Morgan King had dreamed of making a Ralph Bakshi-ish rotoscoped fantasy animation all his life. This is the result of those dreams: a six-month project, teaching himself as he went along – Mongrel & The Wrath of the Ape King (you’ll note a bit of He-Man and Heavy Metal influence, thrown in for good measure). Says King, “while I didn’t even get close to the breadth of my 22-min script, as a stylistic attempt it gets pretty close to what I was shooting for.”

Buz-e-Chini is being hailed in the news story above as being the first computer-animated short in Hazaragi, the language of the Hazara people, who are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. The director, Abbas Ali, was born in Afghanistan, but fled the country when the Taliban took over and studied animation in Pakistan. The film appears to have been produced mostly in Pakistan since the production company is Karachi-based Post Amazers. Also, in the news piece above, the director indicates that he started production on the film while he was still living in Pakistan.

The entire film can be viewed below. It’s an impressive production based on a Hazara folk tale. The film is dedicated to Hussain Ali Yousafi, the voice of the wolf, who was assassinated in 2009. No one said making animated films in Afghanistan would be easy.

(Thanks, @PrinceofRazors)

Self-taught Australian animator Lluis Fuzzhound’s Marooned On Watango Island is a loving tribute to the Cartoon Modern style, complete with jazz and tiki.

Director Steve Moore has finally posted one of my favorite (and rarely seen) Disney shorts of recent (or semi-recent) vintage. Moore recounts the making of the film – a product of Disney’s Television Animation unit, that went on to be nominated for an Academy Award in 1997 – on his Flip Animation blog. Written by Dan O’Shannon (now of Modern Family), narrated by Garrison Keillor, and voiced by Mia Farrow, Michael Richards, June Foray and Adam West, here at last is Redux Riding Hood:

British animator Cyriak does more with less than just about any other animator today. In Because, he “found a stupid photo of my face and decided to make a video out of it. Why? Just because.”

Cyriak pushes off-the-shelf software to its absolute creative limits. Because’s outlandish array of creatures and spacecraft were created using 3D layers in Adobe After Effects. He composed the film’s music, too.

It was announced on last night’s Season Finale of The Simpsons that Maggie will star in her own stand-alone 3D animated theatrical short. The Longest Daycare will debut before Ice Age: Continental Drift opening in theaters on July 13th, 2012.

UPDATE: David Silverman appeared to confirm on Twitter that he is directing the short.

We’re excited to announce a call for entries for our third annual Student Film Festival, a yearly showcase of outstanding student films from around the globe. We’ve received hundreds of submissions in our first two years that have resulted in a fantastic selection of films, and we hope to continue that trend this year. Click to see the 2010 lineup and 2011 lineup.

Our mission for the festival is simple: to share student-produced animated shorts with the widest possible community of industry artists, fellow students and animation fans. And not just any student films, but films of the highest caliber…the most original, the most thought-provoking, the ones that make us laugh hardest and engage us emotionally. Of course, we present student films throughout the year on Cartoon Brew, but we want the festival to direct even greater attention to the exciting work being produced by today’s up-and-coming filmmakers.

Filmmakers who are selected to screen in Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival will each receive $300. We’re also adding a new twist this year. After all the films have debuted, there will be an audience poll where Cartoon Brew viewers can vote on their favorite film. The winner of the audience choice award will earn an additional $500.

Here’s all the info you need:

RULES

1. It has to be animated. (Obviously.)
2. It has to be a student film. (Even more obvious.)
3. Must have been completed after May 1, 2011.
4. Must be an online premiere. (Films that are accessible online to the public will not be considered.)
5. Submissions due by Thursday, May 31, 2012

SUBMIT
To submit, send an email to studentfest (at) cartoonbrew (dot) com with the following info:

• Your name, school and country
• Film title and synopsis
• Private link and password (ex: Password-Protected Vimeo link, Private or Unlisted YouTube link, or a website download link).

WHAT HAPPENS IF I’M SELECTED
Up to 12 films will be selected for the festival. We will announce the festival selections in early June. Screenings will begin on Cartoon Brew in late June. Every film that is selected to screen as part of the Cartoon Brew Student Film Festival will be paid a screening fee of $300(US). We don’t assume any exclusivity or ownership of your film. In other words, you are still free to submit to festivals, sell it to distributors, and post it anywhere else on-line shortly after its online debut in our festival.

ONE FINAL NOTE
Many students are informed in school that posting their film on-line ruins their festival chances. We’ve explored the issue before by speaking with festival directors and recommend reading this. None of the major animation festivals enforce such a rule today. However, some non-animation festivals, like Sundance, ask that a film be taken off-line during the course of their festival. As far as we know, the only awards organization that strictly demands films remain off-line is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, so if you’re trying to qualify for a Student Academy Award, you don’t want to post your film on-line. To understand the issues better, read this case study written by Avner Geller, who co-directed Defective Detective, a film that appeared in last year’s Student Animation Festival as well as won a Student Academy Award.

(Submit photo via Shutterstock)

It’s been far too long since Jérémy Clapin’s last short, Skhizein, an existentialist/mental illness drama that ranks among the more original pieces of animated filmmaking in the past decade. The trailer above is for his latest short Palmipedarium, which he’s readying for release in 2012. This new ten-minute piece was produced entirely with free, open-source Blender software. I can’t wait to see it!

Check out his earlier masterpiece below:

(via @FelixMassie)