blogs

Batman: Mad Love, started out a magnificent, multi-award winning graphic novel before being turned into an episode of the animated series The new Batman adventures. It's amazing, you can download it on iTunes for almost nothing.

There's something about animation that can communicate subversive themes when no other dares or can turn it around quick enough. Family Guy and The Simpsons being good examples of shows that addressed ugly political issues in the mainstream US media. Even more than other satirical shows, which were hampered by being live-action. The extraordinary Waltz with Bashir showed us the way animation can disarm a viewer and portray the horror and madness of war without the graphic reality.
And there was that hooha in that Belgium paper, which in a few simple pen strokes managed to upset loads of people.

This is Fede Alvarez's short film, Ataque de Panico! which he made for £186, posted on youtube and was quickly offered $30million to make a hollywood film.

We reported from China earlier this year on the feelings of hostility among the Chinese media toward Kung Fu Panda. It seems they are still unhappy about it. "It is humiliating for China because it successfully sold Chinese culture to the world but was created by Hollywood," said Ouyang Yibing, vice-chief of China Animation Association. They are now flat out at work creating an iconic and recognizably Chinese character, although Ouyang fears it might take, “20 to 30 years”. That’s not really the attitude is it Ouyang?

Animation is really fizzing in China right now, The China Daily reports that Cai Wu, minister of culture, said Chinese animation and comic arts were attracting more attention than ever in the country with unprecedented opportunities ahead.

Iron man Vs Bruce Lee from 'king of the viral' Patrick Boivin. All his stuff is amazing, you can see more of his stuff here

Iron Man vs Bruce Lee from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

We saw Mary and Max last night at the opening of the always excellent Encounters festival in Bristol. It’s a brilliant film about friendship and the imperfection of people. It manages to be very funny while covering some quite adult themes such as mental health and alcoholism. We’ll be taking in the whole of the festival over the next few days and are just heading off to a 3D screening with promised world exclusives.

We’re sorry not to be reporting from the Beirut Animated film festival, which kicks off today. The festival’s using the anime Grendizer character in a lot of its marketing stuff because, according to the LA Times, “Grendizer is a unifying figure for an entire generation of Lebanese who grew up during the country's bitter 15-year civil war. When Beirut was being torn to pieces by local warlords and their foreign-funded militias, the Grendizer cartoons were a welcome distraction for children who were more likely to miss school because of shelling than chicken pox.”
The festival will feature 40 animated films and shorts, with a special emphasis on Arab productions. It’s also running some nice mixed-media marketing shorts, which depict Beirut as besieged by aliens and robots. This clip shows a robot guarding the entrance to some infamous prostitution den in the city.

Video game producers EA and some of their mates are making a film based on Dante's Inferno, the game not the book. Admitedly form isn't terrific in this sub-genre of films from games but it makes some kind of sense commercially and this one has got some of the best anime crews behind it.

Timely scientific animation on how we catch and fight viruses. This sort of animation is increasingly being employed within scientific and technical disciplines. It's something we're going to be looking into a fair bit in the forthcoming issues.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Richard Williams comp. The correct answer was Jessica Rabbit and the winners were: Thomas Crook, Adela13, Joseph Wallace, Tom Parry. Please PM me the addresses you'd like your prize sent out to.