What If: Fan-Made "Indiana Jones: The Animated Adventures" Artwork

Artist Patrick Schoenmaker ponders what if in some recent Deviant Art work. Particularly, what if Indiana Jones was remade as an animated TV series? That stimulus led Patrick to create these great and lively stills for what he imagines Indiana Jones: The Animated Adventures would look like!

A post on his blog even shows a snippet from some (very brief) animation he's done on the premise, so we might even see a couple of shorts - á la Robb Pratt's Superman Classic films. The artwork is so authentic looking, they looks like stills from a 90s/early-2000s Saturday morning cartoon! I particularly like the character models of Indy, his Dad, Short Round and Marcus - Patrick's captured the characters perfectly!

Hell, as First Showing points out, we got Back to the Future, Men in Black and Ghostbusters cartoon series, there's plenty for Star Wars, and with the Indiana Jones: Complete Adventures Blu Ray set making its rounds, what better time to start an Indy series? Check out the rest of the artwork here and on Patrick's Deviant Art page!

The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania Review - Who Knew Monsters Were This Fun?

The latest 'Art of' book that I've had the chance to review is Titan Books' The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania, showcasing the wonderful artwork of the latest film from Sony Pictures Animation, Hotel Transylvania - directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.

New Wreck-It Ralph Concept Art - Including a Cartoon John Lasseter!

Disney's 52nd animated feature film, Wreck-It Ralph, hits US cinemas on 2nd November, so the Mouse House have begun heavy advertising for the video-game themed adventure; hoping to replicate the success of Tangled. Denise from Mouse Steps noticed that the artwork from Pixar's Brave at the Magic of Disney Animation attraction at Disney World's Hollywood Studios has been replaced by pre-production art from Ralph!

Included in the concept art (below) was a drawing of a little cartoon man in glasses and a Hawaiian shirt, a man that may look familiar to you. Yep, it seems Disney have included a reference to Pixar and Disney Animation CCO, John Lasseter, in their latest animated film (presumably paying homage to the huge influence Lasseter and co. have had in turning round Disney Animation since the Pixar merger in 2006). This comes after Lasseter had a cameo in Pixar's Cars 2, with the car version of himself, John Lassetire. From the character design, it looks like John will be one of the Nicelanders in the "Fix-It Felix, Jr." arcade game that Ralph is the villain in.

Check out the rest of the concept art after the jump break!

Interview: Luke Chueh, Pop Surrealist Artist

A few weeks ago I posted a review of pop surrealist artist Luke Chueh's debut 'art of' book, The Art of Luke Chueh: Bearing the Unbearable. I was just recently introduced to Luke and the art movement he represents, and have been enthralled by the startling originality of it. Although some of Luke's work was a little gory for my easily queasy disposition, on large, his work is fantastic! Widely symbolic and using a wide cast of cute, lovable and very clever characters, The Art of Luke Chueh is a great by for fans of art.

So, I was very excited and pleased when I got the chance to ask Luke a few questions via email, about his work, his origins and future, and how that links into animation - including his favourite animated film - and what parts of his work he'd be interested in adapting into animated shorts. Thanks to Lauren Woosey from the Titan Books publicity team for setting it up. Check out the interview after the jump break!

The Art of Luke Chueh: Bearing the Unbearable Review

The cover of the book, featuring Bear in Mind - 2006

Today's review marks the third 'Art of' book that I have reviewed in the past week, following on from The Art of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and The Art of Brave, but this is an entirely different kettle of fish to those two books. The former two are books that accompany the latest animated releases of Pixar and DreamWorks, The Art of Luke Chueh: Bearing the Unbearable is a standalone specimen, a compilation of the artwork up until now of Philadelphia born "lowbrow" artist, Luke Chueh. So, obviously this is not animation related, but, as I explained the other day, I feel it is explicitly linked - after all, looking at the gorgeous animation related 'Art of' books, it's evident that the people in employment at Pixar, at DreamWorks, etc., are indeed very talented and capable artists. Also, I feel it's important to challenge yourself, so I wanted to push, slightly, the boundaries of this blog, expanding our outlook somewhat.

So, this won't be a traditional review, I just wanted to offer up some quick thoughts on the book and the artwork it contains.

Interview: Tyler Carter, Visual Development Artist at Blue Sky Studios

Tyler at the Student Emmys, collecting an award for his short film DreamGiver, with the team who helped create it. Watch a video of Tyler and the team talking about DreamGiver here.

Today, I am happy to share with you the latest in a series of A113Animation interviews, an interview with Tyler Carter from Blue Sky Studios! Tyler is a visual development artist at Blue Sky Studios, the studio that brought you Ice Age and Rio, meaning he produces gorgeous artwork like what you see in the 'Art of' books that accompany animated releases (my review of The Art of Madagascar 3 here), and is currently working on their recently renamed 2013 release, Epic.

Over the past few weeks, I've had the chance to interview La Luna director Enrico Casarosa and Pixar co-founder Alvy Ray Smith, and I want to thank Tyler for helping to diversify our interviews somewhat - this isn't just a Pixar blog after all. It's also been great to get the chance to speak to someone from Blue Sky Studios, I've had very little chance to talk to anyone from animation studios other than Pixar up until now, and I'm very grateful to Tyler for agreeing to do this and speaking to me.

