A nice introduction to the history of French animated commercials by Mark Webster. There’s an exhibit about animated French advertising in Paris right now, but it closes on April 6 so get there quick if you want to see it.

Gabe Swarr was commissioned to create this Flash-animated musical piece below advertising Radiohead and AniBoom’s “In Rainbows Music Video Contest.” As Brew readers know, I’m not a fan of contests like these, but of all the animation contests one could possibly enter, the AniBoom ones tend to be the least icky. For example, this particular contest is structured in such a way so that storyboards are judged first and you’re not being asked to submit an entirely finished product. Afterwards, the winning storyboards are even given a small sum of money to produce their videos.

As for Swarr’s piece, it’s a large leap from his usually recognizable work. He explains on his blog: “My approach was to keep as close to Radiohead’s established video style. My natural style is kind of opposite of that, so it was a cool creative challenge.”

Everything’s better when it’s in CG…even presidential candidate Ron Paul. Of all the recent animated political ads, this commercial with its grandiose histrionics and over-the-top imagery ranks in my book as the most memorable spot of this political season. It’s directed by Nathan Evans of ArcFX.

Speaking of creepy CG translations of 2D characters, the new adult-targeted Cheetos ad campaign starring Chester Cheetah is highly questionable, not only because of its mean-spirited and unfunny message but also for its incredibly poor and unappealing animation. The integration into the live-action is particularly weak, and the character’s scaling into the real-world looks wrong, probably because our eyes have difficulty accepting an adult cheetah the size of a domesticated cat.

Slate magazine, on the other hand, loves the ads calling them “delightfully creepy.” Watch one of the spots below and two more here and here.

(Thanks, Jessica Plummer)

No, it’s not Jerry Seinfeld in a bee costume - it’s Jim Carrey dressed as an elephant shamelessly cross-promoting Horton Hears A Who! on Fox’s American Idol last week. Carrey, no stranger to looking and acting silly, seems almost embarrassed to be hawking the kid flick on this show.

Carrey comes in about 1:15 and his shtick ends at the 2:45 mark.

Remember that primitive mo-cap forerunner we posted about last September? It’s baaack!

Pete Avanzino caught this commercial on Saturday night that proves that our old friend, Colormation, is alive and well. Or a version of it anyway.

And here’s footage of the guy auditioning for the role of a grinded tooth. I think he nailed it.

My pal Sharon Burian sent me some information on the project she just completed:

I want to alert you to a short film that I recently worked on that was one of the top ten finalists for the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Award for 2008. Go to 2008 finalists and it’s called The Museum. Actually, even though it’s still listed as a finalist, it WON and will screen in 30,000 theaters across the country!!!

Austin Formato, the director, is supposed to receive the award in the middle of March and my guess is they won’t update the site until then, but I figured I would give you a heads up for Cartoon Brew.

The film was made by all UCLA film students and animators. I animated/rotoscoped the entire Warhol painting sequence at the end. Will Kim did the Degas, James Suhr and I both worked on the animation of the Van Gogh (someone else painted the background and her name escapes me), and Donna Segal animated the Picasso. It was a very positive experience all around and I’m so excited that it’s going to screen in theaters!

Congrats to director Formato and his team. To see the short click here.