Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

Enjoy the latest music video from Webuyyourkids. It’s for Paul Dempsey’s song, Bats.

I don’t know what’s going on here and I love it and I could watch it over and over for hours. The music is by U900, a Japanese Ukulele duo. Let me repeat that because OMG I’ll never get the chance to type those words together again: Japanese Ukulele duo.

If anyone knows who produced the animation and created the toys, please let us know!

It’s tricky to pull an image from this all-Flash site, but the animations were too hilarious not to try. They seem to be a seamless mix of tiny puppets with digital animation of some kind, and they have the oddest sense of humor. Add in their bright candy-colors and strange hybrid creatures (the above characters are Francie, with “an apple for a head and a fish-finger body”, and Bertie with “a frog’s head and a fish-finger body”) and I’m wasting a good hour watching everything on the site. You have been warned.

Bonus: the name “Swatpaz” seems to be a truncated spoonerism of “Patrick Swayze.” (I think.)

I’m looking forward to the new Gorilaz album, Plastic Beach. More than the music, I’m looking forward to the animation and visuals that Jamie Hewlett will bestow on us. This trailer for the album certainly whets the appetite.

Get Out
by Esma-Movie

Lovely and charming! Get Out is a student film by Charlotte Boisson, Julien Fourvel, Pascal Han-Kwan, Tristan Reinarz and Fanny Roche, with a score by Guilhem Rosa, all (I assume) students at the Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques in Montpellier and Toulouse. They’ve won a bajillion awards so far too.

Another highlight from Sundance, David OReilly’s Please Say Something. Watch it with headphones on for maximum immersion.

Last weekend I attended a screening of animated shorts at the Sundance Film Festival. One of the highlights was Adrien Merigeau’s Old Fangs, seen here. There’s a production blog here.
It’s a gorgeous, evocative film. I’m glad YouTube has made it available online, though there was something very special about watching it on a big screen in a packed theater.

This trailer for the Bothers McLeod’s The Moon Bird is intriguing. I’m digging the black-and-white chalk drawing look; it’s nice and spooky, but without losing their trademark sense of fun.

The incredible Jon Klassen teams up with director Marc Craste of Studio AKA to create magic. Simply astonishing work. More details can be found here.

Previous BBC Sport Olympic animation: 2008 Olympics Monkey Movie with Jamie Hewlett, Kevin Dart and directed by Pete Candeland and Robert Valley.

I love this animated spot for the 2010 Virgin London Marathon. Animation and illustration by Andy Rementer.

Previously: Techno Tuesday