It's good week to live in France. By that, I really mean it's only good to live in Nantes or somewhere really close by. Amer Beton, the French-subtitled version of Tekkon Kinkreet, opens on Wednesday theatrically in one theatre in that city, quite a few hours away from Paris. Allocine has the trailer and 4 excerpts of the film. Amer Beton was also the French version of the comic from which the film is adapted, and in English it was originally published under the name Black and White.

Now that Sony has picked up distribution rights, many people have been more hopeful. IMDB lists an American limited release for the second week of July, and I have yet to see or read anything for Canada outside of the festival circuit.

Several sites have been repeating that a domestic DVD release is set for the end of September. It seems to have begun with an announcement from Anime News Service, and picked up by several others, including the very reliable Twitch and Anime News Network. However, I have yet to see the date on the Sony website, despite most sites linking back to Sony's upcoming DVD releases, which are only listed until June. Viz is also planning to re-release the comic a few weeks before that, so it does make sense, but I'm still checking.

While all of this TK news is heartening, it bothers me that distributors still don't have enough faith to give innovative features a chance by giving them more theatrical exposure. I can't see it hurting their DVD sales, only increasing them.

At the end of the last week, the English Tekkon Kinkreet website went live, and you can access the trailer from the main page.

Labels: anime, comics, features, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Studio 4C, Tekkon Kinkreet

Speaking of retro mecha shows, I recently got a note from one Peter Jivkov that he's hard at work on Grendizer Returns, a fan-produced CGI feature based on UFO Robot Grendizer. He's posted a few stills and a brief rocket-punch test clip on his website. This reminds me that it's been almost a year and a half since I reported on The UFO, a similar Italian project that aims to make a live-action/CGI prequel episode to the original anime series. Check out the group's website for a smattering of new images, plus some making-of material (including a behind-the-scenes video) from last October.

Labels: anime, features

This has been kicking around on my hard drive for some time, and I was surprised to discover I hadn't posted it here before. Someone has posted an extensive collection of opening credit sequences from anime robot shows on YouTube, spanning from 1963 to 1996. The first collection starts with Tetsujin 28, the very first giant robot show, and the last collection closes out with Gaogaigar. A nice look at what hasn't changed (catchy pop songs, lots of crazy camera moves over zooming mecha) and what has (the sudden transition from black and white to colour, the creeping introduction of CGI) over the first 33 years of robot anime. Old-school anime fans can also see the original openings to Go Lion (brought over here as the five-lion Voltron), Dairugger XV (the vehicle Voltron, my favourite), Mazinger Z (Tranzor Z) and UFO Robot Grendizer (Grendizer, Goldorak and Goldrake in English, French and Italian).

Last week we kinda snuck a little note in our newsletter about a special going on at Amazon.ca right now, where several dozen anime DVDs are being sold for up to 42% off. Strangely enough, one of the discounted titles is the decidedly Danish The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear, which René Walling reviewed in our May 2005 issue.

From May 4–25, the Stay Gold Gallery in Brooklyn, New York is hosting the latest Too Art for TV exhibition, in which artists who have worked on such productions as Ice Age, SpongeBob SquarePants, A Scanner Darkly and Venture Bros. present their own artistic creations.

Black Entertainment Television are putting three new animated series into production: Bufu, an animated sketch comedy; Cipha, a near-future science fiction story in which young people rebel against the outlawing of hip-hop culture; and Hannibal the Conqueror, a series that aims to tell the life story of the legendary military genius. The variety of genres certainly looks promising, and the sort of thing I was hoping for when Denys Cowan signed on at the network.

New Israeli studio Animation Lab is embarking on a feature with a script by Philip LaZebnik, Alex Williams as director and Jim Ballantine as producer. Between the three of them they've worked on Mulan, Pocahontas, Open Season, Robots, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Brother Bear 2 and Bambi II. The movie is called The Wild Bunch and is about "a group of genetically modified cornstalks who attack a group of common wildflowers." That's the best you guys could do? Really?

Labels: anime, Black Entertainment Television, events, exhibitions, features, Israel, New York

I'm a big fan of sampling, mash-ups and multidisciplinary work, and of animation and dance. So I'm intrigued by tomorrow's premiere of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon's Norman. The creators aim to use projections of Norman McLaren's work combined with live classic and contemporary dance.

If you're in Ottawa, you can see it on April 26-30 at the National Arts Centre (NAC) during the Québec Scene festival. A personal viewing station will be set up at NAC with McLaren's work during the course of the festival. After that, 4DArt will stage Norman in Toronto, throughout Asia, Montreal, and throughout France.

Labels: events, festivals, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Norman McLaren, visual music

Two great events are happening in Montreal on Thursday evening, April 26th. The problem is figuring out which one to go to or how to attend both without running oneself ragged.

At 6:30, The Cinémathèque Québécoise screens a program of Hélène Tanguay's picks for Animation Classics of the 1970s, with an emphasis on Polish shorts and cream of the crop from the NFB. Shorts by Ivanov Vano and Yuri Norstein, John Weldon and Eunice Macaulay are included and this will also be another chance to see Frank Film. The program continues next week with the '80s picks.

