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Adult-skewing animation dominated the animation portion of the 2016 Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

The post ‘Archer,’ ‘Robot Chicken’ and Seth MacFarlane Win Creative Arts Emmy Awards appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The new "Powerpuff Girls" revival gets its first Emmy nod, and so does the last episode of "Phineas and Ferb."

The post 2016 Emmy Nominations: Just the Animation Categories, Please appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Illumination's all-animal musical comedy will be out in December.

The post New Trailer for Illumination’s ‘Sing’ appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Walt Disney was a Nazi! Who cares if it's true or not?

2016 is shaping up to be the year of the animated animal feature, and "Sing" just might be the quirkiest film of the bunch.

Colleagues and admirers are remembering the creative genius of the man who helped create "The Simpsons."

Here's the trailer for Seth MacFarlane's "Ted 2," which will be released by Universal on June 26.

As part of their website redesign, the "New Yorker" has made every article they've published since 2007 available for free on their website, including some animation-related pieces.

Seth MacFarlane has been accused of ripping off the foul-mouthed-teddy-bear concept for his 2012 film "Ted" from a California company called Bengal Mangle Productions.

The nominations for the 66th annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this morning, and the big animation news isn't who was nominated, but who wasn't: "The Simpsons"

Last weekend at the U.S. box office, two films with strong animation ties opened in very different fashions. Disney's "Maleficent," a dark fantasy reimagining of the 1959 animated feature from the perspective of the villain, launched with $69.4 million.

While Fox’s Sunday night lineup was dubbed Animation Domination in May 2005, it did not officially become all-animated until 2010. Now, the announcement of their fall 2014 schedule reveals that the cartoons will be ceding some of their Sunday night territory to live-action comedies "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "Mulaney," which will be taking over the 8:30 and 9:30 time slots, respectively.

Will Ferrell and "Anchorman" director/writer Adam McKay are developing a CGI-animated "Flintstones" pic. Chris Henchy will write the script.

Seth MacFarlane can do anything: create animation, make live-action features, sing, act, produce live-action sitcoms and science documentaries, host the Oscars, and add to that list now, write novels. Of course, whether he does any of it well is another question.

Whether it be for lack of budget or a desire to take center stage, series creators lending their own voices to their animated television shows has always been fairly commonplace – Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill), John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy), Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) and Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park) immediately spring to mind. However, in recent years, more and more feature directors have started getting in on the trend. From throwaway one-liners to continuous roles throughout entire franchises, here is a list of some animation directors and the characters they brought to life in their own films.

1. Eric Goldberg

As the animation director for Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Goldberg not only supervised the animation of the WB’s classic characters but he voiced some of them as well. Goldberg recorded the dialogue of Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird and Speedy Gonzalez.

2. Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud

The distinctive sputters, spurts and high-speed mutterings of The Minions in Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013) belong to the films’ co-directors Pierre Coffin (above left) and Chris Renaud. And as the character’s popularity grows, so does their vocal commitment, as the two will reprise their roles in next year’s prequel Minions.

3. Ralph Bakshi

In his debut film Fritz the Cat (1972), director Ralph Bakshi voiced one of the boorish antagonist Pig Cops, who is also referred to as “Ralph” multiple times in his scenes.

4. Brad Bird

Agnes Gooch, Edith Head, Patricia Highsmith, Linda Hunt – when it comes to figuring out who inspired the character of Edna Mode, people love to toss out many names, but in the end, the cutthroat designer of superhero fashion was brought to life by The Incredibles (2004) director Brad Bird.

5. Rich Moore

Rich Moore, director of Wreck-It Ralph (2012) provided the dreary monotone of acidic jawbreaker Sour Bill, the henchman to the bombastic King Candy.

6. Richard Williams

Even to this day, the toon celebrity cameos in Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988) remain some of the best nods to the golden age of cartoons, especially that of Droopy Dog, who gets his opportunity to best Eddie Valiant with some traditional ‘toon high-jinks as a tricky elevator operator, sluggishly voiced by the film’s animation director Richard Williams.

7. Chris Wedge

What began as the high-strung snivels and snarls of Scrat in Ice Age (2002) has become a second career for director Chris Wedge who has gone on to vocally personify the prehistoric rodent in 3 sequels, 6 short films, 2 video games and in a walk-on role in an episode of Family Guy.

8. Chris Miller

Royal messengers, tower guards, army commanders, friars and penguins, story artist Chris Miller has lent his voice-over skills to numerous animated films, most notably his returning roles as Geppetto and The Magic Mirror in the Shrek franchise, including Shrek the Third (2007), which he co-directed.

9. Mark Dindal

The often ignored and underrated animated film Cats Don’t Dance (1997) features some beautiful hand-drawn work and stellar vocal performances, including that of director Mark Dindal as the tight-lipped bodyguard/butler Max.

