Here’s a helpful song by Jessica Delfino. She’s discovered a guaranteed shortcut to everlasting fame–watch and learn!

Another bit of inspirational viral video animation that will convince you that you don’t need to be Walt Disney to find your way in people’s minds.

Visit her HERE.

-Jake

Our colleague Kevin Kolde is a videogame freak. (Well, freak may be a little strong; he’s merely a fanatic.) Anyhow, recently I told you about the blog he started with Warren Ellis about the movie we’re doing with Kevin’s Project 51.

He’s at it again.

After years of pursuit, Kevin’s gotten the cartoon rights to the world famous nutty videogame Ape Escape. We’re about to start pre-production for a series of comedy shorts with the apes for Nicktoons. More to follow.

–Fred

Elise and Moira, sent to negotiate with a remote barony, find something far more dangerous than a rebellion in the offing. Can a single mouse and doe succeed where all others have failed? Or will they fall prey to a sinister plot that may rob them, and an entire country, of their very minds?

This is the world of Persona Animus, created by John Scharmen. John Scharmen was a fantasy-addicted latchkey kid. He grew up on classic Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons, Star Wars/Trek, Muppets, Dungeons & Dragons, Piers Anthony (who he outgrew), J.R.R. Tolkien (who he didn’t), and classical mythology.

In high school he discovered anime worth watching, and spent the next ten years devouring that, until he burnt out on the five basic plots. New stuff sometimes catches his eye anyway. He spent a year in college abroad in Mitaka, near Tokyo.

Somehow, he earned a B.A. in studio art at UCSD without ever learning how to draw or paint. After college he began taking real art classes while helping to make video games for Sony. Ten years later he is a little better at drawing, painting, and animation.

In early 2006 John quit his job at Sony (where I met John) to take art classes full-time, draw a comic book, and figure out what the hell he wants to do with his life.

Persona Animus concerns a young healer, a seasoned ranger, and the fate of the world.

Persona Animus takes you into a fantastic world of animals and people who look like animals, where even the most common person may wield magic, and the Gods have been known to walk the earth.

For more on Persona Animus, be sure to visit the site!

-Floyd Bishop

Man is this violent and even a bit offensive, but it’s pretty well done too. The poster claims it’s Pixar but obviously it’s not.

Want some blood rushing action? Tune in to Shockboy, a beautifully animated piece (in Flash I might add) that really has some great direction and cutting!
-Mike Milo

Shawn, a friend of mine sent me this awesome 3D film called Kaelou which was directed by a man named Rémi Chapotot and animated by a studio called Cube in Paris. The guy is a freakin’ genius! I have no idea what they’re saying as it’s in French but man is it eye candy to look at! It’s like a frantic Over the Hedge. The combination of 2D bgs and 3d characters lit so well really blends nicely. I also like how they use 2d elements like smoke to give it a unique look as well. If all 3d looked like this it would be quite tasty wouldn’t you say?
-Mike Milo

A lonely little girl meets a lonlier, unintentionally creepy, Octopus under the sea. That’s the premise of Artist/Animator Julie Bergman’s prize garnering short, Sinking Margot, a cute and cuddly yet strange and eerie bed-time tale you might hear from a grizzled, old, mildly drunk, sea-faring sailor type kind of a guy. I bet he would wear a yellow raincoat and galoshes.
(But why would he.. be putting… me…. to… uh, sleep?)
Why a grizzled, old, mildly drunk, sea-faring sailor type kind of a guy in a yellow raincoat and galoshes is putting me to bed with spooky cute lullabies isn’t important. What is, is that Julie took the time to answer a few Channel Fred Qs about Sinking Margot.
Thanks again Julie!

CH.Fred:1. How did you come up with the idea for this film?
JB: In the summer of 2004, I drew a silly picture of a girl sinking in the ocean.

It was a completely random train of thought I was having, and for the life of me can’t remember why. Then I drew her landing on an octopus, which I thought was funny.

Then I drew some jellyfish staring at the awkwardness one might feel when landing themselves in such a predicament, and I thought “I really need to make this move”.

It wasn’t really well planned out. This sort of inspiration seems to happen out of the blue, which I like.
[*Ed. Note: We like it too! ]

2. Who are some of your influences?
I really enjoy children’s stories. I think my mind is a mixture of The Chronicles of Narnia, James and the Giant Peach, Dr. Seuss, and the thirteen books of Oz. There is something about going back to those imaginary places of my childhood that I always want to preserve, and reading children’s books or fantasy novels seems to help. It’s always kind of wacky and weird and adventurous, I get to be a pirate or magician for a day, and my thoughts go careening down an alley I would’ve passed on otherwise.

