A Matter of Loaf and Death: Big Trouble at the Mill

A Matter of Loaf and Death is an award-winning, delightful clay-animated short film directed by Nick Clark, a four-time Academy Award-winning English filmmaker of stop-motion animation.  The film, starring the much-loved duo Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit, was named last week as one of 10 films to advance in the Animated Short Films category for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.  A Matter of Loaf and Death played on BBC Television last year and was the highest-rated program of 2008 and the highest-rated non-sporting event in the United Kingdom since 2004.  In 2008, the film won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation and the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject.

A Matter of Loaf and Death is a suspenseful, romantic high-action murder mystery, with Wallace and and the ever-trusty Gromit starting a new bakery business, Top Bun.  Gromit learns that a number of bakers in town have been mysteriously disappearing, and tries to solve the case before Wallace ends up a victim himself.  The mystery involves a new love interest for Wallace, Ms. Piella Bakewell, who is a bread enthusiast and former pin-up girl for the “Bake-O-Lite” bread company, as well as, for the first time, a cute sweetheart for Gromit: Ms. Bakewell’s charming little French poodle, Fluffles.  The very urgent question now is: will Gromit be able to discover the identity of the Cereal Killer before poor Wallace ends up becoming the next ghastly victim?

done

A Matter of Loaf and Death: Big Trouble at the Mill

The full-version of A Matter of Loaf and Death can also be viewed here.

Slide Show: A Matter of Loaf and Death

(Please Click Image to View Slide Show)

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As some of you know, my most recent iPhone project involves dinosaurs and claymation.

In order to establish a style google image search has been a valuable research tool. Google image search allows me to view a plethora of relevant but different artists conceptions in just seconds!

Naturally, when I decided to research how different dinosaurs moved I wanted to see different birds, reptiles, and other critters moving. The choice was clear, and I went to youtube. Good idea?

The dangerous related videos feature makes youtube an almost unusable research tool. Instant distraction is never more than a single click away. I am only human! As a result …

I present to you– my top 3 favorite dancing reptile videos.

The runner up in 4th place.

3rd place

2nd place

1st place

Now that those are out of the way I can go back to animating the dilophosaurus.

Oh dear… A Little Bit Of Banter got a little bit neglected for a while. Apologies to my loyal readers (all 1 of you!)…

Death by sheep (see below)… yes the claymation project finally got handed in and was the most time-consuming project of my life! I blame that for making me sick *sniffles* but fear not… it’s not the dreaded SWINE (or piggy sniffles as I prefer!)

Sooooo… well I graduated since my last entry…

There I am with my silly hat…

And… I got the Piggy Sniffles injection – so nooooo flu for me thank ya verrrrry much! Pity it doesn’t stop colds tho…

While researching for my web design assignment I came across these pretty items (Abduzeedo) :

Have to say I love the use of illustration in web design.

That is all.

Bye.

I created these animated shorts  junior year at College of the Atlantic in an Animation class with Nancy Andrews.  I see all sorts of things I would do differently now (especially in the second one “A Journey Through Dementia Dimensions”…the beginning is WAY too long with the squirrel replaying over and over…stick with it though, there’s a plot twist). For the love of learning give ‘em a look as they are.

Max is a refreshingly accurate embodiment of Asperger's syndrome.

Mary and Max is a full-length claymation movie that has won many awards. Its humanity and attention to detail will astound and delight you.

Max, one of the main characters, is an Aspie. To date there have been few authentic dramatic renderings of Asperger sufferers.

This film is a wonderful exception.

It’s ironic that such a resonating portrayal should occur in stop motion animation, but it does.

You’ll laugh and nod as you see symptom after familiar symptom covered with accuracy, compassion and humour.

And at the end, you’ll very probably cry. Another irony, given that the characters aren’t even human. Or maybe that’s just the point!

Anyway, do yourself a favour and check it out!

Sexy Chainsaw Maid Staves Off Bloodthirsty Brain Eating Zombies Attack!

