Earlier this month, I had the privilege of interviewing Cardiff-based filmmakers Joanna Quinn and Les Mills! The interview was part of les Sommets du Cinema d’animation, an annual international film festival based in Montreal. Cartoon Brew, who I freelance for on occasion, is a sponsor of the festival, which lead to them asking if I’d be interested in the opportunity. Ummmm. Obviously! So a big thank you particularly to Marco de Blois and Michael Fukushima for allowing me to be involved, and for the festival’s technical team for running such a smooth event. Joanna Quinn has been a filmmaker an ..read more

While not specific to animation, the concept of the 10,000 hour rule certainly makes its way through the community, from students, masters, and everyone in between. It’s a perpetual topic for creatives. The rule, popularized by writer Malcolm Gladwell, argues that it takes 10,000 hours for someone to achieve mastery over a particular skill or subject. It’s also often referred to as the ’10 year rule.’ Like any sort of vague creative rule of thumb, there’s plenty of writing both condemning and condoning the idea. I first learned about this concept in high school, when my art teacher would read ..read more

Updating the site to let you know that I’ve started podcasting again with the animation news site Cartoon Brew! I’d done a few episodes with them before, and am returning with a bi-weekly news show. So please look forward to new episodes every other Friday, and listen to last week’s episode here. The post Cartoon Brew News Podcast appeared first on Animation Complex ..read more

Updating the site to let you know that I’ve started podcasting again with the animation news site Cartoon Brew! I’d done a few episodes with them before, and am returning with a weekly news show. So please look forward to new episodes on Fridays, and listen to last week’s episode here. The post Cartoon Brew Weekly Podcast! appeared first on Animation Complex ..read more

Happy Birthday, Suzuki-san! たんじょうび おめでとう!! Today marks film producer Toshio Suzuki’s 72nd birthday. Suzuki is best known as the producer of the majority of the films made by Studio Ghibli. (For the first several features, he was credited as being on the production committee–it wasn’t until 1991’s Only Yesterday did he first receive a credit as producer, and would do so on every film (some times with a co-producer) until The Wind Rises (2013). And I just so happen to finish reading his 2014 memoir yesterday, titled Mixing Work with Pleasure: My Life at Studio Ghibli, only to learn his birthday ..read more

Last Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of one of my favorite films, and the film I default to whenever twitter asks to post your favorite or just *a* film from the year you were born. Thirty looks good on us, Kiki. Kiki’s Delivery Service is a film directed by Hayao Miyazaki through Studio Ghibli. I remember when this movie first came to the US (in 1998), my tia bought it for my cousin, whose nickname was Kiki. She’d always make us watch it to the point that I avoided it for YEARS until I revisited it again in college and I was furious at all of the wasted years I could have been internaliz ..read more

It’s Hip to Be Square (1988) Directed by Candy Kugel and Vincent Cafferelli for Sesame Street Kugel and Cafferelli run the NY-based studio Buzzco Associates, Inc. and did several animated spots for Sesame Street from 1988, with their last releasing in 2005. Here’s their site. Love me some New York animation. : ) FIRE (POZAR) (2015) Directed by David Lynch Nostalgia (2020) Music by Joe Hisaishi Like I said in my video, I wasn’t able to find credits for any artists who may have worked on this. Maybe if your Japanese is better than mine you’ll have better luck. I’d love to know the process be ..read more

With all of the recent news in the US–particularly the disproportionate rates that black Americans experience police violence (3.5 times more likely to be killed by police when they’re not attacking or even have a weapon), it can be strange to write about film and animation. But I’ve always felt that media is an important tool for helping people understand others. For building empathy, or at least teaching tolerance. For Example, Accents Let’s shift gears for a second with a quick example. There are studies that show a disproportionate number of villains in animated shows and films have foreig ..read more

Welcome to another week of Short Stack. These three in particular are pretty influential for me in terms of the how far people can push the medium. We have a gorgeous stop-motion music video, a solo CG project, and an amazing motion piece made by a team that is constantly pushing boundaries. The Shrine/An Argument (2011) Directed by Sean Pecknold for Fleet Foxes Here’s a making-of video. It’s honestly not that deep but there are a few nice shots: Pigeon Impossible (2009) Directed by Lucas Martell This was one of the first CG animated films I ever saw that I knew was made by only one person ..read more

The second episode of the podcast I’m producing for Cartoon Brew launched today! I honestly had a lot of fun talking about the making of Scoob with the film’s director Tony Cervone and the anim supervisor Bill Haller. Please give it a listen and let me know what you thought over on twitter! Talking to them reminded me a lot about many of the struggles Blue Sky Studios faced when working on The Peanuts Movie. While I hadn’t worked on the film early enough to experience it first hand, I remember learning about and seeing the various versions of Charlie Brown–the some times nightmare-inducing a ..read more