Animation

OMG It’s The Ricky Gervais Show Season 2!

Animation, TV /

Via: RIckyGervais.com (duh)

So, yes, I got a pleasant e-mail from Mike last week informing me that the new season of the Ricky Gervais Show will premiere tonight (Friday, Jan. 14th) at 9pm on HBO. Not that this post is some unabashedly promoted one (I am still waiting on my cheque after all), I happen to like Ricky Gervais and while his brand of comedy can be sometimes cringe-inducing, it is nonetheless funny.

What the show does highlight is the ability of animation to adapt to real-life situations rather well. It’s been done before by Aardman Animation with the very successful Creature Comforts, in which conversations with members of the public are turned into claymation scenes featuring animals, all in a very British style of course. The Ricky Gervais Show is similar, except that is uses irreverent podcasts from the man himself where he discusses various bits of nonsense with his partners in crime, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington.

I bring up all of this because it harks back to the early days of animated shows on TV and the derogatory label they gained as a result of their move to this new medium: illustrated radio.

Basically, illustrated radio was a way of looking down on the kind if limited animation that Hanna-Barbera became known for. Of course they had a good reason for using it as they couldn’t afford anything else! Critics, however, pounced on this and were keen to point out that there wasn’t much to be gained by adding some moving pictures to the sound.

The Ricky Gervais Show is basically an animated conversation, which in a way, is exactly the accusation that was levelled at Huckleberry Hound all those years ago. The difference now, is that the writing has improved and takes centre stage over the animation.

Although podcasts allow the listener to let their imaginations run wild, a show like that of Ricky Gervais’ has proven to be successful as animation and is proof that good writing and inventive, companion animation can go along hand in hand. Below is the obligatory video that features the trailer for the second season.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWcYW8pmGaI]

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Animators I Follow on Twitter

Animation /

As a twitter user, one of the joys of the service is the ability to interact with people you otherwise might not be able to. Yes, you could listen to the random ramblings of various celebrities, but there are plenty of normal people on there too, and they are immensely more interesting.

There are plenty of animation folks on there for a start, and if you are looking for a nicely curated list of the best, look no further than the Cartoon Brew Twitter Directory, which contains dozens of noted, famous and otherwise talented animators, producers and studios.

What I’m posting today, however, is a list of people I follow. Now I will admit that even though I’ve been on Twitter for almost two years, I’m still learning and constantly discovering new people to follow or people who I didn’t know were on Twitter. Some are famous, most are not.

However, following people is not about how famous they are or are not, it’s about what they have to say, and I think I can safely say that the people below represent a diverse section of the animation industry, from the big boys down to the independents, so I get a pretty wide view of the happenings in animation on a daily basis. OK, sure, there are some people who don’t update very often, but that should not discourage you from following them. They might say something interesting someday, and you will want to be listening when they do; there’s no disadvantage to be had by adding them to your ‘following’ list.

Of course, if you’re already on twitter, all you have to do is follow my animators list, or my animation industry list, which features the studios.

Here is the list, presented in absolutely no order whatsoever, although while it most likely approximates when I began following them, it in no way represents what I think of them or how important I think they are. One note though, I have not included people who have protected their profiles as they’ve done so for a reason and the last thing they need is a whole bunch of invites they didn’t ask for.

 

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Classic Children’s Stop-motion Animation: Postman Pat Goes Sledging

Animation, TV /

As a kid, perhaps my favourite TV show was Postman Pat, the classic, stop-motion series about a British postman with the catchy theme tune and his adventures in Greendale. I was reminded of it today because we got some snow here in Baltimore and the fact that one of my favourite episodes of Postman Pat revolves around snow.

The gist of it is that there’s been a heavy snow in Greendale and as a result, Pat’s round is a bit different than usual, involving snow fights, digging out ploughs and delivering straw to sheep.

I mention this episode not only because it is a wonderful piece of stop-motion animation, it also displays some great slapstick moments. The two I mention come later in the episode and revolve around Pat and Alf Thompson delivering supplies to a snowed-in farm high on a hill.

The journey up is pretty straight-forward, but the journey down is anything but. Suffice to say, things do not go as planned when they hit a bump which knocks them flying. Now, as an adult, you might think, “that’s not very funny”, but as a kid, I thought it was absolutely hilarious. The way they sail through the air and then tumble in the snow is superb, and when you think it was all done in stop-motion, it becomes all the more amazing.

