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I get sent a lot of stuff with people dubbing over old cartoons. I quite like the machinima mash-up feel of it. This is the GI Joe ragga munchies mix, or something.

This is very nicely done.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my ongoing attempts to purchase the film rights to Sendak's Micky in the Midnight Kitchen, my favourite childhood book. The forthcoming release of Where the Wild Things Are has ruined this dream (I do trust Spike Jonze but remain concerned by the film) by inflating the price of the rights beyond, presumably, my budget. I'm now focussing on Outside Over There, a truly terrifying story about a father away at sea while his french horn-playing daughter's baby sister is replaced with a sickly, googly-eyed goblin. We will certainly not be able to afford this either and even if we could we won't be able to utilise our unique 'breadimation' technique, so that's another afternoon we'll never see again.

According to Channelasia.com, animation is increasingly being deployed in US courtrooms. It is effective apparently because visual information has more of an impact than aural, and it is contentious because they are charging a fortune for a little bit of shonky out-the-box maya men and houses, and of course only the rich can afford $40 odd grand on an animation. They also report that the better looking the animation the more effective it is a persuading jurors. There are now two dozen US companies that specialise in 3-D court animation. Can we do that here? If we can I propose we set up an animation masterschool for talented and enthusiastic film-makers which is free to attend and funded by the odd spot of courtroom visualisation. Who's in?

The Baroque exhibition of early computer art (see previous blog entry) is particularly interesting in its demonstration of how hard science drove animation in the early eighties. Medicine, I think, is doing something similar today. Many games companies are hard at work on hyper-real anatomical stuff, Blitz are apparently doing some frighteningly realistic 3D work. So here's a vid from Wired about how tumours grow.

Check out Animate Projects presents Computer Baroque. It's an amazing online exhibition featuring, "A selection of defining works in the history of artists’ digital moving image, featuring computer animation pioneers." Check it out here

I may have mentioned the big cartoon database before. It's a whimsical, slightly bonkers website. Only after reading it for a while do you realise that every story is about a recently dead animator (who has usually died in a horrific way) or it's about a SpongeBob SquarePants story, or it's about some murderer dressed as SpongeBob who killed someone dressed as one of SpongeBob's mates, who turned out to be a once famous animator. Their top story today is about a Burger King ad featuring SpongeBob and his rapping friend, Sir Mix-A-Lot, apparently people are upset about Sir Mix-A-Lot's rhymes which employs the refrain :
"I like square butts and I cannot lie." He goes on to rap, "When a sponge walks in, four corners in his pants, like he got phone book implants, the crowd shouts. All the ladies stare, dang those pants are square."

Dr Susan Linn, a child psychologist is leading the backlash, quite rightly saying, "It's bad enough when companies use a beloved media character like SpongeBob to promote junk food to children, but it's utterly reprehensible when that character simultaneously promotes objectified, sexualized images of women,"

The ad ends with Sir Mix-A-Lot - lounging on a couch with two female admirers - saying, "Booty is booty."

Victoria Beckham, the wife of english footballer David, is the latest in a line of celebrities to do a voiceover cameo for Spongebob Squarepants. In the kids' cartoon Mrs Beckham plays a posh english princess. Apprarently she 'nailed' her takes first time. This is certainly good news for dual fans of spongebob and victoria beckham.

Zoinks. for some reason the web is alive with people drawing sexy pictures of Scooby Doo's Velma. Though she was designed to be a nerd she's looking pretty hot in a knowing asymmetrical haircutted, paper-trouser wearing shoreditch kind of way.

Men's skinmag-with-pretentions-of-intellectualism Playboy is running an animation competition as they attempt to straddle the digital entertainment arena. Details are vague, 10k to the winner, closing date end of May - more details here