Happy Birthday to Jim Danforth (born July 13, 1940)
James Danforth is an American stop-motion animator, known for model-animation, matte painting, and for his work on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, a theme-sequel to Ray Harryhausen's One Million Years B.C.
Y'all gotta watch Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio on Netflix. If you've seen the ads where it goes behind the scenes a bit, it's even better when you watch it. Watch it blind, don't go into it knowing anything outside of the look of it. It's surreal gritty fairytale retelling that I did not see coming.
And of course a LOT better than Disney's remake. At least I think it is. It has Obi-wan Kenobi in it. And Hellboy. What can go wrong? Absolutely nothing.
For the past eleven weeks, we've been uploading fully remastered, HD episodes of the 90s stop-motion comedy TV series to YouTube! There are just two episodes left of Season 1, and it's been wonderful to read all the lovely comments so far.
The show was written by Jonathan and Brian Trueman (the writer of Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and more) and is cunningly aimed at both children and adults, with multi-layered jokes that work for both. And no, it's not pantomime double-entendres (though if you ask, we'll give you one), we've got gags about Ethelred the Unready, Special Relativity, and a policeman lying low on a chop-out (it's like a stake-out except smaller and cheaper).
The premise is thus: as you all know, treacle (the sticky stuff used to make golden syrup) is mined by treacle miners in the North of England, specifically in the village of Sabden, where Professor Baines-Pilling has invented the world's first treacle-powered engine. HOWEVER. The Saben treacle mine has run dry. The community is in crisis. Chief Miner Tapper Knowle is at his wit's end. If they don't find another treacle seam, they'll all be out of a job in a month.
Enter Bill Wizzle and his Treacle Tracker, who reckons he can solve all the village's problems. Enter Rosie Mitton, his best friend and custodian of the village brain cell, without which he couldn't find a seam in his trousers. Enter Bert the Boggart, resident of Gurgle Gorge mine, whose mischievous streak is entirely forgiven on account of him being cute and fluffy. Seriously, he's adorable. Eat your heart out, Baby Yoda.
Can the youngsters save the village, or will The Treacle People come to a sticky end? Find out for yourself on YouTube!
Owls in a retro Diner
Long time ago, during our university years, we made a stop-motion short film with two owls in a diner from the 50's or 60's. Here is a small part of our film. I created and animated the boy owl, the skeleton bird and some of the props.