[Correction: The April 26 and May 3 programs aren't related to the Hélène Tanguay program, which is top-secret and appears on May 10. However, the lineups are still several levels of amazing. —Emru]

At 8:00, Red Bird Studios (135 Van Horne) is hosting a one-night only art show for the creators of the indie comics anthology Hickee. I especially like the work of editor Graham Annable (check out the Grickle comics and shorts), Scott Campbell and Raz. The contributors also work in other artistic disciplines, including animation and game design, but after picking up an issue - you don't need to be told - it becomes pleasantly obvious in much of the work.

Labels: comics, events, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Oscars, Poland

American cable channel ImaginAsian TV has announced that they're going to be starting a weekday morning anime block, featuring three classic series from TMS Entertainment.

I actually find this old-school approach pretty heartening. To hear it told from modern anime fans (and a few writers), Astro Boy was the first anime series back in the 1960s, then pretty much nothing happened until Neon Genesis Evangelion. These three series provide a nice look back at what was on TV at the midway point between Astro Boy's debut and today.

Cat's Eye (which used to come on here in French as Signé Cat's Eye) is about three sisters who run a café by day and are art thieves by night. They're on the hunt for their missing father, and the art they steal contains the clues they need to find him. It's clear they can't depend on the police for help, because one of the sisters is engaged to the detective who's charged with stopping them—and somehow he's failed to notice that the three sisters look an awful lot like the art thieves he's chasing, and they happen to own a café called—wait for it—Cat's Eye.

Based on a manga created by Tsukasa Hojo, Cat's Eye bears the same stylistic flourishes as his more well-known City Hunter: very 1980s designs, a heavy comedy bent, and plenty of cute girls. City Hunter was a little bit racier—the protagonist was a grade-A lech, after all—but the all the tight body suits and occasional faux pas added a very mild sexual undercurrent that would now be considered positively quaint.

Super Dimension Century Orguss sounds an awful lot like Super Dimension Fortress Macross, with good reason: they were both part of the Super Dimension trilogy that included Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. (Macross and Southern Cross were eventually adapted into the first and second parts of Robotech.) "Series" is a bit of a misnomer as the shows really had nothing to do with each other, but as it happens Orguss and Macross shared a character designer (Haruhiko Mikimoto) and a mecha designer (Miyatake Kazutaka). If you glanced casually at images from both shows—especially if you'd seen Macross: Do You Remember Love—you'd swear one was a sequel to the other. Check the Gears Online Orguss page for a great breakdown of the show.

Finally, there's Nobody's Boy: Remi, which I know nothing about. But based on its description (it's based on a Hector Malot novel from 1878, and has the young Rémi travelling in search of his parents), it's a tear-jerking drama, rounding out the romantic action comedy and science-fiction genres covered by Cat's Eye and Orguss.

The series start airing on June 5 at 8:30 a.m., and they'll all be in Japanese with English subtitles. They will later be made available on DVD. I hope that when YTV gets around to launching their anime channel, they'll also try to get older anime like these. Inu Yasha and Naruto are fun and all, but it's good to be reminded where this stuff came from.

Labels: anime

This Saturday the Boston Cyberarts Festival will be hosting the first Visual Music Marathon, a twelve-hour screening of 64 historic and contemporary animated works that marry sight and sound. The Marathon starts runs from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. at Northeastern University's Raytheon Amphitheater. You can find the complete lineup, as well as a nine-minute compilation of clips from the marathon, here.

Labels: Boston, events, festivals, visual music

In my view, there are two types of people in the world: those who are in love with Lotte Reiniger's films, and those who haven't seen them yet. If you're unfamiliar with Reiniger's films, the image at left should give you an idea of her style: she was a pioneer of silhouette films, in which the characters and objects were hinged cutout figures manipulated on glass and lit from underneath.

I don't use the word "pioneer" lightly. Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is often labelled as the first feature-length animated film, but Reiniger's 65-minute The Adventures of Prince Achmed was completed in 1926, while Walt was still working on the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts. And creating images based on layered cutouts necessitated a setup quite similar to a multiplane camera. You can see images of Reiniger at work on this excellent German website.

Prince Achmed was incredibly ambitious, especially considering Reiniger had fewer than ten films under her belt at the time; but if you have the good fortune to see it on the big screen, you realize how much she was in command of her art. None of the fantasy, wonder, romance or whimsy of 1,001 Arabian Nights is lost. And, amazingly, she continued to produce enchanting films for another fifty years.

Which brings me to a recent release I just head about, Musik und Zaubereien (Music and Magic), the third in German company absolutMEDIEN's series of DVDs featuring Reiniger's work. (It's region-free, but it's in PAL, so if you don't have a multi-format DVD player, you can at least watch it on your computer screen.) You won't find The Adventures of Prince Achmed there—that's a separate absolutMEDIEN release, with more extras than the American DVD—but you will find two discs of her work spanning from 1930 to 1971, with her pre-WWII films on one disc and post-WWII films (made in England) on the other. The discs also come with a 27-page booklet (in German), including such things as copies of the censorship cards for some of her films.

