Moose A. Moose (Noggin mascot) sings about his vehement hatred of an innocent tri-colored treat. You can also watch an official Noggin version here.
His voice is by Paul Christie, who also provided the voice for Louie the Lizard in the Budweiser “frog” commercials. Lyrics by Matt Perreault.
Moose A. Moose was designed by illustrator Melinda Beck.
Candy corn also makes a cameo appearance in Western Spaghetti by PES:
This 1977 educational film tries to be helpful, but I think they turned a little witch into a klansman in Part One. The party in Part Two is Felliniesque. It’s worth watching until the end for the Borscht Belt joke-telling stylings of these little scoundrels.
Okay, so there’s no animation in it. But here’s another one from 1985 with a talking pumpkin! “Getting my insides scooped out tickles me…” Speak for yourself, squash.
In Disney’s 1929 Silly Symphony “The Skeleton Dance”, we see several skeletons dancing around in a graveyard. This cartoon was quite popular, and was the first cartoon to use non-post-sync sound.
The cartoon was so well received that ten years later, Mickey Mouse was trapped in a haunted house, playing music for a group of dancing skeletons. This cartoon was “Haunted House”. It reused many bits from “The Skeleton Dance”, many of which were the exact same drawings, frame for frame.
I just got back from a lecture and tour of BYU in Utah. Their animation program is quite good, and the industry is taking notice. One of the program’s shorts, “Pajama Gladiator”, was part of the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival this year.
R Brent Adams and the rest of the BYU faculty are doing a great job preparing students for the industry. The students showed us their work on their upcoming short film project (which I won’t mention, because I don’t know that it has been announced yet). Their dailies and screening room would fit in with just about any real animation studio, as the processes are all the same. The work was quite strong, and the program looks to be improving each year.
If you have seen an animated feature from the last few years, the odds are that a BYU grad has worked on it.
There’s an interesting lecture coming up at The Society of Illustrators (128 East 63rd Street) on Wednesday, November 5th from 6:30-8:30 PM. It’s called “Character Design, Animation and Toy Design”. The speakers are Paul Budnitz from Kidrobot and Mark Graham from ilovedust.
Kidrobot is famous for manufacturing and distributing high-end collectible toys and other consumer goods. They ‘re also in the animation business; Wild Brain studio in San Francisco now owns a major chunk of the company. Nickelodeon recently announced that they plan to turn Kidrobot properties into a series of feature films that blend animation and live action.
ilovedust is an English “design boutique” that has developed toys for Kidrobot–keeping it all in the family! This Zulu Dunny would fit in among his fellow premium plastic pals in any designer toy collection:
On the jump…how to order tickets…
We’re all familiar with the classic “Got Milk?” campaign, which was sponsored by the California Milk Processor Board. Now another scrappy milk-promoting trade group, the British Columbia Dairy Foundation, is promoting a video contest on YouTube.
To enter, make a video with the message “Must Drink More Milk” and upload it to YouTube. Each month, two winners will be named. At the end of the year, one Grand Prize winner will win a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air (with Final Cut Pro). Oh yeah, you MUST BE A RESIDENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA to enter.
I really like the video above, a stop motion fight scene where our underdog champion is a claymation version of one of those wobblies monsters you stick on the end of a pencil. I wish the BCDF would credit the animators and make it clear that eight YouTube videos most prominently posted were done by pros and had “real budgets” and the supervision of an advertising agency. The fight scene is by at Bent Image Lab. (Chel White, Ray Di Carlo, and David Daniels formed this Portland, Oregon studio in 2003.)
For more information about the contest, go to the milkvids YouTube page or the mustdrinkmoremilk website.
PS: For an online gallery of the classic milk mustache ads, check out this link.
PPS: Here are some earlier spots for the BCDF with animation direction by Curious Pictures.
After the jump, another Bent Image Labs video, starring Russian nesting dolls with very annoying voices. And a few videos by an actual contest entrants. [Read more…]
Today is the last day to catch Brad Benedict’s Side Show exhibit at Wal Art (1639 South La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles). Includes animation peeps like Chris Reccardi, Dave Wasson, Ric Heitzman, and Everett Peck. La La Landers have about an hour to run over. Otherwise, see the artwork online. (Artwork above by Wasson.)
“Game Over” (Art of the Gamer Generation) is a group show that runs through October 29th at Giant Robot in San Francisco (622 Shrader Street). (Artwork above by Justin “Scrappers” Morrison.)
And…the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City just announced two upcoming Kim Deitch events:
Cartoon Movie Night (October 30, 7 pm)
Kim Deitch will host a Cartoon Movie Night featuring rarely seen animated cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s hand-picked for the occasion from Deitch’s own personal collection. MoCCA will also display for one night only selected specimens from Deitch and spouse Pam Butler’s extensive collection of antique toy cats.
Deitch Q & A (November 13, 7 pm)
Q & A session with Deitch and exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos. Deitch will present examples of recent work and will also preview images from his current works in progress.
Also at MOCCA, a one-day only preview of Heritage Auction Galleries’ November 2008 Vintage Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, to be more specific…
MAD Contemporary Art Treasures: The Most Classic Original Art from MAD Magazine (October 29, 10-5)
More info after the jump… [Read more…]
The Cobble Hill Theater, my local go-to cinema, has a great family series called “Big Movies for Little Kids”. On November 3 they will screen episodes of the French animated series Barbapapa. Barbapapa started out as a popular series of books, written and illustrated by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor. They star a shape-shifting blob that finds love and gets married. The bulbous couple then has a colorful brood of seven Barbababies. Barbapapa (barbe à papa) is French for candy floss, or a “father’s beard”. (Gotta say that he looks like a European cousin of the Shmoo from Al Capp’s Li’l Abner.)
Although I was not familiar with the books until now, they have been translated into 30 languages. There were two animated series based upon the books: a French series from the 1970’s (45 episodes, five minutes each), filmed by Polyscope in the Netherlands; and a more recent series (50 episodes, five minutes each), produced by the Japanese firm Kodansha in the late 90’s. The globe-trotting Japanese version was called Barbapapa Sekai Wo Mawaru (Barbapapa Around the World).
Apparently the first series was syndicated in the US in 1981. Does anyone remember seeing it?
You can buy tons of Barbapapa items at this U.K. website. Animation lover Harry McCracken has a photo of the Barbapapa store on his blog here.
So far, I have not been able to find any source of Barbapapa VHS or DVD in the United States. Even the official site is of no help. Too bad, because I think this cuddly cult could be big!
After the jump, a Barbapapa theme song techno remix and a rockin’ montage! [Read more…]
Attn: NY Animation Peeps!!!
Don Hertzfeldt is coming to town!
“An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt”
The Oscar-nominated animator in person,
with the New York premiere of his new film,
plus a selection of classics — Nov 19 at 7:00
“A dark, hilarious, and increasingly expressive body of work that’s
entirely his own.” - Chicago Reader
“An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt,” a rare, in-person special event with
the Academy-Award nominated animator, co-founder of The Animation Show
and creator of such cult hits as Everything Will Be OK, The Meaning of
Life, and more comes to the IFC Center Wednesday, November 19 at
7:00pm.
Highlighting the evening is the premiere of Hertzfeldt’s latest, I AM
SO PROUD OF YOU, featuring his trademark hand-drawn animation. The
90-minute program also includes a selection of his earlier films,
including the Sundance winner Everything Will Be OK, and an on-stage
interview and Q&A session with the audience.
Hertzfeldt’s longest piece to date, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU is the
eagerly anticipated second chapter to [Read more…]
