|
||
|
July 2, 2009
 The full Fantasia 2009 lineup will be announced soon, but here are some of the animation highlights of North American's largest cult film festival, right in fps's home base of Montreal. I'm excited about Genius Party Beyond, Studio 4C's companion to Genius Party, shown last year at the festival. Hells Angels is a Madhouse production with a star crew behind this manga adaptation. Cencoroll is an anime feature that seems quite intriguing. Seems equally intriguing, but with a more sedate, less over-the-top storytelling style. The feature Les Lascars is based on the French cult show of the same name and should go over well with the boisterous festival crowd (if you've not yet made it to a Fantasia festival screening, the involvement of the audience is worth the price of the ticket alone). Tokyo Onlypic 2008 looks like it will be a side-splitter. It's an anthology of animated and live-action shorts describing outrageous Olympic-style events. Check out Bill Plympton's Race For Love in the trailer. DJ XL5's Razzle Dazzle Zappin' Party promises another year or crazily juxtaposed shorts (many animated) simulating the channel-changing experience... to the power of ten. Celluloid Experiments always features edgy animation selections in its roster. I doubt this year will be any different. You'll be able to view the full schedule online and procure a printed festival program with a DVD full of trailers on Friday. Hope you can survive the wait! Labels: Fantasia festival, features, festivals, France, Japan, Madhouse, shorts, Studio 4C June 22, 2009
 The Snowman, Street of Crocodiles, Girls Night Out, Creature Comforts, Screen Play, Bob’s Birthday, The Man With the Beautiful Eyes, City Paradise, Rabbit: A truncated litany of some of the brilliant shorts that since the mid-1980’s have defined British animation the world over, and are jaw-droppingly impressive. What they, and the unlisted others, share apart from their creative potency is, perversely enough, an institution. A government mandated, uniquely funded institution that luckily for all of us was peopled by passionate souls who cared about art and diversity (writ large), and who actively contrived to put money and resources into the hands of the most talented, fecund creators they could uncover. No, not the NFB (but thanks for thinking of us) Britain’s Channel 4 – or Channel Four, more correctly – television network.In British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor, Clare Kitson, Channel 4’s commissioning editor for animation throughout the 1990s, has written a humane and intimate history of the ups and downs of animation at the Channel, leavening it with just the right amount of dry wit, personal insight and anecdote. The book is a deft balance between an academic tome offering historical context and background and an eye-opening guide to anyone interested in the many behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings that go on to actually get these kinds of films made and-most importantly in Channel 4’s case-on to air. As an NFB producer, the themes that resonated for me (both for the echoes and the dissonances) are Kitson’s perspective as a commissioning editor rather than a producer, and the Channel’s intrinsic ability (and sometimes inability) to get things onto TV screens around the UK. While these are not mass audiences by most standards, they are certainly much larger audiences than short animation otherwise gets on broadcast television – if our films get onto television at all. Such a luxury, but as Kitson points out also such a curse, was each season’s scheduling matrix even for a broadcaster so committed to diversities of topic, technique and running length. The Channel 4 Factor is valuable history. But as memoir about what Kitson likes and why, it’s revealing and fun, and already well exceeds the price of admission. The middle section, in particular, reveals the makings of several of the Channel’s most famous films from her own unique vantage point along with the filmmakers’ own tellings of the tale. It’s as a sociological dissection of how such an organization came about, almost from whole cloth, where Clare hits her stride. As a case study, Kitson offers up much of the recipe for success that created and sustained both Channel 4 and the NFB. Indeed, parallels to the NFB regularly caused me pleasant surprise. Compressed in active years, Channel 4’s animation history is like the NFB’s but accordioned into itself three times over. I suspect many producers see commissioning editors as mercurial demagogues, unaware of real work of filmmaking and blithely changing objectives and mandates from season to season. Kitson quite effectively put that myth to rest. She reveals the very passionate people who created an ethos committed to being background players. Producers boosted artists by giving them money to make films, but more importantly by creating a culture that was willing to take big risks on small films. Here’s the original job posting for Channel 4 commissioning editors: Television production experience may be an advantage but is not essential. Whether your passion is angling or cooking, fringe theatre, rock, politics, philosophy or religion, if you believe you can spot a good idea and help others realise it on the screen, we are looking for commissioning editors and would like to hear from you. Clearly, the early, passionate years of Channel 4 were driven by both by its unique mission and by strength of personality and will of its editors and executives. What kind of society is predisposed to permitting such a creature to be born, and more importantly, to live and thrive? Is it peculiar to Anglo-Saxon socialism, which would also explain the NFB? Kitson writes about diversity and minority remits (but not just about skin colour or ethnicity or orientation) and cultural big thinkers who believed in social change and art as the change tool. She admires a 1980s UK society and a handful of faithful who were ready to lift and be lifted to a new plateau of humanity and criticality, of engagement and responsibility. While not of the same soaring oratory and historic portent of Barack Obama’s presidency, Channel 4 changed the game. I wonder if Mr. Obama might see PBS and the NEA anew were he to read The Channel 4 Factor. I suspect he already carries those convictions or ones quite similar, but I’m quite certain he’d enjoy the animation education he’d get from Kitson's caring and insightful writing. Of course, there’s no telling what the success-to-fail ratio was for Channel 4’s roster, much as it’s hard to know for the NFB unless one is dogged and inclined to statistics. There’s a chance many animators are like me and prone to apocrypha rather than evidence. Although I do think it’s absolutely true that reputations are built on equal parts evidence and belief, and it’s only when belief has no tangible, recent success to riff on that paper lions are revealed and fairly scrutinized. The ratios may have dipped a bit in recent years, but Kitson leaves us with hope for British animation by the book’s end, and it’s a hope I share in all my various capacities within the animation shorts world. We always need a secular, art-centric “city upon a hill” that challenges and binds us. There are precious few such institutions left, but Clare Kitson has given valuable clues and insights in how to go forth and multiply.  Michael Fukushima is a producer in the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio, apparently with a bit of closeted anglophilia.Where To Get It British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor, by Clare Kitson published by University of Indiana Press (North America) and Parliament Hill Publishing (UK). Labels: books, Clare Kitson, reviews, shorts, Television, United Kingdom April 29, 2009
 To pay homage the generous donation of former Cinematheque quebecoise director Robert Daudelin's exceptional collection of Jazz vinyl records and periodicals to the Phonotheque quebecoise, the Cinematheque will be screening some musical animation gems.Some of the shorts, notably Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and Tin Pan Alley Cats are controversial for what many (including myself) consider racist imagery, which was the norm for the dominant popular culture of the day. What many of these shorts also have is unparalleled animation with an incredible sountrack and unparalelled timing. This screening also features a new 35mm print of The Greatest Man in Siam, newly acquired by the Cinematheque. Catch it on Thursday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m., but if you miss it, you get a second chance on May 14. Labels: Bob Clampett, Cinematheque quebecoise, Dave Fleischer, Friz Freleng, George Pal, John Hubley, Montreal, Shamus Culhane, shorts, Tex Avery February 27, 2009
Spring break is here and it is time for Festival international de films pour enfants de Montreal (FIFEM) once again. The opening film from France, Mia et le Migou is far from the only animated selection this year, but it is definitely an interesting one. The film's director is Jacques-Remy Girerd, the producer of Tragic Story with Happy Ending and Hungu (recently featured in the NFB Screening Room) and director of delightful La prophétie des grenouilles (Raining Cats and Frogs). Mia was released in France last year, and is proving to be a hit with families. Another animated feature that recently received accolades, Nocturna, a 2007 feature from Spain, is also screening. In all there are five animated features to keep the kids and their animation-friendly parents interested. fps favourites Komaneko and Ludovic are back in the Mini-cinephiles program track, geared toward animation for children as young as 2 or 3. Komaneko is a stop-motion cat, who likes to make stop-motion films. Ludovic is a little teddy bear whose educational and inventive tales are also told using stop-motion animation, directed by Co Hoedeman, Oscar winner for the short, Sand Castle. The Ludovic television series is a follow-up to the Four Seasons in the Life of Ludovic shorts. Even more shorts will screen before feature films, including Konstantin Bronzit's Oscar-nominated short, A Lavatory Lovestory. Do it for the kids... er, les enfants... all fillms will be screening in French or with French subtitles. Labels: Canada, features, FIFEM, France, Japan, Montreal, Russia, shorts, Spain January 28, 2009
 For those who missed last year's Ottawa International Animation Festival or who simply can't wait for this year's edition, the Best of the Ottawa 2008 is coming soon to Montreal's Cinema du Parc as well as other selected venues. Films included in the program include A Letter to Colleen and the Mixy Tapes, The Comic that Frenches your Mind, Run Wrake's The Control Master and OIAF Grand Prize winner Chainsaw. Labels: Chainsaw, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Run Wrake, shorts December 10, 2008
Today is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
An animated declaration from Human Rights Action Center: As evidenced by recent films like Persepolis and Waltz With Bashir, animation does not shy away from issues of politics and personhood. This more abstract embodiment of the declaration is from Amnesty International and, like the first short, has a hypnotic soundtrack and an important message: Labels: shorts December 4, 2008
 Whoa! Christmas shows up early for Montreal animation lovers. This year's Sommets du cinema d'animation de Montreal (Montreal Animation Summit) literally explodes this year, with an expanded lineup, including exhibits and great guests.As in recent years, Marco de Blois, animation curator at the Cinematheque quebecoise, has gathered some of the year's best animated shorts in two programs screening on Friday and Saturday. This year, the audience gets to vote on their favourite and award a public prize to the best director. This is just the beginning. This weekend includes a program of the notable international student films from 2006, 2007, and 2008; the best recent Canadian animation; and a free screening of Acme Filmworks and Animation World Network's The Show of Shows, presented by Ron Diamond. I'm not done yet: A major restrospective, Du praxinoscope au cellulo (From Praxinoscope to Cel), is divided into three programs, two of them specifically targeted to include younger viewers. This film series focuses on the evolution of French moving images, and touches on drawings, marionettes, and pin, cell, cut-out, mixed media, and computer animation. This is an extraordinary chance to see shorts by Emile Cohl, Ladislaw Starevich, and Paul Grimault, among others. Now get a load of these prices. Free 0–5 years accompanied by an adult Free Show of Shows $4 6–15 years $6 students and seniors $7 adults $50 CinéSommets passport, all-access pass For the full schedule, including parties and concurrent exhibits, download the PDF program. Labels: Canada, events, exhibitions, festivals, France, Montreal, schools, shorts November 1, 2008
 I first saw The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2005 during the short film competition on Saturday night. I remember that particular program was exceptional, but this short was the most remarkable of the lot for me. It appeals to several biases: it has both a steampunk and a gothic horror motif; the story has excellent pacing and takes it time, but ropes you in; and it looks gorgeous, using a silhouette animation style reminiscent of Lotte Reiniger, but refined for our times with motion graphics and digital compositing. This short, directed by Anthony Lucas, is supposed to be the first of a trilogy. Last week, the distributor Monster Distributes put the entire short up on Youtube and quite deservedly, it is one of the featured shorts in the Youtube Screening Room. Perhaps the short will gain new fans, hastening the next installment. As if this weekend wasn't creepy enough. Check this out. Labels: Anthony Lucas, australia, Lotte Reiniger, shorts, silhouette animation The Animation Show wraps up at the end of the month. If you checked the tour's website, you may think you missed the Montreal leg, but it actually began yesterday and runs until November 6th. Use the Cinema du Parc's schedule for the correct showtimes. If you missed it in your city, or saw it and liked it, stay tuned to the official website or console yourself with The Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD. Labels: Animation Show, Montreal, shorts October 22, 2008
  The National Film Board is getting an early start on World Animation Day festivities and is turning the party out well after. From October 24 to November 12, Canadians in 13 cities will be able to enjoy free screenings of the Get Animated! series to celebrate World Animation Day (October 28). Get Animated! features one program of ten new works (including Theodor Ushev's Drux Flux and George Schwizgebel's Retouches) and a second of ten children's animation shorts (including Claude Cloutier's Sleeping Betty, and shorts from Hothouse 4 participants Carla Coma and Jody Kramer). Many of the cities will include complementary screenings and workshops in addition to these programs. Two short are available at the event site. Just click a graphic above to view Howie Shia's Flutter (top) or Tali's At Home With Mrs. Hen. Thanks, Matt and Jody! Labels: Calgary, Edmonton, events, Halifax, Hothouse, Moncton, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, shorts, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg October 16, 2008
  Independent animator Bill Plympton's feature Idiots and Angels will be screened this Saturday at the 2008 Toronto After Dark genre film festival, running from October 17th to 24th. Plympton's 2007 short, Shut-Eye Hotel, will also be shown on Sunday as a part of the Shorts After Dark program, which also features Michael Langan's Doxology, and includes an even split of live-action and animation shorts. Previously on fps Bill Plympton Labels: Bill Plympton, features, festivals, Michael Langan, shorts, Toronto, Toronto After Dark October 14, 2008
The Cinematheque Quebecoise will be screening a retrospective of George Schwizgebel's shorts on Wednesday, October 15th at 6:30 p.m with the animator present. You can also catch an exhibition of his paintings there, which runs until November 9th. I've included a clip of Jeu, one of the films those in attendance will get to see in addition to Schwizgebel's latest film Retouches, which is among one of my favourite shorts viewed at this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival. Previously on fps Jeu: George Schwizgebel's Games Without Frontiers Mindtravel Labels: Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, shorts, Switzerland September 24, 2008
Hot on the heels of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the Cinematheque quebecoise is offering a festival highlight in Montreal. Jonas Odell's retrospective, Revolver Bang! Bang! will be shown on September 24th, and it repeats on September 26.