It's almost twenty years since I first saw a Reiniger film—it might have been one of her National Film Board of Canada shorts—and about fifteen since I saw The Adventures of Prince Achmed on the big screen at the Cinémathèque Québecoise. While other filmmakers have made excellent silhouette films, they seem incomplete compared to Reiniger's. Michel Ocelot's Princes et princesses from 2000, which incorporates his 1987 short Les Quatres voeux, has the humour, Zumbakamera's Bendito Machine has the bizarrely fantastic imagery, but in all this time I've never had the sense of completeness I get with Reiniger's films. If you haven't yet fallen in love with Lotte Reiniger's work, Musik und Zaubereien is as good a place as any to start.

[Thanks, Society for Animation Studies.]

Labels: festivals, Lotte Reiniger

Earlier this month I complained that the first volume of BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo used "dubtitles"—that is, a transcription of the English-language audio—rather than a more direct translation for the subtitle track. It turns out that this was true of two other Illumitoon titles (Beet the Vandal Buster: The Sacrifice and B't X: Empire of the Machines), and enough people have complained that the company has instituted a trade-in offer. The offer's good until May 30, so get to it.

Labels: anime

Germany is the host country at the international animation festival Cartoons on the Bay in Salerno, Italy / Seven German programmes announced as official selections for the Pulcinella Award / Berlin-based Cartoon Film named Studio of the Year

Berlin/Salerno, 19 April 2007 – 'Focus on Germany' – Germany is the featured country at Cartoons on the Bay, the international animation festival in Salerno, Italy which gets underway today and continues until Sunday.

The festival released the following statement: "Every year Cartoons on the Bay highlights a particular country that has shown significant growth and development in the field of animation. For this year's edition Germany was selected because of its long artistic, technological and industrial traditions. This special 'Focus on Germany' will devote particular attention to independent German producers, public institutions and other top players in German animation by means of presentations of their activities, perspectives and strategies as well as round tables discussing the potential of institutional agreements, funding and co-production possibilities. So far over 15 German production companies have registered."

'Cartoons on the Bay – il Festival Internazionale dell'Animazione Televisiva' is Italy's most distinguished international animation festival and one of the most important in the world. This year's will mark the eleventh edition of the festival. The gala will present animated television programme and film premieres and include workshops, a conference, various informational events and round table discussions. One of the festival's mainstays is the Pulcinella Awards, distinctions granted solely to international animated television shows. This year 280 programmes were submitted from 36 countries. Of these, seven German works were chosen in one of eight categories of the Pulcinella Award's official selection. "School of Vampires”, a production of Berlin's Hahn Film, received a Pulcinella Award nomination in the category TV Series for Children. In the Studio of the Year category, which was announced in advance, Berlin-based Cartoon Film and Italy's Maga Animation Studio took home Pulcinella Awards, joining previous winners, among them studios such as Aardman and Pixar.

Labels: events, festivals, Germany, Italy

On Wednesday, April 18th at 6:30 p.m., the animation community will pay tribute to Ryan Larkin, who left many—friends and strangers—heartbroken when word of his death from cancer occurred in mid-February. Just before his death, Larkin had begun animating again and had embarked on a project called Spare Change (the producer still plans to finish this film).

This event is graciously hosted by the Cinémathèque Québécoise with the collaboration of the National Film Board of Canada. The following films will be screened:

- excerpts from Pin Screen, Norman McLaren, 1973
- excerpts from Chez Schwartz, 2006 (documentary)
- Alter Egos, 52 min (documentary on the making of Ryan)
- interstitials for MTV
- Forest Fire Clip: Burning Fox, 1971
- Canada Vignette: Trading Post, 1978
- Cityscape, 1966
- Syrinx, 1965
- Walking, 1968
- Street Musique, 1972

The evening promises many tributes from his friends and peers, including Chris Landreth and David Verrall.

Labels: events, Montreal, National Film Board of Canada, NFB, Ryan Larkin

Review by René Walling

What do Tekkaman, Elric of Melniboné, Vampire Hunter D, Final Fantasy, Neil Gaiman's Sandman and The Tale of Genji have in common? Yoshitaka Amano illustrated, created concept art for, or otherwise worked on all of them. And the list above is just a small sampling of what this incredibly creative and productive artist has worked on. Worlds of Amano is an overview of just part of his career, from the mid-eighties to the turn of the millennium.

Read the full review

Labels: anime, reviews

Vancouver community radio station CFRO-FM 102.7 aired a special 2 hour special program Sunday featuring music from classic cartoons from Betty Boop to Bullwinkle and Popeye to Peanuts.

These radio shows are also archived online for exactly one week in MP3 format, so you have no more than 6 days to download this radio broadcast as a bonus audio/cartoon podcast. You'll need these 3 parts:

part 1, part 2, part 3

It's 22khz mono stream, and the program picks up 30 minutes into the first file.

