"Arrietty" Will Be Ghibli's Biggest US Release Yet
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Last summer I moderated a panel at the San Diego Comic Con for 
was a smash hit and the film is on track to become the “second biggest-grossing animated home entertainment title of the year,” according to Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Its home video success is counter to the general trend in animated home video; The Hollywood Reporter writes that both 
:
While waiting for the ultimate video presentation of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to come out this week 
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TAG FOR “DVD”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
January 6, 2011 1:00 am
Warner Home Video just announced its DVD release date: March 29th, 2011. No television date or channel has been announced yet, but I’m sure it’ll get TV exposure. I’m working on getting a public screening, with director Q&A, for L.A. (details to be announced). I’ve seen the film and it’s terrific – the artists have created a loving tribute to Schulz and Charlie Brown with a story based directly on Peanuts strips from the 1960s, and art direction taken from Schulz’s drawing style circa 1965. It brings back Shermy, Patty, Pigpen and Violet, and will remind you why you loved all the Peanuts characters in the first place. A must see and a must-have. Don’t miss this one. 57 Comments » posted in DVD, Andy Beall, Frank Molieri, Peanuts, Stephen Pastis 
December 15, 2010 5:32 pm
Yesterday’s DVD release of Despicable Me This press release from Universal has more details about Despicable Me’s first day sales:
Amazon is heavily pushing Despicable Me on its site, which is reflected in their sales rankings where Despicable Me currently holds three of the top ten slots, including number one. A screengrab of their sales rankings follows the jump. 13 Comments » posted in DVD, Despicable Me
December 15, 2010 12:05 am
28 Comments » posted in DVD, Pvt. Snafu
December 11, 2010 12:05 am
Looking for holiday gifts for that special animation someone…or maybe just for yourself. Look no further than Cartoon Brew’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide compiled by Jerry and Amid. LEONARDO – THE COMPLETE CODEX Animator Jim Capobianco (Pixar) first created a beautiful hand drawn short, Leonardo, then packaged it for sale so attractively, it’s a model for what we’d like to see all animators do. Included in the beautiful DVD boxed set is the complete preliminary storyreel, deleted scenes, audio commentary – as well as a flipbook, a notebook and a pencil. And much much more. A perfect gift to all animators and those aspiring to be. 23 More Animated Gift Ideas after the jump! Read the rest of this entry » 17 Comments » posted in Books, Comics, DVD, Holiday Gift Guide
November 8, 2010 1:41 pm
Scott Morse, a story artist at Pixar, shares a reason that aspiring artists may want to buy the new Disney DVD released last week Cars Toon: Mater’s Tall Tales
17 Comments » posted in DVD, Pixar, Mater's Tall Tales, Scott Morse
October 3, 2010 10:00 pm
 Insight Editions sent me a copy of their latest Dreamworks tie-in book, The Art of Megamind (by Richard von Busack). I haven’t seen Megamind yet, but the book and the production art herein is very cool. Say what you will about their films, you cannot deny the artists at Dreamworks Animation and PDI are some of the best in the field — and these “Art Of” books are a godsend to those of us who appreciate the hand drawn artistry that never makes it to screen. Sketches, paintings, boards and much more from names you should know like Tony Siruno, Craig Kellman, Andy Bialk, Kory Heinzen and Tim Lamb (and many others) fill the pages.
 Had a chance this weekend to finally check out the 5th box set of The Animation Show of Shows and had a wonderful time doing so. This set (previous sets reviewed here and here) contains 18 award winning shorts, on six separate DVDs, Volumes 25-30 (3 shorts per disc). All completely different (in tone, technique and subject matter), in perfect presentations, the best possible way to preserve these contemporary classics. The  Rhode Montijo, a co-creator of Happy Tree Friends, has gone on in recent years to a successful career as a children’s book writer and illustrator. He sent me two of his books and they are an absolute joy. Cloud Boy, which came out in 2006, is a gentle minimalist classic about a lonely cloud with a big imagination. His latest book has just come out, The Halloween Kid, about a heroic masked avenger who protects kids candy on Halloween eve. If this were ever animated it would become a Halloween classic — as it is, its a perfect storybook for the little ones to read after a night of candy gathering… and beautiful to look at for anyone, of any age.