I've provided a loose translation of Marco de Blois's description on the CQ website. In 1981 in Stockholm, three students who loved illustration and animation formed a studio they named Filmtecknarna. Initially, Jonas Odell, Lars Ohlson and Stig Bergqvist dedicated their activities to production and direction of short auteur films. But a few years later, a new opportunity presented itself for the directors. Private television stations in Sweden had a demand for content that the studio worked to satisfy. Therefore, the founders threw themselves into the direction of television animation, commercials and music videos, as well as returning periodically to short films. Imprinting an incomparable stylistic cohesiveness to their productions, Filmtecknarna attained international reknown. When one has clients, for example, like Ikea, BMW, U2 and Franz Ferdinand, one can meaningfully consider one's notoriety. Another key moment in Filmtecknarna's history occurred in 1993 when festivals the world over attacked by an unidentified object, Revolver, which brought together the three founders and Martti Ekstrand. Even today it exerts a fascination the holds the spectator: this strange black and white film, made with looped movements and evoking the aesthetic of Muybridge and the Fleischer brothers, reveals a story of the world with nothing left but a few mysterious fragments. Odell went on to follow a fruitful career in music videos, without abandoning short auteur films, deepening his approach in which the desire to seize the real applied itself on his sense of design that, paradoxically, has little to do with realism. In Family & Friends, he dives into his memory to create the coloured portrait of jaded people he has met in which the memory haunts him still. For the acclaimed Never Like the First Time!, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006, he provides a graphic counterpoint to real interviews with people who recount a defining moment of their existence: their first sexual encounter. The programme, curated by the filmmaker himself, is composed of Revolver, My Best Friend Plank, Family & Friends, Never Like the First Time! and a series of music videos created for Franz Ferdinand, U2, Goldfrapp, The Hours, Audio Bullys, Erasure, Feeder et Mad Action. The Cinémathèque acquired a new 35mm copy of Revolver in 2006 thanks to the five generous donors. In addition, the filmmaker has a special surprise, his most recent film, Lies, which just had its world premiere at the Mostra de Venise. Here's another video directed by Odell: Smile, by The Cobbs. Labels: Filmtecknarna, Jonas Odell, music videos, shorts, Sweden September 17, 2008
 It's been a crazy year, but I have been looking forward to the Ottawa International Animation Festival, well.. since the last one ended. This is always the case. Emru will miss his first festival since 1988, but Brenden Fletcher, Rene Walling and I will be taking in the fest, and we'll try to bring some of it back to you, too. As usual, there lineup is exceptional. I don't know how I am going to make to all of the special screenings and retrospectives. Just a few of my must-see list items include the Michael Sporn and Jonas Odell retrospectives, Brainwashed! Cartoons That Tell Us What To Think, and The New Wave of Japanese Animation. Richard Williams' presentation (in interview with John Canemaker) would be in my list, but it's sold already out, which is altogether unsurprising considering the circumstances. If there are any seats left 15 minutes before the event, rush tickets will be sold, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I will have to satisfy myself with a special screening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? instead. I'm also looking forward to the Yo Gabba Gabba! presentation on Saturday. I haven't even gotten into the masterclasses, workshops and panels. Honestly, it's like trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket. I'm going to enjoy trying! Labels: features, festivals, Jonas Odell, Michael Sporn, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Richard Williams, shorts September 4, 2008
The Montreal chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH is holding its season opener with an open-air screening in the park next to their usual haunt, the Society for Arts and Technology. Selections from the 2008 Computer Animation Festival will be shown, and while the event is free, you can pick up your annual membership to help support the chapter. "Doors open" on Saturday, September 6, at 9:30 at Parc de la Paix. There's more info on the SAT website. 2008 SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival trailer September 3, 2008
 La cinematheque quebecoise is screening recent Chinese animated shorts on Thursday, September 4th. Marcel Jean is the guest programmer. I've provided a loose English translation of what he wrote on the CQ website. Faced with feeding it numerous television stations, China has recently become, on a quantitative scale, one of the most important producers of animation in the world. Seeking to limit imported productions from Japan and Korea, Chinese officials are basically encouraging local production by creating high production quotas and encouraging the creation of major schools, equipped with cutting-edge technology, which trains thousands of animators on a yearly basis. Labels: China, Cinematheque quebecoise, Montreal, shorts August 17, 2008
Every year there's something in the Japan Media Arts Festival's Entertainment Division which also happens to be animated, and worth a mention. (The categories are porous like that.) This year that honour goes to the music video for Ryukyudisko's "Nice Day." The entire video is a progression of still photographs starting somewhere in the 1970s, with a couple getting busy under the covers and producing a young boy. We watch him get older, get a job, and then he hits the clubs and meets a girl–and the whole starts going into reverse, as we go back into the girl's history. However, we find ourselves going back even farther than her parents, for reasons that eventually become apparent—and the eventual trip forward again carries its own surprises. There's a lot of whimsy in this video, and the pity of the Flash-based video above is that you lose some of the detail in the historical photos, as well as the deliberate colour choices to replicate older film (up to a point—director Junji Kojima skimps a little when he starts getting into the 1930s and earlier). By the way, if you think the tune is catchy you can drop a couple of sawbucks for an import of the single at Amazon. Labels: anime, Beat Crusaders, festivals, Japan, Japan Media Arts Festival, Junji Kojima, music videos, Ryukyudisko, shorts  Veterans of animation festivals know that the term "short film" is pretty elastic, from Malcolm Bennett's 30-second Rocky to Yuri Norstein's 29-minute Tale of Tales. They also know that the longer films are usually programmed at the tail end of a given screening, and that prior to the end of the Cold War many of those films were from Eastern Bloc countries—often gorgeous, sometimes inscrutable, sometimes dark. What's surprising about the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival's award-winning works is that there are four films that pass the twenty-minute mark. The longest, Love Rollercoaster, is the most straightforward. The remaining three are reminiscent of those old Eastern Bloc films. I'll start off with the 21-minute Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor because (a) director Koji Yamamura pretty much roped me in with his Mt. Head and The Old Crocodile a few years back; (b) it's actually based on the work of the Jewish-Czech Kafka, which gives it that weirdness that can be supplied only by Eastern European creators in general, and Kafka in particular; and (c) I can't help re-watching it whenever I can. Like any Kafka story, A Country Doctor starts with a seemingly normal premise combined (a country doctor is summoned at night to take care of a young patient) with some bizarre aspect ("unearthly horses" transport him there instantly). As in Kafka's better-known The Metamorphosis, the introduction of the preternatural element marks the moment the protagonist can never go back to the way things were. As in Yamamura's Mt. Head, the pace, sketchy images, and hand-drawn transformations complement the story nicely. At the rate A Country Doctor has been racking up awards, I think Yamamura's going to have to put serious thought into new shelving.  Ryu Kato's The Clockwork City also mines the surreal with traditional tools. The film is pretty much wordless, and you should expect to have to work at sorting some aspects of it out. A young visitor comes to a new city, and it's quickly apparent she doesn't quite fit in—every person, every bird, and even a few buildings have these wind-up mechanisms stuck in them, and she doesn't. After exploring the city for a little while she meets with the town's honcho (who wears a wind-up crown) and exchanges fruits and other goods. Soon after the city goes to war with an unknown enemy, its soldiers identically featureless and wearing blue ties and white shirts. In the aftermath, our protagonist confronts the top man and his flunkies over the discovery of a giant wind-up key; what mysteries does it hold? This is definitely on my "must rewatch" list. Yusuke Sakamoto's The Dandelion Sister takes us into the realm of stop-motion animation, where a young girl has to contend with her older, sick sister—who happens to be a giant dandelion. There's a lot going on here: There's the younger sister missing out on social activities because of her responsibilities; her resentment of how much attention is heaped on her sick sister; her inability to draw, and express her feelings; and her fear of her sister's death. Like The Clockwork City, The Dandelion Sister is wordless, but as its concerns are more grounded in reality it's open to a number of interpretations about adolescence, caring for sick relatives, and acceptance.Labels: anime, festivals, Japan, Japan Media Arts Festival, Koji Yamamura, Ryu Kato, shorts, Yusuke Sakamoto August 16, 2008
 Another odd little parallel shared by some of the award-winning animation shorts in the Japan Media Arts Festival: three of them had to do with birthdays—after a fashion. My least favourite of the trio was also the longest: Hiromasa Horie's Love Rollercoaster unfortunately has nothing to do with the Ohio Players song, but is instead about a cutesy young bear cub named John trying to solve the mystery of a mysterious birthday present left behind my his late mother. Involved in the search are his friends, and they soon drag in the creepy Lovegun, an eyeless, sharp-toothed green-skinned critter who lives half in and half out of a rocketship. I like the idea behind some of the characters (especially the pair of mischievous panda siblings), and the overall story idea is a solid one—the ending is particularly sweet. But the whole thing is killed by the execution. As a clay animation fan it shouldn't bother me that a CGI film tries to emulate a plasticine look for its characters. And I've never had a problem with Japan's cult of kawaii. But whenever the characters talk or scrunch their eyes, their skin wrinkles and folds in an a way that quickly renders them uncute. I'm sure John's initial concept drawings were very cute, but his textured skin, along with the bags under his eyes and all that wrinkliness just made me ill. Throw in excessive camera movement, the same kind of needless bobbing and weaving that bothered me in Skyland, and a half-hour–plus running time, and, well... let's just say that sometimes I watch these things so you don't have to. (As an aside, I should mention that Love Rollercoaster is one of several projects generated from a Japanese talent incubator called Anime Innovation Tokyo. I'd rather have seen just about anything else their creators have put together.)  The much shorter, lo-fi Ushi-nichi (or, as the English titles say, Happy Birthday) is pretty much Love Rollercoaster's exact opposite. Created with pencil and paper (complete with smudges) by Hiroko Ichinose, the nine-minute short features a motley crew of characters each going through their own machinations. A man stands in the desert waiting to hitch a ride, but turns down almost everyone who stops for him; a man wakes up every morning transformed in some way (extra-long arms, a huge 'fro) and cheerily skips to the employment office to find new work based on his condition; a woman starts eating pieces of her pet giraffe, mindless of the transformations it causes to her own body. Everything comes together in a whimsical denouement. Deep meaning? Who cares? The jittery, rough and utterly charming style makes the whole film a pleasure. Meanwhile, Toshiaki Hanzaki's Birthday puts another spin on the word, relating the evolution of life on Earth from one-celled organisms to man and, it seems, beyond. Working mostly with silhouetted forms, it's slicker than Ushi-nichi, but it is, if anything, more whimsical, with its portrayal of a giant fanged asteroid killing the dinosaurs and aliens accelerating our evolution. (It's also in the opposite direction of Hanzaki's earlier Birds, my favourite of the Digital Content Association of Japan's 2005 Digital Creators Competition's award-winning works.) Finally, at about a minute and a half, it's more compact. It gets where it needs to go, and then ends. Brevity really is the soul of wit.Labels: anime, CGI, festivals, Hiroko Ichinose, Hiromasa Horie, Japan, Japan Media Arts Festival, shorts, Toshiaki Hanzaki  One of the pleasures of film festivals, whether you're watching them or organizing them, is in discovering unintended themes in the films. Sometimes it's inevitable, such as when social or political issues are on everyone's mind, but these are so unsurprising as to almost be banal. It's the small, quirky and sometimes trivial themes that are the most interesting to discover, and this year's award-winning short animation offerings from the Japan Media Arts Festival has a few worth mentioning. One thing I look forward to in any compilation is when people take a backward step, especially when it comes to CGI. There's such a tendency to lard on the detail, be it photorealistic or natural-media or whatever, that few make the deliberate choice to step back and pare things down. This year three films made a point of dialing down the detail, each in different ways. Youhei Murakoshi's Blockman goes the furthest. The viewer peers through a telescope to a strange world where everything is made up of identically sized cubes. Some are black, most are white, some make larger blocks, and some of the larger blocks have faces, courtesy of dots or lines on individual blocks. The curious lifeforms walk, fly, float, combine and come apart in a variety of ways, with the telescope lazily floating from one vista to another. The effect is similar to that of the even more minimalist Dice—an earlier Japan Media Arts Festival honoree—but perhaps more mesmerizing.  Sejiro Kubo, Ichiro Tanida and Katsunori Aoki collaborated on Copet, a series of shorts starring a cast of animals that are all straight lines and simple curves, plugged together like deranged Lego. At first glance it's appallingly cute, but little touches like camera shake and nifty bits of business (like a gorilla who repeatedly shivers himself out of a stupor) are at odds with the simplistic motion, and the tension works. But what really kept my attention were the bits that didn't follow the simple-is-better formula, like an erupting volcano, a meteor streaking toward Earth and water that looks, well, watery. The characters' occcasional forays into the live-action world, along with incomprehensible but still amusing storylines were also bonuses. If you can read Japanese you can check out the Copet website, which goes into the shorts' world in considerable depth and pimps Copet merch, including a DVD. Hiroshi Chida's Boneheads was produced by Polygon Pictures, which I mention because it shares a certain aesthetic sensibility with Polygon's Polygon Family shorts, in which the characters' blockiness is celebrated, rather than smoothed and textured to death. But Polygon Family is mostly monochrome, whereas Boneheads' colour pops with Day-Glo intensity. The latter's characters are also ever so slightly asymmetrical, which just makes them kookier.Moreover, where Polygon Family's animated used the anime and fighting videogame idioms, Boneheads is pure, non-stop Tex Avery-style mania (it's running time of seven minutes makes it even more reminiscent of a Golden Age cartoon). Roccos and Bone are two primitive creatures fighting over bananas—between themselves, and between other critters who get wind of the tasty fruit (or them). The whole thing is really just an escalating chase scene, but as every Blues Brothers fan knows, that's not really a bad thing. Radar Cartoons reps Polygon in the U.S., and Boneheads was produced for Viacom, so here's hoping that it pops up on our screens soon. Labels: anime, CGI, festivals, Hiroshi Chida, Ichiro Tanida, Japan, Japan Media Arts Festival, Katsunori Aoki, Polygon Pictures, Sejiro Kubo, shorts, Youhei Murakoshi August 13, 2008
 Gallery Nucleus in Los Angeles will be hosting The Great Great Grand Show, beginning August 16th and continuing until September 1st. Saturday's opening reception runs from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., and you're encouraged to show up in historical garb if you have it (ninjas and pirates welcome). Two of the artists exhibiting are Scott Campbell and Graham Annable, both Hickee comics anthology contributors. Scott C has also contributed work to I Am 8-Bit and Totoro Forest Project, and Graham's known for his comic foray, Grickle, whose misadventures continue in animated form. He is also a story artist on Coraline, Laika's much anticipated feature. Here's The Last Duet On Earth, a little future history until you get to see Graham's latest, From Whence Before Times, which debuts at the show. The show is rounded out by Flight regular Israel Sanchez, and Jon Klaasen, who animated the super-sweet Eye for Annai. Several of us fps-side are huge fans of this short. So if you're in LA on Saturday, you know where you need to be. Labels: comics, events, exhibitions, Los Angeles, shorts August 12, 2008
 Christmas has come early over at Disneyanimation.com! The official website of the Walt Disney Animation Studios is previewing their new projects in a variety of ways: including some new artwork highlighting the visual development of the upcoming 2-D animated feature, The Princess and the Frog. More images after the jump:    Click over to Disneyanimation.com and explore the site fully to view more development work from The Princess and the Frog as well as info and images from the films Bolt, Rapunzel, King of the Elves and a variety of upcoming shorts. Labels: Bolt, Disney, shorts, The Princess and the Frog August 11, 2008
Radiohead is reaching into their own pockets to award $10,000 each to the 4 first place winners of their video contest. The band had been meant to pick a single victor, who would then be furnished the prize money by sponsor, Aniboom to complete a video project. Upon witnessing the astonishing quality of the eventual winners, Radiohead has decided to once again break the rules and spread the cash-love around to Kota Totori of Japan (aka Hideyuki Kota), Wolfgang Jaiser and Claus Winter of Germany (aka 16tracks), Clement Picon of France, and Tobias Stretch of the United States. More videos after the jump... Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom Labels: Aniboom, music videos, Radiohead, shorts August 4, 2008
Ian Fenton's brilliant little one-minute dissertation on locomotive grannies is in the running for the Virgin Media Shorts 2008 title to be judged by a panel headed by Lex "Keyser Söze" Luthor himself, Kevin Spacey. If The Big Push happens to win, Ian will net a cool £30,000 and the opportunity to work with Virgin Media and the UK Film Council on his next 60 second opus. Via The Northern Echo.co.uk Labels: Kevin Spacey, shorts, United Kingdom, Virgin Media August 3, 2008
 A lot of animation is inherently mechanistic—one look at your average dope sheet will tell you that. That's why I'm always interested in shorts where a director makes the interlocking structure of the animation an integral part of the film. While I was catching up on my Directors Notes podcasts late last night, I listened to an interview about a great little short called Duelity. Duelity is an ambitious student film project by Vancouver Film School motion graphics students Marcos "Boca" Ceravolo and Ryan Uhrich, in which they playfully compare the creationist and the scientific theories of the origins of the universe. Duelity is actually three shorts in one: one film expresses the creationist view using the language and imagery of the scientific view, and the other does the reverse. Each has its own narration and soundtrack. The third film comes from playing both films side by side simultaneously, and the result is stunning. Every element interlocks perfectly (right down to the credits), creating a third, unified piece. The Duelity website has all three versions of the film available for your viewing amazement and pleasure. I can't even begin to imagine what the planning charts for this looked like, which is why I intend to take some time to visit the Directors Notes page that includes pre-production materials along with an interview with both directors. Labels: motion graphics, shorts, student animation, Vancouver Film School July 30, 2008
Neil Gaiman posted an article from the Guardian about Jamie Hewlett. I was in high school when I came across his work in the pages of Deadline, the UK alternative music and comic magazine. Since then he has blown up, as band member/creator of The Gorillaz, the best animated studio band EVER, among many other projects. The article makes clear how much he has been influenced by a wide variety of SF, comic and animated pop culture, included Warner Bros., Hayao Miyazaki and Rene Laloux. He and band-mate Damon Albarn have created the opening titles for the BBC's Beijing Olympics coverage and its a stunner. Labels: BBC, comics, shorts, Television, United Kingdom July 21, 2008
 I'm all for do-it-yourself projects. Self-starters can take part in Montreal's newest film festival, M60. Participants will make a 60-second film, animated or live-action, which must be completed by August 24th, to be screened for 2 days in September. Register at the launch party on Thursday, July 24th from 9:oo pm to midnight. The theme will be revealed during the launch. While you're there, enjoy the short sets from several bands, one of which is Ragni (including fps's newest blogger, Brenden Fletcher).  The 2008 Animation Block Party begins on Friday, July 25 and continues until Sunday, July 27. If you're near Brooklyn you can catch three different programs of animated shorts. Friday's program will be screened outdoors at Rooftop Films and the remaining programs, played twice each day, can be seen at the BAMcinematek. Not only do you get to see tons of shorts, the event lives up to its name with beer and live music every night. Party on! July 16, 2008
 Montreal is home to the world's largest comedy festival, Just For Laughs. The festival's annual live action and animated Eat My Shorts program begins today and continues until July 18. Among the animated offerings are John and Karen and Lapsus (pictured above) two recent shorts I enjoyed. Space Chimps, a CG feature by the Vanguard in the UK and Starz Animation in Canada, will also be previewed tonight. July 8, 2008
The audience of the Monday screening of Fear(s) of the Dark was treated to a bonus before things got rolling: Hot Dog, the third in a series of shorts by independent New York animator, Bill Plympton. Many know Bill Plympton's name, but those who don't will immediately recognize his trademark style in the clip shown here. Only a portion of the short is in the clip, and gets much funnier as it moves from one stage to the next. His current feature, Idiots and Angels, seems distinctly different in tone. In Plympton's words: The look of the film is very Eastern European - something like what Jan Svankmayer might make, or David Lynch if he made animation - very dark and surreal. Fear(s) of the Dark will replay again tomorrow at the Fantasia festival, but without Hot Dog preceding it. Later in the day, Plympton will present the Canadian premiere of Idiots and Angels, and continuing the festival's spotlight on Animated Auteur Visions. Previously on fps 2008 Fantasia Festival Animation Review: Plymptoons: The Complete Early Works of Bill Plympton Labels: Bill Plympton, Fantasia festival, features, festivals, New York, shorts July 7, 2008
 Now this kind of advertising I can get behind. Run Wrake (who we already love—and maybe fear a little—thanks to Rabbit) has applied his quirky collage technique to The Control Master, a pseudo–1950s-sci-fi film in which an evil genius and two heroes battle. The commercial angle here is that all the elements of the film come from CSA Images, a stock art company. Not that that gets in the way of the enjoying the film for even one second. Labels: commercials, Run Wrake, shorts In this space I've mentioned National Film Board shorts like Black Soul (above), Street Musique and Blackfly. But have you ever seen any of these shorts? Probably not if you don't live near an NFB viewing centre like Toronto's Mediatheque or Montreal's Cinérobothèque or don't catch short film festivals. Well, now you can, thanks to a new NFB initiative. Beta.nfb.ca is where they're making digitized films from their archive available online, for free. There are over 300 films up so far, with over half of them from the animation collection. The earliest animated film there at the moment is Norman McLaren's Boogie-Doodle (1941, the year the animation studio was founded), and the most recent are both from this year: Michael Wray and David Seitz's The Mixy Tapes and Sandde, in which Munro Ferguson explains how the NFB's very cool stereoscopic animation system works. As the name implies, the site is still in beta, so there are rough edges. But the NFB is asking for feedback, so you should get out there, watch, and let them know what you think. Labels: National Film Board of Canada, NFB, shorts July 6, 2008
The Canadian premiere of Peur(s) du Noir on Monday is a part of Fantasia's 2008 spotlight, Animated Auteur Visions. Not all of the six shorts are horror films, but each features a black and white animated exploration of fear. Contributors include comic artists Charles Burns and Blutch.
