The Animation Anomaly – Page 30 – Musings From The One And Only

Week Links 11-2013

Lots of links this week!

When Jobs In The Animation Industry Disappear…

Chris Oatley is constantly beating the drum of optimism and in his latest post, he breaks down the latest developments for all levels in his trademark soft-spoken manner laced with his genuine concern for others. If you haven’t already read Chris’ post, now is the time to read it, ponder it and act on the lessons contained within.

How TV has Replaced Animated Films as Disney’s Biggest Brand Ambassador

If you had to guess who sells more family saloons (sedans) in Europe between BMW and Nissan, you’d probably guess the latter right? Well as it turns out, a BMW 3-series is actually more ‘exclusive’ than the ‘mainstream’ Nissan Primera was during the last year of that model’s life.

The same is ocurring over at Disney right now. Feature films used to be the main engine of the Disney empire. They drive toys, TV series, even Broadway musicals. All that has changed however.

The Variety piece outlines how television is now the primary driver behind most Disney products. Phineas and Ferb are the ones being noted as cleaning up shop but plenty of other Disney Channel properties lend a helping hand.

All this means that features, for 80s years the recognised pinnacle of animated entertainment, are being shunted into second place in executive’s minds. You should read the article to gain an understanding of how things will progress within that company for the next couple of years.

Fantasia Program Recap

Via: Michael Sporn's Splog — Via: Michael Sporn’s Splog

Michael Sporn has uploaded some beautiful scans of the booklet that was handed out at the premiere of Fantasia. In addition to the gorgeous design, the booklet features the credits that are not included in the film itself.

Why We Bother

Josh Selig over at the Kidscreen blog has a great wee post where he ponders the question about why those involved in animation put up with it in spite of a litany of obstacles.

Fans Gone Wild: The Brave Little Toaster

Fans and fandom are a favourite topic of this blog so it is with some amusement to learn of the extents of some fan’s devotions. From the FLIP blog comes this piece about a fan (namely Ian Knau) who figured out the design to the compactor from The Brave Little Toaster and even made detailed plans. If only every animated film had such devoted fans!

Tweets of the Week

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/VertMB/status/314470154572550145″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/SandraDRivas/status/314504824559386624″]

David OReilly proves yet again that he knows his fans:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/davidoreilly/status/314826242824216577″]

Week Links 11-2013 Read More »

The Place of March 22nd in Animation History

Animation / Charles Kenny

Another unremarkable Friday? Ha! Not a chance. Today, the 22nd of March, actually has a fair bit of animation history to it; more than one would expect anyway. What noteworthy events happened on this day? Let’s take a look.

Birth of Milt Kahl

Yes, legendary member of the Nine Old Men, Milt Kahl was born this day in 1909. If he were alive today, Milt would be celebrating his 114th birthday. The 50 Most Influential Disney Animators blog has pretty much all you need to know about him.

Death of Walter Lantz

The creator of Woody Woodpecker died on March 22nd 1994 aged 94.

Death of Bill Hanna

Via: My usual haunt for all things H-B related, the Yowp Blog

One half Hanna-Barbera died on this day in 2001 aged 90.

Premiere of ChalkZone

The second series to come out of Frederator’s Oh Yeah! Cartoons was first broadcast on the 22nd of March, 2002.

Birth of Mort Drucker

He may not be an animator, but his influence on them is certain. The MAD cartoonist celebrates his 84th birthday today.

Birth of William Shatner

Yes, today is International Talk Like William Shatner Day as invented by voice-actor Maurice LaMarche to celebrate the famous actor’s birthday. Today he celebrates his 82nd!

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Do We Even Deserve A Danger Mouse Reboot?

Questions / Charles Kenny

AAA-Danger Mouse Stuart Heritage recently wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian on the topic of a Danger Mouse reboot for the 21st century. Although slightly tongue in-cheek, Heritage manages to nail down the finer points of such an effort and why it just might work if done right:

And then there’s the question of the reboot itself. The word conjures up catastrophic images of a humourless, jerky CGI rodent, possibly in a baseball cap, possibly called Dangamouz, battling the forces of evil with the power of industrial dubstep. Sometimes this tactic can work – both He-Man and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been the recipients of darker updates, and they were arguably better than the originals – but it almost definitely won’t with Danger Mouse.

