Results tagged “animation”

Pencil This In: Night Flight Tribute, Talking Politics with George McGovern and John Dean

There’s a diverse community of animators in Chicago, and the Echo Park Film Center brings their work to Los Angeles in “Chi(a)nimation All Stars: Recent Animations from Chicago.” Artist Jodie Mack will share a collection of animated shorts made in Chicago during her time in the Windy City (2005-present). “From hand-drawn character animations, to lush abstractions, to puppet or paint-on glass animation, to glitch video processing--this program illustrates a multitude of midwestern motion experiments!” The show begins at $8 and tickets are $5.

Pencil This In: Moonlight Hikes; David Lynch, Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse @ Book Soup Tonight

Filmmaker David Lynch and musicians Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse collaborated on a special CD, photography and book project, which LAist told you about last month. Tonight, the trio are signing their limited-edition book Dark Night of the Soul at Book Soup at 8 pm. They’ll also sign ONE ITEM in addition to a purchased copy of the book. This is not a ticketed event, so get there early. Attendance is on a first-come-first-served basis.

Pencil This In: Animation @ Redcat, Cool Cats Pop-Up Store

There's an abundance of interesting events about town tonight -- which is surprising because it is Monday, after all. Here are some of our favs:

We first threw this brand new Whispertown 2000 video out there as a bonus to our twitter followers--an exclusive if you must apply a label. But the song and video are to good to not share with the rest of you. Props go out to the local band's singer/songwriter Morgan Nagler, and the video's animator: Morgan's brother.

Jonathan Jarvis, a master's candidate at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, kept it more than a little bit real with "The Crisis of Credit Visualized." This 11-minute animation is just one part of Jarvis's thesis. May his grad school debt vanish with great haste.

Four Questions for Animation and Cartoon Historian Jerry Beck

Jerry Beck is an LA-based animation and cartoon historian who's authored or co-authored many books on the subject, including Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, The Art Of Bee Movie, The Hanna Barbera Treasury and Nicktoons.

The Death of  the Classic Warner Bros. Cartoon Mural

Over the holiday week, it appears that Warner Brothers has painted over their huge Looney Tunes/Hanna-Barbera/Warner Animation mural that's been there for more than 15 years, finds animation authority, historian and author Jerry Beck on his blog, Cartoon Brew. "To give them benefit of the doubt, perhaps they are going to replace it with an even better graphic of Bugs Bunny and crew. I hope so... but who wants to bet that Harry Potter or the live action Dark Knight will soon be guiding us toward the Cahuenga Pass."

You know, I didn't have very high expectations going in to see Kung Fu Panda. I expected a lot of slapstick, pop-culture jokes, and a lot of smart-ass remarks from Jack Black's panda character. I had no expectations for any real, exciting, actual Kung Fu action.

Okay, so Long Beach doesn't pack the same exotic pull as, oh, say, Rio, but they're going to put on a Carnaval and pull out all the stops. Get out your Carnaval costumes and get ready to samba the night away! This year’s theme is “Preservation of the Planet” featuring green and recycled decorations. At the heart of the 2008 celebration is renowned Bahiana Dandara, musicians performing vibrant and energetic Carnaval beats. Music and bare booties abound!

Yesterday, we got you map-ready. Today, we'll get you float-ready. Tomorrow? Who knows, maybe we'll get you marching-band ready.

A series of animated shorts titled "Geometry of Circles," featuring music composed by Philip Glass, kaleidoscopically tranced out legions of Sesame Street viewers in the early 80's. The clip above features four of these shorts strung together almost seamlessly, even though they were first broadcast separately, in some cases years apart. According to the Muppet Wiki, "Geometry of Circles" dates back to 1979....

Fridays at 7:30 pm: THE PERVERSE PUPPETRY OF JAN SVANKMAJER Unsurpassed in his tactile, uncanny approach to experimental animation, surrealist Czech master Jan Svankmajer's films have inspired a generation of directors, including Tim Burton and The Brothers Quay, to expand their confidence in what is visually and conceptually possible in cinema. Whether concerned with sexual taboos or blatant political satire, Svankmajer's vision is always off-kilter, mordantly funny, and oddly sincere. - The Silent Movie Theater...

