Sadly, this Lumiere Menorah is NOT currently being offered by Disney. That said, they DID release a full-sized, light-up Lumiere replica this year. Perhaps someone far craftier than I could buy a few and Frankenstein* ‘em together?
*”It’s pronounced, Fronkensteen!”
Note: This post has NOTHING to do with the President appearing for a photo-op at DreamWorks because Katzenberg donated millions of dollars to him over the past decade. That’s a post for a much more politically astute website. This post is about Katzenberg’s odd choice of taking the president to his animation studio, then showing him improvised, leotard-clad, performance art.
If you haven’t yet seen the clip in question, please watch it, then continue. If you’ve already watched it once…well, once was more than enough, wasn’t it?
Q: What’s the only toy more unsanitary than the ‘Ratatouille Kitchen Chaos Playset’?
This is FASCINATING collection of gifs. Created by junibie, they contrast Mary Blair’s concept art for Alice In Wonderland with footage from the final film. The fact that so little changes is a true testament to the artistry and imagination of Ms. Blair.
Effing AWESOME. Street Angel and Afrodisiac creator Jim Rugg has begun sketching out a series of tributes to cinema’s most memorable drag queen, Divine.
So far, Rugg’s released three: Divine as Wonder Woman, Jessica Rabbit and Death from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Each one is a stunner. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Click through to see the complete pics.
(Yo, and somebody tell John Waters!)
“According to a recently declassified report from the Warren Commission, [Magneto] altered the trajectory of Oswald’s second bullet, effectively murdering the president.”
Magneto on the grassy knoll — I love it!
Commemorate your as-yet-undefined relationship with this sterling-silver friendship necklace honoring Batman & Robin’s 73-year ‘are they/aren’t they’ partnership.
Hell, why limit yourself with that ‘friendship’ label? Let’s celebrate the speculation and simply call it a RELATIONSHIP necklace.
Friends, more-than-friends and funny-book f*ck buddies can purchase this necklace set here.
Related: Superhero Housewares
A quick bit of unsolicited advice from one childless chump to the legions of baby-bearing animators, directors, writers, producers, storyboard artists, etc. working today:
YOUR KIDS AREN’T AS CLEVER AS YOU THINK THEY ARE.
I’m not questioning their cuteness, mind you. A quick scroll through your iPhone is proof positive that your child is the one in a billion exception to the rule that all newborn babies look like short-eared Salacious Crumbs. No argument there.
I’m also not saying that your kid is dumb. I’m sure he and/or she is quite intelligent for their age, with a willingness and eagerness to learn. Factor in the privatized schooling and specialized tutoring available to folks in your zip code and tax bracket, and I’ve no doubt he and/or she will be extremely well-educated by the time they’ve finished school.
What I am saying is this: Kids is ign’ant. YOUR KID is ignorant. It’s part and parcel of being a kid. Accept this. Honor this. Then bring this real world knowledge into your animated artistry and stop making every cartoon kid so preternaturally smart.
It’s taken almost a year, but the angsty and eternally adolescent Jack Frost has FINALLY released a statement regarding his former, frolicking, imp-like image:
“IT WAS A PHASE.”
While I don’t believe this will be enough to curb the constant questioning over his 1979 Bowie-esque dalliance with glitter and tights, I’m glad to see he’s finally acknowledged it.
Truth be told, I liked him better that way.
Photos & quote via: chick-with-a-blender
Variety reports: VFX Artists to Protest Obama’s DreamWorks Visit
As President Obama visits DreamWorks Animation’s Glendale campus on Tuesday, visual effects artists, frustrated by the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries that offer generous subsidies, are planning a rally outside the DreamWorks Animation campus in Glendale.
An effort also is under way to get those attending the speech — largely restricted to studio employees — to wear green shirts in solidarity on the issue and to call the president’s attention to the problem. The green shirts represent a blank greenscreen — the message being “This is your movie without visual effects.”
Cartoon characters swooning over statues…
Is that better or worse than humans who fantasize about fictional characters?
It’s a fact: Skunk & Burning Tires posted last week’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 poster HOURS before Cartoon Brew, Animation Scoop and Animation News Network. Didn’t matter. Folks went elsewhere.
