The Animation Show Journal

New series Larkmart open for business!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:35:44 GMT

The sharp new web original “Larkmart” is written, voiced, designed and animated by Aaron Simpson the creator behind animation sites Cold Hard Flash and Lineboil. The series rolls out on Mondo Media’s Minisode network and Simpson promises more new episodes soon! I recommend repeat viewings to catch some quick moments here. “You loose your job without the satisfaction of the murder”, Funny stuff!

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Fantastic World of Fantástico Morales

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:57:44 GMT

Jossie Malis, the artist behind the web series “Bendito Machine”, has a new infectious character to share. The metaphysical adventures of Fantástico Morales document a man with strange nasal fluid powers. The series is animated in Psycolor.

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1923 by Max Hattler

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:57:10 GMT

Animator and Visualist Max Hattler kicks off 2010 with an addictively hypnotic animation loop titled “1923”. Hattler spent some time at the Animation Workshop in Denmark recently and directed the piece which was animated by student animators and CG artists. “1923” is inspired by the French painter Augustin Lesage’s work, which it seems was literally guided by spirits. Lesage’s painting “A symbolic Composition of the Spiritual World” is one of many spiritualist works with fantastic complexity. Hattler’s loop peers inside this cycle updating Lesage’s vision into a futuristic metropolis. A second loop “1925” which adapts more of Lesage’s work is underway.

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David Lynch’s A Goofy Movie

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:44:21 GMT

A 2007 mash-up video by Cody Richeson that may be only slightly spookier than the original Goofy Movie theatrical release. Richeson isn’t the first to play with Disney properties, video remix artist Pogo’s been at it for a while and his tribute to Pixar’s Up, titled “Upular” will stay with you for a good long while.

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Time Off

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:41:49 GMT

With new projects, travel and a brand spanking new decade things have been slow here on the site. My apologies! We’ve got some announcements and changes behind the scenes here that are pretty major but still shaping up. We should have an official update on the site by spring. In the meantime welcome back and thank you for the kind words, film suggestions and general encouragement while we were away.

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Box Animation by Jordan Clarke

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:22:54 GMT

Vancouver Film School student Jordan Clarke’s match moving “Box Animation” might be this year’s best dream animation installation. Catch more from VFS on Youtube.

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Happy Holidays from JibJab!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:46:53 GMT

Holiday cards are out this year. JibJab Sendables are the way to go. They kicks things off this year with a holiday classic that will be beaten into your brain relentlessly for the next two weeks. Last year there were two channels on Christmas day dedicated to a 24 hour “Christmas Story” movie marathon. Now you can add yourself to the action. Go Jibjab!

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Baman Piderman share “Happy Winter Friends!”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:40:55 GMT

The season for great holiday specials is upon us. My favorite so far is Baman Piderman’s “Happy Winter Friends!” (part 1) by Lindsay Small and Alex Butera. You know a show has reached the eleventh realm of weird when there’s no hope in explaining the back story (with justice) to friends. Hoping to see part two soon! We’ve talked up Alex’s work before here on the site but visit B & P on Facebook and show some love.

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“Wail to God” is creepin me out

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:31:31 GMT

Be warned the video above is NSFW although… the ‘NS’ part (at the end) still has me trying to figure out what the hell I just watched. It’s a new video for band Ape School’s track “Wail to God” animated by Anthony F. Schepperd. He's channeling Pat Smith’s work for a lot of this but the freakish use of color and motion make the damn thing irresistible. Visit Schepperd’s Vimeo channel for more info on the artist.

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the TV show by Sugimoto Kousuke

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:37:15 GMT

I admit I missed Sugimoto Kousuke’s music video “the TV show” the first few times it started popping up on art blogs across the web but the retweets and additional blog love did it. Wow! Check it out above and scoot over to Kousuke’s site for more video clip and illustration gold.

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"What Is This" – by Charles Huettner

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:37:52 GMT

Animator Charles Huettner’s dreamy “What Is This” is the perfect solution for your Monday afternoon. Head over to Vimeo to check out his short “tEEf tuNG” and Charles’s blogspot for more assorted pics and peaks. We’ll get an animation show to your neck of the woods someday sir.

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2009 Oscar Short List for Animated Short Film

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:40:37 GMT

The good folks over at Short of the Week have put together a viewable batch of this years Oscar Short list with a preview of the potential nominees for best animated short film. Half of the vids up are trailers or teasers for the actual shorts and I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the other half disappear from the web as different groups swoop in to license the work. The short list is typically a gossipy hush hush type of event leading up to the nominations but this year we’ve seen the likes of the Hollywood Reporter and industry writers like Nikki Finke taking notice. A sign that shorts are getting a little more love? The comments on Finke’s site don’t give me much hope. The trailer above is for Autour de Minuit’s Logorama. Can’t wait to catch the whole thing on the big screen.

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CTN Expo Arrives Nov 20 – 22nd

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:12:27 GMT

The Creative Talent Network Expo arrives to Burbank today with a busy line-up of panels, screenings, exhibitor booths and career planning info. It’s a must attend for those in the business of animation and animation fans alike. Hit up the CTN Expo site for the complete schedule and we’ll see you at the Burbank Convention Center.

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Plympton offers a peak at “Cheatin” and more new work

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:37:15 GMT

Bill Plympton is hard at work on a brand new short film and has uploaded detailed pencil tests to share. The new short “Cheatin” is up on Youtube in two chunks (above and below). It’s a much longer short than we typically see from Bill with some great guest appearances. Over on Bill’s Facebook page it looks like he’s also upload a reaaally rough cut for another new short “The Cow who wanted to be a Hamburger”. Join Bill on FB to take a look.

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Grant Orchard for Bupa – Feel Better

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:57:24 GMT

If something about these spots feels familiar it’s due to Grant Orchard’s simple touch for the healthcare something-or-other Bupa. Orchard’s “Love Sport” series was sprinkled throughout our last theatrical program and his shapely characters make the medicine go down easy here. Add a dash of Bobby McFerrin’s score from the Pixar short “Knick Knack” and we’re selling healthcare people! All of this via Studioaka.

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Tom Deslongchamp and "You Cried Me"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:51:21 GMT

We’ve talked a bit on the site previously about animator Tom Deslongchamp’s kick ass “Kid Show” (which you should go check out after watching the video above). Tom’s is back with a new video for “You Cried Me” by the band Jookabox. He explains:

I animated the video entirely in flash with my wacom tablet. Jessica assisted me with visuals and ideas. This usually consisted of me turning around and saying "Jessica, can I get your opinion about this?" Some of her responses included "His heads too fat." or "Leave it be-- I think you're overthinking it."

Hopefully more Deslongchamp work on the way!

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"The Lighthouse Keeper"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:07:03 GMT

The Gobelins post yesterday brought more new work out of the woods. “The Lighthouse Keeper” is created by Baptiste Rogron, Gaëlle Thierry, Rony Hotin, Maïlys Vallade, Jérémie moreau and David François. I urge you to view the team’s profile for links to their individual sites with insight into the development of the short. Like “Merry Go Round” the film is flush with design and tone but retains a simplicity in it’s story telling that invites you in to stay.

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“Un tour de Manège (Merry Go Round)”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:18:37 GMT

Filmmakers Nicolas Athané, Brice Chevillard, Alexis Liddell, Francoise Losito, and Mai Nguyen create an incredible watercolor world in "Un Tour De Manége". It’s another eye-popping piece from the Gobelins school in France. Follow along via Vimeo for links to each of the artist's personal sites.

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Discover the Puck Cinema Caravana

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:58:04 GMT

Amid over at Cartoon Brew dug up some great info on the Puck Cinema Caravana. It might be the smallest arthouse on the planet but it's rockin rare animated shorts. Hit up the Brew for details and catch the Cinema’s trailer above.

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The Return of Fuggy Fuggy

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:10:11 GMT

The Brothers McLeod are back with the return of Fuggy Fuggy! The new episode entitled “Thrift” is the first of five new minute long toons. Mr. Aaron Simpson of Cold Hard Flash is responsible for the new Fuggy greatness on behalf of Mondo Media. If you’re new to the Fuggy you can catch up here.

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Happy Halloween

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:50:10 GMT

Wrapping up our week of Halloween shorts we’ve got two gems to share. First off is Takena Nagao’s killer zombie massacre “Chainsaw Maid”. The short dates back to 2007 but I think it fell through the cracks here during the last tour. Nothing says Halloween like a plasticine bloodbath ala zombie. Enjoy, and hit up Nagao’s Youtube channel for his latest work.

Johan Thurfjell’s “Do You Have Shine?”.

In "Do you have the Shine?" The player takes the role of Danny riding his tricycle through the deserted corridors of an empty hotel. Good luck.

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Halloween shorts day 5 – “The Box Man” and more!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:36:06 GMT

With Halloween closing in it’s time to share some final favorites. Nirvan Mullick’s stop-motion treat “The Box Man” was a huge hit back in 2002 based on the novel, of the same name, by author Kobe Abe. Mullick has gone on to found The 1 Second Film foundation which is a non-profit org that uses collaborative art on a global scale to address various critical social-issues.

Next up is longtime favorite by animator and writer/director Mike Dougherty. Dougherty recently expanded some of what you see above into the live action Halloween horror “Trick ‘r Treat”. The film was huge hit at Fantastic Fest this last year and the reviews were great leaving us to wonder why the hell this was unceremoniously dumped on DVD. You can follow Mr. Dougherty on Twitter for more ghoulish incite.

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Halloween shorts day 4 – “Snowblood” and more!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:06:12 GMT

Halloween week creeps forward with another round of treats. Earlier this month I’d noticed animator Marek Berger uploaded a HD version of his killer short “Snowblood”. The film is stellar in HD. You can catch Berger’s second film “Nokturno” on his Youtube channel as well.

Some great recommendations as well…

“Sebastian’s Voodoo” by Joaquin Baldwin was created at the UCLA Animation Workshop last year. Baldwin’s short has been a huge hit on the festival circuit and you can catch "Sebastian's Voodoo" on the big screen at the Savannah Film Festival October 31. For more of his work head over on Pixelnitrate.com.

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Halloween shorts day 3 – “Baman and Piderman”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:55:49 GMT

Alex Butera’s Baman and Piderman are back this week revealing more about the mysteries in the basement in the episode "Hab Da Sleepover". You can check out the first part here and hit up the official youtube channel for the complete series.

Halloween shorts continue to stream in. Hit us up on Twitter with your recommendations!

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Halloween shorts day 2 “The Ghost of Stephen Foster”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:26:30 GMT

Today’s Halloween treat is a short dating back to 2000 for the track “The Ghost of Stephen Foster” by the band Squirrel Nut Zippers. The video was directed by Raymond Persi and Matthew Nastuk and was a highlight for many years on Spike’s annual tour.

Yesterday we asked for your spooky toon recommendations and got some great suggestions.

Crystal Stromer and Oddbot teamed up for the fantastic short “A Candy Affair”.

Halloween 7.5 : The Rehabilitation of Michael Myers

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Sci-Fi & Horror Hilarity | Funny Animations

And Corky Quackenbush is back with “Halloween 7.5”. Show Corky some love and click through to Atom to vote on "Halloween 7.5". Yer votes matter! And thank you for the recommendations Jeremy! Please keep the suggestions coming.

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Halloween shorts day 1 “Demon” by Eoin Ryan

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:34:44 GMT

In honor of the big Halloween weekend headed our way I thought we’d share some spooky highlights from the last few years. There is no shortage of dark, twisted work out there and we’re opening it up online to get your thoughts. Hit us up on twitter for your personal favorites and we’ll feature them with the rest of our pics this week.

Tonight enjoy Eoin Ryan’s dark mix of live action, rotoscope and CG work in “Demon”. Eoin has uploaded some video of the live action and CG work alongside the finished animation.

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J. Hirsche has your Invoice for Day-Ruining

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:50:06 GMT

Designer, illustrator and typographer Jessica Hirsch may have just developed THE perfect new invoice for clients. Take a look at Jessica’s sight for some stella Typographic and illustration work. I'd recommend following on twitter as well.

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”Jesus 2000” and more goodies for your eyeballs

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:30:27 GMT

A pose of Gobelins disciples descended on Wizz Design this last summer and have now brought us “Jesus 2000”. This awesome quickie is bestowed courtesy of Rémi Bastie, Clément Desnos, Jean-Baptiste Cumont, Jonathan Djob Nkondo and Nicolas Pegon.

Running behind this week but wanted to thank Leonardo Campasso for the heads up on his latest pixel winner “Wild Wind”.

Mike Scott for the groovy leg stomper “Goldfish – Fort Knox”

And David Essman for the latest Ted Rall political toon “Git-Mo Help”.

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Metcalf's Bubblewrap arrives to the web!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:21:23 GMT

After a great run on the festival circuit Arthur Metcalf’s twisted short “Fantaisie in Bubblewrap" finally hits the web. On an even fancier note the film debuts in Youtube’s posh screening room this week. Bubblewrap was Metcalf’s first film but you can dig into metcalflovesyou for more.

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Nick Cross is serving up "Yellow Cake"!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:58:36 GMT

Nick Cross is back with the long awaited short “Yellow Cake”. We’ve written about Nick’s previous work “The Waif of Persephone” and his music video collaboration with Dave Cooper a few years back. Nick’s latest is poignant, political and gorgeous to watch. Catch up with his production blog for the behind the scenes.

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PRA’s “The Cat Piano”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:46:56 GMT

Eddie White and Ari Gibson’s highly praised short “The Cat Piano” has been making the rounds the last few weeks since this Australian team posted the short online. It’s easily one of the best shorts out this year and required viewing if you’re a fan of this site. Visit The People’s Republic of Animation for more info.

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Bruce Alcock's "Vive La Rose"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:35:36 GMT

Animator Bruce Alcock’s last short “At the Quinte Hotel” was a monster hit on the festival circuit back in 2005 and his follow up “Vive La Rose” is just starting to surface. The NFB has posted an interview with Alcock and more behind the scenes info here.

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Oil In Water

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:39:07 GMT

Shawn Knol experiments above with his Canon Rebel XT DSLR. He explains:

“A lot of people are asking how I did this. It's pretty simple. I just put the camera on its' lowest jpeg setting, placed the camera into continuous mode, and locked the shutter down with my wired remote. The oil is being dumped into a tall cylindrical glass, with about a cup of water in it. The whole thing is lit from behind by a diffused clamp light.”

Time for dinner.

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UK MVA chock full of animation love

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:11:54 GMT

Röyksopp - Happy Up Here
By Reuben Sutherland

The UK Music Video Awards are around the corner and these are the nominees for best animation in a video. A couple of these are great highlights from this last year. I would guess the Shynola video would crush this by nature of Coldplay alone but you gotta love Rueben Sutherland’s work in “Happy Up Here”.

Coldplay – Strawberry Swing
By Shynola

Hauschka – Morgenrot
By Jeff Desom

The Prodigy – Warrior’s Dance
By Corin Hardy

Tom Fun Orchestra - Throw Me To The Rats
By Alasdair Brotherston

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Usavich Season Three

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:47:57 GMT

Part Two

I’m not sure exactly when and where Kanaban Graphics first released the third season of the MTV Japan hit “Usavich” but it’s a treat to find it online now. The title is a play on ‘usagi’ (the Japanese word for rabbit) with a ‘vich’ thrown in for that Russian flavor. The third season finds the rabbits infiltrating a casino for a shiny pair of sneakers.

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The series finale of “King of the Hill”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:07:41 GMT

Tonight after 12 years, 13 seasons and 253 episodes the animation great “King of the Hill” comes to an end. The show will live for decades in syndication and already runs a few times a week on Adult Swim but it’s era on FOX is done. The animation blog Lineboil has great video from a final table read and a clip from one of tonight’s episodes. Contracts to everyone at KOH for a phenomenal run!

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Beavis and Butthead weigh in on “Extract”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:56:08 GMT

You can catch Mike Judge’s new feature “Extract” in theaters everywhere September 4th! He said buttwagon hee hee…

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Time lapse of the Station Fire

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:50:24 GMT

The end-of-days-LA courtesy of Eric Speilgelman’s time lapse video. It snows ash at the end of every summer in Los Angeles with fire but this one is closer to home than usual. So far it has eaten over a hundred and ninety square miles of dry brush. It sounds like they’re hoping to have containment by mid September. You have to minimize your trips outside. We live a little west of this under the same hill line. Prayers go out to the two firefighters who lost their lives on Sunday. It’s a sad situation and all you can do is hope for a change in the weather.

