December Shmecshmemshber

We've got one last Skwigly Animation Podcast of 2023 before we tap out for the year. In episode 112 we welcome back director Sam Fell alongside producer Leyla Hobart to discuss their much-anticipated Aardman sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (out now on Netflix). We also welcome back director Robin Shaw and producer Ruth Fielding of Lupus Films to hear about their seasonal adaptation Mog’s Christmas, broadcast on Channel 4 this Xmas Eve.

Also discussed: Feature and short film picks for awards season, technological misadventures at MAF and the enduring legacy of last year’s holiday ‘classic’ The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. While you're queuing up podcasts for that long, anxious drive back to the homestead, be sure to check out episode 11 of Independent Animation featuring Mel Cionco in conversation with Jasmine Yang of viral hitmakers Glitch Productions and episode 27 of Animation One-To-Ones, where Ryan Gaur speaks with ND Stevenson to learn about the protracted, animated feature adaptation of his graphic novel Nimona. If you're in more of a readin' mood then a listenin' mood, some recent articles to check out include Ryan's interview with Aardman's Suzy Fagan Parr, Martyn Warren's review of Hilda season 3, as well as Larry Fried's review of The Peasants and interview with co-director Hugh Welchman.

Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, the stop-mo gore-fest on which I animated some retro VFX a while back, is currently available to watch for free over the holiday period. Those of you who have Amazon's Freevee, be sure to gather the kids and grandparents around the ol' tellybox and get 'em nice and traumatised.

Many thanks to all the wonderful folks of the local animation community for coming out to the final Bristol Animation Meetup (BAM) of 2023 last week!

Extra special gratitude to King Street Brew House for having us, our pals at Animation Associates and Toon Boom Animation for the abundance of free drinks and incredible main raffle prize of an annual Toon Boom Harmony license (congrats to winner Elise as well as runner-up winners Olivia, Anna and Mayzey) - not to mention the fantastic Aardman Animations for the bonus prizes, Tova for her hard work keeping everything running organised and on time as well as Luzie for being on hand to take some fabulous photos.

Of course an extra special thanks to our incomparable industry guests Suzy Fagan Parr (Aardman), Jess Brazier (A Productions), Harry Slinger-Thompson (Scribble Room), Erinn Lucas (Sun & Moon) and Joe Wood (Rumpus) for taking their time to offer their insights and advice to eventgoers.We've got some exciting plans for 2024 so be sure to keep your eyes on Skwigly, Rumpus and Sun & Moon for updates and future event info!

That 'monthly roundup' idea didn't pan out, did it?

I've been kinda quiet 'cause, well, shucks, I don't have a whole lot to say these days. I'll rattle off some general updates to keep this site from going into atrophy.

The epic, protracted journey of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires has reached its conclusion (some five years after I joined the film's post-production team in its latter months) with a suitably-retro home media release. I don't really buy blurays, except for the occasional animation one, but the sheer strength of craft that went into this is a pretty good justification to pick it up and by some accounts I've read this version looks a little nicer than its streaming alternatives.

Another journey's end worth mentioning is my stint with the fine folks at Shy Guys Studios wrapping up after four-and-a-bit years. It's probably the longest I've been at one place (albeit while juggling a ton of other gigs on the side, as my gluttony for punishment dictates) and it led to some really fun projects including graphics and titles for a bunch of TV shows, animation for educational/health films (the one above was a lot of fun) and my most recent film Speed which managed to tick a few more festival selections off my personal wishlist. As with all the best gigs the real highlight was the people I got to meet through it and I hope we'll manage to work alongside one another again down the line.

Elsewhere the world of Emojitown is growing like gangbusters, having just hit a million followers on its main YouTube channel and over 125k on its more recent TikTok channel. I've been working with WildBrain Spark as a consultant and contributing director/producer on its social media shorts which have accrued a stunning 250+ million views since the end of last year. It's a pretty incredible thing to see this kind of response to a brand new IP, so fingers crossed things continue as it's been a fun world to be a part of and occasionally inject my weirdness into.

