Author Archives: Amid Amidi

About Amid Amidi

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CartoonBrew.com Hires Four New Writers

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Cartoon Brew is expanding its editorial staff. Today we welcome four contributing writers to the website. The new contributors each promise to bring passionate knowledge and a unique point of view into the animation discussion.

Cartoon Brew’s investment in editorial talent allows the site to further position itself as the leading animation news and commentary website while reaffirming its commitment to covering a wide range of ideas and issues related to the animation community.

The four writers will focus on specific areas of the ever-expanding animation art form: Chris McDonnell will explore the intersection of animation and illustration art, Chappell Ellison will look at design culture in animation, Michael Ruocco will explore the development of animation techniques and classic animation created by the art form’s masters, and C.Edwards will provide coverage of industry trends and the lighter side of animation’s impression on popular culture.

As the site’s 9th anniversary approaches next week, we’re thrilled to mark the beginning of a new era in Cartoon Brew’s ongoing evolution. But first, let’s do some introductions:

CHRIS MCDONNELL works on television and book projects. He has created animation for shows such as Brody Stevens: Enjoy It!, Eagleheart, Portlandia, Yo Gabba Gabba, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, and Tom Goes to the Mayor. Chris’s books include Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book and Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi. He teaches an “Intro to 2D computer animation” class at the University of the Arts and works from his studio, McD Workshop, in Philadelphia. Chris is a founding member of the Meathaus comics/art collective and posts at Meathaus.com and publishes anthologies of sketchbooks and comics.

CHAPPELL ELLISON is an award-winning design writer and critic based in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to contributing to various publications, she has lent her editorial skills to several visual arts-based institutions and companies, including the Museum of Modern Art, Design Observer, Etsy and the Museum of the Moving Image. Chappell regularly lectures at universities and currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts. She blogs often and tweets twice as much.

MICHAEL RUOCCO is a recent graduate from the animation program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He lives in Burbank, California where he works as an artist in the animation industry. As an aspiring animation historian, Michael has assisted on several animation-related books including The Art of Brave and the forthcoming Full Steam Ahead: The Life and Art of Ward Kimball. He founded and edits Smears, Multiples and Animation Gimmicks on Tumblr, which has over 100,000 subscribers.

C.EDWARDS is a New York-based writer and cartoonist who has animated on award winning projects for national broadcast on a variety of networks, including ABC, CBS, PBS, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. He served as a contributing writer of arts and culture editorial for publications like the New York Press, CityArts and The West Side Spirit as well as the websites Out and Queerty. He spends his time tweeting, singing songs from Don Bluth’s Thumbelina, hunting down the perfect Ursula statuette, and writing and drawing his nationally syndicated alt-comic strip, Abel Boddy.

Talking Cartoon Brew on the Frenzer Foreman Podcast

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I have rarely—if ever—participated in any podcasts, which is why I have to point out that I recently put in an appearance on the Frenzer Foreman Animation Forum podcast. In the show, we talk about the time I attended an animation high school, how I got into blogging, where Cartoon Brew is headed, and, of course, what’s happening with the Ward Kimball biography.

Disney Releases “Planes” Trailer

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The trailer announces “From above the world of Cars…Disney’s Planes.”

Now that Disney owns Pixar, the calculated blending of brand identities has begun. Note, however, that Pixar’s name isn’t mentioned in the trailer—even though Planes is rooted in their style and creative universe. There’s a reason for that: nothing in the Planes trailer suggests the originality or artistry associated with the Pixar brand. To be fair though, quality filmmaking appears to have hardly been the motivation for this licensing and merchandising money grab.

The film, directed by TV vet Klay Hall (King of the Hill, Father of the Pride), will be released theatrically on August 9. Here’s the synopsis:

From high above the world of Cars, flies Planes, Disney’s upcoming animated action-packed comedic adventure starring Dusty (voiced by Dane Cook), a big-hearted, fast-flying crop duster who dreams of competing in the most exhilarating around-the-world air race in history. There’s only a couple of not-so-small problems—Dusty is not exactly built for racing and he also happens to be afraid of heights.

Despite his fear and with encouragement from his mentor, a naval aviator named Skipper, Dusty narrowly qualifies for the big competition. Dusty’s sportsmanship and speed begin to rattle the defending champ of the race circuit, Ripslinger, who will stop at nothing to see Dusty fail. When disaster strikes during the climax of the final race, Dusty’s courage is put to the ultimate test. With the support of friends old and new, Dusty reaches heights he never dreamed possible and in the process, gives a spellbound world the inspiration to soar.