10. Joe Ranft

Pixar story artist, the late Joe Ranft, brought a handful of memorable animated characters to life, including Heimlich (A Bug’s Life), Wheezy the Penguin (Toy Story 2) and Jacques the Cleaner Shrimp (Finding Nemo). But it was in Cars (2006), which he co-directed, that he voiced three characters including the semi-truck Jerry Recycled Batteries.

11. Chris Sanders

In Lilo & Stitch (2002) co-director Chris Sanders takes on the nuanced role of Alien Experiment 626, aka “Stitch,” who escapes from an intergalactic prison only to find himself trapped on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

12. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard

Nathan Greno (above right) and Byron Howard not only paired up as co-directors of Tangled (2010) but also doubled as duos of Thugs and Guards in the animated picture.

13. John Lasseter

With five features under his belt, John Lasseter has had plenty of opportunity to throw himself behind the microphone, however upon review of his filmography, you’ll find he has chosen his roles very carefully, as the role of John Lassetire in Cars 2 (2011) and the hilariously bug-zapped Harry the Mosquito in A Bug’s Life (1998).

Seth MacFarlane’s The Cleveland Show had been widely expected to be canceled, and The Animation Guild recently confirmed that the show is finished. The show had a respectable four-season run on FOX comprising 88 total episodes.

Fox Animation Studios is still humming along with Family Guy and American Dad so MacFarlane remains busy, though an undetermined number of Cleveland Show rank-and-file will likely be laid off.

(Thanks, Graham)

“Animation is a young man’s game,” Chuck Jones once said. There’s no question that animation is a labor-intensive art that requires mass quantities of energy and time. While it’s true that the majority of animation directors have directed a film by the age of 30, there are also a number of well known directors who started their careers later.

Directors like Pete Docter, John Kricfalusi and Bill Plympton didn’t begin directing films until they were in their 30s. Don Bluth, Winsor McCay and Frederic Back were late bloomers who embarked on directorial careers while in their 40s. Pioneering animator Emile Cohl didn’t make his first animated film, Fantasmagorie (1908), until he was 51 years old. Of course, that wasn’t just Cohl’s first film, but it is also considered by most historians to be the first true animated cartoon that anyone ever made.

Here is a cross-selection of 30 animation directors, past and present, and the age they were when their first professional film was released to the public.

1. Don Hertzfeldt (19 years old)
   Ah, L’Amour

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While it was nice to see the first ever RISD grad hosting the Academy Awards, Seth MacFarlane’s Oscar hosting turn was not really a triumph for humor. The woman-bashing element, in particular has come in for endless (and deserved) criticism. As I suggested earlier, of course it was no surprise that the creator of Family Guy would come out with tasteless, demeaning humor—that’s his schtick. The show had big ratings, particularly among younger audiences, proving that putting an edgy host under 40 in charge would draw a younger crowd. I can see the Hollywood suits analyzing it with wonder now: “The kids like kids!” Amazing.

And of course lots of people enjoyed it and laughed along. What does surprise me is many of his defenders claiming that MacFarlane was delivering clever satire. Here’s a typical note:

Anyone complaining in these comments ever heard of satire. I think MacFarlane’s humor is satire and is meant to provoke. Seems pretty effective to me.

Let’s take the most obvious example: “We Saw Your Boobs.” The set up is William Shatner as Captain Kirk slingshotting back in time to warn MacFarlane not to do the horrible tasteless things he’s about to do and thus earn the label of worst Oscar host ever. To show what’s about to happen. Shatner cuts to a video of MacFarlane singing a song called “We Saw Your Boobs” where he names actresses and the films in which they appeared sans shirt.

Now, if the object of the humor was actually MacFarlane and his penchant for ribald attack humor, a simple 15-second cutaway—much like those on Family Guy—would have gotten across the point…and the humor. But no, it goes on for nearly two minutes—the point is to name and shame, say the word boobs and turn actresses into dehumanized objects yet again. I have a dream that someday women will be judged by the content of their character and not the content of their Maidenforms, but that day has not come for MacFarlane. In his world, if you’re a woman and doggedly track down the worst terrorist the world has ever known, you’re not a hero—you’re just another woman who’s mad at being stood up on a date.

Now of course, there is often pop culture satire on Family Guy, but the humor is as much aimed at the helpless as at targets that need to be taken down a peg. It’s the mocking humor of the powerful, not social critique. This is backed up by the show’s structure as a prototypical interaction of id, ego, and superego—Peter, Brian and Stewie—all voiced by MacFarlane, reinforcing the one-dimensional viewpoint.

And for those who say it’s all an act, well, in his New Yorker profileMacFarlane was asked about his penchant for dating starlets, and he replies he isn’t looking for an intellectual equal, pointing to his own parents, saying his father wanted someone who was exciting. “My father and my mother were not…intellectual equals by any means.” Maybe his mum was a dimwit, but it takes a tough man to call her one in a national magazine.

