by Dan Forgione

On multiple occasions we have posted about the personal short film Leonardo, by Pixar story artist and director Jim Capobianco. After ten years in production on this pet project, the finished product has garnered numerous accolades and screenings at various festivals across the globe. [watch a trailer here]

With the recent DVD release of the film, Leonardo: The Complete Codex, and in conjunction with his upcoming appearance at the CTN Expo in Burbank this weekend, Jim was kind enough to send us a copy to check out. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a great short about Leonardo daVinci’s creative quest to explore his dream of flight. Animated traditionally on paper, the film takes inspiration from daVinci’s very own notebooks, complete with rough, and sometimes even unfinished, animation, timing and drawing notations, and subtle color variations of the parchment-like background. Through accurate depictions of flying inventions daVinci himself drew, we are treated to a number of gags, some of which have a Warner Bros. feel to them, as the film’s hero makes several failed attempts to test fly his inventions, and leads to a conclusion that often alters the lives of many great men, even today.

If you’re a fan of traditional animation, and collect DVDs for the sole purpose of checking out the DVD extras, then you don’t want to miss out on getting a copy of the film. In my opinion, it is what every DVD should come packaged with. Inside the well crafted packaging made from recycled materials and images from the film, you are treated to a bunch of cool extras, including 4 versions of the film with commentary at various stages in production, stills of preproduction sketches, as well as final designs, descriptions and facts about various inventions that can be seen throughout the film.
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Toy Story 3 madness is in full swing. With 8 days to go, the crew at Chris Cross Media have created a live-action re-enactment of the opening minutes of the first Toy Story film. Enjoy:

Also, here’s some soundbites from Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich:

Back in March, we posted the first two installments of A History of Aardman, as told by the studio co-founder Dave Sproxton. Here’s part 4 of the series, that focuses on how Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit, joined Aardman Animations and went on to conceive, direct and animate Creature Comforts.

In this interview below, Shrek Forever After director Mike Mitchell calls the original Shrek “one of the greatest told fairy tales of all time.” If you count box office dollars as votes, the audience agrees. The first 3 Shrek films hold 3 of the top 6 all-time grossing animated movie slots, with Shrek 2 in the top spot.

The animation community doesn’t seem to respect this DreamWorks Animation series in quite the same way, and I’d say the visual appeal, which is mediocre, and the abundance of what you might call “cheap” pop-culture gags combine to create that dischord. Plus, the 3rd movie was pretty awful, tallying a 44% on RottenTomatoes.com, further irritating the animation community. With Shrek Forever After releasing on May 21st, do you think it will live up to Mitchell’s lofty praise for the original, or will it fall into the sequel garbage heap?

Mike Mitchell

…and here’s a clip featuring Puss ‘n Boots and Shrek

To help celebrate the 200th episode of South Park (last week’s 200), Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin swooped in on South Park Studios to interview the series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. In both the episode and this interview we learn that while Muhammad’s image is censored, he appeared in a 2001 episode without a fuss. As you may remember, inbetween these two shows, something happened – the Danish cartoon controversy.

Anyway, have a watch and learn why “South Park matters.”

After premiering last week at the Berlinale, we are now treated to the first footage of Sylvain Chomet’s upcoming feature The Illusionist. The 2D film from the Oscar-nominated director of Les Triplettes de Belleville introduces us to a struggling illusionist and his relationship with a young woman. Based in Scottland, it’s based on a story by the late Jacques Tati, a French director/actor/mime. The footage begins with an interview with Chomet (in French) and then around the :40 second mark, they introduce some footage.

Pixar and ILM veteran Kyle Balda graduated from the world-reknowned CalArts in 1991, but in this video below he visited what is perhaps the best animation school on the planet – Gobelins L’Ecole de L’Image. As part of his own 3D Masterclass, Balda interviewed Eric Riewer, head of the film animation department, and in 10 minutes you learn a few of the many reasons why Gobelins graduates such amazing artists every year. You’ll also hear how The Annecy International Animation Film Festival played a role in the formation of Gobelins, and what prospective students must accomplish to gain access. Riewer boasts that Gobelins has “the toughest entrance exam of any animation school in the world,” which is comprised of a 3-hour animation test and a storyboard test. I also found myself nodding along as Riewer discusses brevity. Around the 8-minute mark of the video, he talks at length about how student films should strive to be short (1-2 minutes), and why.