LOST FILMS: “El Sombrero by Bob Balser

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Fans of classic animated shorts are undoubtedly familiar with John and Faith Hubley’s 1964 short The Hat, but there was another short released in the same year that was also called The Hat. This short, El Sombrero (retitled The Hat in English) was one of the few entertainment shorts produced by the Spanish outfit Estudios Moro, which I wrote about yesterday.

According to the 1967 book Film & TV Graphics, it’s “the story of a social outcast and his troubles with a hat…the hat is here a status symbol, but the hero never masters it, for it happens to be a hat that talks.”

Despite being animated in Spain, the film’s principal artists were all Americans. The director, Bob Balser, who I’m happy to report is still with us, had been floating around European studios in Denmark and Finland before landing at Estudios Moro to make this film. A few years after this short, Balser went to England where he would assume his most high-profile role as the animation director of Yellow Submarine.

The story was written and designed by Alan Shean, who was a fixture of the Fifties animation scene. He had worked for most of the major LA commercial houses and had also been an instrumental artist in the early years of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The background artist on the film, Dean Spille, who just turned 85, also worked on TV commercials, primarily at Playhouse Pictures. Following El Sombrero, he began working with Bill Melendez on the Peanuts specials and features, and became one of Melendez’s key artists for the next 35 years.

If the overriding trait of Fifties animation was an emphasis on formal design, then the defining element of Sixties animation was the desire to break away from formulaic ways of drawing characters. Shean, like so many other artists of the era, embraced a freer, more illustration-oriented approach to drawing. The poses and expressions in the stills below don’t look like they belong on any traditional model sheet; they are tailor-made to meet the requirements of each scene. The fluid graphic quality of the line is reminiscent of Robert Osborn’s illustrations and there’s a lovely, improvisational feel to the drawings. It would be a real treat to see drawings such as these in motion.

If you’ve seen El Sombrero or have more to share about the film, please comment.

Call for Entries: Animation Block Party

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Celebrating its tenth edition this summer, Animation Block Party will take place between July 25-28 in Brooklyn. The festival, which is the largest series of animation screenings in New York City, has announced a call for entries. The regular submission period ends on April 29.

Animation Block submission bumper by Zach Williams.

Till Shrek Do Us Part

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DreamWorks cosplay is hardly as widespread as Pixar cosplay, but when people dress up as DreamWorks characters, it’s a thing of beauty. This Shrek-themed wedding happened on the British island of Jersey. There’s an article and video about it on the BBC website and more photos on Yahoo’s Shine.

(Thanks, Nathan Wilkes for the post title suggestion)

What’s Up, Ward Kimball?

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I’ve received dozens of emails this week asking about the status of my Ward Kimball biography. Apparently, Amazon sent out emails to the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who had pre-ordered the book telling them it had been cancelled. To clear up any confusion about what is happening with the book, here are answers to the most common questions I’ve received:

1. Yes, Chronicle Books nixed the publication of my book.

2. Yes, it’s my opinion that Disney’s pressure caused Chronicle to kill the project.

3. Yes, I am amused by the Disney Company’s inept attempt to control the personal histories of its artists.

4. And most importantly, yes, Ward’s story will be told.

Stay tuned to Cartoon Brew for the latest developments.

Viva Ward Kimball!

The Spanish Cartoon Modern of Estudios Moro

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Estudios Moro was a Madrid, Spain animation studio started in 1955 by brothers Santiago and Jose Luis Moro. Their approach, while not strictly modernist, was heavily influenced by the Cartoon Modern approach of the era. There is little written about the studio in the English language, but from what I can discern, Moro appears to have been Spain’s leading producer of animated commercials. The studio’s success allowed it to open satellites in Barcelona and Lisbon during the Sixties.

Below are a few examples of theatrical commercials produced by the studio. If Spanish Brew readers know about Moro’s history or how to see more of their work, please share.

Starting Tomorrow: New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival

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Tomorrow is the opening night of the New York International Children’s Film Festival. The festival is a terrific way for New Yorkers to see foreign animated features that would otherwise be difficult to catch stateside. The opening night film—the much-anticipated Ernest and Celestine—is sold out, but it’ll screen again at the festival on Sunday, March 17. Other highlights include the US premiere of Goro Miyazaki’s From Up on Poppy Hill, the intriguing Euro-anime The Day of the Crows, and the English-language world premiere of French animation legend Jean-François Laguionie’s The Painting.