At the end of the run, they slide straight into the barn, complete with a crashing noise that suggests another comedic catastrophe, until both characters walk out as if nothing had happened.

The series has remained popular over the last 25 years and it’s not hard to see why. It may not be educational in the contemporary fashion, but it is extremely entertaining, even more so if you’re in the target demographic. It’s what I grew up with, so I might be seeing things through some rose-tinted glasses, but you cannot deny the skill inherent in the animation. The episode is embedded below for you to watch (14 mins. total) in all it’s YouTube glory.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKMyyAGleSQ]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VEO3chtaqU]

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Your Thought for the Day: What Animation Software to Learn

2 Comments / Animation /

What does this have to do with you? Well for one, if you learned the right software, you could be applying for a job with an Academy Award-Nominated outfit in Dublin. If not, you’d be stuck looking for another posting. Last week, Cathal Gaffney highlighted that finding animators in Ireland with a knowledge of Maya was getting increasingly hard.

This leads to the question: With the growing proliferation of animation software, which one is the best to learn, and do you pigeon-hole yourself if you learn only one?

Think about it, and post any thoughts in the comments below.

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An Adventure Time Title Card That Caught My Eye

2 Comments / Animation, Frederator, TV /

Today is a short post, because I spent all day yesterday putting together some new furniture (hence no post) and this morning, I have to get a craigslist ad out for the piece they replace. Seriously, if you live in Baltimore and want a TV entertainment centre, check out the ad and get in touch, mention this blog and get it for free!

Below, is something that caught my eye last week and this seems like as good a time as any to post it. The dense layers of artistic skills in Adventure Time continue to stun the mind of viewers and fans alike, and the title cards are no exception.

So much so, that Fred Seibert has put out a whole book on the art of the title card (from his own series’ of course) and brings to attention how they have been criminally overlooked by historians over the years. It is available on Amazon and there is a preview available on Fred’s blog.

It is therefore satisfying to see that the title card I am sharing today is also a Frederator production. It’s a mysterious piece and a bit of a play on the usual situation. Instead of Finn hiding in the background, it is Princess Bubblegum that is the one in the dark. There’s a great sense of foreboding about the whole thing, and one can’t help but wonder what terrors await Finn and Jake when they take up the scissors for the job at hand.

Via: Fred Seibert on Flickr

The episode premieres, uh, tonight (January 10th), at sometime in the evening on Cartoon Network. Check it out and report back please, I still have to re-arrange all the furniture I messed up yesterday!

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Why Did Disney Stop Making TV Shows Based on Their Films?

2 Comments / Animation, Disney, TV /

Via: Wikipedia

Whatever happened to all the TV series’ that Disney used to put out after a theatrical film was released? Is it a practise that died off with the turn of the century? It’s hard to tell, but the untimely death of the traditional animation unit may have been something to do with it.

The fact occurred to me this morning as I was scrambling around for something to write about. My postulation is that they simply don’t make the kind of films that lend themselves easily to such treatment any more. For one, CGI is now king, and creating a CGI TV series can be much, much harder than a traditionally animated one, especially if you are geared up and staffed for the latter.

Disney has decided that it either isn’t worthwhile creating a CGI TV show, or that the kind of movies they have put out recently do not lend themselves easily to the concept (read: CGI). Films like Chicken Little, Bolt and The Princess and the Frog are not quite flexible enough to be capable of the tweaks that are necessary for the small box. Tangled has a similar problem, but that could be overcome in a way not unlike The Genie in Aladdin. I am quite certain that the closure of the traditional animation department also contributed to the end of such programmes.

As much as I abhor the practice and its nagging habit of denying the place of an original, creator-driven show, you can’t deny that the quality of the Disney movie-shows was decently high, both animation and story-wise. It also kept costs that wee bit lower and the studio was able to eliminate the risk of a series if they used a successful film that came with a ready-made audience.

I am not advocating a return to the practise, I’m just pointing out that it did provide some benefits to the animation industry as a whole. DreamWorks must have recognized this as they have taken up the mantle in recent times, with shows based on Madagascar 2, How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda. Of course, DreamWorks is an independent studio, so there is much more pressure on them to maximize their creations to the hilt and TV can be a very lucrative way of extending the life of your films.

