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Animation

Out of Work and Out of This World

Who knew that Natasha Allegri, creator of Bee & Puppcat, was the one who came up with the idea of gender-swapping the main characters of Adventure Time to create Fiona and Cake? And who knew that her Kickstarter campaign for Bee & Puppycat would become the highest-funded web series in Kickstarter history? (Well, okay, if you’re a fan of hers you probably knew those things!) All of this was more than enough inspiration for Boom! Studios to launch their own full-color Bee & Puppycat comic book mini-series under their Kaboom! imprint. It’s out there now (written and illustrated by Natasha Allegri with help from Garrett Jackson), and you can read more about it at the Kaboom! web site.

image c. 2014 Kaboom!

image c. 2014 Kaboom!

Smile and Wave, Boys!

Word has gotten around that Dreamworks Animation has pulled a switch: The aliens-land-on-Earth comedy Home, originally scheduled for release this winter, has been pushed back to 2015, while the Penguins of Madagascar movie has been moved up to this coming November. To that end Dreamworks has just released the first trailer for the penguin movie. It seems that our military-style black and white team meets up with a secret agency known as The North Wind, a collective of high-tech armed animals from the arctic. The film is directed by Eric Darnell, who of course directed all three of the Madagascar movies. Fine, fine, but what we wanna know is: Will Marlene the otter be in the movie too??

image c. 2014 Dreamworks Animation

image c. 2014 Dreamworks Animation

That’s A Lotta Monkeys…

“Jerome Lu was born in Mountain View and raised in the Bay Area by a family of wild monkeys. Even when he was a small chimp, they could see that he believed every crayon in the box had magical powers, and he would transform blank pages into colorful, fantastic worlds filled with monkeys, ninjas, robots and all his craziest dreams. His wild monkey relations soon recognized his artistic talent and nurtured it with a diet of Skittles and Corn Nuts. They made sure his art education included Saturday morning cartoons and ABC After School Specials. Now that Jerome has grown up to be a big monkey, they are quite proud that his childhood creativity has never diminished. In fact, it has grown, and he is working on his biggest art project to date: Constructing a 20-story ultimate monkey ninja robot.” Got all that? It’s all come together at Hyperactive Monkey, Jerome Lu’s web site of crazy colorful artwork, books, t-shirts, animation, and a whole lot more.

 

image c. 2014 by Jerome Lu

image c. 2014 by Jerome Lu

Return to the Pridelands!

Here it is, straight from Variety this morning: “Disney is looking to get new mileage out of its Lion King franchise with a new animated series and TV movie planned for its Disney Channel and Disney Junior cablers. Disney Television Animation is producing The Lion Guard, a series that continues the storyline of the Mouse’s boffo 1994 hit feature. Lion Guard will bow next fall with a TV movie and transition to a regular series in early 2016. ‘We look forward to introducing a whole new generation of kids to both the Disney legacy characters and to new friends and heroes,’ said Nancy Kanter, exec VP of original programming and G.M. of Disney Junior Worldwide. The series incorporates strong environmental and conservation messages as it revolves around lion cub Kion’s role as a member of the Lion Guard group tasked with preserving his family’s natural habitat. Series will revive Lion King characters including Simba, Nala, Timon and Pumbaa. Ford Riley developed Lion Guard and is exec producer.” Keep watching this space for news of the premier!

image c. Walt Disney Television Animation

image c. Walt Disney Television Animation

A Fat Pampered Cat

Frans Vischer grew up using his drawings as a way to communicate after his parents immigrated with him to America from Holland. That practice from an early age won him the sponsorship of animation legend Chuck Jones, an admission to CalArts… and eventually a job in animation for himself. Over the years he’s worked on such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Cat’s Don’t Dance, and The Princess and the Frog. More recently he’s parlayed his talents into his own line of illustrated children’s book.  In the first, Jimmy Dabble, a young farm-boy befriends his barnyard animal friends and later saves the day with his unusual method of doing chores. For his second book, Mr. Vischer introduced the world to Fuddles — a proudly over-sized cat, based on the author’s own real-life household companion. He’s also introduced a line of Fuddles prints. You can find them and more at his web site, including a look at his upcoming third book, A Very Fuddles Christmas.

image c. 2014 by Frans Vischer

image c. 2014 by Frans Vischer

Furries From Around The World

East coast artist David DePasquale is a visual development and character designer, with a notable talent for designing animal-based characters. His latest project is an alphabet flash-card series of prints with different animals from different countries all over the globe. His blogspot web site has many of his most current sketches, and his 2014 portfolio was recently uploaded as well.

image c. 2014 by David DePasquale

image c. 2014 by David DePasquale

Tales of the Seal Folk

[Back from CaliFur, and we have so much to talk about!]

Over at Cartoon Brew they have premiered the brand-new trailer for the upcoming animated film Song of the Sea, directed by Tomm Moore. Like Moore’s previous film The Secret of Kells, this new feature will be hand-drawn in a traditional 2D fashion with a highly stylized design. And, like that first film, this new one is based on the legends and lore of Ireland — in this case, the story of the Selkies, magical beings who are seals in the ocean but can shed their furry skins to become humans on the land. “Song of the Sea tells the story of Ben and his little sister Saoirse – the last Seal-child – who embark on a fantastic journey across a fading world of ancient legend and magic in an attempt to return to their home by the sea. ” As with The Secret of Kells, Songs of the Sea has been picked up by GKIDS for distribution in North America. Now if we could just get a firm date for its release!

image c. 2014 GKIDS

image c. 2014 Cartoon Saloon

Furry Game Seeks Funding

We’ll let the creators of Beast’s Fury speak for themselves: “Beast’s Fury will be a 2D, arcade-style fighting game featuring anthropomorphic characters. It is currently being developed by a small, passionate team of individuals who are both gaming enthusiasts and professional programmers. The game will not only involve action, but also features engaging story lines, intriguing characters, exotic arenas, and a killer soundtrack! Inspired by famous 2D fighters such as the Street Fighter series and Skull Girls. If you have any burning questions about the project, drop us a line on our Facebook page!” They also have a current Kickstarter campaign, seeking out funding to help them hire more animators. Which in turn will help them get their game demo up and running and out in the wider world much quicker.

image c. 2014 by Ryhan Stevens

image c. 2014 by Ryhan Stevens

Art from Oregon

Here’s how this artist describes himself: Matt Doering is an Illustrator/Concept Artist based in Eugene, Oregon currently working as a Production Artist and UI Designer at Disney Interactive for mobile and social games.  Matt also works as a freelance illustrator, most recently completing his first children’s book The Story of Magic Kringle, written and created by Alice Cosgrove.” His web site also has numerous examples of his character design work, as well as some of the animation he’s worked on. Of note: Matt did color design and visual development on The Girl and the Fox, an award-winner short animated film written and directed by Tyler J. Kupferer.

image c. 2014 by Matt Doering

image c. 2014 by Matt Doering