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VIEW POSTS BY “amid”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
February 9, 2007 9:41 pm
Here’s something that’s cool for cool’s sake. Brazilian film students Cesar Turin, Dalila Martins, Dani Libardi and Dhyana Mai have produced a shot-by-shot live-action remake of Jan Pinkava’s Oscar-winning Pixar short GERI’S GAME (1997). The actor they found to play Geri is absolutely perfect for the role. Watch it below and then compare it to the original Pixar short here. No Comments » posted in Cartoon Culture 
February 9, 2007 4:53 am
During a Disney investor’s conference yesterday, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull announced some major Disney-Pixar news. Notably, that TOY STORY 3 is scheduled for release in 2009. Pixar vet Lee Unkrich (co-director of TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS, INC. and FINDING NEMO) is going solo as director for the first time. He’s working from a script by Michael Arndt (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE). Also, it was announced that Disney story artist Chris Williams is the new director of AMERICAN DOG, which is set for 2008 release. You may recall the buzz from last December when Chris Sanders was unexpectedly removed from the project (Sanders has now left Disney). More notes from yesterday’s conference can be found in this VARIETY article. No Comments » posted in CGI, Disney
February 9, 2007 3:30 am
 Anna Chambers Need something awesome to do in LA this Saturday? Check out the art show opening “After These Messages: A Tribute to Saturday Mornings of the Past” which opens at Nucleus Gallery (30 W. Main Street, Alhambra, CA 91801). The show features new paintings, prints, installations and sculptures by dozens of artists who have been influenced and inspired by SatAM cartoons. Numerous animation artists are showing including Alex Kirwan, Ben Jones, Derrick Wyatt, Elizabeth Ito, Megan Brain, Anna Chambers, Jeaux Janovsky and Bob Doucette. Refreshments and breakfast cereals will be served and live DJ too. Complete details at the Gallery Nucleus site.  Dan Santat  Mari Inukai  Elizabeth Ito No Comments » posted in Events, TV
February 9, 2007 1:12 am
 Shane Acker, the director of the atmospheric Oscar-nominated short 9, was a special guest at the ANIMATION SHOW screening in LA a couple nights ago. I had the opportunity to do a short Q&A with him on-stage after the screening and there were lots of excellent questions from the audience. One of the primary topics of discussion was about how 9 is currently being adapted into a full-length animated feature. I can’t think of a better short to be expanded into a feature. There’s plenty of cinematic vision in Shane’s original short as well as the sense of a fully developed world that’s just begging to be explored and fleshed out. Acker is also directing the feature and the producers include Tim Burton and NIGHT WATCH director Timur Bekmambetov. The feature version of 9 is being animated in Luxembourg at Attitude studios and will be released by Focus Features. During our Q&A, Shane announced for the first time the voice cast for his film. The leads are Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Elijah Wood and John C. Reilly. If that voice cast is any indication, this isn’t going to be your typical paint-by-numbers CG feature and that’s something to be excited about. Focus Features, which is the art house arm of Universal Pictures, is also the distributor of Henry Selick’s upcoming flick CORALINE (currently being produced at Laika). No Comments » posted in CGI, Feature Film
February 8, 2007 7:13 pm
 YO GABBA GABBA! has been picked up for twenty half-hour episodes by Nick Jr. The kooky live-action/animated preschooler variety show is produced by The Magic Store and W!LDBRAIN. It’ll begin production in April in Orange County, CA, and the show will premiere on Nick Jr. this fall. YO GABBA GABBA! is created by Christian Jacobs, Justin Lyon and Scott Schultz. They started the Magic Store in 2005 and produced two half-hour episodes of YO GABBA GABBA! independently. The show became an online viral hit last summer (we even plugged it on the Brew in June 06) and Nick Jr. announced late last month that they were picking it up as a series. Watch the original opening titles HERE, find out how to apply to work on the series, and stay tuned to the show’s brand-new production blog called Yo Blogga Blogga! No Comments » posted in TV
February 8, 2007 3:37 am
 Cuppa Coffee president Adam Shaheen responded indirectly to my recent post, “Cuppa Coffee Wants To Ream Filmmakers” (Feb. 5), by writing a letter to Cold Hard Flash’s Aaron Simpson. Shaheen’s response can be read in its entirety here. It’s a lengthy response but what Shaheen doesn’t discuss is more noteworthy than what he does. For one, he doesn’t address my primary complaint: why does Cuppa Coffee expect to receive exclusive rights to all the animated shorts entered in the contest, across all media, forever, without any obligation of compensating any of the artists? The only response that Shaheen manages is, “Any short film that earns a development deal with Cuppa Coffee, would then naturally involve the author being integrated into an upfront deal that would be negotiated fairly between the two parties – again, a true negotiation that doesn’t present as being anything but that.” That’s essentially saying, ‘Yeah the contract you sign to enter the program is unfair, but if you win, we’ll then negotiate a more fair contract with you. And guess what, if you don’t win our development deal, we still own the rights to your film.’ With the explosion of online video, there’s new contests like this popping up every week – two other recent ones are iLaugh’s Shortfest and AniBoom’s Eyedoll contest. All of these contests have ulterior motives: either helping to build a company’s brand/library or getting free development out of artists. In every case, the benefit of the collective entries coming into these companies far outweigh the benefit returned to the individual artists who are entering the contest. Frankly, I think it’s time to get over this silly and insulting notion that creating animation is a game. Animated filmmaking is not a contest and no piece of classic animation has ever been produced because of a contest. Animation is an art form and a business. Investing time and effort into creating quality work and backing it up with some basic business skills is the only proven formula for achieving success in this industry. One final thought. In his letter, Shaheen writes,
Personally, if I was going to “relinquish my rights” to further my career, I’d rather relinquish it to a major network like MTV (as Mike Judge did for Beavis & Butt-Head), Nickelodeon (as John K. and Stephen Hillenburg did), Fox (as Matt Groening did), Cartoon Network (as Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken did) or Comedy Central (as Parker and Stone did) than to a Canadian production house looking to attach itself to my talent under the guise of a contest. No Comments » posted in Ideas/Commentary, Cuppa Coffee
February 7, 2007 3:18 am
 A lot of Aardman’s work in recent years has been too slick and labored for its own good, but one of their new series marks a wonderful return to their roots. PURPLE AND BROWN, a batch of interstitials produced for Nickelodeon, features two blobs of clay who engage in pointless activities and make a lot of noise. It’s a simple concept, beautifully animated and hilariously executed; one might say they’re reminiscent of early Henson work. Over thirty of the shorts are available on this YouTube channel. A warning for the time-strapped: these cartoons are addictive – once you watch one, you’ll want to watch all of them. UPDATE: Animator Keith Lango has an elegant little blog post where he writes about why he likes these Aardman spots. I agree with him completely. (via Fous d’Anim) No Comments » posted in TV
February 7, 2007 2:38 am
 Director/designer Marc Craste (JOJO IN THE STARS) has completed a new :60 CG spot for Lloyds TSB. Watch the commercial here (15mb). The idea and execution of the commercial isn’t as inspired as the stunning UK National Lottery spot that Craste directed last year, but the overall effect is still quite charming. It was produced at studio aka. (via Feed) No Comments » posted in Advertising, Marc Craste
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