For those of you not in school with me, this is a rare glimpse of the blogger behind Art of the Cartoon.
So every week for Animation Mentor (The school I’m attending) I make an intro video to the week. I try to be entertaining, it is more of a way to get my face out there and to put some fun into other students’ workspaces. Anyway, this last video I did I talked about my Top 5 Cartoon Wedding moments. Enjoy!
If this gets a good response, I may post up more of my intro videos in the future…
Mamma Mu och Kråken (Mamma Moo and Crow)/ dir. Igor Veyshtagin/ 2008/ Sweden
Der Mondbär: Das große Kinoabenteuer (Moonbeam Bear and His Friends)/ dir. Thomas Bodenstein & Michael Maurus/ 2008/ Germany
I saw Mamma Moo and Crow and Moonbeam Bear and His Friends at Admiral Theater for SIFF this past weekend. Both showings were filled with cute little children and their parents. I’ll be honest I felt a little weird being there. Luckily I wasn’t the only one there without kids.
Anyway, I have a new found respect for animated projects that are geared toward those in society that are 5 years old and YOUNGER. If I were being really critical, I would mention the sub-par and simplistic animation, the thin story and plot, and general cheese factor for both films. Yeah, it was cool seeing animation from other countries but these films screamed PBS kids special. Hey the filmakers know their audience and simple animation combined with simple story and basic dialogue is perfect for the target demographic.
I did have some quibbles after the fact though. Mamma Moo and Crow was a story about friendship, but to me it seemed that the Cow and Crow had something more going on (if you know what I mean). That aint age appropriate is it?
As for Moonbeam Bear and His Friends, I enjoyed that story more, but there were rapping crows! That’s right crows that rapped! I almost yelled “THAT’S RACIST!” in the theater. That aint age approriate is it?
The real question for these kinds of films is “Is there a good message for the kiddies?” The answer is yes. However, I would never let MY kids watch this sh#%!
Up/ dir. Pete Docter/ co. dir. Bob Peterson/ 2009
I don’t how Pixar does it, but they keep churning out quality movies one after the other. It’s an animation studio dynasty. It’s kind of like in the 90’s when Disney could do no wrong and churned out hits like The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, & The Lion King. It’s a new golden age of feature animation, and plenty of us are just enjoying the ride. Eventually this ride is going to end. Odds are against the Pixar folks that they’ll make a clunker of a movie one day. However, Up will not be that clunker (and with my luck, the clunker will be if/when I work there =P).
Up tells the story of Carl Fredrickson, a bitter elderly man. After being forced to give up his home and head to a retirement home, Carl decides to finally act on a lifelong dream that he and his late wife Ellie had of adventuring to Paradise Falls in South America. Carl ties thousands and thousands of balloons to his house in order to fly away and head towards South America.
The premise doesn’t sound like much, but the execution of the storytelling, combined with the emotion and sincerity of the characters come together to make yet another Pixar masterpiece. (Hit the jump for the rest of the review) Continue reading
At first I thought this was a clever spoof, but I think this is officially Nintendo. If it’s official then it’s brilliant. If not, it’s still pretty funny! Oh and I am super stoked for the new Punch-Out thats coming out for the Wii.
Piston Hondo! LOL! Hey he’s just doing his jab…
EDIT: Just checked out the official punchout.com site, the dude’s name is ACTUALLY Piston Hondo!
I remember sitting back and watching the Looney Tunes shorts with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner and thinking, “What a smarmy road runner! I hope that coyote catches you one day.” Yet that never happened. Until this came along…
The difference in animation is jarring! Really jarring! But a little bit of me smiled when the Road Runner was finally caught…
But now I just feel empty…
Wow, that last bit og animation is really bad…
One final note, the original title to this short was “Fast and Furry-ous,” Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodirguez, and Jordana Brewster are set to star in the sequel “2Fast, 2 Furry-ous,” or was it “THE Fast and THE Furry-ous,” it might’ve been “The Fast and the Furry-ous: Hong Kong Drift.” I forget…
In the midst of a busy week of work and the first week of school, I decided quickly sketch out a comic. It’s crudely done (once again not the greatest artist in the world), but whatever. It deals with the question “How far have we progressed in 12 years?” I think the comic answers that:
Aww…progress…look how far we’ve come.
New Kids On the Block/ “The New Kid In Class”/ 1990
One year before Hammerman came on the scene, the New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) were the latest musical act to have the honor (read: exploited!) of getting their own animated series.
I do remember hearing back then that the New Kids on the Block were getting their own cartoon series. I don’t ever remember watching a single episode. The reason, I just wasn’t that interested. People may not believe me, but I was NOT a New Kids on the Block fan when they first came out. Over the years, the feeling has dulled and for a good nostalgia trip I now enjoy a classic NKOTB song every now and then, but back then, I only tolerated them because of my sister and some of my friends. Just to reiterate, NKOTB was just not for me.
So why after some 20 years, have I decided to go back and watch an episode of NKOTB?
Well besides NKOTB’s unexpected return to music last year, after one of my biggest posting blunders, I posted this lighthearted clip of the NKOTB intro. Based on that clip, the show seemed really bad. Even still, I figured I should at least watch an episode to see if, in reality, either:
a) it was a good/ decent show with a bad intro,
or
b) if it was as bad as I think it is.
The result: I really should trust my instincts… hit the jump for the rest of the review and video of the episode. Continue reading
Alright, I hope you all had your fun with the last post (Gee that really backfired! … Live & Learn).
Time to get serious:
(stares at screen in disbelief…)
I have nothing…
Well back to the sketchbook 😛 !
I’ll come back to this I promise…
By request from Daps1…
From 1990 – 91, MC Hammer was arguably the biggest hip-hop star in the world. You can’t deny the fact that his break out hit “U Can’t Touch This” was catchy, and with it’s heavy (understated) sampling of Rick James’ “Superfreak”, it made heavy, HEAVY sampling of funk hits popular in future hip-hop songs. Hammer helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream audience with an entertainment style that no hip-hop artist had back then.
But how do you know you when someone hits it big? They get their own cartoon series…
Hit the Jump, to read more about hip-hop’s first animated series… Continue reading
Art of the Cartoon 