Stubble Trouble (2000)

Stubble Trouble was directed by Joseph E. Merideth, a former animator for Calabash and a teacher of animation for Columbia College Chicago.
Stylistically, it comes across as a crude melange of the "B.C." comic strip and "The Flinstones".



A caveman, finding himself rejected by the fairer sex because of his heavy beard, resorts to increasingly desperate measures to become clean shaven, but the beard always sprouts right back. Finally, he meets the perfect woman, who can accept him as he is.

The Birthday Boy (2004)

Both the story, and the animation style are refreshingly original and beautifully told.
Korean War, 1951 Little Manuk is playing on the streets of his village and dreaming of life at the front where his father is a soldier. He returns home to find a parcel on the doorstep and, thinking it is a birthday present, he opens it. But its contents will change his life. He wanders through streets of his Korean village and plays on his own. With an air of poignancy, we watch as he plays among the ruins of his town, watching an invading train fly past, forging new toys and acting out his dreams of becoming a soldier; just like his father. He is young, na ve and innocent; completely oblivious to the horrible nature of war. This brilliantly simple concept of portraying the horror of war through the na ve eyes of a child heightens the profound values Park is pushing through his film.



The little boy has so much character and is like no other character you've seen on the screen before. Manuk's 'cute' look was a conscious reflection of his innocence in a war-torn environment. We see the world not only through Manuk's eyes, but in his facial expressions and movements that also reflect his emotions without the need for a voice-over or dialogue.
Birthday Boy is based on Sejong Park's own childhood experiences of growing up in Pusan, South Korea. The influence of his hometown is reflected in the landscape, architecture, and layout of the city pictured in the film.
A sad, delicate story where the implications and the consequences are left off for the viewer.

Grace


Massimo Dall'Oglio self issued the magazineARTrosi and the serie Donnell&Grace. Actually he published his comics with Humanoides Associates.

9

Inspired by the work of stop motion animation masters Jan Svankmeyer, The Brothers Quay and the Lauenstein Brothers, Shane Acker sought to immerse the audience in gritty textural world inhabited by creatures composed of fabric scraps and bits of broken machinery.The fantasy artwork of Zdzislaw Beksinski and photographs of European cities destroyed in World War II inspired the scenic design. The non-verbal narrative is loosely based on the old English Poem Beowulf, and relies heavily on pantomime, combined with strong composition and staging to tell the story. The characters and sets are mostly comprised of every-day objects.




Although CGI, the movie will have a stylized look resembling stop motion.
After witnessing the death of his mentor "5" by the hands of the malevolent construct, the rag doll "9" must confront his fears. Now "9" must destroy the creature and steal the talisman of trapped souls it carries as a trophy.
9 took Shane Acker over 4 years to make, but it really shines in the details. This short is textural, spiritual, and haunting, a real delight to watch.

Sisyphus (1974)

Sisyphus is an artistically spare depiction of the Greek myth of Sysiphus, sentenced to eternally roll a stone up a mountain. The story is presented in a single, unbroken shot, consisting of a dynamic line drawing of Sysiphus, the stone, and the mountainside.
This short is about political oppression. The futile efforts of trying to create personal works of art are reflected in Sisyphus's unending struggle, with a cold, oppressive force trying to prevent the hero from doing what he has to do.
With only black lines and empty white space, Marcell Jankovics is still able to make us aware of the incredible strength of Sisyphus, and the tremendous weight of the rock. As the rock grows in size, and Sisyphus, despite his ample musculature, shrinks, we truly feel the frustration and pain of the title character.



He pulls back, and for a split second, becomes nothing more than a squiggle of lines. He comes rocketing back, once again his old muscular self for just a brief moment, and shoves the rock on to its final resting-place on the top of the mountain.
By having Sisyphus melt into the mountain, Jankovics is able to show us the exhaustion and frustration of the title character.
The pain is also reflected in the stunning sound track. Gasps and grunts. As the boulder gets bigger, the gasps turn into screams.

In The Zone

Rip's illustrations have appeared in Galleries and on CD's, Band Poster's, Newspapers and Magazines. Robert's style is whimsical, surreal, and his images tend to capture a specific moment or scene while keeping an underlying edge.


The Selfish Giant (1973)

The story's namesake giant erects a wall to keep children out of his garden, reaping the consequences of a continuous winter.



The story is based on Oscar Wilde's novel.



Peter Sander makes a well piece of animation.

Maestro (2005)

Five minutes before his big performance, the Maestro and his persistent mechanical assistant are in preparation mode. As the clock ticks, life at the top is not all it seems. The multi award-winning Maestro blends an operatic aria with CG animation.



Géza M. Tóth put a great effort in the sound design: you'll notice how nothing has been left to chance.
The "camera" roams 360 degrees around the little room so we see what's going on from all angles.