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The 100 Animated Short Film Directors

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:04:07 GMT

The film archive blog Shooting Down Pictures has compiled their list of 100 great animated short film directors. The list was created originally to compliment a second list of 250 great short films, from the site They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They, that never materialized. It’s a pretty safe but comprehensive start point of ground breaking animation talent. Many of these artists have compilations on Netflix you can grab and I’m sure most are online as well. A good starting point for any animator or animation fan looking to explore outside their Saturday morning cartoon cereal box.

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Summer Shorts, “Tower Bawher”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:53:23 GMT

A little weekend delight from the NFB to cool your heels from the summer heat. “Tower Bawher” is Theodore Ushev’s constructivist powered whirlwind from 2007. You can see more of Ushev’s work here.

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Tapes, DVDs and downloads oh my

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:04:46 GMT

We started to sift through nearly a years worth of DVD’s and downloads this week. It’s going to take a long time to catalog and go through everything but it’s a nice change from the day to day grind. It’s not surprising but there’s been a huge increase in digital submissions this year. You can catch us on Youtube and Vimeo if you want to reach out and direct us to your film. Just sorting through my first pile of DVD’s I’m blown away by Chris Perry’s “The Incident at Tower 37” (trailer above), Karni and Saul’s “The Red Suitcase” and Joanna Priestley’s “Missed Aches”. You’ll be hearing a lot more about each of these I’m sure in the weeks/months to come.

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Game of the year!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:30:19 GMT

This explanation pretty much sums it up:

“Deep in the forest lived Billy and his charming companions. They peacefully honed their bodies and listened to music there. But a wave of development came upon the forests. One who would turn all to road. Kagamine Rin had come. Billy must stop the construction before all is turned to road.”

The game is “Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend” and you can watch here but really should click through to enjoy some of the comments people have posted on Youtube. More great games from the Japanese here.

-Via Cartoon Brew

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Vera Bee Sticker Pack coming Thursday!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:39:34 GMT

Last year we sat down with animator Vera Brosgol for some background on her fantastic short “Snow-bo”. You can watch the film above before catching up with the details behind the scenes here. Vera’s site Verabee is jam packed with good stuff and this week she’s decorated the Mediamolecule blog with images from her burlesque sticker pack arriving to their store Thursday. Check em out!

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Enjoy “8-Bit Trip” for some arcade gold

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:27:51 GMT

Paying homage to classic arcade games certainly isn’t new ground but “8-Bit Trip”, Swedish band Rymdreglage (comprised of animator Tomas Redigh and musician Daniel Larsson), latest video turns the stop motion up a notch. The video apparently took 1500 hours worth of Lego work which is no surprise. Lots of great games and sequences here to for your inner 8-bit nerd.

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Summer Shorts, "Bar Fight"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:46:23 GMT

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Christy Karacas and Stephen Warbick’s “Bar Fight” but it’s never enough. If the look here is familiar then you’ve enjoyed Christy’s work on the Adult Swim show “Superjail”. There is speculation of a second “Superjail” season but nothing formally announced. In the meantime you’ve only got 30 days of summer left. Get outside and break something.

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Pretty Monkey Studios covers the Killers

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:30:38 GMT

According to their sparsely informative but video packed website Pretty Monkey Studio consists of a bunch of students from Berlin, who love videogames and animation. They joined forces to make many many music videos. Not all of these are great but the collection is highly imaginative and worth a look. For the vimeo finicky you can check out all the work via youtube as well.

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Michael Paul Young delivers knockout U2 visuals

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:48:20 GMT

Enjoy some fantastic visuals for U2’s latest concert courtesy of Michael Paul Young. If you’ve actually attended the concert then you’ve seen the beast they’ve constructed to deliver this work.

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Summer Shorts, "She Who Measures"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:17:46 GMT

From director Veljko Popović working with Lemonade3d and Kenges Productions on this award winning short from 2008. Reading up a bit on Popovic he’s been working in advertising for a few years and considers the short a “pleasant counterpart” to that commissioned work. Yikes.

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New York Times discovers Independent Film Distribution

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:51:59 GMT

The New York Times just caught on to something we’ve been doing since 2003. In today’s Times piece “Independent Filmmaker Distribute on Their Own” the times goes on to say…

“The idea behind this sort of guerrilla release is to accumulate just enough at the box office to prime the pump for DVD sales and return the filmmaker’s investment, maybe even with a little profit.”

The climate is actually a lot easier today than back in 2003 given Social Media outlets but filmmakers and small distributors have been doing this for years. Pumping up DVD sales hasn’t always been the drive and won’t be for much longer as the market for discs continues to shrink. The Times piece does touch on the live event aspect which is what really drove Animation Show for four seasons. Check out the whole piece to get an appreciation for a large media outlet catching wind of something that’s been going on for decades.

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Ace Norton directs the Mountain Goats

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:47:12 GMT

Director Ace Norton is known for twisting your perception with wildly inventive music videos. His video for the band The Mountain Goats “Sax Rohmer #1” lacks the stop-motion flare of his previous work but you have to watch just to try and wrap your brain around how he pulls this off. Peruse Ace’s site for more music video, commercials and art.

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Bif conquers their latest short “DIX”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:59:44 GMT

Last year we toured across the country with Bif Productions aquatic oddity “Raymond”. Now this directing collective, born out of The Mill in London, is back with a somber short that confronts the hidden fears behind obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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Summer Shorts, "Jeu"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:03:11 GMT

Georges Schwizgebel’s short “Jeu” made the rounds last summer in our fourth theatrical tour and is truly epic on the big screen. The NFB has posted a great interview with Georges where he explains the painstaking cycles involved in his work. Head over to Drawn! for more details and enjoy “Jeu”.

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Blab! Show lands in Santa Monica this weekend

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:30:56 GMT

The Blab! Project has been bringing folks eye popping design and illustration for a few years now. And a collection of some stellar work from the series will premiere at the Copro Nason Gallery in Santa Monica this weekend. Our cover artist from Year 3 Ryan Heshka has some brilliant work among illustration staples Gary Taxali, Shag and Owen Smith. If you can’t make it Santa Monica you can at least enjoy a sample of work here.

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Nix shares second sneak at The Missing Key

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:19:15 GMT

Jonathan Nix’s short “Hello” was an audience favorite in our second theatrical program and a longer follow up short has been in the works these last four years. This is the second trailer for “The Missing Key”, a half hour hand drawn epic debuting later this year. The short has been a huge labor of love for Nix and we'll keep you posted when it lands at festivals.

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New Trussell video for Gossip brings the "Love Long Distance"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:16:41 GMT

In this latest video for Portland rockers Gossip Joel Trussell mixes it up with more live action than he’s tackled before bringing the roller skating madness. The Gossip track “Love Long Distance” was a Rick Rubin collaboration and it looks like they set their sights on Joel after seeing his last live action mix. Trussell had previously covered cannibalistic fruit with his Kid606 vid “Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare” but this one has to have been one of the weirder video shoots ever.

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G.I. JOE will probably NOT offer you... a body massage.

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:33:34 GMT

New G.I. Joe movie this weekend… Make ya want a body massage? Not that you need an excuse to post these Fenslerfilm PSAs.

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Summer Shorts, "Milton is a Shitbag"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:34:37 GMT

Courtney Davis’s ‘Milton’ is a fun short from a few years back worth sharing. This has been a big cat week with Simon Tofield’s latest short “Fly Day” popping up everywhere online. Give Milton a little love and enjoy his Myspace page as well.

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Animation festivals & events to follow on Twitter

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:38:26 GMT

A couple of weeks ago we shared a few addresses for animation studios on Twitter and I received some interesting responses knocking Twitter’s expanding roll in connecting people with… you name it. Last week Movie Marketing Madness highlighted a recent survey of online behavior and how people are currently social sharing. The findings weren’t that surprising placing Facebook, Email and Twitter as the top three info outlets. It will be interesting to watch how these three grow and compete and how long it takes for some of the larger, older animation festivals to come out and play. The festival e-mail blast is tired people! Change it up.

Anim’est - http://twitter.com/animest_ro
The biggest fest in Bucharest! And starting off the list it’s a good time to mention the trend you’ll see with most ongoing fests which is the big lapse online with posts between new releases. The last post from Animest_ro was back in January. But look for things to pick up while the festival gets ready for it’s 4th edition in October.

Cut & Paste - http://twitter.com/CutandPaste_Syd
A huge multi-city design competition showcasing 2D, 3D motion graphics. They’ve just warming up on the posting front but you can expect to see a lot of activity when the next competition kicks off.

F5 (f5fest) - http://twitter.com/f5fest
A gathering of the world’s best creative minds… with a hefty helping of great design talent. Twitter wise F5 has also light on posting since the fest wrapped but lots of great info and links to support the event.

FITC - http://twitter.com/FITC
FITC is a design and technology event held in various cities around the world. They use twitter as a great addition to their site with lots of interaction and links out to great stuff.

Istanbul Animation Fest - http://twitter.com/iafistanbul
This international animation fest is going on 6 with a relatively new twitter presence. You can expect to see more activity over the next few weeks as the festival prepares for it’s November launch.

MIAF (Melbourne International Animation Fest) - http://twitter.com/animationfest
A very active festival account with lots of updates on the upcoming event and news from all over. The page is pretty interactive to so fire up your questions!

MIFFF – (Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Fest) - http://twitter.com/mifff
A genre based festival out of Seattle that covers animation, fantasy and damn near everything else. Sure there are other fests out there that don’t just focus on animation I could have posted here but MIFFF gets extra points for adding another F for fantastic.

One Dot Zero - http://twitter.com/onedotzero
An animation festival out of the UK that travels around the world. One Dot Zero has premiered a ton of really dazzling work and they’ve got a great ongoing presence here for you to connect to.

OFFF2009 - http://twitter.com/OFFF2009
OFFF is a cool showcase for animation, design, web, print and damn near everything else. Looks to be inactive between festivals given last update was in May. Great information when up and posting.

Ottawa Festivals - http://twitter.com/ottawafestivals
Want to see what the latest OIAF happenings are on twitter? Well, how about instead you get updates about Ottawa’s Turkish fest! I couldn’t find an official twitter for OIAF. Lemme know if they sign up (or someone starts one for them).

Psst3 - http://twitter.com/psst3
PSST is more of an ongoing project than an event but I had to include them. This multi-artist animation caravan is worth following. Lots of retweets and sharing from the general animation community.

Siggraph - http://twitter.com/siggraph
The official twitter for this massive conference with news on 2009’s event in New Orleans (going on right now) and planning for 2010, 2011 and beyond. A must for anyone actually attending the conference now with updates ranging from conference contests to live music on site.

If there’s a fest I’m missing you can find us @animationshow

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Around the web for the week of July 24

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:45:10 GMT

It’s been a crazy couple of days picking through all the Comic Con hype but some great new work splashed across the web this week…

David O’reilly has been everywhere this week with a brand new video for U2’s “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”. It’s yet another clean, gorgeous piece by O’reilly.

Last week we shared new work by Baptiste Sola and this week we’ve got his latest “Requin”.

I guess this footage is old but was shown again at Comic-Con this week and new to me so there you go. “Tron Legacy” comes out in 2010.

Harry Potter and the Office of Unemployment

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Animation | TV & Movie Spoofs

Corky Quakenbush has new work up at Atom Films! Check out "Harry Potter and the Office of Unemployment" above.

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Summer Shorts, "Guide Dog"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:51:54 GMT

Guide Dog

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Animation | Cartoon Carnage

Behold the second installment in Bill Plympton’s Dog trilogy. Stop by and say hello to Bill this weekend at Comic-con’s booth 5356 and grab his latest DVD set. His latest short “Horn Dog” screens Friday in Room 26AB from 5:10-5:20 as well.

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A Comic Con? In San Diego?

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:10:45 GMT

Between the twitterfeed/blogcast/facebook Con overload i'm not really sure what's news. So I default to the great Cyriak for a moment of clarity (above). Look, you can’t blame the embedded reporting out there for all the hype. Last year I waited in line for two hours for a special edition My Little Pony doll… true story. It can’t be helped. When you cross over into that convention space you can't be held responsible for your actions. So, I’m staying away this year and two days reading about it online and I’m about ready to bury my laptop in the backyard.

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The LA Shorts Fest July 23 - 31

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:44:55 GMT

The LA Shorts Fest rolls into town this weekend with a slew of new animated shorts. Their official site has a bunch of trailers and clips posted for your tiny thumbnail pleasure but this is about seeing shorts on the big screen. I’ve wanted to see Marc Craste’s “Varmints” for a damn long time and you’ve also got a new “FOT” by Alex Dron to check out. There looks to be several other promising entries like Debi Bradshaw’s “So Whaddya Think”, Elena Wen’s “Seat 29E”, and Jaqueline Brennan’s “Botnik" (trailer above). The animation seems to be sprinkled throughout the nine day event so take a look at their site and grab your tickets.

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New animated Coldplay video by Shynola

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:05:45 GMT

A beautifully animated music video, directed by Shynola, for the band Coldplay. The track is called ‘Strawberry Swing’ for sale on iTunes in September.

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RDCCDX - The finale

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:41:21 GMT

Awesome.

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Summer Shorts, "Frog"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:53:33 GMT

Enjoy Chris Conforti’s fantastic pool side struggle.

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Around the web for the week of July 17

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:34:40 GMT

“The Birdwatcher” by Ross Phillips. – Via 4Mations Twitter

“Hemlock” by Tyson Ibele. Catch the making of here. – Thanks Jayson

Video “My Friend Ship” by the band Roche Limit and animated Dave Righton. Notable for being possibly the first video to employ Google’s free Sketchup software in it’s creation. Interview here.

“Blip” by Sean Mullen. –Via Animation Show Forums

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"I Live in the Woods" by Max Winston

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:33:16 GMT

The above trailer is from a short titled “I Live in the Woods” by Max Winston. I caught up with Max a few days ago about this kinetic, macabre short and his experiences with the film from production through its current run in festivals.

Max, tell us a bit about how the idea for “I Live in the Woods” came about.

I made a four page comic first, then I made this film from that.
They are very similar in most ways, the rhyming dialogue is pretty much taken directly from the comic, while the visuals are inherently different. I made up the rhyme one day while going on a brisk walk, spouting randomness which sometimes evolves into ideas. I was thinking a lot about Gods, being outside, and the thought of who's in charge around that time.

Walk us through the process in getting “I Live in the Woods” made.

I found out that the Princess Grace Foundation was offering a film production grant to last year students at colleges. The deadline was in a few days... I had already made the comic, and figured it would make an exciting film, so I got a bunch of stuff together and submitted the idea. Luckily it worked, and I got the grant. Then it was about 8 - 9 months of constant work while also trying to finish my last year at school...

So the work really evolved from the comic. Do you have any big stop motion influences? Or, illustration I guess given the film’s genesis.

Some big influences for me are Terry Gilliam, Henry Selick, and Mike Jittlov aka The Wizard of Speed and Time. Also Sam Raimi... Drag me to Hell only re-enforced that feeling!

You’ve been touring around the festival circuit now for a few months and the film is doing really well, with an honorable mention at Sundance this year and big awards at Sydney Underground and Toronto After Dark fests. What’s your strategy for festival submission? I ask because we’ve seen a huge influx of films from animation grads going directly online and blowing past the festival circuit. Was there a distribution strategy at work?

I had no idea about anything related to submitting films to festivals when I started with "I Live in the Woods". I just looked up festivals or heard from word of mouth about them, then just sent my film in. Especially if they were free, then I would absolutely send it. I was pickier with the ones I had to pay a fee for. I asked people about them to get opinions and such to see if it was worth it.

Unfortunately I have no strategy, ha. If anyone has one I would love to know.... one piece of advice, get a publicist if you can afford it! I've been doing all that stuff myself for a year now and damn it's a lot of work! The only reason I have yet to put my film on the internet is because I don't want the audience to suffer the internet's quality... I just put too much detail into this film. But one day I'm sure I'll give in.

