A number of readers have written to ask who animated the shadow puppet-inspired “Tale of the Three Brothers” sequence in the new Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was directed and designed by Ben Hibon who produced it in association with Framestore. Hibon recently signed with Nexus Productions for repping.

Here’s an earlier film Hibon made called Codehunters:

UPDATE: FXGuide posted an interview with Dale Newton, the supervisor of the animated sequence at Framestore.

(via Drawn)

Last night’s episode of Sym-Bionic Titan is causing a mini-uproar on the Internet because of this sequence:

Many commenters, including the popular blog Super Punch, are questioning why Cartoon Network showed something so suggestive on a show that is rated TV-PG. Do you think this went too far for a TV-PG show that airs at 8pm? And while we’re at it, here’s another question: does nobody on the Sym-Bionic Titan crew understand how to draw a foreshortened pose? Not that there was much sexiness to begin with in this stiffly posed and animated sequence, but drawing a character so poorly so that she appears to have a leg tumor surely doesn’t help.

Pardon me while I revert to old fogey mode, but it’s sad that after decades of progress in this art form, today’s television artists can’t animate anything nearly as appealing or sexy as work created eighty years ago:

A test frame from Signe Baumane’s feature film in progress

NY filmmaker Signe Baumane (Teat Beat of Sex) is working on her first animated feature Rocks In My Pockets and documenting the progress on her blog. During the past month, she wrote an incredible seven-part series about a topic that nobody ever talks about publicly: fundraising and how an independent animator can afford to make films while living in New York. Bottomline: It’s not easy.

Many filmmakers make films occasionally inbetween commercial film projects, whereas Signe takes a firm and principled stance that puts her independent filmmaking above all other activities. Her free-flowing and often funny articles touch on countless different subjects: applying for grants, why Kickstarter doesn’t work for her, accepting non-film art projects that support her filmmaking habit, and the difficulties of budgeting living expenses when one isn’t earning anything. Unfortunately, the posts aren’t categorized, but start in the October archive with Fundraising Story 1 and work your way up. Her writings provide a sobering and realistic perspective on the life of an independent filmmaker.

(Thanks, Michael Sporn, for the tip)

I found out Liu Jian’s Piercing 1 when looking through the list of winning films at the Portuguese animation festival Cinanima which ended a few days ago. After reading up on it, I’m fascinated by everything about the film and can’t wait to see it. I don’t know when that’ll be, but Los Angeles folks are lucky because the film has its US premiere on December 4 at the Silent Movie Theater.

The film tells a contemporary story set during the recent financial crisis. The synopsis:

Zhang Xiaojun came from a poor rural area to the big city. He put himself through university and found a job in a shoe factory. In 2008, the financial crisis forced the closure of many factories. Zhang Xiaojun lost his job. One day, a supermarket guard beats him up, mistaking him for a thief.

In vain, he asks the supermarket manager for financial redress – his dearest wish is to return to his village to resume a simple farming life. Right before his departure, the police arrest him. The supermarket manager also has his problems. On a moonlit night, the storylines converge in a teahouse near the city rampart.

The artwork for Piercing 1 looks beautifully drawn, and in this article about the film, Jian says that he drew the entire film himself on a WACOM tablet over the course of three years. “One day, I talked to my wife about the idea of making an animation film,” he said. “With her permission, we sold our apartment, relied on our savings and we also got help from our relatives. The whole combination of money needed to produce the film was USD $100,000.”

It should be noted that most (if not every) animated feature in China is made with some sort of funding or support from the government. Jian’s film is truly independent; in fact, the lack of the Chinese government’s oversight means that the film is unlikely to ever be released in that country. Hopefully he’ll find a way to distribute it internationally. When asked about the government’s reaction, Jian said:

“I’ve gotten a mixed reaction. The film deals with a lot of negative aspects of life. Even though these aren’t China-specific, government censors are always sensitive. It seems that they’re happy that a Chinese film is gaining international acclaim, but at the same time, with the negative themes in the movie… right now they’re not doing anything to block the film, but they’re not doing anything to promote it, either.”

More information about the film can be found at its official website. If you’ve already seen it on the festival circuit, please share your thoughts in the comments.

UPDATE: This review of the film by Thierry Meranger appeared in Cahiers du Cinéma.

Twenty-year-old animation student Antoine Blandin chose an ambitious subject matter for his short I’m Going to Disneyland that pushes beyond typical student film territory. Domestic violence and child abuse are difficult subjects to pull off in animation, and Antoine does a lot with the topic in just over two minutes. I might even argue that it’s more effective than the other domestic violence cartoon making the festival circuits this year, Anita Killi’s Angry Man, simply because Blandin’s grim and austere visuals don’t distract from the story and feel more authentic to the point he’s making. The film was made at the Angoulême, France-based animation school EMCA. There’s a smart write-up about the short at Kuriositas.com.

As someone who never chats online, and is frequently inaccessible via e-mail and Facebook, I thought I’d try out this new app called VYou, that allows me to interact publicly with Brew readers via video responses. Basically, you can ask me any question you like, and I’ll choose some of them to answer when I find the time. Feel free to ask me about the industry, animated films, my book projects or personal stuff. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep the VYou app accessible on my bio page for now. (IMPORTANT: Do NOT ask questions in the comments below. They will be ignored. Questions have to be submitted through the VYou app HERE.)

