Chris Northrop and Mark Tordik have apparently taken a course at the Bill Plympton School of Filmmaking and decided to produce an animated feature completely by themselves. The New Jersey natives, both in their early-twenties, are currently deep into production on a hand-drawn 40-minute animated feature called DAY OF THE PIGMAN. Between the two of them, they are handling every production task, even going so far as to voice the lead characters themselves. The film recounts the tale of mad scientist Dr. Osgood whose research leads to the creation of the first Pigman and ultimately the destruction of humankind. The film was co-written by Northrop and Tordik, with Northrop handling all the animation responsibilities. PIGMAN is expected to be completed by Spring 2005. To keep up with the film’s production, visit the OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

Brew reader and Spumco veteran Katie Rice got a nice write up in her local hometown newspaper, the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, in which we learn she doesn’t enjoy most of the cartoons she sees on television these days. But, she says, “I absolutely love the earliest Betty Boop cartoons from the 30s and Warner Brothers cartoon shorts from the 40s. My ultimate goal is to one day be as good as the people who made those.”You’re our kind of gal, Katie! And she has a great website and on-line portfolio worthy of serious perusal at www.katienice.homestead.com

Leave it to George Lucas to attempt putting an artistic spin on outsourcing. About his newly formed Lucasfilm animation facility in Singapore, here’s what he had to say:

“I’ve been a fan of Asian animation and illustration all my life. Asian cinema has had a particularly big impact on a lot of my work. When we began thinking about developing new ways to explore the craft of animation, it seemed a natural step to combine the two. By having a base in Singapore, we can create a new style of animation that will blend East and West and offer something not seen before.”

Oh, I get it, so the reason Lucas is starting a studio in Singapore is because he wants to incorporate Asian influences into his animation. And of course, whenever I hear the words “Asian animation” the first country that pops to mind is Singapore. Can anybody even name an original animated production or comic from Singapore that’s made it into the West? If this lofty artistic declaration were the true motivating factor behind the new Asian arm of Lucasfilm, then it would have made far more sense to launch the studio in a country like Japan which has both a rich history of producing innovative animation and a large pool of top-notch talent to draw upon. The far more obvious explanation for Lucasfilm’s arrival in Singapore can be found in this sentence from Monday’s VARIETY article: “Singapore facility is backed by a consortium of investors based in the country, including government agencies the Economic Development Board and Creative Technology, which are providing funding and advice.” Nobody’s going to disagree that it makes financial sense for Lucasfilm to launch a studio in Asia, but trying to validate it as some noble-minded creative choice is disingenuous and lessens Lucas’ artistic integrity (or whatever remains of his artistic integrity after RADIOLAND MURDERS and HOWARD THE DUCK).
[Thanks to Gary S. for the article link]

Baby Tattoo is a new company I found out about while down at the San Diego Comic-Con. It’s a publishing company founded by Bob Self with an ambitious goal: to create 99 $9 hardcover illustrated books drawn by today’s best illustrators and cartoonists. The first two books in the series are Ragnar’s GOT YOUR NOSE! and Gris Grimly’s WICKED NURSERY RHYMES. There are plenty of other artists lined up for future books including Michel Gagné and Gary Baseman. [Updated 8/6 - Bob Self wrote in to correct a few things: Gary Baseman still hasn't officially agreed to illustrate a book, and Gris Grimly's WICKED NURSERY RHYMES is not part of the 99 $9 series, but a separate title from Baby Tattoo. My apologies to Bob for the errors.]

An animator/musician friend emailed me this note about the new Counting Crows music video “Accidentally in Love” (see it HERE) and after taking a look at it, I’m inclined to agree with him:

Don’t know if you’ve seen this yet or not. It is absolutely the WORST music video I have ever seen. Combine shitty music from the Counting Crows with horrible animation… Absolutely a shit fest.

DREW CAREY’S GREEN SCREEN, a new series on the fall WB Network schedule, is essentially WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? with animation added behind the live-action performers. The website doesn’t have much of anything on it yet, but I’ll take this as an opportunity to say that I’m looking forward to the show. Ron Diamond’s Acme Filmworks is producing the animation, and they’ve hired a whole slew of independent animators to contribute animated segments, including the likes of Patrick Smith, Bill Plympton and Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero. It remains to be seen how well this concept will work, but at the very least, it’ll be fun to see animation in a variety of styles and techniques on primetime television.

In addition to the previously noted JOHN K. extravaganza on September 7th & 8th (which I will update further in the weeks ahead), the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood has added a few other animation screenings to their monthly schedule.On Sunday August 15th at 6pm, the Cinematheque will screen the original French version of La Planete Sauvage (aka FANTASTIC PLANET) as a tribute to its late director Rene Laloux.On Friday September 10th, a new 35mm print of Bakshi’s FRITZ THE CAT will screen around 11:30pm (it’s the second half of a double bill with Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls starting at 9:45pm).Also keep in mind that CINECON will take over the Egyptian from September 2-5 with marathon screenings (9am to midnight) of vault prints and fresh restorations of the most obscure movies in Hollywood history (including cartoons - and your last chance to see POPEYE MEETS SINDBAD with the original titles). I’ll be posting more details about CINECON in a few weeks. Till then check the Cinematheque website for more information.

I like the concept for Project Backpocket, in which eight Vinton Studios interns are given nine weeks to produce a short animated film using the studio’s resources. The interns are currently in week 7 of production, and the public can keep track of their progress at ProjectBackpocket.com where each of the interns is keeping their own personal production blog. A tip of the hat to Josh Parpan, one of the artists working on the film, for cluing me in to the proceedings. Josh is creating some really nice artwork for the hand-drawn sequence in the film, while the rest of the short is being produced in CG.