The screening will also be a benefit for fps editor, Emru Townsend. A portion of the profits from each ticket sold will go toward Emru and his immediate family as he prepares for his upcoming bone marrow transplant. (Earlier this year, Emru wrote a message letting people know that they could help to save his life or that of another person waiting for a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. In June, a potential match was found in the system where there previously were none among over 12 million people registered as potential donors. You can read more about his experience on the Heal Emru blog.) Previously on fps: 2008 Fantasia Festival Animation Labels: comics, Fantasia festival, features, festivals, France, shorts July 5, 2008
  One of the first films that ever screened at Fantasia was the animated adaptation of Katsuhiro's Otomo's Memories, produced by Studio 4°C. Over the years, the studio has produced some notable feature-length narratives and shorts in omnibus films, including but not limited to Cat Soup, The Animatrix, Mind Game, Tekkon Kinkreet, and Batman: Gotham Knight. They have a powerhouse of talent that has allowed them to create some of the most interesting animation anywhere.In Kenji Ishimaru's 2007 interview with studio CEO Eiko Tanaka, she mentions that all of this hard work was to get to one point: to be profitable enough to create what became Genius Party. These seven stories are as distinct as they are breathtaking. Shanghai Dragon, Dethtic4, Limit Cycle and the opening sequence Genius Party (also a self-contained short) are the shorts that are seared into my brain. Almost every short has perfect pacing, a great aesthetic, and an interesting story. The project grew large enough that this is the first of two omnibus films, the other being Genius Party Beyond. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Genius Party plays again on Sunday, July 6th at 1:00pm at Montreal's Fantasia film festival. Previously on fps: 2008 Fantasia Festival Animation Studio 4°C Genius Party Interview: Eiko Tanaka Interview: Masaki Yuasa Labels: anime, features, Genius Party, Masaaki Yuasa, Shinichiro Watanabe, Shoji Kawamori, shorts, Studio 4C July 2, 2008
 There is a reason Batman has his own label on fps. Besides many of us being big comic fans, many of us are huge fans of the Bat specifically. He has numerous animated interpretations and the notable incarnations in the 90s and 00s have definitely left their mark on (what was) Saturday morning television, cable television, comic book adaptations, and Warner Bros. television animation.So people are a little nervous about an anime version of Batman since Batman: Gotham Knight was announced. I am a huge Batman fan and a huge anime fan, but I won't champion one at the expense of the other. After hearing about the talent behind the series of interrelated shorts, both American and Asian, I was somewhat relieved, but I was also willing to wait for a final verdict once I'd actually seen the shorts. After getting a peek at the soon-to-be released DVD in a theatrical setting gearing up for the 2008 edition of Fantasia, I think people's fears are largely unfounded. Disliking the stories because they use the visual style of anime is just as bad as only liking it because it is anime. What you need to know is the stories are told well. What you need to know is these stories all embody something about the Legend of the Bat and are consistent with the characters that have already been established. It does look great! And the same people that dismiss the anthology because it is anime will probably be the ones who refuse to notice that there are six very distinct visual styles that are employed to tell each story. The level of interestingness does vary depending on the style you are drawn to, but this is also the case of a decades long comic-collector who has some artists they prefer over others. Like these artists, Batman's look changes at the whim of the artists involved. The two stories with styles I found the most recognizable and distinct from the others were produced by Studio 4°C. They were even distinct from each other. Selecting one of these as the first story in the set was a great choice as it breaks conventions of what people consider the "anime style."  There are no spoilers in this entire post. I am not interested in ruining it for anybody, especially the die-hard Batman fans. However, if you are told or read spoilers elsewhere, you will not find out anything new about Batman if you already know his character. You will feel comforted by the way the stories fit easily into the mythos that has already been created from past stories. Just go and watch the stories unfold, and enjoy another glimpse of Batman's early days as he tries to learn the ropes of crimefighting. You can catch a theatrical screening of Batman: Gotham Knight at Montreal's Fantasia festival on Saturday at noon, before it is released on DVD next Tuesday. Previously on fps 2008 Fantasia Festival Animation Batman: Gotham Knight Promo Video Online DC Comics OAVs Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo The End of Justice League Previously on The Critical Eye Batman Animated Batman & Batman Beyond Paul Dini Bruce Timm & Glen Murakami Labels: anime, Batman, border-crossing, comics, DC Comics, Fantasia festival, features, festivals, Madhouse, shorts, Studio 4C July 1, 2008
 It's a week of firsts for this blogger - this is my first post on fps and my first experience with Montreal's famous genre spectacle, the Fantasia Film Festival. Illustrator and fellow fps blogger Matt Forsythe and I attended the press symposium and were treated to a preview of what we can expect from July 3rd-21st. This year's animated offerings feature an unusual and unintentional focus on collaborative efforts and collections of short films, from DC Comics' Batman: Gotham Knight, Studio 4C's aptly named anime extravaganza, Genius Party, and the cutting-edge showcase, Best of Ottawa Animation Festival 2007. There are only two single-narrative feature-length animated presentations in the entire fest - Bill Plympton's poetic, pencil-scratch surrealist vision, Idiots and Angels and John Bergin's bleak, post-apocalyptic fable, From Inside. We'll cover each entry in more detail throughout the festival. Continue past the jump for a full schedule of the animated films screening at Fantasia 2008:  July 4th - 7:30PM - Hall Theatre - Genius Party July 5th - 12:00PM - Hall Theatre - Batman: Gotham Knight July 5th - 1:00PM - J.A. De Seve - Best of Ottawa Animation Festival 2007 July 6th - 1:00PM - Hall Theatre - Genius Party July 7th - 9:45PM - Hall Theatre - Peur (s) Du Noir July 9th - 3:00PM - J.A. De Seve - Peur (s) Du Noir July 9th - 7:30PM - Hall Theatre - Idiots and Angels (Hosted by creator, Bill Plympton) July 12th - 2:40PM - J.A. De Seve - Outer Limits Of Animation 2008 (Shorts from around the globe) July 13th - 9:40PM - J.A. De Seve - From Inside July 14th - 3:00PM - J.A. De Seve - From Inside (Okay, who's the putz that programmed Batman: Gotham Knight to screen at the same time as the Ottawa Festival shorts?! ...sigh... guess I'll have to watch you at home on Blu-ray, Batman...) Tickets go on sale July 2nd at 2PM at the Concordia Hall Theatre (Guy-Concordia Metro) and throughout the Admission Network at $7.50 each. Directions:Hall Theatre - 1455 Maisonneuve O. (Guy Metro) Map and Directions DB Clarke Theatre - 1455 Maisonneuve O. (Guy Metro) Map and Directions J.A. De Seve - 1400 Maisonneuve O. (Guy Metro) Map and Directions Previously on fps: 2007 Fantasia Line-Up Batman: Gotham Knight Online Genius Party Trailers Plymptoons: The Complete Early Works of Bill Plympton Labels: anime, Batman, Bill Plympton, Fantasia festival, festivals, From Inside, Genius Party, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, shorts, Studio 4C June 18, 2008
 It's a given that even with such a wealth of animated shorts on the Internet, there's nothing like rubbing shoulders with like-minded people at a film festival. But when it comes to festival compilations on DVD, things get a little trickier. After all, if you're going to watch a bunch of shorts on the small screen, why buy them on DVD when you can probably find many of them, legally or otherwise, online? That question plagues the third iteration of the annual Animation Show DVD release; a quick glance at its contents revealed three shorts that I'd seen online already, and I'm sure most, if not all, of the rest are lurking around somewhere. Ah, but then you wouldn't have the distinct pleasure of watching 103 minutes of some of the best shorts of the past three years by pressing just one button from the comfort of your couch. Really, there isn't a false note here. I've seen Rabbit, City Paradise, Tyger and Learn Self Defense a gazillion times, and cheerfully sat through them from start to finish again. The kaleidoscopic Collision was serviceable and short enough not to be too taxing, and One D entertained me despite its one-note gag, unsurprising animation in-joke and glaring technical inaccuracy. (Hello, these characters are two-dimensional, not one-dimensional. Watch Ladd Ehlinger, Jr.'s interpretation of Flatland to see it done right.) Overall, a nice variety of films in a nice variety of styles. Also, you wouldn't get great extras like an animatic and three video interviews, along with text interviews you can read by putting the DVD into a computer. That's some good bang for the bucks. For all that, though, there are a few things that bother me here. I'm still not sure if I'm keen on the DVDs including a bunch of shorts that weren't screened during the theatrical run. I expect to see shorts on the big screen that I won't see on DVD due to rights issues, but it feels kind of odd that neither medium, by itself, is the complete experience. Most glaring, however, is the inclusion of an eight-minute trailer for MTV's The Maxx, which is stuck in the middle of the festival extras instead of with the MTV trailers. (The Animation Show DVD is distributed by MTV Home Entertainment.) It's strange, because it's not part of the festival content, but its placement implies inclusion in the festival. Er, um, why exactly? It feels like a bit of corporate pimping, which doesn't reflect well on anyone involved. Where to Get It Buy The Animation Show, Vol. 3 on DVD from Amazon.com Labels: Animation Show, festivals, reviews, shorts May 22, 2008
 Late last year we reported that the town of Spring Lake, Michigan, birthplace of animation pioneer Winsor McCay, was mulling creating a monument and an animation festival to honour their local boy who'd made it big. While they haven't quite got to the monument and they've ditched the inaccurate label of "birthplace of animation" for the town, they are going ahead with a festival of sorts. Like any good film festival, they also encourage activities about films beyond just watching them. Preschoolers will be able to make their own stuffed Gerties, and older kids and adults can enjoy an introduction to McCay and his work as well as a drawing class. You can find out more about the festival and Spring Lake on the organizing committee's blog. Labels: festivals, shorts, Winsor McCay May 15, 2008
Here's another reason why I love animation: anytime you think you've seen it all, someone goes and proves you wrong. Blu's Muto sits on the fringe of several techniques—stop-mo, painted animation, pixillation—while throwing out obsessive control mechanisms like, say, locking down the camera. And like the street art that it's built from, Muto incorporates elements of its surroundings, even acknowledging "interfering" passers-by in the audio. Have a look.
