Fresh off the heels of showing Who Saved the Moon? at this year’s SOLD-OUT San Diego Comic-Con, Illustrator/Artist/Animator (whew!) Luke Feldman’s Who Saved the Moon? makes it’s podcast premiere on Channel Frederator this week!

1. How did you come up with the idea for this film?
Berpunzel, the lead character in Who Saved the Moon came to life a few years ago. The idea was inspired from my love of old Chinese proverbs and myths. It wasn’t until last year that I felt the storyboard finally captured Berpunzel’s loveable personality. He is a naïve, happy go-lucky guy that has nothing but the world’s best interests at heart.

2. Who are some of your influences?
I have always been a big fan of surrealism and artists such as Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and MC Escher. I have always been fascinated by Dr Suess’ quirky illustrations and story telling. I’m also a massive fan of asian art and culture.

3. What do you do when you get stuck creatively?
I think I’m pretty fortunate because if I get stuck on an illustration, I play around with an animation and then if I get stuck on both of these I write music and play on the guitar. It’s rare for me to go blank on all three mediums. Getting outdoors, traveling and practicing Taekwondo definitely opens my mind to new ideas.

4. What do you imagine the moon to taste like? (I imagine Bleu Cheese or maybe Feta cheese… Yum.)
Hmmm…. to be honest, I think the moon would taste quite bland. So, I would envision something like the Hawaiian dish, poi (boiled taro). And, in terms of the texture, I think it would be like eating a bowl of lettuce that hasn’t been washed properly (refreshing and crisp with the occasional crunch of soil grit).

[*ED.Note: EW! lol!]

5. What are you working on currently?

Well, I have just got back from the 2007 Comic-Con convention in San Diego. It was my first time to the ‘Con’ so for a first-timer I was chuffed to have my short film “Who Saved the Moon” featured at the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival.

[*ED.Note: YAY! Congrats Luke!]

I have a solo art exhibition that I am preparing for in October 2007 in Seattle. It’s called [i]“The Whimsical World of Skaffs: visual and audio art by Luke Feldman”[/i]. I will be exhibiting limited edition giclee prints as well as featuring my animation shorts that are accompanied by self-composed music.

[*ED.Note: Very Cool!]

I have plans to launch a line of vinyl toys called Misskaffs with the company Wheaty Wheat. Check out www.skaffs.com to preview the cool prototype sculptured by the super-talented Rich from Wheaty Wheat.

[*ED.Note: I’m Jealous!!!]

In terms of animation, I will continue to develop my series of animation shorts for both the Berpunzel and the Skaffs chicks (Misskaffs) for online media and television. Currently, I have 26x 1-3 minute animation short ideas for each of these series. I also have other animation series concepts that can be seen on www.skaffs.com.

[*ED.Note: This is getting annoying, isn’t it?]

[*ED.Note: I apologize.]

Thanks Luke! Stay in touch!

-Jeaux Janovsky

Have you heard of Channel Frederator Raw yet? Join Our Cartoon Tribe.

You know, when I was a kid, in order to make sure I caught on the TV those shows I really wanted to see, I had to grab the new TV Guide every Thursday and go through and circle everything that looked even half interesting for the week ahead. Now, with the miracles of computers and the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival, all you need to do is print out the list below and circle everything that looks even half interesting. Hooray for the Internets.

Anyway, if you’re on the east coast of the United States, these shorts will begin on the Nicktoons Network promptly at 10:00 p.m. If you live elsewhere in the country, you’ll have to do the math as to when it airs in your time zone. Here’s the schedule:

