This is currently one of my favorite things. It makes me feel happy inside.

And this is the making of.

Today I finally get round to watching the DVD I’d bought of Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, and I was not disappointed, a great antidote to the saccharine sweetness of the Disney version, Svankmajer’s story is decidedly darker. Cleverly using the stop motion which he is renowned for, Svankmajer takes the viewer into a subverted universe existing entirely within the playroom. For instance the caterpillar becomes a threadbare sock with false teeth and glass eyes who sews his eyelids shut to go to sleep, while the rabbit is a taxidermist model who we see smashing his way out of the glass cabinet that contains him at the beginning of the film.

This may not seem like the most desirable thing to watch on a lazy Sunday morning, and it may be too surreal for some, but I certainly enjoyed it.

And some more of his work:

One or two things to mention today, firstly an animated film I recently treated myself to called ‘The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb’ which I love because everything has been rendered in stop frame motion, including the human actors. It’s a telling of the classic children’s fairy tale but in such a way that it becomes deliciously dark and slightly surreal, for instance the way in which Tom Thumb’s mother actually gives birth to him, something I can’t remember any of my look and read books dwelling on as a child. Below is the first in the series of clips which are available on You-tube. Look it up!!

Secondly I’m a big fan of Florence and the Machine and have a great desire to float around on a sparkly paper moon, hence

I’ve spent the morning watching ‘Enid’, part of a new drama series by the BBC based on ‘Women we loved’. As you grow older it always an interesting experience to learn that the people you might have idolized as a child are in the end, only human. Of course it is difficult to tell how much of Enid Blyton’s life might have been dramatized purely for entertainment or narrative purposes but it was an interesting view of a woman who’s book I spent so much of my childhood absorbed in. I still think the Famous Five and the Mallory Towers series she wrote are some of my favorite childhood books. I’m sure how long the link below will be accessible, but it is worth a watch if you can catch it.

http://bbc.co.uk/i/nxkm8/

I’ve really enjoyed Season one of True Blood so far (Currently being shown on Channel 4 in the Uk) I particularly like some of the techniques and images they’ve used in the opening credits. I’m sure I’ve read an article about the making of the credits somewhere recently, could possibly be in Creative Review, I shall dig it up later and post some sort of reference/link.

Monkey children on bicycles? oh you are really spoiling me.

Last night I went with my friend Kyle Bean to the Bodhi Gallery, Brick Lane, London to hear David Wilson talk about the new video he’s created for Moray Mclaren and the song We got time. It was a great evening, before and after the presentation SeeNoEvil showed personal work from contemporary animators and film-makers and then we were treated to a talk about the techniques and inspirations which went into the video.

I’m definitely looking forwards to seeing what David comes up with next.