November 18, 2006

CEREAL OBSESSION

alphabits.jpgkelloggsoks.jpgtop3.jpg

After old comic books and classic animated cartoons, the number #3 most influential art to aspiring animators has to be on cereal boxes. Especially old cereal boxes from the 1960s. The whole design of the packaging itself was/is inspirational. Just ask Thorsten Hasenkamm or Dan Goodsell or Ridd Sorenson. Their blogs are filled with modern interpretations of old packages (or the actual old boxes themselves).

Bob Staake is an incredible commercial artist and children's book illustrator with an obsession: breakfast cereal. To him, it's not what the flakes taste like, it's the box design and the groovy prizes inside. Bob is proposing his own line of cereal, centering his efforts around his iconic product characters. Check out his website for Freebies Cereal.

freebies.jpg

And what ever happened to the project Von Kreep (of Kreepsville.com) was doing called Cereal Killers. He had asked illustrators and animation artists to do box covers of "scary" cereals. It was supposed to be out this past summer and I don't know what happened to it, but a lot of the art is online on various artist blogs, like: Rob Lilly, Johnny Yanok, Ben Balistreri, Kevin Schmid, Gabe Swarr, Brandon Scott, Saxton Moore. This stuff is mighty tasty.

UPDATE: Bob MacNeil sent me a link to a list of all the Cereal Killer artists and their contributions to the project.


Posted by JERRY at 12:45 PM

November 16, 2006

POTAPYCH: THE BEAR WHO LOVED VODKA

Potapych

If you watch just one animated short this week, make it POTAPYCH: THE BEAR WHO LOVED VODKA by Darren Price.

Produced as part of Channel 4's Mesh program, POTAPYCH is a wonderful little short that works on every level. The film's style is a delight—a combination of cel-shaded CG characters with painted backgrounds—though what impressed me most was the elegant storytelling, which is fast-paced but never rushed. Price manages to tell a great story with heart in under three minutes—something much harder to do than it looks. (Sidenote: After watching the film, be sure to click on the "Learn More About The Bear" link.)

I believe this is Darren Price's first personal short, but he's also the head of 3D at London's Nexus Productions, where he's worked with Smith & Foulkes on numerous spots including Coke's "Video Game", Honda's "Grrr", and Motorola's "Grand Classics."

Potapych


Posted by AMID at 10:31 AM

Greatest Soap Commercial Ever

luxsoap.jpg

"A girl finds some soap in the woods that turns her into a slut."

That's the description I found for this risque Lux Provocateur soap commercial on No Fat Clips and it does a pretty good job of summing things up. The stop-motion spot, which definitely wasn't commissioned for American TV, is directed by Chel White at Bent Image Labs. Designer Jim Clark recently posted some of the spot's conceptual work on his blog.


Posted by AMID at 08:17 AM

DO I CREEP YOU OUT?

jerryjibjab.jpg

Does that creepy guy on the far right look familiar?

Yeah, it's me. You never know where you'll end up if you let Evan and Gregg Spiridellis take your picture. But I couldn't be more honored. Al Yankovic is an old friend and the folks at JibJab are my heroes. So when they asked if they could use my mug in the latest Weird Al music video, "Do I Creep You Out", how did I know they'd actually use it as a mug shot?

The video is hilarious—and I'm a star (for about six seconds). Check it out for laughs!


Posted by JERRY at 12:01 AM

November 15, 2006

EN TUS BRAZOS

entusbrazos.jpg

Who needs DANCING WITH THE STARS? EN TUS BRAZOS is a new French student film from Supinfocom created by Edouard Jouret, FX Goby and Matthieu Landour. I had some issues with the design and animation, but the stylish dreamlike atmosphere makes this film worth checking out.

(via Fous d'Anim)


Posted by AMID at 12:23 PM

THE SUCCESS OF KIWI!

What's the most popular piece of animation on the Internet right now? How about KIWI!, a Master's thesis film by Dony Permedi of School of Visual Arts. The 3-minute, dialogue-less short became a "Featured Video" on YouTube's front page a few days ago and it connected with audiences in a way that nobody could have expected. It is currently the most linked-to video on the blogosphere according to Technorati.com, it's in the top 15 all-time favorited videos on YouTube, and it's racked up nearly two million views in the past week.