8/1 L’amie De Zoe - MAKE (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)
8/2 Icarus - Adam Swaab (Sherman Oaks, California, USA)
8/3 Saalis - Aiju Salminen & Saara Knottinen (Helsinki, Finland)
8/4 Sonadora - Andrea Lira (New York City, New York, USA)
8/5 Bare - Andy Lyon (Los Angeles, California, USA)
8/6 Striped - Anna Gopin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
8/7 Hedgehug - Dan Pinto (Teaneck, New Jersey, USA)
8/8 Hominid - Mike A. Smith (Portland, Oregon, USA)
8/9 Kiwi! - Dony Permedi (Santa Monica, California, USA)
8/10 Carried Away - Zach Parrish (Savannah, Georgia, USA)
8/11 Monster on the Moon - Drew Hill (Paw Paw, Michigan, USA)
8/12 Jose y Maria - Edward Juan (Valenica, California, USA)
8/13 Angst - Emiel Penders (Elsloo, Limburg, The Netherlands)
8/14 A Peach for the Teach - Erica Pitt (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
8/15 Freewheel - Eve Weinberg, Ryan Suffern, Tim Millen, Gary McIlwaine (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
8/16 Cranks - Jacques Khouri (Savannah, Georgia, USA)
8/17 Feb-18-05 - Javier Barboza (Los Angeles, California, USA)
8/18 Mortimer Pigmun and his Time Traveling Chums - Jeffrey Wallenhorst & Matthew Witham (Wells, Maine, USA)
8/19 St Laleeloo - Jiwook Kim (Glendale, California, USA)
8/20 Barfy the Pig in ‘A Day in the Park’ - Joel Foster & Ryan Page (Port Orford, Oregon, USA)
8/21 Process Enacted - Jordan C. Greenhalgh (Rochester, New York, USA)
8/22 Old Chestnut - Lily Shia, Danyin Zhu, Hazel Lam (Forestville, NSW, Australia)
8/23 Puppet - Patrick Smith (New York City, New York, USA)
8/24 Zoologic - Nicole Mitchell (Cupertino, California, USA)
8/25 After Oz - Percy Kiyabu (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
8/26 The Little Dictator - Peter Lowey (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
8/27 Think Like a Frog - Pongo Kuo, Mig Jou, Alice Tasi (Taipei, Taiwan)
8/28 Art’s Desire - Sarah Wickliffe (New York City, New York, USA)
8/29 Loose Change - Tim Golem (London, Ontario, Canada)
8/30 Insomnia - Vladamir Lesciov (Riga, Latvia)

You’ll also be able to watch each film online for a few hours after it airs, especially good for those of you outside the U.S. (Hooray for the Internets, squared). Vote for your favorites. Then on Friday, August 31, Nicktoons Network will air all the films consecutively, winding up with a best-of special including this year’s winning shorts.

Confused? We’re here to help.

– Eric

On pg.5 Sam reviews his favorite stumps.

This probably does it for the clips. If I post anything further I will basically have shown the whole cartoon. Also, the well of content has been plumbed nearly dry by now.

CLIP: High Suspense!

CLIP: Pratfalls!

Here’s a pencil test of the preceding clip’s first scene. You can see how his ending position was shifted left in the final animation to avoid the strange pivoting. It’s an alteration which, I realize now, almost nobody would have noticed. Fascinating stuff!
Pencil Test

Bonus! A Somewhat Special Feature:
Deleted Scene

BG Layouts by Edward Juan

(don’t worry, it’s spoiler free.)

It should surprise no one that “The Simpsons Movie” crushed the rest of the movies on its opening weekend at the box office. Not only has the fanbase for this movie been built since 1986, the Simpsons have become a cultural institution in this country. No matter how old, lame and out of touch one is, everyone still knows where that ubiquitous “D’oh” comes from.

Ah, Simpsons. What a long, strange trip it’s been. Now, the cynics out there will tell you that the Simpsons jumped the shark roughly eight years ago, and they have a pretty good case for that assertion. The first eight seasons of the show have to be recognized by anyone with half a brain as eight seasons of the highest quality, most transcendent television ever made. I can remember the first time I saw a Simpsons short on the Tracy Ullman show as a child. Every week after that you would find me, sitting in my kitchen, watching a fuzzy UHF television station (look it up, kids) to get my Simpsons fix every week.

That isn’t to say that the plug on the show shouldn’t have been pulled before season nine. This may get me lynched, but I don’t care. At that point the show lost its magic and became just another predictable TV sitcom, complete with pigeonholed famous guest star and tired, telegraphed plot week after week after week. It was unbearable (especially if you grew up with a “Life is Hell” book under your bed), and truly heartbreaking to those of us who grew to love it from childhood.

