New Art / Andreco’s Fake Religion animation

October 22, 2009 | New Art | by Ilana Kohn |

Presented only with stills from Italian artist Andreco’s stop-motion animation Fake Religion, I was really loving it, purely based on its stark, surreal imagery. I was pretty disappointed not being able to locate the actual video, but that aside, I simply adored the images. I really would have loved to have seen the video presented in the breathtaking setting of the Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna. Such a beautiful contrast of aesthetics between the dramatic murals and vaulted ceilings of the Palazzo and the stark graphic imagery of Andreco’s animation. Read more

September 11, 2009 | Video | by Gerry Mak |

Stephen Irwin (not to be confused with the Crocodile Hunter) made this great animated short which tells the story of an abused dog via a series of looping flipbooks.

September 3, 2009 | Video | by Gerry Mak |

Man, it must be so cool being a kid right now with awesome videos such as this animation by Luke Jinks to get them excited about science.

February 6, 2009 | Video | by Nikki Savvides |

Brazilian-born, New York-based filmmaker Guilherme Marcondes’ animated shorts take viewers on surreal journeys through magical landscapes. I love his award-winning work, Tyger [above], inspired by the William Blake poem of the same name. In this film, the passing of a prowling, hand-puppet feline turns the human inhabitants of a large city into animals. As a dour family become chattering apes and peons at a bus stop are transformed into birds of all shapes and sizes, the viewer is reminded of the animality that lies, often repressed, at our human core. Read more

January 29, 2009 | Video | by Gerry Mak |

This non-official video for Parisian electronics and drums duo Zombie Zombie is a remake of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Directors Simon Gisrel and Xavier Ehretsmann manage to retain the creepiness of the original using only stop-motion animated GI Joe figures. Pretty rad.

January 28, 2009 | Video | by Dont Panic |

The Black Heart Gang are a group of South African artists who have created a fantastic hand drawn animation, visually inspired by eastern art. The Tale of How is a story about a giant octupus whose desire is to consume every dodo resembling bird there is in sight, until Eddy the Engineer — a little white mouse — saves the day.

January 26, 2009 | Video | by Zolton |

This cartoon brings back so many memories of camping out in front of the tele as a music obsessed kid, listening intently to the Liverpudian accents of the animated Fab Four and singing along a little too loudly to their many timeless hits. Back then it was all about undercooked pancakes and sweet, sweet Popper juices and the ever-present sound of Saturday morning crickets chirping the break of dawn amidst the smell of lazy pre-pubescent hedonism. Take me back! The Beatles’ cartoons were a staple of every weekend morning. And they stand now as a reflection on just how much the music industry has changed in the decades since. Somehow I doubt they’ll be rushing out to cobble together a Coldplay version for the kids of today.

January 24, 2009 | New Film | by Xavier Toby |

If slapstick, violence and sex get you off, you’re going to love this. It’s not so much a social critique as social terrorism, with every viewpoint and ideology attacked. Highlights are plentiful and spoofs of old cartoon series’, like He-Man, the Smurfs and Voltron, are standouts. Also watch for when Saved by the Bell is combined with Jigsaw from the Saw movie series. Forget plot, recurring characters and political correctness, this is sketch comedy starring plasticine figures and stop-motion photography, so anything goes, including sex, murder and suicide. Each ten-minute episode covers extensive ground, keeping the laugh quotient high and making this ideal viewing while devouring a burger or kebab after a big night out.

January 22, 2009 | Video | by Zolton |

This awesome promo video for the Lost At E Minor site was created by our friends over at New York-based design studio, Lifelongfriendshipsociety. It’s all about looking into a black mirror and seeing the creative energy bursting back out at you. Damn, this is fun. Now where are my 3D glasses?

January 18, 2009 | Video | by Francis Andrews |

This is a great video for a damn decent tune. Those with a bit of Latin blood flowing through them tear it up like no others, and little-known Spanish group, Paniks, are a perfect example of this. There’s a relentless energy running through the track, and the lo-fi video is a fine accompaniment.

January 12, 2009 | New Film | by Francis Andrews |

The international release of this film on December 25th 2008 couldn’t really have been more timely, given what unfolded in Gaza as the year drew to a close. At the centre of this docu-animation is a former Israeli soldier who served at the time of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in the 1982 Lebanon War, and the film traces him as he is forced to relive the memory of the massacre and Israel’s complicity in it. The style of animation, some almost photo-real, adds to the horror of the film’s subject.

January 1, 2009 | Video | by Zolton |

Philip Norman’s recently released biography of John Lennon, aptly titled The Life, captures the true essence of a man who was a well of contradictions, his peaceful exterior masking an explosive temperament that surfaced far too often for those who were in his inner-sanctum. And it was a virtually impregnable sanctum to crack, unless, of course, you were a fourteen year old kid with a reel-to-reel tape deck. In 1969, a Beatles fanatic called Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and recorded him discussing his thoughts on peace, love, and all things in between. This amazing video is the end result of that conversation: ‘Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message’.

November 25, 2008 | New Film | by Xavier Toby |

This American film was chosen to launch the Australian-wide Human Rights Film Festival. Through the use of archive footage and animation, it tells the story of protests in Chicago against additional troop deployment and the introduction of a national draft, and is a rare mix of being both historically significant and extremely entertaining. The action shifts between the protests and a subsequent court case, both being painstakingly mixed into a riveting and coherent story. There is no footage of the court case though, only court records, so the courtroom and participants have been animated. The medium is able to show viewpoints and quirks that would’ve been otherwise impossible and the result is an innovative, humorous and affecting way to present historical facts. The Human Rights Festival is happening in Melbourne until November 30, Perth from November 29-30, Sydney from December 4-7 and Brisbane from March 6-7.

November 18, 2008 | New Film | by Xavier Toby |

Long gone is the time when animation was for children, and the gritty style of Waltz With Bashir seems to have first reached a wider audience in the recent past with Scanner Darkly. That film, like Waltz With Bashir, adds a realism and depth through simple colours and uncompromising scenes, which it is difficult to achieve with real actors. The stunning opening of Waltz with Bashir, featuring a pack of rabid, rampaging dogs, with gleaming, yellow eyes is the ideal example. The film then tracks a veteran of the Israeli Army mission in the Lebanon War of the early eighties, as he tries to recover his memories of the conflict and the following slaughter of innocents. His empty memory is probably similar to that of many of us who have either forgotten or never even heard of this conflict. As a story it’s wonderful, as animation it’s beautiful, and as a piece of history, it shouldn’t be missed.

November 13, 2008 | Video | by Yuko Shimizu |

Some years ago, Michel Gondry’s lego animation for the White Stripes video made my jaw drop. This one drops my jaw just the same, if not more. Amazing.