The same thing happened on Friday with the bad news about about the Good Dinosaur layoffs. We reported it HOURS before the bigger sites. The cartoon community’s response? A Google Analytics flatline.
Don’t get me wrong. I GET IT. Skunk is the ugly upstart. We’re new, untested, unfamiliar. Not only that, but humans are creatures of habit. Until Skunk becomes a regular part of your daily browsing, an integral link in your RSS feed, an irrefutable compulsion on par with a Tourette kid’s cussing, you’re gonna go elsewhere.
So here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna woo you. I’m gonna drop you little love notes (news, reviews and the occasional op-ed pieces). I’m gonna give you little gifts (posters, trailers and links to cool ish). I’m gonna lift my metaphorical skirt high enough to pique your literal interest, and then I’m gonna mentally hump your physical brains until I make Skunk & Burning Tires your second (maybe third?) favorite animation website on the net
But for now, howzabout I just give you that HTTYD2 concept art? Continue reading
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Pixar has laid off “an undisclosed number of people at its Emeryville, Calif., headquarters due to the delay of its forthcoming film The Good Dinosaur.”
While no concrete numbers are available yet, the layoffs are rumored to affect less than 5% of the company’s 1,200 employees.
Animation fans may recall that this past summer, The Good Dinosaur‘s original director, Bob Peterson, was removed from the project. A month later, the film was pushed back from its original release date of May 30, 2014, to Nov. 25, 2015. This delay has left Pixar without a movie for 2014.
In related news, Pixar closed its Vancouver studios last month, laying off approximately 80 employees.
We at Skunk send our deepest condolences to those folks who have lost their jobs.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are producing a film adaptation of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ superhero spy comic, Sleeper.
This is GREAT NEWS in my opinion, as Sleeper is my second favorite espionage comic book of all time. (1st place? Steranko’s Nick Fury.)
Sleeper is the tale of Holden Carver (a.k.a. The Conductor) — an angry, anti-social, super-powered secret agent. After being fused with an alien artifact, Carver is imbued with increased strength, heightened healing and the ability to store pain and pass it on to others. The story opens with Carver working DEEP undercover in a James Bond-y criminal organization run by an evil genius named Tao. How deep? Only one man, John Lynch, the director of International Operations, knows that Carver is really one of the good guys. Then Lynch gets killed. This leaves Carver stranded in the middle of his mission, with the good guys believing he’s a bad guy and the bad guys beginning to suspect he may not be who he claims to be. Chaos, bloodshed and S&M ensues.
That sounds a little dirty, doesn’t it?
Still, it’s 100% true. A few years back, my nephew, Joel, started asking to borrow comics. As he was totally new to the art-form, I had the privilege of curating his syllabus, carefully collating which books he’d read and in what order.
A couple months into this brightly colored brain-washing, his father (my brother-in-law…well, my STEP-brother-in-law…actually, legally, my EX-step-brother-in-law…gosh, these things get complicated quickly!), Frank, told me that he’d been reading the comics, too.
I had to ask: Did he actually LIKE reading them, or was he reading them to make sure I wasn’t using comics to corrupt his kid?
Both.
And he wanted more! Continue reading
DreamWorks has released the new poster for 2014′s How to Train Your Dragon 2. The film’s director, Dean DeBlois (Lilo & Stitch, HTTYD), described his plans for the sequel at this year’s Comic-Con, saying:
We get to start when the first movie left off, which is now Vikings can fly on the backs of dragons and the entire world is open to them for exploration. Hiccup can now push beyond the known world and expand the map in every direction, and inevitably he has to come to some sort of conflict out there where dragons and humans are at war. We get to the idea that an encroaching threat will find its way to Berk.
Oh, how I love a well-made mash-up!
Today’s magnificent meldings come from graphic artist and animation instructor, Krista Nicholson (a.k.a. Kuitsuku). They’re a rather inspired blend. Instead of physically combing two unrelated entities, Krista paired them up, creating combos based on physical resemblance (like the Cheshire Cat and Gengar) and silly sights gags (like Princess Tiana and her Prince Politoad).
There’s ten in all, all of ‘em adorable. Enjoy!
It seems like it was only a week ago that the only way you could find DC/Vertigo on TV was via the posters in Roseanne’s home.