Thankfully, this movie does present somewhat of a return to form to the old days when the writing was stellar and the characters still felt fresh. Certainly, the movie is also a well deserved payoff to the voice talent and creative team that brought this creation to life for so long with so much talent. So if you haven’t seen it yet, get out there, forget the other garbage at the theater right now, and hand over your hard earned dollars to some people who truly deserve it. Despite the rough patches, they have still given us 20 years of memorable laughs, lines and characters… and that is far more than I’m accustomed to getting from pop culture in these times.
-Kenneth England

Episode 91?!? Already? Where did last week go?
Insane how the days are flying by! Zip, zip, zoom!
So, “What’s new with Channel Frederator?” you ask.
Lots of stuff. New stuff on the Blogs for you to read, a beautiful revamped Channel Frederator Youtube page for you to peep out, and new info on the Ch.Fred page for you to connect with us! (look under the Subscribe button!)
So feel free to talk to us every once in a while.
Remember, Channel Fred Lives or dies by you, our viewers and friends.
Thanks for being part of our Cartoon Tribe!

Here’s what we have on tap for y’all today:
—Who Saved the Moon?, submitted by Luke Feldman
Fresh off the heels of showing Who Saved the Moon at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Illustrator/Artist/Animator (whew!) Luke Feldman’s Who Saved the Moon? makes it’s premiere on Channel Frederator! Thanks Luke!

—Flatland - Movie Trailer, submitted by Dano Johnson
I didn’t know Flatland was a real trailer.
If you want my real honest truth, I thought this entry was a practical joke being pulled on me.
Surprisingly, it’s hilarious, looks pretty amusing and very well done. On a sidenote, I’ve always wanted to do an epic movie about the little flat 2d guy stuck inside the traffic light box perpetually moving in one direction, always running from the gigantic red hand shape that is about to squish him.
I walk a lot, and my mind tends to wander…

—Ace & Aqua, submitted by Stephen Levinson
Stephen Levinson is 16 years old. He’s working in the animation industry. He makes his own shorts and cartoons in flash, and is pretty darn good too. I feel proud to know him, and even prouder to premiere his fantastic short, Ace & Aqua on this week’s episode. Thanks Stephen, glad to know you!

Cheers!
-Jeaux Janovsky
Channel Frederator RAW: Join our Cartoon Tribe.

Okay, I figure by now you’re sick of all the press dedicated to this year’s panel of judges for the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. No, wait. You probably haven’t heard anything about this year’s panel of judges for the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. Until now, that is.

In 2007, we continue the tradition of having stellar folks in the animation industry judge the festival. Here they are:

Michael Dougherty – Michael is known for writing Superman Returns and co-writing the second X-Men movie. In addition to his feature film work, Michael is also an accomplished animator and illustrator. His award-winning animated films have appeared on MTV, SCI FI Channel, Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, and G4-TV, while his morbid illustrations are published as greeting cards by Nobleworks. Following a first solo exhibition last year, Dougherty’s artwork was showcased at Every Picture Tells a Story in Santa Monica.

Steve Oedekerk – Steve O. may have written Bruce Almighty, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and The Nutty Professor (the most popular movie of 1996), but, in the animation world, he stands as the creator of the movies/TV series Jimmy Neutron and Barnyard (Barnyard premieres on Nick later this fall). In 2002, Steve’s company, O Entertainment, produced the first IMAX 3D cartoon, “Santa vs. the Snowman 3D”.

Joanna Quinn – Emmy Award-winning Joanna is one of the true stars of independent animation (and in dependent animation, too). Her own films includes the Annecy hit “Girls Night Out”, the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning “Famous Fred”, and “Dreams and Desires: Family Ties” (“Dreams” is her latest and possibly her most popular and critically acclaimed, a winner at Annecy, Zagreb, and of the Cartoon D’Or). Plus, you’ve certainly seen her commercial work for Whiskas, United Airlines, and Charmin.

Mark Shirra – Mark’s Vancouver Film School short, “A Great Big Robot from Outer Space”, won last year’s Producers’ Choice Award in the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival, and we’re very happy he’s a part of this year’s panel of judges. Mark has an entensive live-action background, directing commercials and promos for both film and television. He’s currently up at Pixar. His bio claims Mark’s aims are to find a never-ending jar of Marmite and to be six feet three inches tall. He is currently around five feet ten.

Genndy Tartakovsky – In my opinion, Genndy’s one of the two filmmakers (the other being Craig McCracken) who defined what it originally meant to be a Cartoon Network cartoon. He created Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack and oversaw Star Wars: Clone Wars, any one of which would solidify Genndy’s reputation in the cartoon business.

