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Anderson will make a stop motion film about dogs.

The "Waltz with Bashir" director has been experimenting with a combination of 2D animation and stop-motion.

In order to celebrate the launch of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature in March, we invited OUP staff to dress up as their favourite characters from children’s books. The result was one surreal day during which our Oxford offices were overrun with children’s literature characters, ranging from the Cat in the Hat to Aslan, from Pippi Longstocking to the Tiger Who Came to Tea, and from Little Red Riding Hood to the Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was a brilliant and brave effort by all those who attended. Particularly those who commuted to and from work in their costumes!

The post Who is your favourite character from children’s literature? appeared first on OUPblog.

Lauren, Publicity Assistant

Kathryn Kalinak is Professor of English and Film Studies at Rhode Island College. Her extensive writing on film music includes numerous articles and several books, the most recent of which is Film Music: A Very Short Introduction. Below, she has made predictions for the Oscar Music (Original Score) category, and picked her favorites.

We want to know your thoughts as well! Who do you think will win the Oscar for Original Score? Original Song? Send your predictions to [email protected] by tomorrow, March 6, with the subject line “Oscars” and we’ll send a free copy of Film Music: A Very Short Introduction to the first 5 people who guessed correctly.

We also welcome you to tune in to WNYC at 2pm ET today to hear Kathryn discuss Oscar-nominated music on Soundcheck.

This Sunday’s Oscars will recognize an exceptionally fine slate of film scores, and it’s nice to see such a deserving group of composers. The nominees represent a range of films and scores including the lush and symphonic (Avatar), whimsical (Fantastic Mr. Fox), edgy and tension-producing (The Hurt Locker), eclectic and genre-bending (Sherlock Holmes), and beautifully melodic (Up). While there are always surprises, I’ve considered each composer and score, coming to the following conclusions and predictions.

On Avatar:
James Horner has been around a long time, having been nominated ten times in the last 32 years, and receiving Best Score and Best Song Oscars for Titanic. He’s a pro at what he does best: big, symphonic scores that hearken back to the classical Hollywood studio years. Horner’s music gives Avatar exactly what it needs—warmth and emotional resonance—and connects the audience to a series of images and characters that might be difficult to relate to otherwise. If Horner wins Sunday night, look for the evening to go Avatar’s way.

On Fantastic Mr. Fox

There’s an art to translating books into movies
The Houston Chronicle takes a look at what it takes to make a great book into a great movie.

Look Out, Pixar, Here Comes ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’
Oscar buzz has begun and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox is gaining momentum in the best animated feature category.

2010 Winter Books: January – April titles
Want to stay on top of the new book releases this spring? USA Today’s interactive book calendar can help.

2010: Living in the Future
Courtesy of  Shelf Awareness, “What will life be like in the year 2010? Daniel Sinker recalled one of his favorite childhood books, Geoffrey Hoyle’s 2010: Living in the Future, which was published in 1972 and, as Boing Boing observed, imagines imagines a far-off time when “we’ll all do our work and schooling and library-book-reading on ingenious video screens that can connect to each other from anywhere around the globe…. Wait until you get to the part about ‘a series of tubes.’”

Beautiful artwork on spines of stacked books
Check out this photo essay of artist Mike Stilkey’s “book sculptures” featuring images painted on book spines.

These Libraries Are Going To The Dogs
Although library and bookstore cats are frequently in the spotlight, this article higlights some of man’s best friends – library dogs.

Here’s Wes Anderson’s acceptance speech at the National Board of Review on January 11, 2010. I found this highly entertaining. The same goes for the film itself. Loved it.

UPDATE: Someone had their cellphone ready and shot the speech as it played at the event:

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Tags: Animation, Fantastic Mr. Fox, film, stop motion, Wes Anderson

The First Book blog team recently took a field trip to see Wes Anderson’s film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic book, Fantastic Mr. Fox. Read the team’s thoughts below as they share their likes, dislikes and opinions on how the film compares to the book.

Nisha: While the filmmakers may have doctored the foxes’ family dynamics a bit, Ash and Kirstofferson were the perfect charmingly blunt pair of troublemakers to keep audiences engaged. The book reflected a slightly different story, with four fox cubs and a far more shameless means of putting food on the table. In the book, Mrs. Fox places requests for supper, which Mr. Fox proudly obliges by stealing from one of the three farmers. The movie did however stay true to the spirit of Roald Dahl’s witty and imaginative world, including many direct quotes from the book itself. Told in Dahl’s characteristically windswept fashion, viewers are dragged along for the ride of a lifetime (literally) as the animals fight to outsmart farmers Bean, Bunce and Boggis.

Aesah: I loved it—and was pleasantly surprised that I did. The filmmakers kept the spirit of the original work when they expanded the story but also managed to sneak their own quirky brand of humor into the film. I had my doubts about an entire movie done in stop-motion animation, especially in this age of CGI and big special effects, but it was actually the perfect medium; the jerky motions adding to the story’s overall quirkiness and the simplicity of the settings giving it a hint of nostalgia. Wes Anderson’s masterful hand turned it into just another layer of the story. George Clooney and Jason Schwartzman were perfect choices to voice the Fantastic Mr. Fox and his son Ash, respectively. It has something for everyone and I will definitely be adding this movie to my collection.

Bonnie: With the opening scene playing the song “Davy Crockett – King of the Wild Frontier” – I knew I’d love this movie! Wes Anderson is known as a less than typical director, which fits with a Roald Dahl story perfectly. I especially enjoyed the choice to use stop-motion, and like Aesah stated with most movies are now using big special effects I was a bit wary but this difference in animation made the film visually interesting and it is still able to move along in a fashion that adds to the charm of the story. Wes Anderson’s first animated film is a goodie and I recommend it for kids and adults alike.

Katie: All in all, I was delighted with the film version of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. I’d give director Wes Anderson three cheers for the vocal casting, soundtrack and the seamless additions of new characters. The casting of George Clooney and Meryl Streep as Mr. and Mrs. Fox was spot on, and it was fun to pick out recognizable voices including Jason Schwartzman as Ash and Owen Wilson in a cameo as Coach Skip. The film’s soundtrack added a rich background that complemented the visual animation. With artists as varied as the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and Burl Ives, this soundtrack includes something that just about everyone will like. Finally, I loved some of the charming characters – Kylie the opossum being my favorite – that were added in the film version. They brought a dash of whimsy that was a perfect foil to highlight the original characters from Roald Dahl’s story.

Chris Appelhans has posted some lovely concept art for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. So great!

And if you missed it, check out my interview with Fantastic Mr. Fox storyboard artist Christian De Vita.

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Tags: Animation, Chris Appelhans, concept art, Fantastic Mr. Fox

I had the chance to interview OneHandClapping’s Christian DeVita, the lead storyboard artist for Wes Anderson’s stop motion adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Here is the interview, along with several of Christian’s storyboards, sketches, and even some of director Wes Anderson’s thumbnails.

Drawn!: Tell me a little about your involvement in the production of Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Christian DeVita: I was the lead storyboard artist on the movie. I was drafted in early in the production (Sep 2007) along with other 6 artists.

We went through a few passes of the scenes, based on some thumbnails that Wes drew, before he decided he wanted to work closely with one of us in Paris. The animation studio and sets were in East London’s Three Mills studios.

(...)
Read the rest of An interview with Fantastic Mr. Fox storyboard artist Christian DeVita

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Tags: Animation, Christian DeVita, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Interviews, stop motion, storyboards, Wes Anderson