Deep Sea Tentacle

Deep Sea Tentacle is reminiscent of Norman McLaren’s early shorts.
One major theme in Kojirō Shishido’s work is reflections. He shows us beautiful reflections not only in surfaces like water, mirrors, but also in moving tentacles. Shishido renders his realistic backdrops images slightly blurry, endowing them with the hazy quality of memories or dreams.



Shishido clearly enjoys the possibilities of light and shade in his films. Not only does he experiment with intensity of light, but he also plays with the patterns made by light when it encounters different objects.

The Critic (Oscar 1963)

Mel Brooks is an old man watching abstract animations. Simple, abstract, geometric shapes move and morph on the screen to what sounds like harpsichord music.
He doesn't understand them, so he heckles with strange commentary, to the annoyance of those around him.



In the background we hear a man giving his ideas about what he sees, completely without a clue. The voice of an audience member, who claims to be 71, complains through out most the film despite being told repeatedly by other audience members to keep quiet.
The voice is from Mel Brooks.

Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith


Matt Hirschfeld. Many of his pieces have been created on commission for writers, actors and even major motion picture studios. In 2006, he created a lithograph for the movie Crash that was distributed by Lionsgate Films to the actors and filmmakers of the movie after winning the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture.

The Dot and the Line (Oscar 1965)

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics is a book written and illustrated by Norton Juster, first published by Random House in 1963, which Chuck Jones and the MGM Animation/Visual Arts studio adapted into a 10-minute animated short film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, narrated by Robert Morley.
Jones had fun with the form.



A straight line is in love with a dot; however, the dot finds the line too plain, unimaginative, and rigid. She would rather spend her time with an undisciplined squiggle who is much more fun. The dejected line later realizes that he doesn't have to be unbending.
When the line demonstrates his abilities to the dot, she realizes that true beauty comes from discipline and that the squiggle is not for her.
You can buy Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection.

Field In Rain


Christopher Harris is a photo-based artist whose work explores the American West. His landscapes and seascapes are meditations on transcendence, a quality Americans have associated with the West for two hundred years. The small “scratch” photos are snapshots from a daily journal. Currently he is beginning to photograph the remaining native tallgrass prairie that extends from Minnesota to Oklahoma.

En Marchant (1969)

Ryan Larkin employs a variety of techniques (line drawing, color wash, etc.) to catch and reproduce the motion of people afoot. The springing gait of youth, the mincing step of the high-heeled female, the doddering amble of the elderly: every event is registered with humor and individuality, to the accompaniment of special sound.
A cinematic portrait of people walking in their individual ways!



Excerpts from this film also appear in the Oscar-winning short about Larkin, Ryan.
Walking made Larkin an animation celebrity, catapulting him into the international spotlight.

Untitled


Steven Daily’s work is extremely stylized, and his paintings are emotionally evocative. He has shown in numerous galleries nationwide. He has created a sizeable body of work. Daily is extremely busy these days, working on several exciting new projects, so you can expect to see much more from him in the immediate future.

Pulcinella (1973)

Pulcinella is the principal character who dreams himself into a wild nightmare of a dream that leads us through an abstract world.
Emanuele Luzzati designed the forms and art style, and Giulio Gianini animated and took care of the technical aspect.



Pulcinella is an artistically imaginative and very inspiring short with a lot of free improvisation and a harmonious interaction between music and motion characterise. It was inspired by the Italian opera and the traditional folk theatre Commedia dell'Arte.

Bokka


Akab. He's editor and charter member of Shok Studio. He has collaborated with Marvel, Dark Horse and DC comics. His painting has been exhibited at L.57, Happening underground, Sovversivi, Milano's International Fumetto Triennale, Freeshout, No human no cry. His first film M A T T A T O I O has been selected for the Venice's Biennal. His movie Il corpo di Cristo has been selected at Bellaria Film Festival.

Twin Hearts


Adriana De Barros. Artist, writer and poet. You can watch his Flash Visual Poems on SCENE360.

Her personal and commercial work has been recognized with numerous editorial and design awards and honors. She's also active in the design industry.

Umi Ga kikoeru (1993)

Unlike Ghibli Studio's more popular works, Ocean Waves is not a fantastic fairytale adventure or a metaphorical epic on man's relationship with nature.
The story is set in the city of Kōchi, on the Japanese island of Shikoku. It concerns a love triangle that develops between two good friends and Rikako, a new girl who transferred from Tokyo.
Taku travels to his hometown for his high school reunion. During the trip, he recalls the memories of the days in high school. Friendship, subtle love, a trip to Tokyo and so on all came back to him as the film evolves.



Ocean Waves simply focuses on the main characters and tells their story honestly. The dramatic conflicts are real and interesting.
It was directed by Tomomi Mochizuki and was based on the novel of the same title by Saeko Himuro.