Here are some photos from earlier today of Brad Bird scouting locations in Prague for Mission: Impossible IV. But who’s that guy standing besides him wearing the Yankees cap? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him somewhere before.

Another photo of them after the jump.
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A follow-up to his film My Chinese, Cedric Villain’s Cliché! pokes fun of stereotypes about French people. The pacing is a bit too slow for my tastes, but the compensation is a lot of funny well-presented gags throughout. It’s designed in Illustrator, animated in Flash, and composited in After Effects. I highly recommend watching the higher-quality version on Cedric’s website to appreciate the graphics.

(Thanks, Jipé)

Last November we reported on a new 14 minute Imax film from director Ben Stassen (Fly Me to The Moon) and Belgium based nWave Pictures called Around the World In 50 Years. Since then, the film was apparently expanded to feature length (85 minutes), populated with an English language voice cast (Stacy Keach, Yuri Lowenthal, Melanie Griffith, Kathy Griffin, Ed Begley Jr., Pat Carroll, Tim Curry, etc.) and released in Europe. In fact, the film was just nominated for a Euro Film Award.

Will it be released in the U.S. and be qualified for Academy consideration this year? Is it any good? Does it remind you of another Oscar winner from 2003?

As long as we’re exploring student CG from around the world, here is Pombinha Branca by Fernando Augusto Dias, produced while studying at Melies—School of Cinema and 3D Animation in São Paulo, Brazil. Undeniably bright and charming, it probably makes a stronger impact on Brazilians who are familiar with the nursery rhyme on which it’s based. In fact, it won the best Brazilian student film award at this year’s Anima Mundi festival.

CREDITS
Director and Animation: Fernando Augusto
Character Design: Fernando Augusto and Dalton Muniz
Musical Production: Fernando Augusto and Ítalo Lenker
Arrangements: Lua de Prata Group
Sound Designer: Herbert Perez de Lima

A graduation project made by Arjen Klaverstijn at the Utrecht School of the Arts in The Netherlands. One of my most frequent bits of advice to students is to keep their films as short as possible. This is a good example: a cute, well-executed concept that shows a clear knowledge of art and design principles. It may not change the world, but it showed some personality and kept it entertaining for a minute and forty seconds. Mission accomplished. Some behind-the-scenes artwork posted on Klaverstijn’s website.

CREDITS
Director and animation: Arjen Klaverstijn
Additional artwork & consulting director: Lois van Baarle
Music composition & sound design: Thilo Schaller

Fear not, The Trouble with Terkel isn’t an ironic Studs Terkel biopic; it’s a raunchy R-rated animated comedy based on the stand-up routines of Danish comedian Anders Matthesen. (Actually, raunchy seems a bit too generous; immature is a better descriptor.) Indie distributor Indican Pictures is releasing the film in the United States on October 15, according to Box Office Mojo.

Notably, the film is rather old; it debuted in Denmark in 2004. Directors are Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, Thorbjørn Christoffersen, and Stefan Fjeldmark. Perhaps the original Danish version was hilarious, but the American trailer looks irredeemable. The British dub is less abrasive and makes me want to at least give the film a chance. No details on how limited the film’s release will be, but I don’t anticipate it’ll be showing up in many theaters.

To support the second printing of his self-published book on the making of Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, Darrell Van Citters has begun a blog. It will be updated at least weekly, probably more, and will include info that wouldn’t fit in the book, trivia, info on ancillary Magoo material (like the upcoming Blu-Ray DVD) and more in-depth profiles of UPA crew members. You can also pre-order the second edition of the book through the blog or the website. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend this superb volume.

First up at the blog, Darrell discusses the career of Phil Norman, the unsung title card artist and lettering genius of UPA in the early 1960s. (That’s one of his creepiest, above) Bookmark this and visit it regularly.

I posted the trailer to “Salesman Pete and the Amazing Stone from Outer Space!” last June. The entire film is now online. It’s directed by Anthony Vivien, Marc Bouyer, and Max Loubaresse, who dropped out of the French animation school Supinfocom to produce this film. The short is basically an extended chase scene, which is a common theme in many contemporary French student films, and unfortunately it lost my attention a quarter of the way through, but I do appreciate their aesthetic accomplishment. These guys approach computer animation with an illustrative sensibility, and in the service of engaging personality animation and storytelling, their style could be something amazing to watch. Learn more about their film at SalesmanBuck.com.