They are coming for your flesh and blood,
The last hope of the family rests on a sexy faithful maid!

Chainsaw Maid is a short animated film by Takena Nagao, an awesomely disgusting claymation blood feast.  The film tells the story of a sexy faithful maid who will go any distance to give satisfaction to her employers.  She certainly won’t be stopped by a bunch of bloodthirsty brain eating zombies.  The brutal clay splatter starts out slow, but it quickly turns into a blood bath as the devoted maid tries to fend off the zombies and takes the last resort of wielding a chainsaw.  Clay never looked so wondrously violent until Chainsaw Maid came along!

Sexy Chainsaw Maid Staves Off Bloodthirsty Brain Eating Zombies Attack!

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At the moment, I am currently in the review stages of the episodic game (episode 4) of Telltale Games’ Wallace & Gromit series.  The episodic game series’ is known as Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures and I am playing through the episode known as The Bogey Man.

The review should be up soon on GamingBits.com. I must say this game isn’t as easy as it’s simple control nature and structure would have you believe.  It has come to the point where I needed to use a strategy guide to get me through this episode, The Bogey Man, which is probably 4 hours in length. Smh. LOL.

What will I give the game for it’s final score? hmm. Wonderful question, yet the readers will have to wait.

Peace,

Sha’ul

Grizzly Bear’s Ready, Able: A Haunting Surreal Mix of Sadness and Otherworldly Beauty

Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimst has given birth to another aesthetically appealing video.  Artist Allison Schulnik has created a mesmerizing smeary rainbow-dripped claymation landscape for Ready, Able.  It’s a hauntingly surreal mix of sadness, repulsion and a kind of otherworldly beauty.  Why is that one blob thing melting?  Why are those faces turning inside out?  And why do I get so depressed watching all of it?

Grizzly Bear’s Ready, Able: A Haunting Surreal Mix of Sadness and Otherworldly Beauty

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This video makes me feel like my face is melting! Allison Schulnik’s Claymation Music Video for Grizzly Bear’s ‘Ready, Able’ is dope, definitely compliments the musical prowess of Grizzly Bear. Party on Wayne.

Swelltastic handmade video for “Ready, Able,” from Grizzly Bear’s ‘Veckatimest.’ Directed by Allison Schulnik.

Jimmy Fallon knows good music, or at least someone who books his talent does. Last week the Ward/Oberst/Mogis/James super-group Monsters of Folk swung by the show to perform their title track “Dear God”, and house band The Roots couldn’t keep themselves from being involved. That’s a lot of good looking and good sounding talent, kids. (Side Note: How awkward does Oberst look in that suit and behind a bass? I love it)

Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear have one of the best albums of 2009 on their hands with Veckatimest, along with some of the weirdest videos to go along with it (See: “Two Weeks“, “While You Wait for the Others“). Last week they premiered this clay-mation art-school-type piece for “Ready, Able” directed by Allison Schulnik. Let’s be honest, we don’t get it but we are still left feeling like these guys can do no wrong.

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without terrifying claymation specials. I particularly like it when the clay figures are anthropomorphized raisins wearing sunglasses. They’re pretty much the personification of cool. I’m not sure how they’re from California when they sound like they’re from Detroit. Maybe they moved out West to take advantage of the sunshine! In addition to singing, they tell jokes and dance. The “cab” joke is worth noting-layers of meaning in that one! Nothing gets me in the mood to celebrate Jesus’ birth quite like a bunch of grapes. Enjoy!  

Allison Schulnik creates reality busting videos, that are visually stunning, and quite creepy.