Presented by two animation enthusiasts, Steve Bowell, host of the Sunday evening program Ragbag, and Ethan Minovitz, co-host of the Sunday morning show Anthology of Jewish Music, the show features rare recordings of songs inspired by cartoons, excerpts from cartoon and comic strip-related musicals, and strange "alternate" versions of theme songs. It's an audio collage with some of the best and oddest music from cartoon soundtracks.

The program also happens to coincide with the stations's spring membership drive, so if you feel like passing them a loonie/toonie for the download, feel free to do so via CanadaHelps.

via bcdb

Labels: documentaries, radio

I've let a small pile of items gather over the last few weeks, because I haven't had the time (or, with my recent cold, the stamina) to mention them. Here they are, in no particular order.

Last March we devoted the In Progress section of the magazine to Today, a short based on a poem by poet laureate Billy Collins and directed by Little Fluffy Clouds co-founders Jerry van de Beek and Betsy de Fries. It was announced recently that Today will join 19 other promotional films (Today was commissioned by the Sundance Channel) in competition at the Annecy festival in June. Congratulations, Jerry and Betsy!

The Norwich International Animation Festival changed its name to Aurora a few weeks ago. Can't argue with that, but their reasoning is questionable. "The change of the name is the annual festival's latest move towards a truly multidisciplinary program, and represents the opinion that 'animation' itself has become a restrictive tag, which rarely does justice to the myriad artistic activity that it encompasses," reads the press release. "It follows, then, that an 'animation festival' is no longer capable of staying abreast of this enormous artistic diversity—so in order to more freely reflect the way the programmers think animation is heading, we're dropping the label." Huh? The debate as to what is and isn't animation has been going on for a long time, and animation festivals—not to mention books, academic programs and even mainstream coverage—have evolved to suit. What's the big deal? Seems to me that if they really wanted to "[challenge] the traditional boundaries of animation," they'd present the nifty installations and live performances they're trumpeting under the old name, then defend their presence. It's not much of a challenge if you punk out and change your name.

If you've been hungering for new Ghibli material and you can't wait until the Sci-Fi Channel's North American rights to Earthsea lapse in 2009, you can always pick up the Japanese DVD of Tales of Earthsea (Gedo Senki) in June, which will come with English subtitles; or you can get the Iblard Time OAV, a collaboration between Ghibli and surrealist artist Naohisa Inoue, which is due for a July 4 release on both DVD and Blu-ray disc (both come with a soundtrack CD).

Next Saturday ASIFA-Hollywood will be hosting the one-day Stop-Motion Expo at Woodbury University in Burbank. Guests include Will Vinton, Screen Novelties' Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh and Robot Chicken's Tennessee Reid Norton. $25 for the panel discussions, $35 for the seminars or $50 for the whole thing. ASIFA-Hollywood members get a $10-$15 discount.

Labels: anime, ASIFA, festivals, stop-motion, Studio Ghibli

Sprockets, the Toronto International Film Festival for Children, celebrates its tenth anniversary from April 13-22. Although the features programme this year is more strongly rooted in live-action film than animation, animation fans should take note of these titles*:

The Reef: Saturday, April 21, 11:00 AM, Canada Square Cinema 2. Directors: Howard E. Baker, John Fox, and Lee Kyeong-Ho. Starring Evan Rachel Wood, John Rhys-Davies, and Rob Schneider. After Pi, an ordinary little fish from Boston, is orphaned when his parents are snared by a fisherman’s net, he travels to an exotic reef to live with his Aunt Pearl. As he tries to orient himself in this new world, Pi meets the fish of his dreams, the beautiful and kind Cordelia, but things do not go swimmingly. Troy, the meanest shark in the ocean, is not only tormenting everyone in the reef community, but also has his eye on Cordelia.

Brave Story: Saturday, April 14, 10:30 AM, Isabel Bader Theater and Sunday, April 22, 2:40 PM, Canada Square Cinema 2. Director: Koichi Chigera. While exploring an old building, energetic eleven-year-old Wataru catches a glimpse of a strange doorway floating atop a spiral staircase. It vanishes in an instant, but Wataru is certain of – yet perplexed by – this vision. Having heard the new kid at school, Ashikawa, refer to a mystical realm where wishes come true, Wataru is anxious to learn more.

Azur and Asmar: Sunday, April 15, 2:00 PM, Isabel Bader Theater. Director: Michel Ocelot. Azur, the son of a nobleman, is raised by a nurse alongside her son Asmar. Both boys adore the nurse’s whimsical tales of the beautiful Djinn Fairy who, captive within the black mountain, awaits a loving prince. Growing and living together as brothers, Azur and Asmar share the dream of one day marrying the mystical nymph – but this dream becomes a cause of sibling rivalry. Eventually, their habitual scuffles and one-upmanship create a rift that appears irreparable.

-Michel Ocelot is set to direct Bjork's latest music video, and watching A&A will show you exactly why. It's hypnotic and beautiful. Moreover, it's one of the few films currently available in North America -- especially animated ones -- that touches on the complicated relationship between France and North Africa.

