“Possibly the best thing we have seen over the entire festive period…” says John Robb over at Louder Than War, and who could disagree? Animator Lee Hardcastle retells John Carpenter’s The Thing in 60 seconds, using claymation and children’s TV favorite Pingu. Sheer bloody magic.
Director’s Cut: ‘Pingu’s The Thing’, after the jump…
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Via Louder Than War
Zonaromega performs “вся жизнь впереди скачать” (Your Future Looks Bright) with a menagerie of strange creatures from parts unknown.
No reason to have these blues you’ll make it all right
Youll make it all right, the future looks brightYoull make it all right, the future looks bright
The future looks bright
This puts me in a Christmas frame of mind.
The talented bods at Bird Box Studios have made this fun animation, Singing Christmas Hedgehogs, where you can pick and dress a hedgehog to serenade you. How neat is that?
Via b3ta
Radio Soulwax’s ambitious punk mash-up mix is the “Stars on 45” of hardcore.
Thank you Glen E. Friedman of New York City, NY!
Photo by Allen Ginsberg
This wonderful short animated film by Drew Christie recounts musicologist John Cohen’s first meeting with Harry Everett Smith, polymath autodidact weirdo, experimental filmmaker and the Grammy-award-winning compiler of the classic Anthology of American Folk Music.
It’s an absolute delight! Guaranteed to make you smile or double your money back.
There are several similarly charming Harry Smith anecdotes like this one recounted in books such as Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular (Andrew Perchuck and Rani Singh); Think of the Self Speaking (edited by Rani Singh); American Magus: Harry Smith (edited by Paola Igliori) and the monograph Harry Smith: Fragments of a Northwest Life (Darrin Daniel).
My favorite Smith anecdote, and I think this one comes via Allen Ginsberg—pretty sure—is that Smith usually wore eyeglasses that he found in the trash. If he happened upon some discarded glasses, tried them on and they were better than the ones he was wearing, he’d toss the old ones and keep the new ones!
And speaking of Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, if the animation intrigues you, and his Anthology box set is something that you are unfamiliar with, you can listen to this special podcast about it on the American Standard Time blog’s Roadhouse Radio show.
Via John Coulthart
Charley says… was a series of Public Information Films, shown in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s, in which a talkative cat, Charley, advised a young boy, Tony, about everyday safety issues. Along with my fellow generation of young things, I learnt not to go off with strangers, never play with matches, and beware the dangers of tables. Sadly, these days charlie usually advises me to do all of the above.
The voice of the incomprehensible ginger tomcat was supplied by Kenny Everett, while the boy was voiced by the child of one of producer Richard Taylor’s neighbors. The Charley says… animations were so popular that they were voted the UK’s favorite Public Information Film, and came in at number 95 in Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Cartoons in 2005.
More miaows of wisdom from Charley, after the jump…
Nice animated tribute to Drive produced by Tom Haugomat and Bruno Mangyoku. The soundtrack is Glass Candy’s “Digital Versicolor.”
(via Mister Honk)
I was happy to see that those purveyors of fine campy video products, Punchy Players, have returned with another animated adventure of Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli.
This time, the mega-talented mother-daughter duo goes grocery shopping and meets Ann Miller. It’s pretty great. Like all their other ones.
Via our friends at World of Wonder