Two of the four big summer three-quels hit DVD shelves today. Neither is worth your money. Better to spend it on La Vie en Rose, featuring one of the best performances in years by the amazing Marion Cotillard. Better yet, make it a French double-feature and pick up Paris Je T'Aime, too. If you haven't yet, invest a weekend watching Berlin Alexanderplatz. And, yes, it will take the whole weekend. Christmas and South Park...

Covering the weekend box office race can sometimes be a tedious job for the simple reason that there are rarely big surprises. Typically, a movie opens on a bunch of screens, makes a large portion of its money in its opening frame, then drops 50% in each successive weekend before finally disappearing from theaters. There are, however, occasional outliers who don't follow the normal pattern and make life much more interesting. is the newest member of that club.

Another favorite animated short by Borge Ring. It may be a tad bit oversentimental, but I can only hope to end up like these two....

Osamu Tezuka's classic animated short was always one of my favorites, back when I was hitting animation film festivals. It doesn't quite have the punch of the bigscreen, but is stunning nonetheless....

There was a welcome flight to quality this weekend as movie-goers finally gave some love to a good flick. pulled in $39.1M and looks to be a hit for DreamWorks Animation.

This weekend is one of those weekends where--if you love movies--you'll be hard-pressed to choose which one (or two) to see. Most will probably settle on American Gangster, and I don't see anything wrong with that. Couple two powerhouse actors (Denzel & Crowe) with a reliable director (Ridley), add a compelling story that has slipped through the cracks for years and you have what looks to be a great, studio picture. If, like the...

photo via KTLA

Walt Disney's art school, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), in the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita has always brought an interesting mix up to the traditionally Republican and white-flight valley north of The Valley. Though, as time progresses, the face of the 4th largest city in LA County grows lefter and more diverse. And CalArts is still seen as some experimental freak show to many (or to those who know nothing, "a basket...

The "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act'' "A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent lightbulbs as part of California's groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming... 'Incandescent lightbulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications,'' California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine [D-Van Nuys] said on Tuesday."(New York Times) Let...

Maybe the best thing ever. Definitely the best thing today. Directed by Ugly Pictures/Animated by Man vs. Magnet...

Chirac sez that Turkey shouldn't be allowed in the EU unless it admits to killing 1.5 million Armenians back in the day. - LA Daily News Dude who got mugged for $20,000 after leaving Washington Mutual in Palmdale blames new bank design. - LAT UCLA scientist gets $3.8 million to study a radical new approach to pinpoint schizophrenia. For $380 we would have just given them our Little Black Book. - CBS2 "Open Season"...

In the LA-based movie Collateral, Max (played by Jamie Foxx) had only one way of taking a vacation: vicariously, through a photo of a tropical island in his taxi cab sun visor. Now, in two weeks, Max will have another choice. From National Geographic's All Roads Film Project comes (bet you can't guess it) the All Roads Film Festival. Los Angeles is the first stop of this traveling Film Festival, which goes to various...

Ok, we admit, Anaheim isn't exactly LA. But tell that to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. So there. Anyway, if you are in the mood for some cool animation, comics or maybe even some cosplay, head on down to Anaheim (or over, or down and over) and check out the 15th Annual Anime Expo this weekend.

Charles Zembillas is the consummate animator, creative entrepreneur and visual developer: he's funny, fiesty and energetic. He not only works on his own projects but also runs an animation school, the Animation Academy, in Burbank when he's not organizing animators to resist abuse and bad business deals offered by this town's entertainment-industrial complex.

We should be doing laundry in preparation for flying to Austin tomorrow but The Reporter is, heh, reporting that Fox Animation has got the rights to make Dr. Suess's Horton Hears A Who!

A public service of the UCLA Animation Workshop, The Traffic Cone Preservation Society seeks to save one of the most recognizable landmarks of the Los Angeles freeway system and the bane of all drivers: the traffic cone.

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