Mary and Max | Adam Elliot, 2009

Stop motion animation is one of those long-standing facets of film history that, thanks to a handful of important people, will never be lost to the winds of change. The concept itself seems utterly oblivious to the march of technology and computer-generated graphics, seeming only to benefit from these advancements rather than finding itself buried beneath them. Of course, without the likes of Henry Selick, Nick Park, Tim Burton, and all of those who precede them, things could be very different. As it is, we have these artists to thank for inspiring the likes of Adam Elliot – an Australian animator whose work with clay on the 2003 short film Harvey Krumpet won him and Academy Award and who returns here with his first full-length claymation feature, Mary and Max. Thanks largely to the international exploits of messrs Burton and Park, not to mention a relatively successful festival run and the involvement of two big names in Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette, Elliot’s new film is now poised to take on America. Critics around the world already appear fond of the film, and at this point it seems increasingly likely that we will see it lining up alongside the likes of Up and perhaps Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo in the Kodak Theatre when award season finally arrives – three different breeds of animation, if you will. Mary and Max follows the lives of two people: a young Australian girl whose eccentric parents and odd appearance make her the subject of school bullying, and an obese, jewish New Yorker who enjoys collecting cigarette butts from the city streets and devouring chocolate hot dogs. Both have one thing in common – a lack of friends.

Rather than tell a story in the traditional sense or “weave a fable” as films of this kind normally do, Mary and Max merely gives an account of these two rather unimportant lives. This is done through Barry Humpries (also known as Dame Edna) who provides the brilliant narration here and whose reflective, classic British/American tone lends the film much of its charm. As for the aesthetic, Mary and Max certainly doesn’t break the mould when it comes to creating a new and exciting world using the stop motion technique in the way Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas did. In fact, with its oddly misshapen gothic look and exaggerated way of capturing realism, Elliot’s film owes quite a bit to this earlier work. Other than existing as an ode to the importance of friends, Mary and Max isn’t particularly concerned with teaching us anything at all, or indeed offering a traditional narrative that involves innocence, discovery, wonder; the alternate realities found in the likes of The Nightmare Before Christmas or Henry Selick’s Coraline. The story itself, that of two people who find solace in each other’s long-distance companionship, is wonderfully written, particularly the parts involving letters sent from Mary to Max and visa versa: every word carries weight. Part of the reason for this is the voice work  behind the film. Toni Collette and Eric Bana do well enough with their handful of lines but, as usual, it is Philip Seymour Hoffman who shines: his portrayal of Max is particularly excellent – despite a New York drawl that at times seems a little forced – so that by the end of the movie his voice and Elliot’s character are very much one and the same.

Our Rating:

new music video for grizzly bear’s ready, able.  created by allison schulnik.  it’s weird.  i like it.

Flicking between channels in the morning I noticed Channel 5 early morning kids show ‘Milkshake’ which shows different kids animations. Obviously it isn’t aimed at me, but I was impressed at the different styles of animation they had. From a Bert and Ernie claymation show, a cartoon network style of animation sketch show for Mr.Men and although I haven’t been up early enough to watch it I used to watch it as a kid myself… Fireman Sam. There was others with interesting animations but these are the ones I remembered and was most impressed with. So having a quick look at Youtube here is some examples of good animation:

Mr. Men-

Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures-

Fireman Sam (classic opening with lyrics!)-

This guy who calls himself Knox made this series called Klay World. It is amazing claymation videos that are so hysterical. Please enjoy this wonderful vid of the Klay people finding a swimming pool. This is one of his earlier vids but it is still funny as hell. Check out his profile on youtube at Knox’s Corner.

Posted by: Adam

This video needs no introduction, its just a 5 minute long coldplay song and this random clay man that walks funny, then stuff starts to change, enjoy. Directed by Ross Neil and Matt Clark. Written by Ross Neil. Produced by The Pixel Hive. www.thepixelhive.com.

Posted by: Scott

Super gross zombie claymation. How have I not seen this before now?

Ah Veckatimest. It’s really the album that just keeps on giving isn’t it? Without a doubt one of the shining highlights of the 2009 music year (and I say this as someone who is currently compiling all her year-end lists), the boys of Grizzly Bear continue to seek out new heights of creepiness with their video for “Ready, Able”.

It’s directed by artist Allison Schulnik and my first thought upon viewing was simply, “YAH, CLAYMATION!” followed by a prompt, “What the…?”

