By Haley Hughes

If ever there was a film to see in 3D, it would be Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.  This film proves that 3D can be used to enhance a viewing experience: allowing the audience to interact with the roller coaster like camera moves and the abstract sequences of light and color.  Though it has a relatively weak story and fails to really develop character, the visuals and the use of 3d make this film worth a viewing.

 

If you spend time analyzing successful people, you will tend to find a repeating list of similarities. Attributes like talent and charisma often get the most ink, but more often than not, a person’s drive and the quality of their education is a far better determinant of a bright future. Successful educators nurture this type of person, or set someone on the path to becoming one by creating a learning environment that is as engaging as it is relevant to their student’s future ambitions. And when it comes to careers in art, animation, and digital content creation, students that learn on industry-standard technology – like Wacom’s Cintiq – are more prepared for the professional world, and its elevated expectations.

A product of British Columbia-based Capilano University’s two year, Commercial Animation program, Gemma Reeks-Coad is living proof of how the right tools, in the hands of the right artist, breed success.

 

6 new character posters have been released for the new DreamWorks feature, Rise of the Guardians, set for release November 21, 2012, including the evil villain, Pitch.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Silly analogy not-withstanding, once again, Disney has done the animation community proud by digitally restoring and releasing one of its all-time classics on Blu-ray.  Almost twenty years in the making, Peter Pan was originally scheduled as Walt Disney’s second animated feature.  Work began in the late 1930s, but the effort was shelved with the start of World War II.  Picked up again in 1947, the film finally was released in 1953.  In celebration of the film’s 60^th anniversary, Disney has just released this animated classic bundled with a great selection of featurettes and some deleted scenes and songs.

 

 

If you’re looking to spend a couple hours sitting back and having a good time, then get yourself to the theatre this weekend and go see Megamind, DreamWorks’ latest animated feature.  When I got to the press screening last Saturday, I was actually in a good mood for a change. It was my birthday, I’d eaten an In-N-Out double-double for lunch and for a few brief hours, I was mostly pleasant to be with.  I put on my 3-D glasses in search of some good old fashioned entertainment and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed.  The film looked great, the story resonated with me and kept my attention, the running gags were used wisely, not beaten to death, the 3-D done seamlessly and expertly without obvious gimmicks or flaws. 

 

 

Sometimes, the only way to deal with events so sinister, so beyond comprehension, is to lay them bare with the darkest of humor.  Never shying from controversy, the South Park team confronts the Penn State scandal head on as well as from behind.

 

Pixar has posted a funny new "short" from Brave, entitled "Summer Games."

16 top episodes culled from all three seasons of J.G. Quintel’s Emmy® Award-winning series Regular Show have just been released on DVD by the folks at Cartoon Network.  Needless to say, that’s 16 great opportunities to share in the hijinks of Mordecai and Rigby, our friendly neighborhood blue jay and raccoon, bored stiff park groundskeepers, best friends and consummate slackers.  The show is one of the few animated series that works both for kids and adults without alienating either.  We had an opportunity to talk to J.G. (The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Camp Lazlo) about the show’s success and the challenges faced in creating an animated television series.

 

 

By Brian Taylor

The World Solar Challenge is a 3,000 kilometer race across the Australian outback. That’s 3,000 kilometers of scrubland and blistering sunlight -- the kind of environment that’s not particularly welcoming to humans or technology, unless that technology happens to be solar-powered.

In late October 2011, for the eleventh race since 1987, a group of solar-powered cars designed by groups from around the world attempted to cross the continent, from Darwin to Adelaide, on solar power alone. Some cars made it; some had to resort to being towed on trailers part of the way by gasoline-powered vehicles. Members of one 70-person-strong team from Cambridge University designed, built and drove a car in the race.

 

Ace & Son Moving Picture Company, led by Richard O’Connor’s animation direction, recently finished a poignant and thoughtful animated documentary short on the horrors of honor killings.