You’ve posted a variety of work using different types of animation on your website hunteachother.com. Is stop motion your preference?

I've drawn my whole life, and that was the first kind of animation I started out with. But I also love building physical objects and such with my hands, so after trying stop motion I realized how satisfying it was. You can design everything, build it, photograph it, AND make it move. It's very inspiring.

Tell us a little bit about your experience making toys.

Growing up I used to take toys apart and put motors in them to make parts move and stuff. It's not as glamorous as it sounds; they looked like plastic glued up zombies or something after I was done with them. But I've learned a lot since then. I've made a couple sculptures of my own that have motor functions and such. It's definitely something I'd like to explore more, after I explore everything else...

Exploring a bit on your site it looks like you’ve taken part in a few different contests and web programs like Gorillaz Search of a Star and Frederator’s ongoing animation series. Between these contest pieces, the work you’ve posted online and your success on the festival circuit which outlet do you feel has led to the most exposure for your work?

Festivals have definitely been the most exposure. Because from festivals comes internet articles, blog reviews, magazine or newspaper snippets, and more. Also, festivals are where managers and agents have been exposed to the film and have contacted me. The internet is great for exposure but if someone isn't interested in the first 2 seconds of your film, they'll probably close the browser or fast forward. You can't do that at festivals! They are forced to watch it! Which is kinda fun. I definitely recommend that everyone send their films to festivals, even if they think it sucks. Let the festival people decide if it sucks or not. Then make another movie either way.

What’s next? Any new projects on the horizon?

I hope so! I'm trying to develop some stop motion cartoon show ideas now while writing scripts for features I hope to get made. If nothing big comes next I'll just make another short film and have a lot of fun doing it. Even if it means selling my soul to rock n' roll.

Thanks Max. We’ll keep folks posted as “I live in the Woods” continues its journey. You can check out a groovy time lapse video behind the scenes below!

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Mike Judge's "Extract" panel coming to Comic Con

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:32:20 GMT

Mike Judge’s new live action feature “Extract” hits theaters September 4 and Cinematical just grabbed a few more pics from the film to share. “Extract” is a return to the workplace comedy for Judge with a fantastic cast of characters, a few of which you can meet next week if you’re on your way down to Comic Con. Catch the "Extract" panel at Hall H on Saturday at 1:30 with Mike Judge, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig and Mila Kunis all in attendance to share an early peak at the film.

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Animation studios on Twitter

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:52:17 GMT

Chris Thilk over at Movie Marketing Madness put together a great list last week collecting the movie studios out there that have a presence on Twitter. But there wasn’t a lot of animation in the mix so I thought we could add a few more. Some of these are retreads from Chris’s post with some great indies below.

Aardman Digital - http://twitter.com/aardmandigital
Frequently updates and is quite interactive with fans. The page is described as a division of Aardman but posts seem to encompass the whole brand. News ranges from charity coverage to new mobile games but still takes the time to answer fans directly.

Disney Pixar - http://twitter.com/DisneyPixar
Relatively new to Twitter but consistently active. The profile is really interactive mostly responding to questions and pointing out fan activity, videos and images.

Disney Pictures - http://twitter.com/DisneyPictures
Frequently updates but not as interactive as Disney Pixar’s page. Still covers a lot of ground with lots of Disney Animation news. Also new as of June.

Dreamworks Animation - http://twitter.com/DWAnimation
Updated occasionally and only following two studios but it’s divided into two parts with Dreamworks Pictures page. This official animation page mainly keeps to a handful of company updates but does blast with company employment opportunities and film info.

Nickelodeon (chile?) - http://twitter.com/nick_prog
I couldn’t find the official Nick page but several amusing supporting pages. Want to know when iCarly is on in Chile? Sign up Ahora!

Southpark Studios - http://twitter.com/SouthPark
With 13K followers the official South Park page follows no one which kind of reflects the series. Updates only come occasionally but are packed with show info.

Studio Ghibli - http://twitter.com/StudioGhibli
A placeholder with a single post pointing to Ponyo.

Warner Bros Pictures - http://twitter.com/wbpictures
I have to be missing WB Animation somewhere… I know there’s a ton of new work before you even get into the DC stuff and Warner Premiere but this seems to be the main Twitter hub (if I’m wrong someone please write)

Williams Street - http://twitter.com/williamsstreet
Boo?

Smaller indie’s (to name just a few)

Animax Ent - http://twitter.com/animaxent
Relatively new to Twitter and the profile seems to be in recruitment given the massive following to followers ratio. Updates primarily about it’s multiplatform projects but is involved in a ton of different things so not that repetitive.

Back to Front Animation - http://twitter.com/b2fanimation
Updates consistently and is incredibly interactive. There is more of an open dialog with fans and colleagues here than just about any other page I’ve visited.

Channel Frederator - http://twitter.com/channelfred
Updates continuously from studio news to new animation projects and general animation community news and events around the web. They follow a gob of people which ordinarily you’d see as a sign they’re using Twitter to recruit in this instance though it looks like a massive net to gather news and events.

Gizmo Studios - http://twitter.com/gizmozstudio
Updates frequently about studio goings on and just about everything else. Lots of interaction with fans and community though contests, direct messages and retweets.

JibJab - http://twitter.com/JibJab
Updates frequently with news from the studio, upcoming releases and random thoughts from the creative team. The page is pretty interactive and a must follow for any JibJabber out there.

Odd Bot - http://twitter.com/OddBot
Updated occasionally by an OddBot with beeps, tweets and code. Mostly used for company news, updates and info on the day to day grind.

Titmouse - http://twitter.com/TitmouseInc
There are big gaps in between posts but they have a great interactive presence. Lots of brand promotion but Titmouse has it’s hands in a lot of different things so it’s not that repetitive.

So this is really just a start. There are a ton of studios out there I haven’t touched on so please grab us on Twitter and I’ll amend the list.

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Summer Shorts, "t.o.m"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:52:17 GMT

Wonderfully awkward work by Tom Brown and Daniel Gray.

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Around the web this week

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:49:38 GMT

Lots of great shorts and video’s surfacing this week. So here’s a little catch up from around the web.

Philippe Grammaticopoulos’s latest short “Les Ventres” up exclusively on Stash DVD.

Plasticflesh’s “Dirty ROM Dance Mix” for the band Nullsleep
-Via Cartoon Brew

Jacques Khouri’s latest short “Vice Versa” completed during his free time from teaching at SCAD. -Via Drawn

A new short by Baptiste Sola called "L'échange". –Via Motionographer

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Essman and Rall tackle political toons

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:12:48 GMT

Animator David Essman teamed up with political satirist Ted Rall at the beginning of 2009 and have cranked out an impressive series of shorts through their web channel on Youtube. David has been a HUGE champion of the Animation Show over the years with everything from film research to on-the-ground help in Chicago and Florida. Hit up his personal Youtube channel for a peak at more of his work. I was a big fan of “The Ugly Turkey” when David had shared it back in 2006 and it's cool to see his style shift and evolve. We’re continuing the conversation in our newly (nearly finished) refurbished forums.

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New international “9” trailer hits the web

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:03:08 GMT

We’ll continue to gush over here about Shane Acker’s new animated feature “9” pretty much until it’s release on 09-09-09. And this latest international trailer does not disappoint. New story details continue to spread online though the 9 Facebook, and 9 Experiment pages. We talked with Shane waaay back in 2007 when the “9” short was a part of our third theatrical program. You can check that interview out here.

-Via Lineboil

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For Tax Reasons journeys to Otakon

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:12:09 GMT

Catch the final episode of Matt Burnett and Ben Levin’s fantastic internet series RDCCDX: Digital Pirates of Dark Water Saga at Baltimore’s anime convention Otakon 2009 July 17 – 19th. The promo above pretty much sums it up. But watch below to catch up with the action leading into the penultimate ep!

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Animation Show Forum Upgrade

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:57:56 GMT

A much needed upgrade was finally installed to our aged, worn out Animation Show forums today. The previous Invision grid was installed sometime back in 2002 so there are lots of fancy bells and whistles i'll never begin to figure out. BUT this should cut back on the spam which is why it's been so hard to post in that space and why it hasn't ever grown properly. So take a minute and head on in to a safer (temporarily blander looking) Animation Show Forum. (test -f2ykams8ng)

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Malcolm Sutherland’s, “The Astronomer’s Dream”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:29:50 GMT

The Astronomer's Dream (2009) from Animalcolm on Vimeo.

Last week we wrote a bit about Malcolm Sutherland’s 2007 short “The Tourists”. Sutherland has just posted a brand new film called “The Astronomer’s Dream”. It’s a surreal star trip to say the least. Hit up Sutherland’s site for a DVD collection of his other shorts + bonus surprises.

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4th of July "Fireworks" by PES

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:40:41 GMT

Featured on the front page of Youtube today and pretty much EVERY blog on the planet is PES's classic quicky "Fireworks". Happy 4th O July everybody!

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Flying V kicks things off with "Virgile"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:56:14 GMT

Virgile from Flying V on Vimeo.

Supinfocom grads Clément Soulmagnon & Gary Levesque have joined forces again to form Flying V with their first short “Virgile”. Production was handled at Wizz in Paris. If the work looks at all familiar to you they’re both behind the viral sucesses “Gary” and “Yankee Girl”. Check out all three.

-Thanks Filip!

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Summer Shorts, "The Man with Beautiful Eyes"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:30:03 GMT

Jonathan Hodgson’s classic based on a Charles Bukowski poem.

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How prepared are you?

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:21:41 GMT

WGMX 4 - Zombocalypse from Rob Moffett (VDA) on Vimeo.

Food for thought tonight when packing your car for the 4th. It’s Wagglemax’s Zombocalypse Survival Kit. Check out VDA Studio’s other assorted goodies on their Vimeo channel.

-Via Motionographer

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How do you promote your work on Facebook?

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:11:09 GMT

Anyone that’s spent time tackling promotion of their work via various social media outlets knows it can be a time intensive pain. Thousands of animators on Facebook have all started with that basic question… where do you start? You can create a profile or group page for your work and without the proper outreach it’ll sit there lifelessly passed over. Now you have the usual options of tracking like minded profiles and groups and connecting in to post your opinions (and self promotion) aaand Facebook would love for you to commit a little cash for ads to pimp your latest as option number two. But if you’re a relatively unknown entity you’ve got an uphill battle ahead. Here are three examples that work for all the right reasons.

Shane Ackers new feature “9” launched a viral campaign a few months back under the group profile “9 Scientist”. The weekly updates share tidbits of background, cool tech and build anticipation for the film incredibly well. The scientist will answer questions and shares his fears, as chaos on the page will presumably build until the films release on 9-9-09.

I’ve gushed endlessly on this site about Pascal Campion and his beautiful illustrations and animation on his website but he’s such a great addition to Facebook. Just about every morning you can expect a new inspired illustration from Pascal on your FB home page. And I can only imagine the hordes of people that will discover the rest of his work as his profile continues to spread.

Finally… my two new favorite friends on Facebook… Dis Baman and Dis Piderman. Add them both and you can witness the glory of these two having a chat with each other on your daily feed. Brilliant! I’ll link to Alex Buterleria's video below so you’ll have a better appreciation before you visit.

I’m sure there are countless others out there challenging the Facebook platform specifically with inventive ways of spreading their work. If you’ve got a dynamite example let us know. All three of these strategies above are obviously time intensive but none of them really feel forced and they’re all accumulating something most cookie cutter profiles can’t, invested friends and fans.

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Oceanwarmair has "Got a really good thing"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:01:51 GMT

Got a really good thing from oceanwarmair on Vimeo.

Studio Oceanwarmair is probably best known for their weirdly inventive idents and commercial work. Well welcome to “Got a really good thing” the latest video for Twisted Tongue at Acid Jazz. It’s a funky surreal mix of live action and flash. Reminds me of Joel Trussel’s latest “Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare” by Kid606. Enjoy.

-Thanks Mike!

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Bill Plympton's Dog Days DVD

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:12:15 GMT

Guard Dog

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Animation | Cartoon Carnage

Bill Plympton has just released a new batch of recent work on DVD! The collection “Bill Plympton’s Dog Days” DVD gathers together three of his ‘Dog’ shorts, (the most recent “Horn Dog” is still traveling the festival circuit), and a slew of music videos and other shorts.

Animation director and writer David Levy posted a nice piece covering Bill’s work and the DVD this week. Levy’s Animondays Blog is a must read each week offering filmmakers and fans sage advice and guidance on most aspects of the animation biz.

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Max Hattler visuals for Basement Jaxx

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:57:55 GMT

Basement Jaxx: "Where's Your Head At" 2009 Tour Visuals (by Max Hattler) from Max Hattler on Vimeo.

Animator and audiovisualist Max Hattler has been sharing some phenomenal clips of his latest work for Basement Jaxx May 09 UK tour. The visuals here are an electric arcade of crazy kinetics. If you can’t wrap you’re brain around the clip above Max has split screen the actual show with his visuals on the bottom and the show up top. The whole experience leaves me reaaaally wanting a full video upload of just the visuals. It’s cool to see the live effect of this with a wild crowd though.

I caught up with Max last week on everything else he’s juggling and he had this to share:
Apart from the Basement Jaxx tour visuals, I also created some work for The Egg’s US tour. This UK group is gathering some momentum on the US jam band scene at the moment. Having supported them with live visuals at their now-legendary gig at the Disco Bisuits’ Camp Bisco Festival in New York state in the summer of 2008, I went back to the studio earlier this year and created visuals for two new tracks, together with fellow RCA grad and animation experimentalist Noriko Okaku.

I’ve also been doing a new live audiovisual performance with Noriko. This is a sit-down 40min set with music by Japanese artist dubmarronics. Originally commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices, and premiered at Moves Festival in Manchester in April, we are now taking the live set to other film festivals such as Curtas Vila do Conde in July, Muuuvi Festival in a Transsylvanian castle in August, and (as a 3-screen version) to Fredrikstad Animation Festival in Norway in November.

Apart from audiovisuals Max’s latest short film Aanaatt just picked up the Host Award at Videofestival Bochum and is rounding the festival circuit at Annecy, Rotterdam, Melbourne, Edinburgh, Vila do Conde and the upcoming Onedotzero world tour. Max has been traveling out to many of these between giving talks at art colleges and teaching at the University of East London.

Also… the big project that’s been lurking on the horizon for a while now is his latest commissioned short film Spin. The project is shaping up and Max promises more news by fall.

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Summer Shorts, "The Tourists"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:43:16 GMT

There are only 89 days of summer left this year. Malcolm Sutherland pretty much sums it up in his 2007 short “The Tourists”. You can check out more drawings, sketches and animation on his newly revamped site.

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Michael Jackson, RIP

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:04:07 GMT

Michael Jackson - Leave Me Alone
Uploaded by Stella78 - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

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Laurie Hill's "Photograph of Jesus"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:34:32 GMT

Photograph of Jesus by Laurie Hill in association with the Getty Images Short & Sweet Film Challenge from Hulton Archive on Vimeo.

Last year Getty Images Short and Sweet Challenge picked ten directors to try and highlight the enormous content vault available at the Hulton Archive in London. The result is Laurie Hill’s terrific “Photograph of Jesus”. Hill uses the image archive here to great effect taking advantage of several iconic pics. Her highlights show a small sample of what truly seems like a bottomless pit of imagery.

-Via Short of the Week

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Classic animation festival programs on Flickr

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:40:38 GMT

I started sifting through the mounds of data piled up over here last night and unearthed a slew of classic animation festival programs we’d scanned for our DVD featurette back in 2005. Most of these I believe are courtesy of Mr. Jerry Beck. I’m looking for more though so if you’ve got programs from a recent or past animation festival join us on flickr and share with the group! The fests I’ve posted so far span classic Spike and Mike and Expanded Entertainment’s Animation Celebration. Some of the artwork on these is spectacular.

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We Have Band's new stop frame facepainting vid

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:13:23 GMT

We Have Band - You Came Out (Official Music Video) from We Have Band on Vimeo.