Come to think of it, it WAS just a week ago! Continue reading
Over the past ten years, Kanye West has created an amazing collection of animated music videos. Hand-drawn, CG, stop-motion, puppetry — you name it, he’s done it. The list of animators he has collaborated with is equally eclectic. We’re talking capital-G Greats like Bill Plympton, Michel Gondry, Takashi Murakami and The Jim Henson Company. You may not care for Yeezy’s music, but you’ve got to give him credit: Dude’s a one-man MOMA when it comes to curating cartoon talent!
As a fan of both Kanye and cartooning, I thought it would be fun to make a quick list of all his animated work, tossing in one or two of his more candid cartoon-related quotes for kicks. Silly me. What started out as a brief time-killer soon morphed into an entire evening’s affair. Turns out Kanye has done a lot more animation work than I was aware of. A LOT MORE.
So here it is, in chronological order, and with the appropriate links. I may have missed a few, so if you know of any others, please let me know in the comments section. I’d love to add them to the list!
The ugly, accident-prone, fiscally f*cked Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, will close its doors in January, Variety reports.
While the $75 million musical takes in an estimated $1 million per week, the show costs $1.2 million per week to produce. Add in the large legal settlement made to original director, Julie Taymor, as well as the countless payouts to those folks injured during the show’s run, and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is now officially “the most expensive production in Broadway history and a financial wreck for investors.”
Thank heavens Uncle Ben didn’t live to see this.
True story: I realized I was getting old when I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit? recently, and for the first time ever, I saw it from Eddie Valiant’s perspective, not Roger’s.
Here it is. The official American trailer for Miyzaki’s final film, The Wind Rises. The film begins its limited release on 2/21/14, going wide on 2/28/14. I can’t wait!
Thanks to Animation Scoop for the, well, ‘scoop.’
Related: This Quote Killed Me (Michael Sporn’s BEAUTIFULLY worded review of The Wind Rises)
For some strange reason, the Walt Disney Company is claiming that TODAY is Mickey Mouse’s 85th birthday. Yet it only takes a quick Google search to see that the Mouse debuted six months earlier, on May 15, 1928.
What gives?
Is this the desperate act of an aging diva, or simply a clerical error? Your guess is as worthless as mine. But the fact remains, Mickey Mouse is 85 AND A HALF years old today, and Minnie and I want to make sure the whole world knows it!
Badass Digest is reporting that AMC has ordered a pilot based on the darkly humorous, decidedly adult comic book, Preacher, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Continue reading
To quote Mary J. Blige: “My life, my life, my life, my life…”
(Or: This Is My Childhood, Mashed-Up & Merchandised)
I’m conflicted.
About these mash-ups, I mean.
On the one hand, artist James Zark has combined two things I’ve LOVED since I was a kid: Punk rock and X-Men. On the other hand, seeing them plastered on everything from t-shirts to tote bags to coffee mugs feels a bit…off.
X-Men is all about individuality, right? And a big part of punk rock was the idea of not “selling out.” So mashing them together and then merchandising them indiscriminately — I can’t be the only one who finds it a li’l ironic, can I?
I can?
Damn.
Then without further ado, ‘Never Mind The Mutants: Here’s the X-Pistols!’
(Or: I may not be a fan of Family Guy, but I’m even LESS a fan of folks who try and censor Family Guy.)
Here’s the skinny: Some headline-hunting parents group is calling for a bitch-blitz over Family Guy‘s 11/10 episode. The complaint? Well, there’s a lot of ‘em, but basically it boils down to Family Guy being Family Guy — stupid sex gags, tasteless plot points and an endless, exhausting quest for ‘edginess.’
Twelve seasons, and they’re only discovering this NOW?! Continue reading
(What? I’m paraphrasing.)
From the twisted minds behind Eastbound & Down comes FX’s newest controversy-courting cartoon, Chozen. The show follows gay, white rapper, Chozen (Bobby Moynihan), as he graduates jail and heads back out into society, ready to take over the rap game.
Chozen is written by Eastbound & Down alum Grant Dekernion, and executive produced by Eastbound‘s own David Gordon Green, Jody Hill and Danny McBride. With a pedigree like that, it’s a safe bet that this intentionally offensive, animated insanity will also be smart, subversive and incredibly cringe-worthy.
