#Annecy Film Festival 2023

[disneytva]

Disney Television Animation and Disney Europe Animation Unveil Annecy Film Festival Slate.

This June 11-17, Annecy, France, will become the most magical place on earth when the animation industry descends on the beautiful lakeside town for the Annecy International Animation Festival. Disney Television Animation and Disney Europe Animation has announced it will be on hand to share in the magic 

Disney Television Animation will be presenting their first slate of content for their 40th Anniversary and 100th Series debut on 2024 as well their 2025 lineup.

Tuesday, June 13  “Learning the Ropes: A Guide to Creating the Next Big Disney Hit" features series creators discussing what goes into the making of a global hit animated series for kids and families. The panel will feature a first look to the upcoming Disney Television Animation comedy series “PRIMOS” created by Natasha Kline slated to debut on Fall 2023 on Disney Channel.

Panelists:

Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh (”Phineas And Ferb”,”Milo Murphy’s Law”,”Hamster and Gretel”, Disney Junior Educational Resource Group ”Hey A.J!”)

Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal – (”Kiff”,”Untitled Alien Suburbs Series”)

Sarah Mullervy (Disney Junior Educational Resource Group & Sony Pictures Animation Television “SuperKitties”)

Natasha Kline (”Primos”,“Big City Greens” Franchise)

Tuesday, June 13 – Disney Television Animation & Disney Europe Animation’s Press Conference Showcase.

The panel will feature the unveil of Disney Television Animation’s 100th Series slated to debut on 2024 as part of the studio’s celebration of their 40th Anniversary

Ayo Davis, CEO of Disney Branded Television, and Orion Ross, Vice President of Disney Europe Animation, share upcoming and unannounced U.S. and European productions from Disney Television Animation and Disney Europe Animation.

Wednesday, June 14 - Panel: “Building on Legacy” 

The Panel will feature the announcement of a brand new Disney Television Animation series inspired by a classic Walt Disney Animation Studios film.

The Panel features the creative teams behind some of Disney Television Animation’s's acclaimed and highly anticipated animated series. Panelists will discuss expanding Marvel, Disney Television Animation, and Walt Disney Animation Studios legacy IPs for a new generation of fans. 

Moderator - Disney Junior senior vice president, Development, Series and Strategy, Alyssa Sapire

Panelists:

Bruce W. Smith (”The Proud Family”,”The Proud Family Movie”,”The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder”)

Ralph Farquhar - (”The Proud Family”,”The Proud Family Movie”,”The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder”)

Rodney Clouden - (”20th Television Animation’s Futurama”,Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur”)

Pilar Flynn - (”Elena Of Avalor”,”Marvel’s Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur Season 1”)

And... the showrunner behind a brand-new animated series inspired by a well-known Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be unveiled during the festival.

[pewpewpew]

Someone who has been to annecy animation festival before, can you pls help me I have some questions abt accomodation pls pls i'm getting a bit.. concerned

[fallloverfic]

The "Nimona" movie teaser is up!! The movie released on Netflix June 30th, 2023!

The teaser is also up on Netflix's YouTube page!

And we have a new movie poster!

And official preview art on Netflix (which also has the teaser), featuring Ballister versus Ambrosius!

The movie is based on ND Stevenson's webcomic turned graphic novel, Nimona! The movie premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2023, and will show in select theaters on June 23, and will be available for general streaming on Netflix on June 30! The movie is animated by DNEG with material from the previously cancelled Blue Sky Studios production, produced by Annapurna Animation, and distributed by Netflix.

The graphic novel is available in physical and ebook form most places books are sold! And it's been translated into 16 languages! There's also a full cast English audiobook you can get most places audiobooks are sold!

[astroboyart]

The Pluto anime made it's worldwide debut 1 year ago today! (October 26, 2023).

Based on the critically-acclaimed Pluto manga by Naoki Urasawa, the Pluto anime was first announced at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2017. After a few dormant years which came with speculation as to whether it would release at all, the Pluto anime was announced to be real and released it's first trailer on February 14, 2023. It would finally release on October 26, 2023, with all 8 one-hour episodes debuting on the same day simultaneously on Netflix.