The notion of rebooting an old kids cartoon from the 1980s is nothing new and past successes would surely embolden anyone looking to take it on. The question is though, do we even deserve a Danger Mouse reboot?

We Do

First of all, what do I mean by ‘deserve’. Surely that question was answered in the Simpsons episode “The Itchy, Scratchy and Poochie Show” when Bart confronted Comic Book Guy about being “owed” entertainment, right? Weeeeeell, no. As consumers, we do deserve to be entertained. That’s our demand, and plenty of times, producers do a great job of satisfying it. However, plenty of other times, they do not.

The risk involved in creating a new animated property (TV show, web series or otherwise) is immense. There is plenty of success to be had if you pull it off, sure. But what if it’s not?

Bad entertainment can leave a sour taste in your mouth for years, decades even, in the same way that great entertainment can bring back a flood of nostalgia many years after the last viewing.

Danger Mouse would play off of this. The original series is steeped in nostalgia for many many people who grew up with it but when viewed today, the show is rather crude compared to modern standards. A reboot would keep the characters and premise intact but would update them to appeal more to today’s tastes and hopefully bring a whole new generation into the fold of a great animated property.

We Don’t

Why don’t we deserve a Danger Mouse reboot? Well as much as consumers deserve to be entertained, they also deserve to be entertained in an innovative manner. Hollywood has been rehashing the same formulas for decades but every iteration is done so in such a way as to appear new. Think of Danger Mouse’s inspiration, James Bond. Practically every film is the same and yet they keep making more because they keep finding ways to innovate just enough to make it appear fresh.

In the context of Danger Mouse, it would be tantamount to admitting that the concept of a British mouse who’s a secret spy must depend on a property that is nigh-on 30 years old and that has had no significant activity since it ended production in 1992.

Are we, as consumers, deserving of such a situation? No! We should be deserving of new ideas or twists on the concept of a British spy. Throwing an old idea in new wrapping is insulting on many levels but it’s a situation that keeps on happening. Now yes, you could argue that many consumers are all too happy to lap reboots up but that misses the point. Plenty of the consumers that enjoy the reformulated content are the very same consumers who will drool at the thought of a new episode of Mad Men or become slaven devotees to whichever new show is on HBO.

Yes, Danger Mouse would be aimed at kids, but kids are voracious consumers of anything that’s sold to them as being ‘new’. Why should we, as adults, force our nostalgic memories on them? Why shouldn’t we create something that bestows its own nostalgia on them? I believe we should, and be all the better as an industry for it.

Would a Danger Mouse reboot ruin your childhood? Let us know with a comment!

Do We Even Deserve A Danger Mouse Reboot? Read More »

The State of Irish Animation in 2013

Analysis / Charles Kenny

First of all, a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Remember, Guinness is Irish; corned beef and cabbage is not.

On this day last year, we took a look at the Irish animation industry and where it stood, so it makes sense to do an update after another eventful year.

Overall, the industry has gone from strength to strength. Output is up as is employment and the number of players in the industry. Not content to rest on their laurels, various studios have either sprung up or expanded into the gaming and mobile sectors.

At the feature level, both Cartoon Saloon and Brown Bag Films have feature films in production. The former continues work on their successor to The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea. The latter is currently developing their first feature film, Nightglider with their US-based partner, Wind Dancer.

In the televised sector, many players continue their success from last year. In addition to Cartoon Saloon and Brown Bag, Boulder Media continues their winning streak with The Amazing World of Gumball. JAM Media recently opened a second office in Belfast to further their presence in the market. Caboom continued their strong streak from last year and have plenty in development too.

