My friend and sometimes Ink and Pixel Club contributor Nick Nadel has a new article up on Premiere.com about animated title sequences from live-action movies. Animated opening credits are always a fun surprise when they show up and can set the tone for the movie to come or even surpass the film itself. Many of my personal favorites are among those listed, including the brilliant titles to Catch Me If You Can.
Posts Tagged ‘great sites’
Nick Nadel on Animated Movie Openings
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
Toy Story 3 on NPR
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010National Public Radio’s arts program Fresh Air just did an interview with director Lee Unkrich and screenwriter Michael Arndt of Toy Story 3. Go listen to it, watch some clips, and then check out the various related stories about other Pixar people. You won’t be disappointed.
Great Sites – The Nostalgia Critic’s Animaniacs Tribute
Saturday, August 14th, 2010I 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
Great Sites – Duke University’s AdViews Archive
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010I’m a little strapped for time this week, but I did want to share this amazing new site with you. Amid Amidi at Cartoon Brew recently posted a link to Duke University’s recently digitized collection of vintage television ads. Animation has long been a key tool in the advertising game, helping a commercial to stand out from the crowd with a unique style and visual that live-action can’t match. The AdViews archive has plenty of nostalgic goodies for animation fans. While it doesn’t have everything, the archive does collect and impressive number and rage of ads dating from the 1950s all the way to the 1980s. Simply click on the company or product you’re interested in and you’ll be taken to the iTunes store page where you can download any or all of the ads for that product or company, all for free. If you want to learn more, the website also includes interviews with experts in television advertising about the archive and a quiz to test your TV ad knowledge.
If you don’t know where to start, here’s a search I did for the term “animated. You can explore the evolution of Sugar Bear and other spokescharacters for Post Sugar Crisp cereal, or check out the Flintstones hawking Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, back before all the ads with transparent references to popular movies. Meet the Johnson’s Wax angels, listen the tales of Elsie the creepy looking Borden dairy cow, or rock out with the Beech-Nut Hot Shots, seen above. (Yes, I know it’s the same video Cartoon Brew posted, but it’s such a great ad.)
My one complaint is that there aren’t any descriptions of the individual ads, so you can’t tell exactly what ad you’re getting until you download it. But with so much content and a price that can’t be beat, the AdViews archive is a great way to explore the history of TV advertising. Check it out and post your favorites here.
Alcott Does Disney
Friday, February 19th, 2010Bambi to be precise. I’m very pleased to see Todd Alcott tackling an animated film. If you enjoy my writing, you’ll almost certainly enjoy Todd’s discussion of this classic Disney film.
Help the Hodges Continued
Thursday, January 28th, 2010Just a quick reminder that the Help the Hodges charity auction is still going on. The items that went up previously will be ending in three days and a whole new round of amazing one-of-a-kind items goes up today. Check out the auction page to see what’s available.
Todd Alcott on Animation
Monday, November 9th, 2009If you’ve been here since the beginning, you know that part of my inspiration for starting this blog was Todd Alcott’s blog What Does The Protagonist Want?. You may also remember that I said I would post about it here when he was writing about animation. Well, he is, so I am.
The very smart and very funny Adult Swim series The Venture Bros. is back with its fourth season. Todd has been posting his thoughts on episodes of the show’s previous seasons and is now tackling the new ones. Check out his analysis of the first episode.
As for my own writing, I think I’m going to change the new post day to Tuesday. I don’t tend to get much writing done over the weekend, so the extra weekday before I have to post a new article will be helpful. I’ll be back tomorrow with something new for you to read.
Great Sites – Animation Backgrounds
Thursday, October 8th, 2009I’m very happy to report that Rob Richards is once again updating his fantastic blog Animation Backgrounds. It’s a wonderful collection of images from various films, shorts, and TV shows carefully composited together to remove the characters from the backgrounds. The art of background painting is often overshadowed by character animation, so it’s a real treat to get to enjoy these amazing works of art on their own.
If you don’t know where to start, take a look at the backgrounds from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As I mentioned in my analysis, the backgrounds from this film are stunning and well worth checking out.
