As a jump-start to the week, here is a gorgeous piece to get your creative juices flowing, dear readers:
Archives For animation
Later tonight, much of the world will no doubt gather round to enjoy the opening festivities of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
And while I could probably write an entire post about the glories of the beautiful city of Vancouver (the art! the coffee! the food! and on and on) instead I’ll share my favorite 2010 Olympics-related promo to get you in the mood for tonight’s opening ceremonies:
I just love this piece STUDIO AKA produced as a BBC promo.
When I was a kid, one of the best things about the weekend was the extra hours one could spend running around outside but more importantly it was the CARTOONS! Saturday mornings with Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes provided a solid foundation for my humor later in life; I don’t think I shall ever tire of dropping anvils on my foes or ordering office supplies from the ACME catalog.
Sundays, on the other hand, were an utter disappointment in terms of entertainment. The best one could hope for was a leftover kung fu movie from the day before, assuming of course, there was no religious commitment to attend. There was also Jonny Quest, and a few other odds and ends pulled together mostly from the sixties. At first I really didn’t like Jonny Quest and his lameo friend, Hadji; and what was the deal with Dr. Quest and Race? But after what seems like years of waking up to Jonny, now I sort of miss him. Sundays just aren’t the same without cheezy cartoons from the past; n’est pas?
What weekend goofiness do you miss from your childhood, dear readers?
It’s been an strange day– productive on the one hand but distracting. Oddly enough, today I tripped over an artist whose beautiful work simultaneously hit the nail on the head and sparked my imagination. I know I’m hardly the first person to share this video, but it’s so lovely it needs to keep being shared. Take a four minute break and enjoy this clever animation with which we can all identify:
A few months ago, I blogged about the William Kentridge show, Five Themes, at SFMoMA. In that post, I described my introduction to Kentridge’s work ten years ago at the Carnegie International Show. Since that first encounter with his work, I have been a fan. This evening, I thought I’d post a copy of the original film that caught my attention:
The film has a soundtrack, but I was unable to find a full-length copy of it with the sound. Here is an abridged sample featuring the sound:
I love the raw quality of line and gesture; this piece still captivates me. What do you think, dear readers? Seen any great animations or art exhibits lately that you just can’t get out of your mind?
Watching this video leaves me dumbfounded– the amount of work and artistry that went in to this collaborative production is just incredible. Take a look at this piece created by Blu and David Ellis at the Fame Festival earlier this fall in Italy.
COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.
WOW!
After my recent posts about beloved cartoons, I’ve gotten a number of requests and recommendations from readers and dear friends. So tonight, I’d like to share with you some of the early work of Aardman, the brilliant British animation team who gave us Creature Comforts and the much loved Wallace and Gromit series.
Ident, dates from 1989 and features the first appearance of the dog who would later become Rex the Runt.
Silly dogs AND Eddie Izzard as an alien, yes please.
Vince kills me. What do you think? What are YOUR favorite cartoons, dear readers? What other cartoons would you like to see on AmandaMuses?
Digging up that last batch of cartoons made me wonder about other old favorites from my childhood. Not surprisingly, the vastness of the Internet did not fail me. So I present to you two more childhood Disney favorites:
Man do I love Donald Duck.. the muttering KILLS me… and both the soundtrack and foley for these two are great. Even though I’ve probably seen each of these at least a hundred times in the last twenty years and I know exactly what’s going to happen next, I still smile and laugh every time I see these.
What are your old cartoon favorites?
For as long as I can remember, Halloween has been my favorite holiday. Each year, I’d look forward to an annual excuse to get dressed up and be silly, and go around the neighborhood trick or treating, smelling the autumnal smells and laughing all along the way. Today, I still love the holiday, even if I don’t have kids or even dress-up.
While working in the yard today, I was overcome by the glories of the autumn season– crisp air, golden light, colorful leaves crunching in my hands, even the smell of an eastern fall. Yum. Now inside, settled in with a glass of apple cider and a twitching cat, I am just itching for Halloween. So much so, that I thought tonight, I’d share with you, dear readers, some of my Halloween favorites. I grew up watching these cartoons as a kid and still get a kick out of them:
Both are old Disney cartoons from 1929… eighty years later they’re still great!
This was stuck in my head while working on the most recent daily portrait, Maybe Sparrow by Neko Case. The video was done by Julie and Paul Morstad.