The A113Animation Podcast, Episode 5 - Brandon Oldenburg and Limbert Fabian

After our lengthy D23/Despicable Me 2 double-feature episode last time, episode 5 of the A113Animation Podcast is a shorter one. This is a bonus episode, featuring my interview with Brandon Oldenburg and Limbert Fabian, the directors of Moonbot Studios'/Chipotle Mexican Grill/CAA's attention-getting short film, The Scarecrow! You can check out the full transcription of the interview here, but if you'd rather listen to my nasally tones and the voices of Brandon and Limbert, then you can listen to the podcast on Podomatic, iTunes and Stitcher below! We talk the film's production, its inspirations, its choice of music, what's next for the studio (a feature film collaboration with Guillermo del Toro is just one of many exciting projects!) and more - including Brandon's rant about original Star Wars lightsaber toys. You don't want to miss that.

If you're feeling generous, head on over to our Support page to see how you can help contribute to A113Animation. We're recording episodes 6 and 7 (our two-part Disney Renaissance show) tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy!

Interview: Brandon Oldenburg and Limbert Fabian, Directors of The Scarecrow

You may be familiar with Moonbot Studios, the studio behind The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. If you're not, a) you should be, and b) you should now be familiar with them as the studio behind the fantastic new short film/ad for Chipotle Mexican Grill, The Scarecrow (watch it here)! Inspired by classic cinema like The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Scarecrow - which has already amassed more than 5 million views on YouTube since I started transcribing this on Wednesday, the short has passed 6 million views - is directed by Brandon Oldenburg (who helmed Morris Lessmore with fellow Moonbot co-founder, Bill Joyce) and Limbert Fabian. I recently spoke to Brandon and Limbert about the short, the accompanying app, the importance of cohesion between the film and the app, working with Chipotle and CAA, the film's music choice, what's going on at Moonbot now and next (including a feature film collaboration with Guillermo del Toro), and much more!

I'd like to express big thanks to Brandon and Limbert for taking the time to chat to me and for being such nice chaps. Thanks also to Sara Hebert at Moonbot for setting the whole thing up. As well as putting out some of the best short films on the planet and being one of the best independent animation studios on the planet, the guys and gals at the Shreveport, Louisiana also happen to be incredibly nice all round.

The interview is fully transcribed here, or if you'd rather listen to Brandon, Limbert and I discuss everything for yourself, you can check out the half-hour audio of the interview in the special new episode of the A113Animation Podcast, which will be out later today (listen here now). Episodes 6 and 7 of the podcast will be a two-part Disney Renaissance special, which will be available late this month and early next month respectively; we'll be recording those later today.

John Lasseter on the D23 Expo and more

As the D23 Expo is approaching, the Pixar & Disney news is coming in number and it's an exciting time to be an animation fan.

Today, EW.com debuted an interview with John Lasseter, where the chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios spilled the beans on what will be revealed in the next few days. As an added bonus, the EW interview offers two new images: a concept art from Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, and a Disney's Frozen still.

Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Etc. Talk Turbo

Jake Hamilton is back with more great questions for big stars, this time for the cast of DreamWorks' Turbo. The film premiered at a CineEurope event in Barcelona late last month, and Jake was on hand to ask some topical questions about the film to stars Ryan Reynolds (who voices the eponymous snail racer), Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Peña and Snoop Dogg. For some hilarious Sam Jackson-y goodness and more, check the interview out above.

Turbo hits cinemas on 17th July in the US, and 18th October in the UK.

Monsters University Stars In the Focus

Although the stars of Monsters University are really the creative and animation forces behind the film's production, the famous faces who lend their voices to it give the film quite a lot of clout too. As such, Billy Crystal and John Goodman, the voices of the scaring duo of Mike and Sulley, have been making their rounds doing promotion for Monsters University too.

Monsters U Bits: Nathan Fillion, Clips and Concept Art

Here's a shocker: Once again, Disney and Pixar are besieging us with endless Monsters University bric-à-bra. Be warned when watching and reading things here; if you don't want to indulge in any spoilers, then run while you still can. Okay? Then let's proceed.