I’m not a fan of MacFarlane’s humor, but I see why people laugh. And he has worked hard to go from a schlubby animator to a handsome song and dance man. (Looking at his unvarying smile, and smooth 39-year-old visage, one might guess some of the work included botox.) He’s the highest paid comedy writer in the world, has had a Grammy-nominated album of him singing classic songs, a #1 movie, and a lot of that success is admirable. But a great satirist? Nope, not this time.

Oh yeah speaking of the Oscars, Renee Zellweger -- WTF. While the actress often looks like she just chomped into a handful of Sour Skittles, last night her eyes seemed to have collapsed into tiny black holes orbiting Alpha Centauri. And what was with mean Richard Gere trying to get her to read on stage? It was obvious girlfriend did not want to wear reading glasses, and was too shy to say anything about it. Either that or she had found the stash James Franco had hidden at the Dolby Theater a couple of years back.

Love him or hate him, Seth MacFarlane is making history tonight as the first (and probably last) animator to ever host an Academy Awards ceremony. Let’s document this unique moment in cartoon history. Does his performance match up to previous Oscar hosts? Better than Billy Crystal? Steve Martin? Carson? Hope? Which of Seth’s routines killed and which fell flat? Did he make references to his animation career in a positive or negative way? Share your thoughts with the animation community as you’re watching the ceremony tonight.

(Note: Any comments not directly related to Seth’s performance will be deleted. Seriously, don’t even try.)

Seth MacFarlane is hosting the Oscars next year. I watched his performance on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago, and thought he was fantastically entertaining. His recent turn as a performer is enough to almost make me forgive him for his lack of vision as an animation creator.

It’s looking like this weekend’s box office crown will belong to Seth MacFarlane’s Ted. Even though it’s a largely live action film, the main star—Ted the bear—is an animated character. The character animation was divided between two studios—Melbourne/Sydney, Australia-based Iloura and Berkeley, California-based Tippett Studio.

In the film’s promotional materials, Universal Pictures is encouraging the idea that the character was created by recording the actions of MacFarlane wearing a motion capture suit. There’s a video posted on the LA Times website that compares MacFarlane’s live-action performance to the animation.

But that’s only part of the story. This interview with visual effects producer Jenny Fulle explains that motion capture wasn’t used nearly as much as the film promos would suggest. Fulle says:

“We really focused on motion capture from his waist up—because he has a lot of mannerisms with his hands and he rocks back and forth and moves backwards and forwards and stuff like that. What we would also do is keep a high-definition camera on his face. That way we could also capture a visual representation of what he does with his eyebrows and when his eyes go wide and that sort of thing. We would then give that to the animators so they could just manually take that look and apply it to the bear.”

Not only was all the facial animation keyframed, a lot of the physical performance was too, according to one of Ted’s animators, Jonathan Lyons, who wrote an informative post on his blog Comedy for Animators:

“There was motion cap­ture used on the film. MacFar­lane would put on a Moven suit, on set and act out the parts for the Ted scenes they were shoot­ing that day. It was mostly used for scenes of Ted sit­ting and talk­ing. So it was a lot of arm ges­tures and head and shoul­der motion. That’s about it. For the larger action, it was all keyframe animation.”

The film, which is pleasantly amusing if overlong, succeeds largely on the merits of Ted’s animation, which serves the needs of the story quite well. While motion capture was undoubtedly part of the filmmakers’ toolset, it’s clear that a large portion of the animation was keyframed—the same kind of animation that we see on Pixar and DreamWorks films. Motion capture will continue to receive a disproportionate amount of media coverage simply because it’s more exciting to show an actor jumping around in a fancy suit than it is a sullen animator sitting behind a monitor. But at the end of the day, it’s still traditional character animators who are most responsible for bringing to life audience-pleasing favorites like Ted.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: motion capture,

Ted, the live-action/CG combo by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane opens today. If you’ve seen the film, please share your thoughts. I’ll be seeing the film soon because I’m a serious animation critic and it’s my duty to see everything animated, and…oh, who am I kidding, it’s got Mila Kunis in it.

Everybody should know the drill by now. This talkback is only for those who have seen the film. If you haven’t seen the film, your comment goes bye-bye.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: Seth MacFarlane, TED

Seth MacFarlane, who has made a career of creating nuanced and thoughtful animated programs that broaden the horizons of viewers, is lending his expertise to the scientific community. He’s teaming up with Carl Sagan’s widow and astrophysicists Steven Soter and Neil deGrasse Tyson to create a sequel to the milestone science series Cosmos.

The new series, Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, is “the story of how human beings began to comprehend the laws of nature and find our place in space and time,” according to the press release:

By exploring never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge, the series will take viewers to other worlds and travel across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. The most profound scientific concepts will be presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with the emotional and spiritual into a transcendent experience.

The thirteen-part series will debut on that bastion of scientific inquiry, FOX, beginning in 2013. Between this and his reboot of The Flintstones, there’s seemingly nothing that MacFarlane can’t do. Perhaps someday he’ll surprise everyone by actually doing something well.

(Photo credit: Gage Skidmore’s Flickr)

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Carl Sagan, Seth MacFarlane