6 Comments » posted in Books, DVD
July 12, 2010 12:05 am
Back in 2007, we reported on Acme Filmworks’ incredible 3-boxed set of 18-discs collecting 54 award winning animated shorts, The Animation Show of Shows. Today, I’m happy to report Acme has released a second set of three boxes (containing 18 more discs, an additional 54 shorts). And here is an unabashed plug: The animated shorts collected here are celebrated works of independent artists, every film carefully curated and lovingly presented – and in the case of several older films, beautifully restored. Each box set contains six DVDs, each disc containing three shorts, held in its own slip case illustrated with still art from the film and a bio of each director. Watching the first box (Set #4, Vols. 19-24) I was struck by the the variety of styles included here. From the hand-drawn antics of Bill Plympton (Guard Dog and Santa: The Facist Years), to collage cut-out stop motion (an incredible restoration of Frank Mouris’ Oscar winning Frank Film) and the latest CG wonders (Jeremy Clapin’s Skhizein, Gobelins’ Oktapodi), there’s style and technique to spare. Unless you’ve attended the competitions at Ottawa or Annecy for the last ten or fifteen years you probably haven’t seen all of these before, but I’ll tell ya, there isn’t a bad film in the bunch. To say this is an important compilation is an understatement. These are vital for any serious animation library and required viewing for students and all who want to see some of the best shorts ever made. To heck with downloads, owning them on DVD is the way to go. As you can tell, I cannot praise Acme’s Animation Show of Shows DVDs highly enough. For complete contents and ordering information, visit filmporium.com. The dvds are very reasonably priced — 3 films on each DVD for $5 (that’s cheaper than itunes). Each DVD will be offered individually (soon) and right now in the 6-DVD Box Sets for $30 each. 7 Comments » posted in DVD, Shorts, Acme Filmworks
June 7, 2010 12:05 am
If you’ve been following recent trends in animation you’ve noticed that stop-motion is alive and well, in fact in better shape today than it’s ever been. And if you are a fan or practitioner of the art, I’ve just received two new releases—a DVD and a book—that are absolute must-haves. Stop Motion Marvels is the latest release from Steve Stanchfield and his Thunderbean Animation Company—and this may be his most important release yet. I cannot over-state how amazing this DVD compilation is. It contains over forty stop-mo puppet films ranging from 1909 through 1972, short subjects, commercials, home movies, and work prints; mostly stuff you (or I) never heard of, rescued from obscurity by Stanchfield and his team of animation archivists. The highlight of the set is the collected works of the Kinex studio, a forgotten creator of direct-to-home movie films featuring the strangely appealing antics of Snap the Gingerbread Man, Chip the Wooden Man and Daffy Doings in Doodlebugville. There are examples from animation notables (Willis O’Brien, J. Stuart Blackton, George Pal, Lou Bunin, and the most bizarre Len Lye experiment you’ve ever seen), but the real surprise are the John Burton (future Looney Tunes producer) shorts of the 1930s (including one in color) which pre-date all others in trying to incorporate a cartoonists’ sensibility into puppet animation. There’s audio commentary by stop motion experts and animators, a still gallery of rare photos (including a George Pal Puppetoon exposure sheet – Wow!) and a twelve-page information booklet (written by cover illustrator Stewart McKissick) round out this remarkable DVD set—an achievement in documenting a long-neglected segment of animation history. Bravo, Steve! This may well be the best video release of the year. Buy it now- you will not be disappointed. If you are interested in stop motion character animation – past, present or future – then Barry Purves’ Basics Animation: Stop Motion is for you. Who better to guide us through the history of the medium, the techniques and the process of filmmaking than master animator Purves (Screen Play) himself. He concentrates on explaining the technique through examples by Jiri Trinka, Ray Harryhausen, Norman McLaren, The Brothers Quay, Mackinnon and Saunders, Adam Elliot, Aardman, and a dozen other leading lights. A good basic text book for any student of the art form, and a great read for those of us who simply enjoy watching it. Everyone should order it ($19.77) from Amazon.com. (Embed below is one of the few films – a 1960s Chocks Vitamin commercial featuring the voices of Dick Beals and Paul Winchell – on Thunderbean’s Stop Motion Marvels that could be found on You Tube). |
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