Channel Frederator Blog

Calling all animators!

Channel Frederator is hosting a 2-second animation contest for Saint Patrick’s Day. We want your stop-motion, flash, cartoons, flip books, or any other kind of animation to help us celebrate the day of Irish green cheer. We’ll be featuring the best submissions in our Saint Patrick’s Day episode on March 17th.
One lucky winner will receive a Nintendo DS!

[Read more…]

Funkadillo CEOs

Funkadillo: Hey there, Channel Frederator!

Barfy just informed us that you wanted to know a little more about the two of us. He does all of our emailing and what not, but since he has hooves at the moment, he wasn’t able to write you back himself. He was so excited you’d taken an interest in him, we had to hose him down in the backyard till he was calm. Ah, that pig sure does love the hose. The neighbors think we can’t see them peeking through their blinds.

Channel Frederator: How long have you two been animating?

Joel: I think we’ve both been at it pretty much all day. We took a lunch break, then there was the laser tag, the trip to the aquarium, the deep fryer incident, and building the squirrel-a-pult, but yeah, other than that, it’s been nothing but animating.

Ryan: I don’t think that’s what they meant. We’ve been animating professionally [Read more…]

Joel Trussell has been a long-time contributor to Channel Frederator. In fact, Joel’s film War Photographer was in the second episode to ever air! Every time we show one of his shorts we get a great response. This month, you guys really did your duty!

Joel’s animated music video for Morcheeba’s “Enjoy the Ride” is the winner of our January Cartoon of the Month prize, which means that out of all of the cartoons to run in December, you guys voted his the very best. Because of you, Joel will receive a totally awesome $100 prize pack of extra special Cartoon of the Month Channel Frederator merchandise.

I asked Joel a few questions about the making of the video. Check it out after the jump, and don’t forget to get voting on next month’s Cartoon of the Month! [Read more…]

Emily Hubley’s new animation-and-live-action film The Toe Tactic will be screened tonight at MOMA at 6 PM—it’s the theatrical premiere of her first full-length feature! Other showings are Thursday at 8, Friday at 4, and Saturday at 2, Sunday at 3, Monday at 5. The impressive voice cast includes Eli Wallach, Marian Seldes, Andrea Martin, Mary Kay Place, David Cross, Kevin Corrigan and young Lily Rabe (daughter of actress Jill Clayburgh and playwright David Rabe.) Score by Yo La Tengo. FREE for MOMA members. $10 for non-members.

Mona Peek is a young woman engulfed by loss. Her father recently passed away, her wallet disappears, and she is isolated from those around her. Her life, and the lives of her neighbors, are manipulated by four capricious dogs playing a game of cards. Winsome newcomer Lily Rabe interacts with animated forms that push, pull, and caress the film’s flesh-and-blood cohabitants through a journey of renewal.

After the jump, hear a radio interview with Emily Hubley… [Read more…]

British animator Simon Tofield specializes in simple, amusing, and observant shorts about pets. The floor-level chomper above appears in “Fed Up”, a recent holiday spot for the RSPCA. It’s a warning about overfeeding pets that makes its point without preaching. If you’re more of a cat person, the classic below stars an impatient fuzzball who acts just like my cat, Blinky! Well, with a bit of exaggeration.

Simon is repped by Tandem. His personal site is Simon’s Cat. (It is temporarily closed for maintenance. but this is where you buy T-shirt and sign up for his newsletter.)

Here’s a short interview with the creator, from Your Cat Magazine—not to be confused with Cat Fancy!

—Anne D. Bernstein

New York Comicon (February 6-9 at The Javits Center) has posted most of its schedule and here are some top events for animation addicts. (Just my own personal picks. Complete schedule here.)

Friday 3:15-4:15: WILDBRAIN: Head of Creative Bob Higgins, CMO Mike Polis, and some artists showcase W!LDBRAIN’s animation work, including Yo Gabba Gabba!

Friday 4:45-5:45: SUPERJAIL: Christy Karacas and Stephen Warbrick, the creators and executive producers “speak about the most intense, violent, and complicated jail in the universe.”

