Spotlight on Short Films: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Given this site's new self touted focus on classic short films and cartoons, it seems only appropriate to cover a broader range of animated shorts. Up until recently, Pixar has been my main outlet of animated shorts - with a few Disney ones cropping up too - however, I've recently started watching more, and one that I particularly loved (to the extent that it deserved its own post) is The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

The short, "inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor.". You've likely, if you haven't seen it, heard the short mentioned in the context of it being one of the 5 shorts nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar this year, and there's a reason it's nominated! Personally, I loved I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat (the Looney Tunes short attached to Happy Feet Two) and that didn't get an Oscar nod, whereas Morris Lessmore did, so that should tell you something about the amazing quality of this short. Having now seen it, I can safely say that it would've caused me some hesitancy in my choice for the Best Animated Short Film A113Animation Award this year.

I'm harping on here, but my superlatives and hyperbole are apt in this case, as Morris Lessmore is brilliant. This shan't be a full review, as this post is intended merely to get you to go out and watch this short and to praise Moonbot Studios (the company behind it) for their talent. The animation is luscious and the style charming, the musical accompaniment is soft and nostalgic and it's an all round very touching, poignant film about the effect that books and, more broadly than that, - as this seems to be the mantra of Moonbot - about the effect that story can have on us.

Moonbot have done a wonderful job here and (having not seen any of their rival nominees - although I hear nothing but glowing reviews of Pixar's La Luna) I'd say they have a strong chance at the 84th Academy Awards later this month; they'd certainly deserve it. The studio who say, rather than devoted to any one medium - as they've also released a few acclaimed iPad apps - they are devoted to telling the best story they can. One thing's for certain, co-directors William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg and their team at Moonbot have certainly accomplished that here.

To surmise in platitudinal terms: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is fantastic!

Watch The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore on Moonbot's website via Vimeo; visit the short's official site (where you can see some great concept art); and like both the short and Moonbot's official Facebook pages.

More La Luna Details Emerge

Yesterday, details emerged on a brand new Pixar short, La Luna, set to debut later this year at the Annecy Film Festival and today yet more details emerge.

Firstly, we have the very simple yet effective looking title card for the short (above). As I said yesterday, I really like the look of the short and this title fits with what I've seen so far and just looks generally great.

Joining director Enrico Casarosa at the helm is Kevin Reher, as producer, who previously produced Partly Cloudy and Day & Night. It is a very solid sounding team at the top of this project and La Luna looks set to be a great addition to the already fantastic Pixar animated short film canon.

Finally, La Luna is set to have a running time of 6:53, which Mike of The Pixar Blog reliably informs us is Pixar's longest short film by almost a minute, adding to the feel of a "fable" that it is touted to be.

The short sounds great and could easily be the one we see attached to Brave in 2012.

La Luna: Details on an Upcoming Pixar Short

Courtesy of Indiewire, we get a look at an upcoming Pixar short, La Luna. The short (image above) is set to debut later this year at the Annecy International Film Festival, which takes place in France on 6th June 2011. The short is described as a "fable" coming of age film and the official description can be viewed below.

La Luna is the timeless fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait.  A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family’s most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?

The film is to be directed by Enrico Casarosa, who has worked as a story artist on Cars, Ratatouille and Up and La Luna will mark his directorial debut.

The fact that the short is to premiere in France feeds into my next point, the animation on the short looks distinctly french, bearing some resemblance to Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me and a heck of a lot of resemblance to the awesome French animated short film, French Roast (which I whole heatedly recommend). The animation in the short looks unlike anything we've seen from Pixar and the short in general sounds fresh and interesting.

Can't wait to see it.

New Pooh

Above is the newest clip that Walt Disney Animation Studios have released for their next theatrical animated feature, the hand drawn, Winnie the Pooh.
As I've said previously, this film looks great, classic, innocent Disney magic.

Apart from anything else you've got to love Winnie the Pooh!

Roll on July.

Details on The Ballad of Nessie

Today details emerged on Disney's upcoming hand-drawn animated short, The Ballad of Nessie! The short film is based on the Loch Ness Monster and will be attached to Winnie the Pooh! The short looks wonderful and seems to be embracing the good ole Disney hand-drawn magic, so fitting that this be attached to Winnie the Pooh.

Below you'll find stills from the film and some details by one of the animators on the short:

This short film is based off of Stevie’s (one of the directors) ideas she had come up with while back at CalArts I believe. The style is meant to be flat. The character animation was traditionally done on paper as well as the cleanup. The effects were done using Toon Boom and were drawn on Cintiq’s the same way we did all of the effects on PATF. All ink and paint and comp was done in Toon Boom as well. I even used maya (3d) on a couple of shots but you would never know it by the way it was treated in Toon Boom. I believe Joe Mildenberger (2d efx) used After Effects with Toon Boom for one of the sequences with art direction based of Lorelay Bove’s work. Dan Lund set up the look of the effects with some scenes he did. It is a simple story and the style is simply done. Not everything needs all the bells and whistles. Enjoy the animation and enjoy the story from this film. Both go hand in hand and neither one of them tries to overshadow the other. This film was completed at the end of PATF and was a nice way to roll of a very busy film. Andy Harkness was the art director and was so great to work with as was everyone at Disney. People who dont work there or never have need to find out facts before they bash on a place. Does Disney have its problems, yes but at the same time it employs some of the most amazing people and I believe in time things will get to where they should be at Disney.

Thanks to Cartoon Brew for the details!

Rio Song

Blue Sky Studios just now uploaded the above video, our first proper look at the main villain of their upcoming animated film, Rio. As regular readers of the blog will know, Rio is one of the films I am most looking forward to this year and this gave us our first proper look at its villain, Nigel. It also provided another full glimpse at the musical aspect of the film.

Stay tuned for more updates as the film's release next month draws ever closer.

First Full Hop Trailer

The first full theatrical trailer for Illumination Entertainment's (the studio behind Despicable Me) upcoming CGI/Live Action mash-up, Hop, was released yesterday. We had previously seen the teaser trailer, which seemed a little silly, but this new trailer reveals a lot more about the plot. Furthermore, I really like the main character.
Definately looking forward to Hop!

How is Megamind Doing?

DreamWorks Animation's latest feature film, Megamind, was released in the U.S. earlier this month, the film has done very reasonably for itself. Megamind currently holds a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (80% from the Top Critics) and has raked in $136,300,429, bearing in mind it hasn't opened everywhere yet, that's pretty good. It holds the fourth highest opening weekend for an animated film of 2010, behind Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After and Despicable Me.
Not bad at all.

Update

Megamind's total gross revenue worldwide was $311,656,309, not ground breaking but not to be sniffed at. In comparison, Illumination Entertainment's similarly themed super villain film, Despicable Me, grossed $541,897,970 worldwide. Also, Megamind's final RT score was 72% (78% from Top Critics).

Day and Night in Oscars

Pixar's latest short film, Day and Night, is one of 33 animated shorts to be accepted into this year's Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
The film, directed by Teddy Newton, was attached to the release of Toy Story 3 earlier this year - and on the DVD and Blu Ray - and is a great blend of 2D and 3D animation.
I'm, hoping Pixar win this year, to compensate for the brilliant Partly Cloudy, not even being nominated last year.