Spiderman-Like Folk Hero Taunts the Nazis in 1945 Czech Animation

What a mischievous chimney sweep has to do with tricking Hitler out of power.

To those of us who grew up in Eastern Europe, Czech puppet maker, illustrator, and animator Jirí Trnka (1912-1969) is best-known for his illustrations of the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm (recently included in Taschen’s epic volume collecting the best illustrations from 130 years of the Brothers Grimm). In fact, he came of age as a children’s book artist during World War II, when he illustrated books for children and eventually started dabbling in animation. In 1945, just as the war was winding down, he began working on Perak a SS (The Springer and the SS Men, or Springman and the SS, or The Jumper and the Men of the SS) — an animated anti-Nazi film, based on a WWII urban legend about a mischievous chimney-sweep-turned-superhero who taunts the Nazis, reminiscent in both appearance and action of an early Spiderman.

Trnka went on to have a prolific career in experimental animation, creating some astounding and brilliantly innovative, not only for their time but also by today’s standards, puppet films.

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25 Celebrated Saul Bass Title Sequences in 100 seconds

Supercutting the visual legacy of the greatest graphic designer of all time.

To celebrate the release of the highly anticipated and altogether fantastic Saul Bass monograph, one of the 11 best art and design books of 2011 and among the most important design books ever published, Art of the Title editor Ian Albinson put together this brilliant brief visual history of Bass’s most celebrated work, which influenced generations of designers, animators, and visual storytellers alike.

The featured films, in order:

Carmen Jones (1954)
The Big Knife (1955)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Vertigo (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
North by Northwest (1959)
Spartacus (1960)
Psycho (1960)
Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
West Side Story (1961)
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
Nine Hours to Rama (1963)
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
Seconds (1966)
Not with My Wife, You Don’t! (1966)
Grand Prix (1966)
That’s Entertainment, Part II (1976)
The War of the Roses (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Cape Fear (1991)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Casino (1995)

On a related note, don’t forget this wonderful 2-minute history of film title sequence design.

via Doobybrain

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Charade: Lessons in Creative Vision from a 1984 College Student

What Goethe has to do with pioneering animation.

In the summer of 1984, Sheridan College student Jon Minnis set out to complete an ambitious project, armed with only PANTONE markers and paper. (Cue in this morning’s PANTONE history of the 20th century.) After four months of writing and polishing a clever script, he spent another three meticulously storyboarding and animating it into an elegant, minimalist 4-minute film titled Charade, which Minnis voiced himself.

The gem went on to win the 1985 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and remains a heartening example of dreaming up a project and bringing it single-handedly to life. Or, as Goethe almost put it:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin It! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

Charade is available on the altogether excellent 1994 collection World’s Greatest Animation, featuring Academy Award winners and nominees from the years 1978-1991.

via Animation Graduate Films; thanks for the quote, Liz

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