Friday 8:39-10:30: WONDER WOMAN: Big screen premiere. Panel with Bruce Timm and some stars after the film.

Saturday 1:45-2:45: MARVEL ANIMATION: Iconic heroes; you know the drill. Wolverine and Iron Man become Nicktoons. A Black Panther show for BET. Thor is awarded his own animated series. Get yer hype here!

Saturday 1:45-2:45: ROBOT CHICKEN: Can you believe this is up against the Marvel event? The weird folk (I mean, cool people) will be in attendance.

Saturday 4:00-5:00: J.J. SEDELMAIER: With Howard [Read more…]

The Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco (655 Mission Street) has just announced that it will present an exhibition of original artwork from the feature film Coraline from January 24-February 15.

“The exhibition features drawings, storyboards, puppets, sets, costumes and more from this groundbreaking movie, the first ever stop-motion animated film to be shot in 3D…this exhibit includes almost 80 pieces from the extraordinary world of Coraline, created by a team of over 300 artists bringing to life the vision of the world’s foremost stop-motion animation director, Henry Selick.”

For more on Coraline, you can check out the official website. (The image above is from a cool collection of behind-the-scenes stills on that site.) The movie opens February 6th, so the CAM exhibit will make for a great sneak peek.

Here are few other interesting museum shows in SF this month (not about animation, just generally cool):

1000 Journals at SFMOMA

Harlem of the West at the [Read more…]

The Screening Room was a public television program that aired in the Boston area back in the 1970s. Its purpose was to give exposure to independent filmmakers. It lasted ten years, and during that time, host Robert Gardner interviewed some of my favorite animators, back when they were dewy and young and full of enthusiasm.

In the past, it was very expensive to buy or rent copies of obscure programs like this. But now, in the age of digital downloads, the cost has come down to a reasonable level. It’s $6.99 for a 24-hour rental or $15.99 to buy an individual episode. So, on the verge of entering the New Year of 2009, let’s time travel back to the days of polyester shirts and cel-vinyl. You can watch a short sample of each show for free on its respective Amazon page:

George Griffin (1976)

John and Faith Hubley (1973)

Derek Lamb (1973 and 1975)

Caroline Leaf and Mary Beam (1975)

Jan Lenica (1973)

Suzan Pitt (1975)

John Whitney, Sr. (1972)

After the jump, a few screen grabs of AWESOME 70s fashion! [Read more…]

Oh wait… it’s not a turkey! It’s Turducken… What is a Turducken you ask? It’s the infamous yet delectable bird within a bird within a bird - duck stuffed inside a chicken which is then stuffed inside a turkey. Only in America folks!
Steve Stark celebrates the invincibility of the Turducken in his film, Turducken. Turducken takes home the prize for the December Cartoon of the Month - the highest rated cartoon to run in all of November. This includes episodes 152, 153, 154 and 155.  Hailing from episode 155, our Thanksgiving celebration episode, Steve created Turduken because…. well… maybe I should just let Steve tell you. Read his interview below!

What inspired you to create Turducken?

While I was going to school for animation, I was working at Cactus Club here in Vancouver.  My buddy Matty told me a story about how his friend ate a Turducken over the weekend.  It blew my mind.  So I [Read more…]

Us artsy types don’t have a reputation for being punctual… but we still feel bad that we’re late as all get out in announcing November’s Cartoon of the Month!
November’s candidates include episodes 148, 149, 150, and 151 of Channel Frederator. There was some serious competition, but in the end, “Monster Ball“, created by Rajesh. Congratulations Rajesh! A graduate of Vancouver Film School, Rajesh put a lot of work into “Monster Ball” the short where three robots are nothing against an adorable kitty. I did a brief interview with Rajesh, and here’s the lowdown on him and his film:

CF: What inspired you to create “Monster Ball”?

“Monster Ball” was a short comic I created during my days at VFS (Vancouver film school ) , The story was of a boy playing soccer with his cat ,however more and more characters kept adding on to the story till it became the short it is [Read more…]