[Thanks, Penny Arcade.] Labels: painted animation, shorts, stop-motion May 14, 2008
 The last time you were working on your computer and it crashed, did you do it? Smash it, I mean. On Halloween night 2005, local artist Eric Bond celebrated in public his frustration with computer malfunction in an intensely hilarious performance piece called "Goreputer" (I was present). The performance was videotaped, but most of the footage was lost due to another type of malfunction… Human error. Bond, also an animator, did not want lose the evidence of what he did to a computer on that night. He filled in the lost footage with stop-motion. This is how in 2007, "Goreputer" the performance piece became Goreputer the animated short. Labels: computer, crash, Darth Vader, Eric Bond, malfunction, Montreal, performance, shorts, stop-motion May 10, 2008
 If there were awards for truth in advertising, then Kino International would have to win something for the use of one adjective. The Exquisite Short Films of Kihachiro Kawamoto contains the bulk of the animation master's work, seven short films made between 1968 and 1979. Kawamoto is considered a stop-motion animator, and his recent feature-length masterpiece, The Book of the Dead, features gorgeous sets to accompany his beautiful puppets. However, this DVD serves as a reminder that his shorts were rarely quite so straightforward. All of the films on the DVD involve the manipulation of physical objects—if not puppets, then cutouts—but Kawamoto freely mixes them with drawn animation and flat paper cutouts with varying degrees of abstraction. In earlier films like 1972's The Demon, Kawamoto plays with this stylization by having characters move in sync with the background music's rhythm, almost as if they were performing the story as a dance. By the time of the final film, 1979's House of Flames, he's also using stark lighting and elegant compositions to suggest, at times, a stage play. The three middle films in the collection, An Anthropo-Cynical Farce, The Trip and A Poet's Life (from 1970, 1973 and 1974) all break from the use of puppets and the use of ancient Japan as a setting, but are no less compelling. They are perhaps a bit more obtuse in that unique way that independent animation from the 1970s could be. Kino has also released the feature-length The Book of the Dead, which features some of Kawamoto's most exquisite—there's that word again—stop-motion work to date. Like his best-known short-form films, the movie features Buddhism in ancient Japan. However, this time Buddhist teachings are central to the film, as it takes place in the eighth century, around the time that Buddhism was being introduced to Japan from China. Unlike his shorts, Kawamoto has chosen here to fill out his sets with physical objects and far more characters, all realized with considerable detail. It's hard to watch a sequence with a room full of elegantly dressed puppets with their clothes blowing in the wind and not be awestruck by both the scene's verisimilitude and its poetry. As lovely as these releases are, there are a few things I'd have liked to have seen. The Book of the Dead uses the English narration with no option to hear the original Japanese (though all the dialogue is still in Japanese, with optional subtitles) and neither disc includes any kind of extras. While Kawamoto's work speaks for itself, the level of craftsmanship on display on both DVDs leaves you wanting to see and hear more. Finally, completists are likely to wag their fingers: The Exquisite Short Films of Kihachiro Kawamoto lacks four shorts that were included on the Region 2 Kihachiro Kawamoto Work Collection DVD. Where to Get It Buy The Exquisite Short Films of Kihachiro Kawamoto from Amazon.com Buy The Book of the Dead from Amazon.com Buy Kihachiro Kawamoto Work Collection from YesAsia.com Labels: anime, features, Kihachiro Kawamoto, reviews, shorts, stop-motion May 4, 2008
It's not that hard to create a first-person rollercoaster animation using CGI—I knocked off a half-decent one shortly after I first picked up the Softimage|3D user guide. But it is tricky to come up with a good reason to create a first-person rollercoaster animation, and trickier still to pull it off well. I think this ad for the Zürich Chamber Orchestra succeeds on both counts.
[Thanks, Steve Bass.] Labels: CGI, commercials, computer animation, motion graphics, shorts April 29, 2008
 For years (and years, and years) I've been reading the same tired arguments about racist cartoons, particularly those that use black stereotypes. It's a problem that's as old as cartoons themselves; John Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, considered the first cartoon short, made fun of blacks and Jews (Blackton's lightning sketches include two images labelled "Coon" and "Cohen") in 1906, and the image of big-lipped, Stepin Fetchit-inspired characters didn't lose steam in popular American cartoons for another half a century. The problem began when networks stopped airing these cartoons in their regular lineups, and larger companies were slow to include them in videocassette (and now DVD) compilations unedited. Not that they were never released—I still have my Tex Avery laserdiscs with Uncle Tom's Cabana and a handful of shorts that use blackface gags, for example—but some Warner Bros. cartoons have been considered so over the line that they haven't been aired on TV for decades, and never released by Warner Bros. on any kind of home video. These shorts have acquired a mythical status, and a name: The Censored Eleven. Talk of these shorts (and similar ones not so blessed as to be tagged with such a dramatic moniker) invariably brings up discussions of the shorts' historical significance, the fact that they were made in a different era, and, at some point, an exhortation to the rightsholders that the shorts should be released unedited. My longstanding complaint about these arguments is that, for the most part, it's a bunch of white guys standing around arguing about what black people should and shouldn't find offensive. (Books like That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960 are a step toward rectifying that problem, as well as the more recent The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907-1954, which I'll be reviewing soon; I've also done my bit with essays on the subject and, most recently, a 2006 guest blogging stint on ReFrederator.) In light of a recent re-emergence of the discussion, Thad Komorowski has nailed the other complaint that I've never fully given voice to: that many cartoon fans, in their desire to own these films, have bent over backwards to claim that these films are not racist. Because, let's face it, they most emphatically are. If a joke is being made with the understanding that something is funny because a character is black, then it's racist. It's a pretty simple equation. (And please spare me the "I have a black friend who loves these cartoons" argument; I think Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs is one of the funniest, snappiest, and most brilliant cartoons Bob Clampett ever directed, but denying that it's entirely built around racist imagery is like denying gravity.) I am more than pleased that someone has come out and called it like it is, and urge you to read Thad's frank commentary. And hey, if you've been itching to see the Censored Eleven for yourself, he's also posted them there for your edification. Labels: Looney Tunes, shorts, Warner Bros. April 5, 2008
 The "To the Source of Anime" retrospective ends its run today at the Cinémathèque québécoise with a tribute to Noburo Ofuji. The "Wartime Japanese Animation" programs included propaganda cartoons that feature strikingly American character designs. I mentioned this to Akira Tochigi, the curator of the retrospective, when I interviewed him during his stay in Montreal. Mr. Tochigi spoke with enthusiasm during our lengthy interview. Armen Boudjikanian: This retrospective does a survey of Japanese animation from 1924 to 1952. Is there any reason why there are not any films from before the 1920s? Akira Tochigi: Actually until last year, we haven't had any surviving elements of animation from the 1910s. But a private collector found two elements of early animation from 1917 [35mm prints]. We are now doing their digital restoration. We will showcase them soon in a program highlighting recent restoration projects. What can you tell us about the state of Japanese animation in the 1910s? Animation was first imported to Japan between 1908 and 1910 from France [the works of Émile Cohl] and the UK. The Japanese film industry created its first major studio in 1912: Nikkatsu studio. Nikkatsu was very powerful at making and distributing its own films but also distributing foreign films. Gradually, along with its competitors, it began being interested in making animation. Pioneers of early animation found opportunities in these studios. Around the 20s, as more animation came from abroad, especially the States, the majors lost interest in producing their own animation. Rather, [they decided to focus on] importing. They believed that American animation was much more sophisticated and more appealing to [Japanese] audiences. But also in the 1910s, there was a heated debate in Japan about the influence of cinema on children. The portion of young audiences was big: about 30 to 40 per cent of the moviegoers. The government, academics and intellectuals were all concerned on the [effect of films] on children. So in the early 1920s, the Japanese central government set up the policy of supporting educational films [which at the time also encompassed] animation. By this kind of categorization the government supported animation filmmaking and sometimes commissioned independent filmmakers to make animations for kid audiences. Animation became a way to safeguard children [from] the influence of cinema. And so, its quality changed at that time. Coming to the question of governmental funding for animated films. I have noticed that films from the WWII era which are heavily funded by the government resemble Hollywood cartoons much more than earlier Japanese animation. Is there a principal cause for this? Yes, [this is the result of the combination] of two elements. In the late 20s, early 30s, more and more American animation came to Japan: Disney, [Fleischer's] Betty Boop and Popeye, etc... Japanese animation was very quick to react to this situation by creating its own [set] of characters which originated from comic books and also from Japanese folklore such as Momotaro, monkeys, badgers, etc... It seems that the synthesis is very well done, though. These are early cartoons but they are very well executed technically. The western influence is obvious but the Japanese elements are blended in successfully. [The reason for] this synthesis is that in the 1940s, the Japanese government set up the Film Law which forced culture films [documentaries], educational and animation films to be shown in theatres to [large] audiences. The law also controlled film projections, and [theatre] personnel. There was severe censorship. [Nevertheless], the field of animation became prosperous in these times because the government supported it with its law. So as the influence of American cartoons on Japanese animation continued in the 1940s, it came together with the film law and this resulted in the making of the first medium and feature-length animated films in Japan [the 1942 war film Momotaro and the Sea Eagle was Japan's first five-reel animation]. [Films from this period] used characterization that was typical of American animation. [This] is pretty ironic because these films were very much anti-American propaganda, but still [laughs] it is very apparent that their character designs and aesthetic were coming from American animation. Coming to Momotaro and the Sea Eagle, can you talk about its cast of characters? Why is the leader of the Japanese army a young girl and why are its soldiers animals? I think that it's a young boy, not a girl. It seems that he has a kind of femininity but it's a boy. [These characters] come from the original story of Momotaro, who was a boy character that fought the enemy [with the help] of animals. What happened to Japanese animation between the end of WWII and the establishment of Toei Doga studio in the fifties? This is one of the hardest ever periods for Japanese animation. There was a shortage of film stock and taxes were high. The defeat of the war finished the [governmental] support to filmmaking. There were no festivals, no theatrical exhibitions, but there were a lot of talented young artists who tried to make films on an independent basis. So when Toei started in the '50s, and TV animation in the early '60s, they [offered the young] animators a way to sort of continue making films under a well-financed situation. Noburo Ofuji, an animation pioneer to whom you attribute a program to in this retrospective, made Burglars of Baghdad Castle in 1926. This film is very innovative. The techniques used in it foresee some of those that Japanese animators will employ later such as limiting the movement of characters. Do you see a link between Ofuji's work and some of the techniques that were used later on? Noburo Ofuji started using chiyogami [Japanese coloured paper] as a medium of motion in the 1920s. Celluloid was very expensive in Japan and most animators were not able to use it until the middle of the 1930s. Even then Ofuji remained interested in using chiyogami. He would cut them [drawings done on chiyogami] out, right? Right. Ofuji continued making films in the late '50s, and in his later films, used colored cellophane—not to use celluloid [laughs]. And because of the materiality of the [cellophane] paper, [he had] to find ways to economize the motion of the characters. And this seems very associative with TV animation. As you may know, when Osamu Tezuka started the program Astro Boy, thirty minutes of animation were aired on TV weekly. It was pretty hard to make original pictures for thirty minutes amount of work per week. The team of Tezuka Productions only animated eight pictures in a second [as opposed to 24] to sort of economize the motion of characters... So when trying to connect history to what came before it, [early] paper animation and TV animation [seem] closely related. Also, Burglars of Baghdad Castle, like current anime, has also plenty of action. Yes. The Baghdad film features mass action. Yes! A lot of crowds. [Laughs] Something like a Kurosawa movie. How about other links between the early animations and contemporary anime? Do you see any similarities in terms of inspiration? I think that [there] is a very clear association with contemporary anime [especially] with the work of Studio Ghibli: in Pom Poko for example, a community of creatures [raccoon dogs, or tanuki] fight against human beings. This Ghibli film is not similar in content to 1930s cartoons that have [similar] characters, but [in terms of] the idea to use creature characters to make a satire of human society, it is very closely related. Ghibli, in this sense, is a very traditional animation creator. So what got you interested in animation? To be honest, I didn't have a special interest in animation for a long time. Of course, as a child I was intrigued by theatrical animation—and in fact had a passion for TV animation. I [also] read comics in my elementary school [years]. When I entered college, I continued reading comics, [especially the work of] Otomo [creator of Akira]. He was popular with the college crowd not only because of his aesthetics but also because of his handling of contemporary issues. At this time, my interest in animation was not so much special. [However], when I started working for the Film Archives several years ago, I found many animations in their collection [from the past]. When I watched these films, I was struck by their power and complexity. Of course most were for kid audiences; but from a contemporary perspective, I found out about the [ability] of animation to deal with fantasy, illusion and delusion in many different ways. It seems to me that because these early animators worked mostly independently [their only support came from the government], their individualities and sense of art as filmmakers is apparent in their films; [whether] they worked on mainstream films or in alternative cinema. [And since] I was struck by experimental cinema in college, including [laughs] Norman McLaren... Of Course! [laughter] [Continues laughing] So... Because of this intrigue, my connection with these animated films [felt] natural. And of course as an archivist, I was interested in the history of animation cinema. There is going to be a retrospective of Canadian and Québécois animation in Tokyo in 2009. Is there an interest in Canadian animation in Japan right now? Yes, definitely. Next year's exhibition of Canadian and Québécois animation will be programmed by [Marco de Blois of the Cinémathèque québécoise]. We like to leave him to make the final decisions for that [exhibition], as I did for this one. The staff members of our institution [the National Film Center in Tokyo] are very eager for [this] program because when Norman McLaren was first introduced in Japan in the late '50s, many young artists were so surprised by his films: they were experimental and personal expressions of ideas and feeling through the medium of animation. Most of the Japanese audiences at the time thought animation would [only] be kid entertainment. That's something that's common in many countries. Right... And in the late '50s, early '60s, the word "animation" was first introduced in Japan. Before then, we used the word "manga" film, not animation. But the exhibition that introduced McLaren's work was called "animation film screening". [This] means that the term animation was related not to Disney type of animation but to experimental film and personal film... So this context of Canadian animation has a special [significance] in Japan: it is a kind of individual expression. Which filmmaker from the "To the Source of Anime" retrospective is of special interest to you as a researcher? When I was watching the films of this retrospective again and again, the films of Masaoka Kenzo struck me so much [in terms] of aesthetic, ideas and technique. The Spider and the Tulip is very well directed and animated, could you talk about the artist and how he got into animation? [Kenzo] had a unique background; he came from a very rich family from Kyoto. He studied western painting in college. Then he joined a major film studio as an actor. He then made his first film, a documentary. [It is only afterwards] that he moved to animation. Because he came from a prosperous family, and because of his movie studio contacts; he did not rely on [external] funding to make his films. He was exceptionally able to have his films exhibited in theatres, even his first film. Also, because of this, he did not care about targeting his films to children. He wanted to show his films to regular audiences. He often created in his own small studio. He [also coined] the Japanese term doga which means "animated images" in English. He [did this to be able] to cover all aspects of animation: from puppet to silhouette animation, [whether designed] for children or not. He wanted to value animation as an art for everybody. Labels: anime, features, Japan, Masaoka Kenzo, Montreal, Noburo Ofuji, Osamu Tezuka, shorts, Studio Ghibli March 2, 2008
I'm looking forward to Blue Sky's adaption of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who, which opens on March 14. I'm not looking forward to the continued misappropriation of the story's broader message by the pro-life movement, despite the fact Dr. Seuss (aka Theodor Geisel) didn't like the idea of its adoption (no pun intended) for such purposes before his death. His wife has continued the attempt to stop the famous refrain, "A person is a person no matter how small!" from showing up in pro-life literature. What am I saying, a quick check online shows it's already started.