Chozen premieres January 13.
This is one of those things that you stumble across on the internet and immediately feel the need to share with everyone you know. No, it’s not a cat on a piano or a Tardis-shaped wedding cake. It’s a BEAUTIFULLY worded review of Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises by animator/director Michael Sporn:
The thorny tangle, horned cowl, winged familiar and ever-looming threat of large needle-like objects…IT’S ALL HERE!
My logical mind tells me not to get my hopes up, silently shouting the words, “Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland” over and over like a mantra-themed meme. But my stupid self, the one that left HUGE factual errors in his first piece published by Animation Scoop? That part of me is getting giddy.
After two retirements and a recent health scare, Hayao Miyazaki is back with TWO new projects. One looks great. The other sounds AMAZING.
First up is the new Studio Ghibli documentary, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. Director Mami Sunada (Ending Note: Death of a Japanese Salaryman) set up camp at Ghibli, following Miyazaki around as he worked on The Wind Rises, and Isao Takahata as he completed The Tale of Princess Kaguya. If the trailer is any indication, expect a nice, long, behind-the-scenes look at the most magical animation studio operating today. Continue reading
Or: Something For The Fellas, Something For The Females
Ha! You’re SO sexist! You TOTALLY thought I meant that the pin-ups were for the men and the dresses were for the women. But nooo. I meant that the nudie cuties were for the gay gals and the grossly overpriced gowns were for the uber-wealthy cross-dressers.
Gosh, you must feel so dumb. You know what they say about assumptions making asses out of you and mptions. But I forgive you. After all, I’m not just totally accepting of every lifestyle, I’m also uncommonly forgiving. Saint Ju-osh - that’s me. Now onto to the sketchbook soft-core!
Here they are, the FIRST TWO PHOTOS of the elusive Night Fury!
While rumors persist that a young boy from Berk has not only captured, but TRAINED one of these deadly beasts (YEAH, RIGHT!), these are the only known photographs of one in flight.
The team of dragonologists who captured these miraculous pics believe the fearsome Night Fury will pass over North America in the next few weeks. All signs point to NYC on Thanksgiving morning.
Related: THERE’S GOING TO BE A TOOTHLESS BALLOON FOR THE THANKSGIVING PARADE! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Nightwing commutes between Blüdhaven and Gotham. Aquaman splits his time between the ocean floor and the Hall of Justice. Me? I spend every other hour toggling back and forth between the wide open plains of the World Wide Web and the dank, darkened confines of Tumblr.
Why?
Cuz while the internet likes to think of itself as erudite and enlightened, Tumblr is unapologetic in its nerdiness and navel-gazing. It’s a lot like a comic book shop in that way. And just like a comic book shop, if you browse around long enough, you’re bound to come across something that — for better or worse — you would have NEVER seen anywhere else.
Here are a few of the better bits I happened upon this week.
Seductively stylish and unrelentingly scriptural, The Rabbi’s Cat is the most visually appealing piece of religious propaganda since Davey & Goliath. That said, both would be a helluva lot more re-watchable if they weren’t so goddamn preachy.
Due to the horrific imagery contained in this post, we are keeping the entire piece hidden behind a ‘Continue Reading’ link.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Former Disney animators Dominic Carola and Aaron Blaise helped create this incredibly charming and surprisingly touching animated ad for British retailer, John Lewis.
Carola and Blaise worked on Disney’s Brother Bear. Glimpses of the character designs from Bear can definitely be seen in this classy, classically animated ad.
Thanks to Cartoon Brew for the heads-up!
Related: Miyazaki-Inspired Ad Retells Patty Hearst Story Using Teddy Bears.
For most film buffs, a Disney/Hitchcock collaboration would have been a dream come true. While the two artists were acutely aware of one another’s work, until now, there were only TWO instances where their professional paths were known to have crossed.
Here it is, the first full trailer for Studio Ghibli’s latest, The Story of Princess Kaguya. It’s a quiet, nuanced, deceptively simple bit of beauty — much like every other cartoon bearing the blue Totoro title card.
The Story of Princess Kaguya is the new film from Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday). It will be released in Japan on Nov. 23.
Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Pete Holmes have been doing a lot of comic book comedy bits lately. But seeing as you’re an internet elitist who only watches TV online, I compiled them all here so’s you wouldn’t miss them.
You can thank me later.
(Preferably with cash.)
(Real cash, not &#$@’n bitcoin.)
In a move that will surely shock millions, Marvel has boldly decided to move forward on a few more comic book adaptations.
The script for Frozen is now online!
If you’re the type of person who hates sitting in a movie theater and being surprised, CLICK HERE.
But please: DON’T TELL ME ANYTHING!
I actually WANT to be surprised by what lies ahead. I’ve spoiled too damned many movies for myself recently. I’m hoping to see this one with (relatively) virgin eyes.
That said, I’m NOT judging you. I know all too well the impulse to read scripts for movies I’m anticipating. It’s just that with Frozen, I don’t even think the screenplay will get across even HALF of what’s in store.
Laptop decals are the wacky socks of the tech set — a store bought way to proclaim one’s individuality whilst continuing to conform to societal norms.
Sound harsh?
Well, if it makes you feel any better, it was actually a lecture aimed squarely at ME. Cuz you know what I just spent the last half hour doing? Searching online for an animation-themed laptop decal…while wearing garishly striped socks.
So what better way to turn lemons into lemonade (or in this case, a secret shame into a public post) than to share my favorite finds with you!
Theoretical physicists believe that in the vast reaches of space exist other worlds just like ours…only different. On one such world, the animation industry operates much the same as Earth’s…only different. The creators are the same. The studios are the same. Hell, even the names of the cartoons are the same. And yet, things are…different.
Thanks to the fine folks at NASA and WikiLeaks, Skunk & Burning Tires has rec’d five sets of highly classified, TOP SECRET images pertaining to the animation offered on this alternate Earth. While I encourage you to click the links below, keep in mind that once you’ve seen something, you can’t un-see it. Your perception of reality WILL be altered. What you now know to be the truth will feel like a lie. Your faith will collapse. Your sense of self will be forever shattered.
Still, Matt Groening’s Dragon Ball Z? That’s kinda worth it…
Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack answers the age old question: What would an EC Comic by Carl Barks look like?
I must admit, I didn’t know what to expect when I first picked up Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack Volume 1. While Tezuka’s Astro Boy is often hailed as the cornerstone of modern manga, reading it has always felt to me like more of a ‘study of the grand masters’ than an honest-to-goodness engaging read. (Sort of like reading the first few dozen issues of Superman or The Green Lantern — the art’s amazing and the characters are iconic, but goddamn if the stories aren’t repetitive.)
But Black Jack? Wow.
A pediatric pain scale, starring Finn!
From Pendelton Ward’s website:
When nursing student Janell suggested how kids in her pediatric ward might better respond to Finn’s face on the traditional “Wong-Baker Facial Grimace Scale,” Adventure Time character designer Matt Forsythe drew up these Finns, from “no pain” to “worst pain possible,” for her.
How sweet is this?
TAG blog reports:
“When Disney was a tiny, struggling little studio at the bottom of the Depression, the company had artists test gratis. [...] Now that Diz Co. is a huge, multi-national conglomerate, the conglom has artists test gratis.”
Yikes. Pretty crappy.
But on the bright side, this is the ONE area where The Walt Disney Company (DIS) has managed to uphold the credo, ‘What would Walt do?’
Or: From B.C.E. to TMZ – We’re Genetically Wired for Gossip
Twenty years ago, the big myth surrounding Walt Disney was that he was cryogenically frozen. There was barely any internet back then, so it was easy for this fantastic, sci-fi tinged tale to go viral without any real rebuttal.
After all, Walt loved all things futuristic, so it sorta made sense that he would seek an answer to the whole mortality thing using the most scientifically advanced methods of his day. Add to this the unsettling rumor that his frozen body was being stored beneath Sleeping Beauty’s castle, and it was no wonder the public loved repeating it ad nauseam!
Halloween doesn’t just bring back the dead, it resurrects old movie projects as well!
After Tim Burton’s stop-motion Addams Family flick failed to get started, most Hot Topic shoppers and animation aficionados thought the project dead.
We wuz wrong.