As I’ve mentioned before, ideally, theatrical films would be much easier to make and to predict the performance of if they were based on a TV show. SpongeBob did it to great success so why can’t someone else replicate the same? That is something studios should focus even more on in this day and age.

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The Acceptance of Animation By The General Public

2 Comments / Animation, Film /

Via: The Horror Geek (and I am grateful to Rob Zombie for making this so I don’t have to choose any of the other images that popped up after a Google search for “adult cartoon”, yeesh.)

Roger Ebert, perhaps the most widely known movie critic in history, has published what he considers to be the best animated films of 2010. Now I am not one to question his judgement, but once again it appears that animation is being considered as a genre rather than an artform.

Nonetheless, Ebert notes as much at the start of the piece, with the following statement:

My list reflects a growing fact: Animation is no longer considered a form for children and families. In some cases it provides a way to tell stories that can scarcely be imagined in live action.

I think this statement is in need of a wee bit of clarification, it’s not so much that animation “is no longer considered” but rather “is being accepted by the general public”.

Animation has been an adult-friendly artform ever since Ralph Bakshi burst onto the scene with Fritz the Cat. So it’s not really fair to say that it is “no longer considered”. It has been considered for quite some time, it just hasn’t been accepted by the public at large. Why this is so cannot be laid squarely at the feet of Walt Disney, he merely exploited a market, not pigeonhole the artform.

As Steve Hulett over at the TAG Blog is fond of pointing out, animation has some serious commercial weight behind it at the moment, with 6 of the top 15 film of the year (ranked by box office gross) being animated. This is good news for animation fans as it is proof that the artform is capable of reeling in the crowds.

The last great hurdle that has to be overcome is to make a mainstream animated film targeted specifically at adults. It’s already been proven in TV shows, now it just needs to be done by a major studio. The audience is certainly beginning to assemble, and the likes of Pixar have certainly proven that adults are capable of watching a well-written story regardless of the target demographic. So at this point, the excuses are becoming scarcer and scarcer.

The worry is, however, that with the theatrical film industry is rapidly approaching a crunch point, from which there is no escape and no return, it may be more difficult to even make an animated fim. The arrival of the internet and the disruption that comes along with it is likely to upend the traditional way of making films, whether the studios like it or not and animation, in its mainstream form, may find it much more difficult to traverse the ravine simply because of the increased costs that come with them.

Content will always be king and I’m confident that we’ll continue to see animated films regardless of what happens. The point is that wider acknowledgement by the public of what animation can offer will only serve to increase the appetite for such content, free or paid, old or new, and that is all that matters.

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Happy Birthday to Mr. Miyazaki!

Animation, Miyazaki /

Via: Collider.com

Woops, I almost forgot about this in my quest for tomorrow’s topic, but today is the birthday of the one and only Hayao Miyazaki, whose now 70 years young!

All I can say is that I love this guy’s films. After catching a few on Cartoon Network some years back, it was love at first sight. He’s by far one of the best animation directors alive and his film Spirited Away is perhaps my most favourite of all. On top of all that, he’s served as an inspiration for countless animators on both sides of the Pacific for which he is rightly acknowledged for through his friend, John Lasseter.

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The 2011 Academy Awards Animated For Your Consideration Ads: Part 2

Animation /

Via: Animation Magazine (click through for their full Awards page)

This is the second part of my look at the annual slew of advertisements asking for consideration for films at award time. You can read the first part here.

The Illusionist

Another film that I have yet to see (although my compadre David Levy has and loves it) The Illusionist is thus far (as I flip through the magazine) the most traditional ad, with the title, who made it, some review quotes and the request for inclusion in “all categories”.

As great as this film appears to be, it stands an outside chance in almost any category besides best animated feature. I would personally love to see it clinch a statuette but if The Secret of Kells couldn’t muster one against Up, there is little hope for The Illusionist. The upside is that the free publicity accompanying an nomination will serve the film well over the next few months, which for some, is just as good.

Legends of the Guardian

By all accounts, the closest thing we’ve got to an animated film that looks live-action. Stunningly beautiful but hopelessly technical in it’s beauty. It’s yet another one I have not seen, but it is gunning for the Best Animated Feature Award. I don’t know the odds, but it’s yet another film that could be said to be on the fringes.

