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Killer Bean Forever
by Molly McCall
Fri, November 16, 2007, 3:00 am PST

What happens when the lead animator on a sequel to a cult action hit decides to break off on his own? He dreams of beans. Jeff Lew led the animation team that worked on "Matrix Reloaded." After it was over, he quit to make his own feature-length film. That's when Killer Bean and cohorts sauntered onto the scene.

If Quentin Tarantino fell asleep in the bulk section of the supermarket, he might dream of these pistol packin' pintos. Settle in for the trailer available on Jeff's site, and you'll see bean bad guys, bean lawmen, bean double dealers, bean swat teams, and bean jokers spitting witty ripostes out the sides of their mouths. Name a classic trope; accent; musical clip; or slow-mo, bullets-blazing, leather-jacket-flapping moment from modern cinema and it's here. Seeing portly pods do it is what makes for killer fun.

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Filed under: Movies, Animation

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How It Should Have Ended
by Molly McCall
Mon, September 10, 2007, 8:00 am PDT

We've all been there, hunkered in the movie theater, plowing through the popcorn, and happily engrossed in the big screen. But then, the flick winds its way to a close—and the movie flops. We're left with a lousy finish.

It doesn't have to end that way. For a couple of years now, the talented crew at How It Should Have Ended have been crafting their own conclusions to some of their favorite (or not so favorite) films. When we checked in with producer Tina Alexander, she told us how they were inspired to create animated alternatives to some of Hollywood's classic fare...

Hey, Tina! Most movie-goers just gripe when a flick ends badly. What made you all take it to the next level?

We are a small crew of independent live-action film makers and have completed three shorts. It would be an understatement to say we are really into movies, so we probably talk about how movies should have ended a lot.

Daniel (our director for the live action shorts) is also an artist and animator and decided one day to animate a new ending to the final "Matrix" movie because we were collectively disappointed. After I saw how good it was, I thought there might be an audience on the Internet for this kind of thing, and www.howitshouldhaveended.com was born. That was July 2005.  Read the full profile...

Filed under: Movies, Animation, Movies Humor, Yahoo! Picks Profiles

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What Is Animation?
by Molly McCall
Mon, July 09, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

First of all, it's almost impossible to answer that question neatly. As the cinemaniacs at Not Coming to a Theater Near You say right off, there is an "unimaginably large spectrum of films" that fall within the "animation" definition. So rather than deliver a long-winded response, these movie buffs have pulled together a series of articles on "individual cases" they see as significant. Lively essays on such commercial whizzes as Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki, and Pixar brush up against paeans to odd and forgotten types like Czech stop-motion master Jiri Trnka and the masterminds of live-action puppet films. Individual examinations of "The Triplets of Belleville" and "Fantastic Planet" waltz through. And, because it wouldn't be a proper party without them, the wild boys of "South Park" get their honorary nod. For 10 years, they've violated "all boundaries of accepted decency on televison" and still managed to be one of the funniest things out there. Perhaps more important than "what is animation?" is "where would we be without it?"
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Filed under: Movies, Animation, Cartoons, Film History, Film Reviews

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The New Yorker Video Cartoons
by Molly McCall
Tue, April 10, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

We remember the relief we felt when The New Yorker first came online. This past month, the magazine launched a major redesign and thrilled us all over again. Among the fresh offerings now sparkling at newyorker.com, the animated versions of their classic cartoons are surely the most unexpected. We'd love to know what went down in the periodical's conference room when they hashed out this concept. In some ways, it's as nonsensical as animating the Mona Lisa. Why change what's already perfect? On the other hand, we recently found ourselves forwarding more than a few of the 10-second videos. Many of our long-time favorites are here: the dogs surfing the Internet, the mouse unthinkingly playing with the cat, the snail besotted with the tape dispenser. It's curious, and a little odd, to watch them move and hear them speak. For no other reason than that, they're worth checking out. Who knows, maybe we'll end up considering them genius.
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Filed under: Videos, Animation, Cartoons, Magazines

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Leonardo da Vinci's Animated Illustrations
by Molly McCall
Fri, November 03, 2006, 2:00 am PST

Forget da Vinci's code, his notebooks are mind-boggling enough. And now that the Victoria and Albert Museum has translated nine of his drawings into mini-movies for a major exhibit of his books, the animated results are nearly divine. A human heart throbs, a church rises from the ground, and a beam of light moves slowly across a man's face. But if you only have a few moments, don't miss:

 

  • "Human figures in motion"—grown men hammer, dig, jump, kneel, and sprint off the page.
  • "Warfare"—Leonardo's thoughts on the "mechanization of war" were almost spookily ahead of their time. In this short, an armored tank rolls ominously across a modern-day battlefield.
  • "Anatomy of a bird's wing"—an avian limb morphs into a human arm, which sprouts a man-made "flying machine." When we think that the amazing Mr. da Vinci thought of this sometime between 1480 and 1519, our heads start to spin.
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Filed under: Animation, Art, Drawing, Leonardo da Vinci

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