Monthly Archives: November 2011

Mike Judge Interview in “Vice”

By
on
9

Mike Judge

Mike Judge sits down for an interview in the latest issue of Vice. Judge talks openly about the whys and hows of the Beavis and Butt-Head revival. The interviewer Rocco Castoro also asks some unconventional questions, like this memorable exchange:

I noticed that the show’s logo now says “Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head” rather than “MTV’s.” I feel like I’ve seen it this way on the DVD boxes of the old episodes, but it was surprising to see that it was going to carry over to TV. Got any good dirt on this subtle but important change?

When [my relationship with MTV] began, I had these two two-minute shorts with Beavis and Butt-Head that I licensed to Liquid Television. Then MTV wanted to buy the characters from me–they didn’t say what exactly they wanted to do with them–and so I negotiated for a while and thought, “It takes six to eight weeks to do two minutes when I do everything by myself,” and I was kind of done. I’d produced two shorts and made a few thousand off of them selling them to festivals and Liquid Television, but that was it and I was a nobody at the time. So I sold it to them outright, and then they wanted me to do the show so I ended up getting paid that way. But at some point they decided, “We’re gonna call it MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head.” I was like, “Really? I created this in my house with pencil and paper and cels and film and… MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head? But whatever, you own it, that’s fine.” Years later the movie came out and they wanted a sequel. I was unhappy with some stuff, and I just did a fuck-you negotiation with them [laughs]. At one point my lawyer said, “You want to ask them to call it Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head?” and I said, “Yeah, go for it.” I kind of forgot that we agreed to that, and then when we were redesigning the logo I was like “Wow, OK.” Normally I wouldn’t splash my name all over something, but if it’s between MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head or Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head, I’ll take it.

Justin Bieber Inserted into a Rankin/Bass Cartoon

By
on
57

Have you ever wanted to see a CG model of babyfaced baby-making singer Justin Bieber clunkily composited into a cruddy holiday special produced by Rankin/Bass? Me neither, but that’s what you’ll find in Bieber’s cover of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” which inserts him into the 1970 Rankin/Bass holiday special of the same name. I’m sure some viewers will be outraged by this, but frankly, I’m having trouble getting worked up over it. That’s probably because just about anything added into a Rankin/Bass cartoon promises to be an improvement over the original. What’s more concerning is that a second video of this song, featuring a live-action Bieber, will premiere in front of Arthur Christmas. If I’m a few minutes late walking into the theater for the film, you’ll understand why.

(Thanks, Whitney Grace)

Bil Keane (1922-2011)

By
on
25

It’s taken a lot of knocks over the years, but the daily Family Circus panel was just as much a part of our lives as Charles Schulz’ Peanuts. Cartoonist Bil Keane passed away Tuesday at age 89.

Keane began his professional career after serving in World War II, first as staff cartoonist for the Philadelphia Bulletin, then broke into syndication with a panel called Channel Chuckles. His Family Circus strip began in 1960. It spawned three animated TV specials.

In tribute, here’s the 1979 Family Circus Christmas, directed by Al Kouzel, with animators including Fred Crippen, Marty Taras, Willis Pyle and his son–future Disney animator–Glen Keane.

UPDATE: It seems like an appropriate time to post this never-before-published questionnaire that Bil Keane filled out in 1995:

“Be With You” by Steve Stanchfield

By
on
7

Here is a much better re-use for old cartoons… Steve Stanchfield’s entry in the Erasure Video Competition featuring synched clips from Van Beuren cartoons (and a few others) to the new song from Erasure titled Be With You.

The most ‘like’ votes on Steve’s YouTube page wins the piece a place on the official Erasure DVD… apparently this bunch of Van Beuren clips are getting the second-most votes so far! The contest ends mid-day tomorrow, so place your vote for classic cartoons.

Steve also says that the first person who can name all the cartoons featured in the video will win a free Thunderbean DVD (There’s clips from 29 or 30 cartoons!)

