Channel Frederator Blog

The Superbowl is going to be on TV this Sunday. While the Superbowl is usually not an event that is considered a “must see” for many artist types, there are many animated reasons to watch this year.

First of all, there are the commercials. Even in such an economically depressed times, there should be many animated commercials. In other years, the Superbowl commercials have been like a mini film festival, with many different styles and techniques on display.

Secondly, we should be seeing a new trailer for the Disney/Pixar film “Up”. I would love to see something along the lines of the Mike & Sully through the closet door type of thing, where the trailer is not made up of content from the film. I think that tends to give away too much.

Another great reason to watch is the 3D trailer for the Dreamworks film “Monsters Vs Aliens”. Before the game, be sure [Read more…]

So I just came back from a select footage screening of “Monsters Vs. Aliens” hosted by the big man himself, Jeffrey Katzenberg.

There is something for everyone in this movie, no matter what age you are. Like any other good Dreamworks movie, there are pop references and lovable characters.

Technical speaking, the animation is really tight, the voice casting of the characters in relation to the character acting is spot on. The film has also really made good use of the ” REAL-D” 3D theater experience.  The sense of scale with the Monsters and the Aliens lends itself a perfect fit to the application of the technology. The entire movie is in 3D and I can already tell there will be no scenes in the movie where you’re thinking to yourself, ” oh that shot was put in because we need a crazy theater 3D audience reaction” .

Katzenberg made it clear that [Read more…]

Entertainment Tonight has posted a behind the scenes piece they did on the upcoming Dreamworks film “Monsters Vs Aliens”. While the piece doesn’t show too much more than the voice cast, they do show some of the crew and talk a bit about the 3D aspect. There is a big focus for stereoscopic 3D at Dreamworks, much more so than at any other animation studio so far. Dreamworks Animation has announced that it will begin releasing all of its films in 3D, starting with “Monsters Vs Aliens”. You can read more about the process Dreamworks is using by visiting the Intel website here.

from the Variety article:
“This is the first thing I’ve ever seen that is an actual opportunity for the movie business to become something completely new and unreplicatable at home,” observed Katzenberg.

We will have to wait and see if this translates into higher revenue at the box office, but 3D versions [Read more…]

In 1952, the Tex Avery directed a short Rock-A-Bye Bear premiered. The short, written by Heck Allen and Rich Hogan featured a simple premise: Spike has a job running a house for a hibernating bear, who insists on quiet. Tex was strained by the amount of work, so he left MGM shortly after completing the piece (the film was actually completed in 1950, but not released until two years later due to the backlog of cartoon shorts).  In Tex’s absence, his unit was directed by former Walter Lantz director, Dick Lundy.

Tex returned to MGM in 1951,  where he took back his animation unit. He went on to direct eleven more cartoons. Most of these had a similar look to the UPA cartoons that were gaining popularity at the time. In March 1953, MGM closed down Tex’s unit, believing that 3D films that were quickly taking theaters by storm would end the [Read more…]

While there is a lot of negative buzz about this film on many animation forums, the fan community is eagerly awaiting the release of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”. While I wasn’t too excited about this project when I first heard about it, the newer trailers look promising.

It really would have been nice to see a theatrical release of the 2D Clone Wars series which ran on Cartoon Network a few years back.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to the new film?

-Floyd Bishop