'Klaus' is Happening at Netflix

Good news everyone! It appears that Klaus, a hand-drawn project which we talked about two years ago will happen, thanks to Netflix. Cartoon Brew reports that the streaming service has acquired the rights to Klaus and will help produce it, aiming for a Christmas 2019 release date.

French Animation, Chapitre 9 - The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales

Previously: April and the Twisted World

What is it?
While the United States are currently enjoying Cars 3, Pixar's latest outing will only open in August in France. Instead, French animation fans are treated with a new feature film by Benjamin Renner, one of the directors of the critically acclaimed Ernest & Celestine.
This time, Renner adapted one of his own comic books, Le Grand Méchant Renard, which was published in 2015 and for which he took his inspiration from French literature classic La Fontaine's Fables.
Though he was only a director on Ernest & Celestine, he co-wrote this one with Jean Regnaud and co-directed with Patrick Imbert.

Watch: The Simpsons' Couch Gag Gets the Disney Treatment

The great Disney animator Eric Goldberg (responsible for the Genie, co-director of Pocahontas) has been tasked to direct the couch gag for an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. The gag is a nice journey back in time to the early days of the Walt Disney animated films. Watch the clip after the break.

Disney Apparently Working on Rumpelstiltskin Adaption, The Name Game

Disney's upcoming slate is more heavily shrouded in secrecy than Pixar's at the moment. Frozen, their first fairy tale film since 2010's Tangled, hits cinemas this winter; after that, Disney are set to release Marvel-adaptation Big Hero 6 in 2014. Beyond that, there's the long dormant King of the Elves, and we heard whispers of a possible Mickey Mouse/Roger Rabbit team-up last month (rumours, that have since been seemingly shot down).

First Look at DreamWorks' Me and My Shadow

We heard briefly about this from DreamWorks' Comic-Con panel, and today the official DreamWorks Facebook page gives us the first poster from DreamWorks' upcoming CGI/hand-drawn hybrid, Me and My Shadow. The film, in the words of DreamWorks CCO Bill Damaschke is about:

"what would happen if your shadow, that has been following you around and basically just follows what you do your whole life, just stood up and took over."

Whilst the majority of the film will be animated in the normal DreamWorks mould, using CGI, the shadows of the film will be traditionally animated. This promises a great visual style and will surely make Shadow one of DreamWorks' most striking films!

The official plot synopsis for the film, due Spring 2014, is:

Me & My Shadow reveals the once secret world of shadows and their human counterparts. Stan, our hero’s shadow, yearns for a more exciting life but happens to be stuck with Stanley Grubb, a timid guy with an extreme aversion to adventure. When a crime in the shadow world puts both of their lives in danger, Stan is forced to take control of Stanley. They go on a madcap adventure to investigate the crime and stop the shadow villain from leading a rebellion where shadows take over the human world. During this adventure, Stan empowers Stanley to let go of his fears and embrace life. Through their adventure, they both learn that one cannot be whole without a true friend.

Be sure to like the Me and My Shadow Facebook page for updates about the film.

In related news, DreamWorks just acquired Classic Media, home of Casper and He-Man for $155 million! Read more here.

First Look at Disney's Paperman

A lot of hype has been surrounding Disney's latest short film as of late. Paperman, directed by John Kahrs, - who worked as an animator on a number of Pixar films, before moving to Disney where he acted as an animation supervisor on Tangled - has been received to a rapturously positive response by those privileged to see it already. The film screened at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival a few weeks ago and Tweets about it passed enthusiastic and bordered on frenzied.

The short film, which is set to precede Wreck-It Ralph later this year (or the start of next year in the UK), is making waves for its revolutionary animation technique, which fuses hand-drawn animation with computer animation, combining "the dimension and depth of digital animation with the abstract warmth of traditional line-art. The result is a world seemingly sculpted out of sketches."

That description comes via Entertainmexnt Weekly, who also provide us with our first look at the highly anticipated short, with 3 exclusive stills.

The article also offers up some insight into, and the inspiration for, the techniques behind the short's animation:

“Drawing can have a really powerful, visceral effect on the viewer. You can create anger and surprise or anguish with just a few lines of a pencil,” says director John Kahrs, an animator on The Incredibles and Tangled. “But it can’t just be the same thing it was. I think for 2-D to be revitalized, you have to figure out a way to make it new again.”

It also provides some insight into the animation software behind Paperman, Meander:

"Disney used new in-house technology called Meander to build the world of Paperman. First the characters and backgrounds were rendered digitally, and then hand-drawn art was layered over those shapes, giving the figures a kind of 3-D quality unseen in old-school animation. “What you’re seeing is a very stylized CG layer [underneath], but the feel of the image is very flat and lives in between the two,” Kahrs says."

Finally, I'll leave you with perhaps the most telling comment of all, from producer Kristina Reed:

“If this short had come out with The Little Mermaid, everyone would be excited about the CG,” says Reed with a laugh. “Now here we are in the early part of this millennium, and what we’re celebrating is going back to the handcraft.”

It's a fantastically rivetting read and Paperman promises to change a hell of a lot for animation at Disney! Be sure to read the full article over at EW.

The Ballad of Nessie Thoughts

Following on from my thoughts on Disney's latest animated release, Winnie the Pooh, I realised there was one aspect of the film I hadn't reviewed, the attached short film.

Technically I should be saying short films, we are treated to not one, but two short films. Well... I say treated, the first short film was the closest thing to torture I have ever encountered in the cinema, or indeed anywhere. This short film, entitled Jake and the Never Land Pirates, was the kind of torturous, dreadful, awful dribble that could permanently put me off Peter Pan (fortunately Winnie the Pooh didn't ruin its franchise like Jake et al did). Jake and the Never Land Pirates, from Disney Junior, was asinine, stupid, as shallow as a puddle in the middle of September and starred the least likeable characters I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. The plot of the short, and the animation used in it, were just as dreadful, and unfortunately the short lasted WAY too long - although it would be WAY too long if it was a commercial. This short film was more like a trip through Guantanamo Bay than through Never Land, shame on you Disney, for very nearly ruining Peter Pan forever.

As you may have guessed, I loathed this short film and the very thought of it makes me feel ill, if I had to rate this abysmal romp into Never Land, I'd give it, maybe, a 1/10, and that was just for being in close proximity to the excellence that was Winnie the Pooh.

I purposely shunned Jake and the Never Land Pirates from the title in favour of a far superior short film. The Ballad of Nessie, the second short attached to Winnie the Pooh, was sublime.

The classically, and utterly innocently, animated Ballad of Nessie was a Scottish tale of the Loch Ness Monster, with a fairly inspirational - if slightly dark - moral and a FAR more solid plot than the dreadful short film listed above. The film was very funny and original - while a bit too short - and the characters were very likeable. Strange as it may sound, this Scottish short has got me more excited for Pixar's Brave. However, the real star of the short is the animation, it is so refreshing to once again see some classic hand drawn Disney animation, particularly accompanied with Winnie the Pooh, it's just such a charming style. Hand drawn animation is Disney's forte, it always has been, while it's a tad outdated now, it's always nice to see the occasional return to good ole Disney hand drawn excellence.

Ballad of Nessie might as well be the antithesis of Jake and the Neverland Pirates, I'd give Ballad of Nessie a strong 9/10 and suggest napping through the first 5 minutes of the showing of these shorts to circumvent Jake and the Peter Pan Murdering Oiks.

Phew... Good to get that off my chest.

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!