UPDATED: Christmas Recommendations: The Snowman and the Snowdog, The Art of ROTG and TV Listings

'Tis the season! As such, we here at A113Animation have a few TV recommendations and last-minute animation-related present ideas for you.

Some TV alerts for UK readers: On Christmas Eve at 8 PM, Channel 4 airs The Snowman and the Snowdog, the sequel to the absolute Christmas classic, The Snowman. The original aired 30 years ago this year and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. While creator Raymond Briggs didn't write this sequel, he did give it his blessing and it's animated and approached in the hand-drawn, soft style of the magical and iconic original.



Check out an interview from BBC Breakfast with some of the crew who worked on The Snowman and the Snowdog, complete with clips from it, over at the BBC website, and check out the promo for it embedded above. A113Animation's favourite actor is to narrate an audio e-book version of the story shortly afterwards as well.

A113Animation Competition - Now Closed!

It's been an exciting ride but the 2nd A113Animation Competition has come to a close. With over 40 entries from all over the world, it soon became obvious that people really wanted to win The Art of Rise of the Guardians. So, my heartfelt commiserations to all those who didn't win, especially to those - like @LuxoCharaDesign and @mubblegum - who expressed such a keen enthusiasm for it; there's always next time! If you were thinking of buying it anyway, I'd recommend doing so - it's fantastic.

That said, there could only be one winner, and that winner - chosen at random - is Twitter user @MoonieBalloonie! Moonie also entered via email, but it was her Twitter entry that won her this free copy of Titan Books' companion book of DreamWorks' latest feature (out 21st Nov. (US), 30th Nov. (UK)). I've sent her an email, and so long as she replies with her address, then we have our winner!

Again, sorry if you were unsuccessful, but thanks for visiting A113Animation, and we hope to be able to maybe give you a prize in the future.

DreamWorks Release Spate of New Rise of the Guardians Featurettes

On the back of the release of the fantastic accompanying 'Art of' book, DreamWorks are hard at work promoting their latest animated feature film, Rise of the Guardians. Today, they bring us some fantastic new featurettes for the film, introducing us to each of the film's iconic characters; as well as one with words from the team behind them.



The featurette for Rise of the Guardians' reimagining of Santa Claus, North, voiced in the film by Alec Baldwin, is embedded above. Alas, DreamWorks have inexplicably disabled embedding for the remaining featurettes, so check them out at the links below!

• "Meet the Tooth Fairy"
• "Meet Sandman"
• "Meet Bunnymund"
• "Meet Jack Frost"
• "Making Dreamsand"

Sandy in particular looks like a whole bunch of fun, and the all-star voice cast lends the film a lot of character. As for the animation, it looks every bit as gorgeous as the concept art The Art of Rise of the Guardians shows off!

The Guardians - described in the "Making Dreamsand" featurette by director Peter Ramsey as "the original superheroes" - arrive in cinemas on 21st November (US) and 30th November (UK), and I can't wait!

The Art of Rise of the Guardians Review - Making the Children of the World Believe... in Great Art Books!

DreamWorks are definitely in their golden age right now. The studio once derided as a cheap Pixar-wannabe has output hit after hit in recent years, with two of their latest films (How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda 2) holding their own against Pixar's offerings each year; with the latter actually besting the Toy Story studio! With their latest film though, Rise of the Guardians, - based on the Guardians of Childhood book series by William Joyce (The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore) - DreamWorks look set to reach new heights in terms of sophistication, scale and visual splendour. So, I've been greatly anticipating the film, and - because of the previously mentioned visual splendour - the accompanying 'Art of' book!

DreamWorks Release Two New Rise of the Guardians TV Spots

DreamWorks have been on a major roll since Kung Fu Panda in 2008, outputting a series of great films, and reaching particular highs over the last two years with How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda 2. But with their latest film, - the last under their current distribution deal with Paramount - Rise of the Guardians, they seem to have made their best film yet.

Today, DreamWorks released two new TV spots for the film, which you can view above and below. The spots showcase the epic, Avengers-like, team that the Guardians form, as well as the gorgeous visual style, and trademark humour, of the film. I love the balance of intensity and comedy - I laughed particularly hard at the "knock him out" bit in the "Secrets" video.



The animation, the colours, the worlds - the entire visual style is stunning, and the film looks, definitely, to be one of 2012's best animated films. To see more of the gorgeous style of the film, check out The Art of Rise of the Guardians, out now - or better yet, enter our competition to win a free copy!

Rise of the Guardians, directed by Peter Ramsey from the books by William Joyce, hits US cinemas on 21st November, and UK ones on 30th.

A113Animation Competition - Win a Copy of The Art of Rise of the Guardians!

DreamWorks' latest feature film, Rise of the Guardians, is out soon, and it looks awesome! As per for an animated release, there's an accompanying 'Art of' book, and my review copy of it arrived today, courtesy of Titan Books. But this time we asked Titan for an extra copy - and they kindly obliged - so now we're giving you the chance to win a copy of The Art of Rise of the Guardians!

This is thanks, in part, for all of your great participation in our "A113 Ten Years" polls, and for visiting A113Animation. Plus, it's a really great book; I've only given it a quick glance so far (full review to follow), but so far I'm tempted to say this is the best 'Art of' book of the year!

What do you have to do to win? Well that's quite simple: you need to either Tweet us (@A113Animation), post on our wall on Facebook (facebook.com/a113animation) or email us (contact@a113animation.com), saying "I'd like to win The Art of Rise of the Guardians", or words to that effect. You can do all three if you like, so you can enter up to three times, and you have two weeks tomorrow, until 8th November, to do so. So get started, and good luck!

If you just can't risk not winning, then you can order the book via our Amazon Associates link below.

The Art of Rise of the Guardians, by Ramin Zahed, Titan Books (UK); Insight Editions (US). [16th October 2012, £24.99 (UK); 22nd October 2012, $40.00 (US)].