Very cool. I agree with most that Dreamworks finally upped the ante on this one. After Over the Hedge, I was getting worried. This was probably the first Dreamworks movie to have really good art direction. The character designs and color in this film were great. I’m officially a Nicolas Marlet fan. I also enjoyed the way it was “filmed” like live action.

Click here for more on Marlet.

I must admit, I’m a bit of a nerd, as I stayed for the credit roll to see my buddies name in lights. Congratulations to Ben Willis, and all the other animators and artists that worked on this film. I really hope this caliber of CG animation from Dreamworks doesn’t end here.

Karl Gnass and Glen Vilppu have to be some of the best contemporary life drawing instructors out there today. I acquired Vilppus DVDs a long time ago, but have only been able to view them at an agonizingly slow rate due to work and school, something I hope to change this summer. But I’ve always managed to spare a moment here and there to skim through Karl Gnass’s Sketchbook 1, “Spirit of the Pose”. The title effectively tells you what this book is about. Gnass is a master of life drawing, and his style is engaging. I could spend hours looking at his work. I managed to get a signed copy of the book through Stuart Ng Books.

This book has been an incredible resource lately as I study gesture drawing more and more. I guess this is what I’m shooting for in my own work (image below). I dare not post my work side by side with Gnass’s, but if you scroll down to my last post you can see I have a long way to go. I would imagine Gnass knocked these out in a similar time frame. How humbling.

I visited Gnass’s website for the first time a couple day ago, and I was delighted to find YouTube videos. This is the first time I’ve seen him draw, and I love to see a master at work. Below is one of the videos on his site where he analyzes a Michelangelo. There are two more on the site you must check out, including one where Gnass analyzes a Daffy Duck pose from Duck Amuck. Click here to go to the site.

Spring Break is officially over. It really went by fast. I can’t believe I haven’t drawn in a week; I feel so guilty.

I saw Horton Hears a Who this week, and was thoroughly impressed. This has to be the best movie to come out of Blue Sky. I loved the story, style, and especially the animation. Soft and tender moments are great, and Pixar is clearly the master of that, but it’s so nice to see some truly zany and zippy animation pulled off well. And this film is full of great snappy animation scenes. These characters must have been so much fun to work with and animate.

It was also a joy to watch the credits roll and recognize a number of names in there. You know who you are, and I’m so proud to know you guys. I can’t wait to see this film again. I remember when the story crew came to Vancouver and did a presentation about Robots when they were making that a few years back. The head of story and director of Horton, Jimmy Hayward, was so psyched about Horton, and really built up my anticipation for it. I’m so happy it delivered on every level for me. Jimmy is probably my first influence to getting excited about story in animation, and the reason for me buying a copy of Paper Dreams, and loving every minute of it.

This week we’re exploring cutout animation in class, and I have to say how enthusiastic I am about this form of animation. What a way to show you understand the principle of silhouette value, a principle I’ve always been meticulous about implementing well. I’m not always successful, but it’s a principle I understand and one that I’m constantly aware of. Perhaps that’s why I’ve found new inspiration in Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 film, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”. This is quite an old film, and even in 1926 cutout animation was considered passé. But that still didn’t stop a few clips of the film from showing up on YouTube.

Reiniger’s designs are amazing, and they really create the characters before they start moving in their own unique ways. You can see what I’m talking about in this screen cap:

It was a real treat to be able to watch the whole film, partly because of it’s rarity and inaccessibility, but also because it really shows how many films and film makers of today and generations past were influenced by this film. I constantly had to remind myself that this film came first when I thought to myself, “Hey that’s a lot like the (blank) scene from (insert movie name).” A couple of examples that come to mind are The Sword and the Stone and Sleeping Beauty. Take a look at the following screen caps to see if you see the similarities and/or connections.

The Wizard’s Duel from both films. I’d recommend seeing an actual clip from each if you get the chance.

This scene made me think of Sleeping Beauty immediately. The prince in both scenes is being attacked by an onslaught of demons on a steep incline.

Now I don’t know the exact history and whether or not these are in fact influences, but it certainly seems like it. Perhaps someone can fill me in on this?

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about doing my own cutout animation next week. I’m full of inspiration and anticipation, who knows what I’ll come up with, but I’ll be sure to post it here.

Here’s a clip from YouTube:

Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is probably one of the most convincingly insane characters I’ve ever seen. I shudder to think that his voice wasn’t enhanced somehow to make it more creepy.

I love original movies, anything different will at least get my attention and respect, if not my praise. I was a little unsure about the ending, but I really enjoyed this film.

If you’re looking for something good and different to see this winter, check out No Country For Old Men.

I saw Bee Movie the night before last, and I thought it was pretty entertaining. My anticipation for this film had been growing for weeks prior to seeing it due to the ingenious marketing on the part of Jerry Seinfeld. If you still have not seen all the live action promos for this movie, I suggest you check them out now. They’re hilarious.

I expected the movie to be mildly funny, but I was pleasantly surprised at just how funny it actually was. The voice casting was excellent, and the adult humor was wicked. I really recommend this movie to everyone, not just animators. If you’re looking for amazing animation, wait for Wal-E. There’s some good parts here and there as far as animation goes, but for the most part it’s as I expected, half decent.

They also showed the trailer for Kung Fu Panda, which my buddy Ben Willis is hard at work on (Haven’t heard from you in a while bud, are you alive?) . I am so super excited about seeing this film now; it has the same zany animation style that Madagascar had, which I simply loved. Paying homage to Warner Bros. animation style always goes over well in my opinion