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Ingredients For Adventure

Nov 8th, 2015
by rodney.
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Southern California author and artist James J. Cartwright (creator of the Hamsters! comic, which we previously reviewed here) has returned with his first novel for kids, The Rabbit Chef and the Phantom Pepper. He illustrated the front as well, of course. “Cass the Rabbit is on an ambitious hunt for the legendary ingredient, the Phantom Pepper, so she can finally complete the greatest bowl of chili the forest will ever know. Cass is a rabbit who wants to be a master chef. Between her pesky brothers and mishaps in the kitchen she just can?t get her recipes quite right. Luckily, her best friend Jay the Fox is there to convince Cass to venture away from her cozy rabbit hole and into the depths of the treacherous forest in order to find the one veggie that can complete her spicy chili in time for the Harvest Festival. But that forest is full of secrets that aren’t ready to be discovered. Can she find the Phantom Pepper? Is it a good idea to steal from The Old Witch? And what really lurks deep down the forgotten road? This rabbit wants to be the top chef in the woodlands but is too busy cooking up trouble on her cuisine quest.” James wrote and published Rabbit Chef himself. It’s available now over at Abe Books.

image c. 2015 James Cartwight

image c. 2015 James Cartwright

More Stop-Motion Canines from Wes

Oct 11th, 2015
by rodney.
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The animation community has been a-buzz following the announcement on several sites that Wes Anderson, direction of the Oscar and Ursa Major nominated Fantastic Mr. Fox, is developing another stop-motion animated feature film. About dogs. According to Cartoon Brew, “Details about his new canine cartoon are unavailable at this point. All we know is that it will be stop motion, and like Fantastic Mr. Fox, the production will take place in the UK. The Playlist pointed out the irony that Anderson would choose dogs as subject matter considering his fraught cinematic history with pooches. Dogs have been harmed so frequently in Anderson’s movies that the New Yorker once published a tongue-in-cheek commentary asking, ‘Does Wes Anderson hate dogs?’ Audiences may find out the answer soon.” We’ll have to hope that in this case he treats dogs more like he treated their foxy cousins.

image c. 2015 CartoonBrew.com

image c. 2015 CartoonBrew.com

Heal the Planet

Jul 15th, 2015
by rodney.
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Recently discovered at San Diego Comic Con: Awake, a new full-color science fiction/fantasy comic series written by Susan Beneville, with art by Brian Hess. “Twelve year-old Regn has the power to wake and heal planets.  But, on her first mission, she lands on Gremon where she discovers an angry planet tearing itself apart, an irresponsible big brother, and a greedy baron who stokes the chaos for his own benefit.  Her power may not be enough when she comes face-to-face with the planet’s consciousness.” That description doesn’t mention that young Regn is helped on her quest by a large talking dog-like “tor” named Operi, as well as a local fox. Awake #1 is due this September from Action Lab.

image c. 2015 Action Lab Comics

image c. 2015 Action Lab Comics

Fox and Rabbit are Friends… Eventually

Jun 9th, 2015
by rodney.
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ComingSoon.net recently ran an article summarizing an article in USA Today (the Internet is so circular sometimes…) about Disney Animation releasing a preview image from their upcoming 2016 CGI feature Zootopia. The new picture gives us the first glimpse of lead characters Nick Wilde (fox, voiced by Jason Bateman) and Judy Hopps (rabbit, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) as they’ll actually appear in the finished film. For those who don’t know, “The story involves these two characters who don’t get along at first but must work together when Nick needs Judy’s help getting out of a jam as she’s trying to crack a big case. [Co-director Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph)] describes the film as the story of ‘two animals who would naturally never hang out or like one another in the beginning, but over the course of the movie develop a relationship and become friends.’ So apparently, it’s a buddy comedy via anthrapamorphic Disney cartoon characters.” And apparently, the writer for ComingSoon.net doesn’t know how to spell “anthropomorphic”. Anyway, the film’s other director is Byron Howard (Tangled) and it’s set to be released in March of next year.