Day & Night

Yup, the funny little “cartoon modern” style short is looking for the Best Animated Short nod and while it is a fantastic little film with plenty of spunk to it’s two characters, the competition in the shorts category is much stiffer than the features. The reason is simple, shorts cost a heck of a lot less than features so more people can afford to create them. As good as it is, I think it would be a shame for Night & Day to get it, what with all the excellent films that are also in the running for the nomination alone.

Tangled

Released late in the year, this film is still fresh in everyone’s mind, a fact that often plays into the minds of voters. The ad (which is quite similar to the one at the top of the post) is also very traditional, with a few stills from the film, a listing of which categories it would like a nod in and the requisite “for your consideration”.

Tangled stands a good chance in the animated category, and is certainly a film worthy of the award. It does irk me however, that it doesn’t go for any categories outside the animated ones besides Best Original Song. It’s as if Disney (read: Pixar) would like to keep this film squarely confined to the categories that all ‘traditional’ Disney films are confined to, all the while Pixar continues its lust for glory as it competes against the live-action boys.

Yes, I know both firms are joined at the hip, but there does seems to be a two-tier system in place that perhaps is the last remnant of the Eisner days. Hopefully in years to come, Disney itself will put out film of the same calibre as Pixar and that both of them can together clobber some live-action film for Best Feature. In the meantime, I’m going to have to wait for my bookie to get back to me on what the odds are for Tangled. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be disappointed if it won something.

So there you have it, a long post I know but it was worth it. Now we just have to wait and see how wrong I was!

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The 2011 Academy Awards Animated For Your Consideration Ads: Part 1

1 Comment / Animation /

Via: Animation Magazine (click through for their full Awards page)

It must be award season already. How do I know? For one, the latest issue of Animation Magazine that came through the letterbox when I was away is the annual ‘award’ issue, which means it jammed full of ads asking me for my ‘consideration’. Which would be great, if only my consideration counted for something, which right now, it does not much of anything.

So let’s take a quick peek at what animated films are grovelling for requesting consideration for the various accolades that will be handed out in the coming months.

Toy Story 3

Beginning with the one on the cover, we see Woody sitting on a toilet bowl with the words

Not since On the Waterfront…

Now I’m no cinematic genius, but I know that said film is well known as one of the best ever made, it was also our film study in Levaing Cert Higher Level English, so I am familiar with the intricacies of the plot and the characters. And still, how Toy Story 3 compares to it and the Academy Awards is quite beyond me. It’s well known at this point that it is gunning for the Best Picture Award, so perhaps that is what they are attempting to compare themselves to.

The only problem is that if you are comparing yourself to a true classic like On The Waterfront, you’d better be darned sure that your film is up to par, which sadly, Toy Story 3 is not. As good of a film as it is, it can’t even hold a candle to the original in terms of character and story quality and I’m afraid to say that at this point, Pixar is starting to trade on a lot of the public (and Academy member’s) goodwill.

How To Train Your Dragon

There’s a special insert for How to Train Your Dragon that is really just a mini-issue with the articles on the film that have been published in previous issues. It’s a clever ploy as it gives the reader much more detail about the film and its background than does a simple ad, which is found on the back page.

My fondness for this film is well documented, so let’s just say that I am eager to see this one succeed. There is no listing for which honours it is chasing, but as mentioned here previously, the Best Feature Award is within DreamWorks’ sights. Personally, I think Dragon stands a much better and more deserved chance of winning than Toy Story, but that’s just my personal preferences.

Despicable Me

Next up is Despicable Me, which wisely sticks to the animated feature, song and score categories. Despite it being a still from the film (which I thought would have been a lot sharper), it depicts Gru and the three girls coming in the door from the fair, their faces covered in silly paint (Gru is a rabbit).

This film, I think, stands a good chance of one-upping the establishment. it’s proven to be popular with audiences, and although I have not seen it myself (I know, I know, the shame, the shame), I am pretty sure that it has the solid storyline and characters to back it up. This is certainly one to watch over the season.

TRON Legacy

The original film was the nexus point for CGI theatrical films and this one is perhaps the ultimate blurring point between animation and special effects, although I believe it falls much more into the latter as a result of using live actors (Jeff Bridges aside). Comments will have to wait until another day, although it again, wisely chases the technical categories.

And that’s it for part one. Come back tomorrow for the conclusion to this thrilling, two-part post!

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