Happy Halloween!

Enjoy a very early Fleischer classic that fits in extremely well with the holiday.

Here's for Christmas coming upon us before we know it!

Daily Ed #24

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Little Ed Blues
Season: 4

The Hep Cat [part four]: Something new has been added!

Jesus Christ, I've been gone awhile, haven't I? Many apologies for the absence. Things have been nuts but have, thankfully, settled down a lot. Let's just see how long it lasts.

For now, it's time for some more Hep Cat, with a tall-ass glass of root beer and plain popcorn, just the way I like it! What's Clampett got for us today?

You're on to something there!

Great drawings. I especially love these circular pupils; they really drive home his surprise! The backgrounds, as usual, art astonishing. Something I just noticed: on this last painting, the sky gets darker as your eye moves to the right, but you would never see it if you were just watching this film casually.

Of course, he isn't inclined to give a damn when the action's this good. I can't say I blame him.

Don't you hate it when this happens?

Pay close attention to these next few screencaps. This is a basic setup for a take, for anybody interested in animating someday, like I am.

STEP ONE: realization

A take is a reaction to something, usually something bizarre. (Unless it's a shrink-take, which can be used more liberally.)

STEP TWO: the actual take

Now the cat realized he was making out with the dog. He reacts in panic.

This last part here is really just an add-on. A reaction to a reaction, if you will.

It's a fun idea regardless!

"Are you following me?" seems to be a very common Clampett gag. It's funny, but I figured I'd point it out. Besides, that dust drybrushing is very good, so now I have an excuse to point it out.

This is the same background! It's a vertical pan, and beautifully done. I wonder how many background painters in the business could pull something off like that today? It'd be a marvel to see.

This barrel scene is really pretty too. A lot of really lovely lighting effects. I dig it!

At this point, the cartoon is all about the gags. I'll share a few caps here and finish this thing off in the next post!

See you then! In the meantime, look at these backgrounds. I don't know if I told you whether I liked them or not. Besides, I'm out of root beer.

Daily Ed #23

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Run for your Ed
Season: 4

Daily Ed #22

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Ed N' Seek
Season: 1

Daily Ed #21

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: The Luck of the Ed
Season: 3

Daily Ed #20

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Virt-Ed-Go
Season: 1

Daily Ed #19

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Dear Ed
Season: 2

Daily Ed #18

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Keeping Up With the Eds
Season: 1

Daily Ed #17

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: If It Smells Like an Ed
Season: 4

Weird Obscure Oddities: Bolivar el Heroe

I wanna introduce you to one of my favorite movies of all time... but not for the reasons that you might think. This movie is actually terrible in fact. So terrible that it could arguably be considered the worst animated movie ever released onto cinemas.

"Bolivar: El Heroe" (literally translated to Bolivar: The Hero) is a colombian animated movie from 2003, based loosely (keyword "loosely") on the life of Simón Bolívar, a south american liberator and one of the most important figures in the continent's history. This film was once considered lost, with the trailer and some screenshots being the only evidence of it's existence, but thanks to the effort of this youtube channel the film has been uploaded to youtube for the entire world to see, and thanks to the collegues at the LostMedia wiki the movie has achieved wider notoriety amongst non-spanish communities.

       

The entire film for everyone to experience.

The movie contains hilariously poor anime inspired character designs (this was the early 00s after all), atrocious animation, nonsensical directing and a plethora of other problems that you discover as soon as you start watching. There's also the ridiculousness of doing a historical film yet making the incredible art decision of giving your main characters ridiculous anime hairstyle and colors that completely go against the tone the film is trying to set forward.

Now you might think, based on the previous screenshot, that this was just the work of some south american otaku teenager and his friends, using MS Paint to put together an insanely low budget animation. Nope, This was an actual full blown production, with a budget and a release date like all films have. That fact along makes this movie fascinating. It makes you wonder about the kind of troubles the entire production must've gone through, they clearly weren't experienced enough to tackle a project as ambitious as this one was. I don't know if this was commisioned to them, or if it was producer's idea and they needed it quick, we don't even know how much it cost to make (all we know based on interviews is that the director Guillermo del Rincón donated 70.000 U$D for the movie).

If you lived in Colombia in 2003 you could've seen THIS at your local cinema!

If you're an animator on any level other than a starting beginner, the movie is even better. Pointing out all the problems is a really fun experience and it can be a good exercise in what NOT to do for your own animated productions. But if you're not, you can still get enjoyment out of the sheer crappiness of it. Although you might get tired of it by the end, it's worth skipping to the fight scenes, where the real QUALITY shines through.

If you have some time to spare, I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone interested in bad animation, especially if you know spanish.

Daily Ed #16

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Stop, Look and Ed
Season: 2

Daily Ed #15

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?
Season: 3

Handsome Washam Drawings in Hair-Raising Hare

I borrowed a copy of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, volume three, from a library yesterday, because I'm too cheap to go out and buy it myself. I was watching Hair-Raising Hare, which is a really funny Chuck Jones cartoon from 1946 (I think), and I found some wonderful Ben Washam drawings in it that I thought I'd share with you!

These all come from the sequence where Bugs finds the monster in the wall.

Extremely confident poses. They're also more angular than many of Jones' animators, especially during the time. There's also some Ken Harris animation in here (thanks to CAP on the World Animation Discord for clearing that up for me!) that isn't as lively as these poses are, which is a little shocking to me.

Also, that background kicks some major ass.

Supposedly, a way to find Washam drawing Bugs Bunny is to look for this chisel tooth. I say to also look for these really clear and striking silhouettes.

A rare Washam smear! How many times has Washam even smeared anyway?

me irl

And finally we're left satisfied after what I think is the best-animated sequence in the entire film. This last pose especially knocks me out.

There ought to be more of these Washam dissections. Want me to find some after I finish The Hep Cat?

Daily Ed #14

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: Dawn of the Eds
Season: 1

Daily Ed #13

A series where I post a funny Ed, Edd n Eddy image every day. Think of "an apple a day", but instead it's buttered toast.

Episode: The Ed-Touchables
Season: 1