Director David Wilson tackles this stop frame animated video using 4816 stills with zero video footage. The result is We have Band’s latest video "You Came Out", taking facepainting to a truly creepy level. The making of video below is fantastic! For hi-res stills step by step check out the flickr stream here and the band’s official Myspace as well. Wilson collaborates here with Fabian Berglund and Ida Gronblom from Wieden + Kennedy and all was produced by the wonderful Blinkink

We Have Band - You Came Out (The Making Of) from We Have Band on Vimeo.

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Lessons in freelancing...

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:50:34 GMT

Great article found via Drawn! Twitter on Comixology. These commandments can be applied broadly beyond comics for any young animator looking to take on a project with dubious returns.

THE COMIC BOOK FREELANCER TEN COMMANDMENTS:
1. Sign a contract
2. Check with a lawyer.
3. Never assume anything.
4. No, I don't care if this is your drinking buddy from 15 years ago. Never assume anything.
5. Keep a paper trail and save emails.
6. Save your money for a rainy day.
7. Never feel shy or demure about following up on payment issues.
8. And you need to be treated with respect.
9. Employers who insist you be treated like crap or else be blacklisted are TERRORISTS. If you give in to their terms, they will only hurt you again and again.
10. Comics are awesome, but not so awesome that you don't need a living wage and health insurance.

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Brambilla's "Civilization" takes you to heaven or hell?

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:29:32 GMT

Civilization by Marco Brambilla from CRUSH on Vimeo.

This inventive goody by Marco Brambilla and Crush has been around for a while on the web but it’s tough to get it out of your head and worth a second look (or ten). Whether the Standard Hotel in NYC deserves a piece of visual art this cool or not is debatable but the installation comprised of over 400 video clips is there to usher you to heaven or hell. Pics of the installation and Q&A with Brambilla and Crush are up at Glossyinc.com

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Animation Block Party returns to NY June 24 - 26

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:54:40 GMT

Attention good people of NY! Summer is here which means the return of Animation Block Party. This is NY’s rocking outdoor animation fest running July 24-26 in Brooklyn at 50 Bedford Ave. North 13th St. (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) on the lawn of Automotive High School. Doors open at 8:00 with live music cranking shortly after. Visit them via Facebook for more details. I’m guessing from the photos that Bill Plympton’s new “Horn Dog” short will be in the mix but it doesn’t look like a full lineup has been posted. The official site reminds me how much I dig Ben Meinhart’s work though (embedded above). Grab tickets while ya can.

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Welcome to Animationshow.com!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:20:51 GMT

We’re back! Work came to a halt in January with some epic financing problems but a new plan for survival is in place. The last Animation Show has officially expired and now we begin the long road of fundraising for a fifth touring program.

Today we welcome you back to Animationshow.com! We're still doing some tweaks and alterations but all should be in working order soon. As you’ll notice up top our social network has sprouted and we invite you all to jump in and connect with our new outlets. We’ll be debuting some new work and news via these platforms so log on and say hello.

This site will remain the homebase and return to sharing the latest in ground breaking animated short films with a look behind the scenes at technique, style, and distribution. Also expect a look at the business of short film production with some advice and direction. We’ll feature a heads up regarding cinema events, atrocities and other goings on in your neighborhood and around the world. We’ll keep you up to date on festivals and movie oddities as well so you can catch more than just the work that’s being pimped online. And last but certainly not least updates on when and where your Animation Show will resurface on the big screen.

As you’ll notice above and all around here on the site we’ve started to incorporate more ad space. Please take a minute to visit our sponsors with a click or two. All of the ad revenue generated by this site goes into the next tours production so your viewership means a lot!

As there’s been so little news and updates here since the tour wrapped we want to thank a few people specifically for a wonderful fourth tour last year. At the top of that list is Mike Judge. We’ve been doing this crazy cannonball run for seven years and it’s been a thrill every step of the way. Most of you probably don’t know but Mike started out completely funding this project out of pocket. He’s stuck around through all the growing pains and should be commended for supporting indie filmmaking far above and beyond the call of duty. There is a whole crew of wonderful MTV people the show needs to thank for our fourth tour… Most importantly this last year was Sheldon Yeager for diving in head first and pushing back mountains of network crap. Sheldon’s team screamed and fought their way through all the nonsense in NY to get us on MTV2, iTunes, up on screen in Times Square and through a handful of other MTV outlets. Apart from our MTV peeps the Animation Show wouldn’t have pulled through without the help of Edward Ryan, Jeanette Puertas, Maggie Kasbarian, Clay Ostrom, Taylor Jessen, all of the Year 4 filmmakers, our interns (Kirsten, Brandyn, John, Ryan, Grettel, and Cathy). Finally to my co-producer Rebecca Moline who has been the brain, guts, technical know-how and drive behind this show I want to thank you for seven great years. Rebecca and I have worked in and out of just about every ridiculous environment imaginable and I couldn’t ask for a better friend and coworker. On a programming level there isn’t a sharper eye than Ms. Moline’s and her work has shaped and defined the Animation Show you know and love more than anyone else. Thank you Rebecca!

It’s been an honor showcasing these animated masterpieces over the years and I hope we can continue to introduce audience to these short gems for years to come whether that be on the big screen, at home or online. Thank you all and stay tuned for what comes next!

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Relaunch underway…

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 16 May 2009 23:13:23 GMT

You can get updates on the latest here. More news and updates to follow.

“This Way Up” lands Oscar nomination!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:59:53 GMT

The Academy Award nominations were announced this morning and we’re thrilled to see Nexus Productions brilliant short “This Way Up” on the list! The Animation Show approached Nexus back at the end of 2007 to collaborate on something and this was the project they pitched. We’ve posted quite a bit about the short here on Animationshow.com but it’s a real honor to see the film reach this level of recognition.

So hats off to Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes as well as everyone over at Nexus Chris O’Reilly, Charlotte Bavasso, and Christine Ponzevera. We look forward to finally meeting all of you in person when you come out for the big awards bonanza!

The Animation Show was started with the goal of showcasing great animated short films from around the world. Rebecca and I have been thrilled to take part in that goal and advancing it a step further in funding short films so more classics come to be.

HOLD ON to your film submission

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:08:19 GMT

Our submission request is currently on hold so please don’t mail any screeners in until we update. More news on all of this shortly.

Podcast with "$9.99" director Tatia Rosenthal

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:02:27 GMT

Los Angeles residents have just two more days to witness the wonderful stop-motion feature "$9.99" at the Laemmle Music Hall on 9036 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. This is the feature’s Oscar qualifying run but it’s also a rare chance to catch a breath taking film. Our man Taylor sat down with the films director Tatia Rosenthal for a new installment of The Animation Show podcast here. Catching up with Taylor he described the film:

$9.99 is an independently-produced stop-motion feature, directed by NYU graduate Tatia Rosenthal and based on the short stories of Etgar Keret. It's a kind of magical-realistic "Short Cuts": a block of flats full of strangers and semi-strangers, their stories intertwining over a few extraordinary days full of melancholy angels, repo men, piggy banks, telemarketers, old-age pensioners, a book about the meaning of life, and gnome-sized stoners drinking beer from an eyedropper (and like "Short Cuts", this one isn't for the kiddies). Tatia's short film "A Buck's Worth", based on an Etgar Keret short story and featuring the voice of Philip Baker Hall, made the festival rounds a few years back and it came with an end title card announcing it as part of a feature-length, Keret-penned work-in-progress. It was both a calling card and a plea for funds. Soon after, the film came together as an Australian-Israeli co-production, they secured a voice team including Anthony LaPaglia and Geoffrey Rush, preproduction led to production led to post and voila: their 88-minute feature is set to travel the world sometime next Spring.

Important side notes for the podcast… you can catch “A Buck’s Worth” and Tatia’s 1998 NUY short “Crazy Glue” both on youtube. Fantastic work! Check out this wonderful indie on the big screen.

TIME Magazine votes “Western Spaghetti”

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:26:26 GMT

TIME Magazine’s annual Best and Worst Lists came out last week and the stop motion classic “Western Spaghetti” wrapped up the number two slot for Top Viral Video! TIME lavishes animator PES further here.

Sundance annouces line up for shorts!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:21:54 GMT

The Sundance Film Festival announced its short film nominees today with four films from our latest Animation Show 4 program! Congratulations to Bill Plympton “Hot Dog”, PES “Western Spaghetti”, Mathew Walker “John and Karen” and Smith & Foulkes “This Way Up”. Sundance rolls out January 15 – 25 in Park City Utah. Also included in the list is 2007 winner Don Hertzfeldt and his new film “I Am So Proud of You”. Congrats to Don and all the other nominees.

Todd Ramsay is back with Honkbarn 5

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:26:08 GMT

The sequels you can’t get enough of… I think HB 5 is my favorite of the bunch. Check out the whole series at the official site where you can do a little holiday shopping as well.

Animation Show Podcast & "Glago's Guest"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:58:27 GMT

Earlier this year we started working again with writer and animation historian Taylor Jessen on an Animation Show podcast. The goal was to share more than just the printed transcripts we compile each year from just about every filmmaker passing through our programs. Taylor knocked out some stellar conversations but we ran out of time on the tech side leaving us back to posting transcripts.

Well this last week Taylor wrapped another great discussion with animation writer/director Chris Williams for the new Disney short “Glago’s Guest” which I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about come Oscar time. There is some great behind the scenes tidbits here as Chris shares how he came to work at Disney and what it’s like at the house of mouse under John Lasseter. Here’s hoping Disney decides to share “Glago’s Guest” in front of a feature soon.

Jonathan Nix and "The Missing Key"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:32:46 GMT

For the last few years animator Jonathan Nix has been hard at work on a follow film to his hit animated short “Hello” which we featured in our 2005 Animation Show. The first sneak peak is available now on the new film’s main site here. Jonathan is a musician as well and last time we spoke he was preparing tracks for sale to help fund the film. We’ll keep you posted as more details come in. Check out the rest of the “The Missing Key” site for a peak at the characters behind this new project.

Joel Trussell’s got your Culture Jelly!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:21:21 GMT

Joel Trussell’s gallery show “Culture Jelly” arrives December 4th for the good people of Portland! Joel has been burning the midnight oil the last few weeks putting the finishing touches on this art show opening at the Grassy Knoll Gallery. The press release explains:

“Culture jamming” is the mocking or flat out rejection of social trends or pop culture. That’s all great, but we’re not here to judge. Joel Trussell’s first solo show, “Culture Jelly” is neither a satire nor celebration of our culture’s herd mentality. Instead, Trussell gives us a unbiased examination of his fascination and antipathy with the culture that surrounds him.
“Culture Jelly”, in essence, taps into the culture of Trussell’s mind, where we get to see an array of eccentric characters. With a love of the 2-D world, Trussell is deeply influenced by masters such as Gene Deitch, Rene Gruau, Jim Flora, Ward Kimball, Erich Sokol and Takashi Murakami. His work concentrates largely on characters which sometime reflect society, and other times become an exercise in composition and aesthetics of the design alone. The show presents a full range of content from personal experience to experimental ideas with the lines often intersecting.

Previews at Trussell's site too. Check er out!

Adam Elliot film to open Sundance!

rebecca@animationshow.com (Rebecca) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:38:13 GMT

Adam Elliot's new feature length clay animation film, "Mary and Max", is set to be the opening film at the Sundance Film Festival on January 15th. Adam Elliot's earliest films are included on the Animation Show's Volume 1 collection. "Mary and Max" is narrated by Barry Humphries, best known as Dame Edna, the film revolves around two unusual pen pals -- a lonely 8-year-old girl named Mary who lives outside Melbourne, Australia, and Max, a 44-year-old obese man residing in New York City. The film is based on the director's own pen pal relationship that lasted over two decades. The voice cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collete.

Congratulations Adam and his producing partner Melanie Coombs! That is quite an accomplishment and we here at The Animation Show look forward to seeing the film.

San Francisco kicks off it's 3rd annual animation fest

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:10:42 GMT

This weekend the Third Annual San Francisco International Animation Festival kicks off in the Bay Area. This is a great opportunity to catch up with a ton of independent animation that you won’t see anytime soon at a theatre near you. Highlights from the four day fest include: two stellar animated features with Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues”, Bill Plympton’s “Idiots and Angels”, a best of Annecy 08 and a wicked batch of animated music videos. Opening night is Thursday the 13th and the fest continues through the weekend. Check it out.

11-11-08

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:07:43 GMT

Dear British Columbia,

I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye but we’re heading back to Vancouver this winter and would love to see you. The Animation Show is coming to the Vancity Theatre November 29th and 30th . So, I hope you’re in town that weekend! And if we’re feelin’ the love we might stay for a few dates in December too… so, we might need your couch and a few beers… No pressure. We’ll clean the bathroom this time. Stay Cool XXOO – Animation Show

For Tax Reasons is back

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:14:51 GMT

Ben Levin and Matt Burnett the duo behind For Tax Reasons is back with their new web series Ronin Dojo Community College DX Mini Saga or just RDCCDX.

During our time away over the last two months we didn’t really devote any time or craziness to the climax of what will go down in history as THE LONGEST FRIGGEN ELECTION EVER. Ben and Matt created a handful of PSA for your viewing pleasure. So feel free to return to you poling place tomorrow and share some happy memories from last week.

Great work guys. Hit up the blogs above for more behind the scenes production work as well.

Video fun Friday!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:33:22 GMT

The latest video from Gnarls Barkley for your Friday. The track is “Mystery Man” from the band’s “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul [EP]”. Happy Friday!

New dates for Animation Show 4 arrive!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:50:59 GMT

So you must ignore the outdated roll over map at the top of our schedule page here and scroll scroll scroll. This week we add Maitland Florida’s Enzian Theater, the fantastic Cinema Du Parc up in Montreal and a return to Memphis via “On Location: Memphis” film group. The good folks of Milwaukee can catch us Friday on screen though at the Times Cinema! Stay tuned as more dates and venues continue to roll in.

Cartoon Brew introduces CBTV!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:23:09 GMT

For those in need of a daily fix of animation news and discoveries Cartoon Brew has always been one of the best stops on the web. And now there’s a lot more to love as Brewer’s Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi have added a slew of cool new features. First and foremost is Cartoon Brew TV. I’m guessing this is the final evolution of Cartoon Brew Films which kicked off last year. The first four episodes of CBTV are up here and the shorts represent a great mix style and technique. The Brew will be premiering new animation regularly and had this to add in their initial announcement regarding some of the key elements:

"We pay filmmakers. Online animation distribution can’t work unless filmmakers get paid for their efforts. This is something that we regularly preach on the site and we’re delighted that we can now put those words into practice and lead the way as an animation-specific film site and podcast that pays independent filmmakers."

Additionally Cartoon Brew has added some Guest Brewer’s to widen the site’s perspective and enhanced the comments section to spotlight some of the great discussion taking place. Our hats off to Jerry and Amid for expanding the Brew! Keep up the great work guys.

The Life and Times of Tim premieres Sunday!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:14:33 GMT

This last summer we toured around the country with director Steve Dildarian’s hilarious short “Angry Unpaid Hooker” and now the show based loosely on his three short films arrives to HBO.

You can hit up HBO’s official site for a grab bag of clips. We caught up with Steve recently online with a terrific interview here as well. This is HBO’s first dip into the animated series pool since Spawn back in the 90’s. Catch “The Life and Times of Tim” starting this Sunday September 28th at 11:00 PM.

The Animation Show is also making big waves this weekend with openings in Iowa City at the Bijou Theater, in Cleveland Ohio at the Cleveland Cinematheque and in Rochester at the George Eastman House. Please come out and say hello!

Check back with our schedule calendar as well as new dates for the fall have been popping up this week.

Animation from around the web

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:57:19 GMT

Here are a few highlights that have been popping up the last few days and I wanted to share…

David O’Reilly’s Season 3 of PSS

Kristofer Strom of Ljudbilden & Piloten has a new video for the Swedish electronica band Minilogue called “Animals”.

A new Graham Annable short “Don’t Mess with Delaware”

Paul Cummings and Tony Fiandaca of Free Poster Films have a fun new video up for the Gabe Dixon Band “Till You’re Gone”.

Gabe Dixon Band - Till You're Gone Music Video

Long time show friend David Essman has collaborated with political cartoonist Ted Rall for the first short in a series of new works by the two titled “President Obama’s First Day”.

