Fantastic Mr Fox

The Roald Dahl classic the The Fantastic Mr Fox is being released in Stop Motion, directed by Wes Anderson. Alex McDowell and Henry Selick will be in charge of the animation have a fantastic pedigree with involvement in the Corpse Bride, James and Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Cate Blanchett and George Clooney have been are in negotiations to voice the principle characters of Mr and Mrs Fox, Angelica Houston and Jason Schwartzman are also possible voice artists.

Historically they have some inspiration in the form of Ray Harryhausen's Hare and Tortoise film where the fox rode a penny fathing bicycle and judged the race. Also back in 1930 was the Tale of the Fox a pioneering stop motion film.



You can buy Ray Harryhausen's film on the Early Years DVD at Amazon:

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/andysscreensaand/detail/B000GHRC76/

http://astore.amazon.com/aceanim-20/detail/B00079RC00

Shorts

A couple of links to some short films

http://www.pixar.com/shorts/
http://www.guerrillafilmmakers.com/

Matt and Trey

Southpark creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone chat with Penn Jillette about life, hate mail, money and ratings, George Bush, Southpark and Team America.

http://podcast.penn.freefm.com/penn/251794.mp3

Ratobat returns

Poor old Ratobat was not getting many hits on Youtube. This has been attributed to the thumbnail being one of a wall with some carpet. You tube takes the thumbnail from the middle of the video so I made this simple still for him and added it to the end of the movie and repeated the song again with a little credit for the band. Watch Ratobat on YouTube

Roobarb and Custard

This is kind of old news but I just found about it.... Roobarb and Custard are back on DVD with a "special in-pack insert, allowing viewers to download exclusive wallpapers, videos, voice alerts and the iconic theme tune for their mobile phone".

The new series "Roobarb and Custard Too" is generated in CGI but still contains the distinctive boiling style ("wobbly" to the non technical). Richard Briers voices the series and the origional writer Grange Calveley has been brought back.

The series is directed by Jason Tammemagi animated by Monster Animation & Design.

I'm a fan of the "boiling" effect used in this as it gives Roobarb a very distinctive style, the origional Simpsons had a similar rough look but they had to clean it up when they moved to a series format and outsourced the animation.

More on Boiling:

http://www.animationpost.co.uk/notes2/wobble.htm

http://www.animationpost.co.uk/doping/glossary.htm