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TAG FOR “Shorts”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
August 16, 2010 5:28 pm
Scott Dikkers, who helped found The Onion and was its longest-serving editor-in-chief, also happens to be a cartoonist, and he’s launched a new Brooklyn-based animation company Dikkers Animation company. The company website offers three shorts—Tycoon Tykes, Ape Trouble and Bright Lights Big Steam. The hand-drawn cartoons are refreshingly simple family-oriented cartoons with nice little messages worked into each one. They’re paced a bit slow for my taste, but I imagine they’d do well with a younger audience. And isn’t it a refreshing change of pace to see a new animation company promote itself with storytelling-oriented pieces instead of visual prowess? 16 Comments » posted in Business, Shorts, Scott Dikkers 
August 9, 2010 12:44 pm
What follows are two very different approaches for using animation to teach history. Both films successfully condense long periods of time and information into digestible length. While neither of these animated projects should be viewed as substitutes for actual historical study, they go a long way toward making history appear exciting and accessible. An Animated History of Poland is an eight-minute CGI history of the country. The film’s nationalist bombast is obvious but understandable considering that the government commissioned it for the Polish Pavilion at Shanghai’s 2010 Expo. It was directed by Tomasz Bagiński at Poland’s Platige Image. A more curious project is “A Complete History of the Soviet Union…Arranged to the Melody of Tetris”, which is a music video for Pig with the Face of a Boy. Director and animator Chris Lince uses a mixture of live-action and animation, but it is the latter animated elements which make this a memorable and effective piece of storytelling. 6 Comments » posted in Shorts, Chris Lince, Platige Image, Tomasz Bagiński
August 6, 2010 11:36 am
This week in the Cartoon Brew TV Student Animation Festival: Artichoke Hearts by Kazimir Iskander. To read Kazimir’s notes about the film or to make comments and ask him questions about it, visit Cartoon Brew TV. No Comments » posted in Shorts, Student
August 4, 2010 1:20 pm
An experimental animated short by Brooklyn-based animator Andy Kennedy, Accumulonimbus depicts various objects moving around in a spin cycle. The sophisticated patterns and rhythms of movement are mesmerizing, and a reminder of how animation can create moods and experiences that are not possible in any other medium. Kennedy’s website has an extensive behind-the-scenes section that shows how he made the film in stop-motion as well as the incredible amount of pre-planning that went into its making. The music, which I felt worked against the visual timing in certain instances but which grew on me during the second viewing, was composed by Kennedy too. (Thanks, Mike Rauch) 10 Comments » posted in Shorts, Stop Motion, Andy Kennedy
August 4, 2010 4:23 am
The seventh annual Animation Block Party wrapped up in Brooklyn last Sunday. The event’s organizer, Casey Safron, has created a unique and worthwhile event. When I attended on opening night (my first time at Animation Block), there was an enthusiastic crowd of over one thousand people who had gathered on the lawn of the Automotive High School to watch animated shorts on two big screens. I served as a member of the jury along with Rachel Simon of World Leaders Entertainment, Dave Schlafman of CloudKid, and Ramin Zahed of Animation Magazine. The judging procedure for Animation Block differed from other festivals I’ve judged in that the jury’s picks were averaged instead of attempting to form a consensus amongst all the members. Below you’ll find our choices, each of whom will receive various software packages and other prizes Two of the winners—Barbara Benas’s Always Only Ever and Kyu-bum Lee’s Death Buy Lemonade—will also be appearing shortly on Cartoon Brew TV’s Student Animation Festival. The Best in Show prizewinner, Old Fangs, is embedded above. ANIMATION BLOCK 2010 WINNERS 11 Comments » posted in Shorts
August 3, 2010 1:26 pm
The best part about Eran Hilleli’s Between Bears is the distinctive style he crafted using Maya and After Effects. The graduation short was made at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. If you can read any meaning into the film, I’d be curious to hear your take; all I took from this short is that old men love butterflies made out of bear fur. Then again, I may still be a bit slow after my weekend getaway. (Thanks, Nate Pacheco) 20 Comments » posted in CGI, Shorts, Eran Hilleli
August 3, 2010 12:00 pm
A couple of bits of news from the stable of The Brothers McLeod. They’ve uploaded a trailer for their new short film The Moon Bird (a 15 minute dark fairytale) and, below that, they just finished their latest run of Fuggy Fuggy shorts: 3 Comments » posted in Animators, Shorts, Brothers McLeod
July 26, 2010 10:45 pm
Usually, the posts about Famous Studios are reserved for Jerry, but just this once, I have to share a Famous short. I ran across Think or Sink (1967) last night and it’s a really goofy piece of animation. Shamus Culhane, the director, proudly proclaimed years later that it was the only Famous short which ever screened in competition at Annecy. The story was written by the crazy-man of East Coast animation Jim Tyer, who according to IMDB, hadn’t written a short since 1942’s You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap (can anybody confirm that?). Tyer appears to have modeled his short after Ernie Pintoff’s Flebus, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to note that Tyer was the primary animator of that earlier pop psychiatry-themed cartoon, not to mention that Tyer also animated the neurotic Terrytoons elephant Sidney. There’s plenty of good stuff happening in this film. The Bobcat Goldthwait-esque voice of Roscoe the elephant, provided by Lionel Wilson, is a unique and funny choice. The film has three (!) designers—Hal Silvermintz, Dante Barbetta and Gil Miret. I don’t know how they divided the work up, but it looks fresh. The animation by Al Eugster is also a treat. There are some ridiculous moments—look at Roscoe’s forehead at the one-minute mark when his hat pops up. As simple as the animation is, Eugster’s poses are expert and move just enough to get the personalities across. I won’t go so far as to proclaim this a great cartoon, but it’s better than a lot and its obscurity is undeserved. Below is a layout drawing by Dante Barbetta found in Culhane’s Talking Animals and Other People:
17 Comments » posted in Shorts, Al Eugster, Dante Barbetta, Gil Miret, Hal Silvermintz, Jim Tyer, Shamus Culhane
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