Channel Frederator Blog

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…]

Animals abound in this week’s episode of Channel Frederator, featuring an eclectic mix of bunnies, robots, monsters… and frozen parakeets. Would we lie to you about that? We most certainly would not.

“Do Robots Dream of Bunnies?”, submitted by Piotr Karwas – Pink bunnies vs. little robots. Need we say more?

“Honkbarn: Episode 5”, submitted by Todd Ramsay – Musical monsters pose life’s most pressing question… “Whatcha talkin’ ‘bout?”

“Petsicle”, submitted by Maik Hempel – Don’t worry about boarding your pet for vacation. Ever again.

You can watch this week’s episode of Channel Frederator through all the usual places, like iTunes, My Yahoo, Tivo, Miro, YouTube, MySpace, AOL, Google, Veoh, Pando, Bloglines, and, of course, at the Channel Frederator website. Or you can see watch right above, if you’re so inclined.

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…]

Are the holidays just too darn chipper for you? Think you’re a little noir at heart? Fear not! Channel Frederator comes bearing gifts of alcoholism, commercialism, and gloom… ism - just in time for you to kick off the crueltide season.

— Ruby Rocket, Private Detective, submitted by Sam Niemann - It was a dark and stormy night when he waltzed in. Ruby needed a drink. Actually, she needed to pay attention to his case. She wanted a drink.

— The Bunjee Jump Skeleton Man, submitted by Tanjetsfilms - Holiday exploitation got you down? Hey, could be worse…

— Death by Dying, submitted by Anton Bogaty - A girl is haunted by violence - onscreen and off.

To rate the films in this week’s episode, visit Channel Frederator. (Once there, you can also subscribe through iTunes, My Yahoo!, Tivo, Miro, YouTube, MySpace, AOL, Google, Veoh, Pando, and Bloglines.)

So I’m a bit late on posting the October Cartoon of the Month winner, but this one is worth the wait. We had 5 episodes that ran in September, making them eligible for the October prize.
The October Cartoon of the Month prize comes from episode 145 and goes to the cartoon Hot Town by Fabian Dores Pais! Hot Town is a fabulous example of how simple, yet creative and well executed animation can take the cake. I had the chance to ask Fab a few questions about his cartoon and animation in general. Check out his answers below!

What inspired you to create “Hot Town”?

I was inspired by the music  called “Hot Town” by Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra. I wanted to work in the same way as the old cartoons based on the rhythm. I only listened to the music and some ideas appears in my mind.What techniques did you use to create it, and about how long did it take? [Read more…]

 
“Fred4Change” by Jeaux Janovsky, from Channel Frederator, Episode #147

Everyone who watches Channel Frederator regularly is familiar some of Jeaux Janovsky’s great art. Now, New Yorkers will get a chance to see some of his art next week. Meet Jeaux in person(!) as part of the ART+ACTION=OBAMA 08 show at Toy Tokyo in the East Village, Thursday, October 17, 7-11pm. Be there and be square.

–Fred

[Read more…]

I can feel it from here, you guys are EXCITED about the cartoon of the month. Particularly exciting is the fact that, because of the Channel Frederator Awards, we have only ONE episode of new content that aired in June! That means only three cartoons - stiff competition.
Episode 135 aired on Channel Frederator on June 3rd and had three awfully creative cartoons, so voting was SUPER close! Lenny Boudreau, our tireless Drinking & Drawing Boston host brought us the latest in drunken cartoon tomfoolery. From filmmaker, Tomagibo, comes Save the Princess. This creative and hysterical claymation will keep you on the edge of your seat!
Last, but certainly not least, Paul Shih brings us Rainbow Monster - our winner!! This super-cute cartoon has two lessons: 1) You are what you eat. 2) How to poop rainbows. A long-time resident of New Zealand, Paul is famous for his cute characters and his very cool paper cutouts [Read more…]

It is with much sniffling and sorrow that the Channel Frederator Awards bid you adieu. We leave you with one of our top awards - the Producers’ choice award. This year, we had so many wonderful films eligible and our producer’s top choice was hotly debated. Eventually the CF team managed to narrow it down to Sub! by Jesse Schmal!
I’ll leave you with the thoughts that the great and powerful Eric Homan, President of Programming for Channel Frederator, had to say about both Jesse and his film.

Back when Jesse Schmal’s epic Rhode Island School of Design film, “Sub!’, picked up Channel Frederator Cartoon of the Month honors, we asked the filmmaker about the genesis of the piece:

“The idea was made from lifting several characters and props from the sketchbooks I made during a year in Rome for school. I’m very insecure and inexperienced when it comes to writing anything [Read more…]

Today’s Channel Frederator Awards episode features the film that you voted as “Funniest Film”. We had some serious side-splitters in this category.
Mike Bell’s Super Santa in ‘Vegetation’ comes to us from the “Oh Yeah! Cartoons” archives. Just the concept of this buff bearded Santa and his buxom wife are enough to get you chuckling, but when you see Santa duke it out with a room full of vegetables, it’s tough not to loose it.
Mortimer Pigmun and His Time Traveling Chums is both unique and hysterical. The story of a smart little pig, Mortimer, turns hysterical when his nemesis steals his secret to time-travel. It’s hard to summarize such a unique plot, but Matt Witham and Jeff Wallenhorst, the twisted minds behind this film, must have licked a lot of frogs in preparation…

In the end, the prize went to Doug Bresler of Doogtoons for his animated music video for Wierd Al’s “Trapped in the [Read more…]

Today’s Channel Frederator Awards episode features our Best Design winner. We see a lot of amazing cartoons float through here and it was so difficult to choose nominees for this category.

Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues” trailer was a quick add to our list. The design on this film is truly unique, and Nina managed to find ways of fitting numerous different styles into the same cartoon. “Carlos, My Name Is Not” was the little film that could. This film oozes french influence. Musician Maxime Robin worked with illustrator Pascal Blanchet to create this super-swanky and hip music video. Finally, Dave Wasson was another must-have to our nomination list, and the one to take home the prize for “Max and the Pigeon Incident”!
An industry vet, Dave has had a hand in a countless number of cartoon series. My favorites include the “Max”(see the two “Max” cartoons in Channel Frederator Episodes 58 and 13) and [Read more…]