The week of Thanksgiving, with its feasts, visits from friends and relatives, and vacation time for my husband, has left me behind in my writing. I have a film review and a book review in the works, but for now, please enjoy my short comments on this short piece of animation.

Pixar’s George and A.J. was originally available as a special feature for customers who purchased Up through iTunes and has been making the rounds on the internet for about a week now, so perhaps you’ve already seen it. It’s a short cartoon about the two nurses who were supposed to take Up protagonist Carl Fredrickson to the Shady Oaks Retirement Village, only to be thwarted by Carl taking to the skies, house and all. The story shows the impact of Carl’s departure on George, A.J., and the local seniors.



As you may have noticed, this cartoon is pretty different from most of the other Pixar shorts like Partly Cloudy - the short that ran alongside Up in theaters, or Dug’s Special Mission - the short that debuted on the film’s DVD and Blu-ray release. It’s hand-drawn rather than computer animated. There is very little actual animation and no real lip-synch. And the voice cast is different. What’s going on here?

( I'll tell you what's going on...after the cut. )

Animation has vert few limits. It can tell nearly any kind of story and depict nearly any kind of imagery. Similarly, almost any tool or medium that can be used to make a static work of art can also be used to create art that moves. There are many different kinds of animation techniques out there, some well known, some obscure. But to the average person, some of the terminology and concepts mentioned when talking about animation can get confusing. Which kinds of animation use computers? How can you animated with paint? What the heck is "Flash animation" anyway? In this article, we're going to be taking a closer look at some of the different kinds of animation. Some you may know well already. Other you may have never seen before. All have their particular strengths and weaknesses and the potential to become amazing animation in the hands of talented artists.


( The world of animation awaits you. )

Right up until the end, the late 1980s were a good time for Don Bluth. After the disappointing box office performance of The Secret of NIMH and some intriguing experiments in fully-animated video games that ran up against the collapse of the industry in the first half of the decade, Bluth partnered with businessman Morris Sullivan to form Sullivan Bluth Studios. The new studio had two bona fide successes under its belt with An American Tail and The Land Before Time. By the end of 1988, the studio was working on its next feature: All Dogs Go To Heaven. Unfortunately, All Dogs Go To Heaven marked the start of a slump for Sullivan Bluth Studios, in part because Bluth and crew’s desire to get Disney back to producing quality films by providing them with strong competition worked a little too well. The Land Before Time had proved to be a worthy opponent for Disney’s Oliver and Company released the same year, the latter outgrossing the former by only around $5 million. But the following year, Disney the sleeping giant was fully awake and quickly set about stepping on Sullivan Bluth and their latest film. Disney’s The Little Mermaid beat out All Dogs Go To Heaven both critically and commercially. The Bluth film made just $26 million dollars in its US release, compared to Mermaid’s roughly $84 million. It eventually recovered through strong video sales, but the damage was done. Investor Goldcrest Films seemed to have lost faith in Sullivan Bluth’s ability to deliver a crowd-pleasing movie, judging from the number of test screenings and last minute changes their next film was subjected to. That film turned out to be Rock-A-Doodle, which had even less success with critics and audiences than All Dogs Go To Heaven did, forcing the studio to declare bankruptcy.

If it hadn’t been for Disney’s successful return to the animated fairy tales that had made the studio famous, would All Dogs Go To Heaven have been a box office hit? My guess is no. While sharing its release day with The Little Mermaid may have drawn audiences away, All Dogs Go To Heaven had plenty of problems of its own. It’s a confusing, unattractive mess of a film that marked the beginning of a downturn for Bluth’s movies in quality as well as financial viability.

( Dogs, casinos, and singing alligators under the cut. )

Animated TV shows and toys have a long history together though not as long as you might think. Today, shows based on toy properties are quite plentiful. Flip through a couple of channels of kids’ programming and you’re bound to come across at least one series based on a toy line, a video game, a card game, or some other product available at your local toy store. Given how common such shows are now, it can be hard to believe that not too long ago, such shows did not exist in the U.S. In fact, they were pretty much against the law.

( The story of toys and TV under the cut. )

If 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.

