Lost and Found

Studio AKA has posted some images and a clip on their site for their upcoming film Lost and Found. It's based on a children's book by Oliver Jeffers which I was previously unfamiliar with. The images look beautiful; I really like the simple style of the characters and the painterly quality of the rendering. Here's a link to the clip, and a post on Cartoon Brew. I guess I'll have to pick up this book for Christmas (for my daughters, of course!).

Tokyo Mater!

I can finally talk about the 4th (and most ambitious) Cars Toon: Tokyo Mater! Just like the previous 3 Cars Toons (which are now in rotation on all the Disney Channels, including HD), these are Directed by John Lasseter and Co-Directed by Rob Gibbs and myself. The difference is that Tokyo Mater is a 6 minute theatrical short that will be playing in front of Bolt starting this Friday, December 12th. And it's in 3D! And we made it only 5 months, but it looks amazing! And it's got drift-racing! And it was crazy hard to do! And it has an awesome techno soundtrack by BT! And BT played at our wrap party! And - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Anyway, I'm on hard-earned vacation now, and I look forward to seeing Tokyo Mater with a real audience this Friday. I hope to see you there, too! In the meantime, check out this article on ComingSoon.net, and here's a nice review on AintItCoolNews.

More Gobelins goodness

Once again the students at Gobelins in France are tearing it up! Here is the latest batch of short films, all of which are unique in style and storytelling. Great designs, great animation, and all totally original. My favorites are "For Sock's Sake" and "Pluggin'". I wish these guys would make feature films!

I've been nominated for an Annie Award!

Well I be darned, I'm up for an Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production! This is a pretty big deal considering all the other great work that was done on WALL-E by my coworkers, and considering the amazing animators I'm up against from Dreamworks and BlueSky. Here's the full list of nominees:

Character Animation in a Feature Production

• James Baxter “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
• Jeff Gabor “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios
• Philippe Le Brun “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation
• Victor Navone “Wall•E” – Pixar Animation Studios
• Dan Wagner “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

You can see all the other categories and nominees here. Win or lose, it's a real honor to be nominated blah blah blah I hope I win! We'll have to wait until January 30th to find out. Until then, sing along: "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, tomorrow..."