Channel Frederator Blog

Ever since the release of “Toy Story” back in 1995, movie audiences seem to have been in love with all things Pixar. This goes for many animation fans as well, sometimes to the point of fanaticism. Is this a healthy thing? In this post, I’ll be asking some questions that challenge that fanaticism, and I hope that Pixar fans will try to provide some answers in the comments section.

When Dreamworks released “Shark Tale”, many people implied that Dreamworks was trying to follow in the footsteps of Pixar’s “Finding Nemo”. They are both films that are primarily based underwater. The similarities end there for me. When Pixar released “WALL-E” this year, no one seemed to remember either Blue Sky’s “Robots” from 2005, nor the design of Johnny 5 from “Short Circuit” (another robot who becomes self aware and gains a personality). Granted, the Pixar films were stronger films in both cases, but the similarities are there [Read more…]

via The Business Sheet

This was an interesting read. It seems that many of the actions and attitudes in the Dreamworks animated film “Kung Fu Panda” are at odds with what are common mainstays in Chinese cinema. While many have to do with the characters’ flaws (which help to sell their believability), some are taking offense to the way Po interacts with his teacher. In China, a student has nothing but deep respect for their instructor.

In such a global community, is it not possible to do an animated film that is based on a culture, yet observes that culture’s beliefs AND entertains a broad audience? I enjoyed the film, but was unaware of some of the cultural gaffs that it included. While I was not offended, I can now see why some may have been. What do you think?

-Floyd Bishop 

So talented!

Russell Huettner

[Read more…]

Via E! and AOL
I knew that eventually the tabloid industry would begin their assault on folks in the Animation Industry and begin treating them like actual celebs. I just didn’t know how soon…
And I loooove how the press doesn’t even use their names in the titles.

[Read more…]

Via UTNE
UTNE’s Kari Volkmann-Carlsen has been noticing a rash of Facelift epidemics… on Eighties Cartoon Characters.

She also ponders:

“So why are companies reinventing old cartoon characters instead of designing new ones? According to Kolodenko, playing off of parents’ nostalgia has proven to be a safer investment than creating unknowns in our poorly functioning economy”

Sigh.
Go check out the rest of her article at UTNE.
-Jeaux Janovsky

Via SXNEWS
American Gender Theorist Judith “Jack” Halberstam going to Sydney, August 1st, to deliver a lecture, titled “Queer Animation” at the Powerhouse Museum.
From the site:

“Halberstam will discuss the themes of social transgression and queer identity that permeate recent Computer Generated Image (CGI) animation in films such as Finding Nemo.

“I will link new technology to queerness and to radical ways of reimagining the world,” Halberstam told SX. Halberstam will also show clips from selected Pixar classics.”

Sounds pretty intriguing. If you’d like to read more, please go to the SXNEWS site.
-Jeaux Janovsky

The San Diego Comic Con has come and gone. It was pretty busy, with the entire show selling out. Preview Night was just as busy (if not more so) than any other day. I would love to see some sort of expansion of the Con to cut back on crowd size. Maybe a professionals only night, or perhaps making the Con a full week?

[Read more…]

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” -Eckhart Tolle

Denny Furlong

[Read more…]

As the park grew, and the public needed more and more in the park to keep them coming back, Walt Disney turned to the artists who he had trusted with his films to help create new experiences for the park. Marc Davis (pictured above) and John Hench are just two of the many artists who started in animation and then found themselves helping Walt with Disneyland. Park staples, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, the Enchanted Tiki Room, and the Haunted Mansion all feature work from former animators.

[Read more…]

In this intro from the Disneyland tv show spotlights a few of the lands in Disneyland. These included Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland. For some reason, Holidayland was never really promoted too often, and was closed in 1961. Other “lands”, such as New Orleans Square and Mickey’s Toon Town were added later.

In this intro, we see Tinker Bell act out a bit for each of the spotlighted lands. She zips in and out as the text introduces the next location. It is particularly interesting to see the level of the effects in this piece as well, from Tinker Bell’s pixie dust trail, to the take off of the Tomorrowland rocket ship.  Custom animated segments would be used often to promote the park, and eventually animators would begin designing parts of the park themselves…

-Floyd Bishop