Murakami Funeral

Yesterday afternoon, in St. Patrick's in Monkstown, we gathered to say goodbye to Jimmy T. Murakami. Some really touching words, reflecting the man's great generosity and his human impact on us all. Farewell Jimmy!

Murakami Gone!

Thanks to Barry O Donoghue for telling me about the passing of Jimmy Murakami, aged 80. Not only one of 'the founders of Irish Animation', but a truly global animation star, working for UPA, Toei and George Dunning's TVC as he criss-crossed the planet as a journeyman animator. With Fred Wolf, he setup Murakami-Wolf in 1965, the studio becoming one of the busiest commercial studios in the US. Murakami came to Ireland in 1971 and was supervising Director on 'The Snowman' in 1982. In Dublin, the Murakami-Wolf studio became synonymous with the 'Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle' tv series.

Murakami had an unshakable belief in the importance of art in animation and in the necessity for individual animators to make strong, personal, uncompromising and challenging statements through animation. In Ireland, we have long depended on Jimmy for his advice and guidance on all matters of animation education, art and business. We shall all miss him.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/rip/when-the-wind-blows-director-jimmy-murakami-rip-96140.html

Animation At The Cutting Edge - An Alphaville Symposium UCC 150214

Thanks to all at Film Studies in UCC for organising an excellent Alphaville Symposium last Saturday afternoon. Some great presentations, especially Paul Ward's 'Animation as Atavistic Magic' and Helen Haswell from Queen's University on Hand-drawn aesthetics and Affection for the past in Pixar's Pioneering Animation'.

Thanks also to Yuanyuan Chen (UCC) for her presentation on Bu Hua's animation, and for assembling the Bu Hua screening after the presentations.

Some great potential linkages into the future. Excellent!

The Film and Screen Media Auditorium, Windle Building, UCC

Paul Ward (Arts University Bournemouth) sets up his 'Animation as Atavistic Magic' presentation

http://animationcuttingedge.wordpress.com/programme/

http://www.buhua.com

http://www.buhua.com/flash.html

'cutbacks' on breakingnews.ie!

Thanks to Clare Carroll for spotting this breakingnews.ie article about me! Headlined as 'Irish animator takes on Justin Bieber', the article swings through 'cutbacks' and even takes a look back through history as far as the Bosco days... Even Faherty is quoted...

Thanks to breakingnews,ie's Conor Hallahan. Well done!

http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/irish-animator-takes-on-justin-bad-boy-bieber-620934.html

Cutbacks Mention on Reddit!

Thanks to Grainne Kirwan for spotting this 'cutbacks' related string on Reddit... Lots of good accurate critical analysis here...

Just discovered my old lecturer from college makes animated youtube videos in his spare time. They're actually pretty good! I think they deserve more than the handful of views they're getting.

submitted 20 hours ago by gapmunky

bolg 18 hours ago
I remember these - used to watch them quite a bit with friends in/around 2011 especially the Mick n Ming ones...then for some reason a lot of them disappeared...anyways, this will make perfect procrastination material for my exam study!

mcctaggart 18 hours ago
I've been subscribed for a while and also think he deserves more views. I like his animation style and I admire how quickly he can put together a video about any particular current event. It must take a lot of work just making the puppets let alone animating them.
But I think his satire needs to be stronger, more biting, fouler or darker or possibly surreal for people to notice. I think if he had a dedicated co-writer from the Scrap Saturday/Spitting Image mould, that would push the humour of the pieces and he would receive wide acclaim and probably a spot on tv in some capacity.

gapmunky 18 hours ago
I think he'd be better if he satired world events more like in this bieber one. He usually only does very niche stuff in irish culture and politics that not many people would get.

mcctaggart 18 hours ago
nah, there is a huge appetite for the satirization of politicians and figures in high society. Scrap Saturday used to be massive because the jokes ripped them apart.

gapmunky 18 hours ago
I've never heard of that until now! interesting.

gapmunky  20 hours ago
Sorry about linking to the middle of the video! :/

abitterthrowaway 1 point 13 hours ago
This one is excellent: http://youtu.be/Q6TY00yTFoA

karma-toes 12 hours ago
Story of the week!

brim4brim 9 hours ago
Used to listen to these all the time until I stopped going to YouTube

devilabit 13 hours ago
I think he might need to improve the tag names on the video in youtube settings. The JB name should gather more views that way.

OutRunTerminator  20 hours ago
Better than Podge and Rodge...

http://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1w6sed/just_discovered_my_old_lecturer_from_college/

Ming posts us on Facebook!

Jazis - thanks to Ming Flanagan for the posting on Facebook! Go Ming!

https://www.facebook.com/Lukemingflanagan/posts/10201334659677096?comment_id=5512721&notif_t=comment_mention

Armenia - The Cartoon

Thanks to Ruzanna Sarukhanyan for directing me to this Youtube channel of Armenian animations! I'll trawl through them over the next few weeks, but Ruzanna was recommending the charming 'Gtnvats eraz', about a girl who enters a dream world to find the dream her grandfather has lost...

Thanks to Ruzan! Հայկական Մուլտեր

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHido3SxxrtwZ77_OJM4xtA?feature=watch