Jiří Barta’s 2009 mixed-media film is due for a US release soon. Here’s the Czech trailer.
Another stylish and beautifully executed animation from Gobelins with an aesthetic that seems to owe more than a little to Space 1999.
Kooky – English ver. Trailer – YouTube.
The creators of the wonderfully strange Czech puppet film Kooky have made an English dubbed version in response to demand from fans. Although the director prefers subtitles, he decided that the film is too chaotically visual for them to work, so instead he had the original Czech cast record the dialogue in English themselves.
Jerry over at Cartoon Brew has a piece on the latest in Disney’s surreal toon game series Epic Mickey. Most notably, Epic Mickey 2 brings Oswald the Rabbit to the fore, restoring that long-lost character to a central role in a Disney production.
Below I’ve embedded the Epic Mickey 2 trailer, but click through to the Brew to also watch a short piece on the history of Oswald, how Disney lost him, and how they got him back some eighty years later.
Oswald Rabbit takes the lead in “Epic Mickey 2″ | Cartoon Brew.
Uli Meyer and Co have posted up some test footage for their animated feature of Ronald Searle’s St Trinian’s. The film is being made in a fully traditional hand-animated manner, pencil on paper, then inked onto frosted cels for photgraphing.
This test footage looks absolutely wonderful with a beautiful watercolour palette and sensitive line work married to vibrant fluid animation and a controlled exaggeration.
Here’s the PRODUCTION BLOG for the film.
A sweet, if slightly icky film about finding love in unexpected places. Amid at Cartoon Brew comments that this is the kind of film one could only imagine being made in animation.
Ghislain Avrillon’s impressionistic short about a vampire who yearns to see the sun is a very lovely piece of work.
via AD LUCEM on Vimeo.
Hisko Hulsing’s previous (longish) short film Seventeen was a beautifully executed, raw and insightful examination of that difficult age. This trailer for his new piece Junkyard looks fabulous. Great design and lighting, stylish animation and atmosphere to burn.
An amazing bit of Chinese tourist infrastructure to freak yourself out with.
A 3 foot wide, 2.5 inch thick clear glass walkway, cantilevered out of a sheer cliffside over a 4700 foot drop.
A rather elegant and attractive animated web-comic by Jen Lee. (ex Drawn)
Here’s a three-part video interview with a former student of mine from UTS who has carved out quite a unique niche for himself making toys in Indonesia. Cipta Croft-Cusworth was always a character himself. I remember when the Star Wars prequels began he attended an early screening complete with his coterie of Star Wars action figures. Not only did they go with him, he actually constructed them a miniature set of theatre seats so they would be comfortable watching the movie.
Back then his ambition tended to outstrip his resources, but it seems he’s solved that problem very successfully. His story is one of those great examples of education, talent, drive and a personal passion all coming together to create something special.
Drawn – Don’t mind me, I’m just watching this on repeat….
Dubstep Dispute from Fluxel Media on Vimeo.
Join this lovable crew of droids as they solve their differences the only way dubstep robots know how.
A 3d animated short set to music by Nostalgia.
More info: http://www.fluxelmedia.com/fluxelmedia/projects/Dubstep_Dispute/Dubstep_Dispute.html
Nostalgia: http://www.facebook.com/dnbnostalgia
Full Length Track: http://soundcloud.com/nostalgia/knights-of-cydonia-nostalgia-dubstep-remix
Here’s the latest edition of the JMC eNewsletter.
Here’s another nice short film that makes good narrative use of HUD-style augmented reality graphics. It also manages to make some critical comment on the reliance on external inputs that is only a whisker removed from the present day.
Stylish work by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo from Belazeal Academy of Arts.
via Sight on Vimeo.
Thanks to Drawn and Bart&Co, a fantastic collection of old clip art. Go and wallow.
The Bart&Co. Historic Clip Art Collection – a set on Flickr.