The afore-mentioned films are all features, but I would be remiss not to mention The Little Short-Sighted Snake, an eleven-minute animated film from Estonia directed by Aina Jarvine and Meelis Arulepp. It's featured as part of the "Animated Animal Tales" block, but I predict it will outshine the others on offer. LSSN's neo-retro designs, broad colour palette, snappy music, and closing sequence make it irresistible.

Have a fun festival, everyone!

*Full disclosure: Madeline Ashby is a Sprockets volunteer. She received no compensation for this blog post, and had nothing to do with the any Sprockets programming decisions.

Labels: festivals, Sprockets, Toronto, Toronto International Film Festival

Yep, it's that time of year. Though our fourth annual charity auction doesn't kick off until November, it's time for us to ask you to let us know who you want this year's beneficiary to be. In this first round of voting, we keep it simple: just let us know what kind of charity you prefer, and at a later date we'll narrow it down to a particular charity.

We've also started collecting items for this year's auction, and while we've got some nifty goodies lined up, we've only got one listed right now: a 1922 edition of the book Animated Cartoons by E.G. Lutz—one of the earliest books on the technique of animation, and the same title that Walt Disney consulted early in his career. This book was generously donated by J.J. Sedelmaier when we were a few days into last year's auction; if you'd like to donate something to the cause, then by all means let us know.

Labels: auctions

It's Easter, and by one of those coincidences we've got a rabbit kicking (sometimes literally) over here at fps HQ. So in the spirit of this lagomorphic-themed holiday, here are five rabbit-themed animated productions you can watch during your day off.

The Jack Rabbit Story (aka Easter Fever)
One of the TV specials that Nelvana made prior to Rock & Rule, Easter Fever starred Garrett Morris as the smooth-talking, laid-back Jack, the Easter Rabbit who has decided to retire. The half-hour is presented as a celebrity roast, with assorted friends and nemeses reminiscing on his life. Offbeat and irreverent animated holiday specials were somewhat rarer in 1980 than they are now, and this is still fun to watch. Quick way to flush out a fan: utter the words "Hupcha, hupcha, quick like a bunny" and see who chuckles.

Easter Fever hasn't been released on DVD, so you're dependent on friends' worn-out tapes or second-hand copies of the Nelvanamation 2 cassette.

Rabbit
Run Wrake's deliciously disturbing short film uses 1950s children's illustrations to present a tale of mysterious idols, greed and horror. A must-see that you can catch on the BBC's Film Network website or buy, along with plenty of other great shorts, as part of the sixth disc in the Best of British Animation Awards series. Note that while I vaguely recall reading that the discs were also available in NTSC, the BAA website isn't clear on this matter.

Rabbit Seasoning
How could I choose from all the Warner shorts starring Bugs Bunny? Easy. This is one of the three Chuck Jones shorts (the other two are Duck! Rabbit! Duck! and Rabbit Fire) that partly hinges on the question of identity. Is Bugs a rabbit, or is Daffy? And is it rabbit season or duck season? These questions are vital because Elmer's got some buckshot with a critter's name on it, and he's just slow-witted enough that the wily hare and not-as-crafty-as-he-thinks duck can easily manipulate him to point it at each other.

Anyway, the decisive factor was that of the three shorts, Rabbit Seasoning has the best ending. Catch it on the first Looney Tunes Golden Collection.

Watership Down
This movie is the reason I accidentally call all pet rabbits "Fiver," including our houseguest. Based on the Richard Adams novel of the same name, Watership Down concerns a group of rabbits who leave their warren in search of a safer home, and encounter all kinds of dangers in the form of humans, dogs and, sometimes most frighteningly, other rabbits. This allegorical film is intense enough that you'd want to watch it before showing it to kids. I saw it when I was 9 or 10, but for all the violence and terror it was the end of this movie that made me realize for the first time that death wasn't necessarily something to be feared.

Max and Ruby
A Flash-animated kids' cartoon based on the books by Rosemary Wells, in which the rambunctious three-year-old Max and his proper seven-year-old sister Ruby gently butt heads over, well, everything. Although it's aimed at the under-five set, anyone with a sibling will appreciate the dynamic between the two kids. I particularly appreciate the layer of sarcasm that permeates the show; as Wells herself puts it, "what makes the relationship in the series compelling is that I've added salt and pepper to it, instead of sugar." The show appears on YTV's Treehouse and Nick Jr., and of course there are tons of DVDs.

Labels: top 5

I've been pretty busy these past few months, and as a result there have been a number of things I've watched or read that I've wanted to write about but haven't for lack of time. So here are a few quick mentions of some things I didn't want to fall through the cracks.

Animation Block Party Mix Tape, Volumes One & Two
When someone says "block party," "mix tape" and "Brooklyn" to me, I think of early hip hop. These collections of shorts from the Animation Block Party animation festival (which hits the streets this year from July 27 to 30) follow the same kind of aesthetic: roughly hewn, sometimes falling short of the mark, but with so much energy you'll be acutely aware of just how overly slick and over-thought other festivals' fare can be. A few arbitrarily chosen favourites: Fin Film's Easy, a look at a strange and slightly disturbing love affair that at times invokes Little Red Riding Hood imagery, with characters mostly rendered as sleek silhouettes; Cunning Stunts, where Jeff Scher colourfully rotoscopes explicit porn footage and sets it to jaunty music (check out his homemade rotoscope stand in the DVD extras); and Andy and Carolyn London's (pseudo-?) autobiographical The Back Brace, a collage film in which the angsty Jewish narrator talks about his unfortunate adolescent experiences with scoliosis.

BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo Vol. 1: Bo-nafide Protector
Believe it or not, the title is actually the name of the main character (Bo-BoBo, for short), a man with a golden-coloured afro, tiger stripes on his arms, and retractable nose hairs that he uses to defend 31st-century Earth from the minions of an evil emperor who has decreed that everyone should be bald.

The best part is, the description alone doesn't even hint at how bizarre this show truly is. However, you have to have the proper mindset for it. BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo is one of those manga adaptations that isn't all that animated, and often has someone posing while saying something ludicrous, which someone else then reacts to with a different, startled pose. Think of it as taking the low-key presentation of Cromartie High School and ratcheting it down a notch.

A note: BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo is, in the tradition of Samurai Pizza Cats, dubbed with only some regard for the original story details. No problem there, but the subtitles are actually just a transcript of the dub—which means those of us who want to get all the Japanese gags will have to, like, learn the language or something.

Mechademia Vol. 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga
A while back I commented that the book Cinema Anime had lofty goals (scholarly analysis of anime) that were undermined by its execution (too much emphasis on being academic, rather than making new ideas accessible, and not enough familiarity with what's outside of the anime sandbox). The first volume of Mechademia—an annual series of themed critical essays relating to anime and manga—largely avoids this problem, and is a pleasure to read.

As with its subject matter, Mechademia's variety is key to its success. There are twenty contributions in this issue, and they vary enough in tone, length and style that if something bothers you in one essay, the next one will make up for it. Mechademia's explorations bounce between fan culture, Japanese culture, manga history and film studies, providing a rich, textured view of the anime and manga world.

That's not to say there aren't problems. I've long had a problem with anime fans' ignorance of the rest of the animation world (though this is less of a problem now than, say, 20 years ago), and an aspect of this pops up in Ueno Toshiya's essay on the intersections between animation, live-action, and dreams in the aesthetics of Mamoru Oshii's films. Toshiya's jumping-off point is the experience of viewing the storyboards to the second Patlabor movie, but just before he makes his observations on how Oshii's storyboards might reflect his view of the world around him, he confesses that he hasn't seen many storyboards. I had to read the essay (an interesting one, I hasten to add) a second time just to get past the fact that someone would make these comments without first looking at other storyboards to determine what, if anything, is unique about Oshii's.

But this, like the handful of annoyances found throughout the book, is fairly minor; with one exception, none of these problems went so far as to completely derail my enjoyment of an essay. Mechademia's first outing makes for a stimulating look at anime through the lens of culture, and culture through the lens of anime. I can't wait for the next volume.

Labels: anime, festivals, reviews

Ergo Proxy Vol. 3: Cytotropism (DVD)
Increasingly complicated and predominantly a series of interrelated events about intelligence war unlike any other, Ergo Proxy is a thoroughly dark anime that should be a good find for enthusiasts looking for a gritty, bare-bones title that presents the influences and effects of raw human emotion. —Aaron H. Bynum

Labels: anime, releases, reviews, upcoming releases

Ah, springtime. When a young fan's fancy turns to thoughts of... anime!

Polygon Pictures' Kenji Ishimaru was at this year's Tokyo International Anime Fair, and he provides us with almost two dozen photos of who and what were happening.

Labels: anime, events, festivals, Tokyo International Anime Fair

Review by Noell Wolfgram Evans

Instinct is a funny thing. We know we should follow it and yet we rarely do. When we don't follow our instinct we kick ourselves and yell—we're angry because we didn't listen to ourselves and we're angry because we had to suffer in some way because we didn't listen to ourselves.

My instinct told me to avoid Happy Feet. I did so during its theatrical run but after its Oscar win and recent DVD release I decided to give it a chance.

Read the review

Labels: features, reviews, Warner Bros.

NEW YORK – April 2, 2007 – Calling all animators! Nicktoons Network, Nickelodeon's 24-hour animation network, in partnership with Frederator Studios, the festival's production house, are seeking entries for the fourth annual Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. Animators from around the world can submit their work to the first and only multiplatform animation festival from Sunday, April 1st through Friday, June 1st. Entry forms can be downloaded on www.nicktoonsnetwork.com.

"This is the Animation Festival's fourth year, and we're certain it'll be the best one yet," said Keith Dawkins, Vice President and General Manager, Nicktoons Network. "We're excited to work with Frederator once again and are looking forward to receiving submissions from around the globe for a festival created for animators and lovers of animation alike."

"The film festival has allowed us to help independent animators reach a larger audience, which is very important to us," said Fred Seibert, Festival Executive Director and President, Frederator Studios. "We are also pleased to award prizes to indies to help them continue their work and realize their unique visions."

