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Analyzing the performance and acting in the Academy Award-nominated film "The Boxtrolls."

Five animated features have been nominated for a Golden Globe in the best animated feature category.

This week in Vancouver, the Spark CG Society will hold its annual Spark Animation conference and festival with an impressive group of presenters including Glen Keane, Nora Twomey, Roger Allers, Robert Kondo, and Graham Annable.

Laika's third feature film, "The Boxtrolls," distributed by Focus Features, opened in third place in the United States with an estimated $17.3 million.

While there are currently no wholly animated films in the top ten of the U.S. box office, Laika's "The Boxtrolls" began its foreign rollout in eight territories last weekend.

The Venice Film Festival, which is the world's oldest film festival, announced the line-up today for their 71st edition. The festival is known for not giving much consideration to animated cinema, but they always throw in a few animated films.

A new full trailer slipped out today for LAIKA's "The Box Trolls." Unlike the previous three teasers, this trailer provides some clues about the film's contents and the underground world of the Box Trolls, and manages to do so without revealing anything of consequence.

The third (and presumably final) teaser for LAIKA's "The Box Trolls" was released today.

Utterly charming and refreshingly different teaser trailer for LAIKA’s next film The BoxTrolls, which will be released in 2014. The film is directed by Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable.

Laika, the Portland studio that made Coraline and ParaNorman, announced this morning that its third feature will be Boxtrolls. The film, a 3D stop-motion/CGI hybrid, is based on Alan Snow’s fantasy-adventure novel Here Be Monsters. Anthony Stacchi (co-director, Open Season) and Graham Annable (story artist on Coraline and ParaNorman) are directing. Focus Features will release Boxtrolls on October 17th, 2014.

Full details in the release:

PORTLAND, February 7th, 2013 – Marking their third project together, LAIKA and Focus Features, the two companies behind the current Academy Award-nominated animated feature ParaNorman, announced today that LAIKA has begun production on The Boxtrolls. The new movie will be released nationwide by Focus on October 17th, 2014. Focus CEO James Schamus and LAIKA President & CEO Travis Knight made the announcement today.

As on the previous animation collaborations ParaNorman and Coraline, Focus will hold worldwide distribution rights to The Boxtrolls, and Universal Pictures International will release the movie overseas (with eOne Distribution handling Canada). Coraline (2009) earned Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature Film; and was named one of the year’s 10 Best Films by the American Film Institute (AFI). In addition to its Academy Award nomination, ParaNorman (2012) is in the running for the BAFTA Awards’ animated feature prize. ParaNorman has won two Annie Awards (the animation community’s Oscars equivalent) and been cited as best animated feature film by 14 critics’ groups, more than any other 2012 animated feature.

The Boxtrolls is a 3D stop-motion and CG hybrid animated feature based on Alan Snow’s bestselling fantasy adventure novel Here Be Monsters. The Boxtrolls is being directed by Anthony Stacchi (co-director of the hit animated feature Open Season) and Graham Annable (story artist on Coraline and ParaNorman), and produced by David Ichioka and Mr. Knight. The voice cast includes Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, Academy Award nominee Toni Collette, Elle Fanning (marking her fourth movie with Focus), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Game of Thrones), Emmy Award nominee Jared Harris (Mad Men), Simon Pegg (Star Trek), Nick Frost (of Focus’ upcoming The World’s End), Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd), and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock).

The Boxtrolls is a comedic fable that unfolds in Cheesebridge, a posh Victorian-era town obsessed with wealth, class, and the stinkiest of fine cheeses. Beneath its charming cobblestone streets dwell the Boxtrolls, foul monsters who crawl out of the sewers at night and steal what the townspeople hold most dear: their children and their cheeses. At least, that’s the legend residents have always believed. In truth, the Boxtrolls are an underground cavern-dwelling community of quirky and lovable oddballs who wear recycled cardboard boxes the way turtles wear their shells. The Boxtrolls have raised an orphaned human boy, Eggs (voiced by Mr. Hempstead-Wright), since infancy as one of their dumpster-diving and mechanical junk-collecting own. When the Boxtrolls are targeted by villainous pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Mr. Kingsley), who is bent on eradicating them as his ticket to Cheesebridge society, the kindhearted band of tinkerers must turn to their adopted charge and adventurous rich girl Winnie (Ms. Fanning) to bridge two worlds amidst the winds of change – and cheese.

