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Thanks for your patience. Fred.
In 1953, Disney released “Ben and Me”. This Oscar winning short was adapted from the children’s book of the same title, by Robert Lawson. While the book was based on more historical fact, the film aims for entertainment. The film serves both as a sort of biography of Ben Franklin, and an overview of the American revolution.
Have a great Fourth of July weekend, and don’t throw fire crackers with your animating hand!
Before you hit the road, watch the classic 50s cartoon “Stop Driving Us Crazy” and follow its advice. Remember: “Reckless driving is a sin”. Rusty the Martian says so!
Commissioned by the Methodist Church. Animated at Creative Arts Studio. Character design by Cliff Roberts. Music by Benny Golson with Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. Also, Howard Morris does the voice. (He was “Uncle Goofy”–among other characters–on Your Show of Shows!)
Today’s Channel Frederator Awards episode features our Best Design winner. We see a lot of amazing cartoons float through here and it was so difficult to choose nominees for this category.
Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues” trailer was a quick add to our list. The design on this film is truly unique, and Nina managed to find ways of fitting numerous different styles into the same cartoon. “Carlos, My Name Is Not” was the little film that could. This film oozes french influence. Musician Maxime Robin worked with illustrator Pascal Blanchet to create this super-swanky and hip music video. Finally, Dave Wasson was another must-have to our nomination list, and the one to take home the prize for “Max and the Pigeon Incident”!
An industry vet, Dave has had a hand in a countless number of cartoon series. My favorites include the “Max”(see the two “Max” cartoons in Channel Frederator Episodes 58 and 13) and “Tales from the Goose Lady” (see the “Goose Lady” cartoons in Channel Frederator Episodes 31 and 83) series that he did for “Oh Yeah! Cartoons”, as well as the “Time Squad” series that aired on Cartoon Network. These cartoons prove that, not only does Dave Wasson have a killer sense of design, but he can tell a darn funny story, too!
Congratulations on your Freddie, Dave! - Carrie
Today’s Channel Frederator Awards episode features our Best Design winner. We see a lot of amazing cartoons float through here and it was so difficult to choose nominees for this category.
Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues” trailer was a quick add to our list. The design on this film is truly unique, and Nina managed to find ways of fitting numerous different styles into the same cartoon. “Carlos, My Name Is Not” was the little film that could. This film oozes french influence. Musician Maxime Robin worked with illustrator Pascal Blanchet to create this super-swanky and hip music video. Finally, Dave Wasson was another must-have to our nomination list, and the one to take home the prize for “Max and the Pigeon Incident”!
An industry vet, Dave has had a hand in a countless number of cartoon series. My favorites include the “Max”(see the two “Max” cartoons in Channel Frederator Episodes 58 and 13) and “Tales from the Goose Lady” (see the “Goose Lady” cartoons in Channel Frederator Episodes 31 and 83) series that he did for “Oh Yeah! Cartoons”, as well as the “Time Squad” series that aired on Cartoon Network. These cartoons prove that, not only does Dave Wasson have a killer sense of design, but he can tell a darn funny story, too!
Congratulations on your Freddie, Dave! - Carrie
I just got my copy of the newly indepdendent ASIFA Magazine, and I wanted to remind you all to think about subscribing. (They make it kind of hard when you get to the ASIFA website, but don’t be discouraged.)
ASIFA serves the whole wide world of animation, so it’s a bit less cartoony than my personal taste (and maybe yours too), but it a great reminder (along with Channel Frederator) just what a big world we’re all part of, with animation being a persuasive medium to tell all of humankind’s stories.
Support the magazine, support ASIFA. I’m proud to part of this artform, and I know you are too.
Hanoch Piven is a unique illustrator who combines painting and 3-D objects in his artwork. He is best-known for memorable portraits of famous people, both real and fictitious. Behold Borat:
On his website, Pivenworld, you can see examples of his work. He also has a Drawger blog. And the book Faces: 78 Portraits from Madonna to the Pope contains a great gallery of merry mugs.
Now Piven’s art stars in a show called Superstuff, airing on Hop! TV (the Israeli pre-school channel). It’s fascinating to watch a pair of hands juggle a pile of miscellaneous junk until it’s transformed into a recognizable image and then springs to life. The show uses mostly real time live-action footage, but there’s a bit of stop motion animation sprinkled in.
More clips from the show after the jump… [Read more…]
Last Thursday, Dave Levy of ASIFA East arranged for us to show a selection of Meth Minute cartoons on the big screen at NYU front of an audience. It was great to see the cartoons projected huge (how many pixels wide? MILLIONS) in front of a large group of people. It’s sort of like seeing these films for the first time, and also the way cartoon were originally meant to be viewed.Afterwards, Dave moderated a Q & A session. It was nice to answer some burning questions about The Meth Minute that people had. (13 Watermelons. That’s how many it took!) Fred and Carrie joined me on the panel. We’ll most likely do this again in some form or another, so don’t be sad if you missed it.Dan
Here at Channel Frederator headquarters, we consider Cartoonist of the Year to be our most prestigious award. This award goes to the one person in cartoons who has made the biggest impact on the industry. We ask for input from all of our viewers, then argue fiercely about it here at Channel Frederator headquarters. This year was tough. We had a few great suggestions. In the end, however, we really thought that Marjane Satrapi, creator behind Persepolis, truly deserved this award. Eric Homan, Channel Frederator’s President of Programming, wrote a great tribute to Marjane for the Channel Frederator Awards program, so I’ll leave it to him! - Carrie
When we created the Cartoonist of the Year category for last year’s inaugural Channel Frederator Awards, we decided the honor would go to the person who brought the most attention to the world of animation in recent months. Choosing our first recipient, John Lasseter, was an easy call. Even easier was choosing this year’s winner, Marjane Satrapi.
Ms Satrapi, who co-directed and co-wrote Persepolis with Vincent Paronnaud, based the movie on her own autobiographical graphic novels. By making the film, she’s given the average American adult audience everything it craves in its movie-going experience – a French, hand-drawn, [Read more…]
Here at Channel Frederator headquarters, we consider Cartoonist of the Year to be our most prestigious award. This award goes to the one person in cartoons who has made the biggest impact on the industry. We ask for input from all of our viewers, then argue fiercely about it here at Channel Frederator headquarters. This year was tough. We had a few great suggestions. In the end, however, we really thought that Marjane Satrapi, creator behind Persepolis, truly deserved this award. Eric Homan, Channel Frederator’s President of Programming, wrote a great tribute to Marjane for the Channel Frederator Awards program, so I’ll leave it to him! - Carrie
When we created the Cartoonist of the Year category for last year’s inaugural Channel Frederator Awards, we decided the honor would go to the person who brought the most attention to the world of animation in recent months. Choosing our first recipient, John Lasseter, was an easy call. Even easier was choosing this year’s winner, Marjane Satrapi.
Ms Satrapi, who co-directed and co-wrote Persepolis with Vincent Paronnaud, based the movie on her own autobiographical graphic novels. By making the film, she’s given the average American adult audience everything it craves in its movie-going experience – a French, hand-drawn, [Read more…]
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