Hot on the heels of the first full length trailer for How To Train Your Dragon comes the new trailer for Universal's Despicable Me. I haven't found an embedable version of this one yet, so check it out here.

Thoughts?

Another new trailer for an upcoming animated feature film has just hit the internet. This one is for DreamWorks Animation's latest movie: How To Train Your Dragon. A lot of the excitement about this film is based on the fact that it's directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the directing team responsible for Disney's Lilo and Stitch. Since Sanders left Disney after being removed as the director of the film that eventually became Bolt, animation fans have been eager to see what he and his writing and directing partner would come up with next. And now, we get our first taste.



Once again, I want to know what you think. Are you looking forward to this movie or does it leave you cold? Is Disney going to regret losing Sanders and Be Blois? Do you see success on the horizaon for DreamWorks, or failure?

Prior a week ago, I had never seen Kung Fu Panda.

I know, I know. It’s not something I’m proud of. I could say that previous DreamWorks animated films – particularly Shrek – hadn’t impressed me or that the trailers made it look like little more than “fat guy does martial arts.” But I had the positive reviews of numerous critics and animation fans to go on, plus the fact that the film swept the 2008 Annie Awards. So why did it take me so long to actually watch the movie? I can only chalk it up to my own bad judgment. Because not only was I missing out on a good animated movie, I was missing what DreamWorks Animation really had to offer.

( Kung fu beatdown after the cut. )

Ah, Halloween. Once again, it’s time to put your pumpkin carving skills to the test, stock up a candy before all the good stuff sells out, and curl up with some appropriately themed animation. If you’re puzzling over what spooky toons you should be checking out, fear not! The Ink and Pixel Club has got you covered. Here, in the usual no particular order, are some scary scenes, spooky specials, and other spine-tingling animated goodies to get you in the Halloween spirit.


( Trick of Treat! )

The Ink and Pixel Club now has its own Facebook page. This page will announce when the newest articles go up and include occasional updates about the site. Show your support and become a fan today!

I admit that I have been hesitant to start writing about animated TV shows. While there are plenty of excellent ones that I want to discuss, covering an entire animated series is a much more daunting task than analyzing a single movie or short film. I find it challenging to try to sum up an whole series without getting bogged down in individual episodes and their varying strengths and weaknesses. In order to keep myself sane, I’ve decided to limit my focus to a single episode of each show. I will be selecting episodes that I feel are particularly good examples of what the shows are all about. I intend to stay away from multiparters, at least for now. I will do my best to pick episodes that require the least possible amount of prior knowledge of the show so that those of you who haven’t seen it before don’t feel hopelessly lost and I don’t have to spend paragraphs just trying to get you up to speed. And I reserve the right to revisit the same show in the future and discuss a different episode.

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s get started!

( It's TV Time! )

I'm running behind on the latest article and feeling a bit under the weather to boot. (It's nothing serious and nothing related to the flu or pigs.) So while I rest up until I'm feeling well enough to finish the latest article, please enjoy the latest Simon's Cat cartoon, or the whole lot of them if you've never seen them before. These entertaining shorts go beyond just "the cute/funny/annoying things cats do" with appealingly simple drawings and excellent comic timing.

Perhaps you already know, but there is a trailer for Toy Story 3. Not the teaser with the toys building the logo that's been kicking around since Up came out, an honest-to-goodness footage from the movie trailer.



(If you want to see a higher definition version, The Animation Blog has some links.

It seems that all the rumors are true. A teenaged Andy is about to leave for college and the toys end up at the daycare from hell. (An odd turn of events, considering that very early drafts of the original Toy Story protayed just such a place as the ideal home for toys where they would be played with and loved forever.) There's clearly plenty of comedy, but Rnady Newman's melancholy vocal and Woody looking out at an Andy's room that has seen much change make it clear that there is a lot of sadness at the heart of this tale.

So what do you think? Are you excited or disappointed? Will Pixar's big gamble mean another hit for the studio? Or is this the equivalent of having Christopher Robin sell Pooh and Tigger for money to buy an XBox?

