Robot Chicken

I'm not a huge fan of Robot Chicken's humor. At times it can be really funny, but it can also be pretty corny, distasteful, or just plain bad. But one thing I've always loved and appreciated about Robot Chicken is the stop motion animation, which is really well done and really creative using the show's vast array of action figures, dolls, and toys. I'm sure most of us have seen Robot Chicken, but here's a couple of funny examples from the show:

I saw it fitting I did something from adult swim seeing as I posted about Too Many Cooks last week. Thinking about it a little more, I realized that adult swim really supports a lot of creative types of animation. Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Harvey Birdman for example all used some unorthodox animation styles, all to the show's benefit and humor. 

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Hey there!

In honor of turkey day I wanted to showcase a classic! Every year since 1973 A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving has been airing on CBS.  While the animation is certainly a tad stale, the heartwarming tale is as good as ever, brimming with nostalgia. In case you missed watching it with your family this year take a look at it below.

The animation is certainly tired, and the story hasn't changed a bit, but it is still doing strong in the ratings.  This year the special tied for the #1 spot ratings wise.  This is a good sign, due to the fact that Charlie Brown will be making another appearance next year, although this time on the big screen. Peanuts is set to hit the screen in 2015 and features a revamped animation style that's more closely associated with the 21st century.

I'm not the biggest Charlie Brown fan, but I am excited to see such a staple of American culture stand the test of time. The success of this upcoming movie will definitely show if  Charlie and the gang can stick around even longer.

Until next time,

Alex

Stop Motion Pumpkin Pie

I'm sure this Thanksgiving, many of us enjoyed a delicious homemade pumpkin pie-some of us may have even made one ourselves. However, I'm guessing none of us took the time to make our pumpkin pie in the form of a stop motion animation! Since I was feeling in the holiday spirit and have been having fun looking up interesting stop motion videos lately I thought I would try to find a stop motion that related to Thanksgiving.

UK photographer Rob Ambrose and Naomi Kershaw decided to show the entire process of making a pumpkin pie from whole pumpkin to fully eaten pie! As you can see in the vide posted below, this video is a simple idea but was quite well executed as a stop motion. (and very holiday appropriate!). This video clearly has a lot of effort put into it and probably took awhile to make. The shots where the alt shaker is in the air and the spoon is stirring seem like they were somewhat difficult to execute smoothly...do you think they used some sort of green screen hand or something similar to that? It seems as though they must have done something because things don't just stay in the air by themselves!

I am always amazed by stop motion animations. They must take so much patience and attention to detail-one slip of the hand could mess up an entire sequence! They also seem extremely time consuming especially the more complicated ones (like the jelly bean ex that I posted that took two years to complete!) I think it would be fun to try making my own stop motion animation sometime!