Would we pay any attention to this animation if she weren’t related to a legendary writer?

That’s one minute and forty-eight seconds of my life I’ll never get back!

Must be a chick thing.

I think it’s great for what it is.

When someone with no training in animation sits down and makes an animated film, I call that impressive, regardless of the end result.

Well… [Checks the URL... Weird, it IS cartoonbrew.com after all.]
It’s a work of an animator with (at the moment) limited skills. There are many like her. Should it really be posted here?

Is it just me or have the posts on cartoonbrew been getting more chit-chat oriented over time?

Less is more. Quality, not quantity, please.

I’m left without the slightest clue of what she was trying to convey with that confusing, disordered mess.

I agree with the majority. As a trained animator and working professional who payed alot of money and worked very hard to get where I’m at today, It’s kind of an insult to have this featured here. I could list a thousand things past and present more relevant than this that could have been posted. Regardless of her lack of training or her family history, in my opinion this is garbage.

Nice to see the animation community rallying around in support.
I think the response to this has been disgraceful.

An insult to who Dan? Your professional tastes and psyche? Are we such an elite club that we can’t look at anything that isn’t professional anymore?

It never fails to surprise me how stuck up artists are. Such a snotty mentality. The Impressionists got the same response from the elite when they tried their hand at something new. Granted I am not saying this woman is Monet but art is expression is it not?

She expressed and believe it or not it got a reaction from you. Probably not the one she’d want but it got a reaction.

It’s sad when a “trained animator and working professional” is so snotty that he can’t look past his learned hand to see that this woman is trying. I’m sure the pro was a beginner once as well. Some people can’t be professionals but that doesn’t mean they aren’t excited about animation. I, for one, hope that Cartoon Brew does NOT segregate its entries to only professionals, otherwise it will become what Animation Magazine has become; a slick representation for executives and nothing more. There is a big world of art out there and we can’t all go to school and be learned. Lastly let me also point out that not all the readers here are trained professionals. They’re also not all snotty.

Well said, Asymetrical.
I began to type something very similar but lost my temper and edited.

The reactions/opinions seems to be split here over this. I don’t want to give out my thoughts unless I don’t happen to see the whole thing myself, but I would say there’s something interesting about it given its personal touch and commentary on women issues.

I think the attitude of those in the animation industry is one of a more professional state, over a more amateur, but free-willing manner that is akin to art. Add to that, the approaching digital age where the ability to produce something like this might not have happen 10-20-30 years before, not without proper funding or understanding of principle cinematography or to draw by hand, manipulating puppets and the like was the norm.

> I, for one, hope that Cartoon Brew does NOT segregate its entries to only professionals, otherwise it will become what Animation Magazine has become; a slick representation for executives and nothing more.

Cartoon Brew tries to be more for the rest of us in that case (and given the fact we can now add comments to entries, it has gave us a soapbox as to state our opinions and other thoughts to what gets presented here. I wouldn’t say if Animation Magazine was supposed to be a ‘for fans’ type publication from the start, but given its nature, it must’ve had to gravitate to serving the industry more as a trade publication only.

Perhaps it’s more the stigma we have over animation itself being a very competitive, professional outlet whose business model hasn’t been revised as to include the new medias in existence, or the simple fact that nearly anyone could ‘animate’ too.

A hammer falling on my toe would elicit quite a reaction as well. From this layman’s standpoint, I’ve seen erratic, stick-figure work more engaging and interesting than this. Also, what was the tacky text overlay about, unless I missed the joke?

Apparently this is only a trailer for a longer work. That might explain the feeling of… incompleteness… we get?

See its festival dates and yes… awards won.

http://www.nakedhitchhiker.com/

Oh… ok. I take that back, until I see the movie. It might just be another fine-artish case of “idea is All, execution and aesthetics are nil”. (It does look bad.)

