At a casual glance, anybody taking on Disney in a court of law would seem either fabulously wealthy, fabulously nuts, or both.  So, I find this news item of particular interest.  As reported on the Yahoo Sports blog Big League Stew, Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves are slinging some arrows at Pixar, challenging them over the name of the upcoming animated feature, Brave.

 

 

I tried, I really did.  I watched every single commercial on this year’s Super Bowl telecast.  Unfortunately, I’m terribly spoiled by my DVR.  I think I’d give up Diet Coke before I’d give up my DVR.  Consequently, my tolerance of the sorry state of commercials is quite low.  So my assessment of this year’s crop of spots is not particularly kind. Nor coherent.  Nor relevant. I was not impressed.  There were, however, a few bright spots.

Routinely, while watching trailers at the local AMC 53-plex, or highly pixilated commercials on my supposed high-end HDTV, I’m alternately moved to yawn, cry, occasionally laugh, but mostly shake my head in disgust and mutter “We’re all going die…then go to hell.”  Today, Super Bowl Sunday, it appears yet again some evil cabal, clad in tattered rags, cackling in delight while dancing around a cauldron filled with bat wings and the limbs of corporate media buyers, has brewed up an especially foul potion, casting an evil spell over the creative community.  Agency Directors were surreptitiously replaced by humorless doppelgangers devoid of creative powers, sense of design or comedic skills.  The only way to survive this year’s game-day commercial-palooza was to gouge your eyes out with a Dorito.  Or crush your head under the wheel of a new enviro-friendly Chevy Cruze Eco. Or Snickers your way into a diabetic coma.

In no particular order, here are some random thoughts and lots of video clips.

 

 

One of the highlights of this past Saturday's ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Awards was Brad Bird's acceptance speech, done via video from the Vancouver set of Mission Impossible IV.  Brad was honored with the Winsor McCay Award for Lifetime Achievement.  How could you possibly out-do the compilation of clips they screened highlighting his incredible body of work?  Well, you follow it with a recorded acceptance speech that brought down the house. 

If you weren't at Royce Hall, you're in for a treat.  If you were lucky to be there, this is certainly worth at least two more viewings...enjoy!

 

 

Craig Barron has posted a really nice short film tribute to film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow, who this past Saturday received the Governors Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

 

If you missed Bibo Bergeron’s (The Road to El Dorado, Shark Tale) 2011 animated musical-adventure, you’re not alone.  Unfortunately, the film was never released theatrically in the U.S.  However, you can watch it now, as Shout! Factory has released the film in a two-disc Blu-ray 3D combo pack.  The set includes Blu-ray 3D and 2D, DVD and a digital copy of the movie compatible with PC, MAC, iTunes, iPhone and AppleTV.

Before I tell you why you must go see LAIKA’s new stop-motion tour de force, ParaNorman, I’m going to share some deeply personal recollections from my wayward past.  There is relevance here, I assure you.  Just give me a chance.  Many years, ago, when I was a young lad, I often faced the derisive taunts of my schoolmates, who took delight in calling me anything from “Farto” (a deviously pithy replacement of the first letter of my last name – I still get mail to Dan Farto and it pisses me off as much now as it did when I was 7) to “Fat Fuck” to “Jew.”   Many of these upstanding citizens grew up to become pillars of business, doctors, lawyers, disgraced investment bankers.  Two of the meanest became cops.  A couple from the pre-Jackass gene pool died in nasty drug-fueled car crashes soon after dropping out of high school. Even though Facebook was decades away from germinating in the loins of that you-know-which Harvard nabob (I can’t say his name or I’ll break into 20 minutes of angry muttering) and text messaging involved nothing more than a pencil, some paper and a reasonable sidearm throwing motion, very few of my friends and none of the various school bullies ever had any problems finding new and efficient ways of singling me out for their verbal abuse.  They didn’t need no stinking mobile computing devices to focus their bullying.  They were just naturally talented, like Michael Phelps of Jenna Jamison.

 

For the past 2 years, Bill Plympton has had a team of interns busy restoring Winsor McCay’s last short film, The Flying House.  As work has progressed, Matthew Modine came onto the project as a producer and with assistance from business partner Adam Rakoff, has launched an online fundraising effort through Kickstarter.com.  Find out more about Winsor McCay, his career, the restoration of the film and how you can get involved.

Sony Picture Home Entertainment has just released on Blu-ray 3D, DVD and DVD, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the latest film from those masters of zany stop-motion comedy and cheeky Brit humor, Aardman Animations. The transfer looks great and the animation is superb.  Though the film didn’t catch fire at the international box-office, don’t let that deter you.  The film is one of the few family movies that is enjoyable for youngsters with enough adult humor to keep the geezers happy as well.  The various DVD sets include numerous extras for hours and hours of “aarguably” the greatest set of stop-motion pirate movie festivities of all time.

 

 

By Nancy Phelps

If you have ever watched an animated film and wondered “How did they do that?” then Tobias Wengert’s  ANIMATORS how did they do that? is the book for you.  Wengert has transcribed in print his conversations with twelve diverse members of the Stuttgart, Germany animation community who reveal the secret techniques behind the magical images they create.

 

 

By Nancy Phelps

Estonian animation director and educator Ulo Pikkov has accomplished a remarkable feat in producing a most readable book on animation theory.  For those who do not know about the technical side of animation Animasophy – Theoretical Writings On The Animated Film is a great place to start.  Readers who are already well versed in animation techniques will be reminded about what they already know but don’t always think about.