Holy keee-rap! The seatbelt light is on, and things are about to get bumpy. Nick DiLiberto’s rockin’ Medusa short is a tour de force of traditional animation and white-knuckle demon-fighting. I believe we’re watching Perseus in his quest to kill the angry snake-headed lady we read about in high school. Mike Nassar sent me this link, and then I spotted a short interview with DiLiberto over at Canadian Animation Resources. The Canadian-born animator is currently working at a video game studio in Japan (BioWare, I think), but he’s got more classical 2D shorts in the works. We’ll surely keep you updated, ‘cuz this dude has crazy good skills. [NSFW - tasteful animated frontal nudity]
Tünde Molnár’s short I Am Simon has been selected for dozens of festivals and has taken home a fist-full of prizes. It’s a story told from the perspective of a dog, and it was originally written by Dave Eggers (who more recently co-wrote the Where the Wild Things Are screenplay), then titled After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned. Here’s a trailer:
Have you been following the new online series by Rob Schrab, the writer/producer/director of The Sarah Silverman Program? It’s called The Suits, and it’s apparently a 4-parter aimed at Channel101.com (which Schrab co-created with Dan Harmon), so I guess this is actually a mini-series. It’s been animated by MC Griffin, who also won Schrab’s Scud fan film contest. Enjoy:
For more on Schrab, check out the 2008 Lineboil interview with this talented SOB.
A few months back we interviewed Dean Lennert about his quest to finish his traditionally animated short film, Dear Anna Olson, , which is a story based on a true life experience, about a lonely woman in a nursing home, who reaches out to the world by tying notes to balloons, and letting them go out her window. The film follows a red balloon released by Anna, as it passes on to three other characters, who are experiencing their own form of personal isolation.
We’re following up with this post to show out support for Dean and getting the film finished by letting you all know that, Dear Anna Olson has been accepted as part of the PEPSI REFRESH EVERYTHING Project for a possible $25K grant! When you go to the Refresh Everything link for Dean’s film, you can check out some clips, get info about the film, as well as information on how he plans on using the grant money to finish the film. All you need to do is cast your vote, which you can do ONCE DAILY throughout the month, to show your support. Voting ends May 31st, so go VOTE, and good luck to Dean!
To help launch their new sister-company Mothership (based in Venice, CA), Digital Domain enlisted a few talented folks to get the word out. Below you can see a whimsical short from Happycamper, and below that is one from Nathan Love.
Australian studio The People’s Republic of Animation (PRA) have revealed the first episode of a 10-part, intersticial, musical TV series titled Itty Bitty Ditties. The project was created and directed by PRA’s James Calvert, and features artwork by Chris Edser. The project began airing on the Australian network ABC3, and the 1-minute songs are apparently all as nonsensical as this one, which details which body part love eminates from. If I tell you the title of the song, it’ll ruin the joke.
