If Lotte Reiniger made trip-hop music videos in the 21st century, they might look something like this striking mixed-media silhouette piece produced for the Hungarian group Beat Dis. All I know about its animator, Emil Goodman, is that Emil Goodmanhe’s a 24-year-old from Hungary. There’s more of his work on his YouTube page.
Eric at Warnerart.com just acquired this interesting find: a letter from Looney Tunes producer Leon Schlesinger to an Air Force Colonel, hoping the use of Bugs Bunny as an insignia will inspire the troops and wishing him luck on “dropping an egg on Tokyo and Berlin”. Click on thumbnail below to see enlargement.
This excellent spot for the Royal Bank of Canada’s Blue Water Project is among those rare pieces of design-oriented animation in which an equal amount of thought is given to the movement of the artwork as to its production design. There’s only one cut in the entire commercial; the scenes flow smoothly into one another in a way that drives home the commercial’s subject matter–water. The spot is directed by Convert for The Ebeling Group and designed by Jon Klassen, who has posted his illustration designs for the commercial on his blog. Klassen also co-directed a fine student film at Sheridan a few years ago called An Eye For Annai.
We may have a Felix Chevrolet dealer in Southern California, but Ben at the Japanese Nostalgic Car blog reports on a new chain of Speed Racer themed gas stations in Japan. Here’s the Official Web Site.
(Thanks, Doran Gaston)
A new series of British TV spots, featuring Paddington Bear for Marmite, are quite refreshing. They mimic the cartoon series from the 70′s and are made the old fashioned way – animated by hand, using stop motion, 2D and cut-out animation techniques. Here’s a short making-of video:
(Thanks, Scott Harpel)
Apparently my last post about Sarah Palin wasn’t animated enough for some readers, so here is “Sarah Palin and the Bush Doctrine: An Animated Interview” by Joe Fournier. It’s the second animated short he’s created for the Chicago Tribune website.
There’s a great ASIFA-East panel coming up this Tuesday, September 23, in New York. It’s billed as a panel discussion on the state of NY animated features with panelists Emily Hubley, Daniel Kanemoto, Bill Plympton, Michael Sporn and Tatia Rosenthal. Every single one of these artists is currently making or has made an animated feature in the past year. Other East Coasters who aren’t on the panel but could be added to this list are Nina Paley and Paul Fierlinger. Never before in the history of animation have so many indie animated features been produced. We’re currently in the middle of an animation revolution and this panel will try to give some perspective to this unique moment in the history of the art form. How are these features being made? Who’s supporting them? Where is all this headed? There’s a lot to talk about. I’m moderating the panel and I’m really looking forward to having this discussion with such an esteemed group of filmmakers. Best of all, admission is FREE. It takes place at the School of Visual Arts (209 East 23rd Street in the 3rd floor Amphitheater).
I’m moderating a panel at the Ottawa International Animation Festival this weekend. It’s called “Animation Makes Me Laugh: Ha!” and it’s all about what’s funny and what isn’t in animation. There’s no sure-fire formula to funny so I can’t guarantee we’ll unlock any secret keys to humor, but I can guarantee you’ll get to hear from four funny and talented filmmakers: Nick Cross, Will Krause, Fran Krause and Superjail creator Christy Karacas. The panel takes place Sunday, September 21, at 3pm in the National Gallery (Lecture Hall). Drop by and say hello.
On Friday, October 3, Brad Bird will present a screening of David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago at the Skirball Cultural Center (2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.) in Los Angeles. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $6 for students. Here is the website for additional details and tickets.
(Thanks, Matt Jones)
Animator Mike Kazaleh found this incredible Pink-Panther-meets-Bugs -Bunny sketch by Friz Freleng (click on thumbnail below to see full image). Says Mike:
As usual, I went looking for something in my house, and I found something else. It’s a Friz sketch from 1974. Please bear in mind that I scanned this picture from an ancient thermal fax, and the image had all but disappeared. It took a bit of work in Photoshop to make the image semi clear again. If memory serves me correctly, the “Lance” that the picture was drawn for was (writer/character designer) Lance Falk, and I believe it was he who faxed it to me in the first place. Quite an artifact, eh?
(Thanks Mike!)
It’s a shame that Yoji Kuri’s animated shorts aren’t more widely available in the West, especially considering that Kuri is one of the godfathers of indie Japanese animation. Below is his film Love from 1963. Kuri, who turned 80 this year, is the subject of a new documentary that premiered at the Hiroshima Animation Festival last month. Also worth a look is this article about his films.
We’re excited to bring you something new today – Cartoon Brew TV. The new site is available by clicking on the CBTV logo above our main site logo. We’ve been experimenting with broadcasting animated shorts since last year when we launched our film download site Cartoon Brew Films, and we’re really happy with the latest evolution that has come in the form of Cartoon Brew TV.
So what is Cartoon Brew TV?
Here are a few key elements of the project:
1.) New episodes premiere every week on Monday.
2.) Every short we present is an exclusive online premiere. We’re not looking to bring you the same films that are already available on every other video sharing website and podcast.
3.) We pay filmmakers. Online animation distribution can’t work unless filmmakers get paid for their efforts. This is something that we regularly preach on the site and we’re delighted that we can now put those words into practice and lead the way as an animation-specific film site and podcast that pays independent filmmakers.
4.) A broad view of animation art. Just as we love exploring all aspects of the art form on Cartoon Brew, we’ll be presenting an eclectic variety of programming on Cartoon Brew TV: hand-drawn cel, mixed-media, CG, experimental, stop-motion, pixilation…the element that connects all these varied approaches is the quality.
5.) Every third week, Brew TV will present a “historical” episode with original commentary by Brew co-founder and animation authority Jerry Beck. We’ll explore everything from the earliest theatrical animated shorts to TV specials and obscure bits of cartoon history.
6.) We’re just getting started. With your support, we have plans to grow this in every direction. More shorts, more guest commentaries, different types of content. Supporting this site is as simple as emailing a friend about it, embedding an episode, writing about a film on your blog, or simply watching the cartoons yourself. (Tech note: Ability to subscribe via iTunes will arrive shortly.)
7.) Here’s the link to our first episode:
Michael Langan’s award-winning short Doxology.
We hope you, the wonderful community of Cartoon Brew readers, enjoy watching these films and take the leap with us as viewers of Cartoon Brew TV.
Have you seen these Japanese super-deformed Felix mini PVC figures? These look way off model to me. The manufacturer, Organic Hobby, has created some fantastic Tezuka figures that respect the orginals… but these are painful.
(Thanks, Jupey Krusho)
Today is bad news if you work on Wall Street, but it’s good news for folks who want to watch cartoons about Wall Street. Animator Gary Leib just debuted a timely animated piece on the NY Times website: Unnatural History of Wall Street. It’s one minute of fun, loose and cartoony animation with a jazz score by Mike Hashim. This is Leib’s second piece for the Times website; his first was this history of the Meatpacking District.
