Dec 26th, 2009
by admin.
131 views
Das Rad (“Rocks”), written and directed by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger, was nominated for the 2003 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Here is the synopsis of the film from Wikipedia:
“The film tracks a hillside from ancient times through the present and into the future, usually moving through time at high speed, representing geologic time (so that buildings appear and disappear in an instant), but occasionally switching to real time and showing the inhabitants and objects in motion in their day-to-day existence.”1
The following YouTube video provides English subtitles to the German original.
The film was produced by Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany and has receieved various distinctions beyond the Academy Award nomination including2:
- the Special First Animation Award and Special Jury Award at the 2002 Anima Mundi Animation Festival
- the Silver Poznan Goat at the 2003 Ale Kino! – International Young Audience Film Festival
- the Student Category – Best Student or Graduation Film at the 2002 Annecy International Animated Film Festival
- the Audience Award at the 2003 Fantoche – International Animation Film Festival
- the Audience Award at the 2002 Sweden Fantastic Film Festival
- the Best Short Film – Animation award at the 2004 Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema
- the Audience Award – Student Competition at the 2002 Wiesbaden goEast
I think Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger’s depiction of geologic time as “real-time” is simply brilliant. What do you think about the film? Please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
References
- Das Rad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Rad Accessed December 26, 2009.
- Das Rad (2003/I) – Awards http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0330801/awards Accessed December 26, 2009.
Possibly Related Posts:
Posted in: Acadamy Award Nominated, animated short, stop-motion animation, student film.
Tagged: Academy Award Nominated · animated short film · Arvid Uibel · CGI · Chris Stenner · German · Heidi Wittlinger · rocks · short film · stop-motion · student film · subtitles · time
Dec 13th, 2009
by admin.
228 views
I thought I’d post this in case you’re in need of a little comedy 
The video also gives a nice demonstration of flash animation by animator Joost Reijmers. Here is the YouTube description of the video (I’ve added the hyperlinks):
“Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington of Monkey News take you on a grand tour through space in this hilarious Monkey News episode animated by Joost Reijmers“
Please be forewarned that the video contains some adult language and is probably not appropriate for young children.
QUESTION: What’s your favorite episode of Monkey News?
Possibly Related Posts:
Posted in: Flash Animation, animated short, comedy.
Tagged: animation · comedic · Flash · humour · Joost Reijmers · Karl Pilkington · Monkey News · Ricky Gervais · space · Stephen Merchant · YouTube
Nov 25th, 2009
by admin.
139 views
In an earlier post I wrote about the award winning animated stop-motion short film Western Spaghetti by PES. Here’s another offering from PES, entitled Fireworks – enjoy!
Fireworks was written, directed, and animated by PES; and produced by PES & Sarah Phelps.1
PES now has a page dedicated to him on Wikipedia! Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about PES (aka Adam Pesapane):
‘Receiving a B.A. in English Literature at the University of Virginia, PES migrated to film as a storytelling medium. His use of everyday objects and stop-motion animation to create original material is instantly recognizable. [...] An early influence on PES’s animation style is the work of Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer.’2
I plan on highlighting more of PES’ short films here on CartoonAndAnimation.com in the future – they really are fantastic and worth sharing & discussing. So please conisder subscribing to the Cartoon And Animation RSS feed to get notified of the latest posts and updates
References
- Fireworks on EatPES – Home of the Twisted Films of PES http://www.eatpes.com/fireworks.html Accessed November 25, 2009.
- PES (Director) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PES_%28director%29 Accessed November 25, 2009.
Possibly Related Posts:
Posted in: PES, animated short, short, stop-motion animation.
Tagged: animated film · animation · fireworks · PES · short film · stop-motion
Nov 21st, 2009
by admin.
98 views
Looking for DVDs of some of your favorite cartoons and animations from the past? No luck finding them on major sites like Amazon.com
. Then you may want to check out CartoonSaloon.net. I came across the site while trying to find a gift for someone. The company leases
“…the rights to TV shows whose episodes never were released to the public by way of ‘factory sealed shrink wrapped’ and dvd quality release. Many of these shows will never be released. Some of them have dates that are set down the road for the complete dvd set to be made. Still there are many many fans of these shows who are starved for a way to see their favorite show growing up or in the past.”1
What a great idea! Here is CartoonSaloon.net’s current catalog — hopefully they’ll have that favorite animated series you’ve been looking for!
- The Avengers
- Beetlejuice
- Batman: The Animated Series
- New Batman Adventures
- Bionic Six
- The Beatles Cartoon
- Captain Planet
- The Centurions
- Courage the Cowardly Dog
- Daria
- Deputy Dawg
- Driods Cartoon
-
- Ewoks Cartoon
- Exo-Squad
- Fantastic 4
-
- Ghostbusters Cartoon
- G.I. JOE
- G.I. JOE Extreme
- Gobots & Rock Lords
- Goosebumps
- Iron Man
- Lippy the Lion
- Max Headroom
- Mighty Max
- Mighty Mouse
- The Muppet Babies
- Rainbow Brite
- REBOOT
- Skeleton Warriors
- Speedy Gonzales
- Super Chicken
- Swat Kats
- Tex Avery
-
- Thundarr the Barbarian
- Tijuana Toads
- Voltron Vehicle Force
- X-Men – The Animated Series
What a great list — and what a terrific reminder of some animated cartoon TV shows I’ve seen in the past! Some of them are definitely worth writing future posts about.
If you’d like to get your hands on legal ‘factory sealed shrink wrapped’ and dvd quality releases of the animated cartoon TV shows above, please check out CartoonSaloon.net and please be sure to read their Nov/Dec notice before making a purchase.
References
- FAQ http://cartoonsaloon.net/id17.html Accessed November 21, 2009
Possibly Related Posts:
Posted in: TV series.
Tagged: animations · cartoons · CartoonSaloon.net · DVD · DVD-R · factory sealed shrink wrapped · TV series
“Cinema’s first entirely computer-generated sequence” – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – a commentary on the making of the Genesis Effect
Last night I was discussing early computer generated graphic/animation sequences in movies. According to Wikipedia, Star Trek II -
Here is a YouTube video giving a behind-the-scene commentary on the making of this famous computer generate movie sequence:
Here is a slightly better YouTube video of the Genesis Effect wave computer animated sequence:
Pretty impressive!
While on the topic of Start Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it’s worth noting that the evil super villain Armando Guitierrez from the Freakazoid! animated cartoon TV series is voiced by Ricardo Montalban – the actor who played Khan Noonien Singh in the movie. Armando Guitierrez often behaves/talks similarly to Khan2
References
Possibly Related Posts:
Posted in: Movies, commentary.
Tagged: animated sequence · commentary · Freakazoid · ILM · Khan · Lucasfilm · movie · Ricardo Montalban · Star Trek · Veilleux