The version of Horton Hears a Who that I grew up with will be released today on DVD. Chuck Jones produced and directed it, and it featured designs by Maurice Noble and voice acting by June Foray and Hans Conried. The DVD also includes two other specials (directed by Ralph Bakshi and Tony Collingwood) and the 1948 short, Horton Hatches the Egg, directed by Bob Clampett. I've no idea if it is the complete version of the short, as it has been re-cut at least twice. Besides the many animated adaptations of Seuss' work, Ted Geisel animated the Private Snafu shorts during World War II with Chuck Jones. Where to find it: Horton Hears a Who Deluxe Edition on DVD at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, The Complete Uncensored Private Snafu on DVD at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca Labels: Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Ralph Bakshi, shorts, Warner Bros. February 29, 2008
 Les Trois Brigands, the French version of German feature Die Drei Rauber, opened today in cinemas across Quebec and in Ottawa, Ontario. While Montreal stopped being a market for limited theatrical releases about ten years ago, it still has the advantage of getting French-language or translated animated features that have not yet been released widely in English.(Ironically, Quebec is often overlooked for anticipated anime features, despite the diehard interest ingrained in a two generations of Quebecois through French programming, which made it a stronghold for anime fandom long ago, showing you just how clueless major distributors are.) The timing is perfect, as the Spring Break begins for elementary schools tomorrow, which means it's time for FIFEM. The film is the only animated feature at this year's edition of the children's film fest, and also its opening film. FIFEM is also screening shorts before each film. Many are animated, and almost half are Hothouse 4 shorts. Hothouser Carla Coma will be present when her stop-motion short, The Squirrel Next Door, is screened on March 4 and March 9. Labels: features, FIFEM, Germany, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, shorts February 26, 2008
 Starting with the 1940s films that will be shown within the two wartime programs, state funding (and control) of animation production began in Japan. Films from this period are the ones that resemble classic Hollywood cel animation the most. Momotaro, The Sea Eagle, shown under "Wartime Japanese Animation 1", is Japan's first five-reel animation (33 minutes). The Ministry of Navy commissioned this film to celebrate Japan's successful attack on Pearl Harbor. The visuals of this cartoon will seem familiar to the contemporary viewer (anthropomorphic animals cast as Japanese soldiers) though the totality of its style remains ominous: the lieutenant or leader of the soldiers is a human girl, and the Americans are represented by Fleischer Brothers-style humanoids. The character animation is quite developed, with appropriate usage of stretch and squash, while the mechanical animation of airplanes and boats and the animation of the water is top-notch. Though Momotaro, The Sea Eagle is evidently racist—American soldiers are treated as incompetent and oafish—the level of animated fantasy is what stands out the most in this cartoon. The actual attack is not shown for very long; two thirds of the film sympathetically shows Japanese soldiers getting ready for battle and returning from it. There is delightful humour in these scenes: a monkey soldier makes fun of his rabbit trooper buddy who can't put his bandana on because of his long ears. When the squadron flies to Pearl Harbor, a monkey pilot stumbles upon a lost baby bird. He interrupts his mission to find the baby's mother. If you are looking for more wartime and propaganda cartoons, you are in for a treat: Village Animals Fight Against Espionage and Village Animals Fight for Air Defense are the Japanese equivalent to Warner Bros.' Private Snafu army shorts and the likes. These two cartoons, alongside four others, will be shown under "Animation Meets Propaganda". After Japan's loss in WWII, the government's contribution to animation production declined and filmmaking became a tough challenge for independents and small studios. The films from this era are grouped under "Japanese Animation During the Occupation" I and II. Thematically, these films seem to deal with Japan's traditions. One is called Torachan and the Bride, a nine-minute film promoting freedom of choice in marriage. The most striking common feature of these early Japanese animations is the clarity of their storytelling. There are probably many reasons why these films can be easily followed: the subtitling is an obvious one. The abundance of onscreen action is another. However, a solid grasp of what cinema can do by the filmmaker is what I'd bet my money on. In the films that I saw, there were practically no shots or actions that I found boring, tedious or distracting (even when the animation quality was not that great.) This is noteworthy: Japanese animators knew what they were doing from the beginning. It is often said that non-Hollywood animation blossomed after the 1950s—and this is true for Japanese studio animation as well—but what these early Japanese animators accomplished with low budgets and often working independently is proof that animation filmmaking does not necessarily require a long assembly chain. If you attend this retrospective you will agree that ingenuity can impress and entertain all by itself.  There is a lot to be discovered at the retrospective To the Source of Anime: Japanese Animation (1924-1952) taking place at the Cinémathèque québécoise from February 27 to April 5. This huge undertaking of ten programs and a lecture by the retrospective's curator Akira Tochigi is a collaboration between the Cinémathèque québécoise and the National Film Center/National Museum of Tokyo.With 53 films comprising this five week long retrospective (51 of which will be shown on 35mm), anyone interested in anime, film history, wartime cartoons, and independent animation will discover the achievements of pre-major studio Japanese animation: landmark films that came before Astro Boy, Akira or Sprited Away. The ten 70 min programs are divided by themes ranging from "Early talkies" to "Animation meets propaganda". There are also programs attributed to directors Shigeji Ogino—a modernist and master in experimental animation—and Noburo Ofuji, a pioneer who, as I will get into later, was forging the anime style 1920s. Based on the films I saw by these directors at the press screening, I highly recommend both tribute programs. The earliest films of the retrospective are grouped under "The dawn of Japanese animation" program. These silent films will be accompanied by Gabriel Thibaudeau on piano. There are two "Early talkies" programs: "Selected works 1" contains a 7 min short from 1931 that feels as fresh as a film made in the last couple of years. Synchronised to a song originally played on SP record (78 rpm), A Day in the Life of Chameko joyfully illustrates the life of a schoolgirl. We see her do all the mundane things such as getting up, getting dressed and eating before going to school as she explains things in operetta. This short works as comically as the musical moments of The Simpsons and Persepolis do. For more early animation, check the "Tribute to Noburo Ofuji" program. Ofuji was a true animation innovator. A technique he employed is animating chiyogami (Japanese colored paper) cut-outs. His first ever usage of chiyogami is in Thieves of Baghdad, a masterpiece from 1926. The accomplishments of this short can not only be seen in recent cut-out or "cut-out style" digital films but also in contemporary anime. Its two aspects that struck me foremost are the sophisticated personality animation and the elaborate staging and camerawork. All of the characters that populate this short have distinct movement: Dangobei the protagonist, the princess, the elderly lady and the clan of warriors all move convincingly according to their designs. This is particularly difficult to achieve in cut-out animation, since its reliance on pre-planned action is limited. This method of working contributed to the creation of many styles, including anime. An aspect of anime is its segmentation of the human anatomy in order to animate only parts of it: i.e., treating the drawing of a figure as pieces of cut-outs. Another attribute of Thieves of Baghdad that can be seen in recent anime and digital cut-out style cartoons (or Flash cartoons) is its rendering of depth through strictly 2D methods. In the strictest sense, this means not drawing space in perspective; instead using a medieval style of representation: the top of the screen is the background, while the bottom, the foreground. In this type of scenario—which is typical of traditional cut-out films—depth becomes symbolic and not actually perceived by the viewer. However, as early as 1926, Ofuji was able to make depth in cut-out scenes come close to cinematic quality by animating elements in the foreground (the bottom of the screen) and the background at different speeds. Madame Butterfly's Fantasy, based on Puccini's opera, is in "Early Talkies: Selected Shorts 2". This short, like A Day in the Life of Chamenko, has aged beautifully. It looks gorgeous and the sensibilities of its makers are heartfelt. The relationship between Madame Butterfly and her lover is shown beautifully with shadow-like figures. Silhouette animation technique is employed to lyricize the love story that was not meant to be. February 24, 2008
 Brad Bird accepted the Academy Award 25 minutes ago for Best Animated Feature Film for Ratatouille. In his acceptance speech, Bird thanked Pixar, Disney, John Lasseter, Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull, Brad Lewis, Jan Pinkava, and Dick Cook. Ratatouille edged out Surf's Up and Persepolis to win the Oscar.
Labels: features, Oscars, Pixar, shorts, stop-motion February 18, 2008
 La Cinematheque Quebecoise is hosting the largest retrospective of early Japanese animation to ever take place outside of Japan. Just last week that distinction went to the Japan Society's selection of films.From February 27 to April 5, the special Montreal screenings of Japanese animation from 1924 to 1952 will feature 53 films in 16mm and 35mm, including one feature - Japan's first - Momotaru, The God Soldier of the Seas. National Film Center/Museum of Modern Art of Tokyo curator Akira Tochigi will be in town to inaugurate the event and will lead a conference on February 29 on early Japanese animation. A full schedule is available on the CQ website (French only), and Facebook, with a sampling of the shorts. As of this week, a bilingual (French and English) program for the retrospective is available at the Cinematheque. Previously on fps Japanese Anime Classic Collection review Podcast 11: Our Baseball Match (1931) February 12, 2008
 From February 12 to 16, the Japan Society in New York City will be hosting six screenings featuring a total of 38 early Japanese animation shorts. Each screening's shorts will be followed by a silent live-action feature film, and benshi narration for silent films will be performed by Midori Sawato. Most of the animation featured can be found on Digital Meme's Japanese Anime Classic Collection DVD set, with rare shorts dating from 1928 to 1950.Previously on fps Japanese Anime Classic Collection review Podcast 11: Our Baseball Match (1931) Podcast 12: Interview with Digital Meme CEO Larry Greenberg February 6, 2008
 Richard Condie has donated thousands of animation items to his alma mater, the University of Manitoba.The CBC reports: The work goes on display Thursday, in an exhibit aptly named, "Arrgg!" Labels: Canada, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Richard Condie, shorts January 31, 2008
 Last week Friday, the Children's Film Festival Seattle kicked off its 2008 edition and there is lots of animation in its program. It's still not too late to catch some wonderful events:The opening film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, will be showing again this Sunday with a new score commissioned by the Northwest Film Forum. This feature was created in 1926, 11 years before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by German animator Lotte Reiniger. Her silhouette animation is gorgeous and will easily captivate an audience in 2008. All the remaining feature-length films are live-action, but preceded by animated shorts. The short programs include some animated shorts, and two are devoted specifically to it: Saturday's two Awesome Animation programs feature recent shorts from Sweden, including the very sweet Aston's Stones and a Will Vinton retrospective. Will Vinton will actually be present at the festival, and he will also be conducting a workshop discussing his personal experience in both clay and 3D animation. (Thanks to Plexipixel, also a festival sponsor.) Labels: features, Lotte Reiniger, shorts, stop-motion, Will Vinton January 22, 2008
        Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 2008 Oscar nominees. For all the concern of Beowulf getting a spot, the worry was for naught. The shorts are diverse, in technique, storytelling and geography.BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, France) Ratatouille (Brad Bird, US) Surf's Up (Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, US) BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM Even Pigeons Go To Heaven (Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse, France) entire short I Met The Walrus (Josh Raskin, Canada) clip Madame Tutli-Putli (Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski, Canada) clip My Love (Alexander Petrov, Russia) clip Peter and The Wolf (Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman, UK) clip Labels: Canada, features, France, Madame Tutli-Putli, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Oscars, Persepolis, Pixar, Russia, shorts, United Kingdom January 1, 2008
I final look back at the year that was, courtesy of JibJab. Let's hope we do a little better in 2008. If we don't, at least we'll get another great year in review from the Spiridellis brothers. December 18, 2007
 Since we're trotting out the fun animated holiday greetings, I decided to share this one I received from Matt Tamaru at Plexipixel. See, I'm not the Grinch everyone thinks I am.Labels: Flash animation, shorts December 7, 2007
 At last year's Ottawa International Animation Festival, I met with I.Toon founder and president Yuichi Ito; at this year's festival, we—along with his manager Hiroko Kamata—sat down to talk about his series of short stop-motion films, Norabbits' Minutes. Created for Shochiku's 110th anniversary, Norabbits' Minutes features two young rabbit brothers who live together in the forest and have endearing adventures together... though not without some absurd twists. As a bonus, we are also presenting the first episode of Norabbits' Minutes in its entirety.Links I.Toon Shochiku Ottawa International Animation Festival Buy the Norabbits' Minutes series on DVD (Region 2) Labels: anime, interviews, Japan, Ottawa International Animation Festival, podcast, shorts, stop-motion, Yuichi Ito  At last year's Ottawa International Animation Festival, I met with I.Toon founder and president Yuichi Ito; at this year's festival, we—along with his manager Hiroko Kamata—sat down to talk about his series of short stop-motion films, Norabbits' Minutes. Listen to the interview and see the short Labels: anime, interviews, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, shorts, stop-motion November 21, 2007
 (click image for complete schedule.)UPDATE: There is a misprint on page 2 of the program. Saturday screenings are as follows: Program 2 at 5:oo p.m., Program 1 at 7:00 p.m. The Montreal stop of the annual Sommets du Cinema d'Animation will be at the Cinematheque Quebecoise on Friday, November 23 and Saturday, November 24. Over two days, Montrealers can see some of the best animation shorts in recent memory, from the haunting Madame Tutli-Putli, the harrowing Milk Teeth, to the laugh-out-loud funny Cold Calling. And that's just  It all begins on Friday at 5:00 p.m. with the launch of the Isabelle au Bois Dormant/Sleeping Betty exhibit featuring the latest work of Claude Cloutier.Labels: events, exhibitions, Madame Tutli-Putli, Montreal, shorts November 19, 2007
 Review by Noell Wolfgram EvansThe recent release of The Pixar Short Film Collection Vol. 1 shows the studio's utter mastery of the animated form. Watching these pieces must be what it would have been like to watch Babe Ruth in his prime—you understood what he was doing but it was difficult to comprehend how he was doing it so well. All that you could do was sit back and enjoy. And that's really all that you can, and should, do with this short film set. Read the review November 12, 2007
   This Wednesday, November 14, at 6:00 p.m., the Montreal chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH is screening the 2007 Electronic Theatre at the SAT. Admission is free and so is the popcorn! Labels: computer animation, events, Montreal, shorts, SIGGRAPH November 4, 2007
 Got plans this coming weekend? If you're in New York, make sure to swing by the Museum of Modern Art, which is going to be showcasing the work of Michael Sporn from Friday to Monday. Friday and Saturday will feature fourteen of his shorts from 1984 to the present (they'll all have second screenings on Saturday and Sunday); Monday night features a discussion between Sporn, fellow New York independent animator John Canemaker, and MoMA assistant curator Joshua Siegel, plus a screening of Sporn's commercial work and a preview of his current feature. Each program is about 90 minutes.Friday, November 9, 6:30; Repeated Saturday, November 10, 1:30 Program 1: New York Stories Mona Mon Amour (2001) Champagne (1996) The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (2005) Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (1987) The Little Match Girl (1991) Saturday, November 10, 3:30; Repeated Sunday, November 11, 2:45 Program 2: Fables Doctor DeSoto (1984) Abel's Island (1988) The Red Shoes (1990) The Hunting of the Snark (1989) Saturday, November 10, 5:30; Repeated Sunday, November 11, 4:45 Program 3: A Peaceable Kingdom Goodnight Moon (1999) The Marzipan Pig (1990) The Amazing Bone (1985) Ira Sleeps Over (1992) The Story of the Dancing Frog (1989) Monday, November 12, 7:00 An Evening with Michael Sporn Previously reviewed on fps: The Films of Michael Sporn, Vols. 1 & 2 Labels: events, Michael Sporn, New York, shorts October 31, 2007
 In 1989, a Briton by the name of Neil Gaiman took the myth of the Sandman and spun it into an awe-inspiring series of comic books. In 1991, a Briton by the name of Paul Berry took the myth of the Sandman and spun it into an awe-inspiring and terrifying stop-motion short.The mythical Sandman brings sleep and good dreams to children by sprinkling sand on their eyelids to weigh them down. But in 1817, German author E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote Der Sandmann, in which the Sandman's origins and purposes are far more sinister. Berry and producer Ian Mackinnon crafted their story around Hoffmann's vision, rooting the look of the ten-minute film in German Expressionism. Any symmetry to be found in The Sandman is accidental, and the shadows and moonlight serve to delineate the aquiline features of the title character and the haunted looks of the unnamed young boy and his mother. Those three characters make up most of the cast of The Sandman; as the clock strikes eight, the boy is sent off to bed with only a lamp to guide him through the seemingly endless stairs of their Gothic house to his room. Every creak and every shadow is a new source of terror for the boy, who finally dives under his covers for sweet relief. But as he sleeps, the Sandman appears in his room, waiting for the right moment to strike. The Sandman is entirely in pantomime, with barely-there incidental music accenting the creaks, groans, winds and other incidental sound effects that permeate the film with dread. The Sandman himself is a beautiful study in animated acting, as he gracefully stalks about the room, eventually leaping and dancing like a crazed bird of prey. His performance—for that matter, the entire film—is a textbook example of a medium perfectly suiting a story. At one point the Sandman is climbing the stairs and discovers a loose floorboard, prompting him to repeatedly lean into it, taunting the boy with its creaking. That scene, and the flashback it invokes in anyone who ever laid in bed and thought someone was coming to get them as a child, would never have worked without that sense of weight and tactility. Every moment of The Sandman takes advantage of stop-motion's grounding in reality, and uses it to present a fantastic and frightening scenario that everyone can relate to. One note: if you're watching The Sandman for the first time, make sure to watch it through past the end credits for the one shot that will likely give you nightmares for the next week. Where to find it: On the British Animation Classics Vol. 2 DVD. Labels: shorts, stop-motion, top 5, United Kingdom  The best campfire stories are the ones that are meta—you know, the characters in the story talk about some folk legend and then end up living (but probably not living through) the tale themselves. So it is in Kakurenbo (2005), in which children play a late-night game of hide and seek in an old part of the city, specifically to test a legend about kids doing just that.Wearing their fox masks—a requirement for the game—the kids quickly discover that the rumours of demons pursuing the players are true. Much like in Wicked City, the chase take place in an urban landscape, through buildings that appear to have all been abandoned. Unlike Wicked City, these demons don't wear suits. In fact, they're distinctly old-fashioned creatures out of Japanese folklore, some with accouterments straight out of previous centuries. As the children fall one by one, you get the feeling that this game has been played for a long, long time—so long that the children and the modern buildings they run through are the interlopers, not the monsters. Kakurenbo is entirely 3D CGI, though all the characters are cel-shaded and the backgrounds are either painted or heavily textured. At the beginning of the movie, it's recommended that you watch it in the dark. This is true for the story's mood—all monster movies should be watched in the dark—but also aesthetically. Kakurenbo's colour palette is extremely dark, and its rich look only really becomes apparent when the lights are out. As in many good ghost stories, the characters themselves are ciphers. We don't really know much about the eight kids—one is blustery, two are dangerous as hell, one is looking for his sister who disappeared during an earlier game—and we really don't need to. (The fox masks, which conveniently eliminate any need for facial animation, also help to keep us from getting to know the characters.) Even so, we're given just enough so that the end—which, like other meta ghost stories, serves to confirm the story the characters were relating—still sends a shiver down the spine. Where to find it: On DVD at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, or Right Stuf  Three new podcasts this week, all focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area studio Little Fluffy Clouds. First, two shorts: their 2003 Au Petite Mort, which I favourably reviewed in my coverage of SIGGRAPH 2003; and Alignment, one of three ads they produced for IBM. Finally, there's my interview with Betsy de Fries and Jerry Van de Beek, who have been busily creating animated commercials since they founded the studio in 1996.Labels: commercials, computer animation, interviews, San Francisco, shorts My guests in this podcast are Betsy de Fries and Jerry van de Beek, who form the San Francisco Bay Area studio Little Fluffy Clouds. (And yes, they're named after the Orb song.) Little Fluffy Clouds has been in business since 1996, when the pair left the (Colossal) Pictures studio during its last days. The studio's been busily creating ads for a wide variety of clients since then.Links Little Fluffy Clouds Au Petite Mort IBM: "Alignment" Festival Watch: SIGGRAPH 2003 March 2006 issue of fps, featuring Little Fluffy Clouds' Today Labels: Betsy de Fries, CGI, commercials, computer animation, interviews, Jerry van de Beek, Little Fluffy Clouds, podcast, shorts An animated Rorschach test is the backbone of one of three spots that Little Fluffy Clouds produced for Ogilvy's series of IBM commercials.Links Little Fluffy Clouds Ogilvy Trivers Myers Music Labels: Betsy de Fries, CGI, commercials, computer animation, Jerry van de Beek, Little Fluffy Clouds, podcast, shorts October 29, 2007
A stream, a fisherman, a dragonfly, a fish: In Little Fluffy Clouds' Au Petite Mort (2003), these elements come together to evoke the waning days of summer, the circle of life, and just a little cruel irony.Links Little Fluffy Clouds Festival Watch: SIGGRAPH 2003 Image Credit: © Little Fluffy Clouds LLC Labels: Betsy de Fries, CGI, computer animation, Jerry van de Beek, Little Fluffy Clouds, podcast, shorts October 28, 2007
 While Claws for Alarm plays dread and stark design for laughs, The Tell-Tale Heart, produced just a year earlier by the United Productions of America (UPA) studio, goes straight for disquiet, suspense and insanity. I sometimes wonder what it must have been like to sit in a movie theatre in 1953 and read the title card: "This story is told through the eyes of a madman ......... who, like all of us, believed that he was sane."It's not that American audiences hadn't experienced dramatic theatrical animated shorts before. It's just that, prior to The Tell-Tale Heart, they were typically leavened by comedy. This faithful adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's short story grabs you by the throat, and doesn't let go for its entire eight-minute span. The Tell-Tale Heart is a story about psychosis. The unseen and unnamed narrator (voiced with by James Mason) relates how he took care of an unnamed old man, who was pleasant enough but had one bad eye, turned milky white. The narrator sees the eye, as he says, his voice suddenly rising, "everywhere and in everything!" He abruptly catches himself, and speaks with icy calm: "Of course, I had to get rid of the eye." What follows is murder and concealment, but it soon becomes apparent that this was merely the beginning of the narrator's descent into madness. When constables come around to investigate the noise, they never discover the body in the floorboards—but then the narrator imagines he hears the old man's heart beating...  The pleasure of The Tell-Tale Heart is its trifecta of story, narration and visuals. While UPA had been pushing the modern style for a decade, they had never cut loose and applied it to outright drama. Here, the angular, asymmetrical designs, sharply delineated shadows, textured backgrounds and stylized movement reinforced the perspective of the narrator's unhinged mind. There's little in the way of animated flourishes; except for the sudden brutality of the old man's murder, everything moves at a pace as measured as Mason's narration. Like Hitchcock, director Ted Parmelee knew that creeping dread and suspense, punctuated by moments of violence and surprise, were the best heart-stoppers.Where to find it: As an extra on the Hellboy DVD.
Wow, what can I say? I've never been to Annecy, and if by chance neither have you, then today you are in luck. Starting today, in honour of World Animation Day, 1000 short films (extracts) are being hosted on the Video on Demand site Toondra.com. Since 2006, Toondra.com has been providing animated VOD for purchase (around 1.50 Euros for each short), and now they've opened up the Annecy film archives for your viewing pleasure. The extracts are free to view, and are typically 30 seconds in length, which gives you a good taste of the style and content of the shorts. Direct links to Annecy.org take you back to film details and credits.
The films come from the collection known as Animaquid, a film database created by the Annecy Festival over its 47 years of existence. The shorts available on Toondra date from 2003-2007, and there's a good chance there are more to come. October 27, 2007
Sunday is World Animation Day. Here are some events that are happening in different cities. Check with web sites, media outlets and your friends to learn more. Let us know what's up in your neighbourhood.
JAPAN Hiroshima: Award-winning works of the Hiroshima International Animation Festival INDIA Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram: Simultaneous ASIFA-India celebration CANADA Montreal: 1 p.m. Catherine Arcand discusses her film Nightmare at School 3 p.m. Master class with Madame Tutli-Putli directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski 7 p.m. Toon Boom Internet Animation Contest Screening and Classic Films of the DEFA Screening Toronto: 1 p.m. Talespinners 2 workshop for children and families Vancouver: 2 p.m. Animate It! workshop for youth Winnipeg: 2 p.m. Talespinners 2 screening (recommended for children ages 5-9) UNITED STATES Boston: 3 p.m. Institute of Contemporary Art presents New England Animation Labels: Boston, Canada, events, India, international animation day, Japan, Madame Tutli-Putli, Montreal, shorts, workshops  Long before Space Jam, Warner Bros. characters were gleefully put together in seemingly incongruous pairings. Few directors pulled these off as well as Chuck Jones, as in his Bugs-Daffy team-ups. Over a seven-year period, Jones directed three cartoons that put Porky Pig and Sylvester together, with the second, Claws for Alarm, unspooling in 1954. (The other two were 1948's Scaredy Cat and 1955's Jumpin' Jupiter.)All three cartoons follow the same basic premise: the mute Sylvester is Porky's housecat, and the two stop for a break in their travels after nightfall. Porky is so sleepy he doesn't notice the menaces (here and in Scaredy Cat, mice; in Jumpin' Jupiter, aliens) surrounding him, and poor Sylvester not only has to defend him, he has to bear the brunt of Porky's ire, as the pig keeps waking up at just in time to misinterpret Sylvester's actions. Claws for Alarm makes the cut for Hallowe'en because, unlike in the other two cartoons, the sense of fear and dread comes in from the very first frame. When Porky drives into the deserted town (with its stark Maurice Noble-designed lines and shadows), Sylvester is already quaking—and from the moment they enter the hotel and the mice try to slip a noose around the oblivious Porky's neck, it's apparent that his misgivings are justified. Better still, he never sees his tormentors: the mice always stay hidden in the shadows, so that all Sylvester sees are re-animated mooseheads, guns and nooses that mysteriously appear from cracks in the building, and what appears to be a ghost gliding up the stairway. By morning, Sylvester is reduced to a bleary-eyed nervous wreck. It so happens that Claws for Alarm is one of the handful of Jones cartoons to have a perfect ending: in true horror-movie fashion, Sylvester relaxes as he and Porky speed away from the town—totally unaware that the murderous mice are stowing away in the car. Where to find it: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Three Labels: shorts, top 5, Warner Bros. October 25, 2007
 New Yorkers have four opportunities to catch a screening of 11 Croatian animated shorts between Saturday, October 27 and Wednesday, November 14. Light Drawings: The Zagreb School of Animation is part of the Beyond Boundaries: The Emergence of Croatian Cinema series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which begins tomorrow.The Loner, Vatroslav Mimica, 1958; 12m Concerto for a Sub-machine Gun, Dusan Vukotic, 1958; 14m The Inspector Is Back! Vatroslav Mimica, 1959; 11m The Piece of Shagreen Leather, Vlado Kristl, 1960; 10m Don Quixote, Vlado Kristl, 1961; 11m The Substitute, Dusan Vukotic, 1961; 10m The Wall,Ante Zaninovic, 1965; 3m Curiosity , Borivoj Dovnikovic-Bordo, 1966, 8m Revelry, Zlatko Bourek, 1966; 9m Passing Days, Nedeljko Dragic, 1969, 10m Satiemania, Zdenko Gasparovic, 1978, 14m October 24, 2007
 The Cinematheque Quebecoise focuses on German animation this week. Filmfest Dresden Presents New German Animation screens on Thursday, October 25 at 6:30 p.m., and repeats on Friday at 4:00 p.m.Our Man in Nirvana Jan Koester Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Hazen & Mr. Horlocker Stefan Müller Delivery Till Nowak (attending) Close Your Eyes and Do Not Breathe Vuk Jevremovic Lovesick Speka Cadez Bildfenster/Fensterbilder Bert Gottschalk The Tell-Tale Heart (Der Verrückte, das Herz und das Auge) Annette Jung Diary of a Perfect Love (Tagebuch einer perfekten Liebe) Sebastien Peterson As part of its World Animation Day events on Sunday, October 28th, Hints of Excellence: Classics of the DEFA screens for free. Labels: events, festivals, Filmfest Dresden, Germany, Montreal, shorts October 13, 2007
 Animation fans in LA who didn't make it to the Platform International Animation Festival (or those who simply want to relive it) will get a chance to see selections from the festival during a screening on Monday, October 15, at 8:00 p.m. at the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater.There were many notable shorts during the festival although I haven't been able to find out the full lineup for this screening (Luis Cook's The Pearce Sisters and work by Don Hertzfeldt and Miwa Matreyek will be featured), I don't doubt for a moment that the variety and selection of shorts will be entirely worth your time. Previously on fps Platform International Animation Festival coverage Labels: events, festivals, Los Angeles, Platform, shorts October 12, 2007
 Le Festival du Nouveau Cinéma is known for its wolf that adorns its publicity materials. The fest has a track called Les P'tits Loups or, in English, Little Wolves, with programming geared towards children, and only two shorts in that entire track are live-action. The selections will definitely be of interest to parents and guardians, and honestly, I think if you left the kids at home you might not notice. The track begins on the morning of Saturday, October 13 with U, a feature from France that appears to be a fairy tale on the outside and is a coming of age story underneath it all, despite the unicorn and the castle. It deals with concepts of love and adolescence in a very disarming fashion.Sunday, October 14 features an hour's worth of Komaneko: The Curious Cat shorts. I can't recommend this highly enough. Our heroine is the ultimate do-it-yourselfer and amateur auteur. This little stop-mo cat creates her own stop-motion shorts, makes her own props, sets and puppets, and can be found outside filming her surroundings. One of her partners in crime is a little cat who builds robots and fixes mechanical objects.  Kids take away a great lesson, and the shorts, although suitable for children as young as 3, can entertain someone in their 50s just as easily. The shorts are well-crafted, include engaging characters and they have a simple, but coherent story. In Japan, it is distributed by Geneon Entertainment. It's too bad that they'll no longer be distributing DVDs in North America. I hope that someone else distributes them here. For now, you can get them at Yesasia.For a more diverse selection, Sunday, October 21 features the various shorts, mostly animated, including the hilarious Isabelle au Bois Dormant/Sleeping Betty from Claude Cloutier at the NFB. If the festival's selection doesn't get local kids interested in film and animation, I'm not sure what will. Labels: features, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, festivals, FNC, France, Japan, live action, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, shorts, stop-motion October 10, 2007
 Since Persepolis and Madame Tutli-Putli each screened at Cannes and won awards this year in May, they have appeared at animation and mainstream film festivals to acclaim. Montrealers can now finally see both films by attending the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, which begins today. Animation seems to have taken on a more important role in the festival with more shorts than ever. However, a few might slip through the cracks if you aren't careful. The visceral Face lies in wait in Competition 1, on Thursday, October 11 and Wednesday, October 17th. Madame Tutli-Putli is showing during Competition 2 this Friday, October 12 and Tuesday, October 16. Selina Cobley's Crow Moon screens in Competition 3 next week on the 17th and 18th.The National Film Board of Canada Stereo Lab is screening four stereoscopic shorts, which 2004 OIAF attendees might have seen, but this screening includes the premiere of a stereoscopic version of Theodor Ushev's phenomenal Tower Bawher. Previously on fps Festival du Nouveau Cinéma coverage Persepolis coverage Two Podcasts for Madame Tutli-Putli Labels: computer animation, events, features, festivals, France, Madame Tutli-Putli, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Persepolis, shorts, stop-motion, United Kingdom October 5, 2007
 If you're in Montreal, before you go to the Poetry in Motion screening tomorrow, you may want to drop in at the National Film Board's Cinérobotheque, less than a 5 minute walk away. As part of a weekend of screenings of short programmes from this year's Fantasia festival, the Outer Limits of Animation Program will be screening at 3:00 p.m. The program repeats on Sunday at 5:00 p.m.For nearly two hours, you will be able to see shorts selected by North America's premiere cult film festival for just $7 (less if you're a student). Labels: events, Fantasia festival, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, shorts October 2, 2007
 Didn't go to Ottawa this year? Even if you went, you might not have been able to see the special screenings on poetry and animation, Poetry in Motion. If you live in Montreal, you can see both programs this week on Thursday and Saturday at the Cinémathèque Québécoise. The programmer is the National Film Board producer and author Marcel Jean, and he has selected shorts that span decades and geographical boundaries (although the first screening is half Canadian, including Québécois, in its content).From Words to Images Thursday, October 4, 6:30 p.m. Primiti Too Taa, Ed Akerman, Colin Morton Essere morti o essere vivi è la stessa cosa, Gianluigi Toccafondo Forgetfulness, Julian Grey Rain, Michael Sewnarain Espolio, Sidney Goldsmith Aloud/Bagatelle, Don McWilliams 6 haïku, Éric Ledune A Said Poem, Veronika Soul Tengo la posizione, Simone Massi The Old Fools, Ruth Lingford Poetry is Child’s Play, Bouwine Pool Sandburg’s Arithmetic, Lynn Smith Tread Softly, Heebok Lee At the Quinte Hotel, Bruce Alcock (click the image above for an excerpt.) The Film as Poetry Itself Saturday, October 6, 5:00 p.m. Accordion, Michèle Cournoyer Stones (Sten), Lejf Marcussen Beginnings, Clorinda Warny, Suzanne Gervais, Lina Gagnon As people, Ursula Ferrara Kaiten Mokuba, Thomas Hicks 9 in a Chimney 10 in a Bed or Hates A Strong Word, Jean-Jacques Villard Renaissance, Walerian Borowczyk Night on Bald Mountain, Alexandre Alexeïeff, Claire Parker Grace, Lorelei Pepi Mr. Pascal, Alison de Vere Repete, Michaela Pavlátová Labels: events, Montreal, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, shorts September 28, 2007
(Pika Pika 2007) Labels: Japan, Los Angeles, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, PikaPika, shorts, visual music September 27, 2007
 White's Dream is a music video based on the Tekkonkinkreet movie. Set to the Shinichi Osawa remix of Plaid's song from the soundtrack and directed by Tekkon director Michael Arias, the video encapsulates most of the movie from Shiro's (White's) perspective.Links Tekkonkinkreet review Michael Arias interview Tekkonkinkreet image gallery Tekkonkinkreet soundtrack Tekkonkinkreet soundtrack remix CD Image credit: © Taiyo Matsumoto / Shogakukan, Aniplex, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Beyond C., Dentsu, Tokyo MX. Special thanks to Michael Arias for providing this video. Labels: anime, Japan, Michael Arias, music videos, podcast, shorts, Tekkon Kinkreet September 26, 2007
 Award-winning French animator Florence Miailhe will be giving a master class this Thursday, September 27th, at the Cinémathèque Québécoise at 3 p.m. Miailhe works in-camera with oil paint, pastel and sand to create rich imagery in films such as Conte de quartier, which is a Films de l'Arlequin and National Film Board of Canada production.Thanks to the generosity of the NFB and Antitube, she will be in Montreal and on Friday in Quebec City at the Museum of Civilisation to meet with the public. Both events are free! Labels: France, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Quebec City, shorts September 24, 2007
