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Sara — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:01:07 +0000

Instead of highlighting one great animation website this week, I’m sharing seven posts from some of my favorite animation blogs.

Nora Lumiere of Animated Writings makes some excellent points about Spielberg’s upcoming Tintin movie and motion capture in general.

Thinking of seeing the 3D version of The Lion King or the very limited 3D release of Beauty and the Beast? Jerry Beck tells you what you can expect when seeing modern Disney classics in 3D over at Cartoon Brew.

If you want to learn more about how hand-drawn films become 3D these days, The Animation Blog has , the man who got Simba, Mufasa, and Scar to jump off the screen.

If animation from England is your thing, be sure to check out The Animation Anomaly, where Charles Kenny shares some British TV cartoons of the 1980s, some of which were never shown on American TV.

Back in the USA, Tim Finn’s blog A Real American Book! has been sharing storyboards from “The Rotten Egg” – an episode of the 1980s G.I. Joe series. Once you’ve looked at those check out this post for an additional five pages of storyboards.

From the next decade, we get a list of the 11 best Gargoyles episodes from Greg’s Blog of Clue-by-Fours. The list is sure to spark memories discussion if you’ve watched the series and is a great incentive for those who haven’t to check it out.

Happy Birthday, Fred Moore! This past Wednesday would have been the 100th birthday of the man largely responsible for Mickey Mouse’s modern look, among other great achievements at Disney. Andreas Deja celebrates with a selection of Fred Moore artwork over at Deja View.

Got more blogs or blog articles that I should check out? Let me know about them in the comments.

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Sara — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:02:15 +0000

Let’s face it: the entertainment industry loves dusting off old ideas and repackaging them for today’s audiences. That’s not always a bad thing. Shows like Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and the new Thundercats give fresh life to old material, bringing in new viewers and giving more than a few nods to the longtime fans. Remaking a series from the past can wrap up unresolved plot lines from the original, tap into ideas the old show never fully explored, or give an overlooked series a second chance. Everyone has their own list of animated shows that they want to see remade. Here’s mine:

The list!

tv - The Ink and Pixel Club

Sara — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:56:16 +0000

You already know that I love Avatar: The Last Airbender. So naturally, I’m very excited about the sequel, expected to debut on Nickelodeon in 2012. I admit that I was also a tad disappointed that the creative team behind the original show was following it up with a sequel rather than a new project. But seeing this trailer has put my fears of a new series that’s just a retread of the previous one to rest. Sure there’s plenty of what made the original fun. But the more modern, urban setting was a pleasant surprise for me and I imagine it will help to give Korra’s story a very different feel from Aang’s. And it’s an action show with a female lead, which we can always use more of.

tv - The Ink and Pixel Club

Sara — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:05:01 +0000

Yup, Futurama is back with an all new season that started last Thursday.

Oh, and I’ve got a new article ready to go up this Wednesday.

tv - The Ink and Pixel Club

Sara — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:32:00 +0000

Were my computer time not so limited, I’d be commenting like crazy on my friend Crystal’s 12 Days of Cartoonary on her site The Uniblog. Cartoons featured include the Chuck Jones classics Duck! Rabbit! Duck! (pictured above) and Feed the Kitty (which I analyzed here), the Disney short Donald Applecore, Tex Avery’s too hot for the kiddies Red Hot Riding Hood, and the Coo-Coo Cola cult episode of Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. More great cartoons are on the way, so check in often.

tv - The Ink and Pixel Club

Sara — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:02:06 +0000

Television for preschoolers has become a huge market in recent years and animation is a big chunk of the content created for little viewers. Whole channels are now dedicated to entertaining and educating preschool kids, including Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. Since Nick Jr. doesn’t run commercials, the time between shows is filled with games and music videos like today’s Monday Movie, “Papa Moco Jumbie.”

