2009 August | Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation

editors

JERRY BECK (LA)

bio & contact | posts

AMID AMIDI (NY)

bio & contact | posts

HOME

MOVIES

SHORTS

MUSIC VIDS

CGI

SPOTS

POSTS FOR

“August, 2009“

Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.

Sand Painting

August 5, 2009 12:15 am

Not animation, but an incredible exhibition of artistic talent from a broadcast of Ukraine’s Got Talent. It’s a stunning and touching artwork/performance about WWII from the Ukrainian point of view, eliciting not only applause but tears from the audience. It’s refreshing to watch an artist draw and perform — and win — instead of the many average singing acts. And it’s also captivating to watch the story develop as each scene is swept away to create a new one:

(Thanks, Jeana Tran)

21 Comments » posted in Animators

Share on Tumblr

JibJab & Weird Al do C.N.R.

August 4, 2009 12:05 am

Here’s a new music video from JibJab and Weird Al Yankovic in tribute to the star of Uncle Croc’s Block, the late great Charles Nelson Reilly:

27 Comments » posted in Music Videos

Share on Tumblr

“Throw Me to the Rats” Music Video

August 3, 2009 12:23 pm

A music video for the track “Throw Me to the Rats” by the Tom Fun Orchestra. It’s directed by Alasdair Brotherston and designed by Jock Mooney, out of the UK’s Trunk Animation. I dig the quirky, humorous illustrations and choppy movement. Digital puppetry via AfterEffects and Flash is dime-a-dozen, but there’s a real energy and spontaneity when it’s created in the real world like this video. Brotherston explained in an interview:

“I had a good idea that I wanted to make a puppet theatre and film the action live in an effort to break from the perfectionism of digital animation that I was beginning to find a bit prescriptive and unspontaneous. I then decided to recruit an artist I knew from my time at Edinburgh College of Art called Jock Mooney as I knew that his illustration would be perfect for this job. He also brought some great ideas and a slightly perverted sense of humour as well as a spare room in which to do the shoot.

“The shoot itself turned out to be a bit of a nightmare and what had planned to be a fairly straightforward operation with most of the action caught in camera on set ended with myself and Jock setting up a green screen in his room and working puppets that were being held in place by jacket potatoes. Although it seems funny now, I distinctly remember being not that pleased at being holed up in a small room with blacked out windows, surrounded by several halogen lights on the hottest week of the year.”

CREDITS
Director:Alasdair Brotherston
Art Director: Jock Mooney
Producer: Shot On Site Media
Compositer: Dylan White
Puppeteers: Jenni Nylander, Natalie Ryde

4 Comments » posted in Music Videos

Share on Tumblr

Thomas the Transformer

August 3, 2009 11:35 am

Here’s a film I’d pay good money to see. Megatron kicking Thomas in his Tank Engine caboose.

Until then, I’ll have to be content with this cheap Chinese toy (possibly a knock-off) currently being sold on ebay. If this is an officially licensed product, there is something so wrong about it — yet, I like it. Check out more pics on LikeCool.com.

(Thanks, Edwin Austin)

10 Comments » posted in Cartoon Culture

Share on Tumblr

Hidden Message in 1952 Popeye cartoon

August 3, 2009 12:05 am

Here’s one for the hard-core cartoon historians: Recently, Brew reader Neil was replaying an old Paramount Popeye cartoon, and made a surprising audio find. On the soundtrack of Shuteye Popeye (1952), when the mouse’s audio is slowed down to about 40%, it’s clear that the track is actually a vocal outtake (perhaps director Isadore Sparber, or I suspect Seymour Kneitel) protesting that he doesn’t know what to say. Have a listen for yourself:

25 Comments » posted in Classic

Share on Tumblr

This Week at the Movies

August 2, 2009 1:00 pm

I was flipping through the paper today – the entertainment section – and came across a trio of the ugliest movie ads I’d ever seen. The fact that they were for animated features (or mostly animated features) didn’t help ease the pain. In fact, I found them downright embarrassing (Click thumbnails below to see larger images):

Regardless of these films entertainment value, or their effectiveness in generating box office bucks, the ads are atrocious. To the general public they represent the current, sad state of theatrical family fare and could (despite Pixar’s best efforts) perpetuate negative stereotypes on animated films. What happened to style? To appeal? To a sense of wonder? Call me old-fashioned, but the ugly anthropomorphic things staring at us in these ads are not cartoons – they are simply another bunch of freaky flickers.

24 Comments » posted in Advertising

Share on Tumblr

An update on Freaky Flickers

August 2, 2009 12:05 am

Remember this?

Last year we posted a link for a new animated film called Freaky Flickers. Recently, Brew reader Joshua Bell decided to check the site again for any updates. What he saw wasn’t pretty.

The writer/director/animator of this mess, Cary Howe, posted the story of how his producing partners ripped him off. (The site died a week ago and Josh had to use Google to catch the links). Here’s the opening:

“This is the sad tale of how a landmark film was born and died. Late 2005 I began early tests for a possible TV series based on the Freaky Flickers toyline. By February 2009 the project had expanded to a 90 minute theatrical feature. We had a 2,800+ theater release with MGM and it seemed like nothing could stop us.

“On 6/9/09 I finished my night’s work at 12 noon. Exhausted I wished my “friend” David Kann good night/afternoon and went to bed leaving him editing in my living room. I put in ear plugs to drown out the noise of the render boxes in the next room and fell asleep. I awoke just before 8pm to a silent dark empty house. Mr. Kann and the equipment were gone as were the external hard drives with the project back ups. While I slept, my business associate Peter Gantner… took everything. What made the Freaky Flickers film so unique is that it was written, directed, modeled, animated and rendered by one person with a final budget of around 250K. A first for a major theatrical release. As I write this the film is in the hands of the lawyers but the odds of it ever seeing the light of day are near zero. I entered the business in 1979 and after my experience with Freaky Flickers I can’t see myself ever making another film. On 6/9/09 not only did a film die but a career and a hundred plus unmade films passed.”

The whole sordid story is posted here. If you think the trailer above is horrid, check the footage posted on their official website.

MGM was going to release this crap? Good riddance to bad rubbish.

71 Comments » posted in CGI, Feature Film