 Wrapping up Norman McLaren's retrospective world tour, the NFB pairs up with the Montreal Symphony to present a special hybrid performance of music and cinema.Next week in Montreal, the symphony will play musical accompaniment to four of the animator's greatest works; Blinkity Blank, Love on the Wing, Neighbours/Voisins and Hell Unlimited. The richness of full symphonic sound will no doubt offer a fitting complement to the large screen presentation of McLaren's animation genius. The evening performance comes first (October 2), followed by the matinee (October 3), which sounds like a great idea for a class field trip to me. For school group reservations, call the MSO at 514-842-3402. What: The Air Canada Words and Music Concerts series When: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. Where: Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts, Montreal Kent Nagano, conductor Gabriel Thibaudeau, pianist What: The Symphonic Matinees series When: Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 10:30 a.m.Where: Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts, Montreal Kent Nagano, conductor John Zirbel, OSM principal horn Gabriel Thibaudeau, pianist Labels: events, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Norman McLaren, shorts, visual music  BEST ANIMATED FEATUREPersepolis [2007] Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi, France BEST INDEPENDENT SHORT ANIMATION Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor [2007] Koji Yamamura, Japan BEST STUDENT ANIMATION Milk Teeth [2007] Tibor Banoczki, National Film and Television School, UK BEST COMMISSIONED ANIMATION Golden Age [2007] Aaron Augenblick, Augenblick Studios, USA BEST CANADIAN ANIMATION Sleeping Betty (Isabelle au bois dormant) [2007] Claude Cloutier, National Film Board of Canada, Canada Honourable Mention: I Met The Walrus (2007) Josh Raskin, I Met the Walrus Inc., Canada ANIMATION SCHOOL SHOWREEL Bezalel Academy for Art and Design (Israel) INDEPENDENT SHORT ANIMATION COMPETITION Narrative Short Animation under 35 minutes: Madame Tutli-Putli [2007] Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski, National Film Board of Canada, Canada Experimental / Abstract Animation under 35 minutes: Framing (Bildfenster / Fensterbilder) [2007] Bert Gottschalk, Germany Honourable Mention: Teat Beat of Sex [2007] Signe Baumane, USA STUDENT ANIMATION COMPETITION Adobe Prize for Best High School Animation: Herbert [2007] Aven Fisher, King’s View Academy, Canada Undergraduate Animation: Doxology [2007] Michael Langan, Rhode Island School of Design, USA Graduate Animation: t.o.m. [2006] Tom Brown & Daniel Gray, International Film School of Wales, UK COMMISSIONED ANIMATION COMPETITION Promotional Animation: National Lottery ‘The Big Win’ [2006] Marc Craste, Studio AKA, UK Music Video: OOIOO ‘UMO’ [2007] Shoji Goto, Japan Television Animation for Adults: John and Karen [2007] Matthew Walker, Arthur Cox Ltd., UK NEW MEDIA COMPETITION AniBoom Prize for Animation Short Made for the Internet: L’eau Life [2007] Jeff Scher, Fez Films, USA ANIMATION MADE FOR CHILDREN Best Short Animation: Zhiharka [2006] Oleg Uzhinov, “Pilot” Moscow Animation Studio, Russian Federation Honourable Mention: Nightmare at School [2007] Catherine Arcand, National Film Board of Canada, Canada Honourable Mention: Aston's Stones (Astons stenar) [2007] Uzi Geffenblad & Lotta Geffenblad, Sweden Television Animation for Children: Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends 'Squeeze the Day' [2006] Craig McCracken, Cartoon Network Studios, USA Honourable Mention: Pocoyo 'Dance Off' [2007] Guillermo Garcia & Alfonso Rodriguez, Zinkia Entertainment & Granada International, Spain & UK NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA PUBLIC PRIZE (Voted by the Audience) Sleeping Betty (Isabelle au bois dormant) [2007] Claude Cloutier, National Film Board of Canada, Canada Labels: features, festivals, Madame Tutli-Putli, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, shorts September 22, 2007
 People often forget that not every event at the Ottawa International Animation Festival requires that you get a babysitter before you leave home. There are many opportunities to take the kids with you. Here's a list of family friendly events.Labels: events, festivals, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, shorts, workshops September 18, 2007
 Festival madness: Animatu 2007 kicks off its appreciation of digital animation in Beja, Portugal on October 17, featuring shorts like Ark, Codehunters and Guy's Guide to Zombies; in Spain, Animadrid starts off strong on September 28, opening with Nocturna; I'm still a little peeved at Aurora (formerly Norwich International Animation Festival) for dumping the word "animation" from their name because they think it's too restrictive, but damn do they have a lot of cool animation and animators in this year's fest, which starts November 7; Animae Caribe hits the University of the West Indies, Trinidad on October 25 and will feature a history of African animation; and the awesome Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema returns to the tiny town starting November 15, with an undoubtedly incredible lineup and steady supply of excellent hot chocolate. Two new additions to our Sites We Like blogroll (over on the lower right sidebar, in case you hadn't noticed): Fill This Space is Patrick Smith's space for ruminating on the art and animation that he makes, and that inspires him; Diego Stoliar's self-titled blog features his personal and creative work. I featured Patrick's Moving Along in our Flicker newsletter a while ago, and praised his Handshake ever so briefly in my review of the second Avoid Eye Contact DVD; Diego was a participant in the National Film Board of Canada's most recent iteration of the Hothouse project, and you can see his contribution, One, along with the rest of them here. They'e both great guys, and I hope one day we'll all share beers together.In the past we've mentioned the weekend animation workshops that the National Film Board hosts for kids here in Montreal; I should also mention that the NFB in Toronto has been running the same kind of program at the Mediatheque, for budding animators aged 3 to 13. The current program runs through to April 2008, but you can jump in at any time.  The Iranian feature Persepolis has been making the festival rounds for most of the year, but it looks like Sony Classics is giving it at least some sort of a theatrical release. I don't know about the rest of the continent, but Montrealers will be able to catch it in English and French starting January 11.Speaking of Sony, the company is picking up where Disney left off with direct-to-DVD sequels of its feature properties; the first title is Open Season 2. Fans may howl at the resurgence of cheapquels, but I imagine it's hard for executives to ignore the heaping piles of money they generate. Labels: Canada, features, festivals, Montreal, Persepolis, Portugal, shorts, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Spain, Toronto, Trinidad, United Kingdom, Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema, WFAC September 14, 2007
 Ever since I first discovered CG-Arts and the Japan Media Arts Festival, I've been delighted to find that every year the festival features at least one short that looks and feels unlike any film I've ever seen—my criterion for an excellent film fest. This year one of the most striking was Tomonori Hayase's Mix a Miniascape. Set to music by Jumpei Yamada, Hayase's film uses Adobe Photoshop and After Effects to create a funky, unusual Tokyo travelogue. Hayase took hundreds, if not thousands, of photos of people, places and thing as he passed by them, or they passed him. He then assembled the images into a collage, animating his travels through the city by erasing the image of, say, a building piece by piece at the same time as the next image of the same building is being built piece by piece. The effect is of moving through a fractured urban landscape, propelled by Yamada's breakbeats while navigating periods of both chaos and calm. While Mix a Miniascape was an example of something new, there were also some nice reprises. Tochka Factory's Pikapika made its Japan Media Arts Festival debut—if you haven't already heard about this literally brilliant short, you should read my earlier praise—and Hikaru Yamakawa followed up last year's Oh Hisse (itself a followup to the previous year's Tope Con Giro) with La Magistral.  In Oh Hisse, Yamakawa presented a surreal world in which hundreds of faceless schoolboys marched in increasingly outlandish geometric processions, to the utter disregard of a man sitting on a bench and three schoolgirls talking among themselves. Oh Hisse's hypnotic appeal lay in its minimalist colour palette (black, white, a few shades of grey and spots of red), the mannequin-like quality of its characters, and its rhythmic and only vaguely natural movement. In La Magistral, Yamakawa explores the same concepts, but opens things up a little bit. The range of colours has expanded to include blues, greens and browns, as seven nearly identical men in grey tracksuits ride unicycles along a slender beam, observed on by swaying figures in coloured tracksuits, all of whom have spheres, cubes and cones for heads, and often casually defying gravity.Not only does La Magistral have more colour than its predecessor, it also has a more dynamic cameral and yet, it's just as mesmerizing. Another distinction, however, is that Yamakawa decided to give La Magistral an actual ending—one that induces a chuckle, maybe, but otherwise doesn't offer much.  A more compelling film, however, was also perhaps more modest, at least in its tone. Naked Youth is directed by Kojiro Shishido, who coincidentally composed the music for La Magistral. As the film starts, a young man emerges from a school's shower stall. His towel falls, and just as he pulls it back up someone steps out of another stall. The two wordlessly face each other, and the camera cuts away to another scene. We soon see the boys training together and learn that they're members of a boxing team. There's little in the way of linear narrative here; the camera lingers with equal summer laziness on the sunlit trees and blue skies in their Japanese suburb, the mundane scenes of road trips, and the boys' vigorous exercise and practice regimen.And then there's that shower scene, which appears and disappears like a metronome tick, four times throughout the film. Like the rest of Naked Youth, the scene is wordless and features just the right sounds to establish a sense of place and mood. But that mood is ambiguous, and increasingly charged with tentative eroticism whenever the boys face each other. Are there clues to their relationship in other scenes? The boys sometimes work out together, sometimes alone; and they look away from each other as often as not. When one of them changes out of his shorts next to the boxing ring—a seemingly common occurrence, as no one really pays him any mind—is the other boy looking at him, or you know, looking at him? The delight of Naked Youth is that it obeys the maxim of "show, don't tell," but it doesn't go out of its way to show everything, either. Subtlety is king here, and the audience still has to work to figure out what it can. From the standpoint of technique, Naked Youth presents its story in a way that seems very traditional, and yet unconventional. It's hand-drawn in what we consider the anime style, though its characters are perhaps a little less streamlined and a little more detailed—closer, one might say, to more of a manga style. The animation direction also favours a look and feel that's less flat than most commercial anime. Athletic scenes feature a moving, "handheld" camera, with figures looking more as if they're moving through three-dimensional space, with little of the exaggeration that's common in anime. Much of this look is a result of strikingly stylized integration of 3D computer animation, hand-drawn animation and beautiful lighting and texturing effects. Shishido gives Naked Youth space to breathe by providing many moments of figurative, if not literal, silence, in which nothing more happens than, say, the team waiting out a summer downpour or sunlight filtering through the trees as crickets chirp. Of course, these kinds of moments aren't new to anime; for decades, this appreciation of stillness has been part of the medium's appeal. But in Naked Youth these scenes are even more engaging, as Shishido uses light CGI touches and careful audio work to effectively place the viewer in the scene. That downpour, for example, is pretty convincing, and while one nightttime scene is a just a little CGI-flashy—since when do moths flitting around a street light cast such stark shadows?—it beautifully conveys that feeling of being out alone on a quiet summer night. It's films like Naked Youth that put the lie to the sentiment that animation must necessarily be simple, childish, or fantastic in subject matter; the complicated yet simple Naked Youth's exploration of a slice of adolescent life could well have been told in live action, but it would have been all the poorer for it. Labels: anime, CGI, festivals, Japan, Japan Media Arts Festival, music videos, reviews, shorts September 12, 2007
 There's just a week to go before the Ottawa International Animation Festival opens, and the lineup is impressive. If you'll be in Ottawa for the first day, Wednesday, September 19, then you will be among the first to see the film adaptation of Persepolis, adapted by the author Marjane Satrapi. It won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes earlier this year and screened recently at the Toronto International Film Festival. Unless you will be at the VFF in October, you won't want to miss it in Ottawa with a crowd that can't be beat for enthusiasm when the film is deserving. Following the opening feature, Short Competition 1 also features a notable selection including instant personal classic, UMO, the visceral J-Pop video directed by Shoji Goto. The video melds multiple techniques, including stop-motion, CG and 2D, and effectively makes you want more when it ends. It won't be the first or last animation short that you will see over the course of the festival the latches onto you.Labels: comics, features, festivals, Iran, Japan, OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Persepolis, shorts, visual music September 8, 2007
 One of SIGGRAPH's (many) hidden gems is the collection of digitally animated shorts from the previous Japan Media Arts Festival. Hidden because in the middle of the constantly repeating Animation Theater, the 90 minutes or so of selected Japan Media Arts Festival shorts are each shown exactly once, across three half-hour programs. However, those screenings represent just a slice of all the films shown during the nine days of the festival. (For that matter, films are just one part of the fest, which includes manga, artwork and installations.)A case in point is that the two films lodged most firmly in my brain were in the festival's Entertainment Division, and both are rooted in live action. In Tadashi Tsukagoshi's Arrow, a man notices that the cigarette butts he's extinguished under his shoe form an arrow, which points straight to a procession of ants marching... in the shape of an arrow. Digital trickery (as well as creative prop placement and hair gel) creates the procession of pointers that the man follows first out of curiosity, then out of dark compulsion.  Koichiro Tsujikawa's dreamy music video to Cornelius's "Fit Song" spends its entire time in the confines of a house, where CGI brings everyday items to a strange sort of life. Strange because aside from a few objects (most amusingly, a discus-throwing action figure and a top-heavy, ambulatory magnifying glass), almost none are anthropomorphized—and many replicate themselves with more of an eye to what looks good and, above all, what works with the music, rather than any strict adherence to physics. I'm a lifelong puzzler, so I was delighted to see a ball of matches explode into a floating array of early 20th-century Japanese matchstick puzzles, some of which solved themselves as the camera floated by. And is it just me, or is the rolling (and, yes, self-reproducing) sugar cubes' initial dance a nod to Norman McLaren's 1964 film, Canon? The Entertainment Division did have some fully animated works, however. Satoshi Tomioka's Exit online ads for Taito are frantic and deliriously absurd, both involving noisy and chaotic chase scenes with characters looking for a way out of predicaments they've brought on themselves. (A naked man with a bored, negligée-clad girl in tow flees a woman—her mother? his wife?—down a hotel corridor; a cat tries to liberate a fish from the dinner table of an elderly couple. Oddly enough, in both cases the pursuers have glowing laser eyes and preternatural abilities.) Every time I watch these one-minute ads I think about the buckets of money companies like Dreamworks spend trying to make 3D CGI more cartoony, while smaller studios just sit down and do it—sometimes with better results.Labels: anime, CGI, commercials, festivals, Japan, Japan Media Arts Festival, live action, music videos, reviews, shorts August 19, 2007
 If you couldn't make it to this year's SIGGRAPH conference in San Diego (or your local chapter's screening of selected Computer Animation Festival shorts), you're in luck: I've pulled together links to all of the shorts from this year's Electronic Theater and Animation Theaters that are available online in their entirety. (Rather, I think this is all of them: if I've missed any, please let me know.)Of course, you're not really getting the whole experience as most of these shorts are squished to easily-downloadable sizes. Most of the shorts are on three DVDs available directly from SIGGRAPH's Video Review website; while they're not listed on the site yet, you can send them e-mail to get all the info. The discs are a little pricey, though (they're $60 each, or $40 each for ACM members), especially if you're looking for specific shorts. If you're hunting for something in particular on DVD, you can sometimes find shorts for a little less on the creators' websites or on Stash's monthly DVD compilations. For now, however, here's what's available online. This list makes up just a little more than half of all the shorts that were shown, so you'll get a good idea of what the festival was like this year. And to save you clicking back and forth, all of these links open in a new browser window. 8848 27 Storms: Arlene to Zeta 90° Adidas: Adistar Aditya Birla Group India Beach Ball Beck: Girl Budwiser: King Crab Building Blocks Burning Safari Cafard Capturing and Animating Skin Deformation Cascades Chevrolet: Buildings Chocolate Pillows Codehunters Crow Dynamo En Tus Brazos equilibrio Esc Fed Ex: Moon Office Fetch Fight Night Round 3 Froggy Gears of War Gorillaz: El Mañana Half Life 2: Episode 2 Happiness Factory High Fashion in Equations HP Hands: Jay-Z HP Hands: Paulo Coelho It's JerryTime!: The Big Time Johnnie Walker: Human La Marche des sans nom Lenovo: Virus L'Uomo Uccello Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Intro Microsoft Zune: Two Little Birds Moutons Nissan Animal Oli's Chance Paraworld Pepsi: Dance Tron Portal Raymond Respire, Mon Ami - Breathe, My Friend Sears Tools: Aboretum Sky HD: Feel Everything swirl Ted The Adventures of Baxter & McGuire: The Soccer Game The Animator and the Seat The End The Grandfather of Soul The Itch Tournis Travelers: Snowball U2 and Green Day: The Saints Are Coming Versus Video 3000 Vigorsol: The Legend Volkswagen Touran Warhammer Online: The Age of Reckoning World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade August 17, 2007
 Kino Kid had it almost right when she said I was still in recovery from SIGGRAPH. That, among other reasons, is why I have a bit of a backlog, but I'm taking care of that starting right now. First, a belated mention of a five-minute excerpt from Oira no Yakyu [Our Baseball Match], one of the shorts featured in the four-DVD Japanese Anime Classic Collection boxed set I reviewed at the end of July. Tying into both of these is an interview with Larry Greenberg, the founder and CEO of Digital Meme, the company behind the boxed set.