“Santa’s Surprise” Redux

By
on
33

Now, I’ve seen everything.

Film bootleggers have enjoyed distributing worn copies this Paramount Christmas cartoon for years, as the film fell into the public domain back in the 1970s. Apparently one enterprising entrepreneur decided to “colorize” the already in-color cartoon (original version above) and distribute it as if it were new. The characters were redrawn (or traced) badly, removing all their original appeal and charm. The colors were brightened and “airbrushed”; some shots are slightly restaged, with the whole film lightly re-edited – and all the racial stereotypes left intact! This copy (below), uploaded to You Tube, has a French track, though most of the songs are left in English.

Who did this and when? Anyone got the story on this “restoration”?

Santa’s Surprise (1947) is notable as the first “Little Audrey” cartoon; the character would replace Little Lulu at Paramount and would go on to become a popular Harvey comic book.

Oh, and whoever did this didn’t stop here. There’s a clip from another Paramount PD cartoon, Bill Tytla’s Hector’s Hectic Life (1948), on You Tube.

(Thanks, Luke Virgin)

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Steffen Schaeffler

By
on
47

Hand-drawn goodness by Rob Stevenhagen created for by Steffen Schaeffler’s The Emperor’s New Clothes. Where can we see the rest of the animation? Montreal-based Pascal Blais Studio produced the film. (The video was posted on their Vimeo account, but they didn’t produce it. See below for details.)

UPDATE: The animator of the piece, Rob Stevenhagen, writes: “The film is called Screen Test (and is a pilot for a feature film called The Emperor’s New Clothes). Screen Test is directed by Steffen Schaeffler, animated by me, and produced by Berlin based Ideal Standard Film (not Pascal Blais). See IMDB for credits.

(Thanks, Boris Hiestand)

“The Windmill Farmer” by Joaquin Baldwin

By
on
6

Created at the UCLA Animation Workshop in 2010 by Joaquin Baldwin, this sensitive little silhouette film was inspired by the drive back from a trip to Palm Springs. Says Baldwin:

A friend said that it must take them forever to plant and grow so many windmills. I wrote down the title The Windmill Farmer for an idea to explore later, and about a year later I started developing it into a character and story. This film took 4 months to complete from the first boards until the final mix.

Most Violent Anime EVER! (NSFW)

By
on
69

This has been on You Tube for several years – and it’s what most people who don’t watch anime think anime is. Not Safe For Work (or perhaps anyone under 16), it’s a compilation of the most violent scenes in Japanese animation set to the song Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat? by Herman’s Hermits. This is pretty sick, and I’m not sure why I’m posting it myself – except that I really like Herman’s Hermits.

18 Qualify for Best Animated Feature

By
on
147






As reported yesterday on CB Biz, 18 films have qualified as eligible to be nominated for Best Animated Film at the 2011 Academy Awards. Here’s a run down of the titles – linked to their trailers on Cartoon Brew and to reader talkback posts (for those that opened in wide in the US). Which do you think will be nominated? Which one has the best chance of winning?

Rango – (talkback)
Kung Fu Panda 2 – (talkback)
Puss in Boots – (talkback)
Rio – (talkback)
Cars 2 – (talkback)
Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil – (talkback)
Gnomeo & Juliet – (talkback)
Mars Needs Moms – (talkback)
Winnie the Pooh – (talkback)
The Smurfs – (talkback)
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Happy Feet Two
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Alois Nebel
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Wrinkles

The Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 8:30am Eastern/5:30am Pacific. The Academy Awards will be presented on ABC, Sunday February 26, 2012.

Don Rickles heckles John Lasseter

By
on
26

I previously posted about attending the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony for John Lasseter earlier this week. The highlight of the event was 85-year old Don Rickles saying a few words about honoree Lasseter (If you look close at the image above you may spot me in the crowd). Rickles was in fine form as he cut down Lasseter (and his wardrobe), his wife (and her hat), Tom Hanks and Tim Allen (who weren’t there), as well as Walt Disney himself. Luckily someone recorded his bit and posted it on You Tube, because I don’t think this will be presented intact as bonus content on some future DVD – its a bit un-PC, but totally hilarious!

