Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

"Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz was born on this day in 1922! In honor of that and Thanksgiving, here's the Peanuts gang having their non-traditional meal from the 1973 special "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving."


You can watch the entire Charlie Brown special by clicking here. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

Steamboat Willie

This all-time classic was released 85 years ago today! Noted not only for being the public debut of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, but also for being the first cartoon released with synchronized sound. Every single voice in the cartoon was provided by Walt Disney himself.


Friday, November 8, 2013

Fungus Among Us

From "Simpsons" director Wes Archer comes this pilot for Cartoon Network from 2002.



Thursday, October 31, 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Monday, October 21, 2013

Lonesome Ghosts

A childhood favorite that, I'm happy to report, completely holds up! Definitely a classic.


Monday, October 14, 2013

Witches Brew

A young witch struggles to learn the ropes from an elder instructor...

Friday, October 11, 2013

Mickey Mouse in Ghoul Friend

In case you've been missing it, Disney has been releasing a series of new Mickey Mouse shorts. With character designs modeled on '30s-era Disney, backgrounds inspired by the '50s and '60s, and storytelling harkening back to the silent era, these are unmistakably modern cartoons with vivid colors and sharply defined details.

Enjoy Mickey's newest Halloween adventure!



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Here's the theme song from the rarely-discussed animated spinoff of the b-movie parodies.


Friday, October 4, 2013

Treehouse of Horror XXIV

The introduction to this Sunday's "Simpsons" Halloween special. The 24th one, folks!



Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Jason and the Argonauts

This animation from 1963 is incredible! The only thing that doesn't hold up is the live-action end.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Let's Build a Media Center [Friendship All-Stars of Friendship]

Ira Glass and Garrison Keillor collaborate on new studio space... when their personal quirks don't get in the way.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Monday, September 23, 2013

Sunglasses [Friendship All-Stars of Friendship]

In case you've been missing it, the folks over at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios have been doing a parody stop-motion web series about various celebrity roommates who all happen to live in the same apartment building. Here's the first episode, where director Guillermo del Toro receives a gift from his "Hellboy" star, Ron Perlman.

Monday, September 16, 2013

The Scarecrow

Technically a commercial, this is a fantastic piece of animation, and a great cover of "Pure Imagination" by Fiona Apple.


Monday, July 22, 2013

Bakerman & The Bunnymen

Friend of the blog Scout Raskin writes and directs this demented take on 1920s-style animation.



Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Jacking it in San Diego!

As the eyes of the world turn to San Diego for opening day of Comic-Con 2013, let's take a moment to remember what always ends up happening...


( And just in case you've forgotten why, click here for a friendly reminder... )

Monday, July 1, 2013

"Weasel Stomping Day" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

"Weird Al" Yankovic has stated that Weasel Stomping Day falls on June 31st every year. That's today! Sort of.

With animation from the folks over at Shadow Animation, here's "Weasel Stomping Day."


Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

T-Rex Go-Motion - Jurassic Park

Before committing to CGI, Steven Spielberg commissioned stop-motion test animation from Phil Tippett (or rather, the "go-motion" process Tippett pioneered). Here is Tippett's rendition of the T-Rex paddock attack.


Jurassic Park opened 20 years ago today.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Micro Mayhem!

Excellent car chase sequence, shot on the micro level, by the Stoodio that brings you "Robot Chicken."


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Maker vs Marker

An artist's hand squares off against its creation in a "Mortal Kombat" style fight. And it's really cool!


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Two Chips

If you're going to get drunk and tell your husband a lame joke, make sure he's not an animator...



Saturday, May 4, 2013

BONUS! The Robot Chicken Team's Simpsons Couch Gag



Airing on Sunday, May 19 at 8/7c on Fox, the animated comedy has commissioned Seth Green's Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, which produces the cult favorite stop-motion series Robot Chicken, to create a special stop-motion couch gag for the episode. "The Simpsons have been opening that up to a bunch of different artists and a bunch of different content creators to put their spin on The Simpsons couch gag," Green says.

Click through to see VIDEO!
via TV Guide

Thursday, May 2, 2013

A Boy And His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie

And you thought Dot was small...

The folks at IBM created this movie by moving around individual atoms!


Here's a little about how the movie was made:


Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Friday, April 19, 2013

Korn - Freak On a Leash

This music video from Korn was directed by comics legend Todd McFarlane.