Telegael has expanded their capabilities with the construction of a dedicated stop-motion studio that will produce series for Irish and foreign markets. Monster Animation rebranded as Geronimo Productions and their latest series, Planet Cosmo is currently teaching astronomy to kids all over Ireland and further afield!

As the industry in Ireland matures, it has naturally branched out to touch other industries where animation plays a role. Video games, in particular those for mobile and tablet platforms, have seen an influx of animation studios who realised that their skills were just as applicable to interactive forms of entertainment as it is for passive ones. Kavaleer continues their success in this area and Brown Bag also has their eye on it as they recently announced the creation of a ‘digital division’ to handle properties the area.

The Irish animation industry is in good shape for 2013 and should look forward to another successful year of growth. That said, challenges lie ahead that will have to be at least addressed. Chief of which is the creation of a tax break for animation production in the UK. With the potential loss of their cost advantage, Irish studios may have to get innovative to attract work.

The pace of the transition to digital distribution continues apace and although things are not as advanced as they are in the US, they soon will be. The proliferation of online content (either through YouTube or other services) spells trouble for business models that rely solely upon the traditional methods of funding.

As of writing, no Irish studio has embraced the online model completely despite the fact that large audiences are already there. Perhaps 2013 will be the year an Irish studio pulls a Frederator and gets their own content up and available for worldwide viewing.

Otherwise, the Irish animation industry remains in great shape for 2013. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m outta here for obvious reasons 🙂

The State of Irish Animation in 2013 Read More »

Week Links 10-2013

Week Links / Charles Kenny

Quite a few week links for you today. Enjoy!

The Problem with Processed Storytelling

Richard Brody at The New Yorker touches on the 22 Rules of Storytelling at Pixar that have been making the rounds recently. His issue is that the results of such processes result in “the cinematic equivalent of irresistibly processed food, with a ramped-up and carefully calibrated dosing of the emotional versions of salt, sugar, and fat.”

Tom Sito’s History of Computer Animation

The FLIP Animation Blog has another excellent interview up. This time it’s not only with Tom Sito, but it’s all about CGI and computer animation in its early days and how it developed. Well worth some of your time to see how the technology developed.

2D or Not 2D, The Disney Feature Animation Legacy.

Thomas Coleman over on the Skwigly blog has a post where discusses whether or not traditional 2D animation is the legacy of Walt Disney and his company. His conclusions may surprise you.

Postman Pat is a beloved figure in Jordan

Yes, my childhood hero of a postman is apparently popular enough in the middle eastern country of Jordan to warrant his own CGI feature film. The Guardian takes a tongue-in-cheek look at this curious scenario.

Careful! You’ll Hurt Disney’s Feelings!

Mark Mayerson has a brilliant post over on his blog where he points out that the censorship that Disney engages in. Basically they use their copyright as a tool to squelch any parts of books that they do not like. As Mark points out, this immediately makes any book that is approved for publication immediately falls under the cloud of being potentially tainted by the Disney legal department’s hand and being considered “damaged goods” as far as the truth is concerned.

There is a term to describe this practice and it’s called ‘copyright abuse’. Copyright provides for the holder to prevent and prohibit unauthorised use of their material for commercial gain. Using it as a tool to prevent their inclusion under otherwise ‘fair use’ terms, is far outside of the intended use of copyright and thus becomes an abuse of the system.

Tweets of the Week

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/firstshowing/status/311122626355556353″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/amymebberson/status/311667011442839552″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/BoxnRoundhead/status/312544494811750401″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/jasontammemagi/status/312634799384821760″]

And Lastly

Via: yourfriendlyunicornhunter.tumblr.com

Yes, someone did cosplay as Jenny Wakeman (XJ-9) from My Life as a Teenage Robot at Momocon. Fair play to them 🙂

Week Links 10-2013 Read More »

Thoughts On The Angry Birds Cartoon

1 Comment / Opinion / Charles Kenny

Launching over tomorrow and Sunday is the Angry Birds cartoon series. Although on the surface a rather uneventful, uh, event, this series is unique in a few ways that we haven’t seen before. Let’s take a look at what they are and what they could mean for the series.

