Author Archives: Amid Amidi

About Amid Amidi

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Bob Thomas’s The Art of Animation

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The Art of Animation

Michael Sporn has been scanning some beautiful photos and artwork from Bob Thomas’s classic long out-of-print 1958 book about Disney called The Art of Animation. So far he’s done two posts about the book (first post, second post). Even better, and especially if you read Spanish, Michael points out that Ernesto Pfluger has scanned and posted the entire Spanish-language version of the book on his blog. Even if you can’t understand the text, the imagery is a delight. I think I speak for a lot of classic animation fans when I say that I’d like to see this book reprinted.

Also, I love this comment by cartoonist Eddie Fitzgerald about the photos in Thomas’s book: “The artists look so hardcore, so professional! I love the serious faces of the four artists looking at the cel, the one with Al Dempster on the extreme left. I even like the picture of the ink and painters. Everybody looks like they’re soooo good at what they do!” Eddie is so right. The artists in these photos defy the stereotype of animators as goofballs. These guys were professionals in the truest sense of the word, and the films they created reflect their dedication to the art and craft.

Björk’s “Wanderlust” by Encyclopedia Pictura

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Wanderlust

Björk’s new music video for the song “Wanderlust” is AMAZING! It’s a staggeringly original mix of live-action, stop motion, CG and puppetry directed by San Francisco-based Encyclopedia Pictura (aka Sean Hellfritsch and Isaiah Saxon). The “regular” version debuted today, but they’ve also produced a stereoscopic 3D version that requires special glasses. This would definitely be something special to see on the big screen.

UPDATE I’ve removed the YouTube link because the directors of the video emailed to tell us that they’ve put up a beautiful hi-res Quicktime version of “Wanderlust” on their website, and they’d prefer if people could see this version. I think you’ll prefer seeing this version too.

Below is a ‘making of’ video and here is an interview with the directors about the challenges of producing the video in 3D. And these are the complete production credits.

PandaPanther

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PandaPanther is, hands down, my favorite new commercial studio. Once you see their work, you’ll understand why. This young NYC-based outfit, operating for a little over a year now, is injecting a big whopping dose of artistry into computer animation, and dragging CG out of its literalist photoreal ghetto. It’s headed up by directors Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura, and producer Lydia Holness.

Garin and Nishimura’s CG feels tactile and handcrafted. Their work looks unmistakably digital yet also retains a strong illustrative quality. They also seem to mix techniques quite well, as some of their projects appear to employ “stop motion” sets, like the Zune Arts and Yo Gabba Gabba! ones. Below are a few of their recent projects that I’ve enjoyed, though I recommend checking out everything on their site PandaPanther.com.

Panda Panther

Mika’s Marshmallow Train, an animated short for Yo Gabba Gabba!

Panda Panther

Nokia “Rock ‘n Roll Decadence”

Panda Panther

Tale of the Cheshire Tree

Panda Panther

Interstitals for MTV Tr3s. Full credits and brief interview with the filmmakers on this site.

Panda Panther

Underwater Jungle Disco

Bakshi Talk

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Tied in to the release of the new book about his life, BlackBook magazine offers a no-holds-barred interview with Ralph Bakshi. I’m not a fan of the man, but I respect what he’s done for the art form. In a few sentences below, he explains quite well what separates him from the average joe who works in this industry:

“I never for a minute thought, Ralph, you’re broke, and you can’t compete with Disney. Go out and do a commercial film. Go out and do Mary Poppins 2, Bugs Bunny 3–you could make fortunes. But, not caring about money or merchandising allowed me to extend the medium. I mean, I did Heavy Traffic, and that’s not at all a commercial picture: a Jewish mother trying to chop the Italian father’s balls off and a kid who never got laid. So, what I’m saying is, success isn’t why I work. Money isn’t why I work.

“People throw away their lives today on that shit. I know guys in L.A. who have hundreds of millions of fucking dollars, and I think, when are you going to stop this shit? I mean, what are you doing here? Jeffrey Katzenberg still gets up at five in the morning to run this shit at DreamWorks, and gets 300 fucking million dollars for Shrek 5. What is that? He’s a billionaire, and he directs Shrek 5 and 6 and 7, like he’s trying to prove something.”

A Danny Bonaduce Post, Finally!

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Our rules for how to submit news items for Cartoon Brew consideration are quite clear, but that doesn’t stop PR folks, who have clearly never read the website, from constantly sending us wildly inappropriate items to post on the Brew. We get dozens of these emails every week. For the most part, I junk them without even opening them, but this one from CBS was so bad that I couldn’t resist sharing with readers. I’ll spare readers the pain of linking to their awful Flash animation, though it’s online if you wish to torture yourself.

