Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– The dining section of yesterday’s NYTimes included an extensive article about Ratatouille (pronounced Rat-a-too-ee).

The Disney studio understands well the art of exploiting publicity in all the sections of the Times.
(I have to assume that similar articles appeared in many newspapers across the country.) Next week there’ll be an article in the Science section on how to construct a cg rat. Let’s hope the film will be as tasty as expected.

– There’s an on-line interview with John Dilworth about his film Life In Transition on Quinn Strassel‘s On Stage. It’s short and lite.

– Thumbs down for Lil’ Bush the new animated series that premiered on Comedy Central last night. Why would anyone think that the country would get any pleasure watching an animated version of the idiot in the White House? It’s hard enough living through these next two years, now we have to put up with an animated reminder of the endless nonsense we’ve been dealt from these Washington thugs. As if that’s a good excuse for humor; I’m living it. I don’t think I’ll be tuning in.

Two local reviews were more than a lil’ bit negative. Here’s The Daily News review.

The NYTimes review by Mike Hale concludes:

Tonight’s installment of this pioneering cellphone-to-television transfer appears to prove that some things are, in fact, too small even for TV. What looked crude and amusing on a phone — or on YouTube, where the first mobisode has drawn a middling 462,000 views since it was posted nine months ago — simply looks crude on the medium-size screen, despite the improved animation.

My first question is: what’s a “mobisode”? That seems to be what they’re calling them in all press releases.

Here’s a video interview with Donick Cary the “creator” of the show.

Credits issued in the Comedy Central press release are as follows:

“Lil’ Bush” comes from creator and executive producer Donick Cary, (“The Simpsons,” “The Late Show with David Letterman”) and co-executive producer, Jay Karas. Seth Cummings and Peter Adderton from Amp’d Mobile also serve as executive producers, while Zoe Friedman and David Koga are the executives in charge of production at COMEDY CENTRAL. Animation is being done by Sugarshack Animation.

Lots of exec producers, not so many animators on the list. Pretty pathetic even if it was expected.
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Speaking of yesterday’s news, there was an article in yesterday’s NYTimes about the $100 million sale of the jewel encrusted human skull created by artist, Damien Hirst. It took no time for Mr. Hirst to comment that the diamonds in the skull “are all ethically sourced, each with written guarantees in compliance with United Nations resolutions.” The diamonds were “conflict-free.” I guess for $100 million that’s the least I might’ve expected.

Damien Hirst was one of the artists that Rudolph Giuliani tried to have censored in 2001 when an exhibit that included Hirst’s cow under glass and Chris Offili‘s Virgin Mary painted with elephant dung opened at the Brooklyn Museum. This occasion drew thousands of protestors – mostly against Giuliani – to the Museum, and it made me more aware of the two artists. Now it seems that Hirst has taken his art to a new plateau.

The arrogant attempt by Giuliani to shut the show at the Museum was just one of his many attempts at violating the rights of the citizens of NY. Perhaps he’s the real Lil’ Bush.

The article in the Times is a good read.

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Mark Mayerson has been posting an excellent series of articles entitled Six Authors in Search of a Character. He’s up to Part 9, and he is writing something very rich for animation commentary. I’ve been saving this material in printed form, and someday I hope Mark will locate a publisher for it. Take the time to read it all.

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