January 20, 2007
You can enjoy my popcorn, while I enjoy your BRAINS!
Savor every detail of Orville's ignominious CG performance in this hi-res version of the spot. It comes courtesy of the Feed blog where lots of people (surprise, surprise) didn't like the commercial.
Also, in my previous post about this spot, I pointed out the ridiculous bobbing movement in the second-to-last shot. JadeTiger, a user on the CGTalk forums, was so mesmerized by this bit of animation that she created an animated GIF so we can all watch it over and over over....
(The title of this post was penned by 'frogspasm' on the CGTalk forums)
January 19, 2007
FREDERATOR AWARD PARTY
Frederator Studios is hosting a party for animators next week at Cinespace in Hollywood. The event is to celebrate the first year of Channel Frederator podcasting and many of the filmmakers will be flying in to attend. All attendees will have the opportunity to get a beautiful 100 page full color program book (full disclosure: I contributed a page to it) which contains dozens of great pieces drawn by the Frederator podcast animators. This event is not an award show (like the Annies), Fred Seibert says it's "three hours for you to eat, drink, and hang out with the animation community". Sounds good to me. Wednesday January 24th at 8pm. See you there.
(For more details, go here)
Animation News To Be Aware Of
1. Chris Meledandri, head of Fox Feature Animation, jumps ship to Universal where he'll try his best to produce another ICE AGE and not another ROBOTS.
2. What Makes An Animated Pitch Hit? Apparently, teaming with SNL castmembers will do the trick.
3. An animation studio decides NOT to make a talking-animal CG feature?!? What's the world coming to?
4. Bob Clampett and Ray Harryhausen both attempted to make an adaptation and couldn't—now Disney and Pixar want to give it a shot. Some are speculating that Andrew Stanton will direct.
January 18, 2007
CARS KLEENEX IN IRAQ?
 |
What next? Spongebob Whistle Pops for dessert?
ONCE UPON A TIME WALT DISNEY: THE BOOK
Couldn't make it to Paris for the landmark Disney art exhibit that closed a few days ago? No worries because next month Prestel Publishing is releasing a 360-page English-version exhibition catalog ONCE UPON A TIME WALT DISNEY: THE SOURCES OF INSPIRATION FOR THE DISNEY STUDIOS. Cover price is a steep $75 but it's only $47.25 at Amazon.
Now that the show has wrapped in France, it's headed to Canada where it'll be exhibited from March 8-June 24 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Colin Stewart, a columnist for the OC REGISTER, is asking the question on his blog that many of us are wondering, "Why won't any galleries in the US make room for this exhibition?"
Meet Zombie Redenbacher
One more interesting fact about this spot: it was directed at Digital Domain by none other than David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB, SE7EN), who incidentally started his film career in animation (it's all documented in ANIMATION BLAST 9). The shot towards the end where Orville says, "You'll like it better..." has some of the funniest (i.e. hideously awful) acting you'll see in any recent piece of big-budget CG.
A higher-res version of the commercial can be found on the official Redenbacher website. The lip sync is absolutely pathetic. It's hard to believe this spot was produced by Digital Domain.
The response to this spot has been unanimously negative. Here's a random sampling of opinions from around the blogosphere:
Y'know, I thought that cannibalizing old footage of Fred Astaire was kind of a tacky idea 11 years ago. But after this, I'm beginning to like the first idea. (via)While watching Criminal Minds tonight, I saw the most sick and disturbing thing--yes, the commercials featuring a reanimated Orville Redenbacher. If you haven't seen it, it's not an old films clip or anything--it's basically CGI of a man's corpse dancing around. I'm sorry, but that's just freaking creepy. (via)
Digital Orville Redenbacher freaks me right out. He is dead. Let’s let him be dead. Because Zombie Orville is just wrong, wrong, wrong. (via)
I just saw the scariest shit ever. A commercial for Orville Redenbacher popcorn in which they used the man himself as a spokesperson. Yes, he's been dead for some time. They brought him back anyway. So beyond the questionable wisdom of using a dead man as your spokesman, they decided to go totally digital. So now it actually looks like they dug up the old man's corpse and made it talk and move with marionette strings. The lips don't even sync with the dialogue! (via)
Earlier Brew coverage of Zombie Redenbacher
UPDATE: Brew reader Tim Curtis says that he expressed his distaste for this commercial by visiting the ConAgra Foods contact page. The toll-free Redenbacher consumer line is 800/243-0303.