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:38:03 -0700 [05:38:03 PM PDT]
From: “Walworth, Cori” cori.walworth@tvc.cbs.com
Subject: “Danny Bonaduce Life Coach”

Just wanted to run a fun idea by you, the Danny Bonaduce Life Coach show has a new mobile episode running tomorrow, it’s starring Pam Anderson.

On this episode, called “Pam Anderson: Mammiforous Matrimony”, Danny and his sidekick Catchphrase are summoned to save Pam from a failing career and failing marriages by becoming match makers. Will Danny’s skills save her from another divorce?

If interested I can send you the episode for you to review and post on your site. Be one of the firsts…

Thank you and hope to hear from you soon.
Cori Walworth
CBS Media Relations
323-575-2119

Stan VanDerBeek

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Stan Vanderbeek
(Photo © Amy Drown)

I’m currently fascinated with the work of avant-garde filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984). There seems to be a dearth of information available about him online or in print which is a shame as he was a genius and innovator in so many respects.

In the mid-1950s, he began creating experimental collage animated films with a quick-cutting approach that prefigures the “MTV style” by decades. I’ve posted two of his shorts below–A la Mode (1959) and Science Friction (1960). The moment I saw these, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Terry Gilliam’s animation work, so it’s little surprise that in this interview, Gilliam cites Vanderbeek’s film Breathdeath (1964) as the inspiration for the animation style in Monty Python.

A La Mode (1959)

Science Friction (1960)

VanDerBeek was a relentless experimenter, even going so far as inventing a new type of theater, the MovieDrome, in which people watched films while laying on their backs. The theater used multiple screens to show “collaged projections of slides, film loops, hand-drawn animation, collage animation, live-action footage, and video images.” In other words, he was VJ’ing decades before the term even existed.

MovieDrome

Another fascinating experiment of his was Violence Sonata, a public television special which mixed a prerecorded video work combined with a live studio audience’s response and interaction from viewers at home. When the show first aired in 1969, it was presented on two different channels, requring viewers to place two TV sets side-by-side to appreciate the full effect. More info and a short clip from the film can be seen here.

He collaborated frequently with avant-garde artists from other artistic discplines, such as filming the Happenings of Allen Kaprow and Claes Oldenburg, or working with John Cage and Merce Cunningham on the multimedia piece below (additional info about this project on its YouTube page):

VanDerBeek was also an early pioneer of computer animation, and worked to find ways of marrying art and technology. Here’s a 1972 video that shows him at work at MIT, followed by a CG short he made using the computer.

And to top it all off, he has a pretty awesome gravesite too.

Don Hertzfeldt Leaves The Animation Show

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Sad news from our favorite touring cartoon festival, The Animation Show. Don Hertzfeldt, who co-founded the Show with Mike Judge, announced in his online journal on March 16 that he will no longer be involved with the Show. The reasons for his departure are vague; the text of his online post reads:

last week i decided it was time for me to part ways with the animation show. it’s been five years and three tours and some good memories. they have a new tour rolling through theaters this summer and i don’t know what will be in it but i encourage you to go check it out

The Animation Show is still being run by a competent group of folks and I have no reason to believe that they won’t continue to grow and prosper. Still, Hertzfeldt was a huge part of the Show’s personality and it’s sad to see him leave.

Classic Disney Art Returns to the US

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Sleeping Beauty

The NY Times reports that Disney is having returned to them over 250 pieces of original classic artwork, most of it from Sleeping Beauty. These pieces had been lost for decades until four years ago, when they were found in a janitorial closet in Japan’s Chiba University. The fascinating story of their discovery is documented in the Times piece.

After restoration work, the pieces began touring Japanese museums in 2006. The artwork was also printed in this awesome exhibition catalog. Hopefully with the artwork now coming back into Disney’s hands, they’ll take the initiative of publishing an English-language version of the catalog, or better yet, combine it with the Sleeping Beauty artwork already in their archives to create the ultimate “Art of Sleeping Beauty” volume. Now there’s a book I’d love to have on my bookshelf!

Amitabh Bachchan For US Prime Minister

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Amitabh Bachchan

Badmash a new Indian animation studio with bases in Pune, India and Berkeley, California is promoting itself with a political parody site about legendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and his candidacy for “prime minister” of the US. The site is notable for a couple of slickly produced Flash animation pieces–Dishoom 2008, and a parody of a Hillary Clinton campaign ad, It’s 3AM, America.

(Thanks, Kevin Elam)