Every artist has their favorite place to work, but it’s unlikely that any of those places offer the amusing view that animation filmmaker Chris Harding finds in Kansas City. He writes about his inspiring scenery in this blog entry.
It seems I can’t escape animation no matter where I go. For example, take last week when I was in San Francisco attending an advertising conference in the beautiful Presidio. During a break from the activities, I decided to take a little walk around the grounds. I noticed there was heavy construction going on around a couple of the buildings so I decided to check out what they were doing. It turns out that it’s the future home of the Walt Disney Family Museum, which is scheduled to open in August 2009.
The idea of situating a museum in a city in which Walt had few connections to may seem like a poor idea, but having seen the location in person, I couldn’t help but notice how perfectly the buildings being used for the museum capture the spirit of Walt Disney. It’s not just that they’re old buildings but their setting in the Presidio creates a sense of good old-fashioned Americana that simply feels right. Such a brilliant decision about where to place the museum leads me to believe that the Disney Family Foundation, run by Disney’s grandson Walter Elias Disney Miller, will be making other intelligent choices about the museum in the future, which offers a reason to look forward to their activities.
Here are a few more pics from my walk. The building below, #104, is a 19th century military barrack that will house the main musuem, cafe, gift shop and 115-seat lecture hall. (Click on the pic for a bigger version.) Some of the items that will be on display in the museum can be viewed at the museum’s website.
This next building, #122, originally a gymnasium built in 1904, is located behind the first building. It will rehabbed to house the Foundation’s research, archive and education functions, and to provide a gallery space for visiting exhibits.
I didn’t see the third building but apparently that will be used mostly for housing mechanical equipment and providing behind-the-scenes support to the two main buildings . Here’s an info sheet posted by one of the buildings. Click on it for a readable version.
These two recent music vid discoveries make me very happy.
• “Umo” is a primarily stop motion video directed by Shoji Goto for the all-female Japanese group OOIOO. The energetic uninhibited filmmaking in this piece is a true delight. Peep it here or download a better quality Quicktime version here (28mb).
• “Frog Dance” is an inspired bit of Flash animation by Jamie Mason (aka Hobo Divine) produced for the Nick Jr. series Yo Gabba Gabba. It’s mighty rare to see anybody today pull off this type of super-limited animation with such charm and vitality. (via)
The 2007 edition of the Ottawa International Animation Festival kicks off today, and as always, Ottawa’s artistic director Chris Robinson has pulled together a solid lineup of programs. Sadly I can’t make it this year, but if I were going, here are some of the things I’d be checking out:
• The opening night feature: Persepolis.
• Masterclasses by Joanna Quinn and Tomasz Baginski
• The International Showcase screening which includes the world premiere of the Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, the first film to come out of Disney Animation’s new shorts program.
• Panels about advertising in animation and blogging in animation. The blogging panel includes the other half of Cartoon Brew, Jerry Beck.
• A lot of design-oriented programs this year including a four-part UPA retrospective, a tribute to Zagreb Film director Dušan Vukotić, and a program showing animation influenced by New Yorker cartoonist Saul Steinberg.
• The competition screenings are always one of the strongest parts of Ottawa, and this year’s selections are no exception. All of this year’s major shorts are playing up there including Koji Yamamura’s A Country Doctor, Luis Cook’s Pearce Sisters, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s Madame Tutli-Putli and Don Hertzfeldt’s Everything Will Be OK, but there’s always a lot of pleasant unexpected discoveries at Ottawa as well.
It’s that time of the month again to bring some attention to Cartoon Network’s repudiation of cartoons in favor of transforming itself into a second-rate knockoff of Disney Channel and Nick. Yesterday’s Hollywood Reporter offered details on the network’s latest live-action project: a pilot deal with actor David Duchovny. According to the article, the show “centers on a junior high school student from a long line of newsmen who turns his school AV Club into a hard-hitting citywide broadcast.” For the project, Duchovny is teamed up with producers of live-action kids shows that had aired on Disney Channel and Nick like Even Stevens and The Secret Life of Alex Mack.
Additionally, throughout the month of October, Cartoon Network will be airing nightly reruns of the live-action series Goosebumps. An original live-action made-for-TV movie of their animated series Ben 10 will debut in November. And last week, CN debuted the live-action/animated series Out of Jimmy’s Head, a spinoff to their live-action film Re-Animated.
Earlier coverage of live-action on Cartoon Network:
Our first post in April 2006
The New Cartoon Network
More About Cartoon Network
Most Ironic Exec Quote of the Week
More About The New Live-Action CN
Cartoon Network’s Re-Animated
Another Live-Action Show On Cartoon Network
This new video posted onto YouTube showcases some of the cartoonier moments (in slo-mo) from early Simpsons episodes. According to the video creator, they were animated by David Silverman. Looking at the show today, it’s difficult to believe that the Simpsons ever featured such entertaining animation-driven moments. (Update: Part 1 was removed from YouTube due to a “copyright violation” claim by Fox, but we’ve posted the second part below which highlights more Silverman animation.)