Things are still active and busy over in the land of Skwigly (I certainly post there a lot more than I do here) with some National Film Board of Canada/Annecy coverage highlights including a chat with Métis filmmaker Terril Calder (Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics) and conversation with multi-Oscar-nominated duo Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby (When the Day Breaks, Wild Life and The Flying Sailor). Also in competition at Annecy is Magical Caresses, an NFB series on demystifying masturbation by Le Clitoris director Lori Malépart-Traversy, who returns to our podcast Intimate Animation to discuss the project. Stream below or download here. 

Other coverage to check out includes an interview with Hamish Steele who recently adapted his progressive YA graphic novel series Deadendia into a new Netflix show Dead End: Paranormal Park (some brilliantly talented folks worked on this one), Laura-Beth's interview with Sam O'Leary, who did an incredible job paying tribute to the shit-your-pants-scary animated PSAs of yore in the series 7 finale of Inside No. 9 (cheers to Mr. Shearsmith for the RT), a trifecta of interviews for Autism Awareness Month with Jorge R. Gutiérrez, Dani Bowman and Grainne McGuinness courtesy of writer Martyn Warren and new contributor Ryan Gaur's editorial pieces on streaming vs cinema, the upcoming Futurama reboot and the feature film Lightyear.

Ryan joins the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast with a segment interviewing Lightyear director Angus MacLane and producer Galyn Susman. We also feature a chat between Laura-Beth and director/writer Loren Bouchard, co-director Bernard Derriman and co-writer/producer Nora Smith of The Bob's Burgers Movie. Again, it's streamable below and here's your download link, ya lucky so-and-so.

I think that's all the talk-about-ables for now. This summer might see things get a bit less quiet as there are a bunch of project announcements on the horizon, so, y'know, stay mildly alert.

Roundup: February 2022

My pals at the Manchester Animation Festival have kicked off a new series of year-round social/screening events MAF Presents, which began earlier this month with their first programme They Love Me, They Love Me Not that kindly featured my latest film Speed. If you're up North be sure to keep your eyes on their site and socials for updates on upcoming events as I'm sure you're itching to get back into the swing of that whole human contact thang.

On a similar note, the wonderful Cardiff Animation Nights gang have resumed their in-person events as well as carrying on the online screenings they started during the pandemic, so be sure to follow what they're up to as well. Even more exciting is the return of the Cardiff Animation Festival, whose third edition will take place at their usual Chapter Arts venue April 7th-10th, knock wood, with an online version going through to the 24th. There'll be more specific programme info to come but in the meantime I can confirm I'll be there to host the filmmaker Q&As and Laura-Beth Cowley's recent project Crafty Witch is among the festival's official selection as part of the Shorts 7: After Dark category. Pop it in your schedules!

Also on the events front, the biennial British Animation Awards - on which I mucked in as preselector/jury - will be happening on March 10th at the BFI Southbank with signal events in Bristol, Cardiff, Salford and Stirling if a Thursday night trek to London isn't doable but you still want to check out the festivities. All being well I'll be at the main event so hopefully will see some of y'all in the big smoke; I won't hug you but we can affectionately exchange finger-guns. Otherwise be sure to check out their site for the various viewing and ticket options they have.

Before any of that will be Speed's inclusion as part of Anima Brussels next weekend. Since the announcement of the official selection I now know it will be part of the second Animated Nights block on Saturday, March 5th, kicking off at 10pm in Flagey Studio 4 and 10:30pm at Palace. I'm properly gutted that I won't be able to make it in person as seeing Sunscapades as part of the same programme a couple years ago was an absolute blast, but right now the faff of getting in and out of Belgium would just be too disruptive to make it feasible. Fingers crossed I'll make it back over there before too long.

Following on from last month's UK streaming release of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, it will be traveling further afield as of March 1st with its arrival on streaming platforms in the US, Canada and Australia. It's a job I have a lot of fond associations with and it's really nice that all the hard work the crew put into it will get some wider visibility. Check out what viewing options are available to you here.

Over on Skwigly I've delved a bit further into the production of the incredible Netflix film The House (the directors of which I interviewed last month) via an interview with Nexus Studios producer/co-founder Charlotte Bavasso. As well as discussing the film itself we also go into the early days of the studio and what the future may hold - it was a real treat to chat with her and I hope you find her insights as inspirational as I did.

