Tag Archives: animation

Oh, what a lovely mashup: ‘Adventure Time’ meets ‘Mad Max’

If you’re a fan of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and the post-apocalyptic flick Mad Max: Fury Road, you best watch this viral mashup. Animator Egor Zhgun, inspired by Ryan May’s artwork, wonderfully combines the characters and animation style of Adventure Time with the chaotic nature from Fury Road. The result is “Madventure Time” starring Finn the Human as Max, Jake the Dog as his getaway vehicle, The Ice King as Immortan Joe, and Marceline the Vampire Queen appropriately rocks out as The Doof Warrior. Other beings from the Land of Ooo, including Princesses and such, make cameos and it all just works so well. Enjoy!

JibJab presents “2014: You Are History!”

Nobody closes out the year like the uniquely entertaining animators at JibJab. The Interview fallout, the heated turbulence in the Middle East, Ferguson, ebola, marijuana legalization, NFL woes, The Fappening, the Bill Cosby scandal, NFL woes, Shia LaBeouf’s meltdown, Kim Kardashian’s ass breaking the Internet, our fascination with space…even Renée Zellweger’s new face gets a memorable mention. From politics to pop culture, JibJab covers nearly all the bases here in its comprehensive blazing fast Year In Review retrospective.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Brilliant ‘Simpsons’ premiere “couch gag” takes Homer to an unsettling future

The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom in TV history; last Sunday it entered its 26th season. The premiere featured one of the series’ best “couch gags” and I’ve embedded it above for your viewing pleasure. Directed by animator Don Hertzfeldt, the sequence imagines what the animated series might look like far into the future. It’s spectacularly bizarre and trippy and absurd and at times a bit disturbing and quite unsettling. Take it all in and share your experience in the comments below.

Happy Holidays from an animated ‘Community’

As season 5 looms on the horizon, NBC has pushed out an animated bit featuring the stars of Community. In “Miracle on Jeff’s Street,” Jeff Winger (voiced by star Joel McHale) gets ambushed by his Greendale friends including the Dean, Chang, and his study group made up of Britta, Shirley, Annie, Troy, and Abed. It’s a fun and funny clip as Annie mocks the Peacock’s decision to air Community so late in the season resulting in an Olympics scheduling fiasco.

Community returns with Dan Harmon in tow on Thursday, January 2. Oh, and Happy Holidays!

TV parodies: ‘Breaking Bad’: The Musical, ‘Arrested Development’, the video game, ‘Walking Dead’ bad lip-reading & more!

There’s TV and then there’s the Internet. The two make quite the couple. Here are some fascinating offspring I’ve hand-picked for your viewing pleasure.

The first two videos come from the world of Breaking Bad. Hanging above is “Breaking Bad: The Middle School Musical” starring kids cooking meth blue rock candy. Yes, it is twisted and it is also brilliant and hilarious. It also does a pretty great job at summing up seasons one through five so spoiler freaks beware.

Click after the break for more. Continue reading TV parodies: ‘Breaking Bad’: The Musical, ‘Arrested Development’, the video game, ‘Walking Dead’ bad lip-reading & more!

‘Revolution’ expands into webisodes in six-part animated series

While Revolution is on its long hiatus until March, here’s something to bide the time. NBC is releasing six webisodes that take place in the world where power is everything imagined by creator Eric Kripke and executive producer J.J. Abrams. The animated installments star Sgt. Joseph Wheatly, the Militia Corporal from the show played by Reed Diamond who turned on our rebel group and shot and nearly killed Charlie Matheson in the underground tunnels leading out of the subway in Philly. The first webisode titled “Wheatley’s Letters: May 7th” is embedded above. A new one will release every Monday through February 18; you can find them at the show’s official YouTube channel. Also available for viewing today is the pilot featuring commentary by Kripke and director John Favreau; watch it here.

Revolution returns March 25 on NBC.

JibJab sings “The End Is Here” in their 2012 Year in Review animated clip

The creative minds at JibJab decided to take advantage of the Mayan calendar end of the world theme when putting together their year-end animated short for 2012 appropriately titled “The End Is Here!” Somehow they manage to squeeze in most of the biggest stories that gained traction this year in under two minutes. Politics, world news, pop culture–it’s all here. So sit back, relax, and take it all in with a wide-eyed smile because that’s the JibJab style.

Happy New Year!

Trailer round-up: ‘Hotel Transylvania’ & ‘Brave’ [Update: ‘This Is 40’ & ‘Prometheus’]

The next movie from Sony Pictures Animation is Hotel Transylvania, and Adam Sandler is Dracula. Here’s a nice and tidy synopsis:

Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world’s most famous monsters — Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more — to celebrate his daughter Mavis’s 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem — but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis.

The talented voice cast includes Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, David Koechner, Cee Lo Green, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, and David Spade. Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of popular animated TV series like Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and most recently Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is directing. Hotel Transylvania hits theatres in 3D on September 28.

Now jump after the break for another look at Pixar’s Brave. Continue reading Trailer round-up: ‘Hotel Transylvania’ & ‘Brave’ [Update: ‘This Is 40’ & ‘Prometheus’]

JibJab pokes fun at politics and pop culture in 2011 with year-end video

The creative clan at JibJab claim that “the whole world went nuts in 2011” and so they put together this elaborate Year in Review musical to cover all the insanity (read: Rebecca Black’s stardom) that went on. “The goal was to create the typical “JibJab-look” but to step away from the computers for a bit and do it all in-camera,” shares the team behind the clip. “Ya know… the good ole fashioned way.” So using popsicle sticks, cut paper, and hands JibJab has developed another catchy video that succinctly summarizes 2011 for the masses. Head over to JibJab’s blog to peruse their detailed making-of section.

Happy New Year!

Stop-motion animation studio LAIKA is back with ‘ParaNorman’ [trailer inside]

Here’s a nice Halloween treat for us all: a teaser poster and trailer for the upcoming stop-motion animated feature ParaNorman. The movie is from Focus Features and LAIKA, the same partnership that produced 2009’s critically-acclaimed Coraline. ParaNorman is directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler; Butler imagined and penned the original story. The voice cast includes Kodi Smit-McPhee, Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick, John Goodman, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Elaine Strich, Tempestt Bledsoe, Bernard Hill, and Alex Borstein. The trailer, embedded after the break, doesn’t reveal much of the plot as it includes zero dialogue, but this quick synopsis should suffice:

A misunderstood boy who can speak with the dead takes on ghosts, zombies and, worst of all, grown-ups, in order to save his town from a centuries-old curse. Norman Babcock is an outcast in his small New England town. When a horde of zombies is unleashed on the populace, Norman learns he must use his paranormal powers to make things right again. That’s not an easy task when you’re only eleven. And you’ve just been grounded. 

The movie poster and teaser trailer make ParaNorman out to be a strange, dark, and visually stunning piece of work worthy of much anticipation. It releases wide August 17, 2012 in 3D. Continue reading Stop-motion animation studio LAIKA is back with ‘ParaNorman’ [trailer inside]

Animated short: ‘Mac ‘n’ Cheese’ is a psychedelic chase

A group of students at the Utrecht School of Arts in the Netherlands spent five months creating this visually stunning animated short titled Mac ‘n’ Cheese. They say the visuals were inspired by Valve’s Team Fortress 2 and the short film Meet Buck. The synopsis goes like this:

When you find yourself running scared and running out of energy, there’s only a few options left to outrun your opponent through the southern desert. Stopping at nothing, watch these two guys wear each other out and rip through boundaries hitherto unbroken. Enjoy the ride!

It’s trippy, man.