Other features that might be worth checking out include Welcome to the Space Show, Zarafa and Kirikou and the Men and the Women. See the full festival line-up HERE.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2″ Trailer

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Sony Pictures Animation released the first trailer today for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Opening in the US on September 27, the film is directed by industry veterans Cody Cameron (director of Open Season 3) and Kris Pearn (head of story on the original Cloudy).

DreamWorks Will Layoff 350 Employees

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DreamWorks Animation announced yesterday that they will layoff 350 employees by the end of 2013. The news of the layoffs become public in early-February when the studio told employees that it was reshuffling its production and release schedule.

DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg talked about the layoffs with \The Hollywood Reporter:

“These things are very, very difficult to do. I would say it’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do since we started DreamWorks. We’ve never had to lay anybody off. It was against our culture. But it’s the right thing for us today, and it makes DWA strong going forward.”

Yesterday, the studio also reported that it would take an $87-million writedown on Rise of the Guardians, which represents the studio’s biggest money-loser since 2006′s Flushed Away, which resulted in a $109-million write-down. It should be made clear that a write-down is not an actual loss of money, but a reduction of the book value of an asset.

What is the Biggest Animation Project on Kickstarter Right Now?

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What is the most funded animation campaign currently running on Kickstarter? Is it:

The answer is none of the above.

The most successful live animation campaign at the moment is Cyanide and Happiness, a long-running webcomic that aims to branch out into a series of long-form animated episodes. In the eleven days since the campaign was launched, over 7,300 backers have contributed $362,000, easily surpassing the project’s original goal of $250,000. It is already the third-highest funded animation campaign in Kickstarter’s history, and could break more records before it’s all over.

The four twenty-something creators of Cyanide and Happiness—Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin, Dave McElfatrick—are no strangers to animation. Before coming together to make the comic in 2004, they met each other as teenagers doing animation on Newgrounds. In 2009, they began creating brief animated segments based on their comic. Their YouTube channel has amassed neary 200 million pageviews with short-form bits and pieces of animation.

Now, they aim to do something more ambitious: a series of 10-12 minute episodes. Initially, they attempted to negotiate a TV series deal with cable networks. They wrote about the fruitless effort on their blog:

We walked away from the first two [networks] due to rights and creative control issues. We thought that we could settle those issues in the third deal, but things didn’t quite work out as we hoped. We’re starting to realize that TV as an industry just isn’t compatible with what we want to do with our animation: deliver it conveniently to a global audience, something we’ve been doing all along with our comics these past eight years. That’s just the nature of television versus the Internet, I suppose.

Now they’ve turned to Kickstarter to appeal directly to their fanbase:

We firmly believe the entertainment industry is changing, and the Internet will eventually become the only way people watch shows. Especially the people that make up our awesome fanbase. The Internet is already the largest network, available when you think about it. Why go anywhere else? By reading our comics over the years, you folks have given us the careers we dreamed of having as kids, and turned our silly cartoons into something much, much bigger than ourselves. The prospect of doing an uncensored, unaltered Cyanide & Happiness Show and giving it directly to the fans is an incredible opportunity. We’re really excited to see how far we can take things.

Besides the amount of money raised so far, there’s another noteworthy aspect, and that’s that the C&H artists developed their careers entirely online. This is different from many other high-profile animation projects on Kickstarter launched by mainstream artists whose reputations were established in entertainment mediums outside of the Internet.

It still means something to be Ralph Bakshi, John Kricfalusi or Bill Plympton—that is, being the director of numerous theatrical features, the creator of a groundbreaking TV series, or the king of American indie animation has an incalculable advantage over being an upstart. But as the Cyanide & Happiness campaign has shown, lofty reputations from other mediums can’t match the support of a well-established online following.

The C&H Kickstarter already has more backers than the combined totals of the three aforementioned animation legends, and will also achieve a higher pledge dollar amount than the combined total of those other high-profile campaigns. With this success, as well as the success of webcomic campaigns like MS Paint Adventures and Penny Arcade, the once-maligned webcomic is re-emerging as the unlikely foundation of mini-entertainment empires.

“We are at a tipping point in our industry”

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A commentary worth reading by Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society:

“We are at a tipping point in our industry – no matter where you live or work. It has become painfully obvious that while profits abound for producers and distributors, our budgets are being squeezed to the point of jeopardizing our jobs and the quest for a reasonable life style for VFX artists.”