"Few characters are as memorable as he: tall, black-cloaked, face scarred, eyepatch over his right eye, and ever-ready with his saber-rifle.
He is the epitome of Leiji (Reiji) Matsumoto's male hero, an SF version of the wild-West lone gunslinger." The Space Pirate
Captain Harlock is coming back in
a new CG movie,
a decade since his escapades were
last animated, and back with
Toei Animation, who
first brought his one-eyed scowl to the small screen
35 years ago. If this is all news to you, read on for more of the mysterious man who fight's for no one's sake.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 3, 2013 -
21 comments
Welcome to
mcbess, a land of
odd illustrations in black and white*, something of a
dark and dingy take on Merry Melodies, where
the men are bearded, and
the ladies are toothy, busty (and often topless, in a vaguely NSFW cartoony way). There are also some
large-scale illustrations with all those elements, and more. Matthieu Bessudo, aka mcbess, is also in a band,
The Dead Pirates, and his art and music met with the video
Wood (Vimeo;
also on YouTube; more info
here).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 28, 2013 -
8 comments
"
Jan Švankmajer is a major figure of contemporary East European animation whose surrealistic, often macabre work owes more to the nightmarish visions of Kafka and Buñuel than to the sunny daydreams of Walt Disney and his creative progeny. Noted for investing otherwise ordinary objects with ominous overtones, Švankmajer reached his widest audience to date with a feature-length adaptation of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" (1988) which blended animated and live-action footage--a technique he had earlier used to hair-raising effect in "Down to the Cellar" (1983)." --
TMC. Often credited with influencing the Brothers Quay, they hadn't actually seen his work until relatively late in their careers,
as they mentioned in an introduction to their documentary on Švankmajer (YT playlist). More of Švankmajer inside.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 23, 2012 -
21 comments
"Over the years in animation, there have been a lot of great animators.
Ub Iwerks was one of those people. We know his work, but we don't necessarily know the man."
The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (in 5 parts on DailyMotion:
1,
2,
3,
4, and
5) tells of the life of Ubbe Eert Iwerks, from the formation of the friendship with Walt Disney when they met at advertisement studio in Kansas City, their artistic collaborations and Ub's 20 years of animation, to Iwerk's technical creations that kept Disney animated pictures ahead of other studios.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 31, 2012 -
14 comments
The first color cartoon came out in 1957, from
the Miami, Florida studio Soundac, beating out LA-based
Hanna-Barbera's The Ruff & Reddy Show by a few months. Soundac's
Colonel Bleep was
styled after space-age design ideas of the era, featured in three to six-minute long segments with limited animation, designed for syndication into local kids shows with live hosts. Of the 104 episodes,
less than half survive, as
most of that and other Soundac material was stolen from a studio van in the ’70s, when the studio was closing. Luckily, episodes have been found in the collections and archives of various TV studios, so
Col. Bleep and his side-kicks Squeek and Scratch are available online (YT),
some clips on Archive.org, and
more on YouTube (playlist with 43 clips).
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 27, 2012 -
20 comments
Kevin J. Weir is an artist, making ads (
1,
2,
3,
4,
5), and more interestingly, not ads. In the latter category, he has made 3 stand-alone sites:
the Flux Machine, a tumblr of public domain images turned into animated GIFs, ranging from amusing to surreal (with an extra dash of Lovecraft), which
Cartoon Brew likened to
Terry Gilliam and
Stan VanDerBeek;
Nyan Waits, another spin-off of the
Nyan Cat meme/theme, now with more Tom Waits; and
Loud Portraits, an interactive portrait gallery.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 4, 2012 -
9 comments
Gauche the Cellist [Google video, 63 minutes] is based on a story [Japanese; English translation #1, #2] by Kenji Miyazawa, one of the most-loved poet/storytellers in Japan (Miyazaki and Takahata love his works, and have been influenced by him). The movie was made as an independent project by a Japanese animation studio, OH Production (wiki), and took 6 years to complete. It is rather difficult to make a Kenji story into a movie because there are many Japanese just waiting to rip you apart if you screw up, but Gauche has been highly acclaimed, and is considered one of the best Miyazawa movies (IMDb). The story is about a cellist, Gauche, who becomes a better cellist by interacting with animals who visit his home every night. *
posted by filthy light thief
on Oct 8, 2011 -
8 comments
"In Japan, animation is not seen as the exclusive realm of children's and family films, but is often used for adult, science fiction and action stories, where it allows a kind of freedom impossible in real life. Some Hollywood films strain so desperately against the constraints of the possible that you wish they'd just caved in and gone with animation." --
Roger Ebert on anime, with this excerpt being related to
Tokyo Godfathers. Ebert has been a fan of anime for a while, especially the works of
Hayao Miyazaki. Ebert has reviewed 6 of the 18
Studio Ghibli films released to date, and
even interviewed Miyazaki with a bit of fanboy glee.
More reviews and videos inside. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 30, 2010 -
92 comments
Telephoneme: Even if your Alphabet Conspiracy succeeds and you destroy the books, machines have no minds of their own. They are easily confused by different voices and different accents. It is the brain of man that tells them what to do.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 20, 2010 -
10 comments
Lucasfilm Animation is currently developing an all-new animated Star Wars series. Not
that one, a new series. And no relation to
the holiday special (
1978) or
Ewoks, the
animated series (
1985), or even
Droids:
The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO (
1985). The new
new series is set to feature creative involvement from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, creators and executive producers
Robot Chicken, writing from The Daily Show's Brendan Hay, produced by Jennifer Hill (
The Backyardigans), and directed by Todd Grimes (
Back at the Barnyard). Unlike
the Clone Wars animated series, the latest venture into animation will be
one more humorous in tone and aimed at younger kids. Pre-School to Kindergarten aged kids young, and
the working title is believed to be "Squishies" (
or not).
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 6, 2010 -
76 comments
Jon Klassen is an illustrator and designer, with a
blog and a lovely
website full of artwork, including
The Miser (3:53, 2004, made with
Kyle McQueen and Dan Rodrigues),
An Eye for Annai (5:27, 2005,
previously, also made with Dan Rodrigues,
.MOV video link),
an interpretation of
a Mayan folktale (available in full in
Flight vol 4,
previously),
The Adventures of Ship,
a family art project,
visual development and drawings
for sets and props for the movie adaptation of
Coraline (
a couple previous), amongst other bits and bobs. Illustration Mundo had an
interview with Klassen earlier this year.
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 4, 2009 -
3 comments