 In April, the Tokyo-based company Digital Meme released the Japanese Anime Classic Collection, which contained almost 60 animated shorts from Japan's silent era. I recently spoke with Digital Meme CEO Larry Greenberg about this landmark collection, as well as his company.Links Digital Meme Matsuda Film Productions Japanese Anime Classic Collection review Oira no Yakyu [Our Baseball Match] (excerpt) Benshi Labels: anime, Digital Meme, interviews, Japan, Larry Greenberg, podcast, shorts  The annual SIGGRAPH conference ended less than a week ago, and Emru is still in recovery. Here's something for those of us who couldn't make it.Our local chapter, ACM SIGGRAPH Montreal, is hosting a screening of selections from the Computer Animation Festival in Parc de la Paix, the space next to the Society of Arts and Technology (SAT) at 1195 Saint-Laurent this Saturday, August 18. An outdoor screening would be great, but in case of rain, it will move next door to the SAT who are always gracious hosts. You can view the 2007 trailer here. Find your local SIGGRAPH chapter. August 2, 2007
This excerpt is from the 1931 short Oira no Yakyu (Our Baseball Match), directed by Yasuji Murata. Oira no Yakyu and many of Murata's other works are featured in the four-DVD set Japanese Anime Classic Collection, which was released earlier this year by Digital Meme. Oira no Yakyu features a baseball game between rabbits and tanuki (raccoon-like canines indigenous to Japan). Tanuki are known for being shape-shifting tricksters, and while the shape-shifting isn't present here, they certainly are tricky.The silent era of Japanese cinema featured one major distinction from that one the West: the addition of the benshi, a narrator and actor who added a significant live-performance component to the movies beyond just the music. As a result, the silent era lasted longer in Japan than in the West—so even though Oira no Yakyu came out two years into the sound era, it still has the look and feel of a silent movie, and features benshi narration. Links Japanese Anime Classic Collection review Digital Meme Tanuki Benshi Image credit: © 2007 Digital Meme. Labels: anime, Japan, podcast, shorts, Yasuji Murata July 31, 2007
 Review by Emru TownsendAnime has always existed at something of a remove from Western audiences. For more than half the time since the 1963 debut of Astro Boy (originally Tetsuwan Atom), our main point of contact with anime had been through edited, rewritten and otherwise adapted works; and most of its enthusiasts didn't speak or read the original language and were half a world away, geographically and culturally. Combined with the informal nature of its adoption here, through the ad hoc nature of science-fiction and comics fandom, the result has been a historiography that, for the longest time, was partly built on speculation and hearsay masquerading as fact. A multitude of factors has helped change that, especially over the last decade or so, but there's still been precious little on the origins of animation in Japan, beyond tidbits of information scattered here and there. This is why Digital Meme's recent Japanese Anime Classic Collection isn't just a boxed set, it's a godsend: it goes a long way toward clarifying things, or fleshing out what we already knew. Read the review July 24, 2007
 Azur and Asmar (DVD)Renaissance (DVD) While in the US, computer animation means reaching for more and more realism or doing cartoons in 3D, the Europeans are looking for other ways to be creative with it, as demonstrated by these two features. Renaissance, with its high-contrast, black and white look, does to computer animation what Blade Runner did to the SF flick: infuse it with style while telling a tighly woven intrigue heavily influenced by film noir. Everything is there, from the cop who will get to the truth no matter what the cost, the corrupt corporation of the future, dealings with seedy criminals, and of course, a femme fatale or two. Beautifully designed and animated, Azur and Asmar proves that Michel Ocelot is indeed one of the modern masters of animation. He shows his roots as a cutout animator in his choice of framing and movement style, yet somehow the realistic 3D characters manage to move in a stylized, almost 2D environment while not looking out of place. Every frame is a pleasure to behold, but it's not just eye candy, it's there to tell a story: a beautiful tale tackling issues of racism and brotherhood without teaching lessons of tolerance with a sledgehammer. —René Walling Suzuka Vol. 2 (DVD) Suzuka is a fun and entertaining sports anime that tracks a boy named Yamato whose high school crush is inexplicably talented in track & field. Featuring some pretty amicable characters and genuine story about meeting and surpassing expectations, the Suzuka television animation is charming and easy to like. —Aaron H. Bynum Woody Woodpecker & Friends Classic Collection (DVD) The first generally available sampling from the Walter Lantz studio on DVD. This collection contains most of the cream of the studio's output including cartoons featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Andy Panda, Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy. Directors include Shamus Culhane, Dick Lundy and Tex Avery and animators include Fred Moore, Ed Love, Grim Natwick, Pat Matthews and LaVerne Harding. While the cartoons don't have the same high batting average as Warner Bros. cartoons, there are genuine gems here. If you're a fan of golden age cartoons, prepare to be entertained. —Mark Mayerson Labels: anime, CGI, releases, shorts, upcoming releases July 4, 2007
 There's once again talk of a Samurai Jack feature, but this time, rather more sensibly, it's to be animated, with creator Genndy Tartakovsky directing. Fred Seibert has launched Frederator Films (along with Kevin Kolde and Eric Gardner), with the aim of producing animated features for under $20 million. Aside from Samurai Jack, the other initial projects are stop-motion The Neverhood (based on the game I praised last year, with creator Doug TenNapel on board to direct) and the hip-hop The Seven Deadly Sins, with Don King signed to provide a voice (!).If you happen to find yourself in Beja, Portugal in the next two months, the Animatu digital animation festival is screening the best of last year's films. In July they'll be screening a short every hour from 9:00 p.m. to midnight at the Galeria do Desassossego; in August they'll be screening a short before every feature on Mondays at the Pax Julia Municipal Theatre. And if you're a digital filmmaker, don't forget: you've still got just under two weeks to submit your work for this year's festival. (The new deadline's July 15.) Teheran's Experimental and Documentary Film Center wants to kick-start Iran's animation industry by supporting the production of more animated shorts, as well as theatrical features, with an emphasis on films with a distinctive directorial touch. I'm all for auteur cinema, especially those that are distinctly of the culture that produced them, but I'm curious as to the flavour of the films that will be produced, as Iran has a history of being less than supportive of films the government deems anti-Islamic, anti-Iranian or anti-government (including the recent Persepolis). In some cases that makes the resulting films more interesting, as directors find new, creative ways of slipping in their messages while getting around state censors and critics. This Saturday the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco plays host to Blast Off!, an exhibition on comics and manga that will feature taiko drumming, cosplay, panel discussions with Gilles Poitras and Fred Schodt, and more. The event, which ties into the museum's Osamu Tezuka exhibit, appears to have the goal of connecting teens who are into manga and anime with a deeper understanding of Japan, anime and manga. Cool. July 11 will see a tribute to Woody Woodpecker in Hollywood, at Mann's Chinese 6 Theater. On the guest list are Leonard Maltin, Billy West, June Foray, Maurice LaMarche and Phil Roman. (I'm assuming that there will be actual Woody Woodpecker cartoons screened as well, but there's no mention.) People in the neighbourhood can go to this event for free, and the rest of us can watch the show online. Either way, you'll need to visit the website to sign up. Labels: Animatu, anime, events, festivals, Frederator, Iran, Los Angeles, Persepolis, Portugal, Samurai Jack, San Francisco, shorts, The Neverhood June 28, 2007
 The first event of the Platform International Animation Festival took place on Monday night with Competition 1. Irene Kotlarz, Director of Programming (pictured) got things rolling and welcomed and eager crowd that had already been well-taken care of by registration and other volunteer staff. If there were any fires being put out in the background, attendees sure didn't know about it. The festival has been a well-oiled machine so far.The first short to screen was Torill Kove's The Danish Poet, this year's Oscar winner. Luis Cook's The Pearce Sisters was a standout Aardman short and one of the newer shorts in the selection. Recently acclaimed shorts such as Run Wrake's Rabbit and Theodore Ushev's Tower Bawher were shown and I became newly acquainted with Herzog and the Monsters. The opening night party offered a chance for people to reconnect and make some new contacts in a great setting and others snuck off later in the evening for Comedy vs. Art, featuring an animation face-off between Bill Plympton and Joanna Priestley. Tuesday was the first full day of the festival and I started off the day at the Meet the Animators panel moderated by Ramin Zahed of Animation Magazine. The thread that ran through all of the discussions dealt with passion for animating. Marc Bertrand of the National Film Board said he would rather people make films for themselves with themes they care about rather than impressing a producer. Motomichi Nakamura suggested that animators put work in their portfolio that they really enjoyed and not put in the rest.  The highlight of the day was the feature Tekkon Kinkreet, with its lush visuals and bold style. Director Michael Arias (pictured) was in the house and answered an extended Q&A about the making of the film.After Competition 3, I could barely survive Animation From Hell, which screened Shut Eye Hotel, Bill Plympton's new short. So many activities can get a bit taxing, and I had to get ready for another day replete with great activities. (Photos by official festival photographer CJ Beaman.) Labels: Aardman Animations, anime, Bill Plympton, features, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Platform, Portland, shorts, Studio 4C, Tekkon Kinkreet June 17, 2007
 We're now a month into Hollywood's summer movie season (although summer isn't for a few days yet), which means that with Surf''s Up and Shrek the Third in cinemas and Ratatouille and Bee Movie on their way, we're well into that time of year when animation innovation is measured in the number of hairs on characters' heads. But short films are where the real breakthroughs take place in terms of both storytelling and technique, and the latest reminder of that is in a pair of DVDs from German studio Film Bilder.Volumes one and two of Film Bilder Box feature ten of the studio's independent shorts between them, from their very first independent film (1989's Flugbild) to their latest (2006's The Runt). Most, if not all, are festival favourites. Each disc works out to just under an hour of running time. Normally I would mention standout pieces, but it's hard to do in this case because each short is excellent (though I'm not as keen on Great Is the Mystery of Godliness, in which a potato comes to our two protagonists and proclaims that he is God, then nonsensical chaos ensues). However, I will mention two shorts that people have asked me about in the past: - If you watched MTV's Liquid Television in the early 1990s, then you saw two-thirds of Flugbild, in which a constantly moving camera takes us through an eerie, boldly coloured landscape of interconnected events. The events unfold once, then repeat; it's on the second fly-through that some of the connections begin to take shape. In the MTV version, Flugbild stops after the second fly-through. In the original version, there's a third identical cycle, and surprisingly it makes a difference. Phil Mulloy's The Final Solution, the third part of the Intolerance trilogy, was co-produced by Film Bilder, hence its inclusion here. Part I (simply titled Intolerance) appears on the fourth Best of the British Animation Awards disc, but I don't know if you can get Part II (Invasion) anywhere separately. Fortunately, Film Bilder has the entire trilogy available in their store. While it's a pleasure to see a studio that consistently produces good work show off its talents, it's a little disappointing that each disc only features five shorts, with no extras of any kind. It's also disappointing that the liner notes don't really provide much information. The studio's website has plenty of material to explore, but even there you won't find much from individual directors. That said, these are still films worth having on your shelf. The two discs are in PAL but region-free (if you don't have a multi-format DVD player, you can watch them on your computer), and are available from Amazon's German site or Film Bilder's own store. May 30, 2007
 Cegep Vieux Montreal will be holding its year-end screening Wednesday May 30 at 7 p.m. The college's highly regarded Animation and 3D Animation program's 2007 graduates will screen their short films at 245 Ontario East. Admission is 2 dollars. |
|