That last number is particularly impressive. It's one thing to talk in the abstract about the Internet and the potential it offers for animated shorts, but KIWI! offers clear proof that an online audience exists for animated shorts. When was the last time anybody heard of a piece of student animation being viewed two million times in a week? Even if the film had screened at dozens of film festivals or been released onto a compilation dvd of shorts, it's unlikely to have ever achieved such a sizable viewership through traditional short film distribution channels.

KIWI!'s success is part of a much bigger story, which is how the Internet is making animated shorts accessible to mainstream audiences, something that hasn't happened in the last thirty or forty years. It's going to take some time until filmmakers figure out models for generating revenue from their shorts online, but with a worldwide audience thirsty for fresh animated content, making money from animated shorts has finally become a matter of when and not if.

Watch KIWI below:



Posted by AMID at 10:45 AM

MR. BUG AT MOMA

mrbugad.jpg

Long before Paramount Pictures was affiliated with Nickelodeon Movies... a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... they had an animation studio. And before that, they contracted animated shorts and features from the Max Fleischer studio.

Mr. Bug Goes To Town (1941) was the second feature film from Fleischer Studios, produced at their state-of-the-art animation facility in Miami Florida. It had the misfortune of not only being produced during a tumultuous rift between brothers Max (the producer) and Dave (the director), but during a period of heated battle between Max and Paramount Pictures. Paramount released the film during the first week of December 1941 and audiences stayed home in droves due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and our imminent entry into World War II.

The film has been unjustly neglected for 65 years (so much so its latter day owners forgot to renew the copyright; the film is now in public domain and is widely available with inferior image quality). It was reissued as Hoppity Goes To Town and has become a cult favorite to a younger generation of animators and animation buffs. On New Year's Day 2007, Mr. Bug Goes to Town will be presented at The Museum of Modern Art. If you live in, or are visiting New York City during the holidays, I urge you to GO!

Here's one reason why: The Museum has one of the only existing original Technicolor prints (with its Paramount logos and original titles intact). Most of the bad dubs on video (and the Internet) are so far from its original intended presentation, it's pathetic. This print was shown at LACMA (L.A.'s equivalent of MoMA) several years ago and it absolutely blew my mind. The film was meant to be seen in a theater, and the vibrant colors of this print show it to be on par with anything Disney did during the same period. You've got two chances, Monday, January 1st at 11:00am and 2:00pm.

The film also has a clever story, wonderful songs (by Frank Loesser, Hoagy Carmichael and Sammy Timberg) and great animation—and it's a great way to start the new year.


Posted by JERRY at 09:20 AM

ANIMATION IN PRINT

PES's GAME OVER

One of the unlikeliest sources for quality animation writing nowadays is PRINT MAGAZINE. Their September/October issue had two smart pieces worth mentioning. The first was an article by John Canemaker about the OpenEnded Group, a NY-based trio of artists who are combining CGI, artificial intelligence, real-time graphics and installation art. It's the type of experimental work one imagines Fischinger, Lye and McLaren would have been doing if they'd lived in the 21st century. The second piece is an informative profile of New York stop-motion director PES, whose latest spot I mentioned in yesterday's TV commercial roundup. The PES article is posted on the PRINT website and it's worth a read.


Posted by AMID at 07:05 AM

November 14, 2006

BREW HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: SILLY SYMPHONIES

The first in a series of holiday gift-giving suggestions from your pals at Cartoon Brew.

sillybooksmall.jpg
Editor Piera Patat of La Cineteca Del Friuli heard my plea and sent me a review copy of Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman's Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series which was published in Italy last month.

My high expectations for this long awaited tome were more than met. Merritt and Kaufman's Silly Symphonies is a must-have reference for everyone, from Disney aficionados to aspiring animators, anyone interested in animation history. The Silly Symphonies were a significant stepping stone in the aesthetic progression of animated cartoons in general, and Disney's artistic growth in particular.