However, if you keep the lyrics in mind, the haunting vision of disappearing interspersed with the desire to create a home, I suppose it sort of makes sense. One character is vanishing into the river, all his tracks erased, while the other is clearly headed home in that spaceship after morphing into someone new.

Right?

I don’t really have an explanation for those little green guys though. But you know, whatevs. It’s beautiful and sinister in a totally enthralling way.

xo,
Linds

Now, why would I change up and start mentioning a old Jewish vaudevillian magician and actor who deliberately flubbed his tricks for bad, but good jokes?

Carl Ballantine as Lester Gruber of "McHale's Navy." He died yesterday at the age of 92 (Courtesy: InnerToob)

Because I liked Carl Ballantine, born Meyer Kessler. And I liked him when he was Lester Gruber, one of the seven wise-ass crew members of the PT 73, otherwise known as McHale’s Navy. It was always one of his fantastic, money-making schemes among the other sailors and the Marines that landed the crew in trouble with Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn), otherwise known as Old Leadbottom. And it took Commander McHale (Ernest Borgnine) and sometimes pure luck in the appearance of a sympathetic admiral, to always bail them out of it.

From Wikipedia:

Ballantine was born in Chicago, Illinois. In his early career, Kessler did a straight manipulation act but gave up “real magic” when he realized he could not be as good as some of his peers. He changed his name to Ballantine early on after he noticed a bottle of Ballantine whisky in an advertisement and decided that the name of his magic act was to be “Ballantine, the World’s Greatest Magician”. He proved successful enough that he became the first magician to headline in Las Vegas.

Nicknamed the “Jipper,” Kessler was inspired at age 12 by his barber who would do magic tricks with thimbles while cutting the boy’s hair. His first job was working as a printer. In Chicago in the 1930s, Kessler was doing professional straight magic, first as “Count Marakoff” & “Carl Sharp”, then, since the early 1940s, switched to comedy magic as “Carl Ballantine.” He was billed as “The Amazing Mr. Ballantine” when he played the New York Capitol in 1950, the Ed Sullivan TV show in 1953 and the Las Vegas El Rancho Vegas in 1956. He won Tannen’s “Louie” Award and the 1985 AMA Performing Fellowship.

Ballantine is probably best remembered as Lester Gruber, one of the PT boat sailors in the television series McHale’s Navy (1962-66). He appeared as Lycus the slave merchant, on Broadway in the 1972 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring Phil Silvers. His most recent film appearance was in Aimee Semple McPherson, a 2006 biopic about the notorious female evangelist.

The guy kept on working, even taking a bit part on The Cosby Show above.

From News from Me:

[...]Carl started out as a real magician but soon discovered he was better at making audiences laugh than at dazzling them with trickery. So the tricks got deliberately lousier and he got more and more successful. [...]

It brought him fame, fortune and much acting work. He was one of those guys who worked, if not all the time, then as often as liked. He was best known for his role as Gruber on the TV series, McHale’s Navy, and he logged hundreds of guest shots on television, in the movies and on stage. [...]

Carl did hundreds of commercials, including a memorable one for California Raisins in which he supplied the voice for a Claymation™ character that looked like…Carl Ballantine. He also did cartoon shows, one of which was Garfield & Friends, where he had a recurring role on as a con-artist character named Mr. Swindler.

Ballantine died in his sleep yesterday. He had a full and funny life; he made me and thousands of others laugh.

(Of the original cast, the following are yet alive: Ernest Borgnine (McHale), Tim Conway (Parker), Edson Stroll (Virgil), Bob Hastings (Carpenter), Gavin MacLeod (Happy), and Yoshio Yoda (Fuji). Of Yoda–who played POW and seaman cook Takeo “Fuji” Fujiwara–it is said that the actor eventually changed his name to James Yoda. According to Edson Stroll, he became a Toyota executive, and an American citizen.)

Ballantine is survived by his daughter, Sara.