It’s Based on a Game

OK, this isn’t a new thing, but it is new that it’s based on a mobile game. Plenty of console characters have had their animated likeness plastered all over screens (Mario and Sonic being the obvious ones), but Angry Birds is the first game to make the leap from the mobile one.

Naturally, this was almost a given seeing how successful the series of games has been and over 1 billion downloads is nothing to sniff about for any form of media. This existing brand recognition among members of the public will do ithe Angry Birds cartoon no harm at all.

The Show Has a Supporting Empire

Yes, the studio behind the franchise, Rovio, has been harbouring ambitions beyond the video game and unless your vision isn’t the best, you’re bound to have noticed the proliferation of Angry Birds merchandise that was just about everywhere this past Christmas season.

Toys, stuffed animals, branded gimmicks; Angry Birds is on all of them and barring an over-saturation, the brand has the marketing pump well-primed to deliver a series into.

Contrast that with how a normal series builds up attention via broadcasts and tries to sell the merchandise thereafter. The risk to Rovio for the Angry Birds cartoon series is significantly less; a fact that is sure not to be lost on other studios. After all, why sink a huge amount of money into a series when you can cobble together an app or game for much less and build from there. Don’t laugh, Disney has already begun laying the groundwork.

Using the App for the Angry Birds Cartoon’s Distribution

This final point is where the Angry Birds cartoon really differs from the pack. Rovio is offering the series through the company’s Angry Birds mobile app (among other media)

The reasoning behind this is fairly obvious. Rovio’s software is installed on over 1 billion devices and seeing as they have the ability (through software updates) to add the necessary functionality to play videos, why not give their cartoon a prominent placement where it is likely to be seen by the very people most likely to watch!

The studio will release one short a week for an entire year. Each episode will be available through the app and you can be sure that every user will get a notification to say it’s available for viewing, a surefire way to drive up the viewing numbers.

This strategy is curious; sure Rovio will have a massive potential audience, but what of those of us who haven’t downloaded the game (or have Comcast for that matter?) It’s unlikely that people will download the app just to watch the series so is Rovio actually, purposefully, limiting their potential audience?

The signs seem to indicate yes, albeit on scale so massive it may not matter much today. Rovio will have to alter it or find an alternative in the future though. If their ambitions are to be believed, they will have to venture into the world beyond mobile phones to find greater success.

That said, all the best to them. I’ll be watching to see how well they do.

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Animation Ruins Movies!

2 Comments / Opinion / Charles Kenny

CGI vs storytelling

In a recent piece published on the New York Times website, Armond White (chief film critic of City Arts) makes the plea that the level of computer animation in mainstream films be reduced, lest moviegoers lose all sense of realism. The article is a short one, but it manages to mangle many of the myths surrounding animation into points with which to bash the technique.

It Kills A Movie’s Credibility

In this post-“Avatar” culture, Hollywood relies on digital effects to emphasize lavish other-worldly environments to give audiences what they want: escapism. But there’s also an escape from credibility happening here. Special effects used to bring us closer to realism; now they douse us in artifice. “Speed Racer,” anyone?

Don’t all audiences want escapism though? Surely that’s the reason they even watch films in the first place; as an alternative way to spend time than doing something in the real world. Does White purpose that animated special effects make films seems unbelievable? Because in the case of the two films he calls out, that’s precisely the point.

It’s hard to articulate his line about being driven away from realism though. Animated effects can do both in exactly the same way that makeup can. Makeup has been used since the dawn of cinema to facilitate an audience’s faith in constructed realism. Animated effects are no different; they manufacture realism when it is necessary and compliment reality when it is not.

It Pushes Technology Over Narrative

Technological excess has overwhelmed narrative meaning. This digital grandstanding suffocates what I — and D.W. Griffith and Andre Bazin and past generations of theorists, critics and cinematic practitioners — once considered the essence of cinema: nature and the human face.

