Flapjack & Chowder!

Cartoon Network just announced their 2008 line up of animated goodness. Among the slated list of cartoons are "Chowder" & "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack". We're honored to be involved with both series by contributing a lot of fun stop motion segments. Kudos go to creators Thurop VanOrman (Flapjack) and C.H. Greenblatt (Chowder) for creating uber-cool cartoons!

CareerBuilder.com Spots

Happy New Year everybody!
Just finished a long day of shooting end tags for a series of CareerBuilder.com commercials.
We shot these for our friends at Wieden+Kennedy, whom we've worked with in the past on the Nike spot we directed - "Minotaur".
December was crunch time - fabricating several identical miniature office park buildings to be crushed by the CareerBuilder logo. Thanks go out to our great crew for whipping these miniatures out in record time!
HIGH-SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY + SMASHING THINGS = JOLLY GOOD FUN.
Can't post any really specific pictures yet, but the spots should begin airing later this month.
Here's a picture from the shoot... all this fuss over a little model?

Yeti wish all of earth Happy Holidays!

And we at Screen Novelties wish you a Peaceful and Fun New Year.

Santa Puppet

Seems like the right time of year to post this photo of the Santa Claus puppet from our drinking and driving PSA for the Texas Dep't. of Transportation.
Anyway, we loved how he came out... dig that hat!

NPR on Rudolph Restoration

Have a listen to our resident puppet fabrication expert, Robin Walsh, being interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered" about the restoration of the original puppets from the Rankin/Bass production of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Click HERE to Listen.
See photos from the restoration - HERE.

There's a lot of coverage of the about it this year, here are a couple of links:

NY Times

MSNBC

Chowder Clip

Here's our clip from the "Thrice-Cream Man" episode... a nightmare sequence after Chowder eats too much Thrice Cream!

...And a behind-the-scenes still of one of the setups. Click for larger view.

Chowder Arrives Soon!

For months we've been secretly whittling away at a bunch of cool little sequences for the new Cartoon Network show "CHOWDER". It's the best thing to come out of CN in a long time, and we're proud to be a part of it. Creator C.H. Greenblatt and Art Director Dan Krall have been awesome to work with and our sensibilities all seem to coming from the same place, so it's been great.

We were flattered when the fine folks in Atlanta asked us to get involved with the official launch of the show and shoot the promo spots. It was a lot of hard work in a short amount of time to meet the airdate, but they came out pretty cool. The show premieres November 2nd - it will not disappoint!

Rotofugi :60 Spot

We're currently shooting a :60 commercial for Rotofugi, a hip purveyor of vinyl toys in Chicago. RSA and the fellows at Country Club Chicago brought the idea to us and we loved it - candid interviews with vinyl toys showing off their collections of humans. We got to work with some of the biggies in vinyl toys: Gloomy Bear, Qee, Friends With You - you get the picture.
The spot will make its debut in January!

Josh Jennings animating FLCL Canti Robots

Mark Harassing Brian and Alex on the Malfi set

Monster Safari Short Completed - UPDATE!!!

Hello Adventurers!
Our short film - Monster Safari - is in the can.

Charmingly inept cryptozoologists, Basil and Pang, are on the hunt for Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and all your favorite beasts of lore. But complicating matters is Buckminster - the world's most insane big-game hunter - who's looking for the ultimate trophies for his wall.

To celebrate the completion of the short, here's a clip and a gallery of photos from the production. When we get word of an airdate from Nickelodeon, we'll post it here.
Thanks for stopping by to check it out!
-The Screen Novelties Gang

Photo Gallery:
Click thumbnails for a larger view

Basil & Pang explore the Mummy's Tomb...

The Yeti Stomps about...

Pang, Basil, and Lucy...

Mark animating in the Museum

Joe Schmidt tackles Basil & Pang's Biplane with gusto

Typical thrashed state of the studio...
but with cool Himalaya exterior setup!

Seamus accosting the Yeti

Chris in the Monster Hunting Headquarters

Ancient hieroglyphs

Tobacco PSA Nominated!

