OTTAWA (belatedly)

I know ...
I know...
Everyone has been like,

Dude, where WERE you from October 20th to approximately October 25?!

And I've been all like,

DUDE... I was TOTALLY in Canada for the 2010 Ottawa International Animation Festival!

And they were like,

WHAAAAAAAAAT?!

And I was shakin' my head like,

YEEEEEEEEAH!

Because the animated short we did for 1000 TIMES NO that's been airing on Nick Jr. got into the festival so I went to represent! And as ALWAYS, I had a blast. Ottawa is STILL my favorite festival. I mean, it's got EVERYTHING!

First off, Ottawa is a beautiful city. It's got that old world European flavor mixed in with awesome modern culture. There's great architecture, tons of public art, tasty restaurants, and of course...

Beaver Tails.


Secondly, you get to watch a TON of films from all over the world. And yeah... a good portion of these films aren't for everyone. In fact, as I get older I'm finding that I have even LESS patience for stark, suicidal, misery-inducing, artsy fartsy films that run on for 25 minutes.
But there's almost always something you can take away from every film.
(A good nap, oft times)
In general, I find the children's films to be the most satisfying since they involve the most storytelling blended with interesting new (and sometimes old) techniques.
And there are usually a couple fun features to check out as well.
This year I was psyched that the 10th feature-length One Piece movie was playing:



So okay then...

Great town

Great films

And, of course, great friends!

I spent most of the trip hanging with fellow decommissioned KND operative Numbuh of the Beast (aka Andy Rheingold to you adults out there) and a guy I had only met briefly many many years ago but now know WAY too much about:

Mr. Craig Kellman.

Aw, you know-- the guys who designed characters on Dexter's Laboratory?
And Powerpuff Girls?
Samurai Jack?
Foster Home For Imaginary Friends?
You KNOW... the guy who designed the characters for MADAGASCAR?!
Wait...
Maybe you'll recognize Craig from this picture of him eating bread budding:


Yeah.
That guy.

Mr.Kellman also designed and directed The Ricky Gervais Show for HBO, which had the honor of being accepted into the festival.

Andy, Craig and I spent most of the trip going to screenings, drinking root beers, seeing films, eating lunch and drinking root beers while comparing animation war stories, watching cartoons, and scarfing down dinner and root beers before attending parties where we ate hors de oeuvres and drank MORE root beers.

Rinse.
Wash.
Repeat.

I know... rough life, right?

And while NO didn't win the sooper big prize for Best Children's Film, it was awesome to be included.

So thanks Ottawa, for another ROCKIN' trip.

Can't wait to see you again!

HOW TO DRAW NUMBUH ONE!

Uuuuuuuuuum...

Well...

YEAH!



Kakko ii, ne?!

GOTTA ROCK THEM ALL!

Way back before Codename: Kids Next Door became a totally for reals, 100% actual TV show it was just 1 of 10 pilot episodes that Cartoon Network was mulling over as a potential new show. I guess it must have been a pretty tough decision so they decided to pass the buck and let the viewers decide.

That was The Big Pick Weekend, which I've talked about plenty.
(but for those who've been away on extended secret missions you can hear that story at the good ol' Sooper Secret KND Production Blog over HERE!)

Speaking of which-- look what I found whilst excavating the other day:


Yeah... it's no secret I like the Pokemon cards.
A bunch of us at Cartoon Network even had a little after-work league going while I was working on the KND pilot.

So to drum up some interest in KND and get folks to vote I made a Pokemon card to post around the assorted Pokemon TCG sites I hung around.

I guess it worked!

OMG!!!! I'M FAMOUS!!!!!

You heard me!

I'm like totally sooper A-list FAMOUS!

Want proof?

You DO?!

What? You don't believe me?

Well, here's your proof, oh doubting one:



OH SNAP!!!

I just TOTALLY showed you, didn't I!

Wait...

What's that?

Well, um... no.

No, I'm not actually IN that video with the sooper awesome Kyle Massey,
who plays Milo in Fish Hooks and is currently tearing up the floor in Dancing With The Stars...


But you can hear my voice at about :25.
That's me directing Mr. Massey at a voice record.

That makes me famous, right?

No?

Crap.

ANOTHER GREAT BOOK HITS THE SHELVES!

Uh huh.

MR.

DAVID B. LEVY

HAS DONE

IT AGAIN!

First he wrote this fine book:


Which he then followed up with this:


And now...

May I present to you his third mega-sooper tome of sooperness:


I don't have to tell you that anyone in the industry, or anyone that's interested in animation ought to pick up this book.

It's like a big delicious sizzling sausage, only instead of being stuffed with grizzly animal parts, it's stuffed to the bursting point with interesting stories, sagely advice, cringe-worthy jokes and wisdom passed onto Mr. Levy by dozens of heavyweights in the industry...

AND ME!

Why, I even got to do a blurb on the back cover:

“Q: How many books on directing animation does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: One— David Levy’s! And if you read this funny and informative book, you’ll learn how to get other people to screw in the lightbulbs FOR you—and love doing it!”
Tom Warburton, TV animation director, creator, Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door

With a blurb like that it's fairly obvious this book will sell out in no time--
so be sure to order yours NOW.

You can do that right over HERE.

Congrats on another great one, Mr. Levy!

ANIMATION BLOCK INTERVIEW

After uploading MASTERPIECE the other day, I got a sudden flood of subscriptions to my Youtube channel.

Not that there's much there. Just the 1000 TIMES NO book promo and a 5 second clip of Dan Santat eating pizza. Hardly a 'channel', really. But I thought that maybe a lot of people REALLY liked MASTERPIECE and were hoping I'd upload more stuff.


WRONG!!!


The influx was the result of this guy:


Evan works at Warner Brothers making awesome cartoons you love.
He also has a Youtube channel with a billion fans:


You really oughta check out The Block!
He shows you how to draw your sooper favoritest characters from TV, movies, comics, manga and beyond!

He also conducts some pretty awesome interviews with really talented artists!

And ME:


If you're dying to hear me blather on and on about myself, wave my arms around crazily and stick an 'UH' between every 5th word for over 8 minutes--
THEN THIS IS THE VIDEO FOR YOU!




But if that's NOT the video for you, perhaps you'd like these instead:







No?

Well, there are plenty of funny cat videos on Youtube that oughta keep you busy then.

Sooper massive thanks, Mr. Burse!