It was produced by Genco, Tezuka Productions, NetEase, and Studio M2, with executive production by Taro Maki and Masao Maruyama. Naoki Urasawa was also involved in the development of the anime.

[canmom]

Animation Night 186: les films primés

Hey friends, welcome back to Animation Night! Hope you all enjoyed Scavengers Reign as much as I did! My life has gotten pretty nuts in the last week, so our writeup today will have to be a little sparse, but I do have some exciting goodies~

The device on top is an external blu-ray/DVD player which I can plug into my ordinateur! Underneath it are some DVDs, containing the award winners from the Annecy festival in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

For those of you who were around in 2021, you might have seen some of these shorts, because that year the Annecy festival was online for pandemic reasons. In 2022 I couldn't go to the festival, so the contents of that disc are rather mysterious, but 2023 I was there in person and it was a blast! (I will hopefully soon have a chance to migrate all those posts onto my other site for easier navigation!)

I'm excited to have this BD/DVD player at last, because it will mean that we'll be able to access a lot more material that is not available online for whatever reason. These shorts are a great example of that kind of thing - sometimes, such films do make their way online eventually (e.g. on the NFB website if they were made in Canada), but often after making their tour of the festival circuit, those short films will disappear into some dusty archive, never to be seen again outside of weird little niche DVDs like this one.

So, what's the plan tonight? Well, this week and next, we'll pop on Twitch and have a crack at these DVDs. If I can find higher-res versions of the shorts I might show those instead. Along with that, I've found some rather good student films from this year's CalArts cohort, so we'll check out some of those as well.

All in all I have 29 films! Some funny, some dramatic, some abstract, but all full of The Vibes. I'll make a proper list later - but for now, anticipate a pretty varied grab bag of films from across all the categories of Annecy! These include some personal favourites like Hold Me Tight by Mélanie Robert-Tourneur, La Saison Pourpre by Clémence Bouchereau, and Drijf by Levi Stoops, which all happen to be about naked people. But not all the films in these DVDs are about naked people! That's either a reassurance or a warning depending on how much you like seeing naked people.

Animation Night is planned to begin at 21:30 UK time at twitch.tv/canmom, assuming no unexpected disruption. Drop in for some, drop in for all, either way I'll be glad to have you!

[dirtreally]

Ghughhubhgrhhhhghhhhhhhh

Hi i'm justen i'm she/they i write i animate i draw i does it all. Find me on instagram also @diejusten. My girlfriend is @panvani

ok now heres all the cool shit ive ever done

THE 98588930193RD CONQUEST OF THE UNFAIRLY BANISHED MOON PRINCESS THE SERVANT UPRISING IS QUELLED

Film I did with my boy @coffeebrownn about what if everythign bload up. Screened at the 2023 Annecy Animated Film Festival.

FAMOUS CRASH

Visual novel about a vtuber girls and being gay4clout. Made for vncup

SEATED IN THE CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS

Essay I did about exhibitionism in animation

I WENT TO COMIKET AND EVERYONE CALLED ME SLURS

Zine about being incredibly online and into anime and having a gender. Has entries from like 30+ artists

[dweemeister]

Best Animated Short Film Nominees for the 96th Academy Awards (2024, listed in order of appearance in the shorts package)

This blog, since 2013, has been the site of my write-ups to the Oscar-nominated short film packages – a personal tradition for myself and for this blog. This omnibus write-up goes with my thanks to the Regency South Coast Village in Santa Ana, California for providing all three Oscar-nominated short film packages.

If you are an American or Canadian resident interested in supporting the short film filmmakers in theaters (and you should, as very few of those who work in short films are as affluent as your big-name directors and actors), check your local participating theaters here.

Without further ado, here are the nominees for the Best Animated Short Film at this year’s Academy Awards. The write-ups for the Documentary Short and Live Action Short nominees are complete. Films predominantly in a language other than English are listed with their nation(s) of origin.