This would be an appropriate statement if, and only if, computer animation was applied to every single film released in the manner that White describes. A scenario that patently doesn’t exist. The Hunger Games is a film that utilised CGI when it needed to (in Panem) but quite happily took in all the nature it could once the setting changed to the arena.

“Oz the Great and Powerful” has been digitized to look like a hyperactive coloring book

While Oz may or may not be an artistically significant film (this blogger leans towards the latter), the decision to rely on large amounts of computer animation for the look rests entirely with the studio that produced it. Said studio (Disney) has been noted as relying on so-called tentpole films that contain a lot of CGI for the precise reason that it draws in audiences. Artistic credibility is sufficiently absent from the list of goals for such films that emphasis star performers, grandiose plots and visual spectacle. To bemoan the lack of cinematic credibility in such films is comparable to decrying the dearth of opera on ESPN; it’s looking for something that will never be.

It’s Turning Us All Into Kids

Yes, unfortunately this tired argument gets rolled out yet again:

The further Hollywood gets from that essence, the more computer-generated imagery we will get. “Animation Domination,” as it’s advertised on the Fox network. It almost seems as if Hollywood’s emphasis on digital effects aims to turn moviegoers into children rather than aesthetically responsive viewers.

Yup. Animation is turning us all into kids because that’s what animation is meant for, right? NO! Just because the technique is prevalent in content that is suitable for young viewers in no way means that it is responsible for turning viewers into delinquent juveniles. If you want to make that argument, blame the content itself; how it is formed and presented has next to nothing to do with it.

Animation is capable of the full range of dramatic cinema that live-action film is and this fact is something that Mr. White should be aware of, but he has regretfully glossed over this in favour of using animation as an excuse for Hollywood’s risk-averse business decisions.

You Can See His Point Though

I do empathise with White when it comes to mainstream cinema though; a market where most big releases are increasingly following a formula (they always have of course, but it is obvious now more so than ever) and that formula just happens to call for lots of CGI and banal plots.

I cannot agree with his statement that we are “are suffering from digital effects overload, plain and simple”. The rise of the internet as a distribution platform and the plummeting costs of filmmaking equipment and technology means that there is a burgeoning independent scene that is all too happy to rely on the good old fashioned style of cinema that caters to artistic minds

Animation is not the source of cinema’s current slate. If anything, it is holding it up.

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Oh My Disney: When Fandom Goes Corporate

3 Comments / Business Models / Charles Kenny

Oh My Disney screenshot

Sprung up over the past month is a new website that deals with everything Disney, and in ways that are familiar to many fans out there. GIFs, top 10 lists of things, and other silly posts that appeal to the funnier side of Disney characters and films (for example, Damsels Not In Distress). However, for all the joviality, there is something that appears slightly off about Oh My Disney, which is not surprising since it’s the corporation itself that’s calling the shots.

The Indicators

If you visit the site, everything appears innocently enough:

Oh My Disney Lion King ad screenshot1

Sure the Disney Company makes no attempt to hide the corporate signage, but it doesn’t display them as prominently as you might expect them to either.

The posts themselves look appealing, even enticing with such titles as:

and

Disney Sneeze GIFs: The Best Thing You’ll See Today

But what’s this, right at the top?

Fantasy Bachelorette: The Lion King Edition

O…K… Maybe a contributor is a bit of a fan of that godawful show?

Nope:

With another round of The Bachelor coming to a close today (at 8|7c on ABC), we found ourselves asking the question on everyone’s mind: Who would win if all The Lion King men were pitted against one another on The Bachelorette?

Hmmm, that’s an all-too-subtle-yet-painfully-obvious “hint” that the show is on ABC tonight isn’t it? How many fan sites do you know crow about other properties within the Disney empire in such a blatant display of corporate synergy? Well, uh, none. (No, the ‘advertisement’ flags don’t count, they’re so ubiquitous on the web these days, they blend into the background.)

A bit further down the page we get the marketing schtick for the latest Oz movie that [oh so conveniently] just hit cinemas here in the US.

