Play-Doh

This is simply a magical experience. As I understand it, this ad for Sony was not faked by pesky computers. This really is stop motion live in the streets of New York. Apparently they actually broke a record for the number of animators working on a single scene: 40.

Directed by Juan Cabral
United Kingdom, 2007

Carlos (My Name is Not)

Here's a wonderful mix of animation and illustration for your Tuesday. The visuals here just blow me away. Enjoy...

Directed by Pascal Blanchet and Maxime Robin
Canada, 2006

Yo Gabba Gabba

I think the most exciting thing to happen in preschool television in a long time is Yo Gabba Gabba. For those of you who haven't caught the Gabba fever, it is a super fun psychedelic, mostly live action costume show extravaganza. Unfortunately it's not airing in Canada yet, so all I get are the occasional online clips to feed my love.

There is some animation in the show too. I believe this is directed by Jamie Mason (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Directed by Jamie Mason
USA, 2007

Tales of the Wizard of Oz

Classic Cartoon Monday - TV edition.

Do you remember when innovative character design and funny voices seemed to make up for crude television animation? Hurray for re-runs.

Produced by Arthur Rankin & Jules Bass
USA, 1961

Das Rad

This is an exceptionally clever German film from a few years back. The story is very well told and it's a perfect use of stop motion in my opinion.

Directed by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel & Heidi Wittlinger
Germany, 2003

Fell in Love With a Girl

The White Stripes + Michel Gondry + Lego = way too cool for me. Enjoy.

Directed by Michel Gondry
USA, 2002

Log Driver's Waltz

If you are a Canadian of a certain age this is pure nostalgic bliss.

Non-Canadian? This film illustrates a typical day for a typical Canuk. Enjoy.

Directed by John Weldon
Canada, 1979

Persepolis

This is a pretty exciting time for animated feature films. There has never been such a diverse slate of animation coming out in cinemas internationally. There are lots of upcoming films I'm super excited about: Fantastic Mr. Fox, 9, Coraline, Ponyo on a Cliff, WALL-E, The Illusionist. But I have especially high hopes for this upcoming French film. I'm just not getting my daily dose of French language Iranian heavy metal these days. Does anyone know when this opens in North America?

Directed by Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud
France, 2007

Tortoise Wins by a Hare

Another Classic Cartoon Monday!

This film features probably the best animated character moment in all of Looney Tunes history. Bugs' rant after watching the footage of the race is not only filled with hilarious drawings and spot on timing by Rod Scribner, but it gives us insight into a side of the rabbit we rarely see. It's films like this one that prove Bugs Bunny is more complex than 95% of the animated characters out there.

Oh yeah, and it's funny too.

Directed by Bob Clampett
USA, 1943

Drink

Pat Smith's films are always a blast to watch. And he's one of the few true independants - kudos for that. Is anybody else dying to see a Pat Smith feature film? It would be pure Awesomeness. Capital A.

Directed by Pat Smith
USA, 2001

The Cameraman

What do you get when you combine two of my current American cultural obsessions? An animated segment of This American Life illustrated by Chris Ware. Find a way to throw Dave Eggers into the mix and I'd be in geek-out heaven.

Directed by Chris Ware & John Kuramoto
USA, 2007

Dog

When I saw this film a few years back at the Ottawa Animation Festival, it was a revelation. Suzie Templeton's film is so dark and moving and so well executed. It was clear back then that this Royal College of Art student had an exciting career ahead of her.

Fast forward to 2007 and Templeton's "Peter and the Wolf" took the grand prize and the audience award at the Annecy Animation Festival. I've yet to see "Peter" but if it's half as good as this student work, I can't wait.

Directed by Suzie Templeton
United Kingdom, 2001

The Living Animation Festival Lives

Well, like all good bloggers I've had my first slip in posting. This one was big. But I'm finally back to posting some of my favourite animation hiding out in the Internet Tubes. To the 3 people still reading this site (Thanks Mom!) I hope you enjoy.