New “Have a Good Day” animation quickie from Pascal Campion

Thank you to everyone that wrote in with tips!

Latest commercial work from Nieto

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:29:20 GMT

Watching animator/performance artist Nieto perform live last year is still easily one of the top highlights I’ve had here during our time at the Animation Show. Mixed in with his reel of shorts during that show were a number of slick ads Nieto had completed over the last few years to pay the bills. We haven’t heard much from the director these past few months and easy to see why. He’s been hard at work on a new short, writing a feature film and distributing a DVD collection of his past work. It turns he was also behind one of the recent Olympic spots that was drilled into our brains back in August.

Paranoid US has posted all of his recent directorial commercial spots here. Nieto’s “Professor Nieto Episode 1” is currently touring in Animation Show 4.

Behind the scenes on "This Way Up"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:04:01 GMT

A lengthy behind the scenes chat with the animation duo Adam Smith, Alan Foulkes (of Smith and Foulkes) and producer Chris O’Reilly has been posted up over at Motionographer. The podcast delves into various tops including our collaboration on their new short “This Way Up”. We’ve talked about the film quite a bit here on the site and as you probably know the short can currently be seen touring the country in our 4th collection. It’s great to see these guys burning up the festival circuit now with a big win at the Palm Springs International Festival and a debut at the Ottawa Animation Festival next week. Besides the podcast you can view the ‘work in progress’ animatic and some early production art here.

Trussell's "Evil is Alive & Well"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:03:34 GMT

More good news in the old mailbox this afternoon from mighty Joel Trussell! When we hit the tour circuit with Joel earlier this summer he was knee deep in direction and animation on singer Jacob Dylan’s track “Evil is Alive & Well”. The vid has Joel’s hands all over it bringing a sweet mix colorful characters with poignant little touches (love the mixed tape). Joel had this to add.. “I ended up with a lil crew of 3 animators: Anna Gallaspy, James Richards and Chris Fox. Also Mike Gilbert came on board to handle most of the background work. The boat would've sank without their help.” Nice work!

Murakami's "Good Morning"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:08:53 GMT

It’s been a messy couple of weeks with post show travel, work/family drama, jury duty and to top it off some nasty computer bugs. The world conspires against! But Takashi Murakami’s video for Kanye West’s track “Good Morning” is finally available in non-bootlegable glory to save the day. Fully hi-res versions of the vid available via iTunes as well.

*Murakami links to past Moca show but vids you need to see

Platige Image shares new trailer for "Teaching Infinity"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:23:41 GMT

There’s very little info floating around right now about Platige Image's latest short “Teaching Infinity” directed by Bartek Kik and Kuba Jabłoński. But the trailer is well worth a gander. Visit Platige’s community blog for the goods.

"Oktapodi" arrives to the web

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:54:20 GMT

This summer we’ve showcased a number of brilliant animated shorts from the French school Gobelins. One film we loved early on was the student film Oktapodi which didn’t make the show because the distributors were still touring the festival circuit with the piece. Well it looks like that window has wrapped now as Oktapodi arrives to the web via Autodesk for download and enjoyment in all its glory on your home pc. Check out the French team behind the shorts homepage for the site with a slick behind the scenes.

-Via Drawn

Spoiler Alert chats up Simon Rouby

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:04:20 GMT

Spoiler Alert Radio has been up to their eyeballs in animation podcasts this last year. It looks like they’re working there way through various Animation Show alumni as well. Catch the latest with Blind Spot animator Simon Rouby here. New interviews are posted once a week so stay tuned.

Chris Milk asks "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:47:05 GMT

Here’s a musical treat for your Friday with director Chris Milk and Gnarls Barkley’s second video collaboration “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”. These two teamed up previously on Barkley’s “Gone Baby Gone” for bug love gone wrong. This time Milk brings some serious heart crooning to life.

Today the Animation Show 4 proudly rolls into Ottawa for its annual visit to the Bytowne Cinema. New Yorkers can still catch us on screen this weekend at the IFC Center as well!
-vid via Feed

Corky Quakenbush and the Crotch Bitting Sloup!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:47:36 GMT

Few filmmakers have ever drawn quite the reaction that Corky Quakenbush does each year when The Animation Show tours. We’ve featured Corky’s stop-motion work in 3 of the last 4 Animation Show’s and typically fans worship his gnarly misfit characters while critics attack head on. This year his three Yompi shorts are the showcases target. Love em or hate em these are characters you won’t soon forget. Taylor caught up with Corky back in May to shed a light on all his latest handiwork. I’ll try to keep up with links below. One topic that wasn’t touched on was the Aikido classes Corky also teaches out of his studio in Culver City. There’s a ton of these on Youtube to enjoy and instruct as well as many more animations by Mr. Quakenbush.

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 4 Theatrical
Corky Quakenbush
Animator, “Yompi” (2007)
Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 5/27/2008
Via phone from Los Angeles

Animation Show: You are now sporting a lot of interesting shorts at SuperDeluxe.com. Tell me how you hooked up with them.

Corky Quakenbush: Well, actually, they found me. They were looking for, you know, interesting content and people who had a record of producing short films that many people enjoyed, and I was glad to fit into that category.

AS: They’re commissioning more from you?

CQ: Yes they are.

AS: That’s good.

CQ: And the other person I’ve been doing short film work for is NationalBanana.com, and that’s been very enjoyable too. That’s Jerry Zucker’s website. I don’t know if you know who Jerry Zucker is.

AS: Hell yeah!

CQ: Most people do, but I’m surprised at how many people don’t. But I think they know more “the Zucker Brothers” than they do “Jerry” or “David.”

AS. Well you’ve got these tendrils of history going back into lots of really important, interesting comedy people who are trying to make it in the 70s, and doing things on stage, and then bringing the stage work to film, and then bringing film work to TV. We talked about that last time, which I don’t know if that’s every going to be put into the public sphere—a really fascinating conversation—which is Corky’s life story, but..

CQ: Well you’re probably talking about Harry Shearer and the folks from Spinal Tap.

Entire Interview Here

New music video “Lizard Point” by Tony Comley

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:22:05 GMT

Tony Comley is back with a new video pioneering the first electronica music video made entirely from cardboard! The look and tone of Lizard Point captures Alexander’s Annexe track beautifully. Tony’s last short film Abigail graces the Animation Show Vol 3 DVD and we spoke with him here on the site back in December.

Travel wraps in NYC

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:14:01 GMT

We’re back and slooowly recovering from a bang up one-two punch weekend with Comic Con and our New York premiere. There are a zillion Con pics online so I won’t punish you with more snaps of convention craziness. We hit San Diego Wednesday and headed to NY Thursday so our visit this year to Comic Con was brief. New York was a blast! Our IFC opening was the best turn out the Animation Show has seen in the big apple and the events are still rolling this week as Bill Plympton is set to host a killer Q&A Thursday night (after the 8:20 show). Recovery from weeks and weeks of travel made this trip a tough one to plow through though. We caught up with Sarah and PES Monday night before heading out of town and didn’t really have a chance to see the rest of the NYC animation posse. Rebecca and I were couch surfing with friends all over Manhattan so just getting one or two people together for a drink got complicated. The travel is officially over though now. And it’s time to recover and clean house. A huge thank you goes out to Dave Carter and Trevor Jimenez for a triumphant Q&A Friday night and PES and Dave Levy last night. The slide show below shares a bit more too with our other kick-off guests Cheer New York. A gaggle of press from the event streamed in over the weekend and we’ll load the highlights up over in the review post under headlines. The tour is still going strong with big openings this week in Jacksonville Florida and Stamford Connecticut and ton of new dates will land on the schedule page later this week.

At the IFC this week

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:10:18 GMT

Just a reminder… tonight at the IFC PES will be on hand for a Q&A hosted by Mr. Dave Levy and Thursday night Bill Plympton hosts a post show Q&A. Both appearances will follow the 8:20 shows. Check em out!

Animation Show lands in the Big Apple

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:15:18 GMT

After nearly 5 years The Animation Show returns to New York with a huge live event kick off for a new tour. We’re thrilled to be back this time opening at the IFC Center. Friday July 25th (8:20 show) will be a grand kick off event with our video preshow and Q&A featuring animator Dave Carter and Animation Show producers. Tuesday July29th animator PES will be onhand for a Q&A as well hosted by animator/writer Dave Levy (8:20 show). Tickets are onsale now!

This is the last live event for our current tour so please come out and bid adieu to another grand year of terrific shorts. Our DVD releases never duplicate the theatrical so once this program is gone, it’s gone forever.

The new tour isn’t just landing in NY this week. Look for big premieres in Sacramento at the Crest and Denver at the Starz Filmcenter all starting July 25th!

Comic Con 2008 is here!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:43:54 GMT

The mass migration to San Diego has begun. This year the largest sci-fi, animation and comic convention in the US is set to burst at the seams. It looks like events and guest speakers are still being added and four day passes to attend sold out weeks ago. We haven’t had a chance here to comb through it all with everything else going on but quite a few sites have. Check out Cinematical, Cartoonbrew and Comic-con’s official page for some highlights and the full breakdown. This year we’re back with long time Con partner Bill Plympton holding down camp at booth 5356. We’re draggin the kitchen sink down to the convention this year so expect a firesale on all sorts of Animation Show goodies. Brave the heat the and great unwashed, costumed hords to say hello!

Catching up with PES and "Western Spaghetti"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:48:22 GMT

If you’ve been following along on the site this year you’ve read a bit about this shows current departure from previous tours with our first commissioned short films. The first of the four that came together was with Stop-motion titan PES. The description for this film gave us a sense of where he wanted to take things for this culinary quickie but we really didn’t have a solid picture of the project until it arrived on our doorstep to as “Western Spaghetti”. Taylor recently caught up with PES and had this to share. For more production pics head over to his facebook page for a gallery of behind the scenes.

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 4 Theatrical
PES
Animator, “Western Spaghetti” (2008)
Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 6/9/2008
Via phone from New York

Animation Show: You’re at a post-production house right now. Tell me where and what you are post-producing.

PES: Actually, I’m editing a new commercial for Scrabble’s 60th Anniversary. They just put out this diamond edition, all the trays, you know, all the tiles and stuff are contained inside the box. It’s kind of like, made to travel. It’s their 60th anniversary, so…

AS: The mind reels at what the PES animated short based on the Scrabble set will be like.

PES: Well, you know, when you do a commercial, it’s not really my idea. I’m just really acting as the director. So it’s a totally different thing than conceiving and then shooting a film.

AS: So someone came to you with a precis and you’re a hired gun, basically, on this one?

PES: Yeah, I mean advertising you know, in general, like, the advertising agencies, they work for sometimes months, even a year, sometimes to sell concepts to clients. So I don’t have to deal with any of that part of it.

AS: Was that the modus operandi of some of your other commercials as well, because, I mean, you really have a personal stamp on the bits you were doing for, I believe there was a Coinstar spot and the Orange ads that you did. They seemed like they were really springing directly from your head.

PES: Well, always in commercials, there’s always a chance to put that personal kind of touch, you know, little humorous things here or there, but by and large, I’m always looking to see the best concepts I can get from advertising agencies. Because the better you start with, the better the end product will be. So, I like to put myself in a situation where I’m working on good concepts that I only have to make better, rather than try to take a concept that I don’t really think is that strong and turn it into something, that rarely works.

AS: So would you consider yourself in a pretty lucky position now that you’re getting a lot of things thrown at you and you can kind of pick and choose?

Entire Interview Here

Baman Piderman

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:56:27 GMT

Watch out world… another superhero team-up is in the mix! Baman Piderman is by Alex Butera from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Movie goers taking a break from the 24/7 Dark-Night-O-Thon can catch us this week in Kansas City, Omaha and Hartford Connecticut. Next week is huge with a visit to Comic Con and openings in New York, Sacramento and Denver to name a few. More soon.

-Via Drawn

A look behind the scenes on Psychotown with Dave Carter

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:23:37 GMT

It’s only a matter of time until animator Dave Carter is a household name here in the US. His ability to capture a performance visually and translate it to animation is truly inspiring and the interview below is a great glimpse into that process. The good citizens of New York can meet Dave in person Friday July 25th for our big kick off at the IFC Center. Taylor caught up with him recently via phone and had this to share.

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 4 Theatrical
Dave Carter
Animator, “Psychotown” (2008)
Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 4/6/2008
Via phone from Australia

Animation Show: I’m talking to Dave Carter, the creator of Pyschotown. And the first
question I have to ask you, Dave, not just because it affects your process as an animator but because it affects this very phone call, is that you are deaf. You have a cochlear implant. Can you talk about the extent of your deafness? How is your hearing now? And when did you first hear?

Dave Carter: Well, I didn’t hear anything until I was eight. So nearly up to then I was pretty much living in complete silence. And so ultimately that’s kind of had an effect on the way I see the world and obviously everything is so visual. And it still very much – even if I’ve got the implant nowadays. Yeah, so I guess it’s programmed this sort of visual orientation, way of seeing things.

AS: So I guess you learned to lip-read from an early age.

DC: That’s right, yeah. I never learned sign language, so – because my mother decided that her mission was going to be – that would ostracise me from the real world so she insisted that I learn to lip read. So yeah, that’s been my main mode of communication. And lip reading has sort of paid off in a good way because I’m pretty good at lip syncing because I can tell when it’s not right when I’m animating it.

AS: You have a real clear speaking voice, all things considered, so how did you get to
where you are now? Was there a lot of therapy involved?

Entire Interview Here

The Animation Show takes over Times Square!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:06:18 GMT

That’s right! Over the last month and for the next two weeks you can catch a handful of shorts chock full of Animation Show love at the center of it all in Manhattan’s Time Square. MTV’s 441/2 screen (named after it’s location between 44th and 45th streets on Broadway) is one of the largest HD screens in the world. All to let the good folks of NYC know that we’re coming to the IFC Center July 25th for a massive premiere. More details to follow.

Bent Image Lab is back with more great work

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:20:21 GMT

Rob Shaw and Paul Harrod of Bent Image Lab experiment with a little card play in this new spot for BC Dairy Foundation. Bent just updated all of the recent videos and projects on their official site. Check em out.

-Via Motionographer

Video animation gems

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:42:56 GMT

During the last few Animation Show Q&A’s a number of different videos have been referenced and I wanted to pass along some more background incase you wanted to share with audio visual treats with friends.

Ankle Injury directed by Yukfoo. The song is by Fujiya and Miyagi.

Black / White directed by Blind. The song is by the Raveonettes

I’m Impressed directed by Bent Image Lab. The song is by John Linnell

Salmon Dance directed by Dom & Nic with visual effects by Framestore CFC. The song is by The Chemical Brothers

Myriad Harbour by Flourescent Hill. The song is by The New Pornographers.

D.A.N.C.E by Jonas and Francois from “75” Production. The song is by Justice.

Your e-mails, questions and comments

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:37:21 GMT

It’s time again to answer a few e-mails and comments that have come in over the last few weeks…

Hello there. I am a nineteen-year-old animation student in sunny Los Angeles, California. I am a huge fan of the show and just about everything Mike Judge has ever done. I saw this year's show at the Nuart (though not on the opening night, to my great sadness). My complaint isn't about the show itself, which was vastly better this year than last year, but about the selection of animation show t-shirts on this website. I notice the minimum size you offer is Medium, ranging all the way to XX-Large. I personally am gravely offended by the implication that the only people who like independent animation are obese and very visibly uncool. Let's not continue to perpetuate such a stereotype. I will be waiting for my small shirt.
Yours sincerely,
J

Yikes! We totally offer small sizes for shirt J. There is one specific shirt that’s only in Large and XL because it was a very limited batch and that color shirt was only available in the two sizes. If folks are interested though we’ll continue to explore more variations. We’ve actually found that most of our theater goers and the animators we work with are quite fit and trim. I guess obsessive people have peculiar eating habits.

Hey, I was just wondering the full details on the IFC Center showings of Animation Show, like which filmmakers will be there and at what showings? Thanks!
Yours sincerely,
E

I think showtimes for the IFC won’t be 100% locked until a week ahead of time. I would guess a 7:00 (ish) and 9:30 (ish) showtimes. We’re really looking to blow things out for NYC with animator Q&A’s a few times a week during the run. We open on Friday July 25th with Dave Carter and the Animation Show squad in the house. This will be a Q&A to remember! I think Monday or Tuesday (July 28 or 29th) we’ll have PES out and I’m still trying to connect with Bill Plympton for something at the end of the week. We’ll shoot out a screening newsletter when tickets are ready to go onsale so sign up for the NYC letter.