William Talks Pixar with Pixar Corner

Al of Pixar Corner has started up a new feature, The Luxo Limelight, asking a series of personal Pixar questions to super-fans from all over the Web. I'm very fortunate to be the first interviewee, and our email chat is now live over on Pixar Corner!

Surprisingly, I said my favourite Pixar film is Toy Story 2; head on over now to check out all my responses. And Al is eager to accommodate all manner of Pixar fans, so shoot him an email at pixarcornerunofficial@gmail.com if you're interested. Be sure get following the site, if you're not already, it's a great read.

Interview: Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, Directors of The Croods

Last month, DreamWorks released their first film under Fox, the prehistoric family comedy, The Croods. We here at A113Animation really rather liked it: it's warm, it's funny and it's visually stunning. So I was very pleased to get the opportunity to talk to its two directors, Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, late last week.

I'd like to pass on my sincerest thanks to Chloe Adams at 20th Century Fox for setting up the interview, and to Chris and Kirk for taking the time out of their very hectic schedules to fit in an eager fanboy - and for putting up with my God-awful connection.

Kirk has been involved in the production for nine years now, whereas Chris worked on the project both before and after his enormous success with How to Train Your Dragon. In our 20 minute interview, Chris, Kirk and I discuss The Croods, its lengthy production, its recently announced sequel, working with Roger Deakins, Chris's involvement with How to Train Your Dragon 2, and more! Check the transcription of our chat out below.

Interview: Erik-Jan de Boer, Oscar Nominated Life of Pi Animation Director

Last week, the morning after the Oscar nominations were revealed - with Life of Pi amassing the second most nominations with eleven (behind only Spielberg's Lincoln) - I had the opportunity to interview one of the key people behind one of the film's most spectacular aspects: its visual effects. Life of Pi seems almost locked to take home the Best Visual Effects Oscar, so I was very excited to get the chance to speak to the film's newly Oscar nominated animation director, Erik-Jan de Boer of Rhythm & Hues studio.

Rhythm & Hues have received previous Oscar nominations for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe and The Golden Compass (winning for the latter) and have cemented themselves as arguably the top VFX house around for creating believable and realistic animal characters. They've outdone themselves, however, with their endeavours in Life of Pi, creating - alongside the magnificent ocean scenes and a great many other animals - a full, photo-realistic and utterly convincingly animated tiger with Richard Parker.

My thanks to Scot Byrd at Rhythm & Hues for setting the whole thing up, and lots of thanks to Erik for taking time out of his day (particularly given how hectic it surely was after the studio had just earned another Oscar nomination) to answer my questions so graciously.

Topics covered in our exclusive interview include the approach to Life of Pi's visual effects and how Richard Parker was created, the different techniques to creating VFX compared to creating an animated movie, whether Rhythm & Hues would ever consider following in ILM's footsteps - who branched out to feature animation last year with Rango - by making their own animated film (spoiler: they are!), working with director Ang Lee, the Oscars and more! Check it out below.

Interview: Brian Larsen, Brave Story Supervisor and The Legend of Mor'du Director

A while back now, I had the chance to interview Pixar's Brian Larsen, a frequent Genndy Tartakovsky collaborator, who worked on Ratatouille and most recently acted as Story Supervisor on Pixar's 13th feature film, and awards-hopeful, Brave - as well as directing the new Brave-based short film that was attached to the film's home video release, The Legend of Mor'du.

Unfortunately, due to me having a heck of a lot of work to do as of late, it's taken me rather a while to get transcribed. That said, I'd like to, once again, extend my sincerest thanks to Pixar's PR mogul Chris Wiggum for taking the time to deal with me and set these interviews up. Thanks also to Brian for being so courteous with his time and generous with his responses. Brave is available on DVD and Blu-ray now and you can purchase it from Amazon here.

Topics covered in our interview include the inspiration for the short and its distinctive visual style, Brian's reaction to some of the criticisms levelled at Brave, what working on the film was like, including reactions to its high-profile directorial change, and the new project he's developing (we assume, a feature film) with Brave director Mark Andrews - could this be the PG-13 rated Pixar film Andrews spoke about wanting to make recently? Check out the transcription below.

