Fans of Ren and Stimpy will probably enjoy this Yogi Bear parody by John Kricfalusi. It’s a parody of the old Hanna Barbara Ranger Smith/Yogi Bear cartoons in which Boo Boo finally snaps after years of being such a straight arrow.
Get it while it lasts because knowing YouTube, this won’t be online long, once it gets noticed.
Rated TV7, which I’m guessing means for seven year olds? Well, whatever, it aired on Adult Swim, so your mileage may vary.
For the last couple weeks I have been looking forward to hearing legendary visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen speak tonight at the University. I was hoping to take my camera and get a few shots of his stop motion armatures. I even picked up a couple of extra tickets for my parents, whom are going to be in town tonight—this was going to be a source of some much needed excitement. The only catch is, Mr. Harryhausen isn’t actually going to be here.
I first thought something was odd last week when I read on the tickets, “A VIRTUAL APPEARANCE BY RAY HARRYHAUSEN”, but I figured it had something to do with the title of the lecture, Grand Illusions. Upon re-reading the lecture description it hit me like a ton of bricks that the real grand illusion was the fact that Ray Harryhausen would only be making a virtual appearance, as in live via satellite from Los Angeles.
I hate to be a stick-in-the-mud and I’ll see what my folks think but I’m probably not even going to go. Frankly, I wouldn’t be much more disappointed if I’d just discovered they were merely showing a DVD interview with Mr. Harryhausen. Why would they bother paying him to speak, if they couldn’t afford to actually bring him here.
I’ve been to virtual lectures before, and they really leave a lot to be desired.
Now I know why there were so many tickets left over; I now also know why they are free. You get what you pay for I guess.
It has only been a short time since Disney’s all stock buy-out of Pixar and already some big changes are under way. The Los Angeles Times reports that with this deal comes an end to quarrel over Pixar sequels.
In remarks made during a Tuesday conference call with analysts, Iger and Pixar Chief Executive Steve Jobs implied what other sources confirmed Wednesday: that Disney’s 150-plus-person Pixar sequels unit — which is housed in a Glendale warehouse and is already at work on Toy Story 3 — will soon be no more.
“We feel very strongly that if the sequels are going to be made, we want the people who were involved in the original films involved in the sequels,” Jobs said.
Iger sounded the same note.
“It was really important to me that the people who made the films originally, who had the vision, who knew the characters and the essence of these films get a shot at making any films that were derivative,” the Disney chief said.
“While Disney might have been able to make them, Pixar making them is just so much different,” Iger added. “Not to take away from the talent of other people who might have been picked to make them.”
The announcement isn’t a complete surprise since Disney making Pixar sequels (or not making them) was a major factor during negotiations. Still it’s nice to see that Disney will no longer be destroying classics as they have done in the past. And because Pixar is taking over for Walt Disney Feature Animation, I guess this also means no more Dumbo 2? (Yes, they really were thinking about it.)
I love the retro pixilated feel of the music video Move Your Feet.
There is a lot to admire in here including the great squash and stretch and excellent easing in and out.
It’s just another example showing that the complexity of the artwork is independent of the quality of the animation.
Beautiful little hand drawn animation I came across today, An Eye for Annai (23.8 MB QT):
From Jonathan Klassen’s site:
This film, [An Eye for an Annai], was done by me and Dan Rodrigues in our third year at Sheridan College’s Classical Animation Program. Everything is hand drawn and animated. We coloured the animation digitally, and the backgrounds are a mix of traditional and digital. I played the recorder for the soundtrack, and the jazz music near the middle is from Louis Armstrong’s “Jeepers Creepers”. The whole film comes in at just under 5 minutes long, and we’re pretty darn proud of it. Tell your friends.
Of course now all the animation for the new King Kong will be done on computer, but just for fun here is some behind the scenes video at the new King Kong shooting including the original armature used in the classic 1933 King Kong (reanimated by the folks at Weta).
Behind the scenes of Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong (20.2mb Quicktime)
Check out this beautifully animated love story. It’s great to see how a wonderful story and quality animation eliminate the need for anything more complicated than stick figures.
As any child of the 80’s can tell you, Inspector Gadget was a pretty sweet cartoon. I always wanted one of those computer books that Inspector Gadget’s niece, Penny, used to foil the M.A.D. crew. It was the most powerful computer ever imagined – even today it would totally own even the most powerful super computer.
I always thought that in the final episode they would reveal Dr. Claw’s face and I just assumed that since I never saw the final episode I just happened to miss it. Well it turns out the show never did reveal his face but now it has been revealed!
(Actually it’s been revealed for over a decade but you can read the details here.)
I saw this last week but thinking about it again today, I just have to share it. Watch it here. Some information on the music and the creators behind the animation here at CG Society.
Also check out these other demos: smallreel_3.mov and smallreel_4.mov.
There are all really cool but that first one is amazing.
I’ve been engrossed in a myriad of new animation and art blogs that seem to have sprung up like mushrooms in the last month.
I found this little gem of an entry tonight that relates how Rob Clements & John Musker quit Walt Disney Feature Animation over what happened to Fraidy Cat.
(… Ron Clements & John Musker are the writers / directors of such Disney animated hits as “The Great Mouse Detective,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” “Hercules” and “Treasure Planet.” Over the past 20 years, these gifted filmmakers are personally responsible for billions of dollars pouring into Disney’s corporate coffers.)
So if a picture that these two guys (with their proven track record) have helped create is playing this well in story reel form, you have to assume that Walt Disney Feature Animation is naturally going to be putting that project in production, right?
Well, that’s where you’d be wrong, folks. “Fraidy Cat” (which was originally scheduled to be released in late 2009) isn’t going into production. In fact, this project was actually shelved last month. Which is the main reason that Musker & Clements — after 31 years of working for Walt Disney Feature Animation — are exiting the studio on September 11th and heading for … parts unknown.
“Wait a minute?,” you sputter, “If people inside WDFA are saying that ‘Fraidy Cat’ actually looked that good, then why isn’t Disney then putting this picture into production?” Ah, that’s where this cat’s tail … er … tale gets interesting.
It’s so disappointing that number one, we’ll never get to see Fraidy Cat, and number two, Walt Disney Feature Animation has lost two tremendously talented individuals.