I was wondering when the Portland, OR Animation Show will be opening?
Yours sincerely,
A

Good grief me too. The Cinema 21 in Portland has been our home on and off for the last six years and we really want to open there again with this show. But as a single screen they’re strapped down to the big studio’s whim for releases. The date we had back in June was pushed because of Mongol and now we’re hoping for fall. We’ll update when it’s a go.

is there going to be a Milwaukee show this year!!!!!
Yours sincerely,
S

There is going to be a Milwaukee show. Yes, yes! It’s looking like September 9th we’ll return to the Times Cinema. We’ll post up on the schedule page and send out a newsletter when that’s locked.

Do you have a link to the previous years website design with the waves? Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
S

Weird. No.

Where can I get posters for the 3rd and 4th Animation Show?
Thanks much -
G

San Diego Comic Con will be your next opportunity for show posters followed abruptly by e-bay I imagine.

Hi gang,
I recently saw a commercial on MTV2 for The Animation Show. It had a polar bear talking to a penguin in a living room. I thought it was great... do you know if that's an actual film?

Yep, the short you mention is called “John and Karen” by Matthew Walker and is currently touring in our Animation Show 4 program. Check out the schedule page for updates on when it’ll hit a city near you.

I went to Key Cinema, a small theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana and watched the new Animation Show #4. I like it, especially "The Unpaid Hooker" short. Because I like simple and funny. The paintball was also cool too, in a different way. Overall very nice! I am a fan of Beavis and Butt-Head, Aqua-Teen Hunger Force, much of the Adult Swim line-up, many South Park episodes, Ren and Stimpy adult etc, and enjoy some amateur projects like the cartoons on NewGrounds.com and HomestarRunner.com.
I have been thinking of making a computer animated cartoon series for a while. I am focusing on the character humor content more than the artistic graphic ability. So the simple shorts of the Animation Show volumes are inspiring to me!
Yours sincerely,
D

Thank you for writing D! Keep at it and send us a link or DVD if you get some headway on our series.

I have written you three times and still heard no response. I’m trying to reach Mike Judge for casting his new film. Attached are my headshot, resume and agents information. I would like to read for Dale or the Kenny. If you can not forward this to Mike you must notify me.
Regards,
B

God damn actors. I don’t even think “the Kenny” is a character in Mike’s new feature. We’re not connected at all to Mike’s current production so I’m afraid you’re barking up the wrong tree. You get points for the pissy urgency though.

Hello!
I have a question, i'm from europe and want to buy The Animation Show box vol.1 & vol.2. Is it possible to get a European version of the DVD? otherwise it will not work on my DVD-player.

I’m afraid it isn’t. We’re not available on PAL. Our DVD will probably play on your computer DVD player but there aren’t currently plans for a world wide release. We gotta get folks here in the US to take a wider interest first, yahoo!

So Animation Show what’s next?
P

Travel, travel, Comic Con, travel, NYC, travel, sleep.. vacation.

Thank you all for your e-mails and comments folks. Sorry if we haven’t written you back directly. E-mail has become a daunting giant between travel, phone calls and everything else. If you have questions you can’t find an answer too though drop us a line and we’ll write back or post a response here in the news area.

Steve Dildarian talks "Angry Unpaid Hooker"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:04:17 GMT

Steve Dildarian’s short film “Angry Unpaid Hooker” has caused quite a stir in our current touring program. There is dialog in this short that crawls into your head to wait and spring forth at inopportune moments. Lunch with family members: THEM “This coffee is so expensive” YOU “I know, half the blow job money is gone!”.. Ok, I’m not doing it justice but it’s damn funny stuff. Writer and archivist Taylor Jessen chatted with Steve recently and had this to share…

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 4 Theatrical
Steve Dildarian
Animator, “Angry Unpaid Hooker” (2007)
Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 5/30/2008
Via phone from Los Angeles

Animation Show: A quick life story please, a short precis of where you’ve been and how you got to where you are now?

Steve Dildarian: Oh, I’ve always done advertising until recently – grew up in Jersey, went to Glassboro State and then School of Visual Arts in New York. I’ve forever been doing TV commercials, a lot of beer commercials. Budweiser’s been my main thing for a long time, and then through that, got some other opportunities, and started drawing, and then a bunch of different things that led me to making this short animated film. So, kind of series of events lead to me stumbling into animation by accident, almost.

AS: When did you say to yourself “Good grief, I gotta get into advertising” and when did you say “Hey look at me, I’m in advertising?”

SD: You know, honestly, I knew in high school that I was going to do comedy writing of some kind, and went to college actually to try to get into TV writing, then just kind of switched. I think it seemed more realistic for me to go to New York instead of L.A. at the time. So I thought advertising made sense, and before you know it, I started doing well in some of my classes. So in the back of my head, writing TV shows was always plan A, but once advertising kind of took off, it was hard to turn back. I started doing Little Caesar’s commercials when that was popular – “Pizza Pizza.” Then the Budweiser lizards thing caught on and that ran for years. So, you know, I was enjoying it enough, and getting enough creative freedom, where I never missed not doing TV. You know, a lot of the advertising I ended up doing was more like comedy writing and sketch writing. So I had no complaints.

AS: That’s really interesting that you felt more free. I mean, weren’t the client breathing down your neck at all?

Entire Interview here

San Fran wrap up for the 4th

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:34:57 GMT

Our Fourth of July kick-off in the bay area was success! A huge thank you to Steve Dildarian and Dave Carter both for an excellent post show talk. We’ve got interviews with both that I hope to get up this week. More news and reviews from this last weekend’s openings are up in the latest headline block now. Friday brought the demise of my camera so no snaps to share unfortunately but we’ve got a week or two to regroup here before Comic Con and the final live event in NYC. More details soon.

Superhero showdown for the 4th of July

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:49:34 GMT

It’s another big summer weekend for movies folks. If you’re not particularly hip to the superhero genre I can pass along some geekish advice. This summer your priority for superhero movies should be as follows… Batman, Hell Boy, Iron Man, (safe to stop there but if you must) Hulk aaaaand Hancock. Pascal illustrates that point nicely above. Now the top two on that list aren’t even out yet and you should have seen Iron Man back in May so… come on. The post below details our exploits July 5th in San Francisco and there is a wide swath of art house Cineplex’s this weekend that will share new Animation Show goodness. It’s nice to be back in the Bay Area. Here’s what the local print folk had to say.

Animation Show live on the 5th of July!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:36:32 GMT

Attention San Francisco residents! July 5th we are taking over Landmark Theatres Lumiere Theater for a dynamite evening of animation. Animator Dave Carter is flying in from Australia to talk Psychotown and SF local Steve Dildarian will share all things Angry Unpaid Hooker. This Fourth of July weekend marks the Animation Show’s widest opening weekend of the year as we roll on to eight new screens from San Francisco and Berkeley across the country to Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Madison and Ann Arbor. The reviews have just started to stream in so we’ll be posting more updates in the headline box over there to your right throughout the weekend.

For SF residents come out early to catch our sonically delicious preshow packed with surprises and giveaways after the program during the Q&A.

A look at Disney's short "Glago's Ghost"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:07:07 GMT

Talk of two great new Disney shorts has been creeping along the web the last few days. The first short “Presto” is attached to Wall-E and now available via iTunes. The second short is called “Glago’s Guest” and will most likely be attached to "Bolt" which arrives to cinemas before the holidays. Our man Taylor Jessen caught Glago early and had this to share…

Full disclosure: I am a Disney cast member. If you check your program notes, you’ll find that I play the part of “Secretary III” in tonight’s show. But even though I’m on the company payroll, they’re not gonna dump me and bring on the understudy as long as I don’t spoil anything, and I think I’m far enough removed from Production to stay objective, kinda.

Animation people know that Bolt has a little cloud following it. Old director fired, new director hired. The new director’s name is Chris Williams. IMDB him and you will find he is an accomplished story man. But can he direct?, one wonders. Ratatouille changed directors mid-stream too, and it rocked – but still, that was Brad Bird. We need a sign.

Here is one very good sign: Glago’s Guest, the new Disney short Chris Williams directed that will be attached to Bolt. Glago’s Guest premiered at Annecy, and won’t be seen by the general public until it opens in front of Bolt – both flat and, when appropriate, in Disney Digital 3D – in November.

I’m no hardcore Disney connoisseur, but I think I’ve gathered a reliable impression over my lifetime of the kind of thing one can expect from the Mouse House, animation-wise. This is like NOTHING in the Disney filmography. Put aside all the gee-whiz steroid-juicing comic book action we’ve seen this year, last year, every year, and just try to remember the last really good straight science-fiction moviegoing experience you had. Something where the viewer is dropped into someone’s prosaic little world somewhere on this planet and something awesome happens. Think Primer or Close Encounters or Contact.

Glago is a Russian soldier in a deserted frontier outpost in 1924. This outpost is a clean-air, big-sky plain, a snowy version of the Black Rock Desert playa. Were it to host a Siberian Burning Man, six million people could park there, and then instantly freeze to death. The guard tower is a highly evolved shack, cozy inside, stretching up a few stories, with a little sign stuck in the ground so you know you’ve arrived. Which you haven’t, because no one ever does. We meet Glago outside during a blizzard, bundled in furs with binoculars pressed to his bearded, bushy-eyebrowed, snow-dripping face as he stares at the horizon confirming the imminent arrival of no one whatsoever. Night falls. The skies clear. Binoculars. No one is coming now, either. He sits at his desk and takes some notes about no one. Notes from previous days describing their previous no ones suggest that today was not atypical. Dinner, some 78s on the Victrola, a book, bed.

The next day it’s clear and sunny, and Glago goes out again. He scans the horizon and confirms the precipitance of not one bloody human being as far as the eye can see. Then he hears a low rumble. He looks north, south, east, and west, but still he sees nobody coming. Then he looks up, and things start getting seriously atypical.

Glago’s Guest is, no kidding, a poker-faced sci-fi thriller that’s completely uninterested in being cute and telegraphing gags and more interested in simply being awesome. Apparently we do this now. Based on evidence of the past year, Walt Disney Animation Studios is now ready and willing to produce both the likes of Goofy Presents How To Hook Up Your Home Theater and Glago’s Guest, two very different notes in a gamut that’s suddenly much broader than anyone could have guessed.

Williams pitched the short two years ago, and it was green-lit before he got onboard with Bolt. Glago was put aside at first when Williams got his new gig – but then a bunch of crewmembers gathered to demand its completion, and John Lasseter said “Yes, please.” Two years and lots and lots of downtime hours later, they finished it in time for Annecy this month. The music is by John Brion, and the landscape design features the single best sky I’ve ever seen in CGI.

Plympton's Tune lands on iTunes

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:15:14 GMT

Got the news late last night that Bill Plympton’s animated feature "The Tune" is available for download now over at iTunes. For those that haven’t seen the film the following details were provided for further inquiry:
“Bill Plympton's first feature-length extravaganza that earned a nomination for a Sundance Grand Jury Prize. It tells the story of Del, a struggling songwriter who must come up with the perfect ditty for slimeball mogul Mr. Mega, or run the risk of losing his job and his girlfriend Didi.”

So.. a worthwhile addition to you download library. Operators are standing by.

Postman Returns!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:34:49 GMT

Postpanic director Mischa Rozema and 3d wiz Ivor Goldberg join forces again for the second episode in the Postman series. I found the first segment absolutely nutso addictive when we first caught this on a One Dot Zero reel a few years back. Postpanic Postman was intended for Postpanic’s reel but was extended due to popular demand by friends. Watch the hi-res version above the first one here.

Via - Motionographer

Up against a Wall-E

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:46:54 GMT

Yes, I had even dorkier headlines but that one took the cake. If you’ve been following along each week we’ve done film head-to-head film matches as our new Animation Show rolls out across the land. This weekend Wall-E opens. Nuff said. For residents of Portland Maine you can see us tonight for a one-night-only event at the Space Gallery in Portland Maine. How cool is Space Gallery for hosting a game of Zombie Kickball, the rock wizards Harry and Potters along with a fine bevy of Animation Show shorts. Check em out!

YouTube unveils fancy screening room

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:11:21 GMT

With the promise of “Award Winning Films in Higher Quality” Youtube unveils it’s new screening room of currated content. You can check out the first four films to be posted here. The site (in a press release I haven’t seen) touts the potential for rev share and even a ‘Buy Now’ button! Cause… after you’ve watched it for free…

But good for Youtube, right? We’ll see how people react as advertising starts to trickle into the UGC giant. Like any corporate monster you’d expect deals for shorts will only be with larger distribution groups (NFB, Shorts Unlimited) so will independents feel any love? Now you have to ask… what does Youtube deem rev share worthy?

Via – Short of the Week

The Meth Minute comes to an end

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:43:57 GMT

This week over at Frederator Dan Meth wrapped the final Meth Minute in his web series Meth Minute 39. The 39th episode We Were the Meth Minute is fitting tribute and ending to a series that’s pulled in a gazillion views across Frederator’s various cartoon depots. If you’ve never heard of the Meth series head over to Dan’s site to catch up with the other 38.

The Meth Minute started with Internet People! a hilarious web tribute to the great viral performers of our time long before South Park and Weezer jumped on board.

Tour touches down at the Varsity

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:45:51 GMT

Our visit to Seattle was a relatively quick turn around but a stellar night out was had by all. Joel Trussell flew out from Knoxville to join us at the Varsity Theater for a short and sassy Q&A after and before the two evening programs Friday night.

(*side note* Last Wednesday we shipped a huge box of posters to the theater to give away to the audience Friday and unfortunately the posters were a no show. So for anyone interested in an awesome Animation Show onesheet head down to the Varsity theater and ask the kindly staff.)

The best treat of the night was getting to meet Joel’s crew and some of Seattle’s animation gang. Thank you to Anton Bogaty, Gene Blakefield, Matt Tamaru and Tom DesLongchamp for a fantastic night out after the show! It was an honor to see so many incredible local animation giants turn out for the event. You owe it to yourself to check out these guy’s sites if you’re not familiar with their work. Joel was a tremendous tour guide and we lucked out in the weather department with the first full weekend of sunshine apparently in months. I’ve inserted various touristy Seattle pics below to better detail our merriment. Sir Trussell stayed in town through Sunday and we bolted Saturday morning to return to the muggy nastiness that is Los Angeles. For those that missed us over the weekend we’ll be onscreen through Thursday so please tell a friend. Next up.. San Francisco Bay Area for the 4th of July.

Tour opens in Seattle, Detroit and Philly!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:58:55 GMT

It gets dirty this weekend in Seattle, Detroit and Philly as the Animation Show 4 rolls into town with a slew of independent film releases and a garbage pale full of love guru’s and Maxwell Smarts. Pascal Campion illustrates the thrashing above that I think cinema goers will want to take part in after sitting through the above guru (it’s opening on 3012 screens). We’re ready to hit the Varsity tonight! Seattle press has been great to us this year with some love in the Times here. For Philly and Detroit residents catch us this weekend for very limited engagements. Seattle’s run is set for a week only so come out tonight and say hello. See the post below for details on the event. Happy weekend everyone!

Friday kickoff in Seattle!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:09:26 GMT

The Animation Show splashes down in Seattle tomorrow night for the northwest premiere of the new tour. The show staff will be on hand with very special guest Mr. Joel Trussell. The preshow we’d been working on the last few weeks was a hit in LA so we'll will kick things off Friday at the Varsity with this visual treat as well (get there early). For those looking to grab our new poster or other fun show oddities we have some giveaway surprises for you as well. Tickets are onsale now. See you soon!

A few words with Grant Orchard

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:01:55 GMT

Mr. Taylor Jessen has been burning the midnight oil on the interview front to bring you some live creative insight from the talented filmmakers involved in this year’s line-up. We’ve been sprinting from opening to opening so we haven’t had a chance to sit down with all of these podcasts and get them formatted for your listening enjoyment, but soon! In the meantime a handful of artists have been nice enough to communicate via e-mail, fax, carrier pigeon… you name it, to bring us background and details on work past and present.