Yet again, this completes this year’s omnibus write-ups for the Oscar-nominated short films for the upcoming Academy Awards:

Our Uniform (2023, Iran)

Director Yegane Moghaddam used to be a primary school teacher in Iran and often “observed the students… struggling with their uniforms and headscarves all day.” These observations informed her film and narration in Our Uniform, which won Best First Film at Annecy (the largest animation-only film festival, in the French Alpine resort town of the same name) in 2023. Only the fourth ever non-Western/European and non-Japanese nominee in this 92-year-old category – following 2014’s Bear Story (Chile; that year's winner), 2020’s Opera (South Korea) and 2021’s Bestia (Chile) – Our Uniform adopts a unique style never before seen in this category. Instead of traditional cel animation with ink and paper or computers, Moghaddam nearly single-handedly painted images directly on clothing fabrics (pants, jackets, shirts, scarves – all from her personal wardrobe) to illustrate the memories her narration shares. These memories, of attending public school in Iran, invariably intersect with Iran’s theocratic politics. There are references, never pedantic, about government propaganda as part of the school curriculum, and the segregation between boys’ and girls’ education. Most vividly, Moghaddam remarks on the restricting school uniform and compulsory hijabs for girls at school, issues which enflamed protests against such laws beginning in 2017 (and spiking after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022).

Moghaddam, who cites graphic novelist/director Marjane Satrapi (2007’s Persepolis, 2011’s Chicken with Plums; the former I consider among the finest animated films of this young century) as her primary artistic inspiration, curiously does not contain as much messaging in her film as one might expect. As an Iranian citizen who currently has no plans to officially distribute the film within her home nation due to fear of retribution, how could she? But the film’s slightness cannot distract from its painstaking, loving artistry. Without relying on inventive camerawork, Moghaddam uses the natural pockets and folds of her clothes to suggest dimension and personality. To Moghaddam, all clothing has a personality and personal history to the wearer, even compulsory clothing, all of which she uses to wonderful effect. What originally began as a fun side project that Moghaddam had no expectations for gifts audiences a truly original viewing experience.

My rating: 7.5/10

Letter to a Pig (2022, Israel/France)

Qualifying for the Academy Awards after winning the Grand Prize for Best International Short Film at Anima, the Brussels Animation Film Festival, in early 2023, Nal Kantor’s Letter to a Pig sees a Holocaust survivor retelling a story of survival to a group of largely disinterested and scornful teenagers. As the elderly man recounts how he wrote a letter to a pig that inadvertently saved his life, a handful of students start insensitively snorting. Quietly, Letter to a Pig adopts the standpoint of one of the girls in class, half-listening at first. Here, Kantor seamlessly switches between the man’s memories and the reality of the classroom, through heavy rotoscoping to outline her figures, mixing it with live-action footage for the limbs or eyes, but only using a few ink scribbles to outline facial features and hair. Generally, the more movement either the schoolgirl or Holocaust survivor show, the more scribbles and live-action footage that appear. For all other figures, they remain mostly abstract.

As a young man, the Holocaust survivor recalls how filled with rage he was, long after his near-death encounter. Now, physically unable to exact retribution on those who harmed him, he tells the students “you are my revenge” – passing along his trauma to those not realizing what they have just received. The schoolgirl’s vision in the surrealistic final minutes is her absorption of the Holocaust survivor’s story. This masterfully drawn finale is the emotional apex of Letter to a Pig, fully justifying its black-and-white palette (with one exception: pink for the pigs, considered an impure animal in Judaism) in service for its profound sense of dread. Symbolizing memory, the pig appears throughout the film as a savior, a monster, or something worthy of mockery, depending on who is on screen. It is in these final moments Letter to a Pig leaves the audience with pressing questions. Can one impart painful memories without the trauma that gives such memories form? Most urgently, can we choose not to act on the trauma we inherit? May it be possible not only in dreams.