Having been out of print for a little while I'm pleased to see that We Still Care A Lot, the tribute album I contributed to in honour of the late Chuck Mosley, has finally gotten itself a digital release. You can check out the full album over on Bandcamp.

Not a whole bunch else I can explicitly talk about but if you happen to be one of those trendy youngsters who lurk about on TikTok you might want to go ahead and follow this little IP that's on the grow. The keen of ear may even detect a familiar vocal performance in the video below:

Finally, these pipes have gone viral.

Roundup: January 2022

Been a quiet-ish start to 2022 as far as things I can publicly mention, so as we reach the end of the month here's a few bits and pieces to throw into the ol' void in one go.

Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, the insane stop-mo feature I did some bits on a few years ago, is finally being released to buy or rent this coming Monday after last year's brief theatrical run. This is just online and in the UK for now but knock wood there'll be some physical/international release updates soon.

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The House, one of the projects I was looking forward to the most in 2022, had the good manners to be released right at the beginning of the year, so I've rather gleefully devoted some time to giving it coverage. Head over to Skwigly and have a read of my review and interview with the incomparably gifted directors Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr and Paloma Baeza. As with Chuck, this boasts some true stop-motion greats among its crew, although tonally it's miles away. Definitely give it a watch if you get a sec.

Going back to something I worked on (in a small sense) - Laura-Beth Cowley's Crafty Witch has a couple more screenings coming up. Firstly the excellent Berlin festival British Shorts (who have been gracious enough to screen my films Klementhro, Sunscapades and Speed in the past) will be showing it tomorrow at two venues - 8pm at City Kino Wedding and 8:15pm at Sputnik Kino. Laura-Beth also spoke with culture blog The New Current about making the film - have a read here.

Another Berlin outing for the film will be on Saturday, February 5th at the Final Girls Berlin festival. Crafty Witch will be screening as part of the 11pm Shorts 6: Midnight programme, again at City Kino Wedding. Grab your tickets here.

Heavy on the puppets today

In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome Mikey Please and Dan Ojari to discuss their seasonal Aardman short Robin Robin, coming to Netflix next month. Written by Ojari, Please and Sam Morrison, the short is produced by Helen Argo with Sarah Cox exec producing; it's lovely looking and something wholesome to bung on as the nights grow darker and foreboding-er, so be sure to add it to your watchlists.

Also discussed in this episode: Event highlights from this year’s upcoming Manchester Animation Festival, including feature film presentations My Sunny Maad (dir. Michaela Pavlátová) and Flee (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen), The House WIP, Animated Answers featuring Ainslie Henderson, MAF Fellowship Award recipients Jorge R. Gutiérrez and Sandra Equihua’s new series Maya and the Three and the return of the much anticipated/feared Skwigly Animation Quiz.

Stream above or hoarde it for keepsies.

After a long period floating around in distribution limbo Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires (on which I whipped up some old-school, Richard Edlund-esque VFX and made some grunty background noises) will finally be getting itself a UK cinema release. Head over to the film's official site for local showtimes; it'll be around for a week or so from the 29th. If you're not sure what to expect, well, the trailers don't really leave much room for ambiguity:

It's sure to be contentious (I doubt the director would have it any other way) and I have immeasurably fond memories of working on it as well as the wonderful folks I got to know through it. It also boasts some of the strongest stop-motion animation I've ever seen by some of the absolute best in the business; a shame for them, then, that my job was essentially to scribble all over it.

April Drizzle

As the world is generally moving a little slower these days I inevitably have less to post about, but this week's seen a bit of a clump of nifty updates I can share. Firstly the amazing Laura-Beth Cowley's latest film The Gift (made last year with Calling the Shots/BBC Arts and on which I was privileged to contribute some animation and sound) will be getting its broadcast premiere this Sunday evening on BBC as part of a special BBC Introducing Arts programme Get Animated! You can get a sneaky preview of what to expect here and be sure to tune in to BBC4 at 10:55pm to catch it - it'll also be available on BBC iPlayer afterwards.

After a long period of radio silence following its much-loved festival run, there are some rumblings of activity coming from the Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires camp in the form of a newly-revamped website for production studio Animortal and a recently-released behind-the-scenes featurette on the film itself. Have a gander above to see some of the incredible work that went into it (you may even catch a little breakdown of my own contributions to the VFX and compositing at around the 3:20 mark). Fingers crossed we'll hear some word of a release in the near future...

