Surf's Up

Surf's Up didn't do that well.


http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=surfsup.htm



Probably mostly because it was released in the same month as Ratatouille.

Fools! They should have released in the fall or winter!

Some Recent Animated Films

Have you seen any animated films lately?

We went through a dry spot last year where a lot of 3D films got past us.

So We're renting them on NetFlix now:

Over the Hedge – Interesting, as it is a bit of a departure from the artistic style and even the topic and humor of the comic strip. There are truly some hilarious moments, though, especially when they use effects. This is my third favorite in the list.

Open Season – Slightly interesting. I found this mostly annoying with a few amusing parts. I don’t think that Martin and Ashton can carry a film. It needed more story and more interesting characters.

Monster House – I finished this one last night. It was really good! The story concept is lacking (“House that is a monster”) but the script was really well done. The characters were very detailed and enjoyable. I can see why Spielberg and Zemeckis produced it. It was also written by the http://www.channel101.com/ founders. I think this is my second favorite of these. They also used a Norman Roxwell style on their characters. This definitely deserved the nomination it got for the Academy Award for best animated film.

Barnyard – Not bad. Steve Oedekerk (Jimmy Neutron, Kung Pow) returns to direct his first 3D animation. This is silly, fun, and it has a good story. You can lose yourself in this story rather easily. However, nothing is overly impressive about this movie.

Ant Bully – This was also decent; it's from the director of Jimmy Neutron, John A. Davis. It has a good story, and the characters are fun. However, we really didn't need a third ant movie. There's nothing here that Bug's Life and Over the Hedge didn't do better.

Older recommendation:

Hoodwinked – Poor quality of animation due to the budget, but the story is very interesting and hilarious. It makes you wonder why nobody else has done a “story from different perspectives” type of movie. By far this is my favorite on this list.

Meet the Robinsons

We just saw Meet the Robinsons last night. It was actually really good. It was full of holes, but I saw what Lasseter did.

For those who don’t know, John Lasseter took over as the Disney Chief Creative Officer (the first animator to take the role since Walt himself). So John sat down with the Robinsons director when he took the job. Robinsons was just about finished. They had a 6 hour meeting, the director was told to redo about 60% of the movie, and the director said it was the hardest day of his life.

Well, the hard work paid off. Robinsons evokes a lot of the emotion that is found in the Pixar movies, and the quote at the end will give you chills. However, there are still holes; they are all because of the story and the fact that they pulled the story out of a kid’s book (but so did Shrek).

(1) There was just too much weirdness. If Pixar was going to create a future and family from scratch, they would have made it much more interesting and entertaining. They pulled too much of the weirdness from the book.
(2) They couldn’t advertise it properly. A friend of mine said, “After watching the previews, he still didn’t know what the movie is about.” The problem is that if you give away any of the actual story and emotions of the film, you are giving away the point of watching the film. That’s why they were limited in advertising it. They couldn’t really speak to the point of the film.

Fruits VS Bugs: Episode 1

Recently featured on the home page of YouTube...

Fruits VS Bugs: Episode 1

The Influence Bug and Trooper Bugs head out to Bobby Nelson's house to influence him to steal. It's up to the secret agent fruits, the Agents of the Spirit, to stop them!

We used Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Premiere, and Movie Maker.



Of course, this wouldn't be a TheAnimationEmpire video without a double-dose of nonsense and nostalgia. Look for references to Loony Tunes, Indiana Jones, Charlie's Angels, Spiderman, Star Wars Episode 2, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, The Simpsons, Yoshi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jurassic Park, Kung Pow, The Matrix, Super Mario Brothers (Bros.) and, of course, a lot of secret agent themes. Our preview for Episode 2 even references Batman, Toy Story, and several more Star Wars themes.

Our work has been compared to Shrek, Disney, and Pixar films (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Cars, etc.). We can tell the difference because we don't have their 80 million dollar budget. =^)

Punky Brewster VS Pippi Longstocking

I was going for annoying, nostalgic, nonsensical, and insulting, all at the same time. How did I do?