This book documents each and every film in the series with facts, commentary and detailed minutiea. Full credits, from studio drafts, crediting animators with their specific scenes along with working titles, complete voice credits, length (by footage), negative costs, TV premiere dates, musical credits and my favorite bit of trivia: what feature films each Silly opened with in its initial New York (usually at Radio City Music Hall) and Los Angeles (usually the Loews State or Grauman's Chinese) theatrical engagements.

sillydvd.jpg
The filmography takes up half the book, the other sections include a lengthy introduction detailing the history of the series, how it changed as Disney moved from one distributor to another, what influenced the stories the series told and how the Sillies were used to train Disney's staff for eventual feature production. Appendicies detail Unfinished Symphonies, a discography, a bibliography of licensed childrens books based on the series and further information on offshoots like Hot Chocolate Soldiers (a Silly Symphony created for MGM's 1934 feature Hollywood Party).

It's all here. Each film is illustratred with several rare images, however if I had one quibble with the book, it's that I wish they had used more original art, production stills, pressbook and poster images over certain frame enlargements used here. It's hard to complain though - the book is a necessity, a first class piece of research. Editor Patat informs me that Indiana University Press will be distributing the book in the U.S. (though it's not listed on their website, nor on amazon, yet).

While you're waiting, I highly recommend pre-ordering Walt Disney Treasures - More Silly Symphonies which goes on sale December 19th. This second volume contains the rest of the Silly Symphonies series not already released on DVD - including several never before released on video in any format (Hell's Bells and Cannibal Capers are two notorious titles rarely seen since their original theatrical release). The films have been completely restored and several cartoons have audio track commentary by the likes of Leonard Maltin, J.B. Kaufman, Daniel Goldmark, Ross Care, Dave Gerstein, Richard Sherman and me. The book and the DVD set make a killer combination of cartoon greatness. Highly Recommended!


Posted by JERRY at 12:00 PM

TV Commercial Roundup

Here's a few recent animated TV spots that have caught my attention:

Orange Kids

Orange "Kids" — “Spot 1” | “Spot 2”: These spots for European cell provider Orange take conventional children's-style drawings and add dimensionality to them. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet of Partizan directed, with Buf responsible for the animation production.

Orange spot by Pes

Orange "Hide N Seek": Another Orange spot, this one by New York director PES, who is seemingly incapable of producing anything but amazing work.

Honda Tetris spot

Honda Jazz "Tetris": I thought this German commercial was brilliant until I saw this old SIMPSONS clip, which is way too close for comfort. It's still an effective visually-driven concept; too bad ad agencies have to "borrow" their ideas from animated TV series.

Kymco

Kymco Motorcycles: Beautiful spot by Spanish studio AÄB. This is the type of stylized art direction that I'd love to see in a CG feature some day; I'm not holding my breath though.

Nike commercial

Nike “Snow” | “Wind” | “Rain”: A spare yet evocative winter ad campaign by Brazilian Nando Costa. Motionographer has a short interview with Costa about the production of these spots.


Posted by AMID at 08:29 AM

NEW GOLDEN COLLECTION - TODAY!

bugsstar1.jpg

Just a subtle reminder that the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4 goes on sale today at your favorite video retailer. Take the rest of the day off and watch cartoons.



Posted by JERRY at 07:00 AM

ESURANCE SPOTS CONFUSING?

esurance.jpg

The Esurance animated commercials—produced by Ghostbot and Wild Brain—look great, but are they good at selling car insurance? Ad critic Seth Stevenson doesn't think so and he's penned a lengthy complaint on SLATE about these commercials:

On the Esurance Web site, you can watch an ad that shows Erin battling robots in a Wild West shoot'em-up; another where she clashes with ninjas who are breaking into an art museum; and still others that I just don't get at all. Yes, in each spot the dialogue makes salient points about the benefits of Esurance. But those confusing, busy plotlines drown out the message. While we're hearing this: "At Esurance, if we can't give you the best deal we'll show you where you can—and help you buy the policy right away," we're seeing this: a robot, in a cowboy hat and duster, firing a machine gun at a woman with pink hair. Wha?

