Thursday, January 29, 2009

"Coyote & The Tortoise" by Fat Cat Animation

**NOTE: this film is unfortunately no longer available for download from the MyToons website as MyToons abruptly shut down recently.



Short film from Fat Cat Animation in Phoenix, Arizona. Directed by Len Simon.

6 comments:

David McBride said...

Very interesting. It felt like a throw back to the Waner Bros. looney tunes style. Especially in the layouts. I enjoyed seeing that classic gag type short again.

The ending was pretty much the same as that Bugs Bunny short when he raced the Tortoise and ending up paying the bet and a dollar went to about a hundred tortoises. I had no idea that Fat cat had created all of those films like Titan AE and Spirit. Their work is amazing.

David said...

Len Simon (founding partner of Fat Cat) worked for Don Bluth and then for the Bluth-led Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix on such films as Anastasia and Titan A.E. After Fox shut down their animation studio in Phoenix Len Simon gathered a remnant of the artists who had worked at Fox and started Fat Cat. The did sequences on films such as Spirit and Curious George , and shorter projects such as commercials.

They seem to be doing well, and it was nice to see this short piece they had done . I thought it was well done.

And yes, the ending is VERY reminiscent of the Bugs Bunny short you mention.

Chris Sobieniak said...

It's a shame I missed out on seeing this back when it was available. I just found out about this studio and what they were trying to do within the last few years of it's life. Love it if someone can help me with scoring some of their work in the future.

Chris Sobieniak said...

Just to update, the film was silently put up on Vimeo some years back by the music guy.

This is why I love the internet!
https://vimeo.com/11912370

David said...

Thanks , CS !

Chris Sobieniak said...

Yeah, I wanted to say something about this a year or two ago, but I afraid to give it too much attention if the user pulls it down immediately. I was only glad someone had it up at all. I wish more of the CrocPond animation would surface.
http://sobieniak.tumblr.com/post/107390595161/much-ado-about-crocpond

I only ever got interesting in this Fatcat stuff as I noticed one of the guys who worked there (Scott Henricks) happens to be an alumni from my high school (though he graduated in '82 or '83 while I was still going to kindergarten I believe), having saw his name come up with a promo display on the school's vocational courses, highlighting his role in animation, though he seems to have spent his time being the equivalent of an ink & paint checker in the digital age rather than being a regular animator but I guess the school needed to pimp someone working in a major industry like that. He was one of the those who came over from Fox Animation.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2343119/