Meanwhile the wonderful Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film has, like many events for the foreseeable future, migrated its programme to a special online edition running from May 5th-10th. Having been involved in the festival as both press and as a filmmaker in the past I had been set to attend in a third capacity, this time as part of the International Competition Jury - but alas, I ain't goin' nowhere. We will, however, be convening online and I can assuredly say this year's selection of films is a uniquely strong and consistent cross-section of some of the best work around and I can't recommend checking this online iteration out enough. You can find out more info here but in short there are three options for experiencing the festival - a free edition, equivalent to their open-air Festival on Schlossplatz; streaming access to the entire official selection for 9.99€; and, for professionals, the Pro edition grants digital access to an assortment of masterclasses, presentations and the complete animated video market for 19.99€. When you think of what you're saving on air fare and accommodation it really is a steal, so check out the festival website for more info.

If life durin' lockdown is starting to drag you might want to get yourselves caught up on our new Skwigly podcast series Skwigly Film Club in which myself, Steve, Laura-Beth and possibly others down the line babble over a variety of animated feature films. Since we launched it a few weeks back with Don Hertzfeldt's It's Such a Beautiful Day we've since hit play on Adam Elliot's Mary and Max, Claude Barras's My Life as a Courgette (or Zucchini, depending on which side of the pond you're on) and Gerald Potterton's Heavy Metal. I'm sure episodes to come will be even more diverse and if anyone wants to weigh in with their suggestions, thoughts, memories and suchlike be sure to keep in touch via our Twitter and Facebook as the series continues.

Unseasonable Warmth

I'll start as I intend to go on with this entry; radiating sunbeams of positivity that will warm your heart and carry you through the day. In that spirit I'd like to let you all know that Taylor and Francis/CRC Press have resumed their site-wide sale - that sees my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films available at 20% off - through to the end of year. Plus you save even more if you grab it up with another CRC book - or why not just buy multiple copies of mine and stuff them in the stockings of your nearests and dearests this holiday season? You'll have to really ram them in there though, they're quite bulky.

It's a busy end of the year for Sunscapades, and I'm excited to be headed down to the London International Animation Festival this Saturday for its inclusion in the Late Night Bizarre programme (9pm at the Horse Hospital - be sure to come or all those horse ghosts will never find peace).
On December 13th the film returns to Brazil for the CRASH (formerly TRASH) International Fantastic Film Festival. This will be part of the 3pm International Shorts 1 screening at the Cine Cultura in Goiânia.
Kicking off shortly after that will be Romania's Ploiesti International Film Festival, an event that had the damn fine taste to screen Klementhro back in 2016. Reassuringly Sunscapades has also passed muster and will be playing in the festival's Dark Comedy section.
It will also be presented in Georgia at the Tbilisi International Film Festival 6pm tonight at the Cinema House as part of a special Best Of British Animation screening curated by the Anilab/Encounters Festival team and introduced by my pal Laura Tof.

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Tonight at 9pm on BBC FOUR UK viewers can tune into a brand new documentary “Secrets of British Animation” and keep an eye open for Steve and Ben nestled in amongst some real legends of British Animation! #animation #britishanimation

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Speaking of UK Animation, as previously mentioned the BBC4 documentary Secrets of British Animation screened last night to much enthusiasm and will be available on the BBC iPlayer for the next month or so if you didn't catch it. Personal highlights include a wonderful segment on Joanna Quinn and a behind-the-scenes look at my 2017 summer fling Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires. At only an hour it could never have been a fully comprehensive overview of all of British animation's best and brightest, but the laundry list of conspicuous absences make a pretty good case for a follow-up doc or maybe something more like a series down the line. Fingers crossed someone over at the BBC feels the same way. At any rate be sure to get it watched while you can and massive kudos to director Seb Barfield, producer Sophie Taylor and the rest of the Academy 7 team for a fantastic job.

Chuck Soup

So I finally got to see the finished (pending a possible recast of the voices should it land international distribution) version of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires at Frightfest the other weekend. Aggregating the reviews that have come in since it premiered at Annecy the general vibe seems to be consistently positive. Certainly there was an enormous sense of achievement among the crew who had gathered in London for the screening and, godless commute aside, working on the film was honestly one of the best gigs I've had to date and I'm very proud to have been involved.
With wider distribution hopefully not too far away there are a couple more events the film will be showing up at in the meantime.