(Thanks, Weston)


Posted by AMID at 04:28 AM

HAPPY FEET IS NOW STOP MOTION

This sentence in the Associated Press review of HAPPY FEET should raise a few eyebrows: "So the goodhearted Mumble is nonetheless a total outcast — though he should be the most popular guy on the iceberg with Savion Glover providing his tap moves behind the scenes through stop-motion animation." I'll start worrying when reviewers start labeling HAPPY FEET as 2D animation.

(Thanks, David Smedberg)


Posted by AMID at 04:20 AM

BLACK CARTOONS ON REFREDERATOR

sinkinbathtub.jpg millerlyles.jpg

The theme this week on ReFrederator.com is animated shorts built around racial stereotypes. Our buddy Emru Townsend of fps magazine is providing the guest commentary for the cartoons, which he's calling "Black Comedy". Emru writes:

It's nowhere near the kind of comprehensive look at the topic that I'd like, but hopefully it'll provide a jumping-off point for discussion.
The cartoons available for download include the very first Looney Tunes—SINKIN' IN THE BATHTUB, Ub Iwerks' LITTLE BLACK SAMBO, Tex Avery's ALL THIS AND RABBIT STEW, a Famous Studios Bouncing Ball cartoon JINGLE JANGLE JUNGLE and Van Beuren's very odd Tom & Jerry-in-blackface PLANE DUMB (featuring the voices of forgotten vaudeville comedians Miller and Lyles). They don't make 'em like this anymore—and never will again. Take a look, then discuss the pros and cons on ReFrederator.


Posted by JERRY at 12:01 AM

November 13, 2006

MEDIUM COOL

mediumcolor.jpg

Last week I gave you the scoop on Van Partible's animation on this week's season's premiere of NBC's MEDIUM. Now check out MEDIUM'S website for a neat little behind-the-scenes video about the animation sequence. And don't forget to set the machine for Wednesday night.


Posted by JERRY at 10:46 PM

1920 GRIM NATWICK MOVIE ADS

grimmmovieads.jpg

Our friend Leslie Cabarga purchased several bound volumes of old newspapers from San Francisco years ago, and was going through them this weekend for inspiration when he came across several movie ads signed by "Natwick". Yes, these vintage movie ads (click on image above for large version of them) were drawn by future Betty Boop/Snow White/UPA master animator Grim Natwick. They are from 1920 when Natwick was 30 years old. Grim most likely did the distinctive hand lettering in the ads as well. Note his harum girl for the Virgin of Stamboul, demonstrating his reputation for drawing beautiful girls. Grim passed away at age 101 in 1990, having applied his talents to many classic animated films and sharing his wisdom to several generations of animators.


Posted by JERRY at 11:13 AM

ANIMATORS ON TALK SHOWS

Check out this stomach-churning talk show appearance by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, creators of Comedy Central's animated series DRAWN TOGETHER. It's from an episode of REALITY REMIX which aired last week on Fox Reality channel. (WARNING: Don't click the above link if you're offended by vomit.) Between this and last Friday's appearance of FAMILY GUY creator Seth MacFarlane on the LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, one would think that the animation industry is populated entirely by talent-deprived, unfunny hacks. It's not often that animation artists get air time and it's annoying that when they do, it's always the lowest representatives of the art form. At least on German talk shows, they get Andreas Deja. See below:



Posted by AMID at 02:01 AM

NEW SIMPSONS MOVIE TRAILER

Simpsons Movie Trailer

The new SIMPSONS MOVIE trailer premiered last night on Fox during a new episode of the TV series. Watch it HERE. With all the recent animated features, it's smart marketing strategy on Fox's part to use the show's animation technique as a way of distinguishing the SIMPSONS from the pack. The fact that the SIMPSONS is hand-drawn is, of course, hardly a revelation to animation folk, but as I've repeatedly witnessed first-hand, the average moviegoer can't differentiate between hand-drawn and CG animation so this trailer should play quite effectively to general audiences. Those of us in animation can chuckle at the irony that the SIMPSONS portion of the trailer is also loaded with CG elements (the machinery and wrecking ball both appear to be CG).


Posted by AMID at 01:23 AM