Channel Frederator Blog

Coming up in NYC… the chance to see two passionate and animated innovators in person.

Tuesday night at 7 at YIVO (15 West 16th street) Danny Fingeroth chit chats with the irrepressible Harvey Pekar of American Splendor fame (and some exciting appearances on The David Letterman Show). SECRET PASSWORD FOR REDUCED ADMISSION: At the door, say the word “Harvey” for $10 ticket (regularly $15).

Tuesday, March 3rd at 6:30 at The Society of Illustrators (128 East 63rd) meet David Polonsky, the illustrator and art director of Ari Forman’s Waltz with Bashir. Polonsky will discuss the techniques that were used to make this unique animated documentary. The talk will be accompanied by clips from the film. A Q and A session will follow and a book signing for the release of a graphic novel based upon the film. $10 members, $15 non-members. No secret password, as far as I know! RSVP to kevin@societyillustrators.org

After the jump, a clip of Harvey Pekar on The David Letterman Show in his more excitable days. He’s mellowed since then (?) Or not. We shall see tomorrow… [Read more…]

My post yesterday paid tribute to the classic (but not classy) holiday icon Mr. Hankey. Since he is over ten years old, I thought I’d point out a more recent example of cute celebratory caca. Dookie-Poo is a side project of creative director Manny Galan (who used to direct animation for Nickelodeon). Dookie-Poo and his friends have appeared as vinyl toys, plush toys, animation, apparel, prints, and trading cards.

The Dookie-Poo website is full of fun stuff including lots of downloadables: activity pages, 3-D paper models, finger puppets, and more. (I spent yesterday evening finally assembling a printed version of Pookie-Do’s Sleepy-Poo bedroom set that I bought last winter at Comicon.)

Go here to check out the festive seasonal front page, complete with happy-go-lucky theme music that might remind you of a certain holiday cartoon special staring a round-faced boy with a squiggly mouth.

After the jump, a Dookie-Poo music video for “I Will” by [Read more…]

RAW ART FRIDAY!

Evan Tedlock

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RAW Art Today!

James Sugrue

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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.

-Floyd Bishop

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…

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Check out this amazing RAW Art!

Adonis Alexantrou

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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…]

Rawwwwww!

Corey

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RAW Art Friday!

SUNCHIRP

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