Brazilian artist Helder Santos drew, animated and directed this video for the local band Eddie and singer Karina Buhr. Santos writes:
The video is a protest against the violence and social problems in Brazil. Everybody thinks of Brazil as the fun, carnaval country. We tried to put what really happens here though the vision of a masked ball carnaval of horror. Hope you like it.
Santos produced it along with his wife Camilla and friends at production house CherryPlus.
I’ve praised this blog before, but the Chuck Jones blog, run by Chuck’s grandson Craig, continues to be a treasure trove of artwork and new information about the director.
My favorite recent post is this letter that Chuck wrote to his daughter Linda following his brief stint working at the Disney studio in 1953. In it, Jones gives his perspective of working at the studio, and it sounds not so different from a lot of contemporary feature animation studios:
At Disney’s it was always necessary to be certain places at certain times. God knows why, nothing ever happened, so it was nearly impossible to work there without a timepiece. You could get along without talent, but not a watch…. Ah..I think this was a good mood—I mean move to return here [to Warner Bros.], I had not realized how much I missed the sweetness of my own solitude. At Disney’s aloneness or desire to be alone generates suspicion, you are always surrounded by people, drifting in and out, exchanging hackneyed pleasantries or just sitting, staring with baleful intensity at one’s own navel. What a waste! What a waste of wonderful talent!
Jones also offered an unflattering opinion of Disney director Ham Luske:
I went to Disney’s with respect for H… L…., I could not fathom him but I felt that there must be some pretty strong talent there, not evident on the surface perhaps but still waters run deep etc. etc. If I still think this then I am the only one who has recently worked there who does. Walt adjudges him a work horse, stolid, unimaginative, but able to get things done if someone else has injected the life and the spark into the material. Many others think of him as simply and purely a dolt and a dull dolt at that. I saw too little of him to make any judgment, but I can no longer assume that he has talent. Isn’t that a pity?
It’s particularly interesting to read this letter in context of Chuck’s later opinions of working at Disney, which can be found in this terrific article by Wade Sampson.
John Canemaker’s next book is available for pre-order on Amazon. Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant and Joe Ranft will be released in August 2010. John gave me a preview of the book a couple months back. It is an intimate look at the accomplishments and struggles (both personal and professional) of two animation giants. If you think you already know these guys, you’re going to be in for a surprise. Needless to say, it’s guaranteed to be one of the must-haves of next year.
Astro Boy might be rocking in China, but in the land of his birth, there's a different and sadder story.
Imagi Entertainment's "Astro Boy" bombed in Japan ....
After opening on more than 200 screens on the weekend of Oct. 10-12, "Astro Boy" pulled in a disappointing $328,457 in its first week, an average of just over $1,500 per screen, to put it at the bottom of the week's rankings. For comparison, the same week's top film, NTV's "Kaiji," took over $4 million from just over 300 screens at an average of over $13,200.
If distributor Kadokawa was hoping for a slow burner, it was to be disappointed as "Atom," as it was titled locally, dropped out of the top 10 and out of sight the following week ... [I]t looks to have gone the way of other recent attempts such as the live-action versions of "Speed Racer" and "Dragonball Evolution," which both failed to ignite the boxoffice in the land of their origin.
I hadn't seen the box office results for AB in Japan until now, although I knew it had been out for a few weeks. Apparently the reception given the picture by the Japanese mirrors the stateside reaction, which is a shame.
This probably doesn't bode well for Imagi's future plans.
Suspended Animation Gallery Opens to Showcase Disney Artists' Personal Works
The Suspended Animation Gallery has opened its virtual doors at SuspendedAnimationGallery.com. The gallery was founded by Tenny Chonin, former Director of Artist Development at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and is dedicated to showcasing the personal artwork of artists and animators from Disney. The gallery is also searching for a live gallery space to open in 2010.
The full press release follows:
THE ART BEYOND THE ANIMATION Gallery Showing Disney Artists’ Personal Works Opens
LOS ANGELES, CA – The virtual red ribbon has been cut on a new website: SuspendedAnimationGallery.com is now online for art fans to tour Suspended Animation Gallery, which exclusively carries personal art pieces created by the renowned artists of Walt Disney Animation Studios. While Suspended Animation Gallery has launched its collection in cyberspace, it is currently scouting locations to establish a live gallery space in 2010.
SuspendedAnimationGallery.com is currently exhibiting original works by ten artists and expects to represent more than twenty within the year. These works include paintings, drawings and sculptures created by the artists who the world knows through the famous movies and characters they have helped bring to life, such as Mike Gabriel (eight films, including Oliver & Company and Pocahontas) and Lisa Keene (twelve films, including The Lion King and The Little Mermaid). Now working in a mainly digital medium at Disney, director Mike Gabriel says, “I haven't been inspired to get back onto the canvas for a long time, but now that I have a home gallery at SuspendedAnimationGallery.com, I am enjoying the complete freedom of expression: that’s what makes this new endeavor so intoxicating, or it may just be the turpentine.”
