From 1975, based on a story by Sergei Kozlov, directed by Yuriy Norshteyn.

I am led to believe this is Miyazaki’s favorite animated work.

[Via mjduffy.]

By Takuya Hosogane of Bonsajo.

[Via Kitsune Noir.]

Gobelins keeping it real for Annecy 2009.

Awesome bloopy 2D animation, very heavily Ren-and-Stimpified — such a relief after so much 3D. I would trade a million high-tech 3D pieces for a few more like this.

I do miss Ren and Stimpy.

[Via Motionographer.]

Wow, a lot of this looks like 3D. Some of it is, including the ship and much of the sets, but even the characters often look 3D. And it’s not the precision of the lines or the smoothness of the shading — the volume and the massing on the rotations is, how you say, parfait.

From a team of talented Gobelins students.

[Via Drawn.]

From RISD student Tim Beckhardt in 2008.

A nice balance of focus between plot and moments. I hate it when there’s never any question about what’s happening, and the only thing to learn is what will happen. That’s a sitcom. This has a plot, per se, but the plot isn’t the point, and it’s chopped up and spread around.

Also, I know I recently mentioned him, but continue to cf. my man Brandon Graham, plot-wise and other-wise, who writes my favorite blog these days. His book King City is one of my favorites in the mold of Tekkon Kinkreet: well-balanced — between detail and suggestion, personal and epic, serious and silly — all through mastery of the evocative. It’s all about choosing the details to suggest a super-deep, rich world, which happens to be populated by casual bad-asses who have their priorities straight, which is a world in which I aspire to live.

Also it reminds me of the Pacific Northwest, which I miss. And he does graffiti properly. There’s nothing lamer than obviously-fake graffiti in comics.

Also it is funny and nice. I love you Brandon Graham.

[Via Cartoon Brew.]

Cute animation, nice bloopiness in the motion, but the main event is the style of the thing, which gets me thinking about the appeal of old low-rez low-color art in the EGA days, like Space Quest:

Putting limits on the work enforces a certain internal consistency. This works for doodles in black ball-point pen, and things drawn in the sand with a stick. Once you add color, or start putting rocks and seaweed in the design, you’ve added a dimension that increases the number of possible combinations of elements exponentially — proportionally greater than the number of successful combinations.

Point being: it’s easier to be Rothko than Blake.

[Via Motionographer.]

Gobelins alert — this is one of the intro shorts for Annecy 2009. Brilliant design, motion, and pacing. Lots of Japanese influence: shades of Miyazake and Zelda. Fenrir is of course the wolfy son of Loki the Professional Norse Shit-Starter, and this scene looks a lot like his death at the hands of Víðarr, son of Odin.

Inside information and analysis available from, ahem, Articles & Texticles.

Credits: Nuno Alves Rodrigues, Oussama Bouacheria, Alice Dieudonné, Aymeric Kevin, and Ulysse Malassagne.

[Via Motionographer.]

Lovely 2.5D cartoon texture work from Malcolm Sutherland, reminds me a bit of the tech and BG work from two of my favorite comic dudes: Brandon Graham and his buddy James Stokoe.

[Via Cartoon Brew.]

Rather straightforward Euroclash from French DJ crew Birdy Nam Nam, with bitchin’ vintage animation designed and directed by Will Sweeney and Steve Scott for Not To Scale.

The Flash-on-illustrations look comes off as a 70′s cartoon mashup, with Hanna-Barbera characters running around Fantastic Planet, but somehow less ridiculous and more self-aware. I think it has to do with the balance of hard-rockin-ness with obvious goofiness — something Heavy Metal got exactly wrong in 1981.

Oy, 1981.

[Via Motionographer.]