2D Flash Animated Skunk Fu Coming to WB Kids
Skunk Fu, an animated cartoon previously available in the UK and Australia, is coming to the Saturday morning cartoon segment on The CW network known as the “Kids WB!”.
Skunk Fu is 2D flash animation from Cartoon Saloon. The basic story is:
Dragon and his Ninja Monkeys will stop at nothing to destroy the Valley Animals.
But wise old Master Panda believes that the answer to their prayers rests in the tiny paws (and smelly butt) of his young student – Skunk!
Panda trains Skunk in the art of Kung Fu. Besides Dragon, Skunk’s biggest enemy is his own impatience; he’d rather go on adventures than do boring old training.
Only time will tell if he’s ready…
The folks at Cartoon Saloon have also created a blog for Skunk Fu. You can see a number of stills from the series on the blog.
[tags]2D animation, skunk fu, cartoon saloon, The CW, Kids WB[/tags]
DVD Alert – 2006 Oscar Nominated Short Films Are Released on DVD this Week
You don’t have to live near a film festival to see this year’s Oscar nominees for best animated short. They’re being released on DVD this week together with the rest of the short film nominees. From the Netflix blurb:
Enjoy the best live-action and animated shorts from the 2006 Academy Awards. This eclectic collection includes live-action winner “West Bank Story,” a hummus-rich Middle Eastern parody of West Side Story, and animated winner “The Danish Poet,” which follows the title character on an adventure into romance and inspiration. Also included are nominees “Binta and the Great Idea,” “One Too Many,” “Helmer & Son,” “The Saviour” and “Maestro.”
Dimples is a Netflix junkie and this is one of the reasons why: You get immediate access to small treasures like these. The exact title of the DVD is “The 2006 Academy Award Short Films Collection
p.s. After viewing the DVD, I found the blurb to be misleading. “The Danish Poet” and “Maestro” are the only animated shorts from 2006 on this DVD. The other animated shorts are from the previous year. I assume this is an innocent error since many people confuse the year the film was made with the year the awards were made. Films released in 2006 would be eligible for the awards made in 2007. In any event, the rest of the animated shorts on this DVD were released in 2005 which wasn’t nearly as strong a year as 2006. Dimples suggestion is to rent this and not buy it.
[tags]Oscar Nominees, Oscar Winners, Animated Short Film, 2D Animation, DVD[/tags]
Ottawa 2007 International Animation Festival
This is one great Animation Festival. Ottawa International Animation Festival, Sept. 19 – Sept. 23, 2007, is heralded as the biggest event of its kind in North America. Entry forms for the festival became available on March 21st. The deadline for entry form submission is June 1 and video must be in by June 15. The festival offers a wide variety of categories for your submission running the gamit from theatrical feature to school showreel. There’s even a separate category for high school students to submit their films. A great way to keep up to date on the happenings leading up to and during the festival is through their podcasts. From their press release:
“It’s that time again,†says Chris Robinson, the Festival’s Artistic Director. “This year we’re putting some emphasis on reaching out to the gaming, mobile, wireless and interactive world. With more and more animation being made for non-traditional distribution platforms, it’s important that the OIAF celebrate the work being done in these new forms, so we’ve expanded our New Media Competition to include mobile content and interactive educational and gaming animation as well as shorts made for the internet.â€
This is a great event and Ottawa is a beautiful city. Make your reservations to attend now.
[tags]OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Animation[/tags]
More Classic 2D Animation from John Lasseter and Disney
Disney continues the return to 2D hand-drawn animation under John Lasseter. Neither Disney suit Execs nor Lasseter have provided the reason for the full steam ahead return to traditional animation by the southern California arm of the company but Dimples is happy to see the trend continue. From FilmStew.com:
Chief Creative Officer and Walt Disney Feature Animation boss John Lasseter had an unveiling for Disney stockholders this week as they met in New Orleans. The shareholders got a first look at preliminary work on The Frog Princess, a return to traditional animation whose main character is not the typical Disney heroine. The film will be a musical comedy set in New Orleans and will be centered on a character that the execs call ‘The Newest Disney Princess’, a young African American girl named Maddy, who will be joining the studio’s franchise line of Disney princesses. The movie will be directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Hercules. Those animators left the Disney fold several years ago, as the studio was turning away from 2-D traditional animation. But one of John Lasseter’s earliest acts as the new head of Disney Animation was to lure them back. Look for the film’s release in 2009, at which time you can enjoy the score by Randy Newman.
[tags]2D Animation, Disney, John Lasseter, Frog Princess, John Musker[/tags]
Toonbreak – A better place to show off your animation!
There’s a new player in the animation portal game: ToonBreak. Aniboom has been a great success but, as you cruise the site, you get the feeling that a whole lot of talented people are doing a whole lot of work without hope for a financial return. Let’s face it: Contests are cheap. Sharing the revenue with contributors is a better way to run an animation portal. This is exactly what ToonBreak is proposing. From their press release:
ToonBreak.com is a new animation video portal that shares revenue with animators. The brainchild of independent animator Shawn McInerney, ToonBreak is unique in that provides multiple tools for animators to generate revenue. Animators can earn money through video ads, text ads, merchandising, and donations. All of this is currently done through third party systems such as Revver, Google Adsense, PayPal Donations, and links to the animators’ online stores. ToonBreak’s deal is non-exclusive, and does not seek rights beyond those needed to show and generate revenue from the videos.
That sounds like a much better deal than anything currently offered by Aniboom. For a taste of Shawn McInerney’s work, check out this Channel Frederator video podcast.
What’s your opinion? Cast your vote in the poll in the column to the right of this post.
[tags]toonbreak.com, toonbreak, animation news, Shawn McInerney[/tags]
The Danish Poet Wins the Oscar for Best Animated Short!
HA! Dimples is in shock. Dimples loves the artful 2D animation and beautiful story of the Danish Poet, but frankly, Dimples did not think there was any chance for this to win. It’s the pick of all three on the Dimples’ team. It’s stylish and it can be enjoyed on many levels by young and old. Congratulations to Torill Kove and her team on their great win. Wowzer.
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