“Think of this book as a Disney History companion filling in some of those nooks and crannies that may only be mentioned in a brief sentence or two, if at all, in other Disney history books. These chapters truly are the forgotten but fascinating Disney stories.” With this line, Jim Korkis lays down the foundation for what his newest work, The Vault of Walt, is truly about. Through the compilation of the wide array of articles that he has written through the years, Korkis presents a work that provides his readers with little known histories and stories about Walt Disney and the empire that he created.

 

Mix stunning aerial pageantry from the best Cirque du Soleil shows with up close stereoscopic 3D camera work produced by legendary filmmaker James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic) and directed by Andew Adamson (Shrek), throw in a love story and wrap it all together with CG transitions and you have Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away, which is now available on Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D. 

 

Without good direction, you end up with drek.  Problems with sequence timing or the render pipeline can be solved with relative ease – problems of mismanagement are difficult to overcome and usually spell doom.  Animation directors aren’t directing animation, they’re directing a group of people who are working in arguably the most time consuming and exacting of creative mediums.  Copiously illustrated with relevant images, the book is well thought out and concise, never preachy or off target. David writes in an engaging style that captures your attention without smacking you over the head. Directing Animation at its heart strives to teach the reader how to keep an animation production crew happy, productive and on task. 

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.

Belinda Luscombe just published an article on the Time Magazine website in which she ponders why adults cry so easily when they watch animated kids movies.  My guess is that they’re still upset over the cost of tickets and armfuls of popcorn, candy and sky blue slushies, but the economics of the cinematic experience are not to be confused with the more cerebral and emotional aspects of the animated film viewing experience discussed in the article... Alan Becker’s fantastic flash-animated stick figure is back with another installment of the ongoing personal computer battles popularized in 2 previous films...Filmmaker Ray Grigg’s conservative political documentary I Want Your Money opens this Friday in selected theatres throughout the US, complete with a very animated Barack Obama. 

 

 

With MIPTV starting today, an independent market research firm has released the results of its most recent television animation production industry survey.  According to Copenhagen-based management consulting and market research firm International Institute for a Better Tomorrow, production companies that historically have generated significant revenue from animated series are finding today’s marketplace significantly more crowded and less lucrative than in previous years.  A company press release accompanying highlights of the survey says that their most recent data suggests that senior studio executives are in agreement that the halcyon days of big money animation television deals are a distant memory, never to return.  However, bucking conventional wisdom and recent industry trends, these executives differ greatly on profit strategies and business models they plan on putting in place to shore up their bottom line and ensure the survival of their businesses.

A complete breakdown of the survey results is as follows:.

We thank those AWN readers who contributed their thoughts on the passing of legendary Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk.

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"This is a great loss to Russian animation. Khitruk was the teacher of many famous Russian directors - Norshtein, Nazarov, Petrov, Maksimov, Aldashin and many others.  He was my teacher also. Khitruk was not only a good director and a teacher but also a unique person, a great conversationalist.  He always had positive energy."

Igor Kovalyov

Director

"Fyodor Khitruk helped modernize Russian animation. His sense of rhythm, his humor, his ability to tell stories concisely made him an example. But more importantly, his graphic virtuosity made history. Othello 67, the very short film (50 seconds) he made for the international competition organized for the Montreal World Exhibition is a masterpiece of irony and pacing."

Marcel Jean

Artistic Director, Annecy International Animation Film Festival