Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 27, 2007 in Animation
This is a great early series of television ads by Jim Henson:
I love the dark sense of humor in the ads! Here’s some background info from Wikipedia:
“The success of Sam and Friends led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. Henson himself appeared as a guest on many shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show. The greatly increased exposure led to hundreds of commercial appearances (mostly for Wilkins Coffee) by Henson characters through the 1960s. Being puppets, they have been able to get away with a greater level of slapstick violence than might be acceptable with human actors.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 26, 2007 in Animation
A while ago we reported that a 80s anime classic Robotech was out with a new movie for a limited theatrical run. On February 6th the new movie (Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles) will be out on DVD, here’s the latest trailer:
I have to say that I’m not too crazy about the 3D animation for the spaceships, what made Macross amazing is they did all of that great animation by hand. Although I admit that it’s pretty cool having Mark Hamill do voiceovers!
Doctor Who and Martha are about to step into a new dimension – a cartoon one. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman will star in The Infinite Quest, a 13-part animated adventure that will run weekly in the second series of Totally Doctor Who.
“The Doctor And Martha follow a trail of clues across wild and wonderful alien worlds, to find the location of the legendary lost spaceship, the Infinite,” revealed Russell T Davies.
The Infinite Quest is written by Alan Barnes and directed by Gary Russell. The spectacular animation will be crafted by Firestep, the creative team behind previous Doctor Who animated adventures for the BBC. Thanks to developments in animation and computer technology, expect some amazing advances on previous animations.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 25, 2007 in Animation
A brand new pilot for a Muppet mini-series is being passed around Disney, a spoof on mockumentary series like ‘The Office’ that has the Muppet gang getting back together to put on a new show after venturing off on their own to find new jobs:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 23, 2007 in Animation
This is a nicely designed 3D animated short from France, I like the character design of the robots and the use of typography in the animation. There’s also a nice Rube Goldberg theme going on:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 22, 2007 in Animation
The Great Gourmet Cooking Show is a humourous 3D animation from France which is set in in a 70’s cooking show. You can tell they did a great job with the voice acting even if you don’t speak French:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 20, 2007 in Animation
Hanasakemee is a popular avatar character on Yahoo! Japan created by Polygons. Here’s a well done (and very cute) animated commercial designed to introduce the Hanasakemee:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 18, 2007 in Animation
In the press they’re going on and on about how cell phones in Japan are as cool as the Apple iPhone. I don’t know if that’s the case, but this DoCoMo commercial from Japan does show that the Japanese are having fun with their cell phones. The advertisement below showcases a phone (the FOMA 901i and 700i) that allows you to play animated ring tones (ChakuMotion) using Disney characters:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 12, 2007 in Animation
Emelia is a beautifully made computer animated short by Derek Flood, who has been working as an animation director and lead animator for both high end commercials as well as for feature films. “Emelia” tells the story of a five-year-old goth girl and the world as seen through her eyes. This dark and quirky story of redemption takes us into Emelia’s head, letting us see in wild and fantastic images what she feels and thinks internally as she deals with parents, playgrounds, and all the angst and despair that every little goth girl has to deal with.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 10, 2007 in Animation
“Samurai” is a gentle spirited colorfil mini-film created as part of an advertising campiagn for General Electric. The plot of the short “tells a tale of a pint-sized samurai faced with a seemingly impossible challenge as proposed by a behemoth Emperor and his wicked minions.” The short was produced by Three Legged Legs, the LA-based animation collective comprised of Greg Gunn, Casey Hunt and Reza Rasoli.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 9, 2007 in Animation
Iwao Takamoto had an amazing life, he was born in 1925 in Los Angeles and his family was from Japan. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor his family like many Japanese-Americans, was sent to an internment camp. It was there that Takamoto received basic illustration training from a couple of friendly co-internees. Takamoto got his big break after the end of the war when he was hired as an assistant animator by Walt Disney Studios in 1947:
“Iwao Takamoto, the animator who created the cartoon canine Scooby-Doo as well as characters on such shows as “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons,” died Monday after suffering a massive coronary, a spokesman said. He was 81. Takamoto died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for respiratory problems, said Gary Miereanu, a spokesman for Warner Bros. Animation.
Takamoto designed Scooby-Doo, his equally famished and cowardly master Shaggy, and their pals Velma, Daphne and Fred in the late 1960s while working at the Hanna-Barbera animation studio. The Great Dane’s name was inspired by an improvised line at the end of Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night”.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 7, 2007 in Animation
Banga is an orange flavored fruit beverage from France. This vintage commercial from 1980 features six island girls and their pet monkey singing the praises of their favorite drink:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 4, 2007 in Animation
Afro Samurai is on tonight at 11pm on Spike TV. So I dropped by ther website to look at the first few minutes of the show, and I have to say that the quality of the animation is A+for a television series. However I wasn’t that impressed with the writing or the editing of the story. I think my problem is that I tend to associate Samuel L. Jackson with a ‘Pulp Fiction sense of humor’ so I tend to be let down if the plot takes itself a bit too seriously. But of course being the fanboy that I am I’ll be DVRing the first show tonight, and then watching at least two out of the five episodes before I give up…
“Adult Swim’s feature version of surreal animated series “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” has been set for a March release by First Look Pictures with an opening of more than 800 playdates. The 86-minute pic, written, produced and directed by co-creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis, marks First Look’s initial theatrical foray into animation as well as Adult Swim’s first feature under the Williams Street banner.”
