August 2011

Baltimore Comic Con Recap

Event, Misc. /

Just a couple of thoughts on the 2011 Baltimore Comic Con that took place this weekend. 🙂

  • Overall it was a lot of fun to just walk around and see stuff
  • There’s lots of diversity when it comes to comics. I saw people of all shapes, sizes and colours (the blue guy really stood out for me though)
  • It’s always great to get out and meet the artists in person and to see some of their artwork.
  • Once again, it was a pleasure to see Mike Maihack and to buy the second volume of Cleopatra in Space
  • I supported the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and picked up a copy of Will Eisner’s “New York The Big City“
  • I was reminded that anyone who says women and girls aren’t into comic is lying through their teeth.
  • The bootleg DVD industry has to be feeling the pain of illegal downloading too. I mean, $50 for the entire series of Billy and Mandy or Kim Possible must have been a bargain at some point, but now that’s just crazy expensive.
  • The only way it could have been even more enjoyable was if I actually read comics on a regular basis.
  • Oh, and I saw Stan Lee through a gap in the curtains.

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The Beatles Rally Against “Piracy” With Animation

Animation /

Tip of the hat to Tim Cushing over at Techdirt for pointing out that the Beatles have joined together with the recording industry group Music Matters to create an animated video rallying against file sharing or “piracy”.

The interesting twist? The guy in the video discovered The Beatles because someone was “sharing” it out in the street. The video is also embedded on YouTube for all and sundry to share and embed. I can almost smell the irony from here.

The video itself is by a guy called Lee Gingold, who was not linked to by Music Matters leaving me to fend for myself by visiting Google.

The video itself is OK, but is on the whole, unremarkable. If you listen to it without the sound, it turns into another Flash cartoon with the pencilly look and some über simple character movements.

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Slate’s Cartoon Color Wheel Displays The Entire Spectrum of Characters

Animation, Misc. /

Via: Slate

The fine people over at Slate used the premiere of the Smurfs movie as an excuse to do some goofing about and this is what they came up with: The Cartoon Color Wheel.

It’s interactive so you can hover over each character to see who they are and yes, it really does display a truly varied set of characters from Zorak from Space Ghost to Bonkers D. Bobcat.

The only thing is, I think they cheated slightly by using some Pokemon for a few of the more unusual colours.

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This Sculpture Contains $5,000,000 in Illegally Downloaded Files

Animation /

Ever so slightly off-topic but still very relevant is this “sculpture” by Manuel Palou.

Via: Rhizome

Yes, it appears to be your bog-standard 1 terabyte Western Digital MyBook, except that is not what makes it worth so much. It is the content stored on it that is so “valuable”.

While some over on Reddit were questioning its artistic merits (of which there are very few), this “art” should nonetheless serve as a bit of a reminder that content should not be valued at how much you wish to sell it for but how much the customer is willing to pay for it. Just because something is sold at a price does not give it “value”.

The picture also serves as a bit of an eye-opener as to how much content people can store at home these days. Way back when, you could maybe spend $10,000 on a nice record collection but you’d have to give up most of your wall space, or your basement. Now I can store the entire published works of fiction from 2003 to 2011 on my bookshelf and still have more than enough space left for much much more.

Content creators (animators included) MUST keep this in mind when posting stuff online. The internet immediately increases the supply of your product to near infinity, and as any economics professor will tell you, as the supply of a product approached infinity, the price people are willing to pay approaches zero. Embrace this by giving people a reason to give you money. Remember, anything that’s scarce is valuable, anything that’s physical is scarce.

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If The Poster is Overwrought, What Chance Does the Film Have?

Animation, Film /

 Via: Movie Fanatic

It doesn’t so much say adventure as it screams “THIS IS GOING TO BE A BIG BIG MOVIE THAT YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY SEE BECAUSE IT’S SET ALL AROUND THE WORLD AND WE’VE USED PHOTOSHOP FOR THIS POSTER TO PROVE HOW AWESOME IT IS”

Apologies for the screaming.

While I’m aware that this is more of a teaser poster than anything else, it does seem to be beating its breast a bit. This doesn’t concern me so much as why it’s doing so this early in the game. Most teaser posters are much more sublime and only really hint at what the audience can expect. This goes full bore and leaves relatively little to the imagination.

It’s slightly disconcerting to know that the studio feels the need to put this much information on a poster that should show a lot less (yes, the earlier ones did show a lot less, I’m aware of that). It’s a sure sign that a film is overwrought/overproduced if ever there was one.