You can check out Tyler's artwork (some of which is featured here) on his website, and read our interview after the jump break:

The Art of Luke Chueh

The focus of this blog is animation. Animation is an artform. So, tangential to animation is art - particularly when reading 'Art of' books. I've had a keen interest in art (although admittedly not on the scale of my sheer adoration of animation) for many years, and recently the artwork of one particular artist - and indeed one particular type of art - has been brought to my attention: Luke Chueh, pop surrealist artist.

Pop surrealism, also known as "lowbrow" art, definitely doesn't sound like something that would normally appeal to me - I never have, and likely never will, understand or like modern art - but it turns out that I love it. It mashes up, creatively and brilliantly, items from pop culture with everyday; and I love it.

Luke Chueh is one such artist. His work juxtaposes the cute and the cuddly, with some fairly macabre and bizarre images. Some of his work can be seen scattered about here, but for more be sure to visit his website, which features more or less all of them. Another place where you can see Luke's work is in his upcoming book, The Art of Luke Chueh: Bearing the Unbearable.

Much to my surprise as well, although you can definitely see it when you look at it, Chueh also designed the very well known Fall Out Boy album, Folie à Deux (above).

The book is released tomorrow by Titan Books, and look out for a review of it and an interview with Luke here in the coming weeks!

DreamWorks News - The Croods and Turbo

Over the last few weeks, several pieces of news have come to light concerning, arguably, the second biggest animation studio around today, DreamWorks Animation. The studio behind Shrek and Kung Fu Panda is infamous for rolling out an awful lot of films, as such, its roster of upcoming films is very substantial, including sequels, adaptations of short films, a spin-off Penguins of Madagascar movie, and an adaptation of Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants books. Included amongst these films, are two which I'm greatly anticipating: The Croods and Turbo.

Above you'll see a gorgeous new piece of artwork for The Croods, a caveman-era family comedy, directed by Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) and Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps) and starring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone. The artwork is vibrant and colourful and will hopefully imbue life and fun into the film. The Croods is scheduled for release on 22nd March, 2013.

Secondly, the voice cast for Turbo, the story of a snail with dreams of racing grandeur, has been revealed, along with another gorgeous, more iridescent, piece of artwork (above). Following on from starring in The Croods, Ryan Reynolds will headline Turbo (directed by David Soren) just a few months later on 19th July, 2013. Reynolds will be joined by Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena and Samuel L. Jackson.

On the casting of Reynolds as the lead, DreamWorks' Chief Creative Officer, Bill Damaschke said:

"Ryan Reynolds' infectious enthusiasm and humor will bring life to the lead role of Turbo and set the tone for this amazing roster of all-star voice talent. This high-octane journey will take audiences on the race of their lives and completely re-define the traditional notion of moving at a snail's pace!"

Via DreamWorks' official Facebook page.

The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2 Review - A Masterful Menagerie of Martial Arts Art

Firstly, I'd like to thank the kind folk over at Titan books for the complimentary review copy of this utterly stunning book. Those of you that read my review of the film on which The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2 is based, Kung Fu Panda 2, will know that I wasn't really expecting a lot from the film, as DreamWorks are notoriously not great with sequels. However, DreamWorks have really stepped it up in the past couple of years and I was happy to be proved wrong by the utterly awesome Kung Fu Panda 2. But, one thing that I could never doubt about Kung Fu Panda 2, was how gorgeous it was; the animation in the film was stunning, ergo, the artwork would surely be breathtaking. And it is.

The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2 Arrives

My complimentary review copy of The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2 has just arrived from Titan books. I'd like to take this quick opportunity to thank Titan books for their generosity and say that it looks absolutely stunning. I will have my review of the book up some time this weekend.

Wanted: Fan Art

As some of you may know, I have recently joined the team at PremierPixar, the only Pixar dedicated magazine, and today I'm asking for your help with it. I've wrote a couple of articles for the next issue, a "Cars 2 Special", however, the magazine is looking for reader participation. We want your help with fan art for the issue, if you feel like you can help, contact the magazine, either at premierpixar@gmail.com, or by the magazine's Twitter.

If you feel like you can help, please get in touch ASAP.

Thanks.

Picture of the Day: "Ninjutsu VS Kung Fu" Part 5

Today, we have an awesome picture, courtesy of uber-talented artist Andry “Shango” Rajoelina's blog. We showed you some of his work earlier this year, but I absolutely love this one, pitting Ninjitsu against Kung Fu, as we get a mash-up of Michelangelo, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Po, from Kung Fu Panda.

It's awesome, I love it and would you encourage you all to follow Andry's work.

Also, if you haven't yet, remember to check out my review of Kung Fu Panda 2.

Cars 2 Stuff

We have been treated to a new slew of Cars 2 news and tidbits, we have a series of new bits of concept art and production artwork. Firstly, we have a look at the different stages in the Cars 2 progression (above) from the original storyboards to the fully rendered piece.

We have also been treated to a HUGE amount of concept art from the film, that, to be quite honest, I don't have the patience to upload all of, but the saints over at Stitch Kingdom have you covered, so head over there to see the plethora of Cars 2 production artwork now.

Also, though it has nothing to do with Cars 2, and for no other reason than the fact that it amuses me, the above picture (also courtesy of Stitch Kingdom) is of some Easter themed Toy Story egg art, it just looks really great. This also brings me to my next point:

Happy Easter!

Pixar Wars

Whilst trawling through the Internet, I found some super awesome artwork from an artist and sculptor called Sillof, this artwork combined characters from Star Wars and characters from Pixar to awesome effect. I encourage you to check out Sillof's full range, however you can see all of his Pixar Wars artwork here.

Below you will find some of my favourite character shots. Enjoy.