John Lasseter wins lifetime achievement award

John Lasseter's pair of Oscars has a new friend: a lifetime achievement trophy. The Pixar and Disney animation chief received the award Friday night for his devotion to the 40-minutes-or-less average from Shorts International, an entertainment organization which endorses, distributes, broadcasts and creates short films.

"It feels incredible because I love short films," said Lasseter. "I love the art form and what it did for me as a filmmaker. I learnt so much from making short films. They're these little gems, these unbelievable little ideas that are not meant to be a feature film. They're ideal unto themselves. A great short film leaves you smiling and thinking about it."

Lasseter won the animated short film Oscar in 1988 for "Tin Toy," as well as a particular achievement award in 1995 for "Toy Story," the primary feature-length computer-generated film. The lifetime achievement award from Shorts International may not be his only prize this weekend. He's nominated with the other "Toy Story 3" filmmakers for best modified script.

"Toy Story 3" is also rivaling in the sound editing, original song, animated feature and best picture categories. Lasseter is hopeful about its chances for the top prize, even though the motion picture academy has never gave an animated film with the best picture honor. "Toy Story 3" is only the third animated film to be nominated in that category.

"I do consider we will one day see an animated film win the best picture Oscar, and I hope it's on Sunday," said Lasseter. "I think that over time, more and more of Hollywood and the Academy have gotten to know animation. It's precisely the same as live action filmmaking. We tell great stories. We use great actors. We just use a dissimilar camera."

'Let's Pollute' proves that small budget is no Oscar obstruction

Not all Oscar-nominated films cost big bucks. Geefwee Boedoe made one for less than $15,000 in his home studio and a friend's garage, writing his own tinkles and asking his wife to sing.

"I didn't really have a budget, so I didn't pay myself," says Boedoe, maker of the six-minute animated film Let's Pollute, a social send-up about U.S. consumption and its environmental destruction. He started working on the film more than three years ago, taking breaks only so he could do self-employed work to pay the bills.

A former Pixar animator, Boedoe wrote, directed and animated the film himself. He teamed up with a tiny post-production crew, including co-producer Joel Bloom, to edit the final version in Bloom's garage.

"This is all new," he says about the pre-Oscar buzz and Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. He has never been to the Oscars, so for the occasion, he bought a 1960s black-tie-like outfit at a era shop in San Francisco, where he lives.

"Hopefully, they'll let me in," he says with a chuckle.

He sees his proposal as a sort of David and Goliath battle waged with pencils and computers. He says his four competitors in the best-animated-short category had much bigger budgets.

Pixar's nominee, Day & Night, available for purchase on iTunes, was shown to many audiences before the Disney-Pixar box office hit Toy Story 3. Two of the three foreign productions, The Gruffalo and The Lost Thing, are based on popular children's books, and the French offering, Madagascar, carnet de voyage, was backed by a production company.

He says his satire, animated in the style of 1950s educational films, has won awards at several regional film festivals, but not many Americans have seen it. He says those who have seem to either love or hate it.

"Pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy going strong," the narrator says, tongue-in-cheek, as he follows an American family doing its unhelpful best to keep up with the Joneses.

Boedoe says the best part of an Oscar nomination is having more people see his film. Since every academy member who votes for a winner in the group has to watch each candidate, he says: "I think I have a shot at winning."

Ottawa animation fest's best delivers diverse cartoon party

IT'S not a good sign when an animator fails to close a film festival entry, desperately submits a roughly cobbled-together one-minute doo-dad titled Sorry Film Not Ready, and it still manages to get included on the annual best-of collection.

Auspiciously, the program of a dozen animated shorts culled from the 2010 Ottawa International Animation Festival does contain films of more work-intensive value. None of the films are on the list of this year's Oscar candidates either, but one film from last year's festival Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage is a 2010 Oscar nominee, so most probably some of the films on this year's program may be chosen for 2011.

My individual picks from the 14:

-- Little Deaths, an erotic doc-toon by Ruth Lingford, offers up some sumptuous, occasionally abstract images over the voices of various people effecting to explain what orgasm feels like.

-- Midtown Twist is a deftly satiric, jazzy representation of Manhattan commerce from animator Gary Leib.

-- Angry Man, from Norway, is a moving but frightening short employing storybook-like cut-outs to depict a little boy's fear and confusion at the spectacle of his father's violent rages. A dog and a flock of strange birds compel him to reveal shameful family secrets, and free his family from the oppression of bad temper.

-- Love & Theft, a German work by Andreas Hykade, is an elegant vision (if such a thing is possible) in which one cartoon face morphs into another. The "theft" in the title may refer to faces that look something like copyright-protected figures such as Micky Mouse, Donald Duck, Betty Boop, Spider-Man and Spongebob Squarepants morphing into Karl Marx and Hitler, among many, many others. This is simple (but subversive) animation at its best.

