The Tim Burton retrospective opens on November 22 at MoMA. Animation has played a significant role in Burton’s career, and continues to figure into his work as evidenced by this animated trailer he created to promote the exhibit:

CREDITS
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Mackinnon and Saunders
CGI Animation: Flix Facilities
Animation: Chris Tichborne
Lighting Camera: Martin Kelly
Music by Danny Elfman

(Thanks, Craig)

The Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema is back for its 9th edition, and festival organizer Joseph Chen has compiled another fantastic line-up of foreign animated features that can’t be found anywhere else in North America. Chen’s smart curation is yet another step towards challenging the ever-prevalent misconception in North America of animation as a kiddie art form. The selections include films that we’ve discussed on the site recently such as The Secret of Kells, Mary and Max, Panic in the Village and Boogie the Oily One, along with other features that hail from Russia, Serbia, Sweden, and Japan. There is also a retrospective of a couple vintage Russian animated features. The festival takes place from November 19-22 at the Gig Theatre (137 Ontario Street North) in Kitchener, Ontario. Film details as well as ticket info can be found on the festival website at WFAC.ca.

Start making your predictions now! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that twenty films have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category. As we discussed last week on the Brew, this means there will be five nominees in the category for only the second time since the inception of the award. The submitted films are:

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”
“Astro Boy”
“Battle for Terra”
“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
“Coraline”
“Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
“The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
“Mary and Max”
“The Missing Lynx”
“Monsters vs. Aliens”
“9”
“Planet 51”
“Ponyo”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure”
“A Town Called Panic”
“Up”

One important note: seven of these films have not yet completed their LA qualifying run: “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” “The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Planet 51,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “The Secret of Kells” and “A Town Called Panic.” Also, there is still the possibility that films will be disqualified from the field if they do not fulfill the category’s requirements. With this many films in the running though, we’re most definitely looking at a five-nominee field this year.

UPDATE: Looks like The Dolphin is playing at the Laemmle Claremont 5 starting December 11 - same theater and week as A Town Called Panic, per Laemmle Theatres website

The Secret of Kells will be at the AMC Burbank 8 December 4-10 at 7 PM, per the Kells Blog.

(Thanks, Jerrett Zaroski)

Nevin Martell’s Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Strip has piqued my interest. The author wasn’t able to score an interview with the notoriously reclusive Watterson, but he’s pieced together his life by interviewing Watterson’s friends and family members including his mother and editor at Universal Press Syndicate. Comic Book Resources has an interview with Martell in which he talks about the challenges of writing the book and how he didn’t want to end up with an overwrought biography like the Charles Schulz volume by David Michaelis.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, the Rauch Bros. have posted on-line their short but powerful film Germans in the Woods. The film’s audio track is recorded by WWII vet Joseph Robertson who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. More details about the film can be found on the Rauch Bros. website and their online store offers pieces of original artwork from the film.

Dani from the Spanish animation blog Protoones turned me on to Puck Cinema Caravana, a cool little project from Spain conceived by Carles Porta and Toni Tomàs. In short, Carles and Toni got their hands on a trailer home, decorated it beautifully on the outside, outfitted the inside with a cinema, and are roaming the Spanish countryside screening rare animated shorts for young and old alike. There is a more in-depth description on the Puck Cinema Caravana blog:

“Puck is a caravan fitted out as a cinema. Its inside is a tiny cinema, maybe the smallest in the world. There is room for seven people. Puck shows animation films which are not usually broadcast on TV. There is a wide selection of international films from all around the world that have been made throughout time. The menu is varied but selected. It aims mostly to the spirit.

The objective is to capture a brand new lover of animated cinema or simply be able to recover the experience of cinema in a particular way in order to enjoy in a short time a little big piece of work of audiovisual creation.”

They’ve put a lot of care and detail into the presentation and branding of their cinema, from the beautiful paint job on the exterior of their cinema-on-wheels to this cute animated trailer:

A screenshot from today’s Google News:

The best comment about this mix-up comes from Ricky Garduno on Facebook: “Makes sense. After watching Space Jam I severed my own penis.”

I can’t get enough of mid-century educational and safety-related animated shorts so I’m delighted to see a contemporary take on those films with The Responsibility Project from Liberty Mutual, which is a series of entertainment shorts intended to “create a forum for people to discuss personal acts of responsibility.” The most impressive animated short created for the program thus far is Good Vibrations by French animator Jérémy Clapin, the director of Skhizein. The four-minute film, which is directed, designed and written by Clapin, manages to be funny and entertaining while slyly slipping in its message about the necessity of individuals taking initiative instead of rubbernecking. With his strong graphic concepts and effortless visual storytelling, Clapin’s work continually impresses, and he’s proving himself to be one of the more exciting new voices in animation. Watch Good Vibrations on the Liberty Mutual website.