Tag Archives: animation

Uncanny valley – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley The uncanny valley hypothesis holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. Thus explaining why Pixar’s cartoon heroes are always endearing, and those from The Polar Express are unbearable to watch.

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Chicken Gang – Business and Investing News

http://www.chickengang.com/index.php?itemid=768 An illegal – and no doubt ephemerally – posted Pixar short. As with all of Pixar’s shorts, it’s hilarious, beautifully done, and well worth the run-don’t-walk necessary to see it online if you haven’t yet seen Ratatouille.

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Primiti Too Taa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcrTzPAUqic Awesomeness! Pure awesomeness! Governmentally funded awesomeness! I first saw this animated (yes, animated, and freakin’ time-consumin’ animation it must have been) film back in my high school film class. It was an instant favourite, and remains so, though it is damn hard to find. Another reason, then, to embrace YouTube – there are two […]

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http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/film.php?sort=director&director=Condie,%20Richard&id=15310 I have to save the best for last – The Big Snit. This has been my favourite NFB short for years, and few can rival it for sheer absurdity and off-the-wall marginalia. Take, for instance, an older couple with the strangest hobbies imaginable, add a dash of impending nuclear holocaust, and top with the […]

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http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/film.php?film=&_onfplr_sel=plr&sort=director&director=Cohen,%20Sheldon&id=13316 Here’s the famous short I mentioned last week, The Hockey Sweater – an absolute classic and an integral piece of Canadiana. The Canadiens/Leafs rivalry is a New World parallel to Glasgow’s Auld Firm, but on a national scale, and with a far reaching political aspect thrown in. Imagine, then, the horror of a boy […]

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http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/film.php?sort=director&director=Hinton,%20Christopher&id=25968 One of my all-time favourite NFB shorts, and the second-catchiest tune of the bunch (#1 is The Log Driver’s Waltz, which – criminally – is not among the films offered here!) See how long it takes to shake the lyric “with the little Abitibi and the survey crew” from your head!

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http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/film.php?sort=director&director=Fedorenko,%20Eugene&id=12604 Every Child, a sound effects movie with a great mini-opera in the middle.

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http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/film.php?sort=director&director=Barry,%20Martin&id=18042 From a quintessential Canadian cartoon to a quintessential Quebec short; The hallmarks are plenty of grotesqueries and in-your-face surrealism. Not my favourite-ever short, but always good for a larf.

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http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/film.php?sort=director&director=Barker,%20Cordell&id=17537 The Oscar-nominated The Cat Came Back, courtesy the NFB. An excellent primer to the Canadian sense of humour, which is not as intellectual as that of Britain, but slyer and darker than the American (who says we have no separate culture?) Standout moments: The rat’s exhale and the obstacle-prone railway tracks.

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http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/index.php What a delight to Stumble upon a page filled with free National Film Board shorts! For those not in the know (i.e. anyone who hasn’t stayed up too late flipping through Canadian TV channels), the NFB has racked up a number of Oscars and critical accolades in its nearly 70 years, and the animated […]

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