Thursday, April 18, 2013

Good Morning, Mickey

The Disney Channel launched 30 years ago today, at 7 AM eastern time. And for the people who were watching, this is what they saw...


Monday, April 15, 2013

Li'l Abner - Kickapoo Juice

"Li'l Abner" was a newspaper comic strip created by Al Capp, reputed for being the foundation of most of the world's perception of the American South.

This short from 1944 doesn't feature much of Abner himself, but demonstrates the caricature of the South that the strip traded in.


Friday, April 12, 2013

Gorillaz - 19-2000

The design and animation for this "virtual group" is by "Tank Girl" creator Jamie Hewlett.


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Cat Piano

Smooth visual flair in a bizarre, dark story. Narrated by Nick Cave.


Monday, April 8, 2013

Little Nemo

On this day in 1911, Winsor McCay debuted his "moving comic," "Little Nemo."


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

My Name Is David

Today is Autism Awareness Day. This is a speech delivered by a 14-year-old with autism, rendered in stop-motion by a "Robot Chicken" animator.


Monday, April 1, 2013

I'm Here

Tomorrow is Autism Awareness Day. This short represents the loneliness often experienced by those on the autism spectrum.


Friday, March 29, 2013

Foster's Home - Mac Daddy

Craig McCracken's birthday is this Sunday. Let's celebrate with Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Mac Daddy," which introduces the character of Cheese.


FHIF - 2x07 - Mac Daddy P1 by kingofcommons

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Monday, March 25, 2013

Fresh Hare (1942)

I watched this one dozens of times growing up. Turns out there's a racist tag at the end that I didn't understand when I was a kid.


Thursday, March 21, 2013

Calvin and Hobbes

Professional animator Adam Brown whipped up this loving tribute to Bill Watterson's beloved comic strip.


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ha Ha Ha

Predating "Duck Amuck" by almost 20 years, this Betty Boop cartoon depicts Betty interacting with her creator, "Uncle Max" Fleischer.

Some of the material in this short is a recycling of Koko the Clown's "The Cure," which similarly showed characters interacting with their creators nearly three decades before "Duck Amuck!"


Monday, March 18, 2013

Koko the Clown, The Cure

Predating "Duck Amuck" by nearly three decades, this is an early experiment with cartoon characters interacting with their creators.


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Paperman, cont.

Thanks to the folks over at College Humor, we now know what happens immediately after Disney's Oscar-winning short "Paperman" ends.

NOTE: Not for your children.


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Adam and Dog

This richly-colored animated short is nominated for an Oscar. Tune into the Academy Awards tonight to find out who wins!

Click here for more award-worthy shorts to keep an eye out for.


Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Longest Daycare

This short from "The Simpsons" is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Tune into the Oscars tomorrow to see who wins!

Click here for more award-worthy shorts to keep an eye out for.


Friday, February 22, 2013

Fresh Guacamole

This movie is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short this year. Tune into the Oscars this Sunday to see who wins.

Click here for more award-worthy shorts to keep an eye out for.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Paperman

An Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Short. Tune into the Oscars this Sunday to see if it wins.

Click here for more award-worthy shorts to keep an eye out for.


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Head Over Heels

One of the excellent Best Animated Shorts nominees for this year's Academy Awards. Tune in this Sunday to see who wins!

Click here for more award-worthy shorts to keep an eye out for.


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Flea & Fly in "City Trouble"

Definitely got the throwback style down, with some modern wrong-ness thrown in.


Monday, February 18, 2013

The End of the World

In honor of the recent Russian meteor, I'm reaching back to a decade-old web video that I still love. Ladies and gentlemen, the end of the world...


Friday, February 8, 2013

History of Greed

A treatise on the evolution of learning. Or just a light joke to send you into the weekend.


Thursday, February 7, 2013

Moon Rock

A stream-of-dream-consciousness trip from George Dunning, following his work on The Beatles' Yellow Submarine.


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

How many licks does it take to get to the center?

The world may never know.

This Tootsie Pop commercial was an institution for several generations, but I believe has faded away over the last couple decades.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Friday, February 1, 2013

Dick Figures: Kung Fu Winners

This cartoon is nominated for an Annie Award in individual achievement: Directing in an Animated Television or other Broadcast Venue Production. In this case, the venue would be web video.

Annie Awards winners will be announced Saturday, February 2. Check here to see who won.