I just pre-ordered my Don Hertzfeldt animation collection dvd. For those unfamiliar with him, i will sum up his work:

- stick figures
- violence
- blood (and lots of it)
- brilliant

Apparently the first 700 people to order the dvd will get one of a series of free gifts included with the dvd. Here’s to hoping for something cool.

Last night, a collection of friends & I went to see a 40 minute documentary entitled Dream On, Silly Dreamer.

For those of you unfamiliar with the movie & too lazy to visit the website, it is a look back at the demise of Disney’s 2D animation department told mostly through interviews from various former mouse house employees.

Entering the theatre last night, I was concerned it was going to be a 40 minute CG-Animation hate-fest. Luckily I was wrong. The film really shows how egos & greed destroyed the group from Eisner all the way down to the animators themselves.

Overall the film is great - really great. One particular moment stood out for me though. About half way through the movie, the topic turns to how things changed from the most fun jobs in the world to practical mandatory 80 hour work weeks & how quality was suddenly being compromised for quantity. During this sequence one animator made this comment (pardon some paraphrasing):

“Twenty years from now people will look at these movies, and I doubt they will say ‘Well it doesn’t look so good but at least they made deadline.’”

Something about that quote really struck home for me.

Anyway….go see the movie if it comes around your neighborhoods.

As an added bonus last night, Roy Disney introduced the film. He got a rousing 2-3 minute standing ovation which was very well deserved.

Watching this animation may have unexpected side effects

Lego Thriller……the entire music video.

Everyone else has had more sex than me

Let the jokes about the song’s title begin…

This animated video for Radiohead’s Creep is some of the best Flash animation I have seen done yet.

Well, Theresa and I saw Spiderman 2 & I have to say it lived up to every review & favorable comment I heard & read. My biggest gripe from the first one were the Power Ranger moments which there are next to none of (when Spiderman talks, he generally keeps still to de-emphasize the motions).

On a related topic, this Stop Motion Spiderman Lego animation is perhaps the best lego animation I have seen online yet.

I don’t even know where to start…so how bout the simple facts.

I have been avidly awaiting The Incredibles for 3 years now for one reason - Brad Bird. He is by far the best thing to happen to animation in the modern era. He earns this title almost singlehandedly from his hand in the Simpsons alone which he was a part of during their best years. But he definitely earned it for making The Iron Giant.

The Iron Giant is by far and without exception the best animated film ever made. Period. None better. Not by Pixar. Not by Disney. Not by Miyazaki. Not by Hertzfeldt. It is the E.T. of animated films emphasizing story and character in what can only be called some freaking beautiful animation. There is not a single wasted frame of film in this movie and easily rates as one of my top favorite films of all time.

I will try restrain myself from turning this into a rant about how Warner Bros screwed a freaking Great Dane of a pooch by not advertising it, but will suffice myself by mentioning that the New York Times dedicated an article berating Warner Bros for not realizing what an incredible gem of a film they had on their hands.

After its disappointing theatre run, word spread that WB was going to spend a load of money on the video/DVD release of the film, but once again, they did nothing. Then about six months later, rumor started abounding that Brad Bird was working on a 4-disc DVD special edition to be put in stores. It seemed like everytime that rumor started to die, something would happen to spark it again.

In my nightly surfing, AWN had an article that it is FINALLY happening and will be released just before my birthday!

Read about it here

I can’t remember quite when I found this site, but with the forthcoming release of Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (starring Daniel Radcliff) I thought I would share a new animation by the folks at The Potter Puppet Pals called Sexy

In my pre-work morning surfing, I came across this link:

The Stricktrix:Resolutions

Hopefully the music in this one will get the Banana Phone song out of all of your heads.