One of this year’s current program highlights is animator Grant Orchard “Love Sport – Paintballing”. One of ten short films that was commissioned for MTV Itialia’s web portal QOOB. Take a peak.

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 4 Theatrical
Grant Orchard
Animator, “Love Sport - Paintballing” (2007)

Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 6/11/2008
Via e-mail from London

Animation Show: Did your first big design epiphany come while you were playing Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple II+? Or were you inspired growing up by videogame graphics in general?

Grant Orchard: No, not really. I did love Daley Thompson’s Decathlon on the Commodore64 when I was younger though.

You had to hit the keys alternately to run, and if you wanted to throw or jump you pressed spacebar. The last event was the 1500 meters and you had to keep pumping those keys for what seemed like hours. It was business class.

As for design epiphany I’d like to say it was seeing a Hockney painting for the first time or being truly moved by the typography on a New Order album cover, but I think it was probably seeing Dogmatix in the Asterix books.

Entire Interview here

Gobelins debuts new Show Openers at Annecy

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:41:43 GMT

This year our new program features a number of short animations from the prestigious Gobelins school of Animation in Paris France. Each year for the Annecy International festival of Animation the school creates short show openers that kick off the days programming. There’s a new opener to watch each day and now that the festival has wrapped all of the latest shorts have been posted on Gobelins website. Go check out this years mix.

Los Angeles premiere wrap-up!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:10:59 GMT

The Animation Show opened with a triumphant return to the Nuart Theater in West Los Angeles this weekend! We had a great time and it was really nice to finally play the film close to home. For those that aren’t familiar with the Nuart it’s a single screen that’s really the founding father of the midnight movie here in LA. This is a tradition they still proudly uphold, this week with a midnight screening of JAWS and ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, after the evening show. So the venue was perfect for the cavalcade of animation goofiness that was brought fourth. Lots of familiar faces arrived from Mike’s family tree from King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead and MTV in general. Thank you to Taylor for taking all of the pics. He was a life saver and grabbed some sweet shots. I hosted the Q&A after the first show with animators Steve Dildarian and Corky Quakenbush and a few more familiar faces joined them for the shot below.

Peter Cornwell, Corky Quakenbush, Mike Judge, and Steve Dildarian

After the evenings proceedings we headed off for an after hours drink leaving some additional goodies behind for the folks partaking in the final screening of the night. I have to say that the move from 35mm to digital this year was a scary thing for us, especially after investing so much time and money into last years HD arrangement, and it worked perfectly. The digital Qube projection is stunning! It’s the best looking thing I’ve seen on screen. This is the future of all theatrical distribution and Landmark has nailed it early. You can catch the film the Nuart Theatre until Thursday of this week. Our eye grabbin music preshow will accompany the film for the duration of the week as well. Friday we’re moving down to the Regency Fairfax cinemas so you still have time to come check out the program folks! Presale tickets should be available for our live shows in Seattle this coming weekend and look for us in Philadelphia and Detroit as well. The shower you forced yourself to take after watching The Happening should be finished by now. It’s time to heal with a little cinematic treat ala Animation Show.

The new tour opens in LA, Boston, DC and San Diego!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:11:00 GMT

The Animation Show returns to cinemas this week prepared for the onslaught of CG Hulks and spooky Happenings. It’s especially nice to be back at the Nuart in west LA for our Los Angeles return. Nation wide the tour also lands in Boston, Washington DC, and San Diego. With the roll-out comes some more nice write ups this week. Like every tour city to city reviews for individual shorts completely contradict themselves paper to paper. For the humor impaired reviewer “Yompi” and “Angry Unpaid Hooker” seem to swing wildly with heaps of praise for Grant Orchard’s “Love Sport - Paintballing”. My favorite review snipit comes from Betsy Sherman at the Boston Phoenix…

“And the weird-ass championship belt goes to Satosho Tomioka’s “USAvich, ep. 18: Beware of Dance!” — creepy-cute as only the Japanese can do it. A syncopated car ride with humanoid bunnies and a frog that shits out a live goldfish, this one will be on a permanent loop in my brain for weeks to come.”

The LA Times had a nice write up earlier this week and we’ll post more of the DC, San Diego and Boston reviews in the headlines thread over there to your right.

We’re off to the Nuart! Angelenos head on over to the west side tonight for a dynamite program equipped with rock-em sock-em preshow, some fun swag and snappy Q&A with animator Steve Dildarian. Rebecca and I will be there thank you personally for your support.

More chances to win at Animation Magazine

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:09:17 GMT

The always spectacular Animation Magazine is holding a contest now for a handful of Animation Show Volume 3 DVD copies. We’ve gotten the Magazine for years but I hadn’t spent much time on their site. Low and behold there’s a groovy behind the scenes interview with PES you gotta check out that just went up. Good stuff. Go take a look and don’t forget to enter to win!

Advance tickets on sale now!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:20:49 GMT

Advance tickets for this weekend’s openings in Los Angeles, Boston, San Diego and Washington DC are on sale now! No nasty ticketweb or ticket master to deal with this time. The show team and artist Steve Dildarian will be on hand for the LA premiere Friday night. I’d really recommend arriving early for our preshow entertainment. We’ll be giving out posters, prizes and feature a dynamite mix on screen to delight the senses. Stop by and say hello.

Flash Animation 10 - Best Animated

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:56:32 GMT

Back in 2006 Cold Hard Flash ran a fantastic piece on the 10 most influential flash artists working and now they’re back with a stellar new online event! CHF teamed up with MyToons to recruit a diverse panel of judges who then assembled The Flash Animation 10: Best Animated.

This online film festival shares 10 of the very best flash shorts online with interviews to share a lot more behind the scenes all counting down to number one. It’s a great list with some familiar faces and surprises!

Cartoon Brew’s trivia contest this week!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:38:14 GMT

The Brew will be serving up some all new Animation Show Volume 3 DVD’s for folks this Wednesday and Thursday so check in and win. Contests will be held both mornings at 1pm Eastern / 10am pacific. Thank you Jerry!

Behind the scenes with Matthew Walker

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:52:17 GMT

A handful of artists return each year to the tour and we're thrilled to include Matthew Walker's name into that mix with the hilarious "Astronauts" available on Animation Show Volume Three . Taylor caught up with Matthew back in December for this quick interview. Congrats are in order as well as both "Operator" and "John and Karen" are in competition at the Annecy Animation Festival this year.

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 3 DVD
Matthew Walker
Animator, “Astronauts” (2005)
Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 12/11/2007
Via e-mail from Bristol England

Animation Show: What was the story kernel for “Astronauts”?

Matthew Walker: When I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for my graduation film I decided I wanted to do something simple, something that was primarily character based, like an interaction between two characters. I thought of the idea of two characters bickering in an isolated environment and then this became two astronauts traveling through space in a tiny spaceship. The story developed from that.

AS: What were your duties – animation, sound design, voices, background design, other?

MW: I did everything except for the voices and the sound design, plus some of the props (pot plant, lunch box, watering can etc) were built by other people for me.

Entire Interview here

Animation Show Fu

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:02:05 GMT

It’s raining kung fu pandas this week. It seem like there isn’t an artblog or animation related site that isn’t in full.. pandemonium (sigh) over this thing. Well the Animation Show is bringing the thunder this weekend to Columbia and Springfield Missouri with OUR all new program of ballistic primates. We’re also opening in Fort Collins Colorado for the first time I believe (with dates in Boulder TBA). I’d still take Usavich in a fight against a CG panda any day of the week. As before.. a hearty thanks to Pascal for illustrating our animation cage mach above. Next week we go wide with big openings in LA, Boston, DC and San Diego. Animation Show smash!

Tiji: The Balloon

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:52:07 GMT

A fantastic spot for the French TV channel Tiji called “The Balloon”. This was created by DDB Paris and answers the question “where do balloons go when they fly away?”

They're here!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:57:29 GMT

Here are some early reviews from DVD Talk and Home Theater Forum worth checking out.

More DVD behind the scenes with Guilherme Marcondes

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:32:50 GMT

Tuesday (June 3rd) our third touring collection of animation officially hits store shelves and to celebrate we’ve got another great interview with a filmmaker that’s new to the Animation Show. Guilherme Marcondes “Tyger” played extensively at festivals back in 2006-07 and we’re honored to have the film in the mix with last year’s theatrical program. I caught up with the Guilherme briefly last week and he’s currently got his hands full with several new works. Two of these are opening credit sequences, one for a film called “Bunraku” which has him animating with puppets (both 3D and 2D) and the second sequence is for a Brazilian horror movie that mixes several styles and looks astonishing. I hope to share more info on the latter project soon as details are still very hush hush. The final project is a teaser trailer for the new online animated series inspired by the Mahabharata and written by Grant Morrison. Guilherme took a break back in December to speak with Taylor about “Tyger” and a lot more…

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 3 DVD
Guilherme Marcondes
Animator, “Tyger” (2006)

Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 12/23/2007
Via e-mail from Los Angeles

Animation Show: Talk about Cultura Inglesa, and talk about how you picked the subject for the short.

Guilherme Marcondes: Cultura Inglesa is an English school in Brazil. Every year they sponsor a festival of Brazilian art related to British culture. There are music shows, theater performances, fine arts exhibitions and a “digital cinema” scheme that gives a grant to help produce three chosen scripts based on a British literary text. Tyger was one of the films sponsored in 2006. I always wanted to do something related to that poem by William Blake so it made sense to me to apply a script for the competition.

AS: Were you in charge of all the visual aspects, or was it an across-the-board collaboration among the whole team?

GM: Although I guided the production of all elements I gave the collaborators a definite but open brief, more like “go that direction” than “do exactly this”. I let each person interpret the script and do their own thing based on the mood I was after.

AS: Talk about the artists you admire that have made you who you are.

Entire Interview here

Taking Over MTV2!!!!!

rebecca@animationshow.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:12:07 GMT

The Animation Show is taking over MTV2.com this weekend! Well sort of...If you go to MTV2.com you can see that we are the main thing they are promoting. We are very excited by this exposure! Also, be sure to look for us on MTV2 the television channel...yes that is right MTV2 will be airing a 30 minute special of Animation Show selected short films. Animation back on MTV2! They will also be featuring little clips throughout the week. If there is ever a time to watch MTV2 it is now!!!

A house party to remember with "Mister Jung Stuffed"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:52:55 GMT

The track is “Mister Jung Stuffed” from the band Man Man. It’s the perfect primer for the raucous house party you probably shouldn’t attend tonight. This walks that NSFW line (sort of ) so be warned. The video was illustrated by Arthur Jones using hand-painted backgrounds and composited stop motion effects. Great animated music vids are popin up everywhere. Wired has three more gems here.
-Via Motionographer

The Animation Show Underground is back!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:14:44 GMT

Each year we launch a new traveling tour we put out a call for help to spread word about the show in order to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. This year we’ve streamlined things and have posted a number of printable posters up in our Underground area. We have postcards and flyers we can send you as well but this is the speediest answer for the quick draw supporter itchin to plaster his neighborhood with signage. If you send us examples of your handiwork around town we’ll get you free tickets and more based on your adventures. This show would be impossible to pull off without the support of the animation lovers out there that have lent us a hand each year. We thank you all! Viva la Underground!

DVD spotlight on Tony Comley's "Abigail"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:45:47 GMT

Next week the third volume of the Animation Show will hit shelves across the country and to celebrate we wanted to share some more background on some of the new titles that will added to the previous theatrical mix. Tony Comely’s brilliant “Abigail” was a gem that arrived to the office late in the game so this release gave us the perfect opportunity to share the title in this set. Taylor Jessen caught up with Tony just before Christmas and had this to share…

THE ANIMATION SHOW YEAR 3 DVD
Tony Comley
Animator, “Abigail” (2006)

Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 12/12/2007
Via e-mail from the UK

Animation Show: What was the story kernel for this short?

Tony Comley: In a way the idea happened backwards. I began with lots of detailed sequences, which then coalesced into themes and eventually found a home on board a burning airplane.

It was a conscious decision to write that way. At the time I was surrounded by lots of overwrought animation about war or moving to London from Bratislava, so I wanted to write something less self-conscious. For that reason the ‘meaning’ of the film fluctuates according to my mood, but really it’s just a collection of angry rants about evangelical Christians, art snobs and public transport.

AS: What were your duties – animation, sound design, voices, background design?

TC: Pretty much everything except the music and acting. It was made on a budget of £700 (about $1300), which went on a graphics tablet, a hard drive and lots of caffeine.

Entire Interview here

Chicago debut at the Music Box

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:16:17 GMT

Chicago was a blast! Bill Plympton arrived safely Friday night and signed DVD’s, books and countless Hot Dog sketches for a gracious Music Box crowd. This year’s run was the first that Rebecca and I have personally been able to attend out in Chicago and I have to say the Music Box Theater itself ranks as one of the top 20 twenty venues in the country. It’s a classy, gothic venue complete with creaky doors, broken toilets and a nice musty auditorium. When we arrived early in the afternoon to drop off the film you could tell the joint has ghosts and been witness to years of epic cinema. All of that adds to what makes going to the movies so great when the lights go down. I didn’t take a lot of photos as we were continually running from errand to errand but got a few pics of Bill in action at the table after his Q & A. We’ve still got some work to do on the preshow for LA’s kick off so it will be a busy couple of weeks. Saturday was all recovery with a long trip home in time for the holiday. This Friday the show travels to Notre Dame and Indianapolis for a little Indiana love. More soon.

Animation Show VS the Jones's

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:12:35 GMT

We’re back on the road this week going head to head with the Jones’s. Pascal Campion illustrates the match up nicely above... Like Iron Man the Indiana Jones movie is onscreen literally every seven seconds but Chicago reviews for our new show have been through the roof! A huge thank you again to Pascal for illustrating our show cage match this week. You can check out his Iron Man and Harold and Kumar too for more summer battles between our viking warrior and the various summer baddies. We’re off to the Music Box Theatre now to deliver the film for tonight’s screening, meet up with Bill and prep for the preshow festivities. If you’re in Chicago and reading this stop by the Music Box tonight and give us a shout. I leave you with a really great review from Aintitcool News that just landed today.

Joel Trussell is back for Morcheeba

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 22 May 2008 05:14:50 GMT

Animator Joel Trussell has teamed up with Morcheeba to direct another animated video from their Dive Deep album. Joel also delivered a wicked ending this week to bookend the stellar intro he put together for our new theatrical tour.

This will premiere Friday at our Chicago opening. Joel is destined for greatness and we’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to have him play in the shorts format for us this year. We’ll be hitting the road with Mr. Trussell at the end of June. More details to come.

Join the Animation Show this weekend in Chicago!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:04:40 GMT

Tickets are on sale now for our big kick off event in the windy city this holiday weekend. Join the Animation Show team and animator Bill Plympton Friday evening for a program packed with cartoon goodness at the Music Box Theatre. Advance tickets through Ticketweb so grab em while you can.

Tomioka Satoshi talks Kanaban Graphics & Usavich

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:51:17 GMT

For those new to this site each year when we launch a new theatrical (or DVD) program we like to run interviews with all of the filmmakers featured in the lineup to hightlight some more background into their process. This year Taylor is hard at work on podcast versions of these discussions so that we’ll be able to share more than a transcribed discussion. However getting everyone on the phone is a complicated process and more often than not a common language seems to be an even bigger problem. So here we’ve got our first interview here with Usavich creator Tomioka Satoshi. He didn’t really elaborate on most of what Taylor asked but I have to credit this interview with the discovery of “Hal and Bons” and Kanaban’s short “Exit 1” (at the very bottom). Read on…

THE ANIMATION SHOW 4
Tomioka Satoshi
Producer, “Usavich” (2006)

Interviewer: Taylor Jessen
Date: 5/4/2008

AS: Where did the characters in Usavich come from?

TS: The characters in Usavich were created by Aguri Miyazaki, a 2D designer from my studio, who is addicted to drawing frogs and rabbits. Her enthusiasm made me feel that she had to be the one that was most qualified at the time I received the offer from the client. In the end I picked two rabbits with striped shirts from her final design as the main characters. Then the story of a prison break just came up by itself. There are countless ways to have inspirations for the script and concept creation – in my case, I like to start from some random design art.

