Tom and Jerry have always represented chaos — but this Indian commercial is mind-numbing in its confusion. Here, Tom & Jerry join forces with Bollywood mega-star Kajol and Alpenliebe candy mascot, the crocodile Mr. Mach. The animation was produced by Black Magic Motion Pictures and directed by Abhijit Chaudhuri. The 3D crocodile animation was produced by R&H India.

(Thanks, Karl Cohen and Animation Express)

Something funny for Friday. Australian animator David Blumenstein made this spot for a local Melbourne comic event called Comic Book Funny. David tells me, “I animated it in a day (Wednesday, to be exact).”

After Chuck Menville and Len Janson earned an Oscar-nomination for their automobile-themed pixilation short Stop, Look and Listen (1967), they were commissioned by Gulf Oil to recreate the idea for a series of commercials. Last night I ran across one of the spots on YouTube:

Meet my favorite animation director of the moment: Nate Theis. He works at Madison, Wisconsin-based Planet Propaganda which is a hybrid ad agency/production house. Theis recently posted a selection of work on his new website NateTheis.com and I love pretty much everything he’s done. The commercials feel fresher, sharper and just a little more raw than the majority of advertising I see coming out of mainstream ad agencies. The Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich campaign, which Theis helped to concept and write in addition to animating and directing, is one of the funniest collection of spots I’ve seen in some time, not to mention a perfect Roger Ramjet tribute. The Nonsek clothing and ACR Electronics spots are simple concepts executed to a tee, while the Gary Fisher bike campaign shows range and a willingness to experiment. A graduate of Savannah College of Art & Design, Theis is a director to keep an eye on.

I have no idea what’s being said — but who cares? This is the coolest Telefunken thing I’ve ever seen!

(Thanks, Mike Nickel)

This video is a lot of fun. It’s a 30 second spot for The Yellow Pages, circa 1971, featuring Bugs Bunny (animated by Robert McKimson?), actress Rose Marie and Laugh-In’s Johnny Brown.

(via the best place on the net for oddball Looney Tunes stuff, Mice-Looney-Ous)

NY-based animator Lars Edwards was recently commissioned by McSweeney’s Quarterly to create an animated trailer promoting the release of Art Spiegelman’s collection of sketchbooks, “Be A Nose!”. He came up with an eye-catching and distinctive piece of line animation, which can be seen below. Edward’s writes, “After finding a narrative theme in the mayhem of Be A Nose!’s pages, I put together a small team of talented animators and we began recreating Art Spiegelman’s artwork. It was an amazing experience working with Art Spiegelman and McSweeney’s on this project.” The animators on the project were Aaron Hawkins, Hanna Bliss, Brian Ellis, Jason Schwartz and Edwards.

Stephen Watkins, repped by Melbourne’s XYZ Studios, created “Tick,” a stylish PSA for the World Wildlife Fund. The piece, set to Fleet Foxes’ “White Winter Hymnal” (which has its own animated music video too), makes effective use of digital animation and CGI to create a hand-crafted feel. The agency behind the piece, Leo Burnett Sydney, gave the following brief to the filmmaker:

Sometimes it’s hard to get people to support a cause because they think, ‘I’m just one person, what can I do?’ We wanted to show individuals how their support can have a direct and positive effect on Australia’s natural environment. So we took the universal symbol for pledged support, the ticked box, and we animated it. Then that ticked box joined forces with hundreds of other animated ticks and they built habitats around some of Australia’s precious native animals so they can survive.

(Thanks, Tony Sykes)