Man On Seal

Mouse Harpoon

Run, Run, Run

A Follow Up

After my grumpy grizzly whining about Pixar I thought I'd follow it up with some positive comments.
I LOVE Kung Fu Panda.
It's my favorite big animated feature ever.
I can watch it over and over again.
I am excited that there are 5 more films in the series.
Kung Fu Panda rocks!

I Was Asked

I was asked by a good fellow on the Facebook why I didn't like a lot of the Pixar films.
This is my response:
A long time ago Pixar made their ...first Toy Story film and it was a good one.
There's a scene in it - the one where Buzz realises he's a toy and plummets down the stairwell.
It's a good scene and a touching one, played smartly for a mainstream animated film.
A Bugs Life didn't really have any of these moments.
Then they made Monsters Inc, and there's that little moment at the end (where Sully finds Boo again) that's again touching and genuine and a nice moment.
Then they made Toy Story 2 and pushed their touching moment even further with the Jessie's Song sequence.
Here they realised they were onto something.
I feel that their consequent films are all about trying to top this meaningful moment rather than making a great, entertaining film.
I don't think anyone walked out of Up saying "Wow - that was so funny and entertaining and witty (or whatever)".
Instead they go on about that cliched and lazy montage at the beginning of the film.
Nobody walked out out of TS3 saying "Wow, l love these characters" they say "Oh, when they nearly died at the end it was really sad".
I understand that these are hugely popular films, so clearly I'm missing something and I'm kind of happy about that.
Quick rundown.
TS1 - Charming, lovely film.
Bugs Life - Great family entertainment with lots of lovely moments.
TS2 - Mostly weird and dull. TS films work best when the Toys are confined to the household, I think.
Monsters Inc - The last Pixar film I really, really enjoy. Last really original thing they did.
Finding Nemo - Sweet film. By now I'm tired of Pixars ensemble cast formula. From here, Pixars films become longer and longer...
The Incredibles - very entertaining, overly long.
Cars - Honest, healthy family entertainment. Not sure why so many people hate this film. At the very least it's better than 100 other shitty films.
Ratatouille - Unbearably long and complicated. The whole Lunguini being puppeted by the rat is such a long and pointless sequence. Stupid tacked on romance. Mostly boring.
Wall-E - Starts of well. Becomes boring satire too quickly. Awful, cheeseball utterly fake ending.
Up - Mostly boring with lots of bad storytelling.
TS3 - Mostly weird and dour. There was a sequel to the film Babe a few years back that was given the same critisism. At least that film is weird and dour and subversive. TS3 is weird and dour and boring.

In short.
My opinion means fuck all.
Enjoy the films.
You'll be much happier that way.

Noble Beast

Bird Shit

Message from Michael

Chanelephant

Fishin'

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek from our upcoming Boxhead and Roundhead feature film.
Artwork by the incredible Neil Ross (with teeny character touch ups by me).

Heeeeere's Johnny. And Hugie. And mummy!

Goodbye

Big Smiles Hugie

Intruder

New Showreel!

1) Better Batter - David B. Levy Animation & Sesame Workshop
Design, animation, compositing.

2) The Buddah - Asterisk Animation
Animation, compositing.

3) Burnt Books promo - Tablet Magazine
Design, animation, compositing, voice over.

4) Pim The Language Panda - Asterisk Animation
Animation

5) Charter Communications - Curious Pictures.
Animation, backgrounds, compositing.

6) How The Mormon Stole Everything - The Big Gay Sketch Show, Viacom.
Design, animation, compositing..

7) Strokes of Genius - Asterisk Animation
After Effects manipulation. Illustration by Steve Brodner.

8) Al Tirah, Fear Not! - Jewish Funds for Justice
Design, animation, compositing.

9) The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead animatic- feature film
Design, animation, compositing, direction.

10) Monstermania! animatic - feature film for Uli Meyer Animation

11) Road Runner animatic - personal work
Compositing, direction.

Dribbly Elephant

Kissy Kiss

Boxhead and Roundhead Scarves

My pal Sonja Hindrum is a superstar.
In the middle of doing a million other brilliant things (see here), she hand made these amazing Boxhead and Roundhead scarves.
They're made from Australian merino wool, probably from scratch.
A massive whacking great thank you to an incredibly talented person.
Seek her out if you want her to make you things.

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