Sunday, August 04, 2019

Philo

It's been forever that I have posted to this site, and the last thing was about my personal short animated piece called Philo.  It was a cathartic experience that let me recapture the joy of animation and find the things that attracted me to the art form originally.

Since childhood I watched cartoons and was moved emotionally by the imagery and the music.  I  saw the potential to touch people in a way that live action movies could not.  Animation seemed then, and now to be the culmination of all the arts: Cinema, music, dance, painting, writing, etc.

As I was making Philo I tried to pay homage to the studios and individuals who influenced me.  I am an admirer of Walt Disney of course, but also the renegades, who broke away from the emulation toward realism, that birthed the stylized look of UPA.  Artists like Art Babbitt, Jim Tyer, Chuck Jones, and writer Michael Maltese, along with John and Faith Hubley, Ward Kimball, Bobe Cannon, were and still are reasons why I became an animator.  Another early influence for these people as well as myself were the works of the early silent comedians like Charlie Chaplin and the great Buster Keaton.

If you are familiar with any of these, you will immediate see the influence.   

Philo from Joel Brinkerhoff on Vimeo.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I really like your animated short, it's charming :)

And I find the way you think about animation being the culmination of all arts very interesting. You know, I'm passionate about game development and I find it amazing how games can tell stories in such a cool interactive way, and also involve music, many forms of visual art, programming, design... it's great.

Good luck with your animations!!

Unknown said...

And Bob Clampett. Hard to believe Beany and Cecil get no love from the historians.

Joel Brinkerhoff said...

I totally agree with you Unknown! Clampett's Beany and Cecil has some very clever writing and animation that deserves more recognition!