Although I don't think the film itself will be screening, there's a special presentation with animator Jody Meredith happening at Stop Motion Montreal (who were among the fests to include Boris-Noris last year so they're darn good eggs in my book) on September 15th 7:30pm at Concordia's J.A. de Sève Theater.

Later in the month the film proper will be screening in competition as part of the line-up for this year's edition of the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival. These will be 10:15pm September 20th at Le Star Saint-Exupéry, 6pm September 21st at Ciné Vox and 11am September 23rd at Le Star again.

Then it October there are a couple of late-night screenings at the SITGES International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. playing at 12:45am on the 6th at the Cinema el Retiro and 1am the following morning at the Hotel Meliá's Tramuntana cinema.
Be sure to keep your eyes on the film's website and Facebook page for more news as it comes.

Busy weekend ahead

The continuing international adventures of Laura-Beth's Boris-Noris will see it screened in Helsinki for the SAMPO 2018 International Puppet Theatre Festival this coming weekend, again as part of the Bristol Festival of Puppetry's Women in Puppetry and Puppet Animation package that has been doing the rounds to much enthusiasm. The two screenings will take place Friday August 24th and Saturday 25th at the Päivälehti Museum - both of them are free so be sure to get your fine Finnish selves over there.

Some bad - but actually good - news regarding the upcoming UK premiere screenings of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires at London's Frightfest Festival on the 25th is that individual tickets to both are completely sold out. I have gotten wind however that there may be a few festival passes available from the box office so if you were hoping to check out the film and maybe want to make a weekend of it that option might be up your alley. More info here - however there are only a handful of spaces left so if you grab a pass be sure to check it will actually get you in to what you want to see. If you make it I'll hopefully see you there!

Lastly my new film Sunscapades will have its Canadian premiere on the same day as part of Toronto's Lost Episode Fest. As with the film's inclusion in the BUT Festival this event is one I'm very happy to be part of as it celebrates a specific subsection of indie genre films that makes it something of a spiritual fit. I believe the film will screen as part of the animation block Not For Kids which kicks off 10:55pm August 25th at the Carlton Cinema. Tickets and more specific info here.

Now let's never speak of She-Ra again

Another podcast for the podcastey pile. In episode 83 Steve brings us a chat with Trevor Jimenez, director of the short film Weekends that recently won the Jury Award and Audience Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival as well as ten other festival awards and counting. Presently playing in competition at Anima Mundi, upcoming screenings include Animation Block Party, Fantoche and Anibar.
Also discussed in this episode: The reaction to She-Ra’s redesign, Annecy and Society for Animation Studies conference highlights, Brad Bird vs. bloggers, the premiere of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires and Vice’s bizarre Simpsons article. It's a fun'un, get it in your earholes now or download for later.

Chuck Amuck

Some more festival screenings for Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, Mike Mort's high-energy indie animated feature that I scribbled and yelled over last year. Its North American premiere at Montreal's Fantasia Festival is now set to take place 4:45pm on July 21st at Concordia's SGWU Auditorium and you can grab your tickets here.

The following month it's finally screening here in the UK, so all being well I'll be able to catch its national premiere in London as part of Frightfest 2018. This one will be two screenings on August 25th at the Leicester Square Cineworld - 3:45pm on the Arrow Video screen and 4:15pm on the Horror Channel screen. Swing by and give it a look-see, 'cause they definitely don't make 'em like this anymore.

Fantasy Worlds

Yet another June screening for Sunscapades will take place next week. Marking its Venezuelan premiere, the film is part of the animation category official selection of the pleasingly-acronymed MIFVIF - Maracay International Film and Video Festival.
The animation screening takes place at 10am on the 24th at the Casa de las Artes Lounge 2.

An event I don't yet have specifics for - but am quite excited about - is the Canadian premiere of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, following a warmly-received world premiere at Annecy a couple weeks' back. This will be happening at Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, although alas I'll have left the city by the time it kicks off. Tsk, always the way innit.