The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival, co-produced by Radar Cartoons, is on the hunt for a selection of original short films created in any style of animation that do not exceed 10 minutes in length. Submitted shorts will be chosen by a pre-selection jury and will be showcased on-air and online on Nicktoons Network with five half-hour episodes kicking off Sunday, August 26 through Thursday, August 30, in addition to a "Best Of" episode on Friday, August 31. A grand jury will select a $10,000 grand prize winner from the top ten films chosen by the pre-selection jury.

Labels: events, festivals, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons

Singaporean students fascinated by the delightful two-dimensional animation cartoons of SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons and The Rugrats now have the opportunity to master the Emmy Award-winning technology behind these celebrated cartoon series and showcase their creative works for international voting and judging as part of a digital animation competition.

Toon Boom Animation Festival 2007 – first in Singapore
Singapore will be the first country to host the inaugural Toon Boom Animation Festival, which kicks off on 2 April 2007 (www.toonboomcom/singaporeFestival).

Co-organised by Toon Boom Animation Inc (Canada), Canadian High Commission and Media Development Authority of Singapore, with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) as a Technology Partner, the Inaugural Toon Boom Animation Festival aims to encourage Singaporean students to express their creativity and talent through creating animation content using Toon Boom software, which has been used extensively by industry professionals to create popular animation series such as Spongebob Squarepants and the Simpsons.

Upon the success of the Singapore edition, the Festival will travel to the other parts of the world, starting with Brazil later this year.

Ms Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer, Toon Boom Animation Inc., said: "Recognising the wealth of creative potential Singapore has to offer and their intent to become a Digital Animation Hub, we are proud to launch our first-ever Toon Boom animation competition in Singapore and dedicate it to all its students. We thank the Canadian High Commission, the Institute of Technical Education and the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), for their tremendous support and look forward to creative entries of students."

Dr Christopher Chia, Chief Executive of MDA said: "We are pleased that Toon Boom has chosen Singapore as the first country to hold this digital animation competition. By providing Singaporeans with the opportunity to learn how to use media for work, learning and play, the Festival is one way to help raise the capabilities of our students and equip them with the skill sets relevant to the booming IDM (Interactive & Digital Media) industry.

"This competition is another milestone that reflects the close collaborations between Singapore and Canada. It follows the Audio Visual Treaty on co-production signed in October 1998 between the Prime Ministers of Canada and Singapore, and the MOU between the National Film Board of Canada and the MDA signed last year on November 29 during the Asia Media Festival."

"Canada is recognized internationally as a leader in new media and animation technologies. Our unique strength coupled with Singapore’s vision in becoming a world leading digital media capital give us great synergy to work together as partners," said His Excellency Alan Virtue, High Commissioner of Canada to Singapore. "We are extremely delighted to be a co-organiser of this competition and I hope it will inspire creative expressions in new media from young Singaporeans. I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to ITE and Toon Boom on the occasion of the Official Opening of their joint Centre of Excellence and I hope this will be the grooming ground for Singapore’s next generation of world-class animation artists."

Through the Festival, Singaporean students will have the opportunity to create and showcase their works to an international audience and have their works judged by a global panel of expert judges, so they can gauge for themselves where they stand internationally.

Free workshops will be conducted by ITE to train students who are not familiar with the Toon Boom software. Said Mr Bruce Poh, Director & CEO, ITE: "Through the ITE-Toon Boom collaboration which was forged last year, ITE lecturers were equipped with the skills in using the Toon Boom software solutions. They will now impart their knowledge in Toon Boom technology to participants to prepare them for the competition."

What’s In It for Winners
The top team to emerge from this competition will be rewarded with a one-month industry internship to top production studios, such as Nelvana Studios, located in Canada. The full details and Terms & Conditions of the Festival are listed at Annex A.

Official Opening of ITE-Toon Boom Centre of Excellence in New Media
In conjunction with the Launch of the Festival, ITE and Toon Boom Animation Inc (Canada) will also officially open its joint Centre of Excellence in New Media at ITE College Central. The Centre, which facilitates the execution of industry project development works by ITE staff using the Toon Boom software, is part of the two-year Memorandum of Understanding which ITE and Toon Boom Animation Inc (Canada) inked on 19 June 2006.

Labels: events, festivals, Singapore

Least surprising rebound ever. When DreamWorks and Aardman Features went their separate ways, right-thinking people realized that it was only a matter of time before someone inked a deal with the Bristol, UK studio. While it isn't a done deal as yet, it's looking like Aardman is inking a three-year first-look deal with Sony Pictures.

For my money, if you're Aardman and you've got to pair with someone for features, Sony is the place to go. While it would have been interesting to see Disney enter into a deal (thus covering their bases with hand-drawn, CGI, motion capture and stop-motion), the two companies' styles are so different I'd have howled if the two had even looked at each other coyly. Warner? They can't even promote the films they make themselves properly. And if we're looking at their Cartoon Network/Adult Swim division, then Aardman's relatively quiet British humour seems even more out of place. Same with Viacom—when it comes to features, if it doesn't feature boogers, obnoxious teens or lots of MTV-style editing, I don't think they'd care.

