The Labyrinth is excited to be hosting a preview of the Upcoming Art show by BPRD and Sandman Mystery Theatre artist Guy Davis. Stop by the shop to see ORIGINAL COMIC ART PAGES by this great artist. The full show and sale will be held at the Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto on Feb 27th, where Guy will also be doing a workshop.
If you want to buy some of his art, you will be able to do so here.
Not too long ago the nominees for the upcoming Academy Awards were announced. James Cameron's 'Avatar' is the biggest story of the year as it is now the highest grossing film of all time both worldwide and at the US domestic box-office! And it isn't slowing down anytime soon! James Cameron now owns the #1 and #2 spots with 'Avatar' and 'Titanic' by a huge margin!
It was a great year for amazing special effects films, and for animation in general. However, in the end there is only one true category for movies that are actually animated in frames by artists and not from state of the art motion and performance capture technology. This year saw films running the gamut from classical 2-D, to stop-motion, and 3-D animation! The nominees for the best animated feature length and short films this year are:
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE CORALINE FANTASTIC MR FOX THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG THE SECRET OF KELLS UP!
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM FRENCH ROAST, Fabrice O Joubert GRANNY O'GRIMM'S SLEEPING BEAUTY, Nicky Phelan & Darragh O'Connell THE LADY AND THE REAPER, Javier Recio Gracia LOGORAMA, Nicolas Schmerkin A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH, Nick Park
It's also another milestone to realise that Pixar's 'Up!' has also been nominated in the the Best Film category this year which has expanded to include 10 nominees. While this decision was made by the academy to include more audience favourite films in order to draw a larger television audience when the show airs, it is only the second animated film to ever be considered in this category since Disney's Beauty & The Beast!
While most of the other feature animated films alongside 'Up!' have been widely marketed, one may not be so well known as it hasn't been widely released in North America yet. That one is 'The Secret of Kells' which hails from Ireland! You can see the trailer here:
Also, anyone interested in checking out the short films that were nominated can find them at this link.
It appears that the 'Sailor Moon' franchise is growing in popularity in places around the world, in particular, Italy! Could this spell a resurge of interest in North America as well? You can read about the story here.
There is another 'Avatar' to look forward to; And that is the live action adaptation of Nickelodean's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' by director M. Night Shyamalan! Given that James Cameron had already long held the title 'Avatar' for his movie, Shyamalan and co. had to settle for the title 'The Last Airbender.' But if this short trailer is anything to go by, the movie looks like it'll be incredibly awesome and very faithful to the source material!
Today, Feb 3rd. marks the birth date of illustrator Norman Rockwell! Google has decided to honor that date with a special logo. You can click here to check out the links they provide, including one to his bio on Wikipedia!
Anyone interested in illustration or is just a fan of iconic American paintings can find several books with collected works of Norman Rockwell available from our store!
Here's a cool little video that will be up for a limited time. It was made as part of an advertising promotion for the upcoming game 'God of War III.' It shows the creation of one of the enemies you'll encounter in the game called 'The Chimera.' The video starts off with the character exploration to concept art to modeling and detailing in Z-Brush to animation within the game engine. It's very short in terms of scope, but intriguing for anyone interested in Character creation, 3-D modeling and game design. Take a look:
Looks like blue characters are getting more popular. A Smurfs movie is in production under Raja Gosnell who made the Scooby Doo movies and like those the Smurfs will also feature a mix of live human actors and CG characters. Apparently the Smurf's village has also moved to Central Park, NY. A CG render of one of the characters was leaked earlier and you can check it out below, courtesy of UGO.
Smurf fans can find collectable Smurf figurines as well as comic books at our store!