Patrick Warburton – I had no idea Patrick Warburton has done so much voice-over work in animation (in addition to being Puddy, of course). Look him up on IMDb, and you’ll see his long list of credits includes recurring roles on The Xs, Family Guy, The Emperor’s New School, The Venture Bros, Kim Possible, and The Tick. Plus, you can hear him in Open Season, Home on the Range, and in the upcoming Bee Movie, and Space Chimps.

Patrick, Genndy, Mark, Joanna, Steve, and Michael join our previous judges – Gabor Csupo, Andreas Deja, Michael DiMartino, Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, Mark Hamill, Elizabeth Ito, Bryan Konietzko, John Kricfalusi, Seth MacFarlane, Bill Plympton, JG Quintel, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, and Noah Webb. Thanks very, very much to everyone for your time.

– Eric

Please have a look at this Chuck Jones film, and post your thoughts on this piece.
-Floyd Bishop

Devin Clark, a wild animation director and Channel Frederator alum, has been commissioned by Comedy Central to create an online series. So far two episodes have premiered and they are both hilarious.

Check them out here!

*Devin was also one of the directors who made Frederator’s “Secret Life of Robots” an award winning film!

-Dan

Check it out here and here

Ace and Aqua is in BEST IN THE SW!l!! Please don’t for get to leave good comments here! I hope I do well in the festival! All good comments will help me :D!

Steve

First of all, thanks to the hundreds of filmmakers who submitted their work to the 2007 Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. Lots of great stuff, as usual, including more than a few we couldn’t air due to content (it’s for a Nickelodeon network, after all). Beginning Wednesday, August 1, you, the viewer, can see a different short every night through the month at 10:00 p.m., New York City time. The month will culminate with all films being shown, back to back, on Friday, August 31, topped off by a one-hour best-of special which will include the winners in the Diversity, Student, Producers’ Choice, Grand Jury, and Nick Development Award categories.

Here are this year’s selections in the 2007 Nicktoons Network Animation Festival in alphabetical order. Congratulations, everyone.

Peach for the Teach - Erica Pitt (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

After Oz - Percy Kiyabu (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

Angst - Emiel Penders (Elsloo, Limburg, The Netherlands)

Art’s Desire - Sarah Wickliffe (New York City, New York, USA)

Bare - Andy Lyon (Los Angeles, California, USA)

Barfy the Pig in ‘A Day in the Park’ - Joel Foster & Ryan Page (Port Orford, Oregon, USA)

Carried Away - Zach Parrish (Savannah, Georgia, USA)

Cranks - Jacques Khouri (Savannah, Georgia, USA)

Feb-18-05 - Javier Barboza (Los Angeles, California, USA)

Freewheel - Eve Weinberg, Ryan Suffern, Tim Millen, Gary McIlwaine (Chicago, Illinois, USA)

Hedgehug - Dan Pinto (Teaneck, New Jersey, USA)

Hominid - Mike A. Smith (Portland, Oregon, USA)

Icarus - Adam Swaab (Sherman Oaks, California, USA)

Insomnia - Vladamir Lesciov (Riga, Latvia)

Jose y Maria - Edward Juan (Valenica, California, USA)

Kiwi! - Dony Permedi (Santa Monica, California, USA)

L’amie De Zoe - MAKE (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)

Loose Change - Tim Golem (London, Ontario, Canada)

Monster on the Moon - Drew Hill (Paw Paw, Michigan, USA)

Mortimer Pigmun and his Time Traveling Chums - Jeffrey Wallenhorst & Matthew Witham (Wells, Maine, USA)

Old Chestnut - Lily Shia, Danyin Zhu, Hazel Lam (Forestville, NSW, Australia)

Process Enacted - Jordan C. Greenhalgh (Rochester, New York, USA)

Puppet - Patrick Smith (New York City, New York, USA)

Saalis - Aiju Salminen & Saara Knottinen (Helsinki, Finland)

Sonadora - Andrea Lira (New York City, New York, USA)

St Laleeloo - Jiwook Kim (Glendale, California, USA)

Striped - Anna Gopin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

The Little Dictator - Peter Lowey (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

Think Like a Frog - Pongo Kuo, Mig Jou, Alice Tasi (Taipei, Taiwan)

Zoologic - Nicole Mitchell (Cupertino, California, USA)

– Eric