How to use this Page

The 17th edition of the Holland Animation Film Festival concluded last Sunday in Utrecht, Netherlands. The winners of the top prizes for both feature film and narrative short hailed from South Korea.

If you can’t make it to Annecy this week – you can always stay home with a case of wine, with labels drawn by an international collection of animators. Our friend Dave Filipi recently spotted this bottle of wine (above left) with a label drawn, storyboard style, by Bill Plympton. Further investigation found that several years ago, Portuguese winemaker Niepoort recruited a group of renown cartoonists to illustrate their various international labels (Plympton told me “It’s something to look at while you get drunk. I did mine five years ago.”).

Apparently each label uses an artist from the area the wine will be marketed in: Phil Mulloy created a label (above right) for the British market; Priit Pärn drew the Estonian label; Fintan Taite, an award-winning Dublin-based cartoonist created the bottle for Ireland; cartoonist Martin Kellerman provided art for the Swedish label.

For a closer look at Bill Plympton’s label, click here. A full rundown of the winemakers complete line: here.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Bill Plympton, Phil Mulloy, Priit Pärn

I had a great time at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival. I managed to squeeze in more screenings than I had in the past, and managed to see just about everything, but still left wanting more.

My favourite film of the festival, David O’Reilly’s The External World took home the grand prize for short animation. It’s a shame there’s no preview or trailer available online, but you can check out David’s Vimeo account to see some of his other work.

Phil Mulloy’s Goodbye Mister Christie nabbed the grand prize for best feature. I was less enthusiastic about this film. Here’s a look at its predecessor, 2006’s The Christies:

At an hour and a half, you can imagine how taxing this can be on one’s patience. By the end, the audience I was with let out exasperated laughs at every new scene as if to say, “it’s not over yet?” It’s bizarre, puzzling, and yet oddly hypnotic and funny. It touches on some interesting philosophical questions, but grand prize material? I’m not sure. 

My choice for best feature is Keita Kurosaka’s Midori-Ko. The film takes place in a future Tokyo that is on the verge of starvation. Drawn with pencil, the film is equal parts Miyazaki and Cronenberg: