Animation Obsessive

Welcome! It’s another Thursday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. This time: a personal reflection. We don’t publish many articles in this style. After the very kind response to the piece about Atlantis in June, though, we’ve decided to do one more. Today, our lead writer John goes into the connection between games and animation, and what he’s realized after shifting his focus from one to the other.

A still from Toy Story (1995) on 35 mm film Welcome! It’s a new Sunday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, and our plan goes like this: 1. About digital images on analog film. 2. Animation newsbits. 3. The last word. Now, let’s go! There was a time when computer animation wasn’t distributed on computers. Today, physical reels of film are a little rare in theaters. It caused trouble for The Odyssey this summer: only 41 venues in the world were equipped to screen 70 mm film stock.

A still from The Little Mole and the Green Star (1969) Welcome! It’s another Thursday issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. This one is about Little Mole. In the 20th century, it was an enormous series from Czechoslovakia.

A still from Heroic Times (1983) Welcome! It’s another Sunday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, and the plan goes like this: 1. Another look at things that aren’t being lost. 2. A little about Nina Shorina. 3. Animation newsbits. 4. The last word. With that, let’s go! A lost film by Georges Méliès, first screened in the 1800s, was found last year. This past February, it came online.

A still from The Idea (1932) Welcome! It’s another Thursday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. Our topic this time: a cult film from more than 90 years ago. It first appeared in Paris during the early ‘30s. And it was clearly a new discovery. By then, animation was many things: gag cartoons, grand adventures, political commentary, avant-garde propaganda. But this one “showed that animation could be poetic,” argued an animator from the era.

A still from What’s Opera, Doc? Welcome! This is another Sunday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, and this is the plan: 1. Maurice Noble’s design for What’s Opera, Doc? (1957). 2. Animation newsbits. 3. The last word. With that, let’s go! It’s one of the really famous cartoons. If you’re reading this newsletter, you’ve probably watched it yourself. After almost 70 years, What’s Opera, Doc? endures. Classic status wasn’t exactly the team’s goal.

A still from The Good Soldier Švejk (1954–1955) Welcome! It’s another Thursday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, and our topic this time is a polarizing work by the director Jiří Trnka. After years of legal bickering, his films are currently coming back.

A still from a 1979 Lotte Koume commercial Welcome! It’s another Sunday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, and this is the plan: 1. The importance of Japan’s early animated TV ads. 2. Animation newsbits 3. The last word. With that, let’s go! There’s been Japanese animation for more than a century. But the version most people recognize is a postwar thing, built after the fall of fascism in the country. Japan, defeated and occupied, spent the late ‘40s and early ‘50s struggling.

A panel from Rintaro’s storyboards for Labyrinth Labyrinthos, courtesy of the Dybex Collector’s Edition of Neo Tokyo Welcome! It’s another Thursday issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. This time, we’re seeing how a few giants of Japanese animation have storyboarded.

A still from Robert Cannon’s film How Now Boing Boing (1954) Welcome! Thanks for joining us. This is a new Sunday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, and here’s the plan: 1. Robert Cannon’s influence on early Cartoon Network. 2. An independent project from Ukraine. 3. Animation newsbits. 4. The last word. With that, here we go! Cartoon Network shows in the ‘90s shared a certain reference point. It’s no secret.