Note, in the background, actors Owen Wilson (in the suit and tie) and Emily Mortimer (in green top), and on stage behind Lasseter is Cheech Marin, Bonnie Hunt, Patton Oswalt and Randy Newman.

“Bla Bla”, An Interactive Short by Vincent Morisset

By
on
9

Bla Bla

UPDATE: MARCH 15, 2012: Bla Bla won the SXSW Interactive Award.

Is it a film or a game? Interactivity and non-linear storytelling have been more the realm of gaming than short filmmaking, but the two fields are slowly merging. In the coming years, interactivity promises to become a valuable tool in the short filmmaker’s arsenal. Bla Bla created for the NFB by Montreal director Vincent Morisset is one of the more ambitious and successful interactive film experiments I’ve seen. The press release below contains lots of details about what it’s all about. But first, be sure to spend some time exploring the film itself by going HERE.

Vincent Morisset’s BLA BLA is an interactive tale that explores the fundamental principles of human communication. The viewer makes the story possible: without him or her, the characters remain inert, waiting for the next interaction. The spectator clicks, plays and searches through the simple, uncluttered scenes, truly driving the experience.

Each of the six chapters in the story depicts a different aspect of communication: learning a language, making small talk, expressing emotions, etc. Rich in opportunities for discovery, BLA BLA illustrates these concepts through endearing yet perplexing characters. The figures were designed by Caroline Robert using a variety of techniques, both traditional and hi-tech.

“BLA BLA uses xerography, drawing on paper, ActionScript-generated animations, puppet stop-motion combined with real-time 3D mapping, etc.,” Morisset explains. “I am inspired by projects that feel free aesthetically. I wanted BLA BLA to feel hand-made, imperfect, fragile, so we forget about the technology.”

The music as well as the characters’ speech were fragmented into tiny clips and then scored through programming. Composer Philippe Lambert designed a progressive soundscape that uses “controlled randomness.” Morisset relied on the skills of software developer Édouard Lanctôt-Benoît for the programming of BLA BLA.

The work stands apart in its emphasis on achieving an emotional response in the viewer/actor. “I wanted to create moods and generate emotions through an interactive piece,” Morriset says. “It’s quite hard to do dramatic crescendos on a website… I thought it would be an interesting challenge.”

As part of the creative process for BLA BLA, Morisset extensively researched interactive narrative. Seeking a filmmaking language specific to the online realm, he defined a new grammar of non-linear editing. Through the very format of the work, he therefore questions the challenges of communication and of telling a story in which the spectator is a participant: “The project in itself explores the grammar of a new medium,” he says.

BLA BLA thus offers a new vision of communication in the wider sense, of how our natural behaviours and interactions with others play out in the world. “The relation between the user and the film is part of the message,” Morriset explains. “We wrote and created it based on universal stuff: the social nature of humans, our fear of the unknown, the desire for appropriation and freedom, and paradoxically the love of being taken by the hand.”

Morisset has been exploring the narrative potential of interactive art for twelve years now. His pioneering work in the field has included several collaborations with the group Arcade Fire, including “be oNline B”, widely considered the first interactive music video, and MIROIR NOIR, a documentary portrait of the band. With the support of the NFB, he now offers us BLA BLA, a one-of-a-kind experience that further refines his hallmark: re-imagining “once upon a time” for the digital age.