UPDATE: I’m overwhelmed by the number of questions you have for me. I’ve started answering some of them and will answer many more in the coming days. Submit questions and view answers on my bio page.

Happy birthday to the great Walt Peregoy who turns 85 today. His color styling on 101 Dalmatians is legendary, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s done tons more great work throughout his career. Peregoy continues to be an accomplished fine artist, and an exhibit of his personal paintings are showing in Burbank for another week or so. I’ll try to make sure he sees this page today so please send your birthday wishes.

Walt painted the backgrounds on the film below, The Shooting of Dan McGrew. The colors are especially majestic if you can see a 35mm print projected:

(Thanks, Joe Horne)

I randomly stumbled upon this memorial video dedicated to Filastro “Fil” Mottola (1915-2008) who worked as a background painter on Sleeping Beauty and The Sword in the Stone. Though the video is short on his animation work, it’s still a real treat to see such a nice collection of photos from his life and examples of his fine art paintings.

A bear, a cat and a cyclops are tossing each other around…sounds like the setup to a crummy joke, but it’s actually this soundless animation loop created for a class assignment by School of Visual Arts student Jared D. Weiss. The only reason I’m posting it is because the animation made me laugh…five times in a row. It’s difficult to do goofy animation that is both awkward and well animated. Sesame Street director and Pixar veteran Bud Luckey calls it “dumb-ass animation,” and frankly, I can’t think of a better term. Whatever you want to call it, Jared does it quite well.

PS: If you want to make it even funnier, try watching with the Benny Hillifier.

Above is the trailer for Summer Wars, one of the fifteen films that qualified yesterday for the 2010 Animated Feature category of the Academy Awards. Unlike most of the other films on the list, we’ve never written about it on the Brew so I thought it would be worthwhile to share some information about it. The film was directed by Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and animated at Madhouse.

It was the 38th highest grossing feature during 2009 in Japan where it grossed $17.4 million. It’s been well reviewed (see Todd Brown’s review at TwitchFilm and Patrick Galbraith’s review at Otaku2). The film has screened at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and has won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year and the Sitges Film Festival’s Gertie Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

FUNimation, in association with GKids, is releasing the film theatrically in the US beginning next month. Here are the current theatrical dates:

Dec 3-8 Chicago,IL- Siskel Film Center
Dec 10-16 Los Angeles, CA – AMC Covina 30
Dec 24-30 San Francisco, CA- Landmark Bridge Theater
Dec 29-Jan 4 New York, NY- IFC Center
Jan 5-12 Boston, MA- Museum of Fine Arts
Jan 7-13 Denver, CO- Starz Film Center
Jan 7-13 Santa Fe, NM- CCA Cinematheque
Jan 14-20 Los Angeles, CA- Laemmle Sunset
Jan 21-27 Philadelphia, PA- Landmark Ritz at the Bourse
Jan 23-Feb 3 Honolulu, HI- Academy of Arts,
Jan 28-Feb 3 Seattle, WA- Landmark Varsity

(Thanks, Samuel Einhorn)

Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced the animated features that have been accepted for consideration in the Animated Feature category of the Academy Awards. (We’ve posted the Academy’s press release in our CB Biz section.)

Fifteen features qualified:
* “Alpha and Omega”
* “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore”
* “Despicable Me”
* “The Dreams of Jinsha”
* “How to Train Your Dragon”
* “Idiots and Angels”
* “The Illusionist”
* “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”
* “Megamind”
* “My Dog Tulip”
* “Shrek Forever After”
* “Summer Wars”
* “Tangled”
* “Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue”
* “Toy Story 3”

Under Academy rules, “in any year when 8 to 15 animated features are released in Los Angeles County, a maximum of 3 motion pictures may be nominated.” Had one more feature qualified, the number of nominees would have expanded to five features.

The biggest losers in this scenario are the indies like Bill Plympton’s Idiots and Angels, Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist and Paul and Sandra Fierlinger’s My Dog Tulip, as well as the sleeper anime hit, Mamoru Hosoda’s Summer Wars. A field of five nominees would virtually guarantee one or two of them a nomination, but they face an uphill battle now. It’s not impossible though. In 2003, Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville scored a nomination in a field of three, and Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis did the same thing in 2007. They’ll have to claw their way to the top against a crowded field of big studio contenders like Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, and Tangled.

Over the weekend, The Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE, which represents animation artists throughout Los Angeles, announced its election results. The new president is Bob Foster who has had an impressive forty-year career in the industry. I’d occasionally run into Bob when I lived in LA, and he always impressed me with his knowledge of animation and cartoon history. He’s as much a fan of the art form as he is someone who works in it, and that’s a commendable trait.

Foster ran uncontested, and replaces computer animator Kevin Koch, who is stepping down as president after nine years. I don’t want to read into this too much, but it should be pointed out that most of the recent jobs listed on Koch’s online resume are non-union studios (Blue Sky Studios, Super 78 Studios, Snoot Entertainment, Medical CyberWorlds). While the union doesn’t prohibit its members from working at outside shops, it can’t be an inspiring message to rank-and-file members when its last president consistently worked outside during the past few years.

Looking at it from a different perspective, however, Kevin’s career path simply reflects that of a modern animator. The union largely represents studios that create TV and feature animation, and as I wrote in the second half of this article, the fragmentation of the industry means that younger generations of artists can’t be expected to commit themselves to specific formats as in the past. How the union will adapt to reflect these changing realities of its membership remains to be seen.