The creepy looking characters don’t help matters either.

For putting you through that, here’s the teaser poster for Luc Besson’s upcoming feature A Monster in Paris. Much nicer don’t you think?

Via: Shockya.com

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Disney Deals To Brides!?

3 Comments / Animation, Disney /

Most companies ignore the Immutable Law of Brand Extension and Disney is no exception. No market is ever too obscure or far-fetched to extend your brand into if there is money to be made in it, and how could a company stand by while so much hard earned cash is carelessly thrown away in a market sector it doesn’t have a toe-hold in? The answer is, get in there and grab a share!

The result is Disney Bridal (yes, really), a collaboration between Alfred Angelo (who?) of Philadelphia, PA and the Walt Disney Company of Burbank, CA. Let’s start with some choice quotes from the press release:

Dreams do come true, especially for women who grew up dreaming of a fairy tale wedding modeled after their favorite Disney Princess character……..the bridal gown collection is inspired by the essence, style and personality of seven iconic Disney Princess characters: Ariel, Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White and Tiana.

 

“This collaboration is a wonderful testament of two long-standing, established and respected industry leaders…the magic and storytelling heritage of Disney and the internationally renowned bridal fashion of Alfred Angelo”

 

“Every bride wants to be a princess on her wedding day, and through this collaboration with bridal fashion experts Alfred Angelo, we can now extend the reach of the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings brand and make beautiful Disney Princess-inspired gowns accessible to all brides at a broad retail distribution and affordable prices,” says Pam Lifford, executive vice president, global fashion and home, Disney Consumer Products.

 

Michael sought to capture every girl’s fantasy of feeling like a princess on her wedding day, while being inspired by the magic and identity of each Disney Princess.

So, there is plenty of the usual huff and puff you’d find in the press release. But how about the dresses themselves? Let’s have a peek, along with the descriptions for each.

Aerial

The treasures of the sea inspired Ariel’s gown. The mermaid silhouette features re-embroidered lace, pearl beading, and sequin sparkles.

Sleeping Beauty/Aurora

 Aurora/Sleeping Beauty’s gown is romantic with a dreamy, willowy skirt for this slumbering princess.

Belle

 Belle’s wedding dress, with a draped waistline is inspired by the iconic ballroom dance scene from the film and focuses on making a grand entrance.

Cinderalla

Cinderella’s gown radiates with sparkle as its inspiration is the fairy tale’s enchanted glass slipper.

Yes, but does it include a glass slipper as part of the outfit? If not, I’d feel cheated.

Jasmine

Jasmine’s wedding dress conveys freedom and individuality and as a result her shimmering soft satin gown is exotic with a bejeweled neckline and low cut back.

Snow White

Snow White’s dress is inspired by nature, beauty and grace like the Disney Princess character herself.

Tiana

The regal, one-shoulder taffeta gown for our newest princess, Tiana, reflects her independent spirit with an asymmetric bodice and ruched skirt.

BUT WAIT!

All-new for 2011 and just in time for the fabulous (and coincidentally timely) release of the hilarious Disney classic, Tangled, comes this latest addition to the collection!

Rapunzel

Yup, when it comes to Rapunzel, I’m sure not thinking so much about how inspired the dress is as much as I am how the bride’s hair will never live up to the fairytale image.

So there you go. The dresses range in price from a lot to a very lot and naturally have all the uniqueness that a Dow Jones company like Disney is renowned for. Being a guy with no fashion sense, I am nonetheless confident in saying that these dresses use the term “inspired” in the loosest way possible.

I’m sure even Disney knows that real inspiration for clothing like this comes from the character’s clothes more than anything else.

Thankfully, my fiancée saw right through the whole thing (she came up with the title of this post) as soon as she saw the ad in the Knot magazine. Head on over to her blog see why she won’t be getting one of these dresses.

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Your Cartoon For The Day: Billion Dollar Limited

Animation /

I’ve slowly been watching the Fleischer Superman shorts, and I’ve garnered a lot of respect for them as a result. Check out the one below, where Superman must save a gold bullion train with Lois Lane on board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKjpKUlhIcQ

Most noteworthy is the fact that Lois isn’t afraid to grab a tommy gun and blast the bad guys. In fact, these series of shorts are the ones that make her stand out as a character. Looks and otherwise!

 

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