Brahm's Lullaby.© The Ink Tank.160x120 | 320x240

Brahm's Lullaby
This lovely, soothing work of animation is not only ideal for young audiences, but also beautiful to behold for older viewers -- it is no surprise that its director, Polish animator Maciek Albrecht, won an Emmy for its animation design. Working with mixed media, including cut-outs, clay and traditional animation, Albrecht created this film and others for the Home Box Office (HBO) cable network. He also has produced animated productions and commercials for Children's Television Workshop, PBS, and others, and his illustrations have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, GQ and Rolling Stone. Since 1983, Albrecht has worked at The Ink Tank in New York, which is directed by renowned illustrator and director R.O. Blechman.

In a way it is hard to describe what makes Albrecht's film work so well. Certainly, the singing of Aaron Neville, which is in English, adds significantly to its success. But the placid expressions of a lady bug, a little snail, a family of raccoons, and other small creatures and the continual metamorphosis from one to another also add to the total effect. I couldn't help but smile as I watched this film over and over again. It's a wonderful example of the visualization of music and altogether delightful. I hope this is the universe my children inhabit each night as they drift off to sleep.

Sheep in the Big City.© Cartoon Network.160x120 | 320x240

Sheep in the Big City "Chapter 2: Sheep on the Lam"
The Cartoon Network has created a number of popular original animated series over the last several years. In November 2000, Mo Willems' Sheep in the Big City will join them; currently, there are 13 episodes in production at Curious Pictures, where he is a director. Willems already has an extensive list of productions to his credit, including more than 60 animated and live-action shorts, which have appeared on MTV, HBO, Sesame Street (the latter winning him two Emmy Awards for writing) and elsewhere.

Sheep in the Big City tells the story of a runaway farm animal that is being tracked by the Top Secret Military Organization. Each half-hour episode includes a series of chapters with cliffhanger endings, held together by English-language narration, satirical skits and mock advertisements in the tradition of Rocky & Bullwinkle. I was also reminded of the work of Ernie Pintoff as I watched this 7-minute chapter, "Sheep on the Lam." The animation style and humor is typical of a number of the original series being aired on The Cartoon Network, which often have a 'retro' look drawn from popular animation of the 1950s and 1960s, such as UPA (Columbia) animation and Jay Ward Productions. While the animation style of Sheep in the Big City is limited, it is stylized -- more complex than most of those early examples. Its content is also updated, as Sheep takes refuge in the big city, finding work as a telemarketer and obtaining his green food from a ready teller machine (US dollars). I really liked a segment where Sheep, somehow mistaken for a lovely woman (she's wearing a dress because the cleaner didn't have her wool ready on time), is taken out to dinner and applies lipstick at the table. It seems this series holds a lot of promise and undoubtedly will make a great addition to the list of 'winners' already produced by The Cartoon Network.