These blatant promotional posts are not slammed down users’ throats, but they are dispersed just enough to make them appear to be of similar thread than the less serious ones.

The Problems With The Oh My Disney Model

It would be all to easy to point out and discuss the rash of commercial posts on the site, but that would be the obvious (and therefore, easy) choice. No, what Oh My Disney represents is a company attempting to subvert the very fan culture and trust that sustains it.

You see, fans and fandom help support studios, but more often than not, they reside outside of the studios control. Sure, there is some communication (one-way most of the time) but if a studio tries to pull the rope, fandoms can react in the most unpredictable ways (just look at how many ‘reboots’ have been needed over the years.)

With Oh My Disney, the company is attempting to, not so much manufacture, but certainly to control how fans interact with the company and its content. It is trying to not only dictate which content is appropriate, but it is also attempting to dictate how fans react with it.

Just look at the Lion King post, who the heck isn’t going to click on that? Everyone likes the Lion King (except me). The same goes for all the other ‘original’ posts that give fans a few golden nuggets of joy.

The problem is that OMD remains a corporate entity, and thus, it also retains the one-way communication. You can share posts wherever you want, but if you disagree, you won’t be able to air your dissatisfaction on Disney’s website.

Ultimately, Oh My Disney subverts fandom because it strives to prove that the company itself can do it better. That they can create better, funnier posts and that they can sneak in some advertising while they’re at it. That’s a betrayal of fan’s trust, who have already been doing so for years without any help and still remaining loyal to the company.

How are they expected to feel when they learn that not only is Disney muscling in on their turf, they’re trying to sell to them as well? You know the answer as well as I do. At the end of the day, it’s dishonest, but then what else are we to expect from Disney these days.

The Alternatives

These should be pretty obvious, but just about everywhere not connected to the Disney Company. They’ll even be real fans, just like you on the other side of the computer screen doing it for the love, not a marketing employee doing it for the money.

Is Oh My Disney a corporate wolf in sheep’s clothing? Let us know with a comment!

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Checking in on the Bravest Warriors

5 Comments / Animation, Frederator / Charles Kenny

It’s been about four months since we wrote about the innovative attempt by Frederator to bring high-quality animated content to the online masses with the Bravest Warriors. With the first season coming to an end it makes sense to pay them a visit and see how well they’ve done.

The Numbers

As with every form of media, the numbers are extremely important and Bravest Warriors is no exception. Although it is still very early to say, the numbers are nonetheless impressive for a web series. The most viewed episode was number 3, Butter Lettuce with 2.068,624 people having watched it as of writing with the current average views per episode coming in just under the 1 million mark

The Viewing Pattern

Just as important as the viewing numbers has been the viewing patterns. Just check out the graph for the first episode, Time Slime:

time slime views

Notice something interesting? Yes, it’s spectacularly linear! traditional TV broadcasts only measure spikes when each episode is broadcast, and that only occurs once a week. With the internet, viewers can watch and be measured at any time, and the chart above should be of interest to anyone in content.

The fact that it is so linear means that viewing is fairly constant. Naturally, the audience consists of new and repeat viewers, the data for which is not publicly available. However, one would expect to see a sharp slope at the beginning followed by a long plateau. That is not the case however, and suggests that people are using the freedom of the web to view whenever is convenient for them. The result is a stabler, more predictable viewing pattern.

The Totals

In total, Bravest Warriors has so far pulled in over 10.6 million views. That’s awesome! How many cable (maybe even broadcast networks?) would like those kinds of totals for their shows? The best part is that number is far from final. Since the last episode isn’t even a week old, you can be certain that it will garner close to the average for the earlier episodes which is between 800,000 and a million viewers. That would put the final figure for the series at over 12 million views.

Twelve. Million. Views.

Even just two years ago, that kind of number would have been pie in the sky for an animated web series (an original one, not a one-off or a Charlie the Unicorn-like now-and-then series.) They exemplify how far the shift to online viewing has come. Remember, YouTube is barely seven years old and it still hosts a lot of cat videos.

