Oscar Best Animated Feature contenders are here

Its that time of year again when Oscar announce the contenders for this years Best Animated Feature. With no Pixar this year it looks like it could be the time for other studios to shine and that even goes for Disney! We await the shortlist.

Worthy contenders for the shortlist this year, in my opinion, go to Lego Movie, Song of the Sea, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Cheatin' and Boxtrolls. Lego Movie, even though studio Animal Logic is a bit outside the normal shortlisters, deserves it's place due to its overwhelming success and script originality. As soon as it burst onto the screen the reviews were nothing but great. It closed the gap between adult and children films, something where a lot of animated films fall down. How to Train your Dragon 2 really impressed again this year especially when it came to character acting. Dreamworlds are far ahead of Disney in this department and produced a film that really immersed you and made you at times forget you were watching an animated film, in a good way of course.

For pure technical brilliance alone Bill Plimpton's Cheatin', Boxtrolls and Song of the Sea all deserve a place. With some films not even out yet and therefore not qualified it could all change. Big Hero 6 and Penguins of Madagascar could all make a huge splash in the coming months. Take a look below at the full list of contenders for the Oscar Best Animated Feature and let us know who you think should win.

Big Hero 6 (Disney/Marvel), The Book of Life (Reel FX/Fox), The Boxtrolls (LAIKA/Focus), Cheatin’(Bill Plympton), Giovanni’s Island (Production I.G, Japan), Henry and Me (Reveal Animation Studios), The Hero of Color City (Exodus Film Group), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks/Fox), Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (EuropaCorp, France), Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return(Summertime Ent.), The LEGO Movie (Animal Logic/WB), Minuscule – Valley of the Lost Ants(Futurikon/Entre Chien et Loup/Nozon, France), Mr. Peabody and Sherman (DreamWorks/Fox),Penguins of Madagascar (DreamWorks/Fox), The Pirate Fairy (Disney), Planes: Fire and Rescue(Disney), Rio 2 (Blue Sky/Fox), Rocks in My Pockets (Signe Baumane, Canada), Song of the Sea(Cartoon Saloon, Ireland) and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Studio Ghibli, Japan).
(Source: animationmagazine.net) 

Sausage - The Animated Film is now online!

It's a film I've been wanting to see for a looooong time but now it's here, and during the start of Sausage Week too, I present to you... Sausage - The Animated Film.

After an amazing run on the festival circuit, collecting no less than 8 awards and being in contention for an Oscar, Robert Grieves Sausage is finally online for us all to take a gander at. I missed it at the few festivals I've attended over the last year so today couldn't have come sooner. Sausage is a tale of two food stall holders, a man who sells sausages and a woman who sells bread and cakes. Business is going well until a rival stall holder sets up, selling everything they sell but cheap and nasty versions. As the competition starts to spiral out of control our quick thinking duo come up with the perfect recipe for success.

As a big fan of the classic Cartoon Modern myself it's great to see this technique on show and in a abundance within Sausage. In an interview with Skwigly, director and animator  Robert Grieves explains that it all started when "the book ‘Cartoon Modern’ came out, and everything came together in a rush of inspiration". Tired of constantly doing his day job of motion graphic films for commercial and corporates he wanted a new challenge, something to drive his creativity and demonstrate his directorial instincts.

The films story is a classic tale redefined with modern ideals. Not sure how much of a political point Robert is trying to make (about capitalism) but none the less it s something we can all relate too. The animation is well conceived and there a lot of flourishes and quick comedic moments interspersed within the film that are reminiscent of the Hanna-Barbara cartoons of old. Perhaps a few more would have really helped to push this film further but overall it has to be up there with one of the best animated films this year. A deserved Oscar contender. We all wait with bated 'sausage fuelled' breath for the short list.

Time for a Halloween Animation

It's that time of year again when everything gets a bit spooky and we await the arrival of the dreaded trick or treaters. Obviously it wouldn't be right not to share a Halloween animation with you all.

A year or so ago now I had the pleasure of coming up with a promo for River Film's excellent competition Four4. Make a film on a given subject that has four shots at equally four seconds. Thats only 16 seconds in total, a very very short film competition. That years theme was horror so I was briefed to create a horror themed animation, or for the sake of this post a Halloween animation, to promote the competition. We tried to come up with a scenario that included some of the best known horror characters and we fit quite a few in. See if you can spot Frankenstein, Freddie Krueger, Chucky, the girl from the Exorcist and many more. Check it out below for a chilling surprise.

If you've got a Halloween animation then let me know in the comments below. Would be great to see them.

Fred Blunt the Illustrator

Twitter seems to be my portal into the illustration world and this week I uncovered this little diamond in the form of Fred Blunt.

I'm a sucker for children's illustrations. There is always so much life, appeal and the more they border upon the strange and surreal the better. I think it goes back to my childhood and reading a ton of Roald Dahl and looking at all the crazy Quentin Blake illustrations. Revolting Rhymes being one of my favourite books!

Fred Blunt certainly captures the essence of illustrators like Quentin Blake in his work, with his quirky nature and love of the strange. It's the freehand lines and sort of untamed line quality that really appeals. You can see the thought process behind each work and how organically its gone from his imagination right onto the paper. As an animator myself Fred really hooks you in and you can start to imagine how these characters would move and interact. I'll certainly be keeping an eye for more work so keep it up Fred Blunt!

It took me aaaages to find my favourite images so I hope everyone enjoys them. If you want to, and you should, head over to Fred's website to see all his work www.fredbluntillustration.com