And here is director/animator David Silverman demonstrating another of his passions: the tuba (at Burning Man no less).
The young Santa Monica animation studio Three Legged Legs continues to impress with each new project they turn out. Reza Rasoli, one of the principals in the studio, wrote to give me a heads up on their latest campaign, “XGames” for Amp energy drink. The three Amp feature the most extensive traditional character animation that they’ve produced to date. They’ve also posted an excellent case study that showcases the artistic talent and concept artwork behind the Amp spots.
BCActionPoet.org is a delightful series of eleven bite-sized shorts, each set to a poem by US Poet Laureate Billy Collins and read in an amusingly dry tone by Collins himself. The films were commissioned by The Sundance Channel, in partnership with J. Walter Thompson, and the individual shorts were farmed out to various commerical animators. Some of the standout pieces which I thought were able to graphically complement and build upon, but not parrot, Collins’s evocative words, were “The Last Cigarette” by Will Hyde of Superfad, “Forgetfulness” by Julian Grey of Toronto’s Head Gear Animation, and “No Time” animated by Jeff Scher.
(Thanks, Toby Barlow)
A lot of readers seemed to enjoy the first Animation History Round-Up posted here a few weeks ago, so here’s another guide to rare cartoon history recently posted online.
Commercial director Bob Kurtz talks about his legendary career, courtesy of the audio podcast Toon In!. See some of Kurtz’s commericals at his studio website Kurtz & Friends or on his YouTube page.
David Nethery shares a rare 1963 magazine article by Twice Upon a Time director John Korty offering tips on how to get started in animation. My favorite tip from Korty: “Don’t be afraid to shoot 20, 40 or 80 frames without movement.”
Jenny Lerew discovers a superrare storybook with beautiful concept drawings from the “Dance of the Hours” sequence in Fantasia.
An excellent compilation of clips highlighting the work of overlooked animator Pat Matthews from 1940s Walter Lantz cartoons.
Thad Komorowski nominates this piece of Jim Tyer animation as the “best eating scene ever in an animated cartoon.” It’s a great bit of animation but I want to hear your nominees.
Mark Evanier writes about a rare piece of Gene Deitch animation on YouTube: the opening titles to the TV series Mischief Makers (1960), produced by Deitch’s own company, Gene Deitch Associates.
Michael Sporn offers a frame grab set of Richard Williams’s animated titles for the 1966 live-action feature A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.
Certainly quite a bit different from this amusing theatrical spot for Johnson’s cleaners that Richard Williams directed in the 1960s.
(Williams ad via Poptique)
We’ve extended the pre-order deadline for the new Cartoon Brew book Inside UPA. All orders via Paypal, or postmarked in the mail, by this Tuesday, September 18, can take advantage of the cheaper price of $35 (plus S&H). After that, the price will become $45. All proceeds from this limited edition book will go towards the funding of the UPA documentary project headed up by Tee Bosustow, son of UPA co-founder Stephen Bosustow. For more details, see this earlier post on the Brew and to pre-order your discounted copy visit UPApix.com. With only one thousand copies being published, it won’t be around for long, and it certainly won’t be this cheap again after a couple more days.
New York animator Patrick Smith, who has also created numerous public art installations throughout the years, is making a major entry into the fine art world. His first one-man show, “Configurations,” opens this Tuesday, September 18, at CVZ Contemporary Gallery in SoHo (446 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY, 10013). The opening reception is from 6-10pm. Two of the acrylics from the show can be seen above (larger versions here).
Smith says of these paintings, “Using the figure as a building block, intertwining with other figures, is a powerful method of constructing a broader configuration. The concept of people supporting others to achieve something larger than themselves can have a sublime result, and it’s something that I enjoy illustrating.” To my eyes though, while some of the characters look like they’re cooperating and helping one another, others look like they’re taking advantage of one another to pull ahead. It lends an intriguing complexity to the true intent of these contorted and expressionless figures. Here is a time-lapse video showing the creation of one of these paintings.
Spumco bigshot Jim Smith is auctioning some of his layouts from the original Ren & Stimpy series on eBay. The prices are reasonable and there’s some nice drawings available. Here is the complete listing of art.
Here’s a book that I recently picked up. The unlikely pairing of Schulz and Disney on a book cover was simply too good to pass up. The cover also offers the interesting revelation that when Schulz draws adults, they end up looking like King of the Hill characters. Thankfully it’s not something he did often.
Click on the front and back cover images for larger views.
I’m not sure what’s going on here, but something tells me this isn’t the type of family entertainment Walt had in mind when he started Disneyland.
(via Boing Boing)
Animator director Ward Jenkins has posted an interview on his blog with writer and historian Taylor Jessen, the foremost chronicler of the innovative and overlooked animated film Twice Upon a Time (1983). Ward also interviewed the film’s art director Harley Jessup and will be posting that discussion next.
