 Modern Madcap cartoon, The Plot Sickens. This is another of the Paramount’s series of dark “domestic” comedies, but unlike the others this one is pretty funny – thanks to Irv Spector’s storyboards and Eddie Lawrence’s voice overs. This one was one of several that was released to theatres, but never shown on TV… the subject matter was way above and beyond the viewers of the New Casper Cartoon Show (where most of this era’s Modern Madcaps ended up). It would’ve been a great short to play in front of Jack Lemmon’s How To Murder Your Wife. 54 Comments » posted in Classic
March 3, 2009 11:36 pm
Cory Edwards, the guy who made the moderately successful steaming pile of CGI known as Hoodwinked is still plying his wares around town and is currently tapped to write and direct Fraggle Rock: The Movie for the Jim Henson Company. He talks about his work in this interview on the Fulle Circle Productions blog. Whatever one’s opinion of Hoodwinked, you’ve got to admit that Edwards was on the forefront of indie CG, a trend that is becoming more and more prevalent nowadays. In his own words:
Beyond the business aspects of indie CG, the rest of the interview is packed with gems that both infuriate and tickle the funny bone. For example, Edwards reveals one of his reasons why he’s not directing Hoodwinked 2: “I wanted desperately to get into live action films, and was very concerned about being pigeon-holed as an animation director.” There’s also a wonderful bit about how he’s going to approach the feature-length Fraggle Rock: “I’m shooting high with this one, trying to say some big things about humanity in the way that WALL-E did, but at the same time, make a really cool adventure film.” Apparently the new formula for success in Hollywood is to just give it a little bit of that Wall-E humanity oomph. Most amusing though is where Edwards sees himself in ten years:
Considering that every project his name has been attached to (Hoodwinked, Doogal) has been an artistic abomination, keeping his name synonymous with quality is a ship that sailed a long time ago. No worries though…nobody notices in Hollywood anyway. Keep up with Cory’s attempt to turn Fraggle Rock into the next WALL-E at CorysCuriosities.blogspot.com. 71 Comments » posted in Animators, CGI, Feature Film
March 3, 2009 12:55 pm
When I think of the alcohol of choice for animators, I typically don’t think wine, but a number of animation artists are becoming involved in the wine industry. We start with indie filmmaker Bill Plympton who recently designed the labels (above) for PS1909 produced by the Dhaliwal Vineyards in California.
That’s nothing compared to Pixar’s John Lasseter who is starting up his own Sonoma Valley winery called Lasseter Family Winery . A newspaper article from last December discusses some of the ideas for the 38-acre property. Of particular interest to animation fans, the winery will also be the home of Ollie Johnston’s locomotive and Ward Kimball’s train depot. In other words, it’s going to be a pretty damn awesome winery. (Lasseter wine info via Pixar Touch blog) |
ADVERTISEMENTS
EVENTS
RECENT BREW TV EPISODES By 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.  By Ferg Brennan. A lonely fisherman catches an unusual fish, which he decides to keep as a pet. |
