What happens when your drawings fight back? You amp up the stakes! Jonny Lawrence has created a great little video in which “Marker,” his drawing, battles against the “Maker,” a human hand. Obviously it takes a lot of inspiration from Street Fighter, but people have also been enjoying the Master Hand comparisons, from Super Smash Bros. It’s a pretty impressive animation, so check it out below and be sure to look at his other work on his YouTube page. Read more…
Animated shorts never seem to be as good as the actual shows they’re based off, but with Community making its return to NBC later this month, something’s better than nothing.In the first installment of Community: Abed’s Master Key we catch up with the study group as they discover their study room tables missing due to budget cuts. Dean Pelton makes Abed his unpaid intern/assistant, handing him a key — as to what the key actually does, we’ll just have to wait and see. Only the first part has been released so far, but future installments will be available via Hulu. Community returns from its hiatus March 15th, 8PM Eastern/Pacific on NBC.
Like many of you, I had some fond memories of the X-Men animated series which aired on Fox during the mid-’90s. It wasn’t nearly as good as Batman: the Animated Series, but at the time there really wasn’t much on the air in the way of comic-based cartoons. With the announcement of the upcoming X-Men anime which will be airing in Japan, I made the mistake of watching a few of these “classic” episodes. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 18, 2009 in Animation
Once upon a time there were the Flintstones followed by the Jetsons, animated family sitcoms that adults could watch as well as the kids. Then a great dark age followed for many years until the Simpsons brought the genre back in 1989. Since then we’ve seen it all from South Park to Family Guy and frankly the concept is a bit tired at this point. But when you take that and add second rate jokes you get Sit Down, Shut Up. And just in case you think the first video clip that I found was lame, here’s additional proof that this is the must miss show of the season: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 3, 2009 in Animation
There’s something very haunting about some of the Russian animation that I’ve seen over the years, there’s a sense of surrealism but there’s something very unnerving underneath the surface. This animated film is from 1991 and is titled Frother (Потец) — it’s based upon a poem Alexander Vvedensky from 1937. The film’s director was Alexander Fedulov (1947 – 1996) and the other worldly art direction is by Vladimir Burkin. Here’s the second part of the film: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 25, 2009 in Animation
As with most things in TV land our story begins in another medium — film! Back in the 50s THE designer who revolutionized opening credits was Saul Bass who favored a very graphic and illustrational approach to making opening titles an art form onto themselves. To me his masterpiece was Anatomy of a Murder in 1958 which matched a striking musical score by Duke Ellington to a simple yet powerful animation: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 26, 2008 in Animation
As an animation fanboy I always love it when a cartoon makes a reference (visual or otherwise) to the medium itself. This clever animated spot from the English animation studio small time inc. shows a series of flipbooks that tell the sad tale of a little black dog. To me flipbooks are sort of the “gateway drug” to learning the basics of animation, so they have a special place in my heart!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 22, 2008 in Animation
Shown above is the latest sneak peak of Bolt which is due out in theaters on November 21st and I have to say that I’m not getting excited by this clip. Now my understanding is that the film will be released in Disney Digital 3D and while that sounds cool it doesn’t mean that there can’t be a story up there on the screen. And from this small sample the whole flick looks like a bad action film which is already based on existing cartoons like Road Runner.
The other thing that’s missing here is that none of the characters seem lovable — the dog character Bolt seems to lack any charm, and even the bad guys in the scene above seem so generic. For crying out loud this is suppose to be a Disney film, having interesting evil characters is half the point! To me it looks like Disney was so obsessed with making a Pixar film that they forgot what makes Disney so special (hint: it’s charm, storytelling and imagination!).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 20, 2008 in Animation
This Jetsons Little Golden Book is from 1962 — and what’s refreshing to me about this cover is the bold sense of optimism which you don’t see much these days. Authors like Isaac Asimov always felt that dividing line of modern science fiction was that it viewed technology as a positive force in the universe. However I think science fiction (and other imaginative literature) is a reflection of how society views the world at that point in time. So while attempting to predict the future these cultural documents tell us more about the present — or in this case the past.
Once upon a time there were the Flintstones followed by the Jetsons, animated family sitcoms that adults could watch as well as the kids. Then a great dark age followed for many years until the Simpsons brought the genre back in 1989. Since then we’ve seen it all from South Park to Family Guy and frankly the concept is a bit tired at this point. But when you take that and add second rate jokes you get 