Interview: Pete Oswald, Vis. Dev. Artist on Hotel Transylvania and ParaNorman

This latest A113Animation interview seems particularly relevant given our recent competition to give away a copy of an Art of book. The companion books to most animated films are a great portal behind the screen, giving you a look at the colossal glut of fantastic visual development artwork that goes into a production and that we might otherwise never get to see. When reviewing The Art and Making of ParaNorman and The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania, one artist consistently stood out to me, Pete Oswald.

Pete's work was colourful, lively, caricatured, playful and full of cartoony energy! So, I sought Pete out, I found his website and sent him an email saying how much I enjoyed his work and asking if he'd mind doing an interview. Thankfully, he said yes - and expressed a great deal of enthusiasm about it too! Pete's a great guy; modest, helpful and very talented, and I'm grateful he took the time to speak to me.

In our interview - which we did via email - Pete and I discuss his role on the two aforementioned films, what working on them was like, his other work (including The Ricky Gervais Show!), working on Cloudy 2 for Sony right now, and broader animation. Check it out after the jump break!

Interview: Marcelo Vignali, Production Designer on Hotel Transylvania

Marcelo with Hotel Transylvania's vocal lead, Adam Sandler.

Last Friday, I had the chance to speak to Marcelo Vignali, the production designer on Hotel Transylvania, the latest film from Sony Pictures Animation. The Genndy Tartakovsky directed film is getting a lukewarm critical response, but is going down a treat with audiences everywhere, who are very receptive to its fun, cartoony style. Hotel T is playing now in the US and Canada, and opened here in the UK today!

I'd like to thank Lauren Woosey at Titan Books for putting me in contact with Sony in the first place and her constant kindness; I'd also like to extend huge thanks to Olivier Mouroux and Kyle Rapone at the Sony Pictures Animation PR team for setting the whole thing up and being so accommodating and friendly.

Of course, I also want to thank Marcelo. One thing I've been astounded at when doing these interviews is how kind and down-to-earth everyone is. Marcelo made a point of asking me about my own life, and acted very modestly, while displaying huge enthusiasm for the film and his work. Not to mention he's a really talented guy! Topics covered in our exclusive interview include his role on Hotel T and thoughts on the film, working around the many directorial changes, working with Genndy Tartakovsky, the film's visual and animation styles, animation at Sony and the future.

Billy Crystal on Monsters U: Voicing Mike Again and the Ending

Billy Crystal has always been vocal in his love of Monsters, Inc., specifically his own character in the film, Mike Wazoswki. And in a recent interview with THR, the When Harry Met Sally... star gushed about being back in Monstropolis for the prequel, Monsters University.

"He’s my favorite character I’ve ever played" the co-vocal lead says of Mike, while also singing the praises of co-star, John Goodman, and the chemistry the two have created on-screen, saying:

"We do it together and he’s a genius. That’s why I think there’s a lot of affection between Mike and Sulley on the screen -- the relationship between the two of us is so real. We really love working with each other."

Crystal (pictured, top, with Monsters U director, Dan Scanlon) also speaks about the film's ending so avert your eyes now if you want to avoid spoilers - that said, it's pretty tame given that it's a prequel:

"The movie ends with us walking into Monsters, Inc. and working in the mail room."

Monsters University looks every bit as great as the original, and the anticipation only grows and grows with every detail we're drip-fed. The film will be released almost 12 years after the original, on 21st June, 2013 (US) and 12th July, 2013 (UK).

Related news: Apply to Monsters University Now! No, Really. and Monsters University Plot Details Emerge

Via The Pixar Post.

Jake's Takes Interview with the Cast and Crew of Frankenweenie

The most original interviewer around, Jake Hamilton, the host of the self-titled Jake's Takes is back with more great interviews. Last month Jake interviewed the cast of Laika's ParaNorman, and today he brings us interviews with the cast and crew of the similarly spooky Frankenweenie.

Questions fielded to director Tim Burton included asking what the key differences between Frankenweenie now, and the original short film from 28 years ago that famously lost Burton his job at Disney, are, to which he responded:

"I love stop-motion animation, so the idea of doing it black and white, 3D, stop-motion, and adding the other kids, the other monsters, and teachers, things that I was thinking about, the kind of memories that are all sort of based on this thing: it felt like a whole new project for me."

