Monthly Archives: June 2010

Music Video Hard-Ons

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These videos have recently been completed for the Sydney-based punk-pop band known as the Hard-ons. Directed by Mark Gravas at Australia’s Kapow Pictures, the two videos couldn’t be more different. Aaron Powell and Colin Bigelow led a small team to create both pieces using traditional hand drawn techniques, Flash and After Effects.

In the first, Pretend It’s Vanilla, Hammer seeks revenge and hunts down his old bullies tack, screw and nail. A nightmare tale of drunken violence.

The second one, In The End We All Die Alone, the Hard-ons descend into the bowels of hell:

Top Movies in the First Half of 2010

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2010 Box Office

The list above, snatched from Box Office Mojo, shows the top five movies at the North American box office in the first half of 2010. Whether you like the films or not, animated features have rarely dominated Hollywood’s box office as they have done this year so far. Nobody in Hollywood dares point it out, but the numbers speak for themselves and they clearly show that the few films made by our small animation community are consistently more popular with audiences than the glut of movies being churned out by the rest of Hollywood.

Bill Plympton’s Guard Dog Global Jam

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Guard Dog Global Jam

Bill Plympton is remaking his Oscar-nominated short Guard Dog–with your help. He’s calling it the “Guard Dog Global Jam” and he’s asking seventy animators to re-animate one shot from the short. Animators can use any style or technique as long as the dog character is recognizable and the length of the scene remains the same to keep the soundtrack in sync. Details about “Guard Dog Global Jam” are posted in a downloadable document at Plymptoons.com. Animators can begin choosing shots, most of which are between 2-4 seconds long, on September 1st, 2010. All participants will receive a piece of original art from Guard Dog.

Popular Science/Fleischer App

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Shields Pictures, the owners of the old Paramount Pictures Popular Science theatrical shorts, just recently released their very first App for iTunes (it plays on Apple mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and even the iPad). And happily for us, they chose the short that features a tour of Max Fleischer’s animation studio in Miami, Florida circa 1938 – in Cinecolor!

A significant portion of all proceeds will go to preserve and restore titles from this series as well as their Unusual Occupations and Speaking of Animals shorts (they’ve informed us that they have the 3 Tex Avery Speaking of Animals films slotted for preservation in the coming months!).

The introductory price is 99 cents for the HD Max Fleischer Studio Tour iShort App – the sale ends June 30th. Show your support and buy a download at The iTunes Store.

It’s A Book

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I’m posting this more because I like the message, not for its artistic merits. Not that it doesn’t have that too…

Animator Chris Roth animated this spot for Lane Smith’s new book, a children’s story about a donkey and a monkey so engrossed with technology that they can’t quite grasp the concept of a “book.” Both the book and the spot deliver an important message to kids that sometimes its good to “unplug.” Roth animated, based on Smith’s illustrations, and also provided the voices for Z Animation. It’s A Book hits the stores on August 8th.

Animation Block Party 2010

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Animation Block Party

New York’s largest animation festival, Animation Block Party, has announced the selections for its seventh annual edition. The list of films in competition on their website. Screenings take place in Brooklyn over three nights between July 30 and August 1st, with live music performances and free parties too. The award jury members this year are Rachel Simon of World Leaders Entertainment, Ramin Zahed of Animation Magazine, Dave Schlafman of CloudKid, and, hey whad’ya know, Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew. Advance tickets can be purchased on Animation Block’s website.

The Sunday Funnies (6/27/10)

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We don’t write ‘em, we just post ‘em. Every Sunday, we round up the comic strips that make reference to classic and current animated characters. This week, submitted for your approval, from the top: Medium Large (6/21) by Francesco Marciuliano; Brewster Rockit (6/22) by Tim Rickard; Argyle Sweater (6/27) by Scott Hilburn; The Other Coast (6/24) by Adrian Raeside; Strange Brew (6/21) by John Deering; and Moderately Confused (6/26 & 6/21) by Jeff Stahler.

(Thanks to our comic strip mavens: Jim Lahue, John Hall, Kurtis Findlay, Charles Brubaker, Ed Austin, Jed Martinez and Uncle Wayne)