2012

The A.V. Club Takes The Ice Age Voice Cast to Task

Animation /

Via: NY Daily News

The A.V. Club, as the serious, cultural  arm of The Onion is sometimes quite trite in their reviews of films. The latest Ice Age film is no exception, but what is noteworthy is the grilling the voice cast receives. Naturally they are all celebrities with no real voice-acting experience:

On paper, Continental Drift boasts a jaw-dropping voice cast, including but not limited to Jennifer Lopez, Patrick Stewart, Wanda Sykes, Aziz Ansari, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Nicki Minaj, Drake, and Alan Tudyk. But in practice, the overstuffed ensemble leaves the cast no room to distinguish themselves, and directors Steve Martino and Michael Thurmeier don’t seem interested in coaxing performances that might render their money stars less identifiable. With the help of some low-end boosting, Dinklage musters a decent amount of kid-appropriate menace—although he never does explain his gift for finding chunks of ice shaped like pirate ships—but Romano and Leary mainly sound bored, droning through their lines as if they’re simultaneously texting the contractors building the additions on their houses funded by their fat sequel paychecks.

Ouch! There is no punches being pulled there. Now we all know that celebrities being hired simply for being them is always a bad idea for a film (DreamWorks’ upcoming Smeckday features the voice talents of all people, Rihanna) but I can’t help but wonder whether we are in a bit of a bubble with this one.

As more and more large studio films use celebrity voice acting, there is bound to come a point where there will simply not be enough celebrities to go around. Second-rate talent will likely come in, and for most of the public, only the very best animation can make up for a poor voice.

Will we hit a point where star names can’t sell an animated property? Yes, we will. How far away that is though, will depend on how long the quality holds up in films like Ice Age. Professional voice actors  live and die by their vocal performances so while they may not have the name power that celebrities have, they are more than capable of matching them in abilities.

And as a bonus, here’s the best line from the article, right at the very end:

But the only person who earned their keep on Ice Age: Continental Drift is the MPAA flunky who shoehorned in the line, “Silly rabbit—piracy doesn’t pay!”

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Dramatic British Animation Lagging Behind the Americans?!

Animation /

Coming via The Belfast Telegraph, British animation legend Nick Park (of Wallace and Gromit fame) has this to say about his country’s animation output as of late:

The director of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the only British film to claim the Best Animated feature Oscar, told the Radio Times that filmmakers might need to up the “schmaltz” factor to earn better results. “We need to tell our own stories, rooted in our own culture, but do it with the equivalent emotion of Hollywood,” he said.

“Billy Elliot did it, and The Full Monty, but I don’t think we have it yet in animation.

He has a point. Recent theatrical successes have been mostly comedic and although they are British, only Wallace and Gromit could be said to truly represent British culture; Pirates was more international in scope.

Something along the lines of The Secret of Kells is what British animation needs. Something relatively dramatic but with a very strong relationship to the culture which it is based on. Something comparable to a 21st century Animal Farm if you will.

Where is Richard Williams when you need him?

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8 Great Animation-Related Subreddits

Animation /

You’ve probably heard of Reddit, you know, that pretty cool website that aggregates stuff people find on the internet? Yes, that one! One of the best parts about it is that there are threads or subreddits devoted to specific topics. Animation is no exception with more than a few ranging from the general to the quite specifc. Check out these 8 below and don’t forget to follow me to see what I’m reading.

PS. Yes, there are tons of subreddits devoted to individual shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill,  Adventure Time and [of course] My Little Pony but I’m excluding those on the basis that I could list far more of those than this post could handle. Do visit them though and check out the links to other shows’ subreddits in their sidebars.

/r/animation – Your catch-all subreddit dedication to animation. Full of trailers, stills, tutorials, articles, you name it.

/r/anime – 51,000+ readers makes for a pretty big community

/r/computergraphics – Just like /r/animation, but for CGI and VFX!

/r/disney – Kinda obvious this one. Plenty of choice for everyone, from the films, the characters to the resorts.

/r/freeanimation – You know the Tube Open Movie project? It’s not the only example. A great subreddit in need of a bit of love at the moment.

/r/studioghibli – Lots of Studio Ghibli-related stuff here (as you would expect)

/r/stop_motion – The place for all things stop-motion. Plenty of shorts to enjoy too!

/r/thelastairbender – An exception to the above rule because its more than just a subreddit filled with screencaps and fan art. There’s lots of discussion about the characters and the universe that keeps things interesting. Also benefits from having two shows to talk about.

Do you know any more? Please add them in the comments!

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Disney, Nick, Netflix, No?

Animation /

This is an interesting story, an analyst called Todd Juenger has come out with a report about children’s programming, and one of the key points he makes, is that both Disney and Viacom (owner of Nickelodeon) should limit the amount of programming they give to Netflix. The problem as he sees it is that Netlfix, which is sans ads and allows users to cherry pick what they watch. is a threat to both companies’ existing business models:

 His advice for entertainment companies is to be cautious about how much kids programming they make available to the online video streaming provider and in which windows. “We remain firm in our belief Viacom and Walt Disney should limit their content availability on Netflix,” Juenger wrote.

As big a no-brainer as it is, it’s still amazing to see this kind of recommendation being made. Yes, it is a threat to the existing business model, but it also represents opportunities for new revenue streams, or even attracting new audiences to existing properties. I can tell you right now that if Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t on Netflix, there is only a slim chance that I would have even tried to watch it. Now that I have, I plan on buying all the DVDs. Yay new revenue for Viacom!

Instead we get a recommendation to partition content into individual companies’ services, not unlike Disney’s Keychest. Hardly a practical solution. I’m old enough to know that the internet didn’t really start firing on all cylinders until people discovered a world outside the walled garden that was AOL. Online viewing should not be going in the opposite direction.

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Is The BBC Olympics Ad A Rip-Off?

Animation /

To use the tired old quote, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However the line where it turns from imitation to blatant plagiarism is a blurry one that is often whipped out when two pieces of content appear to be eerily similar.

Witness the latest in the pantheon of “he copied me” accusations. British bank Lloyds TSB ran an ad last year that began the build-up to the Olympic games. It looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc9yKO-OCAc

Meanwhile, the BBC has launched the trailer for their coverage of the games, which has some crying foul. Here it is for comparison:

Never mind the fact that both films were created by the same ad agency, does the BBC one rip-off the Lloyds one?

Hardly. There is a similarity to be sure in terms of the look and feel of the spots, but that is only part of the story. Both spots have very different storylines and both have very different messages; the former selling a bank’s social connections, the latter selling an explicit product.

The likely truth is that someone at the BBC like the Lloyds ads and requested the ad agency, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R to create something similar.

Both videos should further illustrate that similarity does not necessarily mean stolen content.

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Animated Albums Brings Covers To Life

Animation /

Despite being near ubiquitous at this point, it’s still fun to come across a Tumblelog that pushed the artistic envelope just a wee but further. Enter Animated Albums, which takes actual album covers and, well, animates them!

Although they’re not the most graceful in the world, there is nonetheless a sense of satisfaction to be gleaned from the unquestionable Terry Gilliam feel to it all. Below are a few example and be sure to check out the archive too as the site sadly ends at November 2011.

 

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