My rating: 8.5/10

Pachyderme (2022, France)

Stéphanie Clement’s Pachyderme, like Letter to a Pig, is an unsettling short film that delves deeply into the mind of a troubled character. In this film, a young woman named Louise (Christa Théret) recalls her days visiting her grandparents in Provence (southeastern France) during her childhood. The sun-bathed rural landscape is picturesque, the grandparents’ house gorgeously stylized. Beyond this, some of Louise’s recollections feel incomplete, with no apparent structure or chronology. That might read as a criticism, but Clement and screenwriter Marc Rius fully intend for Pachyderme to seem fragmented. The film strongly implies – and some viewers will pick this up earlier or later than others – that the grandfather sexually abused Louise. In reaction, Louise, while recounting her memories for the audience, has repressed her memories and is showing signs, in her narration and in her visual recollections, of disassociation. I do not recall ever seeing disassociation, a common symptom of those who have been sexually abused, portrayed as cinematically as seen in Pachyderme. It is best exemplified, metaphorically, in the scene where our protagonist disappears into the wallpaper (this scene was originally the first bit of test footage made for the film).

But perhaps there is no better visualization of all Pachyderme has to say than the moment where Louise’s grandfather notices her index finger bleeding. He grasps her hand, and his hands dwarf hers. The simultaneity of Pachyderme’s picture book visuals and its horrifying implications show the viewer a woman who has not fully processed what has happened to her. It is not helped by the defensiveness of Louise’s grandmother following the grandfather’s death. Family denial, too, is playing a role in how Louise is choosing, consciously and subconsciously, to remember the past. In its eleven minutes, Pachyderme passes in a dreamlike haze, its illusory moments enabling the viewer to more closely connect to Louise’s (both the young adult narrating the film and the child on-screen) feelings. Unlike many nominees in Best Live Action Short Film down the years that addressed childhood trauma (it's a long-running trend for that category), Pachyderme prioritizes healing in as cinematic a way as possible.

My rating: 8.5/10

Ninety-Five Senses (2023)

If the names Jared and Jerusha Hess are familiar, that is because this husband-and-wife directorial team also made Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and Nacho Libre (2006). Some of those same comedic sensibilities carry over to Ninety-Five Senses, which qualified for the Academy Awards by winning Best Animated Short at the Florida Film Festival in 2023. The film features an old man named Coy (Tim Blake Nelson, a Coen Brothers regular whose voice fits the narrative here) reflecting back on life – a reverie that jumps, hops, and skips across time and place. At first, Ninety-Five Senses, with its wildly shifting style changes, does not seem to have much of a point or purpose. But the film gradually reveals itself: first through the subtle shading of what appear to be prison bars and, later, the mountain of discarded food cartons sitting on the table in front of Coy. We soon realize that Coy is in the final hours or minutes of being on death row, and he is describing to the audience his internal peace before he meets his fate.

Ninety-Five Senses is not here to make a point about capital punishment, incarceration, or the terrible actions that landed Coy in prison. Foremost, this is a film that attempts to capture the last gasp of humanity of an individual before their execution. In contrast with the drab grays whenever Coy is seen in his cell, his flashbacks are intense – a fount of color, with both crude and elegant character designs, hand-drawn and computer-generated (sometimes appearing side-by-side). Not every vignette – of which there are five, one for each human sense – showcases as much aesthetic excellence as the others, such as an early instance where Coy recounts his childhood. That vignette does not evoke the respective human sense it covers as well as it thinks it does; the art style of that vignette also recalls hand-drawn television animation, but flows too smoothly to exactly replicate it. In any case, this is a promising first foray into animated film for the Hesses.

My rating: 8/10

War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (2022)

War Is Over! (you cannot make me write or say the full title ever again) has the basics of a promising animated short film. Yet its simplistic take on humanity and warfare and close association with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” condemns the film as pure hogwash. On second thought, I retract “hogwash”. That is an insult to Letter to a Pig and to porcine animals. This is self-congratulatory treacle from director Dave Mullins and co-writer Sean Ono Lennon (the son of John and Yoko). In a supposedly alternate World War I reality, a pigeon delivers messages between an Allied and a Central Power soldier on opposite sides of No Man’s Land. The messages contain chess notation, as they, somehow, began a game of chess with each other without ever meeting. One day, at presumably Christmas, the two armies inexplicably charge toward each other and, amid gunfire and a mass mêlée that should leave many more soldiers dead than shown, our two soldiers encounter each other on the battlefield in combat shorn of its gruesomeness.