Our little PSA for the state of Mississippi's "Reject All Tobacco" campaign has been nominated for the International Animated Film Society's "Annie" awards. Cool!
Thank you ASIFA-Hollywood! Please check out the great work they're doing with the Animation Archive.
We would also like to congratulate our pals Josh Jennings, Sihanouk Mariona and Eileen Kohlhepp for their Annie noms for induvidual acheivment in character animation. A pat on back also goes out to the great Dan Krall for production Design on Camp Lazlo.
Check out "Candy Factory" below...

NY Times

The NY Times today ran an article about our restoration of the Rankin/Bass puppets!
Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/arts/television/23rudo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Rankin/Bass Puppet Restoration

Rudolph and Santa?!
Imagine the looks on our faces when the original puppets from the 1964 Rankin/Bass production of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" showed up on our doorstep!
Specifically, the current owner/discoverer of said puppets, Kevin Kreiss, contacted us a few months ago to see what we could do about the puppets' deteriorated state (thanks Rick Goldschmidt for the recommend). Kevin brought them by and we assessed the situation...
The puppets were in bad shape, having been used as Christmas decorations/playthings for the last 30-odd years in the home of a former Rankin/Bass employee. Santa's legs were both broken, as was Rudolph's neck(!). Rudolph's nose bulb was torn out and the cavity had been stuffed with red candle wax. All of the lead armature wires inside the puppets were corroding and half of Santa's mustache was missing. We even heard tales of a photo of Rudolph sticking his head out of a bowl of Christmas candy. There was a lot of cleanup and restoration to be done.

Luckily, a top member of our puppet crew, Robin Walsh, has a lot of experience with puppet restoration, having worked for several years at the Center for Puppetry Arts. While there she worked with everything from antique Indonesian shadow puppets to Italian rod marionettes, so she set up a plan and spearheaded the operation.

The whole process took several weeks, and great care was taken to preserve the integrity of the puppets. We made new pieces only to replace missing parts, leaving everything in it's original form as much as possible. Careful cleansing of the fur and clothing got out years worth of cigarette smoke, candy stains and dust.

We are very proud to have been a part of preserving these icons of stop-motion (and American pop-culture) history.


This month, the puppets will be on display at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.

After that, check Time and Space Toys.com for news of future appearances.

Now, if only a Bumble puppet would turn up!!

MONSTER SAFARI UPDATE

Things are finally moving ahead on our Monster Safari Pilot for Nickelodeon!
The voices have been recorded and the actors did a great job bringing our characters to life.
Thank you Peter Dennis, Keone Young and Audrey Wasilewski!
Here's a photo from the first recording session:

And a shot of a recent setup:

ANTI-SMOKING PSA

We're beginning work on a new Anti-Smoking PSA for the state of Mississippi.
A worthwhile cause, to be sure. Info on RAT (Reject All Tobacco) at: www.gorat.com

Oh, and our new DEMO REEL is now up!!!

ROBOT CHICKEN: SEASON TWO

>Well, we're knee-deep in Season 2 of ROBOT CHICKEN. All is going well so far.
SEASON ONE DVD's will be out in March. Click HERE for more info on that.

BEHIND THE SCENES @ ROBOT CHICKEN

>Our pal (and amazing animator) Ethan Marak has an Online Slideshow with
behind-the-scenes photos from Robot Chicken and Moral Orel.
ADULT SWIM also has a bunch of stuff on their site as well -- HERE.
Check 'em out and see the craziness in action.

TORTOISE & THE HARE ON DVD

>Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years DVD set is now available, and it's mighty cool.
Just don't watch the interview where we look like dorks.
Here's the LINK to get your hands on a copy!

HALLMARK "HAUNTINGTON" COMMERCIALS

>Just delivered our two spots for Hallmark Cards, and we had a blast working on them.
The spots follow the adventures of the denizens of Hauntington as they prepare for their annual "Spirit Fest".
Our commercial reps, Klasky-Csupo, have the spots up on the "Recent Work" page -- HERE.
And HERE'S our "directors" page on Klasky's site.