Suspended Animation Gallery was founded by Tenny Chonin, former Director of Artist Development at Walt Disney Animation Studios. While working at the Disney Studios in Burbank over the course of twelve years, Chonin met many talented men and women, and she was always curious about the art they created on their own time. Chonin began amassing a personal collection of these artists’ private works in the late 1990s, displaying them in her home and office. “Time and again, I’d see that friends and visitors were as captivated by these works as I,” says Chonin. This audience would first be attracted to the art for its own qualities, but then was quickly fascinated by the backgrounds of the creators, inquiring what movies a painter had worked on, or which Disney characters a sculptor helped create. “I just knew that one day I would find a way to present these wonderful artists and their personal work to the world,” says Chonin. Mike Gabriel explains, “as Disney cartoonists, we collaborate with the some of the best artists in the industry, but we rarely get the chance to show who we are as artists individually. With Tenny Chonin's gallery I hope people enjoy getting to see our unadulterated, pure artistic "voices" without anyone to blame but our own two little hands.”
Suspended Animation Gallery will present a revolving series of works and artists, posting samples of the available pieces to its website. Photographs of the available art can be viewed online and the original pieces can be viewed in-person by appointment.
For more information on Suspended Animation Gallery, or to view the collection of artwork available for sale, please visit SuspendedAnimationGallery.com.
Fox Sets World Record for Tallest Ice Sculpture with "Ice Age 3" Scrat
A new world record has been set for the tallest ice sculpture by a 48-foot 8-inch sculpture of Scrat the squirrel from the Ice Age movies, in an event held in conjunction with the release of Ice Age 3 on DVD and Blu-ray disc. The new record is nearly 8 feet higher than the previous one set by Michael Amman in 2006.
Time-lapse videos have been released of the event:
Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is available now on DVD and Blu-ray disc.
ToonBoom and Animazing Gallery…Two Snaps Up!!!
For those of you young’ins who don’t get the Two Snaps Up reference, please see Men On Film.
The makers of ToonBoom spoke to a packed house Tuesday night at the Animazing Gallery in Soho, New York. They were in town to promote their slate of animation programs, specifically ToonBoom’s Animate. I can’t possibly go into all the details on why this program looks so awesome, but it may have a lot to do with the fact that it’s the only comprehensive animation program completely dedicated to meeting the needs of animation professionals in the best ways possible. The seminar was very informative – a brief overview of the company’s history was offered, followed by coverage of ToonBoom’s product line, with the most in-depth attention given to Animate, and Animate Pro. ToonBoom’s reps tried to answer as many questions as possible, and were very engaged with the audience. ToonBoom is widely used overseas and up North in Canada, and they are looking to expand into the US market. Almost 100% of Disney’s Princess and the Frog was done using ToonBoom’s software, and it’s truly amazing what this software package can do. It would be great to see this program used more here in the US, but I’d say the major drawback may be the expense involved. Correct me if I’m wrong, but key programs are sold separately and the programs themselves are kind of expensive for even the ordinary independent animator. The discount offered at the event for Animate was decent though, and I would suggest looking into the program to see if it’s right for you. It definitely blows Flash away, which was certainly not made with animators in mind. I could see how the program could speed up a workflow immensely.
A quick note about the venue – The event was held at Animazing Gallery, which is a really great art gallery featuring animation art. The current exhibit is focused on the art of Maurice Sendak, creator of Where the Wild Things Are. The exhibit is wonderful and you should really go check it out before it finishes on November 8th. The event was originally supposed to be at a bar that holds regular animation events, but since this event was more of an informational seminar, the bar atmosphere would not have been ideal. The wine and hors d’oeuvres were a nice touch as well.
Ben studied animation under former Disney animator Milt Neil at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He has been in the animation industry since 1984. He started doing animation for small commercials, then years later moved on to J.J. Sedelmaier Productions working on the "Cluckin' Chicken" parody for Saturday Night Live, which led to MTV, where he worked on "Beavis and Butt-Head", doing storyboard revisions, character and prop design, layout. animation on the hallucination sequence on the feature "Beavis and Butt-head Do "America" and also MTV's "The Maxx", doing character layout. As a freelancer, he's worked for various companies including Disney TV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, HBO Family, Miramax, Warner Bros., Saatchi and Saatchi, General Mills and Comedy Central. Currently, he's still doing the freelancing thing, while developing some personal projects for pitching.
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