For a good chunk of the 1990s, Disney was the undisputed king of the American animated feature film. With huge hits like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, the studio seemed to have a lock on its audience that no other animation studio could break. But that doesn’t mean that no one tried.

Animator Richard Rich worked at the Disney Studios from the late 1970s into the mid-80s. After serving as co-director on The Fox and the Hound and the infamous The Black Cauldron, Rich left Disney to strike out on his own. He founded Rich Animation Studios and began producing a series of animated videos based on Bible stories. In 1994, when Disney was enjoying huge success with features based on classic tales, Rich Animation Studios released The Swan Princess, a feature film based on the ballet “Swan Lake.”

The studio’s first movie was not a financial success. Disney asserted its dominance once again, bringing its enormous blockbuster The Lion King back into theaters the weekend that The Swan Princess debuted. Swan Princess grossed just under $10 million domestically. Rich Animation Studios went on to produce a few more animated features and two direct-to-video sequels to The Swan Princess. They were eventually taken over by Crest Animation Studios of India after going bankrupt. The Swan Princess became little more than a footnote in the history of American animated films. But does it deserve to be more?

( Find out under the cut. )

I'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.

It’s the same night and another lighted window, but the music accompanying this shot is celebratory and Snow White’s animal friends are crowded around, their heads and tails swaying in time with the happy music. The song here is called “The Dwarfs’ Yodel Song” or “The Silly Song.” Like the washing song before it, it has a reasonably solid plot reason for existing: the dwarfs wish to entertain Snow White. But the actual song doesn’t have anything to do with this sentiment, and even the song’s own chorus amounts to “this song is ridiculous and has no point.” Still, the scene itself is entertaining and does a good job of illustrating how well Snow White and the dwarfs are getting along and that their relationship is not limited to her teaching them good manners. The detail that this film does so well is on full display here, from Grumpy’s beautiful carved pipe organ to Dopey’s drum set. Bashful has a particularly good moment where he is supposed to recite a verse but is so embarrassed to be performing for Snow White that he can’t get past the first word without having to bury is face in his beard. Grumpy is less than thrilled about having to repeatedly start Bashful’s musical introduction over again as the dwarf continues to flub his lines. Snow White is clearly having a good time, joining in the singing and dancing. Dopey, proving that his dopiness does not make him stupid, figures out that standing on top of an obliging Sneezy and wearing a long coat will make him an ideal dance partner for the much taller Snow White. The dwarfs never try to vie for Snow White’s attention. They simply laugh and clap when she spends extra time dancing with suddenly taller Dopey. Beautiful as they may find her, she’s still more of a mother than a romantic interest. If she’s happy, they’re happy.

( Join the party under the cut. )

When we last saw her, Snow White was enjoying cleaning up the mysterious cottage where she hoped to take shelter. The queen...well, we really don't know what the queen is up to since her trusted huntsman was unwilling to carry out her fiendish plot to be rid of her rival. We will find out how she reacts to Humbert's betrayal, but not just yet. Right now, we're going to meet the film's other protagonists, who are much more active than the little princess.

( The dwarfs arrive under the cut. )

I've been away on vacation for the past couple of days and won't be getting home until late Monday night. I was hoping to have the second installment of Snow White ready ahead of time, but I didn't get around to the screencaps before I left. So the next post will be showing up on Tuesday or Wednesday more than likely. Sorry for the delay.

The story of how Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came to be is almost as famous as the story of the movie itself. All these years later though, it does seem hard to believe that the very idea of an animated fairy tale musical was once considered a colossal risk, if not a guaranteed failure. It was the first animated feature film in the United States (though not in the world). Hollywood pundits predicted disaster for Disney, citing everything from the expected broad slapstick humor getting dull after more than five minutes to the bright colors becoming painful to the audience’s eyes. But as we all know, “Disney’s Folly” became Disney’s First and set the tone for much of the studio’s work to come.

( Once upon a time, there was a cut for you to click on. )

My husband and I caught an evening showing of 9 (not to be confused with District 9, the upcoming Nine, or this) on Thursday. I've had a couple of days to think about it, but I'm still torn. I like what 9 represents, but I'm not sure I like the actual film quite as much.

( More on '9' under the cut. )