One Rat Short

Here's a trailer for a short that may one day be made into a feature. It was made by a little animation company called Charlex, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed by what I see here. They've gone for a near photo real look with a decidedly uncartoony tone. I really enjoy the camera work in this! Can't wait to see the whole thing.

UPDATE: You can see the whole short here (via sundance.org). Thanks Dronon!

Directed by Alex Weil
USA, 2006

Walking

Since I missed posting yesterday, here's another film for today. This is the magnum opus of the late great Ryan Larkin. It's an important film for me personally as it was the first bit of animation I ever saw that was vastly different from Warners and Disney. It opened me up to a whole new world of moving images that I'm still discovering today. For that I'll always be grateful.

Directed by Ryan Larkin
Canada, 1969

The Danish Poet

Were you as surprised as me on Sunday when the little independent Canadian short beat out the animated entries from Disney, Pixar and Blue Sky at the Oscars? It made me all patriotic and stuff. If you're curious about the film, it's posted here on the NFB website.

Directed by Torill Kove
Canada / Norway 2006

link! (via NFB)

Koko's Earth Control

Classic Cartoon Monday!

And now for everybody's favourite rotoscoped clown... Koko! Silly Koko, when will you stop destroying the earth?

Directed by Dave Fleischer
USA, 1928

Ryan

I thought I'd end the Animated Oscar theme week with the 2004 winner, Ryan. Not only is it a great bit of animated documentary, but with the passing of Ryan Larkin last week, it seemed like a good way to showcase an Oscar winning film and remember the life of a talented and tragic figure in the animation world.

I hope you enjoyed the films this week. I'll be back on Monday with another classic cartoon.

Directed by Chris Landreth
Canada, 2004

Bunny

In the 1990's something interesting starting happening with the animated short category. It was the return of studio cartoons and more commercially accessible films. The big players like Pixar, Aardman and Blue Sky were beginning to dominate the nominees.

Directed By Chris Wedge
USA, 1998

Balance

The 1980's also had some great independent Oscar winners. Check out this stop motion German film from 1989. It's a great use of space and the creation of a world that can truly only work in animation.

Directed by Christoph Lauenstein & Wolfgang Lauenstein
Germany, 1989

Frank Film

And now for the film representing the Oscars of the 1970's. By then the winners had become pretty independent. Can you imagine a film like this being considered by the Academy today?

Directed by Frank Mouris
USA, 1973

part 1.



part 2.

The Dot and The Line

By the 1960's the Oscar winners for best animated short were getting really diverse and interesting. Animators were having fun with the form and more experimental cartoons were finding their way into the Academy. Take this short from Chuck Jones. It's pretty far afield from Bugs and Daffy...

Directed by Chuck Jones
USA, 1965

Gerald McBoing-Boing

The 1950's were ushered in at the animated Oscars by none other than UPA - who else. This winner from 1950 is one of the true masterpieces of animation. There's not much more I can say that hasn't already been written on this film other than to suggest it's about as close to a perfect animated cartoon as you can get.

Directed by Robert Cannon
USA, 1950

Tweetie Pie

Into the 1940's the only animated films winning Oscars were Hollywood cartoons produced by the big studios. This was about to change, but for now the 40's were dominated by MGM, Disney and Warner Brothers.

Directed by Friz Freleng
USA, 1947

Flowers and Trees

Let's start with the winner of the very first Academy Award for short animated filmmaking. It also happens to be the very first cartoon produced in colour. Could this also be the first Disney short posted on this blog? Could be.

Directed by Burt Gillet
USA, 1932

THEME WEEK: Eight Decades of Animated Oscars

Ahh, the Oscars. That once a year event filled with over long speeches where none of the best films win anything. But if you're like me, you get drawn in every year just the same. One of the more interesting categories every year is the animated short film. It's one of the few categories where truly independent visions sometimes get to poke into the Oscar world.

So I thought with a week until the Oscars, I'd take the time to showcase Oscar winners from the animated short category over the years. Over the week I'll post 8 films, each one representing a different decade in which the Academy has been giving out the award. I think you'll enjoy seeing how the films have changed over the years.