Despite the film using the Unreal Engine for its animation, I admire the film’s lighting effects, character movements, pigeon animation, sound effects, and art direction for the otherwise sanitized trenches. That may be all the positives I can offer.

The contrived scenario sinks even further when our two chess-playing soldiers discover a critical message from their pigeon messenger. Cue the second-most embarrassing needle drop among this year’s fifteen short film nominees (somehow, the closing moments of The After are worse than this). Unlike The After, War Is Over! feels as if constructed around its respective song. Is this now a glorified music video? In an instant, the film reduces the tragedy of the Great War to something akin to a soft drink commercial or that “Imagine” video (could we stop disrespecting John Lennon and his fellow Beatles?). The sanitized depiction of war and farfetched resolving actions undercut the film’s message, embarrassing itself as it lurches through its excruciating final minutes. That the first credit in the end credits read “music and message by John and Yoko” rather than director Dave Mullins leaves an even more sour taste. At the heart of War Is Over!, Mullins and Sean Ono Lennon want us to know that war is bad. I never could have guessed!

My rating: 4/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

From previous years:  85th Academy Awards (2013) 87th (2015) 88th (2016) 89th (2017) 90th (2018) 91st (2019) 92nd (2020) 93rd (2021) 94th (2022) 95th (2023)

Two other films played in this package as honorable mentions: Wild Summon (2023, dir. Karni Arieli and Saul Freed; 6/10) and I'm Hip (2023, dir. John Musker; 6/10).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[dorothydalmati1]

Obscure Animation Subject #44: Looney Tunes Cartoons

Originally posted on Twitter on April 4, 2023.

No not the classics, the 2020 show.

Happy 100th birthday to Warner Bros, one of Hollywood’s biggest studios, well known for their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, and this is an attempt to bring them back.

The original cartoons were released in theaters between 1930 and 1969, and were a huge success for WB until the decline of theatrical animated shorts in the 1960s. It didn’t stop WB to expand Looney Tunes as a franchise through, as multiple TV shows, movies and merch were made.

Looney Tunes Cartoons was different from most LT shows though, as its an attempt to bring back the golden years of the cartoons from the 40s and 50s. The show is developed by Uncle Grandpa creator Peter Browngardt, produced by Warner Bros. Animation and releases on HBO Max.

The show made a sneak peek at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 10, 2019, and officially premiered on May 27, 2020. Currently, there’s five seasons with a sixth season yet announced. However, given the current status of WB season 5 might be the final season. (PERSONAL NOTE: The series was renewed for a sixth season which served as the final for the show.)

A huge shame really, because the show returned a lot of aspects what made the classics so good in the first place, but given that CEO David Zaslav hates quality, he’s probably making the show a tax write-off. Sounds scary isn’t? If you want the show to continue, GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! It’s a passion project and a love-letter by fans of the original cartoons, and there was a lot of heart, care, craft and effort put into it. Awesome animation, great voice-acting and fantastic humor. Please don’t let Zaslav tax it off completely extinct!

(REMINDER: Okay yeah this isn’t considered obscure to the animation community, but for casual people it is. Blame WBD for how the show was treated, it deserved a much better fate.)

[onenettvchannel]

BALITANG ENTERTAINMENT: 'Adventure Time' animated spin-off series 'Fionna and Cake' renewed Season 2, develops new animated film teased at the 2024 'Annecy Festival' in France

LYON, FRANCE -- Cartoon Network Studios (CNS) was reportedly announced at the '2024 Annecy Festival' last Wednesday afternoon (June 12th, 2024 -- France local time) that both new properties of 'Adventure Time' returns with a new streaming television spin-off series and the animated film.

In an exclusive report by Variety, CNS officially greenlighted as doubled for Season 2 of 'Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake' with 10 new episodes, and followed by a new film of 'Adventure Time: The Movie' which both of them today, are currently in the works. The 2nd new season features 'Fionna Campbell' the Human, who is a main spin-off female protagonist and gender-swapped version of 'Finn Mertens' the Human continues with new adventures in her sidekick pet 'Cake' the Cat.

'Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake' Season 2 picks up right after the events of Season 1 last year in the late-August 2023, serving more of its already captive multiverse-hopping journey for both teens and adults. American video-streaming service 'Max' under Warner Brothers-Discovery (WBD) secured its streaming rights for the aforementioned spin-off cartoon show.

Meanwhile on the other hand, a newly-developed animated film to be headlining with 'Rebecca Rea Sugar', 'Patrick Nolen McHale', and a showrunner himself of 'Adventure Time' named Mr. Adam A. Muto are taking part of the new film franchise. These ongoing projects are part of Warner Bros. Discovery's Chief Executive Officer named David M. Zaslav's strategy to focus on popular Intellectual Properties (IPs) and revisiting the 'Land of OOO' with more 'Adventure Time' content aligns perfectly with this new plan.

The release date of Season 2, as well with a new animated film have not been announced yet during this year's French festival, and is expected to arrive sometime to stream online in the Fall of 2024 or potentially next year in 2025. There is more to discover at a later time, in and outside the universe of 'Land of OOO'.

You can relive and binge all your favorites with 'Adventure Time'. All episodes are streaming now on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+. While 'Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake' are also available to stream exclusively on Max in the United States of America (U.S.A.), as the 2nd Season awaits when Fionna Campbell and Finn Mertens comes along with you.

FILE POSTER PHOTOS COURTESY for REPRESENTATION: Cartoon Network via IG PHOTO and Max BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://www.instagram.com/p/C0ewowJMEnO/ [Referenced IG PHOTO via Cartoon Network] *https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/adventure-time-fionna-and-cake-renewed-season-2-1235822240/ [Referenced News Article #1 via Variety] *https://thedirect.com/article/fionna-and-cake-season-2-release-cast [Referenced News Article via The Direct] *https://variety.com/2024/film/global/adventure-time-movie-rebecca-sugar-patrick-mchale-two-spinoff-series-1236034970/ [Referenced News Article #2f via Variety] and *https://programme.annecyfestival.com/en/program/event/100001504798 [Referenced Panel Listings via Annecy Festival website]

-- OneNETnews Online Publication Team

[pochqmqri]

UPDATE: As of May 29, 2023, the 26th Detective Conan film, “Black Iron Submarine,” is now at 28th place in the All-Time Japanese Box Office!

At some point last week, “Black Iron Submarine,” which was the first-ever Detective Conan movie to surpass a domestic box office gross of 10 billion yen, surpassed the 12 billion yen mark and continues to climb.

Currently, the film sits fairly close behind these other films in the ranking:

“Top Gun: Maverick” (18th, 13.70b¥+)

“Bohemian Rhapsody” (20th, 13.51b¥)

“ET” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (tied for 21st, 13.50b¥)

“Frozen II” (24th, 13.37b¥)

“Jurassic Park” (25th, 12.85b¥)

“Star Wars: Episode One — The Phantom Menace” (26th, 12.70b¥)

“Beauty and the Beast” (2017) (27th, 12.40b¥)

In addition, because of the film’s great success, it has been announced that “Black Iron Submarine” will be shown at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in Paris, France on June 16.

[disneytva]

Summer's starting and is gonna be so good with some Squirrels and Tater 🐿️🐇🌰🇲🇽📔🖍️☀️

KIFF and PRIMOS billboards at Annecy Film Festival

📸Nic Smal and Natasha Kline

[akeussel]

[picturejasper20]

Nimona film adaptation is getting its world premiere on June 14 at the Annecy Film Festival! -World premiere screening at Theater Bonlieu on June 14th at 6:00 pm with a panel with creators. -“Making Of” session the day after on June 15 at 11:30 am at Petite Salle Bonlieu.

(Edit: The article got deleted, so the information could be false or incorrect)

Source: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/netflix-unveils-animation-lineup-for-annecy-film-festvial-2023/

[fallloverfic]

New "Nimona" movie clip!

Found in this new Collider article, along with some concept art. The clip connects scenes we've seen elsewhere (and stills) with new footage!!

