As Ward Kimball‘s biographer, I am obligated to share with you this post on Progress City, U. S. A. that talks about the time Ward oversaw the animation of John Carter of Mars as part of his TV special Mars and Beyond.
It’s a matter of personal taste whether you prefer Ward Kimball’s vision of a thoat:
Or Andrew Stanton’s vision of a thoat:
Bi-coastal (NY & LA) commercial shop Buck produced and directed this spectacular 2-1/2 minute spot for online bookseller Good Books. And if you think the piece feels familiarly gonzo, that was intentional. Buck posted this disclaimer at the end of the film:
DISCLAIMER: What you will see is an entirely fictional and completely unendorsed representation. (Though we humbly suggest Hunter S Thompson might have liked it.) We are devoted fans paying homage. No disrespect is intended.
Credits after the jump. Continue reading
THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED! We’ll do a random drawing and post the results in the comments section sometime on Saturday afternoon.
I intended to do a giveaway of my latest book last November, but the first printing sold out before we could even consider that. Now with the second printing out, we can finally host a proper giveaway. So today we’re handing out FOUR copies of The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation
Over the past 25 years, Pixar’s team of artists, writers, and directors have shaped the world of contemporary animation with their feature films and shorts. From classics such as Toy Story and A Bug’s Life to recent masterpieces such as Up, Toy Story 3, and WALL·E, this comprehensive collection offers a behind-the-scenes tour of every Pixar film to date. Featuring a foreword by Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, the complete color scripts for every film–published in full for the first time–as well as stunning visual development art, The Art of Pixar is a treasure trove of rare artwork and an essential addition to the library of animation fans and Pixar enthusiasts.
To enter, just post a comment below. Writing “I love Amid” in the body of the comment won’t improve your chances of winning, but it may enhance my sense of self-worth. Contest will close tonight at midnight (ET).
Rules: Contest is open only to residents of the United States. Do not submit multiple entries or you will be disqualified. You must leave your correct email address in the e-mail field of the comment, otherwise you can’t be contacted if you win. (Your email address will not be publicly visible).
Watch this short clip from Super Best Friends Forever, the new project by Lauren Faust, creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Faust’s short series debuts tomorrow morning as part of Cartooon Network’s DC Nation block.
(via Super Punch)
It’s not animation, but it’s Tim Burton. It’s also not Dark Shadows, but its does look like fun. Burton seems to have made a something combining Beetlejuice with a touch of The Addams Family. The original Dark Shadows I grew up with was cool because it was gothic done straight. What’s your opinion: Do you like the campy new approach, or is this sacrilege?
Here’s some exciting footage from Longway North, a proposed animated feature in development from director Rémi Chayé (storyboards, The Secret of Kells, assistant director, Le Tableau), writers Claire Paoletti and Patricia Valeix, and Paris-based Sacrebleu Productions. Something new to keep our eye on…
“Van Gogh to Rothko in 30 Seconds” is the title of Michael Langan‘s new spot for Art.com‘ s artCircles iPad app. Not only is it a cool visual effect, but the ad does a good job of promoting artCircle’s function, which is to allow people to search for fine art and photography by color and words.
Cartoon Brew is eight years old today, and for what it’s worth, that makes us the longest-continually operating animation blog on the Internet. We had no idea what would happen when we launched the Brew in 2004, but we’re proud that it’s lasted as long as it has and that you’ve allowed us to be a voice for the animation community. In the past few years, we’ve launched new initiatives like CB Biz and the Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival, but we’ve got even bigger things in store for this year, including a major site overhaul.
Whether you’ve been with us since the pre-Brew era when we published our thoughts as Cartoon Research and Animation Blast or you’ve joined us more recently, we have a simple message to our readers. We want to thank each of you very sincerely for reading Cartoon Brew. We know that you have many choices today for animation news, and we’re honored and humbled that so many of you have chosen the Brew as one of your sources. The Cartoon Brew team spends large portions of time working on the site to keep the content fresh and everything running smoothly, and we intend to continue doing that for a long time to come.
Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi,
The Brewmasters
UPDATE: Our friends at the French animation blog Catsuka remind us that they’re twelve years old. So that make us the second longest-continually operating animation blog.
The Box: Poltergeist is a delighful throwback to older animated films where personality animation and movement itself were often the source of entertainment. The film, the first in a proposed series by Milan-based Dadomani Studio, barely has a setup. For a three-minute short though, I’m perfectly happy with “a man and his dog watch TV.” What makes The Box special is how the filmmaker and animator present the gags and thoughts of the characters through a purely visual language. They uncover a surprisingly full range of motion (and emotion) for characters that one would expect to have a limited range because of their design. It’s quite an accomplishment, not to mention great fun to watch.
