Speaking of things that may or may not be rip-offs, Adult Swim recently wrapped up a nation-wide block party tour that married live music and animation, kind of like Brooklyn’s quirky long-running Animation Block Party. Having never attended either of them, I can’t speak as to how closely Adult Swim’s block party mimicked Animation Block’s style, but perhaps others can. As a sidenote, Animation Block’s submission deadline is May 28.
Notice any resemblance between the two characters above? We didn’t either… but Japan’s NTV news reporting team did note certain similarities between the Shanghai Expo’s animated mascot, Haibao, and the USA’s own Gumby. They sent their people to interview the American owner of the Gumby copyright, Joe Clokey, about the issue. Here’s a clip (in Japanese, below) of the full report that aired yesterday (skip to 3:17 if you only want to see the part with Clokey).
(via Japan Probe)
Steve Jobs is taking so much heat for his decision to ban Flash from iPads and iPhones, that he’s published a lengthy missive defending his company’s actions, along with spreading his fair share of misinformation. I’m no fan of Flash, but I’m even less a fan of what Apple is doing. And while I’m all for looking towards the future, my current iPhone doesn’t offer a “full web” experience and lacks functionality that could be easily remedied by Apple. I’m certainly not planning to plop down more money for a larger device that is similarly broken. Jason Scott may have put it most succinctly on his Twitter feed:
The fact Jobs can banish something from his platform on the basis the thing is not “open” means the platform is not open.
Here’s an incredible four minute film – a student film – from France’s Georges Méliès School. The filmmakers are Vivien Chauvet (“Looky”), Adrien Toupet and Clément Delatre; their short, La Main des Maîtres (The Hand of the Masters), mixes an anime influence with steampunk and Art Nouveau. An English subtitled version is on You Tube, Vimeo version below has better picture quality:
(via No Fat Clips)
Even though I’ve always been aware of the dominance of CalArts alumni within the West Coast industry, I was still surprised to see the above chart posted on a message board. Is there any other creative industry that is so dominated by one school? I certainly can’t think of any.
A similar chart could be made for TV series produced at Nick and Cartoon Network. CalArts alumni have created Spongebob, El Tigre, Dexter’s Lab, Powerpuff Girls, My Life as a Teenage Robot, The X’s, Time Squad, Adventure Time, Fairly OddParents, Camp Lazlo, The Regular Show, the list goes on and on.
Let me be very clear. This is not meant to be twisted into a criticism of the students attending CalArts; there is an above-average level of talent that attends the school and they obviously should be delighted that people want to hire them. But on any given year, I see just as many promising animation students graduate from other schools as I do from CalArts. So the overwhelming dominance of CalArts students at the highest creative levels of certain studios strikes me as being disproportionate to the caliber of talent spread across American animation schools. If anything, it speaks volumes about the state of our industry and its inability to look for fresh ideas beyond a single safe-and-approved farm team.
The main takeaway? West Coast animation is not a level playing field that judges artists purely on the basis of skill, talent, and ideas. If you’ve gone to an animation school other than CalArts, you probably have a better shot of winning the Powerball than you do directing a film at one of these companies.
UPDATE: Awesome Brew reader Doug Nichols is compiling a master list of animation directors and schools. If you can help fill in the blanks, please post in the comments. We’ll share the findings once its as complete as possible.
Gut-punchingly intense titles for Gaspar Noé’s Enter The Void, designed by Noé and Tom Kan. Motion graphics, experimental animation, labels as such are superfluous. These titles (music included) are fresh and exciting, and from what I’ve read about the film that follows, perfectly attuned to its tone and mood.
Last notice: Just three days left to submit to Cartoon Brew TV’s Student Animation Festival. Click HERE for rules and submission details.
Trailer for Fixed Fluid Fragmented
How do you do something new when you’ve already made your own animated shorts, worked on features and TV shows,, and created comics, illustrated books, video games and toys? For the prolific and creatively restless Michel Gagné, the answer is Fixed Fluid Fragmented, a live performance piece that will debut at Vancouver’s Roundhouse Performance Centre on June 25th. The project was developed in conjunction with composer Barry Guy who will be leading an improvisational music group alongside the animation.