—
I don’t think cartoonbrew should cater to professionals. Sounds like it used to be geared towards just about anyone interested in animation and its history, not exactly the technical aspects of animation (there are enought technical websites/forums/portals already). But i’m not sure this post would be very interesting or enlightening to an “animation enthusiast” either.

I am very grateful for all the work that has gone into publishing the wide variety of material we see on this site, so I am angered by the comments of those who cannot see beyond the ends of their own noses. I have seen truckloads of boring unoriginal animation from technically proficient animation companies and individuals and I have also watched endless hours of talentless naive rubbish churned out by animation school students here in the UK. As Robert points out, this is a trailer. Take it or leave it, but there’s no call to insult someone who has put an enormous amount of work into making a heartfelt personal statement using the medium of animation. It’s all part of the Brew, surely.

Eh, well, good for her for going out there into such a competitive art and winning some awards in the process, even if I wasn’t a fan of this : ) I guess it just takes all different kinds. I can see why people either liked it or didn’t like it…. I was in the camp that didn’t, but I guess it would be rather boring if this was a blog where everyone agreed.

As charmingly crude this animation is, I couldn’t finish it. The nicest thing I can say about it is “Not for me”. But it would be interesting to see what attention this cartoon would get if it WASN’T by this related-to-famous-people lady. Awards?? Seriously.

This animation/narrative/text I’m sure is interesting to someone at some level, but not for me. Oh well. NEXT!!
If you wanna get into female-non-famous fascinating animation, look at Nina Paley.

Regardless of this film, which is charming in its own crude way, the “it got a reaction, didn’t it” is so played out . Indeed, a hammer on my toe will get a reaction too. Pffsh. That’s the excuse for crap everywhere.

I love how people are acting like it’s some sort of tragedy that this is being featured on the brew. I can understand it not being everyone’s cup of tea, but i see no need to have a tantrum like a small child who didn’t get his/her crayon scribbles stuck on the fridge by mom.

Ridiculous overreactions.

Heh, alright maybe I overreacted, and yes Asymetrical, you made me see how “snotty” I came off. I definitley don’t want to be percieved as such.

I agree that I was a bit too harsh on this, however that doesn’t change my opinion that a level of professionalism and or training should be acheived before launching something that is obviously an important issue to her, into the public eye.

In my opinion, had that been done, the poor production values (ie:voice acting, narration) could have been overlooked…or maybe I’m just picky…but I like a bit of quality in my animation, surely you can’t slight me for that. After a second viewing, the idea is interesting, not my particular taste, but I gave it a second chance and some of my ideas about it changed

I like this woman’s animation. There are things in this work that are extremely good. I see talent in this film - loads of it. To be honest, this film is representative of what is really happening in animation these days. Many professional animators are highly qualified and perfectly trained for the task of designing colorful cereal boxes or making things like ‘Happy Tree Friends.’ Nice use of white space. Balanced compositions. Smooth movement. Lovely walk cycles. The insistence on these things in animation is a mistake and shows how far animation lags behind painting, literature and music as an art form. Give me the wild unprofessional rough jagged expressive personal animation that is being uploaded everyday to places like Newgrounds and YouTube. That’s where it’s at. I think a seventeen-year-old should remake Snow White for YouTube and do it better than WD did.

I hope this doesn’t become a professionals only site.

Because I am not a professional animator

In fact I’m not even an amature animator.

I’m just an animation fan.

And I dig all the stuff I learn about on this site.

While I didn’t care for this all that much, I do believe good work can be done by someone who hasn’t been formally trained in animation. After all, imagination and creativity have always been the top of my priority for good animation (and that is something we don’t need an education for, right?)

It seems unfortunate to me that this girl is the grand-daughter of the celebrated author. After all, had she not been, I doubt she would have had any work posted on this site. I bet it brings her a lot of unwanted attention. I can also understand the frustration on the part of other animators who did have to work hard to get any recognition at all. It’s not easy either way.