CREDITS
Idea, Production, Animation supervision, Direction: Dadomani Studio
Screenplay: Stefano Armeni
Director of photography: Patrizio Saccò
Animation: Dario Imbrogno
Sound: Enrico Ascoli
Fluid simulation: Dario Cavaliere
TED, the nonprofit that presents “idea” conferences around the world, announced an intriguing new initiative yesterday: TED-Ed. Its goal, described in the video above, is to pair educators with animators, and create a series of lesson-based animated shorts aimed at teachers and high school students. Here’s an example of one of the lessons:
The Next Web has more info about plans for TED-Ed. The program officially launches next month, and they’re already soliciting reel submissions from animators. No word on what type of budgets they offer to filmmakers, but I’m assuming that filmmakers will be compensated for their labor somehow.
(Thanks, @tkraz)
Okay, this is pretty friggin’ insane… but has a great punchline. Philippe Gamer produced and directed this film out of Paris-based VFX and game animation studio Space Patrol. Buckle up…
If you live in Southern California and ever wanted to meet Ralph Bakshi, this week you have your chance – twice!
First, on Thursday night, Ralph will be appearing in person at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to introduce his 1977 fantasy Wizards, a restoration of which will be screened at 7:30pm. For tickets click here.
Second, on Saturday at 6:30pm, Bakshi will do a Q&A session in Room 207 at WonderCon in Anaheim.
For those who cannot get to the west coast, you can enjoy a new interview with Ralph on CraveOnline, in which he talks about why he doesn’t trust the company in charge of the potential DVD release of Coonskin, and gets into the history of Hey Good Lookin‘.
You can also purchase Bakshi’s 35th Anniversary edition of Wizards on blu-ray (which coincidentally goes on sale today). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has given Cartoon Brew nine (9) copies of the blu-ray and – surprise! – the first nine of you to correctly answer (in the comments section) a simple trivia question won one. Congrats to Blu-Ray winners: Thad, Brian Mitchell, Hammed, Robert Reynolds, Jim M, B Baker, Kevin H, Ryan and Gobo! And our thanks to 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment!
UPDATE: NEW CONTEST – NOW Closed!
L.A. area residents only. The first two readers to correctly answer this simple trivia question will recieve two tickets to Ralph Bakshi’s screening of WIZARDS at LACMA tomorrow night at 7:30pm:
Contest Closed! Winners to be announced shortly.
“It’s refreshing to go back to the beginning of Dracula – and then have Adam Sandler put his spin on it.” So says Dexter’s Lab and Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky of his first theatrical feature Hotel Transylvania. The troubled Sony Pictures Animation film, which has had at least four directors prior to Genndy, is set to open on September 28. USA Today published these images today along with more details about the film’s story.
(Thanks to all who sent in a link to the images.)
Fifteen years in the making, Consuming Spirits is a newly completed mixed-media animation feature by Chicago-based Chris Sullivan. The 130-minute film will screen as part of the Tribeca Film Festival between April 23-25. The haunting Midwestern Gothic mood of the trailer drew me right in, and the story appears to have plenty of twists and turns. The description:
Consuming Spirits chronicles the lives of three characters who live in a rust belt town called Magguson, and work at its local newspaper The Daily Suggester. They are: Gentian Violet, 42, Victor Blue, 38, and Earl Gray 64, first appear to be acquaintances. But as the film unfolds, we find they have a long diabolical history, revolving around social service intervention, and foster care, romance and hatred. Each character has family secrets to hide, and family secrets to discover. An auto accident one dark and inebriated night, causes a crack in the memory vault of these intimate strangers. By films end, all parties walk from the woods, both healed and wounded.
(Thanks, Jacob Angelo)
There’s something to be said for running a cartoon studio in a place where animation production isn’t commonplace. To celebrate the Animated Short Oscar for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, the city of Shreveport, Louisiana threw an extravagant parade for Moonbot Studios and the film’s directors Bill Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg. Here’s a few perks you get if you win an Oscar in Louisiana that you probably won’t get in other places:
A free ride in a banana-colored convertible
A marching band
A customized battle tank plus confetti
A decorated street-cleaning machine
Acknowledgment from celebrities like Randal Reeder
Custom-designed moon pies
Balloons with flying books
The adulation of children
And, of course, women
If you require more evidence for why it’s better to run an animation studio in a city few people have ever heard of, see the city of Shreveport’s Flickr page or this article in the Shreveport Times.
(via Big Screen Animation)