I've heard back from multiple readers who've emailed ConAgra and they're sending out a form letter to everybody. That letter is below:
Your communication concerning the new Orville Redenbacher TV ads was most welcome, and we appreciate your taking the time to contact us.We understand that using breakthrough technology in this way can raise some eyebrows. However, we have taken the utmost care to replicate Orville's endearing personality and likeness. Our most important goal is to respect and advance the legacy of the brand's founder. The Retro ads which have recently aired received an extremely positive reception from consumers, and with the breakthroughs in technology, we are now able to introduce Orville to a whole new generation!
The Redenbacher family is excited for Orville's return to our advertising and marketing initiatives. Gary Redenbacher, who represents the Redenbacher family, has fully endorsed our direction and he is excited about ConAgra's efforts to advance his grandfather's legacy.
As we design future initiatives, your comments will be carefully considered. We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us and your interest in our products.
Sincerely,
ConAgra Foods Consumer Affairs
FRED WORLD
Art director (Little Mermaid) and production designer (Jimmy Neutron) Fred Cline has just started a blog. Cline was mentored by Lee and Mary Blair in his younger days, and is researching their careers. We need to get him to post video of the rare commercials he has in his possession. He's also researching the career of Hugh Harman. And maybe he'll discuss the project he's working on at Laika. It's all at Fred World.
January 17, 2007
JAWS OF LIFE
"Jaws of Life" is a freshly styled music video for the Canadian band Wintersleep directed by Sean Wainsteim (with James Mejia). Wainsteim describes the video as, "A surreal urban environment filled with animals struggling with their humanity, bizarre gems, a giant transforming robotic deer on a rampage and much more." The video was conceptualized by Wintersleep's lead singer Paul Murphy, fine artist James Mejia and Wainsteim.
I really enjoyed the uninhibited creativity of the piece and wanted to find out more about the production. Here are some notes from Sean about the making of this video from a recent email exchange I had with him:
This was a labour of love. This is video number five (or six) that I've done for this band.Took about a month and a half. The grind was mostly late nights for me for a long time, but I worked with a handful of very talented animators and designers who gave up evenings and weekends from their day jobs to lend some time.Much of the look is derived from the artwork of designer James Mejia whose style of mixing photo cutouts with unique painted techniques was first used in an earlier Wintersleep video Danse Macabre, and expanded for this project.
We shot SLR stills on a nearby rooftop with another musician as the protagonist and then again with myself as the pigeon headed characters. Except for the images on the television screens, all of the characters in the video were shot on a digital SLR still camera. Everything was hand cut out deliberately loose and quick. This was an aesthetic decision...otherwise bluescreen would have been faster and better—but we wanted to see a different background peeking through.
Pretty much only used Adobe After Effects and Photoshop...and wood n'paint and an SLR cam. Many, many hours of handcrafting minute details, both in and out of the computer, were imperative to maintain the warm and highly detailed feel.
CREDITS (partial list)
Music video: Wintersleep "Jaws of Life" (Labwork Music)
Director: Sean Wainsteim (with James Mejia)
Production company: Sean Wainsteim
Staring Glenn Milchem as "The Man"
Painted Backgrounds: James Mejia
Storyboards and post corrections: Steve Wilson
Cinematography: Vinit Borrison (stills), Andrew MacDonald (live-action)
Animation and Visual FX: Nick Fairhead, Joel Tellier, Sean Conly, Arvydas Slabosevicius, Sean Wainsteim
Typography design: Jenny McCracken
Cut-Outs: Clint Lavado, Rachel Vulliens
Funded in part through generous grants from VideoFACT and FACTOR CANADA.
ANIMATION SHOW CONTEST
Courtesy of our pals at The Animation Show we have four copies of the new dvd set of the ANIMATION SHOW Volumes 1 & 2 just out from Paramount and MTV Home Entertainment. The first four entrants that answered the question posted earlier today won one of these beauties.
CONTEST NOW CLOSED!
Our winners were Stewart Shaw of St. Albert, Alberta, Canada; Raymond Delgadillo of Pico Rivera, CA.; Ian Jones-Quartey of Brooklyn, NY; and George Colón of Hayward, CA.
Posted by JERRY at 09:30 AM
MARY BLAIR CANNOT BE KILLED!
