Channel Frederator Blog

Harry Partridge, creator of the pitch-perfect parody “Saturday Morning Watchman” (up to 1,932,841 views on YouTube, as of this moment!) has posted his new reel. Harry is still in college and surely has quite a career ahead of him. He not only writes and animates his shorts; he also records all the voices solo and scores his own music.

The main Harry Partridge YouTube page is here. And his website is here.

Check out “Saturday Morning Watchman”, if you haven’t seen it. Or watch it again. Let’s push this puppy up past TWO MILLION VIEWS!

—Anne D. Bernstein

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…]

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…]

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…]

YouTube recently expanded their pool of partners. I’m swimming in the pool right now. In order to make money on your clips, the only limitations are that you have to own the rights to what you are uploading, and the clips need to be over 30 seconds in length. You also have to sign up for a Google Adwords account in order to get paid.  

The other thing is that you have to have some popular videos and quite a few subscribers in order to be accepted into the program. While it’s no Internet People, my halloween video The Happy Pumpkin has over 600,000 views. Ironically, this video doesn’t qualify for revenue sharing, since it is under 30 seconds in length. I fell it was responsible for most of my subscribers though. 

One of the cooler features that gets added to your YouTube account is the ability to track your videos. Are people watching it all the [Read more…]

In case you missed it in the frenzy of holiday happenings, there was a great article about animation in last Wednesday’s New York Times. “Cartoons Without Computers? Silly Animators!” features the “insurgent element” of modern animation. As far as I can tell, that just means interesting animators of an indie bent, though big budget Henry Selick seems to qualify. (Odd title as well, since many of the artist mentioned DO use computers in one way or another.) But anyway…faves Bill Plympton, Don Hertzfeldt, Signe Baumane, and Alex Budovsky are featured.

In case you were wondering how Bill Plympton gets so much animation done (while managing to actually get out of the house and socialize, and also make appearances at all the major cons and conferences) one tip is that he gets up early!

“I do about 100 drawings a day, which is about 10 an hour, and if I can do that times [Read more…]

This cartoon short is The Interview (1961). The animated interviewee is Shorty Petterstein, a beatnik character/alter ego created by “sound artist” Henry Jacobs. Jacobs is an interesting and still rather obscure character who palled around with Lenny Bruce and Alan Watts, hosted one the world’s first “world music” radio programs, and experimented with audio collages and tape manipulation way back when such things were a time-consuming pain in the butt!

WFMU has posted MP3s of all the tracks from The Wide Weird World of Shorty Petterstein here.

Henry Jacobs has a website where you can purchase an autographed “Best Of” DVD. Listen to Henry’s 2005 interview for NPR here.

Ernest Pintoff directed The Interview; he’s best known in animation circles for his work at UPA, Flebus at Terrytoons, and his direction of Oscar winner The Critic —with voiceover by Mel Brooks. Len Glasser did the designs—he worked on Tom Terrific at Terrytoons.

Henry Jacobs also contributed to an early 70s oddball animated program called The Fine Art of Goofing Off, which used diverse animation techniques to illustrate meandering free association about the philosophy of pointlessness. 60’s counterculture figures including Alan Watts, Victor Moscoso, and comedy troupe The Committee also contributed to this artifact of Public Television’s early and experimental years.

After the jump, some excerpts from The Fine Art of Goofing Off: [Read more…]

The current economic crisis may be a bit tough to figure out. ABC News showed a great cartoon, created by Odd Todd, to illustrate the crisis in simple terms. You may remember Odd Todd from his very popular “Laid Off” cartoon.

While the economy has been better, and the stock market hasn’t had a great couple of days, at least an independent animator is making some money, and helping the rest of us put things in perspective at the same time.

-Floyd Bishop 

Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins loves cartoons!

Back in June, Collins wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal called “Inspired by a Bunny Wabbit” which explained how his poetry has been influenced by cartoons.

“…my own poetry would have not developed in the direction it did, for better or worse, were it not for the spell that was cast over me as a boy by Warner Bros. cartoons. The very first time I heard the pulse-quickening blast of the zany theme music by Carl Stalling–enough to bring any American boy to attention–and saw the colorful bull’s-eye emblazoned on the big screen, I was hooked.”

The article includes the poems “Bugs”, “Porky”, “Elmer”, and “Daffy” (from his first collection, Pokerface).

Porky
Happy only
when he is gardening alone
far from conversation
and the terrible stammering
far from Petunia, nag and tease
just resting on a hoe
unembarrassed
as he contemplates
the blue background of his flat world –
a Zen pig.

So, I was going to post [Read more…]

I really enjoyed this piece, by Corrina. According to her website, she is only 16, but she has a great film here, creating portraits of all the Presidents, from George to George. The animation is set to Sufjan Stevens’ “The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders”. The whole piece feels like something you might see on Sesame Street or the Electric Company in the late 70’s. 

It’s a very nice film, and I hope we see many more from Corrina.

-Floyd Bishop