The BBC just aired a biopic titled Holy Flying Circus, which takes us back to 1979 when Monty Python was making their controversial, religious satire, Monty Python’s Life of Brian. You can see a clip or two from the hour and half film on YouTube, but below is the behind-the-scenes assembly from the Nexus-produced title sequence. BAFTA award winning Animation Director Jim Le Fevre illustrates the extremely complicated process of building his largest Phonotrope creation to date. Around the 2:15 mark you will see the entire title sequence, even a part that was cut from the final production. It’s a real tribute to Terry Gilliam, the American-born member of the troupe, who created all of the animated elements in the vast Monty Python library. More background on the effort on Le Fevre’s blog.
Roger D. Evans, who runs fansite jonnyquest.tv, recently released a lovingly-created, shot-for-shot remake of the Jonny Quest title sequence, produced in stop-motion.
Romain Segaud created this snappy title sequence for the french feature Le Pigeon, which was released last month.
The stop-motion sorcerers at Screen Novelties recently took a trip to Bikini Bottom to honor a TV animation legend. By way of DUCK Studios, Mark Caballero, Chris Finnegan and Seamus Walsh directed and produced this :45 second opening sequence for Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants 10th anniversary special. I’m pretty sure that Cee-Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley is providing the vocals here.
HBO’s new live-action series Bored To Death, which is based on Executive Producer Jonathan Ames’ book of the same name, is enjoying excellent critical reception. The title sequence, which I believe was produced by Curious Pictures, is also something worth checking out. The 1-minute piece is composed of words from Ames’ original story, and it uses artwork from comic artist Dean Haspiel, who also is the basis for the character Ray Hueston, played by Zack Galifianakis.
Justin Harder and Pierre Nobile recently created this title sequence for Fuel TV’s weekly show New Pollution (Sunday nights at 8:30pm et/pt). As you can see below, four monsters representing snow, street, off-road and water sports have been selected to lead the promotional efforts for the series. If you watch the network, you’ve probably also seen the on-air promotions featuring the walk-around suits. Solid work, Fuel TV!
Like many, I think the ideal length for online entertainment is 2 minutes, so consider this new main title sequence for The Simpsons a web short. After all, it’s 2-minutes long (and we’re assuming future titles will be far shorter) and full of new visual gags while harkening back to the original sequence that carried us for 20 wonderful seasons.
You can watch full HD episodes of The Simpsons at fox.com.
