Quimby the Mouse

i'd have to guess that the title Quimby is a nod to 7-time Academy Award-winning cartoon producer Fred Quimby, immortalized in the opening credits of countless Tom & Jerry cartoons.  this short doesn't resemble Tom & Jerry, but it's simple and stylish and i like the music track.

from the creators:

"Put together by Chris Ware for the spring 2009 event "This American Life- Live!" (listen here), in which Ira Glass hosts an actual episode of the radio program, performed onstage by some of the animators' favorite contributors.

Dan Savage, Starlee Kine & Mike Birbiglia told stories; David Rakoff & Dave Hill conducted a ‘special investigation'.  Plus visuals by Arthur Jones, and a very special appearance by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

The song in this video is 'Eugene' by Andrew Bird. Animation by John Kuramoto."

RealD 3D and Dreamworks's animated Megamind

this is only a teaser trailer (haven't found a longer one yet), but i like the idea: make a "good" bad guy in an animated comedy.   the main character of this reminds me a little of the type of over-the-top, megalomaniacal villain in Monsters vs. Aliens, but it's hard to tell anything much from a teaser.

i'm actually looking forward to seeing a 3D animated movie.   i wasn't very impressed with Avatar as a movie, but it really was over the top visually, and the RealD 3D technology is amazingly good.   it projects polarized light off a specially reflective screen to each eye alternately, through the use of glasses with differenly polarized lenses, a total of 144 times per second.   i've read that (rarely) some people get headaches from watching these kinds of films, but i've also read that paying attention to the in-focus part of the picture- usually the point anyway- makes that even more rare.   i didn't have any problems watching Avatar, and i made a conscious effort to disobey that warning, specifically to see if it caused any.

incidentally, what's up with having people recycle those glasses? how inefficient is that?! how about saving them until the next time and bringing them with you? when they're 'recycled', are they disinfected and repackaged, or do they melt them down and keep making new ones? the only reason i can see for recycling those glasses is to make a little more money every time you buy a RealD 3D movie ticket.   i'd rather save my $1/ticket charge (or whatever it is) and keep the glasses.   (actually, i did keep mine, and i'll use them again next time whether i have to "buy" a new pair or not...i'm kinda neurotic about wasting perfectly good things.)

for better or worse, the 3D tech seems to be the latest "killer app" for the theaters, a real draw when many would prefer to spend less money streaming on-demand films through their HDTVs.   having a pretty decent TV myself, i see the attraction.   the TVs are getting better and cheaper all the time, and the content is much cheaper in the long run, especially if you'd be buying multiple movie tickets for a lot of films.   movie theaters are notoriously expensive! you can make the argument that it's the concessions that double the cost, but what's a movie without popcorn? that's part of the experience, in my book.   besides, it's what keeps them in business.   and there are always going to be films you MUST see on the big screen.

i doubt this movie's one of them, but some animated 3D film or another will eventually see me shelling out $50 for the privilege of sitting in a dark room with my son, in funny glasses, eating overpriced popcorn.

erebus

very short animated video, possibly most notable for its highly stylized use of polygons and blocks, which certainly seem more an artistic choice than a technical constraint.

from the filmmaker:

There used to be a small but beautiful blue rock somewhere within the vast void of the universe. Life appeared on its crust relatively fast and as usual through out the evolution, one of the species dominated the rest, by forming complex societies to overcome its primordial survival needs. The dominant inhabitants progressed technologically, excelled in many different fields within their closed society and managed to build establishments on every corner of the planet's terrain. But during the process of solving these initial problems and building their dream utopia, more problems would arise faster than before, making their daily lives gradually more and more complicated. The time came when their overcomplicated society demanded so much devotion, that they stopped questioning other, more fundamental issues. It was then, when they even stopped looking up the sky. The sky that used to inspire and guide them will now bring them disaster and Erebus.

the praying machine

this is an interesting animated short, at times NQSFW.  by all means check out the filmmakers' website, Tokyo Plastic, here.  if you click the topmost link ('website') on that page, the next has some seriously top-notch flash animation work (which has garnered them some awards, i gather).  i actually ran across that flash work before, a long time ago, and had forgotten about it.  funny that something that well done stuck in my head, and was instantly recognizable after so long.

NSFW 'no glove, no love' animated AIDS awareness ad

poor Peter. he just doesn't get it. and then he does!



via scuffletown

this is a -really- slick video

videos like this, and the disturbing, increasing inclination of people (myself included) to gravitate toward infotainment that not only caters to but may very well be shortening attention spans, are the reasons i find myself watching (and digging around for) more and more short-form video online, watching less broadcast television, and reading fewer books. while that's all very lamentable, this is still a great video.

Merry Christmas everybody :)

Bloom County's Opus & Bill in "A Wish For Wings That Work"