Thursday, February 27, 2014

Saturday, January 25, 2014

BONUS: Old "Simpsons" sketches from animator David Silverman


A few days ago he started tweeting "Simpsons" sketches, like the original model for Miss Krabappel (RIP) and a bunch of sketches from the Poe segment of the very first “Treehouse Of Horror.”

Read More.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Lego Thriller

Annette Jung animates the opening scene of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" using Lego bricks.


Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Experimental animation meets pottery

This fascinating video begins as its own making-of documentary, and slowly morphs into the completed animation.


Monday, December 23, 2013

A Krampus Christmas [Screen Novelties]



Christmas Comes But Once A Year (1936)

A creepy old man with a creepy laugh thinks it's a good idea to break into an orphanage on Christmas Day. That's not the way you're supposed to take it, but it's not untrue.

Dig the sneaky use of models at the beginning and end that look convincingly hand-drawn... until the camera moves, and you get a better idea of what you're looking at. Very innovative stuff.



Friday, December 20, 2013

Hardrock, Coco & Joe

Produced by Centaur Productions in 1956, this short, like "Suzy Snowflake" and "Frosty the Snowman," has become an annual tradition in certain regions.


Thursday, December 19, 2013

Peace On Earth

This is a truly bizarre little cartoon disguised as family treacle: a deceptively sweet Christmas tableau with cutesy woodland creatures gives way to an anti-war statement by revealing itself to be set in a post-apocalyptic world wherein war caused the extinction of humanity. And it was released in 1939, when World War II was underway in Europe, but America had yet to become involved. Ballsy. Merry Christmas, humanity!



Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Miser Brothers

Why leave well enough alone when you can, you know, not?

In 2008, the popular Rankin/Bass characters, the Miser Brothers, were revived for a sequel special. The original voice of the Heat Miser, George S. Irving, was still alive and returned to perform the character once again.

This modern special sought to recreate the original style of Rankin/Bass stop-motion animation and is largely successful, although improvements to the technology and techniques of stop-motion animation couldn't help but to have an effect on the finished look.

Here's the new rendition of the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song. (For the original version, click here.)


Monday, December 16, 2013

Suzy Snowflake

Preceding UPA's "Frosty the Snowman" by a year, Centaur Productions created this adaptation of the winter song in 1953. It has remained an annual staple in certain regions, particularly Chicago, ever since.


Friday, December 13, 2013

Snow Miser/Heat Miser

From Rankin/Bass's "The Year Without a Santa Claus" comes this beloved showstopper...


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Monday, December 9, 2013

The first Christmas special

What you're about to witness is the very first Christmas special ever produced for American television. The success of the video below is why we have Rankin/Bass's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," and everything right up through "Prep & Landing 3." This is why every TV series does its obligatory variation of the Dickens standard. This is ground zero for the ever-expanding holiday subgenre of televised entertainment that dominates the month of December (and often leaks over into November). Everything we know about holiday specials can be traced back to this singular event.

Ladies and gentlemen... "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol"!


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.