New Drawings!!!

New drawings on Flickr!

Sita Sings the Blues

The first animated film to be animated entirely by one woman since Lotte Reiniger's Prince Achmed in 1926 is now available to watch online for free. Actually, I'm not sure if Lotte Reiniger animated the whole thing herself, but that's not the point. This is so cool!

Robert Zemeckis Revisits Roger Rabbit

So, I loved Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Oh, it was perfect: Brilliant performances by Christopher Lloyd and Bob Hoskins, the first appearance of fanboy favorite Jessica Rabbit, and of course, Richard Williams' animation (it's Williams' most well-known and well-received film to date).

When I attended one of Richard Williams' presentations at Portland Community College, he mentioned that he had been talked to about making a Roger Rabbit sequel, but didn't like the idea. Apparently, this is no big deal for Robert Zemeckis, because he has the power of mo-cap.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Remember when Richard Williams went to Robert Zemeckis and famously said "I'll be your pencil"? I don't, because I was born the year Roger Rabbit came out, but that's beside the point. It really feels like he's acting as though Richard Williams can be replaced.

The original Roger Rabbit was great because they did the animation the old fashioned way, no digital technology. The film took place in the 40's, and the animation was done to fit that. This film was proud of the fact that it had no digital animation in it, and scoffed at the way anyone else combined live action and animation. There's no way mo-cap technology could re-create the brilliance of the effects seen in the original film.

But more importantly, and this is something that cannot be disputed: Richard Williams can never be replaced by any technology. He's Richard Williams. He animates on ones, decides he wants to do it differently, and then does it over again, and that's just business as usual.

The point is, any sequel to Roger Rabbit will never be as good as the original, the same way the sequel to Gary Wolf's original book was not as well-received as the original novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? However, Zemeckis has realized that sequels to movies from the 80's (Indiana Jones, Rocky, Rambo, etc.) are all the rage now, and Zemeckis has four of the most popular films of the 80's. I guess he thought three Back to the Futures was enough.

Preston Blair rip

Preston Blair... his elusive rip-offs lurk everywhere, if you look hard enough. Heck, just about every high school sports team with the name "The Bulldogs" has used Preston Blair's dog as their mascot.

This one is particularly bad, but not the worst I've seen. Aside from making the mouse look less appealing overall, notice how the line of action is no longer implied. His ear looks like it's behind his shoulder, too.

OK, so it's just a mascot for a pest control company in SE Portland, and I shouldn't expect anything fancy. And, to be honest, you have to look closely to actually see the similarities. Maybe I'm stretching it?

However, when I saw this on the side of a truck, I instantly thought of Preston Blair. Actually, I took the picture with my cell phone almost a year ago. I'm really lazy...

Rankin/Bass

Yeah, I just posted about it on LJ, because, I dunno, why not?
http://checkeredgeek.livejournal.com/41177.html?mode=reply

RIP Emru

I'm sad. I've never even met the guy, but I'm sad. The most unbiased, logical and articulate animation critic and enthusiast has passed away. Will there ever be another guy like him? I find that when many critics and bloggers write about animation, they can sound biased, inconsistent, occasionally difficult to understand... Emru wasn't like that. I remember his Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda reviews being very well thought out, while others were either blindly praising or bashing said films. I won't name names. I loved that his main complaint about Kung Fu Panda was the abundance of fat jokes. He is, after all, a panda. Who else would have thought of that? This was a guy who was thoughtful. Yes, thoughtful. Not fueled by anger against Adult Swim or Seth MacFarlane, just a thoughtful person who knew a lot about animation.

Emru Townsend was an expert on a wide variety of animation. I mean, this encompasses the likes of Looney Tunes, The Nine Old Men, Frederick Back, Norman McLaren, Rock and Rule, Ralph Bakshi, Aardman, anime and manga, animation installations, and just about anything related to animation, comics, cartoons, etc. Part of the diversity of FPS Magazine was due to the diversity of its contributing writers, but Emru himself had such a wealth of knowledge on the subject, he could have written the whole damn magazine himself. I'm not saying he should have, I'm just saying he knew a lot.

I'll still check FPS every day like I normally (try to) do, but Emru was FPS Magazine. It's still a great publication, one of the best out there. I know for a fact that Tamu, Kino Kid, and the whole FPS Staff are going to keep the website running strong.

Well, anyway... he will be missed. One more thing though. For those of you who donated bone marrow in reaction to Emru, keep donating when you are able to. If you didn't donate, but wanted to, you can still help save someone's life. Visit Heal Emru for more information.

whoa...

School

Well, I'm in school now. I'll be juggling that with my own personal creative time, practicing my drawing skills and following Preston Blair and John K's lessons. I've already started, but I'm slow and a perfectionist. I need to stop over-thinking things. Hell, I might even start going to the zoo to draw animals. Maybe that's too pretentious. I should probably stick to drawing my girlfriend or my cat for a while.