-- The External World from David O'Reilly is a grand prize-winning, retro-computer animation featuring a assortment of pretty hilarious sight gags incorporating prehistoric video-game imagery, bloody slapstick and just plain rude behavior.

The Best of the Ottawa International Animation Festival plays at Cinematheque until Thursday, Feb. 24.

Gnomeo & Juliet – review

This animated movie, produced by Elton John and David Furnish, retells the tale of Romeo and Juliet through the rising clash between the blue and red gnomes in the gardens of next-door houses busy by the Montague and Capulet families in a London suburban terrace. The voices are provided by leading British actors ranging from Jason Statham as Tybalt to Patrick Stewart as Shakespeare. A lot of consideration, love and hard work has gone into this picture, and it even has a happy ending, though what Shakespeare himself sees, to his obvious pleasure, is an atomic mushroom in the far coldness.

How To Train Your Dragon leads Annie awards

Oscar-nominated cartoon How To Train Your Dragon has won 10 prizes at the Annie awards for animation in the US. The Dreamworks movie won best animated characteristic, animated effects and best direction awards in the middle of its haul at the Los Angeles ceremony.

Other winners at the gala built-in SpongeBob Square pants for best children's animation. Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist are also in the running for best animated characteristic at the Academy Awards.

At Saturday night's awards, Despicable Me and Tangled were also built-in in the five-strong shortlist for best animated feature. How To Train Your Dragon also triumphed in the writing groups. Jay Baruchel took a voice acting award for his role of Hiccup in the animation, beating Cameron Diaz, Geoffrey Rush, Gerard Butler and Steve Carrell in the groups.

Butler was also nominated for his work in the film, voicing the character Stoick. Last year's Annie award winner for best animated feature was Up, which went on to secure the Oscar.

Disney has lastly made Tangled, a film about Rapunzel!

Having taken Disney almost 70 years to get there, Tangled realizes the studio’s long-held ambition to fetch the legend of Rapunzel to the big screen. THIS is the movie you will be advising to friends by saying, "You have got to go see it for the horse!".

The horse in question is called Max, one of the funniest characters Disney have ever created, up there with Robin Williams' genie in Aladdin - and he doesn't even speak.

THE CHARACTERS

• Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore)
• Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi)
• Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy)
• THE BIG 5-0
• THE LASSETER EFFECT
• THE HAIR

It's just one of the reasons to watch this retelling of the Rapunzel story. At £160million it is the most luxurious animated film ever made. But more highly, Disney's 50th animated characteristic marks the dawn of a new era for the studio. One in which they have effectively married their traditional storytelling with modern comedy and the latest animation techniques.

You know the classic story: Rapunzel is a princess with a huge barnet who is kidnapped as a baby and locked in a tower. Then a handsome thief rescues her after she whacks him over the head with a frying pan. There are some singing thugs, a chameleon called Pascal and of course there's the aforementioned angry horse.

The classic Rapunzel story. Contrast to the likes of Toy Story 3, the themes here of boy and girl falling in love feel old-fashioned.

It's the top songs, stunning 3D visuals including an astonishing dam-bursting sequence, funny script and laugh-out-loud physical comedy that make this a hugely pleasant experience for kids and adults alike.

Robert Downey Jr in "Peabody and Sherman" Movie

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that DreamWorks Animation is operational on "Peabody and Sherman," a movie base on the old "Rocky and Bullwinkle" show about a genius dog Mr Peabody and a boy named Sherman.

Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man) has signed on to voice Mr. Peabody, who travels from side to side time to find out implausibly things about history's greatest figures. A script has already been written by Jeffrey Ventimilia and Joshua Sternin (Yogi Bear), who bare that the movie will focus not only on the time-traveling, but also on the origins of the characters.

"Mr. Peabody is this genetic irregularity," said director Rob Minkoff (The Lion King). "He does have brothers and sisters, all of them non-speaking, no super-smart dogs. He's an outcast, but has overcome it by being so great at so many things."

Minkoff added that the movie will be fully computer animated (not a mix of live-action/animation) and in 3D.

The voices of Peabody and Sherman were provided by Bill Scott and Walter Tetley, respectively.

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales – DVD Review

A Charlie Brown Christmas became an instant holiday clip when it first aired in 1965 as the Peanuts animated tale reminds people that it’s time to move furnishings around to make space for the tree. Over the decades the special that rails against the commercialization of Christmas has become a fatality of networks adding more commercials to its half hour slot.

The suits originally carved out seconds until they butchered the gang singing, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Fans weren’t happy at this shortened tradition. A solution was found in 2002 when they created Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales to pad out an hour slot.

The new special compiles five cartoons based on original newspaper flooring done by Charles Schulz. “Happy Holidays From Snoopy” has the dog get a gig as a sidewalk Santa. He doesn’t put up with bad-tempered from the kids who didn’t get their gifts. Instead of ringing a bell, he plays the accordion. “Yuletide Greetings from Linus” comprises his letter to Santa Claus that attempts to avoid absolute asking for presents.