3. What do you do when you get stuck creatively?
I let myself take breaks. Sometimes I don’t do anything for a very long time. I haven’t painted a picture in over a year. I haven’t written a song for twice as long. It’s not a bad thing to leave creativeness be for awhile. When I deprive myself of it, it likes to eventually come back in an enormous tsunami. In the meantime I can mindlessly scribble on sheets of paper and think about cute animals.

4. So tell us the truth, have you ever eaten Octopus (Tako) at a sushi bar before? It’s a little rubbery isn’t it? I happen to like it, the texture and tentacles are funny but oh so good. Your thoughts? What do you normally get from a sushi bar?
I did eat an octopus tentacle one time. I don’t really remember the taste, because I was spending the 20 minutes of chewing it thinking about how chewy it was. I couldn’t tell you if I liked it or not. But I do like squid, which is also chewy but not as distracting. I also like salmon and tuna and avocado. And yam tempura. And and and… I live in Vancouver. Our diets rely heavily on sushi. [*Ed. Note: I’m getting hungry now. Thanks a lot Julie! ]

5. What are you working on currently?
I am working in a visual effects studio, animating some creatures for a tv show that will be called Tin Man. It’s a science-fiction take on the Wizard of Oz. On my own time, I’m doing a personal project which I won’t divulge just yet. It’s too early to say when I will have it finished. I
will say it will involve outer space and a rocket ship, and I do think those two things are superly awesome.

We have absolutely no problem waiting for FUTURE Super Awesomeness here at Channel Frederator Julie! Thanks again for submitting! KIT!!!

Channel Frederator. Yr #1 SOURCE for Cartoon News & Interviews!
Harry Houdini Reincarnated as an Octopus?!?!
<3,
-JX!

Who Do YOU want to see On Channel Frederator?
Click here to subscribe to Channel Frederator or go to iTunes. Please send your suggestions to promotecartoons@gmail.com.

Wanna know what else is cool about Channel Frederator?!?

Seriously. If yr film or short is featured on CH.Fred, what better way to promote yrself than embedding the Fred on yr very own website, blog or myspace page? For the extreme Fredheads, there’s the ultimate “Always Fresh” embedding code.
What are you waiting for? All the cool kids are doing it. I have mine up on my Myspace Page now.
Don’t believe me? Take a look, and add me while yr at it!
Cheers!

If you ask someone for a list of their favorite animated films, or even a list of animated films, you don’t often hear about “Cats Don’t Dance”.

“Cats Don’t Dance” is a 1997 animated family feature film; the only animated feature produced by the short-lived Turner Entertainment animation unit. It was distributed to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film is set in a world where human beings and anthropomorphic animals live side-by-side, and focuses on a character named Danny who wants to break into show business in Hollywood but is hindered by the fact that he is a cat. The film features the voices of Scott Bakula and Jasmine Guy, and was the directorial debut of former Disney animator Mark Dindal. It is also notable for Gene Kelly’s contributions as choreographer; it was his final film project.

If you are a fan of animation, you need to watch this film. There is a liot of nice stuff in there. The film doesn’t deserve to be lost.

-Floyd Bishop

My Syd Barrett cartoon “trip sequences” continue to unfold. We recorded the music and videotaped some milky swirls. Now it was time to put them together and make it even more psychedelic with After Effects.

Intern Josh Weisbrod handled the color magic and editing. He really got into the spirit of it as you can see in this photo:

Here are some more screenshots:

And here are the YouTube clips: (unfortunately YouTube’s compression doesn’t exactly do them justice… but you get the idea.)

I wasn’t around in the Sixties, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this looks pretty authentic

-DAN METH

Illustrator, Artist, Background Artist, Character Designer, Storyboard Artist, a dab of animation, and what do you get? Paul Watling is one talented guy and is very well rounded. He’s strong in all of those mentioned skills.

Many times typically someone might be a bad bg designer and amazing character designer, but NO! he really can do it all!

Paul currently works over at Neptoon Studios as well as a bunch of freelance ( no surprise ) and the work he’s doing is just fantastic!

-Steve

Click here to subscribe to Channel Frederator or go to iTunes. Please send your suggestions to promotecartoons@gmail.com.