Animated Discussions: The Dark European World of the Quay Brothers

Have spoken about the Quay Brothers before and their stop motion animations that create an almost microscopically scaled world of a surreal dark imagination. Almost too elegant? I don't know, but a fan I be. Anyway MOMA in New York has opened a retrospective of their filmwork including the later live action films such "Institute Benjamenta".
I think that... as often happens...the feel of their work influenced other stuff including advertising. I be trying to think of an advert from the early 2000s that did remind me of that dark world. It advertised some kind of drink. Turns out that I be thinking of an advert directed by Enda McCallion for a defunct Schnapps-based alcopop called Metz... and it featured a character called the Judderman. (You can watch it here and a clip about its making.) Watching the advert again I see it is nothing like I remembered.... and not even animation really!  What a strange thing my mind be. Maybe some apologies to Quay Brothers...... Though... Judderman was a good ad.

Animated Discussions: A Town Called Panic

Oooh. Lookin forward to Film Four's showing of "A Town Called Panic" this coming Wednesday 22nd June at 10.40pm.

This is a feature length spin-off from the Belgian children's TV series of the same name (distributed by Aardman). And it's animated using plastic models "picked up at fleamarkets": Cowboy, Indian, and Horse... and stopmotion animation.

I thought it reminded me of the "Cow, Cyclist & Pirate" adverts for Cravendale Milk, which ran from 2007. And so it might - the Cravendale adverts being animated by the same Belgian team, Pic Pic and Andre, that originated the "Town..." TV series.
Sadly, this particular series of adverts has now ended, and has been replaced by the (not for me so successful) "Cats with Thumbs" advert.

Can't resist showing a Vimeo trailer. So here it is.
Enjoy!

A Town Called Panic (Trailer) from filmswelike on Vimeo.

Animated discussions: cartoon time

Animation is magic. Most kids love magic. Most kids love cartoons. And adults who are still kids love cartoons. That's me.
Watching TV as a child. I remember - Popeye, The Flintstones, and Huckleberry Hound. Then there was "going to the pictures" - Walt Disney's Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, The Lady and the Tramp, and 101 Dalmatians.

But as well - there were all those daily cartoons and animations that went with TV commercials. It kept most animators in business. From the start, British commercial TV hosted cartoons by the shopping trolley load. From the 1950s on - bear skinned guards marched and sang about "Murray Mints" (too-good-to-hurry mints), parading shirts sang about Rael Brook poplin .... plastic Martians hooted with laughter over the idea of Instant Mashed Potato ("for Mash eat Smash"). Cartoons and animation everyday. That's how most of us got to know Aardman Animation, before Wallace & Gromit. When their vox pop "Creature Comforts" for the "Heat Electric" campaign hit our telly screens.

Even now I watch the "broken window - wind blowing hat - bewildered hat owner - helpful window repair man - hat back on head" sequence before Channel 4's Weather Forecast. (Done by Studio AKA for Lloyds TSB.) And I still laugh out loud. The Old Man thinks I'm very obsessive about this one.

There is a whole history of animation in the simple act of viewing commercial TV over the decades. Now though - maybe the magical separateness of the animated world is growing indistinct. With animation's fusion with CGI and with the media's daily reliance on digital cosmetics and trickery - do children and adults start mistaking "movie magic" for real life?
I mean, nobody mistook Yogi Bear for a real Grizzly.
Or did they?