image c. 2015 Walt Disney Animation

image c. 2015 Walt Disney Animation

The Girl, The Gods, and the Fox

Mar 24th, 2015
by rodney.
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Sentai Filmworks have released Gingitsune: Messenger Fox of the God — Complete Collection, bringing together all 12 episodes of the anime TV series based on the original manga by Sayori Ochiai. Here’s part of the review by Charles Solomon over at Animation Scoop: “For 15 generations, Makoto Saeki’s family has maintained the Inari shrine to the agricultural god Ukanomitama. Makoto lives there with her widowed father, a well-meaning, slightly befuddled man. Because her bloodline makes her the heiress to the shrine, teen-age Makoto has ‘the gift’: She can see and converse with Gintarou, the resident fox-spirit who is a herald of the gods. Heralds traditionally live and work in in pairs, but his partner left many years ago. Gintarou is later joined by Haru, a much younger female fox spirit brought to Inari by Makoto’s friend Satoru… Gintarou functions as a sort of substitute father/big brother to Makoto. He’s gruff, cranky and lazy, but his façade of indifference can’t disguise his affection for her.” I like Mr. Solomon’s description of the fox spirit: “Gintarou has a scarred fox’s head stuck onto a burly human body. He looks like a macho delegate to a Furries convention.” So noted! The 2-disc DVD set is for sale over at Best Buy.

image c. 2015 Sentai Filmworks

image c. 2015 Sentai Filmworks

The Return of Pig and Fox

Mar 22nd, 2015
by rodney.
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Besides the Oscar-winning animated short film Feast, one of the animated shorts that was making a whole lot of buzz during awards season was called The Dam Keeper. Here’s the description from Wikipedia: ” It tells the story of Pig, an introverted youth who lives in a windmill and keeps a dark fog from engulfing his town. Although socially rejected by his peers, he is befriended by the artistic Fox.” The Dam Keeper was directed by Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi, both art directors at Pixar (they worked together on Monsters University). Now comes this bit of news from Cartoon Brew: “Tonko House, the studio founded by former Pixar art directors Robert Kondo and Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, is developing a feature film based on their Academy Award-nominated short The Dam Keeper. The announcement was made along with the news that Tonko House is partnering with First Second Books, an imprint of Macmillan, to expand their short into a graphic novel series. The first book in The Dam Keeper graphic novel series will be released in 2016, picking up the narrative some years after the original story of the orphaned Pig and his quest to maintain the town dam. It will address two questions unanswered in the film: what happened to Pig’s parents, and how did his world come to be at the mercy of a dark cloud? ” No more details yet about a release date for the feature film, but the animation community will be watching closely.

image c. 2015 Tonko House

image c. 2015 Tonko House

And Then MORE Monkeys in Space

Mar 10th, 2015
by rodney.
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Toonbox Entertainment (the folks who last year brought us The Nut Job) are starting to look as if they have a particular interest in furry characters. They’re hard at work on The Nut Job 2, but in the interim comes the announcement of Spark, a space adventure film currently in production and scheduled for release in 2016. Here’s what we got from ComingSoon.net: “Spark follows a teenage monkey Spark, voiced by Jace Norman (Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger), and his friends Vix, a battle-ready fox voiced by Jessica Biel, and Chunk, a tech-savvy warthog, as they embark on a mission to take back the besieged planet Bana from the power-mad General Zhong. Spark’s dangerous odyssey leads him to the farthest reaches of the universe, and to the secret of his true identity, with characters like the comically forgetful nanny robot Bananny, voiced by Susan Sarandon, and the noble, self-sacrificing Queen, voiced by Hilary Swank by his side.” Spark is being directed by Aaron Woodley. The film already has an official web site and also its own Facebook page.

image c. 2015 Toonbox Entertainment

image c. 2015 Toonbox Entertainment

Be Wary of Wishes

Mar 6th, 2015
by rodney.
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One day, a washer-woman encountered a talking fox, who begged her to hide him from a trio of hunters. She did, concealing him in her laundry basket. Of course, this simply made him fall in love with her. Now he wished that she would love him back… and she wished he were a human instead of a fox. So begins the dark fable Outfoxed, written and illustrated by Dylan Meconis. In 2012 Outfoxed was nominated for Best Digital Comic at the Eisner Awards. Now it’s finally available on dead trees thanks to the folks over at Toonhound Studios. You can also check it out over at the author’s web site.

image c. 2015 by Dylan Meconis

image c. 2015 by Dylan Meconis

Fluff and Fangs

Dec 16th, 2014
by rodney.
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Yet another creative discovery from the CTN Animation Expo: Meg Park, designer and illustrator. Or as she puts it on her personal web site, character designer and visual development artist. Besides examples of her work you’ll find a link to her Etsy Store where you can purchase various prints — many of them toony and anthropomorphic — as well as her art collection book, Fluff & Fangs.

image c. 2914 by Meg Park

image c. 2914 by Meg Park

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