Not sure what's better—the title of the blog or the actual blog itself. "Mary Blair Cannot Be Killed" is an irreverent but loving tribute to the lasting impact of Blair's work. The site is new but there's already lots of fun artwork by various contemporary animation artists including the piece above by Joe Orrantia. And just for the sake of posterity, let me reprint the wickedly cool blog intro here:
The night air stinking with the pungent aroma of perfume, gin and Lady Chesterfields, the celebrated Disney colorist, water color artist and illustrator terrorizes the night and kills everything she sees. Never in the history of the United States has a monster of such size and power, and horrifying hatred of man made itself known! Say your prayers because MARY BLAIR CAN NOT BE KILLED!
(via Thinking Animation Blog)
Classic Italian Commercials
Last month we posted links to some vintage French and German animated commercials. Now here's a here whole bunch of 1960s and '70s animated commercials from Italy. And if you liked those, there's a lot more '60s spots at MondoCarosello.com including this Bruno Bozzetto one and some fun TV show bumpers. I didn't really see many spots that had stand-out animation, but there's some interesting design throughout, and considering how rare these are, they're certainly worth a look.
(Thanks, Michael Pinto)
January 16, 2007
Animation Show Arrives In Theaters and On DVD!
Today is a big day for our friends at the Animation Show. It marks both the theatrical premiere of their third edition as well as the release of the ANIMATION SHOW Volumes 1 & 2 Box Set. Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt deserve props for creating the Animation Show and providing a way for US animation fans to see quality animated shorts on the bigscreen.
The Animation Show has generously offered 4 boxed sets for us to give away to Cartoon Brew readers. We'll ask a trivia question tomorrow morning, Wednesday, at 9am Pacific (12ET), and the first four people to answer correctly will each receive a set. The dvd is packed with tons of superb films including MT. HEAD, WHEN THE DAY BREAKS, WARD 13, HELLO, THE MEANING OF LIFE, GUARD DOG and ARIA. It also includes commentaries by Bill Plympton, Corky Quakenbush and Don Hertzfeldt, bonus materials for various shorts, and a mini-documentary about the history of the animated short.
The new theatrical edition premieres tonight in Santa Barbera and Seattle. It's also playing this week in Boston, Portland, Tuscon and New Brunswick, NJ. For a complete list of cities, go HERE. Here's the trailer for the third edition:
Zombie Redenbacher
Files this one under "Commercials For People Who Can't Get Enough Of Polar Express and Monster House." Apparently the people who own the Orville Redenbacher popcorn brand feel they can boost sales if they reintroduce their dead pitchman as a grotesque Uncanny Valley-esque CG character. There's an article in USA TODAY about the new spot along with a short clip. I love this quote from the ad agency guy: "We don't want people to fall over and faint because Orville's back." Somehow, I doubt they'll be experiencing that problem.
For the record, here's the appealing real Mr. Redenbacher:
(via BoingBoing)
Footage from Disney's Enchanted
The first footage for Disney's upcoming live-action/2d-animated film ENCHANTED has appeared online. A few seconds can be seen at the tail end of this unbelievably annoying Disney promo. Before anybody starts complaining about the generic designs though, bear in mind that the film is parodying these Disney stereotypes.The hand-drawn animation is being produced by James Baxter's studio. Character designer Harald Siepermann has posted a page of his character designs for the film on his blog.
Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s
Jeff Jonas, an artist at Sony Online Entertainment and the the son of Golden Age animation artist Homer Jonas, has written some hilarious memories of working as a Hanna-Barbera copy boy in the 1970s when he was still a teenager. He offers a disclaimer in the piece:
Sorry these reminiscences are not politically correct, but the world was not PC back then. They smoked and swore and cursed. Some of the tough gals would call me Homer's puppy, they said I needed a collar and leash.... all this through the cigarette smoke. Yikes... run away!
Still, I'd take Seventies H-B any day over the gloomy corporate boardroom vibe of contemporary LA animation studios. I can't remember the last time I visited a studio in LA where I didn't leave feeling depressed and blue.
The Disney Strike of 1941
Kip W has posted some amazing animation artifacts on Flickr: coverage of the 1941 Disney strike as reported in New York's leftist daily paper PM. There's some great cartoon drawings and photos (like the one above) in the articles. Kip initially posted these in Cartoon Brew's Animation History Archive group on Flickr. Feel free to join—lots of folks are sharing stuff from their collections as we unearth rare cartoon history together.
January 14, 2007
Iwao Draws Fred
Here's a short video of Iwao Takamoto drawing a famous Hanna-Barbera character not designed by him. The video was posted by background painter Tristin Cole.