Burton also spoke about the emotional heart of the film and the importance of friendships with pets - both for him and for Victor in the film. Jake also spoke to cast members Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Landau, Atticus Shaffer and Charlie Tahan who spoke very passionately about the project, touching on the importance of doing the film in stop-motion, and working with Tim Burton. And Martin Landau's Mr. Rzykruski promises to be powerful and hilarious!

Jake's great at asking curve-ball questions and really coaxing his interviewees into expressing their passion for the project - nice touch having the video in black and white too! And jeez, from watching The Middle, who would've guessed Atticus Shaffer was so smart?

Frankenweenie promises to be a great addition to a great year for animation when it opens on 5th October in the US and 17th October in the UK. Check out the 21-minute video interview compilation above!

Frankenweenie IMAX Poster and 6 New Clips!

As Tim Burton and Disney's Frankenweenie's October release date draws ever closer, we're getting more and more wonderful new videos, images and information! Today, we get six brand new clips from the film, a few featurettes, interviews with the film-makers and a great new IMAX poster!

The "12:01 IMAX Poster" features an original Tim Burton sketch of Sparky, and these awesome rare posters will be given to people who attend a midinght IMAX screening of the film. Check out the clips and other videos after the jump break!

Interview: Mark Walsh, Pixarian and Partysaurus Rex Director

Today, I had the opportunity to interview Pixar's Mark Walsh, the director of the latest Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex! Partysaurus Rex is showing now in America, alongside Finding Nemo 3D - although they don't arrive here until March (unless you can attend the VIEW Conference that is). However, I was able to watch the short online, via a secure link, just prior to our interview, and it's great (I'll post a quick review later)! I've loved all of the Toy Story Toons, but this is definitely the most original one yet.

Thanks of the highest magnitude, again, should also go to Pixar's PR king, Chris Wiggum, for setting the interview up!

Mark is a lovely, down-to-Earth guy, who went out of his way to ask me about my own life; and his enthusiasm and zeal for the characters and the short was abundant. In our conversation, visible after the jump break, Mark and I discuss his inspirations for the short, basing it around Rex, his other work for Pixar, working with Pixar Canada, Finding Nemo 3D, the future and more!

ParaNorman Cast Interview

Fox Houston's Jake Hamilton, of the Emmy-winning "Jake's Takes" - and one of the best and most interesting interviewers on the Internet - recently uploaded an interview (above) with some of the cast of Laika's upcoming stop-motion animated feature, ParaNorman.

Jake interviews Kodi Smit-McPhee, - who voices the titular Norman - Anna Kendrick - who voices Norman's older sister, Courtney - and Leslie Mann - who voices their mum. Included amongst the original questions put by Jake to the cast were which classic horror films they'd like to see remade in stop-motion, and their thoughts about the film's message of it being a good thing to be different.

It's also great to hear the enthusiasm they all have for the film! Laika (who previously brought us Coraline) should write Jake a substantial check, because this interview got me more excited for ParaNorman than most of the trailers!

ParaNorman opens in US cinemas on 17th August and UK cinemas on 14th September. I'll also be reviewing The Art and Making of ParaNorman from Chronicle Books in the near future!

John Lasseter Talks About Pixar's Upcoming Slate; Details on Día de los Muertos Film

Disney and Pixar Animation Chief Creative Officer, John Lasseter, recently sat down for an interview with Monsieur Hollywood, a French movie site, in which he discussed Pixar's upcoming slate of animated films, including shedding some light on Lee Unkrich's untitled film about the Día de los Muertos!

In the first part of the interview, John discusses Brave, how many firsts it represents for Pixar and what it means to him personally. However, the second part is arguably more interesting. In the second part (embedded above), the Toy Story director discusses (as well as the technical challenges of Brave and his favourite Disney characters) what we'll see from Pixar in the next 5 to 10 years. He doesn't offer up much, saying Monsters University (new images here) is "really funny", and merely mentions Bob Peterson's The Good Dinosaur; he speaks very enthusiastically about Pete Docter's "amazing story" for his Untitled Mind Film, however, the most interesting nugget of information was concerning Lee Unkrich's next film.