A lot of animation for preschoolers features very simple visuals, but this charming short straddles the line between the simple and the impressive. The designs for the boy and his father aren’t overly detailed, but there is a lot of flourish to the animation itself, such as the animation of the boy struggling to climb up onto the box, the flapping of the characters’ loose fitting clothing, and the low angle shot of the father walking on stilts, enhancing the boy’s feeling of wonder and pride at his papa’s abilities. The extra care that went into the making of this short piece is what takes it out of the realm of the merely cute and makes it something memorable and special.

The vocals for the song are provided by Khamani Griffin, a young actor who has appeared in a number of live-action and voice acting roles. I haven’t been able to discover who animated the short, so please let me know if you have any information about it. In case you were wondering, a “moco jumbie” is a stilt dancer, often seen at Carnival celebrations.

tv - The Ink and Pixel Club

Aldrius — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:46:19 +0000

(The Ink and Pixel Club is pleased to present a review of the episode “Sin” from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist by guest writer Aldrius.)

Fullmetal Alchemist is one of my favourite anime series. It’s got an enthralling plot, compelling characters, and it’ll break your heart three to four times per episode, mercilessly and thoroughly. The show revolves around two teenage boys who, in their hubris, attempted to bring their mother back from the dead through the science known as alchemy. alchemy is a powerful art which can transform one substance into another following the ideal of equivalent exchange: that what is created must come from something of equal value. When attempting and failing to bring their mother back from the dead (a forbidden practice) Ed and Al wound up losing parts of their bodies in the process. Ed lost his left leg and Al’s entire body was lost, forcing Ed to give his right arm in order to ‘pay’ to rescue Al’s soul and place it in a suit of armor. Soon after, Ed replaced his lost limbs with mechanical parts. Their goal throughout the series is not to bring their mother back as you may expect, but to get back what they lost in the attempt. They hunt for the Philosopher’s Stone, a mystical object which is said to allow an alchemist to bypass the rule of equivalent exchange. They believe the Stone will give them the power to restore their bodies.

The main thing that appeals to me about Fullmetal Alchemist is that it’s a show with a plot so ongoing it’s hard to say where one arc begins and one ends. The whole show feels like one big 6-7 hour movie. Characters grow and change. This becomes more and more apparent as the series progresses. I picked an episode that I felt covered the show’s themes well and showcased the complex and overarching storytelling that the series was capable of. The episode is called “Sin” and deals with the backstory of Izumi Curtis, the boys’ alchemy teacher, and the homunculus Wrath.

Review continues after the cut

Monday Movies – Animated StoryCorps Shorts

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Sara — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:34:09 +0000

I know I’m a little late in mentioning this, but if you haven’t seen it already, drop everything you’re doing and watch the Nostalgia Critic’s fantastic three-part tribute to Animaniacs

tv - The Ink and Pixel Club

Sara — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:49:06 +0000

I just finished and very much enjoyed Brian Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. I’m excited for the movie, but there’s still a part of me that wishes it had been animated. With a few rare exceptions, I think animation is the ideal format for translating comics into film or television, especially when the original artwork is as distinctive and iconic as O’Malley’s. So I’m overjoyed to see that an animated Scott Pilgrim short is going to be airing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block. Entitled Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation, the short cartoon will air in two parts at 12:00 and 12:30 AM on Thursday, August 12. If you don’t have cable, don’t panic! The short will be made available on the Adult Swim website and Facebook page as well as the Scott Pilgrim movie Facebook page. I’ll be very surprised if the short doesn’t end up as a bonus feature on the DVD release, since it’s designed to help promote the movie and even features some of the movie cast doing voice work. But if you want to see it now or don’t want to risk missing it, you’ve got plenty of options.

tv - The Ink and Pixel Club

Sara — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:28:21 +0000

I’m sure you know by now that there is a new ThunderCats TV series in production. What’s surprising about this news is not that a new ThunderCats series is being made, but that it took this long for the show to be revisited. Nostalgia for all things 80s has been in full swing for at least the past decade. While ThunderCats may not have been the biggest phenomenon of its time, people still remember it, it does have a following, and the original series has been released on DVD. A new ThunderCats series could be really fun, if the creators understand what worked about the original.

What worked? Find out under the cut.