AS: What’s with Kirenenko’s sneaker fetish? Why are Putin’s ears tied? Any significance to the numbers on their shirts?

TS: I have often been asked similar questions. But there is no particular significance to the numbers or those other aspects of Kirenenko and Putin you mention.

AS: Is Usavich a parody of other anime?

TS: I didn’t put any parody scenes in the film intentionally. However if the audience gets nostalgic from watching this animation it’s due to the Tom and Jerry style I used, following a “back to basics” approach.

AS: When did production begin and when did Episode 1 air? When did episode 26 air?

TS: The production started in 2005. Episode 1 came out on mobile-platform in June 2006. Episode 26 came out on air on January 2008.

AS: Did MTV Japan buy all 26 episodes at once, or did they start with 13?

TS: They initially funded the first season, and as it performed well, they requested a second season. All of the episodes are on their mobile-platform called FLUX. It started from there and it is now airing on MTV in Japan.

AS: I see pictures of Usavich cell phone straps – what other Usavich merchandise is around?

TS: Actually there was another one called the “Usavich Stress-Releaser” on sale a couple months ago. But currently the mobile-strap is the only product on the market.

AS: Small children seem to enjoy meeting the walking costumed Putin character in public – is the series just as popular with children as it is with adults?

TS: Absolutely. Sometimes children enjoy the animation more than their parents.

AS: Are you the principal founder of Kanaban? Co-founder? Can you talk about
your other creative partners?

TS: Yes, I am the principal founder of Kanaban Graphics. There is a staff of 15 in the office. Some of them are well experienced and I started working with them before I formed the company.

AS: What were the circumstances under which you made your early short “Justice Runners”?

TS: Before I formed the company, I used to work in a freelance group made of six or seven people. We used to do CG work for TV, and through one job we a the request to create a movie to play on free space in Tokyo Station. Then we created “Justice Runners”.

AS: How did you hook up with Katsuhito Ishii to make the “New Hal and Bons”
series?

TS: When I only had two or three films in my resume, Mr. Ishii saw my work on TV and dropped me a line. We did not work together straightaway – however he made some introductions that got me some jobs. After a few years he asked me to work on “New Hal & Bons”.

AS: I love the simplicity of “Hal and Bons” - one set, stationary camera, and lots of really rich character animation. Who were the principal animators on the series?

TS: There were a few animators who worked on “New Hal & Bons”. Each animator made each character’s motions into a loop. Every action movie goes back to the same pose as it started. We used a lot of loop action movies which we put together to go with the audio and then rendered at the end. The whole “New Hal & Bons” only runs for 45 minutes. However all the character’s motions take only ten minutes. To composite the full movie, we changed the timing and shifted the loops to fit the right action. In fact if you watch the movie carefully you can see a lot of the same actions.

AS: What’s coming next from Kanaban?

TS: Kanaban Graphics usually works on CG for commercials and movies. We’re working on a number of new productions that we want all kinds of people to enjoy. We’re working on Usavich season three. As long as funds permit, we would love to carry on making a fourth series and beyond.

Taylor also reminded us of anther Kanaban treat that I believe screened at the Ottawa festival last year but can’t be sure. Enjoy!

The Animation Show back on Mtv2!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:35:20 GMT

The Animation Show is coming back to mtv2! Last year an Animation Show Special marked the debut of our third theatrical tour and this year a half hour of dynamite shorts will welcome the new 4th tour and 3rd DVD collection into the world. It’s been 17 years since MTV first debuted "Liquid Television" and 11 years since LTV’s step sister "Cartoon Sushi" came and went. MTV as an entity still has its hand in great animation as its satellite networks around the world produce incredible shorts, interstitials and series but here on the home front things have gotten pretty quiet. This special is a step back in the right direction as mtv2 picks up the animation reigns again. We’re scheduled to hit the air waves June 2nd but we will update everyone with exact dates and times soon.

Headgear's Julian Grey directs for the DIA

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:26:56 GMT

One of the events I wished we’d been able to catch at last years OAIF was a retrospective on the Canadian animation studio Headgear which celebrated its 10 year anniversary last year. What was clear by talking to everyone that had seen the retro was the insane diversity of work that comes out of Headgear. Take these new spots by director Julian Grey for the Detroit Institute of Art. They’re sharp 2D spots (for one of the best damn museums in the country) called "Flower Woman" and "Hat Man". Julian directed a short that’s featured in our new tour this year called “Forgetfulness”. This spot was originally commissioned by the Sundance Channel and it knocked our socks off at the Platform festival last summer. Look for “Forgetfulness on the big screen this summer at the DIA’s cinema when Animation Show rolls into town and peruse Headgear’s site for more incredible work.

Animator Blu debuts "MUTO"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:00:29 GMT

We’ve gotten a flood of e-mails the last two days about the latest short film by animation artist Blu called “Muto”. Blu’s blog has been a treat the last few months as well leading up to this release as he’s dropped stills for what’s got to be a back breaking project. Now his incredible, painting on public walls, animation comes to life. Take a look above and for more info on Blu hit him up here.

This Way Up

rebecca@animationshow.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:09:31 GMT

Smith & Foulkes of Nexus Productions just put up a new website for their new film "This Way Up". The trailer gives you a little taste of how good this film is. "This Way Up" is one of our first commissioned films and it truly was an honor working with these guys. In the news section of the website they discuss how they pitched the idea to us.

New Shirts from Chris Harding and PES!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Sun, 11 May 2008 05:10:12 GMT

Bountiful heaps of new shirts have arrived to the Animation Show shop! We’re thrilled to launch the start of a fun new shirt design project here at the show HQ working with different animators you’ve seen or read about here on the site. First up is champion indie animator Chris Harding who’s designed two groovy shirts inspired from by his weekly comic strip We The Robots.

We’ll get some modeling photos soon posted so you can see these designs in actions. The shirts are printed on sleek Quail Hollow brand T’s (think American Apparel upgrade). Each design is lovingly silk-screened without any nasty ink patches to slow you down.

Also ready is the devilishly new Pig Roast design from stop-motion monster PES. These too are screened on the uber sleek Quail Hollow T’s. This design is the perfect way to share the love of your favorite old timey cartoon.

Buckets of additional designs on the way! And look for great bundle deals with these new T’s now when you add an Animation Show DVD preorders into the mix. We have to give a huge shout out to our fulfillment company Music Today as well. These guys are top notch. They handle great online stores for everyone from Radiohead to the Rolling Stones. Shirts for all!

Blip Boutique maps Interpol's "Rest My Chemistry"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:24:09 GMT

Visual architects Blip Boutique and Aaron Koblin teamed up to animate Interpol’s latest video “Rest My Chemistry”. Koblin animates ‘data maps’ with systems of particles and cell growth translating them into abstract visuals. Wired has more details:

“The story we wanted to tell came from the idea of body chemistry, as the song addresses sort of what one does to ones body and stepping away from that for a spell. So since we knew we wanted to do something with mapping data, we started thinking about body systems, and how we could expound on the idea of systems from the smallest to the largest scales. Therefore we decided to have the imagery reflect systems of particles within cells to cellular growth and multiplication to overall body systems, to city grids, to global mapping to solar systems, and back down again.”

I just want tickets to an Interpol concert to see this projected on a jumbo-tron. Still trolling for a hi-res version to share but so far no luck.

Hattler and Seidel swallow Tokyo whole

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:42:53 GMT

Animator/Visualist’s Max Hattler and Robert Seidel have hit the road for a twenty three event tour crisscrossing Japan for the love of audio-visual madness (April 22 - May 27) w/more info at Max's Japan update page. The duo are giving talks, screening films and tearing up festivals and clubs with wicked live VJ sets. Japan’s Metropolis has more on the duo’s trip. Max rocked our bay area shows last year and this pairing with Seidel looks like the perfect marriage of organic and abstract visual delight. Grab a plane and check it out.

All new Animation Show 4 trailer!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:10:39 GMT

How about an all new Animation Show 4 trailer to start off your week. We’ll embed the youtube version above for anyone looking to take this with you... OR for all you classy types we have a nice hi-res Quicktime here as well.

The track is “Busco Oro” by Pueblo Café.

ASIFA - EAST Award winners!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:57:50 GMT

A huge congrats to Bill Plympton whose latest short “Hot Dog” won 1st place in the Independent film category at Sunday’s ASIFA – East Awards. For all of you Chicago residents Bill will be on-hand for the big Animation Show premiere at the Music Box Theatre Friday May 23rd! This will be another crazy kick-off with big giveaways, weird preshow oddities, and Bill!

Catching up a bit with Bill today on the phone it sounds like his latest feature "Idiots and Angels" has been going over splendidly at the Tribeca film festival. You can read some the fantastic write ups here from The Gothamist and The Village Voice.

I’ve only seen a few of the shorts that screened at the ASIFA awards but I gotta give a huge congrats to Arthur Metcalf for his short "Fantasie in Bubblewrap" which swept up the 'Best in show' award. We weren’t in NYC to attend the awards ourselves but word is Bubblewrap slayed em so look for this to keep grabbing eyeballs at festivals to come later in the year. Great to see NY filmmakers Signe Baumane, Alex Budovsky and Joy & Noelle Vaccese take home some love as well. All in all sounds like a great night of animation was had by all.

Attack of the summer blockbuster

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:36:52 GMT

The summer kicks into high gear this weekend! In Austin we’re rolling over to the Alamo Village (2700 W anderson lane. (512) 476-1320) so you’ve still got a chance to come out and see the show. As you may have heard a certain superhero movie takes over a gazillion screens today laying waste to the cinema landscape. Pascal illustrates the point beautifully above. The multiplex near us started screenings of Iron Man yesterday at 8 pm and has showtimes running every half hour since. Nothing beats popcorn at 3am... right? Advantage – Iron Man.

After last weeks debut in Austin and Columbus we’ve tighten down the last of the nuts and bolts in our new touring omnibus and prepare for grand delivery across the country. The feedback from Austin and Columbus was solid and seeing the program with a packed house resolved a lot of questions. It’s always a bit of a gamble going out for reviews this early on but the program garnered a nice reception from the small handful of critics that took a peak. Thank you all for the emails and support that have been rolling into the site the last two weeks as well. Here are a handful of press highlights from last week’s launch.

The Animation Show 4

Austin Chronicle (pick of the week)
-Part of the joy of the program is its all-inclusiveness; there’s room here for the dirty-bird chortles of "Yompi the Crotch-Biting Sloup" and the earnest, gosh-wow inventiveness of PES’s “Western Spaghetti”. At 20-plus entries, the program slightly blurs in its haste and expanse, but even that is addressed in Julian Grey's elegiac adaptation of former poet laureate Billy Collins’ “Forgetfulness,”. It’s a lovely, tender short, a moment of quiet in an overstuffed but superlative program.

Austin American Statesman
-The spectrum of animation is here, from stop-motion to primitive ink. Some shorts bask in pregnant quietude; others twitter with such spastic speed that their impact hits subliminal registers. A global survey of a spunky art form that has little in common with the extreme showcases of Spike and Mike.

Austinist
-Featuring a wide range of styles and narrative structures, including repeat appearances of some jail-bait bunnies, a Teletubby like crotch-cruncher and a couple of wacky, half-witted Australians, our eyes were glued to the screen for the full hour and a half.

Columbus Alive
-The latest edition lives up to its track record of presenting high-quality animation from around the world and giving audiences a good time. One thing definitely in its favor is volume — more than 20 shorts are included, the number pumped up by several series of short shorts featuring recurring characters. The program is also nicely light on filler, with several memorable, stand-alone shorts that cater to various tastes.

Run Wrake's "The Control Master"

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:06:01 GMT

What do you get when you team up indie animation genius Run Wrake with stock art CSA Images? You get the vintage Sci-Fi pulp-comic “The Control Master”. The pitch:

Halftone City, USA. A peaceful metropolis of family values and space-age dreams. Mild-mannered blonde Dorothy Gayne secretly protects its citizens from harm. But dangerous new technologies abound. What happens when a powerful device falls into the hands of scientist-turned-villain Doctor Moire? Who will rescue Halftone City from this oversized creep? Watch The Control Master and find out!

It’s Run’s first short since his festival favorite Rabbit and a fantastic pairing courtesy of the Design resource Veer. The short is a fun superhero send off loaded to the hilt with classic pop art and design. My third time through the short was just to listen to the sound design again which like Rabbit is tricked out with a bus load of bells and Sci-fi send up. Well done Run! Check out the trailer here. You can hit Veer up for more info or watch the short. With one look at this though you can tell it'll be epic on the big screen. So just a warning... know you'll be spoiling things a bit if ya watch now before catching it at a festival near you.

TAS 4 kick-off experiment a success!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:00:08 GMT

Austin was knock-down-drag-out good time! Whew… three days home and we still haven’t recovered from last week’s romp around town. We got into Austin to prep a few days before things got really busy on Thursday. That afternoon Rebecca and I spoke to a great class of animation students at UT before hooking up with Paul from Txtual Healing for our txt experiment. The first test was on the UT campus. Paul projected on the side of the CMB building inviting folks out for a little dose of free speech. Things took off quickly with participants catching the enormous projection across campus and writing in. Security pounced on us quickly though cutting it short. We were projecting on University property and on a University building which I suppose is a no-no. The whole thing got picked up by the school paper so we’ll have more to share soon. Next we wheeled ourselves back downtown for a little txt experiment on the side of the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. The rooftop bars across the street took hold of the balloon quickly as people posted their free speech two cents for next hour or so. Overall it was a cool experiment with what people do when they can anonymously voice there opinion for all to see.

Friday we hooked up with PES and Joel Trussell briefly before the show then dived into setup. With the help of some friends from MTV (thank you Sheldon and Bridget!) and a small handful of UT animation students (thank you Sarah, Jennifer, Sergio, Kristin & Jared!) the Alamo’s downtown theatre was properly dressed for our show launch. Paul prepped the night’s txt project which was a series of local news clips embedded with thought balloons that everyone could txt in pushing a dialog forward. DJ Manny climbed on stage to set the preshow party off with a blockbuster set. Team Animation Show (as seen above) took their places and properly documented their findings. The show played fantastically! Mike had some great notes and there will be changes for the next round of dates.

The final event of the night was the closing balloon drop. Rebecca and Bridget we’re poised in the theater balcony to launch 500 balloons on top of the audience but the netting caught hold of the theater railing sending a huge sack of balloons over the edge, inches from unsuspecting film goers heads. It was pretty funny stuff.. When the netting finally gave way six or seven people were introduced to a mighty down pour. The after party at the Jackalope was a blast and it was great to see so much of Austin’s animation community come out to congrats. A HUGE thank you to PES, Sarah, Joel and Kelly for making the trek out to Austin for this. Special thanks to Geoff Marslett for helping to coordinate things on the UT side. This first screening was a huge test and tremendous success! Pics are still rolling in so I’ll update the slide show you see here again in a few days. Next up.. Chicago!

The Animation Show's fourth tour opens!

robert@animationshow.com (Robert) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:53:22 GMT

This summer the Animation Show has decided to pick on the summer big shots out there at your local multiplex and today is the first trip into the ring. Illustrator/animator Pascal Campion will be lending his tremendous talents this summer to depict some of our head to heads match ups. This year the summer glut weighs heavy on the superhero side of things with 6 big budget men-in-tights spectacles. On top of that you’ve got Kung Fu Panda’s cutesy robots and a laundry list of mega popcorn flicks opening each week. We've got openings planned through August and September so the show will meet a lot of these costumed yahoos.

Leading the charge for this new program is our Viking Master fresh from Joel Trussell’s year 4 opener. You last saw his guitar shredding talents put use against a gaggle of pirates in the Jason Forest video "War Photographer". Joel’s Vikings rock gods bookend this years show so you’ll meet them very soon. This week Pascal illustrates our Viking hero taking on “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay”. Sure they’re going up on 3000 screens but we’re at the Drafthouse baby which alone knocks out 2999 other movie theaters. This week we also get some love from Austin Chronicle to seal the deal! Advantage.. Animation Show.

Much more Austin news to come. Last night we had a fantastic trip with Txtual Healing so more updates to come