When I was a teenager, Carl Sagan was cool ... well, at least as cool as a scientist could be. Cosmos was a best-seller, he was a fixture on PBS, and he helped make the science behind the science fiction of the day comprehensible.
This is a cool animation based on remarks that Sagan made after seeing a photograph taken from the Voyager 1 probe.
Pale Blue Dot from ORDER on Vimeo.
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The most obvious attraction of the Harlem Shake meme of the last few weeks is that anyone could (and evidently did) produce their own version of the video: an opening shot, with a jump cut to a wildly dancing, usually gyrating crowd. Get a few friends, organize yourselves, turn on the camera, upload ... boom.
Give The Simpsons some credit for having to animate it!
That video went up on Friday and has been seen at least a million times since. That's a small fraction of the overall views of the countless Harlem Shake knockoffs ... and it's not even the first time Homer made an appearance in one, either! To wit, this pick of 10 of them, which starts with a very clever use of the Peanuts classic A Charlie Brown's Christmas.
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Ever had one of those days when you feel like you have your own personal raincloud? This short video, featuring some clever animation grafted to real life, ought to resonate. I spotted it on Vimeo's staff picks list. What makes it particularly impressive is that James Lancett and Sean Weston made it as a student requirement while enrolled at Kingston University in the U.K.
Overcast from James Lancett on Vimeo.
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A new video from Simon and his relentlessly perky cat is always something to celebrate. Anyone who has tried to feed themself while a hungry cat looks on will get a kick out of this one.
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Out now from self-described micro-press Running The Goat is a new Jack story by Andy Jones, who has been collecting and telling them now for a few decades. Jack and Mary in the Land of Thieves features illustrations by Darka Erelji, and it's on my list.
Running The Goat even produced a pretty nifty video to promote it. Here it is:
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I saw this on Tumblr this evening; the politics are a bit obvious and heavy-handed, but the CG animation is hard to not look at.
I, pet goat II from Heliofant on Vimeo.
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Ever wonder what cartoon characters, like Marvin the Martian here, would look like in skeleton form? Wonder no more.
There's plenty more to be seen here.
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So, there shall be a sequel to Despicable Me, to be released in July 2013. While I'm wondering how Steve Carell's Gru will become despicable again, I'll be game to watch. The three of us quite enjoyed the movie; the phrase, "This is literature?" is a favourite saying around the house, particularly in Carell's accent.
And, of course, there are the minions.
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Have a look at this: a French animated short from 2008, which has the subtitle of The Sad Story of a Man Who Was Living 91 Centimeters From Himself.
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I've never seen an episode of Young Justice, but the characters look familiar from the time when I inhaled DC comics in the Seventies. I still got a laugh out of this parody, which successfully matches images with audio straight from Winnie-the-Pooh.
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Well, not a real Christmas special, even though it's called A Very Calvin and Hobbes Christmas. To see Calvin's demented snowmen come to life (the heart of animation, after all) is a treat. You can read more about it here.
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As mashups go, this one is a bit of a chuckle - especially those opening guitar strums.
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Because sometimes, you just have to, and don't care what the Lucys out there think.
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A few years ago, the BBC promoted an upcoming natural history series featuring penguins ... with the remarkable disclosure that these penguins could fly.
Terry Jones showcased the spot, which had persuasive footage of penguins taking flight.
The key detail: it was launched on April the first.
This was not just an April Fool's joke (a long tradition within the BBC, by the way), but one with a purpose: to promote BBC's iPlayer.
They also launched a video to explain the sophistication behind the ruse itself.
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So very entertaining! Thanks to Yuri for the pointer.
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The Muppets, the movie that is, is funny enough, but it gets off to a great start with another animated short featuring the Toy Story characters. Small Fry involves Buzz Lightyear getting trapped with a support group made of abandoned Happy Meal-like toys, with a tiny Buzz determined to be played with. It's a hoot, with more sight gags and jokes (my favourite toy: Tae Kwon Doe, a deer that does martial arts) than many full-length features. Here's a taste.
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This song, by Breakbot, came out last year, and has a fascinating video: great animation, with the use of more than 2,000 hand-done watercolours.
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Oktapodi was nominated for an Oscar for best animated short a couple of years ago. Easy to see why!
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Here's the proof.
This is a detail from a billboard covering a renovation underway at the California Adventure park in Disneyland, in California. Nick and I noticed that the stylized eyes drawn on Mickey in the retro-themed versions bore a strong similarity to Pac-Man.
Here's a similar poster about Goofy ... with the same kind of eyes.
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An animated way of using papercuts to tell the familiar story ... or part of it.
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The nerdiest bit of cross-stitch I've ever seen. Speaking of which, this is the link a friend sent to me.
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