The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D

The crew from Moral Orel went to the screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas last week in Hollywood, and boy oh boy, was it amazing. The house was packed, and the mood was set by the gothic organ music and the sculptures of Jack and the Gang. The show was a lot of fun, if it's in your town go check it out. The 3D makes it fresh...or dope...whatever nevermind.

Before the screening there was a panel of old crew members that talked about the making of the film, and Ken Page, the voice of Oogie Boogie, sang his famous song for us all. Here's a video that we took of it, enjoy!

Friday Night Blitz Weekend Updates

I finished the lighting on the Friday Night Blitz spot, and started shooting on Saturday. I was able to pump out 5 shots over the weekend, so were starting to make some progress now. Here are some pictures of the setup that we have right now.

I'll post more pictures of the shoot later this week, as well as a video and exclusive pictures of our Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas extravaganza we went to in Hollywood.

Cuttin' Plastic

Last night I was working on the stadium seats for the Friday Night Blitz spot. I was inspired by the bleacher seats from the oldest NFL stadium, and the only one that still has that classic style of seating. Can anyone guess which team that is?

Our fans still needed to be painted, as well as the signs they'll hold up to support their team.

Sound Advice

Make Out City Studios recieved some special help this week. Kelly Mazurowski
an assistant animator/animator at Moral Orel helped us with some sound elements on one of our football spots. His technical expertise will help push the limits to this spot. Thanks again Kelly!

Robot Chicken 3D Viewer

Last week Matthew Senreich showed up with a Best Buy exclusive that I thought was pretty nifty. They packaged the Season 1 DVD of Robot Chicken with a 3D viewer. It comes with 5 unique Robot Chicken reels. Here is what Best Buys says about it:

"BA-BAWK-BAWK-BAWK! This is it! All 20 ground-shattering first season episodes of Robot Chicken - talkin', murderin', kissin' toys that'll blow your nervous system to Kingdom Come. Finally, a show with the grapes to leap from Web sites to TV to DVD and now 3D Viewer! With five exclusive Robot Chicken 3D Viewer reels, Adult Swim's made the rest of entertainment history its biznotch! Fill your tiny attention span with chicken nugget-sized bites of sketch comedy performed in the way the Lord intended: low-budget stop motion animation!"






There you have it folks. So run out and buy one here, and share it with all of your friends.

New Nightmare CD

Liz and The Harv have been very busy working on our latest projects, so busy that I haven't had time to put up pictures yet. But I'll talk more about that stuff in the middle of this week, but for now let's talk about Nightmare.

"In addition to re-releasing the 1994 stop-motion opus The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, Disney is putting out a two-disc special edition of the film’s soundtrack on CD. The Walt Disney Records release will hit stores on Oct. 24, just days after the Oct. 20 theatrical debut of the 3D version of the film. Both projects are part of Disney’s 13th anniversary celebration for the animated holiday favorite produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick."

Sounds great to me. I love that soundtrack, and with a few more songs tossed on there sounds like fun to be had. Rush out and get one and make me a copy.

Read the rest of the article here.

New News From Gumby

"Classic Media is adding Gumby and Pokey to its extensive roster of the iconic animated characters through a deal with property owner Premavision Inc. The long-term joint venture will see Classic Media handle U.S. and international television, feature film, home video, digital media and promotional rights to the Gumby library, which includes of 223 clay-animated TV episodes and a 1995 movie. New Gumby adventures are being produced by Clokey Prods., which originated the show 50 years ago.

Created by legendary animator/producer Art Clokey, the flexible, green Gumby made his first appearance on the Howdy Doody Show in 1956 before getting his own animated Saturday morning TV series. Classic episodes of The Gumby Show have continued to air on various outlets around the world ever since.

'Gumby has had a huge impact on popular culture as well as influencing a generation of animators,' says Classic Media CEO Eric Ellenbogen. 'We are very enthusiastic about the addition of Gumby to our portfolio of classic brands and look forward to working with the Clokey family on many new productions."

Read the rest of the arcticle here.

Get The Door, It's Domo...nose.

"Nickelodeon has acquired the Japanese stop-motion kids property Domo for broadcast on its international channels. The two-minute installments are aimed at the tween demographic and will be available in 17 languages on the various Nick outlets.

The title character is a fuzzy, brown cave-dweller who became a cultural icon with his first appearance as the mascot of in 1998. Domo enjoys kicking back with tea, watching TV and sinking his sharp teeth into seasoned beef with potatoes. He shares his underground habitat with a wise, elderly rabbit named Usajii, who has to put up with Domo’s antics, including his tendency to break wind when he gets nervous or upset."

You can read the rest of the article here, and I put a clip for your enjoyment bellow.

The Lamest Show on Turf

Besides watching the Lamest Show on Earth, Liz and I worked on our projects this weekend. I spent a good chunk of my time working on the graphics for the football field. I also cut sheets of plastic to put down over the field so the images appear as one with the fake grass. I'll put some pictures of that later this week. I worked on sets and props which I'll show more pictures of later this week, but here's something to hold you over until then.

The rest of the week (besides working Moral Orel of course) I'll finish up the sets and props and then start lighting this bad boy. That's when the fun really begins!

Monster Safari

Well, this may be too little, too late but we just HAVE to post about the amazing new stop-motion short created by our friends over at Screen Novelties, "Monster Safari"! It was really a who's who of the stop-motion community. Everyone who's anyone was there, including some people that aren't anyone.

Monster Safari was a real top-shelf production. The animatin was very cartoony, and the sets and props were out of this world. The light design was done by the master himself, Bryan Garver, and the direction was done the creative forces of Seamus Walsh, Mark Caballero and Chris Finnegan. Thse guys are going places!

Click here for more pictures from the party.

Seth and Matt Signed A Two Picture Deal That Takes Root

Our pals at Shadow Animation, Seth, Matt, and Root have just released some very exciting news. Here is some of what the AWN article had to say:


"Dimension Films announcement it has signed a two-picture deal with Seth Green and Matthew Senreich’s Stoopid Monkey Prods. The deal includes a stop-motion, animated holiday feature, NAUGHTY OR NICE, and a live-action untitled comedy.


The ROBOT CHICKEN, duo — who created, exec produce, write and direct Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim stop-motion animated show — will produce both projects in their Stoopid Monkey Prods.' first foray into film. NAUGHTY OR NICE will be produced by Green, Senreich and DC comicbook writer Geoff Johns with Senreich and Johns also penning and co-directing. Green will direct the voiceovers, plus provide the voice of at least one of the main characters. Corey Campodonico and Alex Bulkley’s Shadowmachine Films, which also produces ROBOT CHICKEN, will produce the animation at their Los Angeles animation production studio.


The second project, a live-action untitled comedy, will be written by Tom Root, co-head writer/co-producer/director of ROBOT CHICKEN. Root will produce the film, based on his original idea, with Shadowmachine, Green and Senreich."


Good job boys. Keep up the good work.