For animation fans, every Tuesday is like Christmas. On a weekly basis, Channel Frederator serves as podcasting’s manic Santa Claus, delivering the gift of uninhibited shorts to computers and video players around the world. Masterminded by the aficionados at Frederator Studios, the independent cartoon house responsible for some of Nickelodeon’s most successful series (The Fairly Odd Parents, Chalk Zone, My Life as a Teenage Robot), the podcast and its red robot mascot have built a cult following of indie cartoonphiles.
Well, we’re coming down to our last three days here at the studio. We had our final check meeting today–extremely thorough! Now all the little pieces will be shipped out to the Cartoon Mines in Korea–including these lovely mouth charts created by the crazily gifted Jaime Diaz. Some of your asked to see these charts, so here they are. We’ll try to keep posting from out in the wilds of Southern California. Love to you all from Dr. Froyd and the whole Farny Fum gang! BB By the way, anybody who feels like it can take a look at my new website by clicking HERE…I think. Give it a try!
Today Pen Ward recorded his second short, “Bravest Warriors” in the main building. I had the pleasure of attending 40 minutes of it, and manohmanohman–very funny. Favorite line thus far? Chris: “I can’t…I’m too much of a down in the dumps delilah…”
If the Zoloft dot was a music video, it would be Wintersleep’s “Fog”. It is beautifully animated, well told, and you’re really rooting for the little guy to find some sunshine.
Says Mirco Chen “The Fog video came originally from Jud Haynes of Wintersleep. The band had designed a small storybook that went with there CD’s featuring the main character of the video. It had a great old fashioned children’s book illustration style to it and Jud brought it to us to animate the video. With the help of some great designs and backgrounds from Scott Macdonald we decided to try a rough pencil crayon kind of look. We tried to keep it in a children’s book type of style, hoping it would look more like illustration come to life. I love the old NFB films that used techniques like paint on glass and sand to animate with, they always had such a great sense of texture and life and we tried to capture some of that in this video.”
Today’s classic is “The Bulleteers”, one of the 17 Superman cartoons Paramount released in the early 1940’s. All of these toons are nothing short of terrific, but “Bulleteers” has always been a favorite, my vote for the absolute best of the series. The plot concerns a trio of thugs who terrorize Metropolis piloting a miraculous vehicle that has more functions than a Swiss Army knife. They smash their plane/car/torpedo into public buildings, demand ridiculous ransoms, and wear snazzy costumes with pointy helmets and diaphanous sleeves. These guys are just begging for a comeuppance from you know who!
The animation is lush, the production design is gorgeous, but it’s the story telling technique that’s truly amazing here. Director Dave Fleischer doesn’t waste a frame, presenting every detail of a very lean narrative in the most dynamic fashion imaginable. Gothic shadows, subjective angles and a fabulous montage of “tracking shots” are just a few of the tricks used to make this one more exciting than just about any live action cliffhanger I can remember.
They called them “Superman” cartoons, but I always thought Lois Lane was the big deal in most of these eight minute thrillers. It took the animators a couple of films to nail down her character design and personality, but once they did —wow! The crazy, competitive, stop-at-nothing chutzpah that fuels Lois in Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster’s comic book original, is actually amplified in the animated cartoons. This time out, she snubs Clark Kent, hurls herself into harm’s way to get the story, tries personally to sabotage the bad guys (the girl is handy with a monkey wrench!) and is almost cut in half for her efforts — all within the blink of a well mascaraed eye. The guy in the cape does pop in to wrap things up, but I think I know who the real star attraction is!
ReFrederator is back tomorrow with another comic strip favorite, and this time we’re off our trolley!
Perhaps the greatest innovation of the Fleischer Studio: a cartoon that tells a dramatic story. A science fiction story.
Whereas cartoons were previously the domain of funny animals, fairy tales and parodies, the SUPERMAN cartoons pioneered a new genre for animated films.
The series was unequaled for decades, and has inspired today’s generation of superhero animators, live action directors and auteur Japanese animators.
Back in those days, dramatic comic strip characters were primarily adapted to movie serials (think Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers). Republic Pictures (the King of the “B’s”) tried to get the rights to make a chapterplay of SUPERMAN. But Paramount Pictures outbid Republic for the movie rights - and handed the character to the Fleischer Studio in Miami. The Fleischers had made a success out of a previous comic strip strongman, POPEYE. Could they do it again? Even the Fleischer’s had doubts.
The first cartoon, simply titled SUPERMAN, was nominated for an Academy Award (it should have won). It’s a visual feast! The score and Superman theme by Sammy Timburg is amazing. Seventeen super-masterpieces were produced by Paramount between 1941 and 1943.
Enjoy THE BULLETEERS. It’s a perfect piece of 1940s pulp fiction - and the forerunner of today’s brand of motion picture super spectaculars.
Looks like the guys are making a cameo on the BBC…in the EIGHTIES!?! How did they get all the way back there? Yikes, I was a young ‘un myself back then. Have they borrowed a homemade time machine from someone? Finsters, I’m looking in your direction….
Bonus points to whoever can tell me what show they’re in. Eric H, I know you know this one!
I’ve been trying to browbeat my wife into setting up a web site devoted entirely to Adam Henry but it’s been slow go. With two kids in school I’m just not the highest priority in the Henry household. Boo Hoo. Above is a Web Page heading I’m working on. Or I should say my daughter, Lily and I are working on. She’s the photoshop expert in the house.
I just saw the first 4 scenes of Tiffany come back from Korea. If I were a betting man I’d say THIS IS THE ONE, BABY!!!
Rob Renzetti has been a steady companion of ours for longer than he would like to admit. He created Mina at Hanna-Barbera as part of our original shorts laboratory What A Cartoon! Having always loved it, when we started Oh Yeah! Cartoons at Nickelodeon in 1998 it was the first show I wanted to do. “The Vampire…” was one of six shorts we did.
When asked what inspired him to write “Mina”, Renzetti says, “When I was a small child I was able to get over my fear of Nighttime Monster Attacks by convincing myself that I could convince any lonely monster that came my way that I would make a better friend than a victim. This mental security blanket from my childhood was the start of the idea for Mina and the Count.”
Of course, Rob’s legions of fans know him as the creator of the hit series My Life as a Teenage Robot, but how many know of his first Annie nomination for the fabulous “Hobo Hounds” episode of Donovan Cook’s 2 Stupid Dogs?
So go watch this week’s episode now, either through our website, or by subscribing at iTunes (it’s free).
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