I'm taking sculpture though, which should be good. I've always loved sculpture, and I feel like it will be a good skill to develop. I'm also taking photo, which I'm mostly clueless about, but it's also a good skill to have.

Oh, and thanks to Jenny Lerew for the comment on my last post! I'm pretty happy that someone from the industry has looked at my blog-- and who worked on cartoons I grew up on! She also corrected me on one of my many embarrassing and pretentious Cartoon Brew comments. I've said some stupid things in my time, but I've never been corrected so warmly.

On Laziness

I love my girlfriend. I bought her a book of Dan Decarlo pin-ups. She loved it so much, she got me this book:
The Classic Pin-Up Art of Jack Cole, Published by the good folks at Fantagraphics.

I'll talk more about Jack Cole later, but right now, all I have to say is that he's really inspired me to get off my ass and do something. The guy had almost no art background, other than a mail-order cartooning course. This reminded me of John K's cartooning course, so I figured I should take action.

Here's another thing that motivated me to stop being lazy:


And then of course, this Brew post...

Turns out I was stupid

Upon looking at Cartoon Brew's recent post, and finding the Lauenstein brothers' website, I now realize that I was in fact being stupid. According to their website, they worked on a number of commercials involving the characters from Balance. I've looked on their website before, so I don't know why I didn't notice this before.

They don't actually list the Sega CD commercial on their website, but this is probably because it's not really worth mentioning. The commercials they do mention are for MTV and several PSA's, which are more impressive than a promotional video for a video game console that failed miserably.

I was watching a tape of Liquid Television recently, and saw the sequence with the Balance guys, and was even going to post about it... but then I read the CB post... so, yeah.

Balance and Sega-CD ad

So, here's something I've been meaning to talk about for a while, even before I started this blog. It's been bugging the hell out of me.

I saw the Oscar-winning German animated short film Balance (1989) when I was about nine. It was one of those shorts that really got me into foreign animation, and also helped to show me what the medium of animation is capable of.



While watching videos on YouTube, I stumbled across this (the part I'm talking about comes in after 45 seconds) :



The similarities can't be denied. The look of the characters, their actions, the object of interest that is in front of them... well, you be the judge. It's worth noting that this is the European Sega CD commercial, and this may have something to do with it. I really have no idea if the two are related, or if it was a work of plagiarism. I can't find any info about it anywhere, and yet I feel like I'm being stupid by wondering. Hopefully I'll figure this out...

Worst. Birthday Present. Ever.

This movie is coming out the day after my birthday. Wonderful. It should be a double feature, right after Space Chimps.

They should just stop making movies. Now. Like, everyone should just stop making movies. They all need a movie time out.

Here's the trailer, if you dare, although I strongly suggest the much more entertaining version, which accurately shows how most (not stupid) people, including myself, felt about the film.

AFI's Top 10 Animated Films - Disney Dominates

So I was watching AFI's 10 Top 10 on CBS. They had a good lineup of gangster movies, romantic comedies, epics, westerns, etc. It was a little slapped together, but that's sort of to be expected, and I personally think top 10 lists are kind of flawed anyway.

However, I shrugged at their list of animated films. Here's the website if you're interested.

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Pinocchio
3. Bambi
4. The Lion King
5. Fantasia
6. Toy Story
7. Beauty and the Beast
8. Shrek
9. Cinderella
10. Finding Nemo

First off, as many people will also point out, animation is not a genre, but an art/medium/craft. Second of all, what's with all the Disney/Pixar, and why is Shrek the exception? And finally, why is Shrek placed above Cinderella?

The segregation of animation and live action is really part of American culture, viewing it as children's entertainment, etc. It's also to make room for more live action films in the other categories, since live action does dominate in film history. However, if we're looking at Disney animation, those common labels of "for the kiddies," fairy tales, and the like are actually true.

Disney is animation and cartoons in the mind of many Americans, it can't be helped.

The list seems to have been put together by film enthusiasts. It includes classic directors like Cukor, Wilder, Hitchcock, and even includes a few silent films. So you'd think they would have at least included Nightmare Before Christmas or Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Maybe Wizards or Fritz the Cat even, but of course, surrounded by so much Disney, it would feel creepy to TV audiences. You sure as hell wouldn't see Allegro non Troppo, Coonskin, or The Thief and the Cobbler on there.

Like comics, animation will only be truly understood and appreciated by nerds. It's a fact I've come to accept. I'm actually quite proud to be a nerd. It's not like I ran into Platform screaming "excelsior!" But, of course, if everyone in the world loved Wizards and Allegro non Troppo, I'd be sick of them and not want to watch them anymore. So it works out in the end.

Emru, Monsters vs. Aliens, Comics

Before I start the post, I just want to remind whoever might be reading this to visit HealEmru.com





So I went to a forum recently. We'll just call it "the fight club." On it, I made the following post, and I thought it was interesting to hear what random people had to say about this. I kind of got the idea from reading this post on Cartoon Brew. Just want to hear what casual animation fans had to say.

