Channel Frederator Blog

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…]

I’ve seen Alex Budovsky’s mesmerizing Last Time at Clerkenwell at a number of screenings recently, and each time I’ve been exposed to its boppy music, it’s been stuck in my head for days.

The music is by The Real Tuesday Weld (aka Stephen Coates). (Budovsky made two animated music videos for Coates. The first one, Bath Time in Clerkenwell, is equally unforgetable.)

It reminded me of another award-winning animated short with an extremely catchy tune (and a bird protagonist): John Dilworth’s The Dirdy Birdy. (The “ah ha ha ha ho ho ho”s starts at :46.)

Music is “The Big Laugh” from Comedy Short Cuts. Composed by Jürgen Schlachter.

[Note: NSFW due to bird butt!]

So…which of these toons wins First Place for “music most likely to permanently burn itself into your brain”?

—Anne D. Bernstein