CREDITS
Direction, Animation and Compositing
Vincent Morisset

Sound, Music and Voice
Philippe Lambert

Programming and Technology
Édouard Lanctôt-Benoit

Visual Design and Animation
Caroline Robert

Puppet Armature Design
Jean-François Lévesque

Rotoscopy
Vincent Lambert

Photography
Minelly Kamemura

Additional Prototype Programming
Mathieu Campagna

Prototype 3D Modelling and Animation
Joshua Sherrett
Jonathan Fleming-Bock

(Thanks, J. J. Sedelmaier)

Bla Bla

The Definitive Saul Bass Book Has Arrived

By
on
17

Saul Bass book

Resistance is futile! Pat Kirkham’s long-overdue book about graphic design legend and motion picture title innovator Saul Bass is finally out. Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design is an epic 440 pages and includes nearly 1,500 illustrations. Designed by Bass’s daugher Jennifer Bass, the book is quite unbelievably the first major American retrospective of Bass’s work.

Bass had a long and infuential career in graphic and corporate identity design, but today he is perhaps best remembered for his groundbreaking motion picture titles, of which there are 70 examples in the book. To create those, Bass collaborated with many animators throughout his career, including Bill Melendez (It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World titles), Bill Hurtz (Around the World in 80 Days end titles), Fred Crippen (The Sale of Manhattan and Why Man Creates) and John Whitney, Sr. (Vertigo titles).

The book is $45 on Amazon.

Saul Bass book

Saul Bass book

Saul Bass book

Saul Bass book

Saul Bass book

Saul Bass book

NOV. 12th in LA: A Tribute To Bill Kopp

By
on
32

We all remember Ren and Stimpy, but where is the love for Disney’s The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show?

The American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood will remedy this situation when it holds Kopptoberfest: A Tribute To Bill Kopp on Saturday night November 12th. It’s a fund raiser for the Cinematheque, with Kopp in person and numerous clips from his work including episodes of Eek! The Cat, Toonsylvania, his violent retelling of the Three Little Pigs from Tales From The Crypt, Roger Rabbit in Roller Coaster Rabbit, as well as scenes from his live action features and Oscar-winning student films. Prior to the screening, hand-painted animation cells will be sold, with all proceeds going to the American Cinematheque.

Voice actors Brad Garrett, Tom Kenny, Jess Harnell, animator Jeff DeGrandis and producer Margaret Loesch will join Kopp on stage in a panel discussion. It’s FREE admission (with suggested donation of $10.) and starts at 7:30pm at The Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, CA. For more information, click here. For a refresher on Shookums and Meat, see video below:

Looney Tunes on Blu-ray

By
on
41

These screen shots were taken with my iPhone off my cathode-ray tube television set. The images are from the new Looney Tunes Blu-Ray disc set, the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Vol. 1, which I just got my hands on. Don’t judge this set on my blurry shots above. I actually ran out and bought a $79 blu-ray player and hooked it up to my old TV set so I could start watching all the blu-ray discs I’ve been accumulating – even if it’s NOT the correct way to watch them.

That said, the cartoons on this collection look incredibly good. Obviously I’m a bit biased as (#1) I love Warner Bros. cartoons and (#2) consulted on the set and wrote the liner notes. We’ve previously posted about the contents of this collection (official press release here), but seeing and holding the actual packaging in my hands is pretty incredible. It’s almost worth the price of the whole set just for the restoration of the (previously lost, now found) 1955 Chuck Jones Air Force re-enlistment film, A Hitch In Time. It’s got incredible animation and layouts by Ernie Nordli that go beyond what they were doing in the regular Looney Tunes of the time.

I’m not a regular blu-ray collector, but here’s what I appreciate about this technology – and this is something I tell my film collector friends: Blu-Ray the equivalent of the studios selling you a mint 35mm print. As someone who grew up during a time before VHS, when the only thing the studios would sell from their cartoon libraries were cut-down 8mm black and white (of color) cartoons, Blu-ray discs clearly are the gold standard for home video. With proper projection or a huge HD flat screen (two things I still don’t have), watching Looney Tunes at home will never be the same.

So consider this an unabashed plug: Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Vol. 1 goes on sale next Tuesday and is highly recommended – whether you have a blu-ray player or not.