The movie, based on the webcomic/graphic novel by ND Stevenson, is by Annapurna Animation and DNEG, and premiered on June 14 at the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, will show in limited theaters on June 23, and be up for streaming on Netflix on June 30! (More info here)

[fearsmagazine]

UNICORN WARS | Official Trailer, Poster & Images

It’s Bambi meets Apocalypse Now in this provocative and strangely beautiful horror comedy from acclaimed filmmaker and illustrator Alberto Vazquez (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children), who uses its outrageous candy-colored premise to explore religious zealotry, the tortured legacies of military fascism, and the depths of the soul.

For ages, teddy bears have been locked in an ancestral war against their sworn enemy, the unicorns, with the promise that victory will complete the prophecy and usher in a new era. Aggressive, confident teddy bear Bluet and his sensitive, withdrawn brother Tubby could not be more different. As the rigors and humiliation of teddy bear bootcamp turn to the psychedelic horrors of a combat tour in the Magic Forest, their complicated history and increasingly strained relationship will come to determine the fate of the entire war.

GKIDS, the acclaimed producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, announced it will release UNICORN WARS, the latest genre-bending animated feature for adults from Goya and Annecy Cristal-winning director Alberto Vásquez (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children) starting March 10, 2023. The technicolor feature will be released theatrically in select markets nationwide, and will also be available on demand from March 10, 2023.

The technicolor horror-comedy featured in competition at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and was an official selection at BFI London, Animation is Film, and Fantastic Fest. UNICORN WARS marks the next collaboration between GKIDS and Alberto Vázquez, following GKIDS’ local distribution of the Goya Award-winning feature Birdboy: The Forgotten Children and short film Decorado. 

[canmom]

Animation Night 187: Garden of Remembrance & Annecy 2023

Hey everyone, it's that time of the week again!

First up, the Animation Night archive has been updated with Animation Night 182-186! The entries of late have been rather sparse, but they are in one place at least!

Tonight, we will continue to explore the Annecy DVDs, this time with the 2023 festival (of which you may recall some liveblogs). There are some absolute bangers this time - like the darkly hilarious Drijf, or the gorgeously absorbing La Saison Pourpre - but before that, there's a new release which we cannot wait to screen.

Which is... not the latest film by Naoko Yamada The Colours Within (Kimi no Iro), since that film isn't available yet outside of film festivals (we gave her two standing ovations for it at Annecy tho, it's good). It's the film before the latest film by Naoko Yamada: The Garden of Remembrance. Here's a quick trailer for ya:

Like every animation fan, I think Naoko Yamada - of K-On, A Silent Voice/Koe no Katachi and Liz and the Blue Bird - is the absolute bees knees and also the cats pajamas. And as you may know (perhaps from when we covered Heike Monogatari), in the wake of the horrific arson at Kyōto Animation, Yamada left her old home studio and went to work at Science Saru - neatly filling the slot of 'star auteur director' recently vacated by Masaaki Yuasa and no doubt making Eunyoung Choi very happy. Her work there, like Heike Monogatari, has definitely maintained many of her specific sensibilities as a director, even without KyoAni's unique production system to back it up.

So back in 2022, Yamada directed an adaptation of the Heike Monogatari to pair with Yuasa's Inu-Oh - seriously beautiful and moving, especially in its final arc, but the historical source material and huge cast makes it take a bit of effort to get into. Garden of Remembrance was her next project, a short film.

This 18-minute wordless film covers a subject that any Yamada-head will know well: girls playing music. It brings in a list of key animators that will make any sakubuta drool, with names among them like Shingo Yamashita and Weilin Zhang. Not to mention the bold and gorgeous colours. Word on the sakugabooru server is "it's peak".

So tonight we'll be watching that!

After that, we'll dive into the Annecy DVD. Plus a few more short films from around the web. But I don't have time to write more right now, but I'll try and find a chance to write about them after! (Also move the Annecy coverage to my website, and write up the last couple of days of that and worldcon, and and...)

Animation Night 187 is set to start at 9pm UK time - just over an hour hence - at twitch.tv/canmom!! Hope to see you there~! Should be a special one (but then, they're all special...)