The animation in this Canadian commercial for the 2010 Subaru WRX STI was powered by the car itself. Kevin Adams produced the 760 frames of animation at Starz in Canada, Chris Tait directed. To see how they made it, check the behind-the-scenes production video here.

(Thanks, Michelangelo Cicerone)

The 2nd Los Angeles Animation Festival will take place at the Cinefamily / Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood (at 611 N. Fairfax) December 2nd through 5th. Its shaping up to be quite an event.

The festival will feature a tribute to stop motion clay innovator Will Vinton, including a screening of his 1986 feature The Adventures of Mark Twain (in 35mm). Opening night will premiere Jan Svankmajer’s new feature Surviving Life (photo above) and the fest will premiere screenings of several contemporary international animated features, including the Japanese anime mindblowers Redline and Midori-Ko, the Chinese independent feature Piercing 1, the Czech stop-mo In The Attic and Sylvain Chomet’s latest masterpiece The Illusionist. Teddy Newton from Pixar will do a presentation on the making of his short Day & Night. There will panels, parties, shorts and several more features, including two with live musical accompaniment — independent animator Brent Green’s experimental feature Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then accompanied by Green and members of Fugazi and Giant Sand; and Rene Laloux’s 1973 masterpiece Fantastic Planet with live score by LA indy band Jesus Makes The Shotgun Sound. LAAF will also feature panels, parties and these three contests:

“Unfinished Masterpieces”, an opportunity for animators to submit their unfinished projects. Directors of the chosen projects will be allowed to present their work.

“Character Screen-test”, a contest where the Best Character gets the prize.

“Dangerous Experiments”, an anything goes contest that encourages the most way-out interpretations of the word animation.

A 5-day festival pass is $125, $85 for students with valid ID, while supply lasts. Tickets for most shows are $10. For aspiring filmmakers, there’s a November 15th deadline looming for submissions to several contest categories. Further information on the contests, including submission deadlines, can be found at the festival website. Entry is free and all selected works will be programmed in front the festivals features and special presentations. Films will be judged and winners picked by industry juries including animation filmmakers Maureen Selwood, Sheila Sofian, Jen Sachs, Mark Osbourne, Corky Quakenbush, Peter Hannan and others to be announced.

The festival is being produced by co-directors Miles Flanagan, owner and lead director of Parallax Studioworks and John Andrews, executive producer of production company ka-chew!, in conjunction with their partner, the non-profit Cinefamily. For more information on festival passes and programming Click here.

Rankin-Bass lives!

Actually, this has nothing to do with Rankin-Bass – but you can see the influence. Sinem Sakaoglu (The Three Robbers) and Jesper Møller (Asterix and the Vikings) have been busy the last three years working on what is sure to be a new children’s classic, The Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams, Germany’s first stop-motion feature. Here’s the trailer:

The film opened six weeks ago in Germany and Austria. Ms. Sakaoglu sent us some further information:

“Sandman is a cult TV figure (originally East German) here, who’s been putting German kids to sleep with his sand for the last 51 years. While he is one of the main characters in the film, he is not the protagonist of the story. It’s about Miko, a little boy overcoming his fears and the power of dreams…”

Check the film’s website for some great behind the scenes photos from the production, or watch the video below. Let’s cross our fingers that someone picks up this little gem up for US distribution.

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A weekly round-up of syndicated comic strips referencing animation. This week The Flying McCoys (11/3) by Glenn and Gary McCoy; Strange Brew (11/4) by John Deering; and Rubes (11/6) by Leigh Rubin.

(Thanks Jim Lahue, Jed Martinez and Ed Austin)

Yet another intriguing viral going behind the scenes of Warren Spector’s forthcoming video game Epic Mickey. This one discusses the use of Horace Horsecollar, Gremlin Gus, Peg Leg Pete and others:

(Thanks, Matthew Gaastra)

I’m no fan of Scooby Doo, but if Warner Bros. ever decides to do a series or movie with character designs as cute and stylized as these, I’d quickly change my mind. Here’s the very appealing opening title sequence from the new direct-to-video Scooby Doo: Camp Scare, designed by Peter Girardi, Dan Krall, Pete Oswald and Dexter Smith and animated by the gang at Six Point Harness:

Kids, learn your math and you too can defeat the imperialist United States of America! That seems to be the message behind this 1950s-era North Korean propaganda cartoon which recently surfaced on You Tube. Say what you will about the message, the animation is pretty good.

(Thanks, Tim Dixon)

Megamind surprised me. I liked it. Not only a good spoof of the whole Superman-Lex Luthor/Brainac mythos, but a good story with a somewhat believable arc of a bad-guy turning into a hero. And it was frequently funny. Definitely a step up from Monsters vs. Aliens – though not in the same league as Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon – a witty, worthwhile 3-D experience that I personally recommend.

It opens nationwide today and now it’s your turn. Let us know what you think. Yay or Nay? Only comments from those who have seen the film will be approved.

Is there enough hate left for a third poster of Yogi Bear?

(via Shockya.com)

The Hollywood Reporter has posted some of Seth Engstrom’s (Avatar, Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland) spectacular concept art from Summertime Entertainment’s forthcoming animated musical, Dorothy of Oz. The film’s all-star cast had already been announced – it includes Lea Michele (Glee) as Dorothy, Dan Aykroyd (Yogi Bear as The Scarecrow), Kelsey Grammer (The Tin Man), and Jim Belushi (The Lion). They’re saying the film will be released April 2012, but no distributor is attached. Is it in production? If so, where? What studio? We know it was developed at Ken Duncan’s Duncan Studios in Pasadena and that Dan St. Pierre (Everybody’s Hero) is aboard to direct. If any of our readers have the scoop, we’d love to hear more about it.

Stop motion animator Phil Tippett (Ewoks, Robocop) was one of the first to embrace CG creature effects and is now head of one of the most successful special effects shops in Hollywood (Jurassic Park, Enchanted, The Twilight Saga, etc.). Apparently Tippet has decided to return to his roots, posting this teaser trailer for a decidely old-school stop-mo film, Mad God, he now has in production. Not sure if this is to be a short or a feature, but it would sure be a refreshing change.

(via Animate Clay)

Sony Pictures Classics has just released the U.S. one-sheet poster for Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist and we are pleased to be the first to post it online (click for larger image):

In my opinion, The Illusionist is one of the best animated features of the year – a true accomplishment in storytelling through traditional hand drawn character animation (sans dialogue). We’ll be discussing the film further as we get closer to its December 25th U.S. release date. In the meantime I concur with Mark Mayerson’s thoughtful review and point toward the U.S. Illustionist website for exclusive images.