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New Spots: Hermès by Julien Vallée and Honda by Smith & Foulkes

The following two spots attracted my attention for the inventive ways in which they mixed live-action with animation: "Metamorphosis" for Hermès, directed by Julien Vallée of Vallée Duhamel, and "Inner Beauty" for Honda, directed by the venerable production team of Smith & Foulkes through Nexus Productions.

Cartoon Brew Pick

‘From Dad To Son’ by Nils Knoblich

This story exists in its basic features since the fable "The Father and His Sons" by Aesop (600 B.C.) and is told to this day in anecdotes and urban myths. In From Dad To Son we translated a written narrative into a paper crafted animation short. It’s a parable about the assignment of roles of parents and children and the conflicts of physical separation and their communication. And a response to violence of privacy by governmental institutions.

Cartoon Culture

Tom & Jerry Short Remade With CGI Anime Girls

This a fan-made experiment in which the 1956 Tom & Jerry short "Down Beat Bear" is remade in CGI with anime girls in the roles of Tom, Jerry, and the dancing bear. The characters don't appear to be random and likely represent some part of fandom of which I'm not aware. Even lacking that context, I still think it's a fascinating piece of work, not so much for its animation or technical merit as for its resurrection of (and reverence for) classic theatrical animation in a completely unexpected setting.

Skip Dolphin Hursh
Artist of the Day

Artist of the Day: Skip Dolphin Hursh

Skip Dolphin Hursh works as a designer and animator for Nickelodeon in New York. Skip uses his free time to create personal work that includes handsomely designed looping animated GIFs that invoke thoughts of toy machinery and strange cellular activity. He explains more about how he arrived at this ongoing project in an interview with Giphy.

Fine Art

Joshua Mosley’s ‘Jeu de Paume’ Makes The 2014 Whitney Biennial

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.

TV

New Season of ‘The Boondocks’ Excludes Its Creator Aaron McGruder

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 Pick

‘Chorus’ by Dvein

"Chorus" is a contribution to This is NOW, an exhibition that took place in Oslo, showcasing international talents in poster art and motion graphics. This project started as a poster but quickly evolved into a disturbing video with this mouthlike-character producing weird noises and fusing with the buzz of the exhibition visitors.

Business

First Look at $2.4 Billion Oriental DreamWorks Complex in Shanghai

Last week DreamWorks revealed the first renderings of the Dream Center, a 40-acre, $2.4 billion development in Shanghai, China. Scheduled to open in 2017 (or early-2018), the site will house the Oriental DreamWorks production studio, which is currently working on "Kung Fu Panda 3," as well as the world's largest IMAX screen, eight outdoor plazas, hotels, restaurants, theaters, galleries, and tourist attractions.

Box Office Report

‘Muppets’ Stumble in the US, ‘Rio 2’ Is #1 in Russia

No new animated movies debuted in the United States this weekend, although Disney's family-oriented "Muppets Most Wanted" opened. The film opened in second place with a disappointing $16.5 million (estimated), far below the $29.2M opening of the franchise reboot "The Muppets" in 2011. That earlier film plummeted at the box office, too, after its opening, suggesting that the Muppets franchise isn't as relevant to kids today as it was with earlier generations.

Cartoon Brew Pick

‘This is Not a Time to Lie’ by Lei Lei

A hallucinatory short that follows a doe-eyed protagonist on a quest through an imagined world, and was created using vintage book covers, a motif that director Lei Lei inherited from his graphic-designer father. “No plots, storyboards, or scripts were involved,” says the director.

Recaps

‘Steven Universe’ Recap: ‘Onion Trade’

There’s something about Steven’s dad Greg that doesn’t add up. Will we ever really know why Greg distances himself from his son? This week in “Onion Trade," we explored a dad’s horrible ability to remember things, witnessed Steven’s lack of male role models, and learned a lot more about Onion, a character who revealed quite a few new layers.

Events

Annecy Festival Reveals 2014 Film Selections

The world’s longest-running and largest animation festival, Annecy, announced short film and TV selections today for its 2014 edition, which will take place June 9-14 in the lakeside town of Annecy, France.

Michael Olivo
Artist of the Day

Artist of the Day: Michael Olivo

Artist Michael Olivo creates comics and artwork that often skirts the completely abstract. In the masses of colorful blobs, tubes, and twisted forms, characters and narratives peek through.

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