Channel Frederator Blog

I’m still waiting for some of the inventions showcased here. What new inventions will 2007 bring our way?

Happy New Year everyone!

-Floyd Bishop

From last week in The New York Times Magazine:

Diana may be dead and Masako disgraced, but here in America, we are in the midst of a royal moment. To call princesses a “trend” among girls is like calling Harry Potter a book. Sales at Disney Consumer Products, which started the craze six years ago by packaging nine of its female characters under one royal rubric, have shot up to $3 billion, globally, this year, from $300 million in 2001. There are now more than 25,000 Disney Princess items. “Princess,” as some Disney execs call it, is not only the fastest-growing brand the company has ever created; they say it is on its way to becoming the largest girls’ franchise on the planet.

Read the whole article HERE.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
-Jake

This is pretty #@%*ed up right here. Think of him what you will, but Saddam Hussein was featured in several episodes of South Park as well as the South Park feature film. With the recent news of his execution, I thought his animation connection had to be mentioned.

Before you get too down on Parker and Stone for showing Saddam in their cartoons, keep in mind that this is nothing new.

This image is from the 1942 Disney cartoon “Der Fuehrer’s Face”. It was directed by Jack Kinney and released on January 1, 1943 as an anti-Nazi propaganda piece for the American war effort. It won the 1943 Academy Award for Animated Short Film and was voted #22 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field in 1994.

-Floyd Bishop

I don’t really like to rant on this blog. That’s not what it’s about, but I think there is something wrong with today’s rules in regards to the Best Animated Short category.

Look at the list of potential winners for 2007:

The Danish Poet by Torill Kove (NFB)
Everything Will Be OK by Don Hertzfeldt
Family Ties: Dreams & Desires by Joanna Quinn
Guide Dog by Bill Plympton
Lifted by Gary Rydstrom (Pixar)
Little Match Girl by Roger Allers (Disney)
Maestro directed by Géza M Toth
No Time for Nuts directed by Chris Renaud & Mike Thurmeier (Blue Sky)
Tragic Story with Happy Ending by Regina Pessoa
One Rat Short by Alex Weil

The problem as I see it is in this part of the rules for the Oscars:

V. TELEVISION AND INTERNET TRANSMISSIONS
Feature Documentaries and Short Subject Documentaries

NO TYPE of television or internet transmission shall occur at any time prior to and for two months after the first day of the Qualifying Exhibition, [Read more…]

This guy is an animator, storyboard artist, concept designer … basically what every one of us dreams of being. It’s not often you find a jack-of-all-trades and a master of just as many. Design, color, figure, character, this guy knows it all.

Vist SteveLambe.com to see more awesome art.

Enjoy!
-Jake

‘Tis the season of receiving a whole bunch of Disney Television DVDs. So far, Disney has released volumes of Gummi Bears, Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, Talespin, Darkwing Duck and Gargoyles, which still leaves room for Goof Troop, the Wuzzles, and, well, a whole bunch of others.

However there is a logical reason why the fan-children of the ’80’s have caught the retro-virus of these animated shows. I’ll credit the Eisner administration for giving animated TV a jolt of story, style and character that was sorely lacking. Everything up to that point was used for commercialistic purposes; either promoting a toy [Smurfs, transformers, He-man, My Little Pony, Care Bears, Pound Puppies, Thundercats] or caving in to the trends that kids were already a part of [Jem, Dinosaucers, My Pet Monster]. The Disney animated shows went beyond that and were solely out to tell good, original stories.

I had plenty of Ducktales toys and Thundercats toys; [Read more…]

I was a bit nervous when I first heard that there was going to be a new Ninja Turtles animated feature. I was a big fan of the Mirage comic, and even of the first (Krang/BeBop/Rocksteady) cartoon series.

After seeing some of the stuff from the trailer, I’m looking forward to the film. It looks to be a blend between the comics from the early parts of the Mirage series and some elements of the cartoon series.

The animation is being done by Imagi in Hong Kong.

Look for the film to hit theaters on March 23rd.

-Floyd Bishop

I just got the Darkwing Duck DVD from Disney. One word: Awesome!! No special features, which is a shame, but it’s still a show appreciated the world over — just see how other countries translate Darkwing’s motto, “let’s get dangerous”:

Cantonese Chinese 等我搞破壞!
Wait till I do some destruction!

Danish Lad os så vove fjerene!
Let’s risk our feathers!

Dutch Laten we lekker link gaan doen!
Let’s be nice ‘n risky!

French Ça va craindre un masque/max!
It will fear a mask/maximum

German Zwo, Eins, Risiko!
Two, one, risk!

Italian Dagli addosso, Duck!
Go for it, Duck!

Korean 덤벼 보라고!
Go ahead and attack me!

Mandarin Chinese 讓我搞破壞!
Let me do some destruction!

Russian Ну-ка, от винта!
Get off the propeller!

Spanish Hay que entrar en acción!
We have to enter into action!

-Jake

A few years ago Warner Bros did something similar to what Nickelodeon and Frederator are doing now with Random Cartoons except that they posted them on the web instead of airing them on TV.

Cartoon Monsoon was the result.

With 20 cartoons total over 2 seasons and produced by none other than Aaron Simpson of Cold Hard Flash with the animation facilitated by Dave Vamos and Brendan Burch of Six Point Harness (who have done a few Random Cartoons BTW) Cartoon Monsoon had some pretty cool Flash animation and some great ideas as well. Set up as a contest where kids could vote for their favorites, I was lucky enough to be a part of it and although my cartoon did not win, it was an awesome experience and I learned a lot about Flash in the process.

[Read more…]