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For the fifth year in a row, we are pleased to announce our annual Cartoon Brew Student Film Festival. The mission for the festival is simple: to honor student-produced animated shorts and share them with the widest possible community of industry decision-makers, fellow students, and animation enthusiasts from around the world.
Ralph Bakshi pulled himself away from his drawing desk in New Mexico to chat with Cartoon Brew about his legacy, his latest project "The Last Days of Coney Island," which he recently funded on Kickstarter, and what he really thinks about the computer’s role in animation these days.
Believe it or not, one of the best online sources for animation history buffs is YouTube. Amazing and rare materials, often digitized from private film collections, is posted regularly on the streaming site. You just have to know where to look.
In 2011, Jeffrey Katzenberg proclaimed that moviegoing audiences would embrace 3-D and would continue to attend theaters despite higher ticket prices. Three years later, it's obvious that his prediction was a little off.
Tensions run high during the high school championships, and all eyes are on the showdown between Kong and Smile. The third episode jumps abruptly from Smile's training in episode 2 right to the championships, and to a Smile who has begun to gain the confidence to show his true potential.
Any exhibition that “…aims to demonstrate the centrality of animation to contemporary global culture…” is worth our attention, and the UK's Barbican Centre-produced “Watch Me Move: The Animation Show” has been doing that at museum venues since 2011. This June, it comes to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville.
The NFB StopMo Studio app for the iPad provides essentially everything you need to jump into creating an animated film. You won't have any issues getting comfortable with the user interface if you've worked with animation programs before, and it seems more than approachable for newcomers young and old. Once you open up the program, you're welcomed with a short and succinct tutorial that covers the basic tools, and then opens up to allow you to explore the rest of the options available.
Determined to unleash Smile's potential, Coach Koizumi devises a relentless schedule of training that culminates in a death match pitting old veteran versus young hopeful. Smile's resistance finally cracks under the pressure, and he begins to get serious. Meanwhile, the appearance of a new rival - the tough-looking Ryuichi Kazama - sets the stage for a later showdown.
Blue Sky's "Rio 2" failed to unseat "Captain America 2" at the box office last weekend and settled for a second-place opening of $39.3 million.
New York City-based artist Arik Moonhawk Roper illustrates fantasy art in full washes of color or in limited colors for black light posters, books, and shirts. He has illustrated a handful of covers and articles for "Arthur" magazine, and he also frequently gets commissions from musicians that find his art to evoke exactly the right visual mood for their music.
A recap of the first episode of Masaaki Yuasa's new series "Ping Pong."
There are big developments in the UK animation industry in the wake of a much-heralded tax break received by the British animation industry that went into effect last year. Sarah Smith, the former creative director of features at Aardman Animations, is setting up a studio named Locksmith Animation. She bills it as the UK’s "first high-end CGI feature animation studio," and it is focused on creating a long-term slate of films for worldwide distribution.
Cartoon Brew officially launched on March 15, 2004. A decade is a long time to be doing anything, but it feels like an especially long time to be blogging daily. As we head into the site's 10th anniversary year, here are some reflections on where we've been and where we're headed.
Giannalberto Bendazzi's "Cartoons" is an indispensable animation history book . Why won't any American publisher take a risk on the updated version?
The Whitney Biennial is one of the most anticipated events in the world of art museums. Begun as an annual survey of American art in 1932, it became a biennial in 1973. Its overall purpose is to show a snapshot of the contemporary art world, often focusing on very recent works. For the art intelligentsia, it is often an excuse to complain about a) the state of contemporary art, and b) the curatorial choices made, or both—with occasional exceptions, such as the 2012 Biennial, which was met with overwhelming praise.
It was recently announced that, after a nearly four-year hiatus, the Adult Swim animated series "The Boondocks" would be returning on April 21st for its fourth and final season. However, any excitement that fans of the show experienced when hearing the news was cut short when they learned that the show’s creator, Aaron McGruder, would not be involved.
Cartoon Brew is pleased to announce the expansion of our extraordinary editorial staff, which furthers our commitment to covering the wide range of ideas and issues that impact the animation community.
"Frozen" is beautiful to see, fun to sing along with and is a modern day marketing marvel, but the script has structural and performance issues that are worth examining because they impact directly on acting.
It's been a busy stretch for the Thirties Fleischer cartoon star Betty Boop. First, she got her own paper towel in Turkey, and now, Winnipeg, Canada-based Fowl Moon Studios has licensed the character for a new iOS game called Betty Boop Dance Card.
Last week, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group released the second animated short, Buggy Night, in its Spotlight Stories, a …