John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Minions!

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. 

Skhizein, and 91 centimetres away

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. 

Origami snowglobe

Nothing like a little stop-motion animation to brighten the mood. 

Winnie-the-superhero

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.

The Calvin and Hobbes Christmas special we always wanted

 

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. 

Roxanne meets Rudolph

As mashups go, this one is a bit of a chuckle - especially those opening guitar strums. 

 

Dance like Snoopy

Because sometimes, you just have to, and don't care what the Lucys out there think. 

BBC's flying penguins, and how they did it

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.

Star Wars, retold in two minutes and 13 seconds, with Lego

So very entertaining! Thanks to Yuri for the pointer. 

Small Fry (the Pixar treat before The Muppets)

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. 

Baby I'm Yours

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. 

 

Buzzard lessons

Every now and then, we all need a kick to get going.

Oktapodi

Oktapodi was nominated for an Oscar for best animated short a couple of years ago. Easy to see why!

Mickey Mouse has Pac-Man eyes

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. 

Peter Pan, reimagined

An animated way of using papercuts to tell the familiar story ... or part of it. 

Knit one, ruh-roh two

The nerdiest bit of cross-stitch I've ever seen. Speaking of which, this is the link a friend sent to me. 

Empathic Civilization

I love how these are animated.

This might have been Photoshopped

Right, Rico. Kaboom. [Saw it here.]    

1066 and all that moves

The Bayeaux Tapestry is a famous bit of fabric. It's not really a tapestry, but it's history, on cloth, and elements of it have been used to tell the story of early Britain.

Here's a video that uses animation to make (a good bit of) it come to life.

World history, as told through a three-minute flipbook

Wonderfully fun bit of animation here.

The Sims do the Royal Wedding

It's, uh, probably not going to roll out just like this. (From ITN.)

Simon's Cat and a bunny, for Easter

A new Simon's Cat, with a timely theme for this weekend.

Vanishing Point

A very imaginative bit of animation. Created by  Takuya Hosogane.

 

Vanishing Point from Takuya Hosogane on Vimeo.

Happiness is a warm blanket

Peanuts specials are plentiful - almost four dozen of them, in fact. Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is notable in that it's the first production to be made     since Bill Melendez died in 2008. Melendez was the guiding light of Peanuts specials since A Charlie Brown Christmas (if you listen carefully to Charlie Brown's dialogue, you can hear how his line readings echo Melendez's Mexican accent). Amazon will have it for sale next week.

The script, as always, is based on Charles M. Shulz's original strips, particularly the storyline of Linus losing his beloved blanket, which appeared in the 1960s. (Colour me biased, but prime time for Peanuts.)

Here's a preview:

The Incredibles gets the Blu-Ray treatment

Brad Bird's The Incredibles is not only one of my favourite animated movies, it's among my favourite, period. I love the characters, the story, the breezy recreation of silver-age comicdom, the in-jokes, the performances (Sarah Vowell's Violet, Holly Hunter's Elastigirl/Helen and particularly Brad Bird's Edna Mode) and especially the fantastic score by Michael Giacchino. It's a film we watch together at least once a year.

The DVD set itself was good, with extras that included Easter eggs galore, including a hilarious recreation of the plot done with sock puppets. Now there's news of a new edition for Blu-Ray, with new features, set to come out in April.

The catch: we don't yet have a Blu-Ray machine. I've put off the decision for, well, ages. We have, after all, managed. This might be the tipping point.