The Future of the Bravest Warriors

What does all this hold for the future? Well a second season is a foregone conclusion at this stage, but in the broader sense, it proves that it is possible to succeed online with an animated series. Oh sure, a lot remains to be seen and the studio is keeping tight-lipped on how the financials look, but given how well the series is promoted, how well Frederator has been at getting the merchandise out and the generally positive reviews the series has received (<2% thumbs down), it’s safe to say that Bravest Warriors has been a hit.

Would you call Bravest Warriors a hit? Could it have done better? Let us know with a comment!

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Female Characters: A Short Guide

Animation / Charles Kenny

Here’s a short guide by Lauriellando on how female characters are all too often represented in comics, video games and even some animation:

While it is tempting to think that such forms of entertainment are enjoyed only by those on the periphery, but the truth is different. Plenty of people enjoy them in a casual manner and plenty of them are teenagers. The problem is that they send the wrong message that can, and is, filtered and extrapolated into false truths.

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Week Links 09-2013

2 Comments / Week Links / Charles Kenny

A lot of week links today. Some you may have already read, others probably not. Enjoy!

The Life and Death of Looney Tunes Producers: Schlesinger and Selzer

The reincarnation of Jerry Beck’s Cartoon Research site is throwing up plenty of golden nuggets. One of the latest is this excellent post about Leon Schlesinger and Edward Selzer and two non-animating men were responsible for some of the greatest cartoons ever committed to celluloid. As I say in my comment, it’s a real shame their style of management has fallen by the wayside.

DreamWorks Animation: Where Innovation and Imagination Collide

The Motley Fool has this mostly-fluff piece about DreamWorks and how technology is used throughout the company. The gist of the article is that the company is worthy of investor interest and has potential. Its still worth a minute of your time though.

Animation Learns a New Language

Michael Sporn over on his Splog has a complete article from the July, 1946 issue of The Hollywood Quarterly of the above title. Written by John Hubley and Zachary Schwartz, it discusses how animation was adapted during World War II to much more than entertainment. A comprehensive article that will be of interest to anyone with an interest in animation history.

How Disney Bought Lucasfilm—and Its Plans for ‘Star Wars’

You might have already seen this on other sites, but if not, definitely head over to Businessweek and have a read. Essentially, it was a very lucrative business deal for both parties.

Shopping as the New Prince

Peggy Orenstein details a new video game from Disney entitled ‘City Girl’. Here’s the description:

With suitcase in hand, it’s time to leave your small-town life behind and head to the big city to make your dreams come true! Do you have what it takes to skyrocket to stardom? In the spirit of Sorority Life, Disney City Girl gives players the chance to engage in a stylish and aspirational virtual world!

As a recent New York transplant, the player will explore the city with the help of her fabulous friends, from BFF Jenna to adventurous Auntie Kate. She’ll discover the best places to shop and hang out, choose from a variety of glamorous career paths, and visit exotic locations. As she progresses through her career, your City Girl will accrue style points, continually decorating and upgrading apartments, expanding her wardrobe, and facing off with her friends in “Daily Look” fashion competitions! From a grungy studio to a Park Avenue penthouse, from overworked intern to successful CEO, from country bumpkin to glamour girl, City Girl will keep you coming back again and again.

Peggy does a good job of outlining why such a game is totally unrealistic and not just because it encourages false dreams. It’s a bit of a shame that a large corporation like Disney feels the need to pander to perceived tastes rather than taking a stand.

But… the Little Mermaid gave up her voice!

On the subject of Disney, Rebecca Hains saw the trailer for (now-shelved) The Little Mermaid 3-D release and noticed that the trailer proclaims that the film “gave voice to a whole generation”.

Eh? I’m scratching my head with that one. Head over to Rebecca’s blog for her thoughts and comments.

Animation Studies Blog

The Society for Animation Studies has launched a blog on their website. It looks at animation in a much more ‘academic’ sense and covers topics that you are unlikely to find anywhere else on the web.