Punky Brewster VS Pippi Longstocking stars Ed 'word' Price and MattyO. It is written, EDited, and co-directed by Ed. Directed and shot by MattyO.



If you liked being annoyed, please watch our other videos! =^)

Check out our music video, Bucket Full of Cheese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEShg_kigmc

Want something lame? Check out our Extra Fruity 3D animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Ko5-IgUWA

Do phones annoy you? Get... Mad At Phone:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc9JSZa6byw

And our 27-second short, Taking Care of Business: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkmxx6XbNio

Do you like Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live? We blog about him several times a week:http://www.andysamberg.blogspot.com/

Hey, want to watch more TheAnimationEmpire videos? Then head on over to The Animation Empire: http://www.theanimationempire.com/

Taking Care of Business

"Taking Care of Business" is a Short Short brought to you by the dorks over at TheAnimationEmpire. It stars O-Tizzle and Ed 'word' Price, written by Ed, and directed by MattyO.

I think this is the most annoying video under 30 seconds. Of course, that makes it pretty funny... to us.

Ed 'word' Price and O-Tizzle are also featured in the music video, Bucket Full of Cheese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEShg_kigmc

Here's our annoying, nostalgic, and insulting Short Short, Punky Brewster VS Pippi Longstocking:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N1qk-Huwao

Our 3D animation, Extra Fruity:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Ko5-IgUWA

Do phones annoy you? Get... Mad At Phone:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc9JSZa6byw

Do you like Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live? We blog about him several times a week:http://www.andysamberg.blogspot.com

Check out our websites and videos over at The Animation Empire: http://www.theanimationempire.com/

Bucket Full of Cheese - Music Video

If you've got a Bucket Full of Cheese, and you want another one, then come on over and have some fun... with TheAnimationEmpire. Starring O-Tizzle, Ed 'word' Price, written by Ed, and directed by MattyO.

We are cheesey to the core... We filmed this in the U District of Seattle. This is our lame attempt at our own music video like Andy Samberg's Saturday Night Live - Digital Short, Lazy Sunday (the Narnia rap). Or like Young Chuck Norris or the SNL video Andy did with Justin Timberlake - Special Gift in a Box.

Want something lame? Check out our Extra Fruity 3D animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Ko5-...

Here's our annoying, nostalgic, and insulting Short Short, Punky Brewster VS Pippi Longstocking:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N1qk-...

Do phones annoy you? Get... Mad At Phone:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc9JSZ...

Check out our 27-second short, Taking Care of Business. It also stars Ed 'word' Price and O-Tizzle:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkmxx6...

Do you like Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live? We blog about him several times a week:http://www.andysamberg.blogspot.com

Visit The Animation Empire for all of our videos and websites: http://www.theanimationempire.com/

Extra Fruity - 3D Animation

Here is Extra Fruity, our 3D Animation.

Extra Fruity means extra lame as lameness is a perfect description of this video. Look for references to Loony Tunes, The Fugitive, Hot Shots part Deux, Charlie's Angels, Spiderman, Back to the Future, Star Wars, Commando, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.



Our work has been compared to Shrek, Disney, and Pixar films (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Cars, etc.). We can tell the difference because we don't have their 80 million dollar budget. =^)

Check out our music video, Bucket Full of Cheese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEShg_...

Here's our Short Short that is nostalgic and insulting, Punky Brewster VS Pippi Longstocking:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N1qk-...

Do phones annoy you? Get... Mad At Phone:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc9JSZ...

And our 27-second short, Taking Care of Business: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkmxx6...

Do you like Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live? We blog about him several times a week:http://www.andysamberg.blogspot.com

Hey, want to watch more TheAnimationEmpire videos? Then head on over to The Animation Empire: http://www.theanimationempire.com