Salon.com > animated films

“Futurama” gets canceled, again

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:14:00 +0000

After seven seasons, "Futurama" is coming to an end -- again.

Matt Groening's animated comedy originally aired on Fox from 1999 to 2003, before it was canceled. Comedy Central then picked it up in 2008, but has not renewed the show.

From the L.A. Times:

Comedy Central announced on Monday that the long-running animated comedy will come to a close at the end of its seventh season on Sept. 4.

The 13-episode final season premieres June 19 and will feature guest voices from Larry Bird, Sarah Silverman, George Takei, Adam West, Burt Ward and the man behind Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta.

But show creator Matt Groening implied that the show might return: "I'm very proud of the upcoming season. If this is indeed the end of 'Futurama,' it's a fantastic finish to a good, long run," he said.

PES: I worked on this for years!

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 20:30:00 +0000

Every year, it gets more and more difficult to draw a clear boundary between animated and live-action films. The official terminology used by the Academy Awards feels particularly vague and anachronistic:

An animated film is created by using a frame-by-frame technique, and usually falls into one of the two general fields of animation: character or abstract. Some of the techniques of animating films include cel animation, computer animation, stop-motion, clay animation, pixilation, cutouts, pins, camera multiple pass imagery, kaleidoscopic effects, and drawing on the film frame itself.

This definition feels like a half-step up from we know an animated film when we see one. When you get down to it, don't all movies use a frame-by-frame technique? The fact is that nowadays, all of the boundaries are blurring – even within the world of animation. Stop-motion animation is not necessarily a separate species from computer animation.

Watch “Paperman”: The Oscar-nominated animated short film

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:06:00 +0000

With the 85th Academy Awards around the corner, Disney has just released its heartwarming Oscar-nominated short “Paperman” in full on YouTube. The mostly black-and-white animated six-minute film marks the directorial debut of “Tangled” and “Ratatouille” animator John Kahrs, who blends traditional hand-drawn animation with CG techniques, and the result is a sweet love story between a man and a woman who meet by chance on their morning commute.

The dialogue-free short unfolds in 1940s Manhattan, where a lonely young man is hit by a flying piece of paper while standing on a train platform. He is dazzled by the beautiful woman who accidently drops her paper as a gust of wind blows it away, but quickly realizes she's departed on the train. Convinced that the girl of his dreams is gone forever, the guy spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office and gets a second chance to woo her.

“Paperman” will be competing for the best animated short film on Feb.24, against Mnikyu Lee’s “Adam and Dog,” PES’ “Fresh Guacamole,” Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly’s “Head over Heels” and David Silverman’s “The Longest Daycare.”

Tim Burton’s golden moment

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000

Hard though it may be to believe given the breadth of his career and his particularly well-defined aesthetic, Tim Burton had only been nominated for an Oscar once before this year. Then as now, the support of the academy came for his animated films for children; Burton was nominated for best animated film for 2005's "Corpse Bride" and 2012's "Frankenweenie," a stop-motion film (painstakingly made by resetting the positions of models infinitesimally) about a reanimated pet pup. He spoke to Salon about his history with animation and with the Oscars.

Why is it that your animated films have caught on so much more with the academy?

That's hard for me to know. I don’t really know. I enjoy them -- I started my career as an animator, and I wasn't a very good animator, but I always loved it. I was such a fan of Ray Harryhausen. I think just starting my career at Disney, it has something to do with my background. And it’s such a pure form -- it’s why you like making movies in the first place.

Does your appreciation for animated films come from the fact that they're in some ways much simpler than your complicated, ornate live-action films?