“Season’s Greetings from Sally” takes off with her giving everyone paper airplanes as their present. Later she messes up by writing to Samantha Claus. “Peace on Earth from Lucy” lets her unload on Linus when he writes her letter to Santa. She doesn’t take his submissions kindly. “Christmas from Charlie Brown” wraps up with Sally and Charlie getting ready for the big day. Sally wants to leave frozen broccoli under the tree for Santa. She does see Santa.

Ironically Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales became a victim of network slashing this holiday season. ABC halved the show in order to cram in their “Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa” short. Thus in a strange twist, the only way to view the complete special is to buy the DVD. Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales was originally a bonus feature on the I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown DVD, but was left off the recent Deluxe Edition release. This is the best place to get the complete special. Nobody wants to make it easy to enjoy Snoopy as Santa.

Fox Orders Animated ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ Show

Fox has picked up 6 episodes of the animated version of 2004′s most quoted movie, Napoleon Dynamite. Deadline has the deets.

The original cast of Napoleon Dynamite led by Jon Heder is back to voice the animated series, which goes after the misadventures of an awkward high school teenager and his quirky friends as they move violently to navigate life in rural Idaho. The film’s writers Jared Hess, who also directed it, and Jerusha Hess wrote the adaptation with The Simpsons veteran Mike Scully.

Seems like the perfect movie to turn animated bearing in mind the film itself is insanely over the top. I always understood the llama for a pet and awkward teenage boy very much in need of psychological counseling, but side ponytails? C’mon, no one wears those anymore!

SpongeBob SquarePants Changed for Ninth Season

SpongeBob SquarePants has been rehabilitated for a ninth season, Nickelodeon proclaimed Monday.

Nick ordered a 26-episode season, which will shove the hit children's cartoon over the 200-episode mark.

"SpongeBob's success in reaching over 200 episodes is a evidence to creator Stephen Hillenburg's vision, comedic deep feeling and his dynamic, lovable characters," Brown Johnson, Nickelodeon's animation president, said in a statement. "The series now joins the club of modern classic Nicktoons that have hit this benchmark, so we're very proud."

SpongeBob has been the No.1 animated series with kids aged 2-to-11 for the last 10 years. The Nov. 11 special, Mystery with a Twistery, drew 6.6 million viewers, and was the 2010's top animated telecast in that similar demographic. The show's next special, Legends of Bikini Bottom, will open Jan. 28.

The ninth season is lined up to begin airing in 2012.

‘Young Justice’ Gets Premiere Date, New Trailer

A new trailer for ‘Young Justice’ Cartoon Network’s ‘Justice League Unlimited’ successor has debuted alongside the statement that the show will premiere this January.

Those of you waiting tolerantly for DC’s latest animation adaptation won’t have to wait much longer. After an hour-long sneak peak in November, Cartoon Network will debut Young Justice in its regular slot on Friday, January 7th at 7 PM. The channel’s been running a short trailer to get fans keyed up, and it has a few new tidbits to tide you over until the first show.


The junior superheroes are effective under the Justice League, functioning as a farm team and taking covert assignments from Batman. At the end of the sneak peak, the team included Robin, Kid Flash, a newly-cloned Superboy, Aqualad and Miss Martian. Speedy was seen briefly, but elected not to link the Justice League or the younger spin-off. Red Tornado serves as a live-in chaperone while Black Canary trains the youngsters in the arts of superhero chop-sockey.

You can check out the new trailer here:

As a big fan of Bruce Timm’s DCAU, I’m keyed up to see a good successor to Justice League. Young Justice looks to keep the kid-pleasing yet adult-friendly formula going, without resorting to the goofy, anime-inspired antics of Teen Titans. The addition of voice acting veterans like Alan Tudyk, Phil LaMarr and Khary Payton means that the action should be topped with some excellence acting by cartoon standards, at least.

Young Justice will air Fridays at 7:00 on Cartoon Network starting January 7th.

New Spider-Man Cartoon Will astonish As Much As ’90s Batman

There’s been a lot of expectation surrounding Marvel TV’s upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, with comics and animation vets Paul Dini and Man of Action running the show. According to Dini, that excitement will pay off with the show itself.

As an aside during an interview with Newsarama, Dini said, Having a great time on Ultimate Spider-Man and I’m working with a few old friends from the Batman days on that. Coming up with a look for the Spider-Man show, I think it’s really going to take people by shock. It’s going to take people by surprise as much as the Batman show in the early ‘90s took comic fans by astonish. And yet at the same time it feels very right and it looks very right.

With a tease like that, I’m even more inquisitive about the series now. The visuals of the ’90s Batman revolutionized superhero cartoons and had a huge effect on television animation in general, and I can’t even picture what kind of thing would have as big an impact today, especially in a world filled with such visually-impressive, stylistically-led shows as Symbiotic Titan, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends or even Batman: The Brave and The Bold. What could this show end up looking like…?