This Saturday morning cartoon goes out to the folks who inspired it, among them Elizabeth Bear, Leah Bobbet, and Gemma Files, who, last weekend at Readercon, gave us clear explanations of the subtext evident in their work. Using yoga.
Charade: This Oscar winning short shows that sometimes getting your point across is just not an obvious thing to do. (4:44 minutes)
The Cycle of Art: So you’ve just created your masterpiece. Here’s what’s going to happen to it. (3:09 minutes)
Pipe Dreams: The bouncing ball is the most basic motion animators learn. This short bring them to a whole new level with what is the most fantastic musical instrument you’ve ever seen. (3:33 minutes)
Crayon Dragon: an encounter with an imaginary creature can bring real life changes. (3:13 minutes)
Dragonboy: if only most school plays were this entertaining. (4:15 minutes)
Blinkity Blank: Norman McLaren often pushed the limits of animation and filmmaking. Here, he explores just how little is needed to give the impression of motion. (5:17 minutes)
Swinging the Lambeth Walk: A film painted directly on celluloid, by the inventor of the technique. (3:27 minutes)
Pencil Test: Long before Galyn Susman starred in The Movie Vanishes, she worked on this short using a Mac computer ad (I imagine) lots of patience and hard work. (3:03 minutes)
Day & Night: One of the reasons for Pixar’s success is that they know they are following a century old tradition of animated cinema. This film probably demonstrates it better than any others, while going somewhere not seen before. (5:51 minutes)
Brave is Pixar’s 13th feature but the studio started by making short films and they are still an important part of the studio. John Lasseter has stated that making shorts was a great way for him to gain experience as a filmmaker and that this is why Pixar continues to make short films: they are at the root of the studio success and I’d like to take a quick look at two early works that were key to making Pixar what it is today.
Sunstone: In the late 70s, Ed Emshwiller walked into the New York Institute of Technology and said he wanted to make a 3 hour computer graphics film. Once the staff stopped laughing, they told him 3 minutes was more realistic. So Emshwiller collaborated with eventual Pixar founder Alvy Ray Smith and produced this short. (2:55 minutes)
The Movie Vanishes: Can you imagine a world without Toy Story 2? The crew a Pixar can, here’s the story of how it almost came to be. (2:26 minutes)
Pixar films are known for being computer animated, but they are loved for the stories they tell and the characters that live in them. To get to where the studio is now, they had to combine technical know how and creativity. And no two people better represent these facets of Pixar than Ed Catmull and John Lasseter.
Volume Visualization on Image Computer: Before they became known for making films, Pixar’s bread and butter was selling high-end 3D computer visualization stations. This is a demo reel used to show the capabilities of the system. (6:01 minutes)
The Beach Chair: An early short done at Pixar while they were still testing the waters of filmmaking. (0:29 minutes)
??????????? (Anemone): When the world seems upside down, it’s sometimes a good idea to look back at your life and renew some old ties. (5:10 minutes)
???? (Ohayo): Some mornings it’s just harder to wake up. A short film by one of the modern masters of anime. (1:00 minutes)
Abigail: A young girl meets with her war council after being sent to her room one too many times. (1:52 minutes)
Alma: A young girl finds the doll she’s always wanted. (5:14 minutes)
Mau: Cats in the land of the Pharaohs didn’t always have it easy, of course some can see opportunities and take advantage of them. (6:09 minutes)
Mytho Logique (Mytho-Logical): A faun argues with his girlfriend about the existence of Pegasus and other legendary beings, little does he know he’s about to start a legend of his own. (6:10 minutes)
Oxygen: The best scientific films are not only accurate, but funny. In this one we get to spend the day at an element-ary school with Oxygen. (2:19 minutes)
The Ph.Diddy is on the scene: LifeTechnologies makes lab equipment and it looks like they are branching out into popular entertainment with music videos depicting life in bio-chem labs. (4:50 minutes)
The Piano: A man reflects on his life while playing of Yann Tiersen’s beautiful compositions on a piano. (2:23 minutes)
Tony de Peltrie: A groundbreaking short, by a bunch of guys that would eventually revolutionize filmmaking. (6:09 minutes)
Before Sunrise: A shade wanders around in the night until it makes a life-changing encounter. (5:26 minutes)
Red: One of the more interesting tellings of a classic tale, featuring the best antagonist ever put on film. (2:33 minutes)
[Watch the films after the jump]
Before Sunrise
by Kealan O’Rourke
Red
by Hyunjoo Song
For more animation, visit our Saturday Morning Cartoon Index.
René Walling is a fan of SF, animation and comics, this has led him to co-chair Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon, be involved with fps magazine for more than a decade and start Nanopress, a Canadian small press. He looks forward to living on Mars where he would benefit from having more than 24 hours in a day.
