Channel Frederator Blog

You may not think of the Alliance Française as a place to go watch cartoons, but on November 1st, the New York branch will present Serge Bromberg’s 100 Years of Animation: Treasures from a Chest.

“A collector of more than 20,000 early movies and the artistic force behind Lobster Films, Bromberg has become one of the great champions of silent films and a master at recreating the initial rush audiences felt when first entering the cinema house.

Throughout this exceptional event, Bromberg will present animated shorts that he has discovered and restored, accompanying them with anecdotes and piano music…”

(Serge is also the Artistic Director of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.)

The program will include Fantasmagorie (Emil Cohl), Cartoon Factory (Fleischer Brothers), The Sinking of the Lusitania (Windsor McKay), Egged On (Charley Bower and H.L. Muller), and George Pal’s Tulips Shall Grow.

Tickets are $10 ($7 for students). Go to this page for ticket information.

By the way, 2008 is the 100th anniversary of Fantasmagorie, one of the earliest examples of a fully-animated film. If you’ve never seen it, do so immediately!

After the jump, a low-res recording of Serge Bromberg’s live performance with Windsor McKay’s Gertie the Dinosaur (at Annecy 2008)…with tuba score! [Read more…]

John Canemaker interviewed Richard Williams Monday night at MOMA. The event was sold out and the place was packed with students, as Willliam’s book The Animator’s Survival Kit is an essential read for animation majors around the world.
Williams is always an entertaining speaker, fond of leaping out of his chair to act out anecdotes. He presented clips from:

• The Little Island (his first short)
• A Christmas Carol (his first Oscar win)
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (more Oscars)
• The Charge of the Light Brigade
• Return of the Pink Panther titles
• Amazing “The Greedy” sequence from Raggedy Ann and Andy (animated by Emery Hawkins)
• Trailer for The Thief and The Cobbler (never released in its proper form)
• Commercial Reel

The night was very much a chance to promote the release of a 16 DVD version of his well-regarded Animation Masterclass. The Animation Survival Kit Animated consists of Williams “performing” the class live at Blue Sky Studios (about ten years ago) intercut with animated examples that illustrate his ideas. Okay, so the set costs over $900, but at least most art schools will buy one.

After the jump, some choice quotes from the evening. Also, the Return of the Pink Panther titles in teeny tiny form on the ubiquitous YouTube… [Read more…]

Last week, I posted about the (then upcoming) gaming-inspired art show “I Am 8-bit”. Well, the opening was last Thursday and reports of fun are pouring in from blogs all around. Destructoid and Kotaku, for example. (Crowd photo from Kotaku.)

A video of the festivities from the World of Wonder site is here.

There’s also a Flickr set where you can check out the mayhem that ensued—and peruse halfway decent photos of all the art. Many animation peeps participated. (Photos below by oldmanmusings, btw.)

“Zelda and the Great Deku Tree” by Carlos Ramos (Dexter’s Lab, Chalkzone, Robot Jones).

[Read more…]

Most of you know all about New Tee Vee, where the knowing go to know more about wassup in the online TV world. But, you probably don’t know about their summer Pier Screenings events in Los Angeles, where the knowing go to see even more, and meet even more.

Well, August 28 is there ‘Non-Human’ screening (”by which we mean anything that doesn’t include human actors on-screen“) and they’re welcoming “animation, puppets, animals, machinima, or whatever other interpretation you have.”

SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS AUGUST 21.

“Animation…”! That means you! Have those in the know know about your films. Great opportunity, great venue, great event. Get your entries in now.

There’s a worthy charity/animation event coming up this fall: The Totoro Forest Project. Over 200 pieces of artwork (many by folks from the cartoon community) will be exhibited and auctioned to raise funds to support the Totoro Forest Foundation. Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki was one of the original contributors to the foundation, which seeks to protect an urban forest, called Sayama Hills, located just outside of Tokyo. The area is known to be the inspiration for his feature film Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro).

This is the official Totoro Forest Foundation website. And go here to learn more about the charity event and view an online gallery of Totoro-inspired images. The project will also publish a tie-in book and selected artwork will be exhibited at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco from September 20-December 7.

The auction is set for September 6 at the Pixar Animation Studio Campus from 5-9 PM. Tickets will go [Read more…]

As the hoards converge on Comicon this weekend (and I sit in sticky, hot Brooklyn, recalling the days when the Gaslamp District was still scuzzy and you didn’t have to book your hotel room two years in advance) let me tell you about an upcoming, far more intimate event that promises to be fascinating: Pictoplasma NYC: Conference on Contemporary Character Design and Art at New York University’s Skirball Center, from September 5-6.

Described as a “character design Mecca”, Pictoplasm will spotlight “the importance of character design in contemporary visual culture.” Today’s popular graphic personalities cross cultural and commercial borders and it’s becoming commonplace to see the same character on both museum walls and pencil sets. This is an opportunity to learn, talk, and schmooze with some of today’s most innovative icon creators.

Guests include Tim Biskup, Gangpol Und Mit, and Friends With You. Saturday has the bulk of the animation talk with Akinori Oishi (Japan) and Studio AKA (UK) appearing.

Registration info and more after the jump. [Read more…]