If they call you 'butt' over there it means they like you, I recently learned

It's Friday! We made it to the end of another week! Go us!
That means there's now a mere six days to go before Cardiff Animation Festival kicks off and I'm very excited to be heading over there alongside Skwigly brethren and animationey pals alike.
There's a packed schedule of amazing events from Thursday 19th through to Sunday 22nd and while it's worth taking the time to peruse the full programme here are a couple I'm involved with:
As part of the Industry Day on the 19th I'll be on the 2pm panel Getting To Market with Helen Brunsdon, Adam Bailey and Huw Walters where we'll be discussing "the fine art of promoting and selling your work, from TV ideas to short films, at markets around the world". You can pick up an Industry Day pass here if you've not done so already.

Kim Keukeleire

On Saturday 21st I'll be chairing the Q&A session Making Isle of Dogs at 8:45pm, which will directly follow a 6:30pm screening of the film itself. This will be a great opportunity to learn about the crafting of the exceptional new Wes Anderson film from artists Joshua Flynn (puppetmaker), Kim Keukeleire (lead animator) and Kerry Dyer (puppet repairs), so you won't want to miss it.
I'll also be speaking with some of the attending filmmakers in competition for the Animator's Brunch Q&A sessions that will take place on the 21st and 22nd at 10:30am. Not only will you be able to meet/grill these splendid folks but you'll get to do so with coffee and croissants to hand - plus both sessions are free to attend, so treat yisselfs!

Other festival highlights you'll want to check out include a festival-long exhibition and Friday night special presentation for Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, the spectacular stop-mo feature I contributed some VFX bits to last summer, as well as a talk by all-around top bloke Grant "Hey Duggee" Orchard, a writing for animation panel, the official launch of Anim18, life drawing, a Bring Your Own Animation session (at which I may attempt a sneaky preview of my latest film Sunscapades), screenings and Q&As for recent features Early Man and The Breadwinner - not to mention a heap of parties and networking events you can get sauced at. Then there's the official selection itself, which as a member of the jury I can assuredly say is packed full of absolutely top-shelf work. Say hello* if you're there!
*Not an obligation. In fact an across-the-room-half-nod is already above and beyond.

The Skwigly Spectrum

A good ol' Skwigly roundup for you fine folks today. Starting with the latest podcast which went up today - Steve has interviews with Daisy Jacobs (director of the BAFTA-winning NFTS film The Bigger Picture) and Chuck Steel creator Mike Mort, while one of our talented writers Nathan Wilkes chats to the Shaun the Sheep Movie directors Mark Burton and - making his return to the Skwigly Podcast (having also been featured in episode 11) - Richard Starzak. It's a fun one, friends! Subscribe, stream or download to your heart's content:
There's also a new episode of Lightbox up this week in which the always-brilliant Laura-Beth learns about Disney's Feast from Director Patrick Osborne, Designer Jeff Turley and Producer Kristina Reed. There are two versions of this one, you can check it out on YouTube (where it's already doing very well) or watch the slightly nicer edit below:

On the other end of the animation spectrum I'm really happy to have an interview with legendary Estonian director Priit Pärn up on the site this week. I've been a fan of his work since 2000 when I saw Hotel E on, of all things, a semi-pisstake Adam and Joe C4 documentary that doesn't appear to have surfaced online. It was pretty funny though. My prevailing memory is a moment where BaaadDad threatens to stab a child for a Pokemon card. Cheered me some.
Back to Priit Pärn, if you've not caught his work it's worth the research; Though heavygoing at times it's often incredibly witty and always brilliantly-executed - and absolutely, irrefutably Estonian. His latest film Pilots on the Way Home, one of several co-directed with his wife Olga and his first collaboration with the NFB, shows he hasn't mellowed with age either:

On top of all this there's a new book review up on Animate to Harmony by Australian indie animator Adam Phillips. It's an invaluable guide to ToonBoom Animate and Harmony and it's really filled in some gaps in my overall knowledge of the software. More importantly, reading it has motivated me to follow-through on a recent promise to myself. Sometimes when we feel like we're floating without a paddle...well, a good book can take one's mind to a better place. To read my gushing in full check out the review here.

Lots more in the wings but I reckon that covers it for now. Happy weekending, everyone!