Before you hit the road, watch the classic 50s cartoon “Stop Driving Us Crazy” and follow its advice. Remember: “Reckless driving is a sin”. Rusty the Martian says so!
Commissioned by the Methodist Church. Animated at Creative Arts Studio. Character design by Cliff Roberts. Music by Benny Golson with Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. Also, Howard Morris does the voice. (He was “Uncle Goofy”–among other characters–on Your Show of Shows!)
Thanks to Boing Boing for bringing this Russian version of Winnie the Pooh, called Vinni Puh, to my attention. The state sponsored animation house Soyuzmultfilm crafted its own version of the Pooh tales back in the 1970s. They have their own distinctive style (I love the scribbly backgrounds) and the overall feeling is less delicate and more goofy than the E.H. Shepard interpretation we all know so well.
(By the way, it seems that Shepard ended up hating Pooh. Silly old bear!)
Thinking Pictures goes into detail about Russian interpretations of Pooh here. (Warning: It’s a brainy essay and uses words like Gemütlichkeit and Gemeinschaft. Mickey Mouse is apparently Gemeinschaft.)
And if you are hankering for more Soviet silliness, enjoy these additional Vinni Puh adventures:
“All The Cats Join In” from Make Mine Music is one of my favorite cartoon shorts. It’s got a great swingin’ track, cute Fred Moore girls, fluid animated jitterbugging, and ice cream! If you click on the links below and visit two highly recommended animation blogs, The Blackwing Diaries and Mayerson on Animation, you can get a detailed peek into the making of this clean-cut classic.
Mark Mayerson: PAGE ONE, PAGE TWO.
Blackwing (Jenny Lerew’s blog): PAGE ONE, PAGE TWO.
Lerew has tons of additional Fred Moore info on her site and sketches of assorted Fred Moore girls, including this sassy lass from “All the Cats Join In.” YOWSA!
Simple. Clever. Succinct. That’s how I would describe this Post-It animation. But who’s behind it? Turns out it’s an Argentinian motion graphics company called Gazz. It’s worth it to explore their website, as only a few examples of their work show up on YouTube. You can check out a stop-motion town full of egg-cars and a smoking belly face ID for MTV, among other fanciful things.
Also, don’t miss the videos in the section called “zzzaping”, which compiles tests and demos. One project is a motion-capture kit comprising two marachas and a belt, which can harness your rhythmic chops and sexy hip action to make an animated monkey dance.
Here’s a lovely music video they did for the song “Marta Ý Nestor” by Robot Bajo El Agua. I really love the song, although I don’t speak Spanish and don’t know what exactly they are singing about— I suppose love?
For the band: the [Read more…]
Click on the image, to be transported to Episode 3!
The Channel Frederator Awards are Here!!! It was a hot, feverish, and fierce competition!!!
Find out if your favorite cartoons claimed the Big, Red, Hunk of Burning Fred!!!
In this episode, Computers, Computers, Computers!!! Figure out which tricked out lite-brite and animator came away with The Freddie for Best CGI Film!
Also, Animator and Internet Person, Dan Meth receives the Van Guard Award. Not just cause he’s good at Guarding Vans either.
Watch all the nominees at channelfrederator.com
*I meant to have this up yesterday, but when I posted an embed it looked like it broke the fredblogs. I’m glad it works now, and thankful for youtube.-JX
Apparently, sometimes when women give birth (some women), a tiny bit off poo squeezes out along with the baby.
Such is the premise of our pals Mukpuddy’s new “nutty” pilot, It’s the Pughs.
[Read more…]
As there’s been some bunny talk around here today, I just wanted to link to an impressive short 3-D film, “Bunny Situation”, made by Michael Sormann. Sormann isn’t bankrolled by Pixar, or some other company with deep pockets; he does his animation independently (with Maya software). Pretty impressive, I’d say!
He developed as an artist in the videogame industry and is an alum of Rockstar Vienna. Now he’s a freelance 3D artist. He’s been working on his pet project, Theme Planet, for many years. He’s posted some beautiful finished artwork, as well as preliminary drawings, in the Gallery Section.
If you want to learn more, you can read these interviews: one from 3D Valley, another from It’s Art Magazine, and a third from Render Node.
(All images copyright Michael Sormann)
The Channel Frederator Awards are Here!!! It was a hot, feverish, and fierce competition!!!
Find out if your favorite cartoons claimed the Big, Red, Hunk of Burning Fred!!!
In this episode, watch which Bunnies duked it out and prevailed in a battle of Epic Bad ASS Bunny-ness!!!
Also, meet Animator Stephen M. Levinson, winner of Channel Frederator’s Youngest Filmmaker Award, and watch his cartoon, Ace & Aqua!
You’ll forget that this 17 year old animation whiz kid is barely out of diapers.
Watch all the nominees at channelfrederator.com
Matt Schwartz, another ex-MTV Animation comrade (and there are a lot of us around), contacted me to say that his cartoon, Calling Cat-22!, will be featured as a Wedgie this Sunday on Cartoon Network.
Wedgies are cartoon shorts that CN is currently “wedging” in between programs, such as the “Not So Smart Toons” marathon on Sunday from 12-6 PM. If you can’t be home and/or don’t have TIVO or some such gizmo, you can watch Wedgies on the CN Video Page.
If you want a sneak peek of Calling Cat-22!, there is one episode up right now called “Stink”. Other Wedgie series so far are Flapjack, Bremen Avenue Experience, Nacho Bear, and The Talented Mr. Bixby.
(Oh, and one thing I don’t like about the CN video site is that there are no show credits and they don’t provide any info about the creators. C’mon, CN, why make it difficult for us to [Read more…]