Gagné’s explanation of the idea sounds similar to VJing concepts albeit mixed with a filmmaker’s sensibility. He writes: “I’ve been developing techniques and technology that will go way beyond playing a movie on a screen behind performing musicians. In fact, I will PLAY the animation as if I was playing a musical instrument. I will be creating the final images, live, on stage, interacting with the musicians in a way that, to my knowledge, has never been seen before.”
Tickets go on sale tomorrow at this link. I’m intrigued and wouldn’t miss this if I were anywhere near Vancouver on June 25.
I really love this bizarre retro-ish mixed media music video for the British indie band Editors, directed by the Lennox Brothers (Lee & Wayne) at London’s Between The Eyes. As for what it all means, the band says:
“Ultimately the video paints a truthful picture of the lies which affect our current state of existence in a (so called) free world. From the moment we’re born we are controlled, manipulated, and led astray from what really matters in life – freedom. We are orchestrated from high above; even our leaders are merely puppets/clowns with their strings being pulled by powerful groups out of sight. Conspiracy theories, Illuminati, The New World Order; the free world is no longer free, our decisions no longer our own. An Orwellian future which has come to be realised within our own lifetime – A case of the corrupt blind leading the free minds.”
(Thanks, 808)
In the wake of the latest South Park uproar, Time Magazine has posted a Top Ten list of cartoon controversies.
Number #2 on their list is Warner Bros. Censored 11 – and Time embeds (via You Tube) the P.D. Tex Avery Bugs Bunny short All This And Rabbit Stew. Eight of the eleven were shown publicly this past weekend at the TCM Classic Film Festival without incident (the restored prints, particularly of Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs were stunning).
Disney’s Song of the South ranks #4 and Aladdin is #8. Speedy Gonzales makes the list at number #10. The rest of the list consists of TV cartoons, mainly The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy. Here’s the complete list:
1. South Park and Muhammad
2. The Censored Eleven
3. The Simpsons and Brazil
4. Song of the South
5. The Boondocks
6. Family Guy and Sarah Palin
7. Pokemon Panic
8. Aladdin
9. South Park and Scientology
10. Speedy Gonzales
As most of you know by now, last week’s episode of South Park was censored by Comedy Central over fears the show might stoke violent retribution by radical Muslims.
Now it has inspired an artists’ movement — a national Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. Molly Norris, the cartoonist who started it, says she wants no part of the May 20 event, which is gaining momentum online.
“I made a cartoon that went viral but [this campaign] isn’t really my thing,” cartoonist Molly Norris told Comic Riffs, characterizing her cartoon as merely a personal response to Comedy Central’s censorship of a “South Park” episode last week. “Other folks have taken it over” — an appropriation she says she is distancing herself from.
Eight thousand people have already joined the Facebook page. Other media, including The Daily Show and The Simpsons (image above from Sunday night’s episode), have publicly supported South Park‘s right to parody. It’ll be interesting to see where this all leads.
Everybody’s already seen this one, but did you know the Japanese also made Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear toys. Take note: this is how you do viral marketing!
Another day, another great book from Craig Yoe. His latest is a collection of Dan DeCarlo’s futuristic teenage comic books from 1952, Jetta. As usual with Yoe’s books for IDW, the production (and comics reproduction) is superb. He reprints the three hard-to-find Jetta issues in their entirety, as well as a selection of other rare DeCarlo good-girl art — and an art gallery of 37 tribute pin-ups by contemporary “good-girl” artisans, including many animation artists such as Dean Yeagle, Craig McCracken, Jenny Lerew, Bill Pressing, Katie Rice, Stephen Silver, Stephanie Gladden, Tracy Mark Lee, Kali Fontecchio and many others including our friends Bill Morrison (from Bongo Comics, above), Leslie Cabarga (The Fleischer Story) and Mark Frauenfelder (of Boing Boing).
Another magnificent package. Highly recommended and only $14.95 on Amazon.
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has acquired Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist for North American distribution. They’re planning a US release by the end of this year. SPC was also the US distributor of Chomet’s first feature The Triplets of Belleville.
(Thanks, Victor Ens)
Beautiful cartoon covers from 1930s Vanity Fair. Courtesy of illustrator Stephen Kroninger whose blog is filled with inspiring cartoon and illustration art. For starters, try here, here and here.