The post:

So here's a CG movie that isn't Shrek 5 or a crazy animal adventure. It's called Monsters vs. Aliens...

Anyone got anything to say? I think it looks pretty cool... and it doesn't creep me out like every character in the Shrek movies.

Comments on the post:

"just another piece of shit im gonna hate and everyone is going to love"
Reply: "You must have a miserable life."
Reply: "no i just dont like pixars work"

"WE MUST CAPTURE THAT GIANT WOMAN FOR..... RESEARCH"

"Goddamn viral marketing..."

"It'll either be really awesome or fall flat on its face. There really doesn't seem to be an in-between for this movie."

"I'm sure it will be filled with random humor and pop-culture references, thus making it a huge hit at the box office."

"That fish monster is going to have the voice of a wacky black comedian and he'll be making American Idol jokes left and right."

"So Mirage, Grey Matter, Bloo and the dog from Johnny Test team up to stop a giant chipmunk and the Blue Angels."

Other forum users replied to the aforementioned comment saying things like, "i cant unsee it!" Upon further inspection, it's true. That's what it looks like. And I'm really sad that I actually know what the dog from Johnny test looks like.

I thought the response was interesting, and worth posting...


On another note, I'm enrolled in a class called Understanding Comics Art, taught by Diana Schutz, Editor in Chief for Dark Horse Comics. It's a very informative class, and I'm having a lot of fun.

The great part is that we get to read comics for homework, including Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, Last Day in Vietnam, and Maus, among other great works. Diana knows the medium of comics inside and out, and was even a good friend of the late, great Will Eisner.

What's crazy is that this is a community college class. Yeah...

Heal Emru

I don't have any traffic on this blog.

I've posted an important message on my old blog.

Maybe there is some embarrassing high school stuff on there, but that's not the point.

Since this is an animation-related blog, if you're reading this at all, you should know who Emru is.

If not, go to fpsmagazine.com, healemru.com, or my blog post. This is very important. He has an amazing website called FPS Magazine. He has been diagnosed with leukemia. Go to the given links and get information on what you can do.

If people actually read this blog, I would have made this message more like the one on my livejournal...

New Website...brain soup

I've just completed my website, 'brain soup,' which can be found here: checkeredgeek.freehostia.com

It showcases some of my artwork, animation and embarrassing film projects from high school. The website should expand over time with more of my creative... things...

Some of the design is a little inconsistant, and there are some mistakes, which I hope to fix soon.

There are also things I say that I will probably change later, if I'm not too lazy. I said some things about Jim Tyer's animation being "just plain weird," which I don't think does it justice, so apologies to any Tyer fans out there-- I was in a hurry. Also, I'm not so sure about putting my work from high school in there... it's a little embarrassing.

Whatever the case, I have a website now... only thing to do now is get an actual domain name... and unfortunately, brain soup isn't the most original name out there.

But hey, it's a start.

I guess I should get a domain some day...

Not cartoon related

Infinite Solutions with Mark Erickson

I find this website amazing... just... amazing...

I'll say it again...

Amazing.

Ugly Drawings

But they're my ugly drawings.

uhh

So, the reason no one reads this blog is simply because I don't put it out there at all. I don't post it in my Cartoon Brew comments, and I don't give the address to my friends. I think the next step, really, is to get my creative stuff on here as soon as possible. Maybe I'll seem like less of a loser.

So, I've been listening to some of the 50's production music that was used for The Ren and Stimpy Show. This makes me super geeky.

Which brings me to the main point of this post: my love for cartoons and my love for music. I really don't know which is more important in my life, especially when the two go so well together. Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott are two of my biggest heroes, as well as Sammy Timberg and the other people involved in the music for the Fleischer studio.

And how can you not like the Cab Calloway Betty Boop cartoons?



My interest in cartoons and music goes together very well, but I'm starting to think music is more of my primary interest, although it has switched back and forth.

A New Post

Hey, a new post!
I decided I might as well continue this blog, just as a record of my animation research. You know, to help me deal with my obsession. It's not really going to be a place to showcase my own animation for the time being, mainly because I'm busy with college and all the post-high school crap. I could come up with more excuses... my animation stand is covered in DVDs... my camera sucks.

Anyway, I wanted to post about one of my new favorite animators, Milton Knight. He's worked for Ralph Bakshi, as well as DiC. Now, up until now, I've disregarded everything made by DiC, with the exception of John K's New Adventures of Beany and Cecil. Well, I was doing some research on Jim Tyer, and somehow I stumble upon this guy named Milton Knight.

The guy has worked on the pilot for The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which doesn't sound impressive at first, until you see what he did with it. Things worth noting: 1) Gary Owen's voice can be heard (voice of Space Ghost and Powdered Toast Man). 2) Ed Love, who worked on Tex Avery's Swing Shift Cinderella, also worked on this show. My mind has been blown!



It's very fitting that he ended up directing episodes of The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat.



Anyway, I think this guy is great.