Banks A Lot!
June 30th, 2008
Channel Frederator Blog
Archive for June, 2008
Buy Beheaded Betty Boop!
June 29th, 2008
Yes, this 6-foot-4-inch Betty Boop statue is content and intact. That’s because I decided to spare you the sight of the famous decapitated Betty Boop statue now being auctioned off on Ebay. (That is, until the jump. I am sensitive to cartoon community standards!)
Anyway, back in 2005, someone made off with the statue of Betty Boop that sat outside of Cool and Eclectic Furniture in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She was found on the side of the road with her noggin missing-in-action. Despite national publicity and an appearance in the comic strip “Zippy the Pinhead”, her face was never found. (This link takes you to the Zippy strip.)
(Eerie coincidence: In the Betty Boop version of “Snow White”, the Queen orders Bimbo and Koko to behead Betty!)
The famous vandalized vixen is currently for sale on Ebay. CLICK HERE to bid!
Opening bid is $1299. It’s been up there a while and the price started at $1979.99 and keeps dropping so you may want to wait. If you’d like a headed Betty, the one above is available for $1099 .
Just last Friday, Cool and Eclectic Furniture got some more press as they reported the theft of an Elvis statue. (Hmmm…bad luck or publicity stunt?)
See the pathetic sight of headless Betty after the jump…
“Diablo III” from Blizzard
June 29th, 2008
Blizzard has announced their newest title, “Diablo III”. The title was announced with this cinematic trailer, created by Blizzard’s own in house cinematics team. While I’m still not sure if I’ll be picking up the game, the trailer is quite nice.
Cartoon Clips
June 26th, 2008
If you don’t watch a lot of trashy Reality TV (I admit it, I do!) you probably missed last night’s episode of Sheer Genius, the hairstyling competition show on Bravo. Why post about it here? Because the challenge this week was to give your model a hairstyle based upon one of a select group of cartoon characters. The animated icons were: Wilma Flintstone, Betty Boop, Judy Jetson, Lucy from Peanuts, Jem, and Marge Simpson.
Here are three of the best interpretations: a Marge, a Betty, a Wilma, and a (Grown-Up) Lucy. Lucy won.
Strangely, they kept talking about capturing Lucy’s “innocence”, which is not exactly the first adjective that comes to mind (well, my mind) to describe this clever, high-strung, and rather manipulative young lady!
(Now if only Top Chef would have the Swedish Chef from the Muppets on as a guest judge!)
The Cartoons Must Go On
June 25th, 2008
Earlier this month, I blogged about Alex Budovsky’s music video for “Last Time at Clerkenwell” by The Real Tuesday Weld. At the time, I didn’t realize that Stephen Coates (the guy behind TRTW) was such a heavy duty fan of animation. The music video above is “The Show Must Go On” which was made by the small Brooklyn animation house Giant Squid Eye Productions. Giant Squid Eye is George Fort (director) and Monica Smith (producer). (Recently, George worked on backgrounds for over-the-top action fest Superjail—coming to Adult Swim this fall. And Monica was color key designer for Supernormal on CITV. A super coincidence?)
Of interest to animation history buffs is the new score Coates composed for Winsor McCay’s The Centaurs. The Centaurs was an unfinished animated film that only survives in fragments. McCay worked on it between 1918 and 1921. Most of the completed footage deteriorated due to poor storage. I think it’s really, really [Read more…]
Carlos Ramos Gets Wired Up!
June 25th, 2008
Frederator Oh Yeah! Alum Carlos Ramos recently got featured on the Wired Blog (as well as BOING BOING). The feature waxes philosophic about Show Biz Versus The Art World & his newest art show, Natural History Museum Part 1 at the Corey Helford Gallery in California.
Great Job Carlos!
-Jeaux Janovsky
Spicing It Up - Channel Freederator Awards Ep 5
June 25th, 2008
Variety is the spice of life… at least that’s what I’ve been told. We certainly have variety on our hands today as our host, Justin Johnson, doles out the awards for Best Music Video, Best Foreign Film, the Sick, Sick, Sick Award and the Joe Robot Award. That’s a lot of great content, so make sure you check the episode out. For now, here’s some info about the films and the filmmakers behind them!
Alexander Gellner is the creative man behind “Anfang Anzufangen”. This film takes home two wins - one for Best Foreign Film and another for Best Music Video. Working out of Berlin, Alex created this video for stonedeafproductions‘ song “Anfang Anzufangen”. The film is a combination of traditional animation, paper collage and stop motion. We got the chance to meet Alex when he was in town and he is one [Read more…]
Double Trouble - Channel Frederator Awards Ep. 4
June 25th, 2008
In Episode 4 of the Channel Frederator Awards, we actually have two - count ‘em, TWO double awards winners! Plus, we announce the winner of the Cartoon of the Year. So without further adieu…
We got a boatload of e-mails voting for our Cartoon of the Year and in the end, it was a close call, but our viewers chose Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot, by David Chai. David is also taking home the award for “Best Traditional Film” so he has a gorgeous set of bookends. Congrats David!
I must admit that I’ve been in love with Fumi for a long time. Not [Read more…]
