After the jump, I’ve got a short film by Edson Oda, a Brazilian doing his MFA in film and TV at USC, called Malaria. He posted it to Vimeo almost a month ago, but I hadn’t seen it, so I’m remedying that today for all of us.

MALARIA tells the story of Fabiano, a young Mercenary who is hired to kill Death. This short film combines Origami, Kirigami, Time lapse, nankin illustration, Comic Books and Western Cinema.

I’m not sure I’d want to watch a feature-length film in this style, but it’s perfect for a short. It’s really everything a short should be – cool, stylish form with a short, punchy story. It’s kind of like a modern version of La Jetee incorporating animation. Can’t deal with actors or afford locations? You can always do something like this. You know, assuming you’re really good at illustration and scrapbooking and have about a million hours of free time.

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British animator Run Wrake died from cancer at the age of 47 over the weekend, and when I heard about it today I asked myself, “Why does that name sound familiar?” Turns out it’s because he directed a BAFTA-nominated short film called “Rabbit” that I posted four years ago. Do you know how awesome an 8-minute short film from four years ago has to be for me to remember it? “Rabbit” is that awesome, I promise you. It turns out I’m a sucker for little kids who gut a rabbit and find a demon inside. Oh God, please watch it, it’s so f*cking good.

So once again, f*ck you, cancer.

Bummer news out of England. British animator Run Wrake died on Sunday morning from cancer at the age of 47. He is survived by his wife, Lisa, and two children, Florence and Joe.

Wrake was born in 1965 as John Wrake in the Republic of Yemen to a father who was an army chaplain. He attended the Chelsea College of Art and Design, and later the Royal College of Art. He burst onto the animation scene with his student film Anyway (1990), which aired on MTV’s Liquid Television.

Wrake spent the next two decades creating all kinds of animation including music videos (Howie B, Future Sound of London, Manu Chao, The Charlatans), MTV idents, concert visuals (U2), TV commercials, and short films, like Jukebox. [CartoonBrew]

There’s not much to say besides RIP, guy. The only silver lining to this turd cloud is that he has lots of his work on YouTube, so I know what I’ll be doing with the rest of my afternoon.

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Pour out a little Sparks Four Loko Thunderbird for Yogi Bear today, as the surefire critical darling which opens next month has been DISQUALIFIED from the Academy Award animation category.  Can you imagine?  This is like banning Babe Ruth from baseball.  WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS!?

Yogi Bear was thrown into the consideration category [well sure], but here’s the accompanying rule of why it was disqualified. Under Academy rules, for a live action film to be eligible in the animated feature category, “a significant number of the major characters must be animated and animation must figure in no less than 75% of the picture’s running time.”

Although “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” – a mixture of live action and animation – passed the 75% threshold, “Yogi Bear” apparently did not. So the main three players that will probably get the nomination will be Toy Story 3, Megamind and How To Train Your Dragon. [IngeniusProductions]

Looks like you’ve won this round, Kitty Galore.  Yogi Bear was never meant to be corn pigeon holed as *just* an animated film anyway.  An animated Oscar would’ve just taken the focus away from the real goal, winning Best Picture.  I imagine we’ll eventually see a day when Yogi Bear 3D is recognized not just as a great animated movie, or even a great movie, but as a great work of art.

(Update: I put the trailer after the jump to make the page load faster)

Pixar consistently blows my mind with their stories and melts my face off with their animation, while the rest of the animation world does 15 variations on chihuahuas eating tacos and kangaroos that box.  But this trailer for Despicable Me (from Universal and Illumination Entertainment) looks promising. If only because it kept making me go “Wha?” and I still don’t know what it’s about.  Here’s the official rundown:

In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon, yes, the moon. Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. [Yahoo]

Aw, how cute, it’s a metaphor for dating a stripper.  I stuff my dollars inside the hole in their heart.

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JoBlo just posted this video of Destino, a collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney (who no doubt bonded over their mutual love of fascism).

Destino began in 1946 as a collaboration between Walt Disney and the famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali. A first-hand example of Disney’s interest in avant garde and experimental work in animation, Destino was to be awash with Dali’s iconic melting clocks, marching ants and floating eyeballs. However, Destino was not completed at that time. In 2003 it was rediscovered by Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, who took on the challenge of bringing the creation of these two great artists to fruition.

Yep, looks pretty much like an animated version of a Dali painting.  GRR, STUFF TURNING INTO OTHER STUFF!  What I’d really like to see is a collaboration between an old Chuck Jones cartoon and the people who made that Japanese horror film from yesterday.  Like, maybe the roadrunner would trick the coyote by turning into a painting of a penis that ejaculates ninja stars.  Because roadrunner very clever, you see.
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