Sony, however, has spent years releasing foreign animated films (most of it their own anime like Steamboy and Metropolis, with the occasional Triplets of Belleville thrown in for good measure), and getting them into decent cinemas. They may not quite dominate the local kajillion-screen megaplex, but they get the movies out there more consistently than DreamWorks did with their anime releases. (Speaking of which, whatever happened to GoFish?)

I'm fixating on smaller releases because, as wonderful as Curse of the Were-Rabbit was, the fact is that it didn't pull the blockbuster numbers that DreamWorks wanted (or, given their investment, needed). Yet Chicken Run has shown that Aardman's got blockbuster chops. What Aardman needs is a distributor that understands that their material isn't necessarily created for an American audience, and while they can sometimes pull in $100 million-plus, that isn't always going to be the case. In short, a distributor who can be flexible. Sony's shown that they can do that.

This rebound relationship just might work out best for everyone.

Labels: Aardman Animations, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Norwalk, CT, April 1, 2007: Fans of anime and manga may now look forward to a brand new annual festival celebrating the very best of Japanese popular culture launching later this year in New York City. Reed Exhibitions, the organizer of New York Comic Con, has today announced the creation of the New York Anime Festival (NYAF) which will take place December 7-9, 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in midtown Manhattan. "New York finally has an anime event of its own!" proclaims John McGeary, Show Manager for NYAF. Show planners note that the new event will be an extravaganza featuring the latest in anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, and the best of anime-influenced comics, animation, and film from around the world.

Show staff also note that by being in New York City, NYAF will allow exhibitors to interact with one of the largest anime fan bases in the country and at the same time garner tremendous exposure by being in the media capital of the world.

"We are using our experience at New York Comic Con as our springboard," McGeary states. "We will continue to have strong anime programming at NYCC, but at the same time, we want to serve the anime community directly by giving them their own show. Anime has taken the nation by storm, and the professional and fan community in New York is looking for more. We want to give them as much as possible." By bringing professionals together with fans, convention organizers seek to create a productive and energized atmosphere that is modeled on NYCC. The professional element at NYAF will include book buyers, video retailers, libraries, booksellers, and other assorted industry professionals.

The festival will span the complete breadth of anime pop culture including exclusive and extensive screenings, a gala cosplay masquerade, and sessions with the biggest names in anime from Japan, Asia, and America. The event will also explore the Japanese cultural experience with a showcase of both traditional and cutting-edge Japanese cuisine, apparel, and lifestyles. Of course, NYAF will also feature the latest in manga, toys, costumes, video games, trading card games, DVDs, music, and much more on the show floor.

Festival organizers are anticipating that the early December date will be a major attraction to fans and other festival attendees as it is an exciting time to be in New York and see the city in the full splendor of the holiday season. McGeary states, "Our festival is a celebration of the anime art form, and so it seems only appropriate that we would have the show at a time when New York is abuzz with traditional holiday celebrations."

The website for NYAF is now live and tickets are available at http://www.nyanimefestival.com/. Fans are also encouraged to sign up for a monthly newsletter by visiting the website.

The New York Anime Festival will be sponsored by ADV Films, Anime Insider Magazine, Anime Network, Anime News Network, AnimeNEXT, Diamond Book Distributors, ICv2, Newtype USA Magazine, Playthings Magazine, TOKYOPOP, and VIZ Media.

Labels: anime, events, festivals, New York

We've been eagerly awaiting the appearance of Genius Party since Mind Game director Masaaki Yuasa dropped some hints about it in our 2005 interview. Those of us who attended the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema last November were treated to an early trailer of the anime anthology, but in recent weeks Studio 4°C has dropped a few more on their website. Check them out to kill some time while we finish editing our interview with Studio 4°C chief Eiko Tanaka.

Trailer 001
Trailer 002
Trailer 003
Trailer 004

Labels: anime, Genius Party, Studio 4C

Back when DVDs were new—you know, all of ten years ago—I decided that I wasn't going to bother spending the money on a DVD player until three particular titles that I wanted to see became available. It took a few years for it to happen, but eventually the titles came out and I spent just under $1200 on what was then the ideal player.

I recently decided that I would compile a similar list of ten high-definition discs and post about it here. My list is still incomplete, but yesterday I happened on a list of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles due to come out in Japan this year... and three of my must-haves are on the list! It looks like it's going to be an expensive 2007.

The list I came across is specifically of classics: Akira, Wings of Honneamise, Ghost in the Shell, things like that. (Steamboy is also on the list; make of that what you will.) Further examination reveals that Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is already out in Blu-ray, and the Japanese Art of Disney Blu-ray disc, with English-language audio and subtitles, is due in April. Doubly sweet is that unlike DVD, HD DVD has no region encoding (yet), and in the Blu-ray spec North America and Japan share the same region.

I started adding domestic high-definition releases to our upcoming releases listings a few months ago; as of this week, you'll find foreign releases as well, with links to YesAsia and other stores.

Labels: anime, Blu-ray, HD DVD