The Toy Story 3 director is working on a film about the Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead, and speculation has been rife over what the story of the film would revolve around; whether it would be a more adult Pixar film. Lasseter shed a little bit of light on the matter saying it's a "fantastic story of family". So, we now know that, what will be, Pixar's 17th feature film will be family-centric - a normal family juxtaposed into fantastic situations perhaps, in the mould of The Incredibles or Brave maybe.

It'll be a while before we hear more from this project though, given that it doesn't even have an announced title or release date yet - expect it in 2015/16.

Need a Pixar fix in the meantime? Then check out our review of Brave, which finally arrives here in the UK in 9 days, on the 13th.

Via The Pixar Times and Pixar Post.

Interview: William Joyce, Moonbot Studios Co-Founder and Co-Director of Morris Lessmore

On Friday I had the pleasure of speaking to the very kind, very friendly and very funny William Joyce, on the phone from Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, Louisiana. Joyce, a co-founder of Moonbot, co-directed their debut short film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, with Brandon Oldenburg last year. The short was nominated against, among others, Pixar's La Luna (my interview with La Luna director Enrico Casarosa, here), and actually won the prestigious award - one won several times by the incomparable Walt Disney!

William was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule - he's also working on DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians and Blue Sky Studios' Epic; both based on books of his - to talk to me about several topics. In our extensive 40 minute interview, William talks passionately about Morris Lessmore and its solemn origins, the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and its effects on him, touches enthusiastically on the Oscar experience, Moonbot as a studio and its next steps, as well as working with other studios and how Rise of the Guardians and Epic are turning out.

As per, I'm indebted to - as well as William, for taking the time out of his schedule to speak to me, and for being so friendly - the brilliant people who helped organise it. Specifically, I want to thank Trish Farnsworth-Smith for being so brilliant in setting this interview up.

Check out the interview after the jump break!

UPDATED - Peter Jackson on Tintin 2!

The Hobbit director dressed as Captain Haddock.

Friend of the blog and our resident Tintin expert, Damien, shared an interesting interview today, an interview with Tintin 2 director, Peter Jackson. The director, who produced the first Tintin film, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and who is currently directing the Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit, spoke to Salon about not being a superhero fan and his tastes in comic books. This, inevitably, led to talking about Hergé's Tintin and the film's based on it.

Steven Spielberg directed the first film, and is set to produce the sequel - written by Stormbreaker author, Anthony Horowitz. Of the sequel, Jackson told Salon that it will be:

“slightly less of a rollicking adventure and something a bit more, a little bit more of a sort of espionage type of story. So it’s a slight tone shift, which I think will be good.”

Well, that narrows the list of possibilities a bit. The obvious choice, in terms of espionage type stories - that introduces Professor Calculus - would be The Calculus Affair, but Anthony Horowitz told us on Twitter last month that we shouldn't "put too much money on that". Of course, it's entirely possible that Horowitz was just trying to throw us off the scent - as there's not that many other stories that fit the espionage mould. The Black Island (one of Peter Jackson's favourite Tintin adventures) or King Ottokar's Sceptre are also possibilities, but references to those adventures appeared as newspaper clippings on Tintin's wall in the first film, so who knows.

Basically, we're no closer to knowing than we were before - if anything we're further away - but it sure gets you excited for the film!

We also now have a better idea of when we can expect to see Tintin 2, as Jackson also stated in the interview that he hopes to spend five or six weeks in 2013 doing the mo-cap for the film - when he's winding the second part of The Hobbit. That would seem, factoring in animation time, to place a Tintin 2 release in late 2015 or early/mid 2016.

It seems such a long way off...

Be sure to check out the full interview for more, including talk about possibly bringing in another director for Tintin 3.

UPDATED

Anthony Horowitz just told us on Twitter that "The clippings are irrelevant." So, this opens the field up. Given that The Calculus Affair was said to be ruled out (although, it could still be a bluff), and that we now know that the stories on the wall in the first film are still possibilities, The Black Island is looking very likely!

A great story that is sufficiently far removed from the globe-trotting Indiana Jones-esque nature of the first film, to shake things up a bit tonally, should make a brilliant film. And we know Jackson likes animated gorillas after his King Kong remake!

Keep visiting A113Animation for more Tintin 2 news as it happens!