Gracht

 Shorts:  Gracht, Porcelain magic.

Porcelain get more than its fair share of mentioned here... with not only the characters looking like they are made of it but also the toilet variety gets a mention!

Funny little story but the main reason for putting it up here is so you can see the mulleted, drug crazed, raver steal whatever he can get his hands on... animation gold!

Gracht by Joost de Jong, Michael Koning, Nick Groeneveld, Jeroen Hoolmans

The Backwater Gospel

 Shorts:  Moody, scary and a little violent... 

...Just what you want in a short. It also has a great graphic style to boot, with dark and dirty looking characters.

Telling the story of a small backwater town who has a visit from the undertaker and his crows, the omen of death. The local preacher, a horrible, angry man, riles the townsfolk up to lynch a local musician who's not turned by the preachers faith... and all hell breaks loose.

I love this short by Bo Mathorne, and hope I get to see more from him and the team.



The Backwater Gospel by Bo Mathorne on YouTube

Alma. By Rodrigo Blass

 Shorts:  Alma: Cute & Creepy

Heres a cute little short for you to check out, and it has a creepy twist to it that left me wantint to know more. Who owns the shop & whats its reason... Watch it full screen with the sound to really get into the great animation and wonderful story writing.


Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

Ryan: Oscar®-winning animated short

 Animated Documentary:  Ryan 

Now this ones a few years old, but as I was scouring the YouTube archives, I come across it and was hooked in the first 30 seconds.

The CGI might be a bit dated but the interview by Chis Landreth is an enthralling look into the life of the influential animator Ryan Larkin and his downward slide into alcoholism, drug abuse and homelessness, a slide it seems, that was caused by the very industry he was part of, ripping him off and leaving him out to dry.

The very stylised CGI shows the viewer graphically the mental scars Ryan, Chris and the peripheral characters (there for ride but not really much else) carry. If only it were that easy to see someones emotional scars that easily in real life... mental health issues might be more easily understood, diagnosed and  treated.

This Oscar award winning animated short is definitely worth 14 minutes of your time!

Mega Plush Animated Short

 Shorts:  Plush Toys Dark Side

Ever wondered what went on in the teddy bear underworld? Well wonder no more... The Punisher meets Toy Story with the kind of adventure I wanted to be going on with Ted!

Hell Yeah, can't wait for the next instalment!

Find out more at http://www.themegaplush.com/

Blick - Animated Short

 Shorts:  Blik

Heres a nice little graphic animation with no need for a music soundtrack or dialogue. Fantastic use of moving shadows to convey time during this story of a boy falling in love with his new neighbour. The faceless characters have a lot of warmth.

Nice and simple does it.


Blik from Polder Animation on Vimeo.

UTS Sydney International Animation Festival

 What's Onion:  UTS Sydney International Animation Festival 

@ UTS. 25-28 September 2013  http://www.siaf.uts.edu.au/

This Wednesday through to Saturday is the Annual Sydney International Animation Festival at UTS. With a ton of FREE talks, workshops and viewings theres plenty to keep us animation fans talking for ages.

Liquid Television's, John Andrews will be there talking about everything from Beavis & Butthead, The Maxx, & Aeon Flux through to South Park & Family Guy. Theres also workshops on writing for Children's Animated Series, student animations, Sundance award winning documentaries as well as the Oscar nominated adventure The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello by Anthony Lucas.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

Best of all it's Free (all you have to do is register & turn up! So head over to http://www.siaf.uts.edu.au/ and check it out!

Lego Thriller

 Shorts:  Always running out of red LEGO two-ers?

So here it is, the first post on the new blog. Its not an easy thing to commit to but then something lands in front of your eyeballs that just has to be shared around!

Everyone loves Lego and even with the dubious nature of MJ's life and death I think we all love Thriller... put the two together and you get just over a minutes worth of animated gold.


Lego Thriller by Annette Jung from Talking Animals on Vimeo.