Mr. Knight said, “The Boxtrolls is a visually dazzling mash-up of gripping detective story, absurdist comedy, and steampunk adventure with a surprisingly wholesome heart. It’s Dickens by way of Monty Python. Tony and Graham have crafted a strange and beautiful world replete with fantastical creatures, good-for-nothing reprobates, madcap antics, and rip-roaring feats of derring-do. But at its core, like all LAIKA films, The Boxtrolls is a moving and human story with timelessness and powerful emotional resonance. We’re thrilled to partner with Focus Features and Universal to bring this remarkable story to family audiences around the world.”

Mr. Schamus commented, “Following our successful collaborations on ParaNorman and Coraline, we are delighted to be embarking on a third wondrous adventure with the LAIKA artisans who transform everyday materials into living creatures infused with dimension, humor, and soul. With a wonderfully appealing menagerie of fun characters, and a generous, open heart at its center, The Boxtrolls will be a must-see for family audiences.”

V Day, a new Grickle cartoon from Graham Annable, just in time for Valentine’s.

I love love love Graham Annable’s subtleties and quiet sense of humor. Check out the other Grickle Mythology cartoons on his Flickr.

Morning coffee (by Grickle)

The smartest dog in the world (via grickle)

Cloudy Collection’s brand new release, Simple, includes art by Blanca Gómez, Jennifer Daniel, David Huyck (pictured above), Lauren Nassef, Graham Annable, Tad Carpenter, and Tom Gauld. A portion of sales will support Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in honor of my mother’s successful treatment for breast cancer this fall. Way to go, Mom!

Graham Annable (born June 1, 1970, in Canada)is a cartoonist and animator living in Portland, Oregon. He is the creator of Grickle, published by Dark Horse, and one of the founders of the Hickee humor anthology (published by Alternative Comics). Annable has created works for the television, film, video game, and comic book industries. His
self-produced short animated films are popular among YouTube watchers.

Graham recently released a best-of compilation of his comics through Dark Horse, The Book of Grickle.

Drawn!: You have a new book out, The Book of Grickle, which comprises some of your short comic pieces. Is this a continuation of your previous books, Grickle, and Further Grickle, or is there some overlap?

Graham Annable: I’d say overall it’s a collection of my favourite pieces spanning from 2001-2007. It contains a selection of stories from the previous out of print Grickle and Further Grickle books and sprinkled amongst those tales are mini comics and hard to find stories I’ve done over the past few years. It feels great to have them all together in such a nice little hardcover package.

D: How would you define Grickle? If not the word itself, then the body of work. Is it an umbrella term for all your personal work, or is there something specific and Grickley about the stories and art you release under hat name?

GA. I would say it’s an umbrella term for the style and types of stories I seem to create. The name comes from the many nicknames my Dad used for both my sister and I growing up. When I first compiled the stories into a home-made booklet years ago “Grickle” just felt like the right unifying name for it all. And it has ever since.

(...)
Read the rest of An interview with Graham Annable

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | One comment
Tags: Animation, Comics, Graham Annable, Interviews

Oh man, I love me some Grickle. I would be probably be happy if YouTube was nothing but Graham Annable’s surreal animations. Here’s his latest, Channels.

I am also looking forward to snagging a copy of Graham’s upcoming Book of Grickle, a compilation of his comics work, which is just as twisted and perfectly paced as his animation.

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Tags: Animation, Graham Annable, Grickle, video

Graham Annable (previously) has been gradually updating a Flickr set of illustrations depicting snapshots of his childhood: Stuff I Remember.

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Comics, Graham Annable, Illustration

Graham Annable has just launched a little online shop selling prints and original artwork. Shown here: a totally wicked print set entitled “The Children of the Night & Their Dad”: The Grickle Store.

And please don’t forget about Graham’s brilliant animations on YouTube. They remain one of my favourite things on the Internet. If only Graham had an online store now to sell DVDs of the these puppies… Ahem.

Could this latest Graham Annable animation be my favourite? Quite possibly. Though it’s hard to top SPACE WOLF!