Month: July 2022

Animation News Weekly Wrap 7/31

Hi animation friends – trying a new thing this week where I collect some animation news stories from around the trades over the last week and plug it into this easy to quickie read format. Enjoy!

For the Rick and Morty fans – Adult Swim announced the premiere date for Season 6 (I’ll save you the click – it’s September 4)

GDT’s stop motion Pinnochio is looking magical – if you haven’t seen the trailer yet (it’s also below here and it looks incredible)

Good review on Deadline for DC League of Super Pets

And some early weekend BO results for DC League of Super Pets that look positive

And the power of the Minions keep going … Minions Rise of the Gru is the first animated film to pass the $300M mark during the Covid era

South Park is celebrating and doing a 25th anniversary pop up shop + experience that is touring the world! Hollywood date for the experience is set for August 20 (likely in that weird empty lot at Hollywood and Vine they use for pop ups / Halloween mazes)

Sad news – Paul Coker, Rankin/Bass Production Designer and MAD Magazine illustrator has passed away at 93. (Here’s a bonus link to a pinterest board of Coker illustrations)

I’m slightly biased and excited about this news for my friends – Brutus Pink (creators of Big Mouth and Human Resources) have renewed their deal with Netflix through 2026

That’s it for now. Have a great week everyone.

Move Slow and Follow Rules

I tried to think of what would be the opposite of ‘Move fast and break things’.  Zuckerberg’s often quoted ideal is interpreted (or misinterpreted) a thousand different ways.  I like the simplest interpretation – challenge things, try a lot of stuff and fail fast (so you get to the ‘right’ solution faster).

Seems like a sign that you would see hung up by a public pool

“Move Slow and Follow Rules” probably isn’t a good thing to automatically put in play – seems like almost a default setting we often see on most productions.  

Move slow and you get less done.  Sure there are times you need to move slow. You need to probably move slow if you are learning.  You might also need to move slow(er) if accuracy or quality is not at spec.  If neither of those are at play, you should consider moving faster (generally speaking, people could embrace a little more urgency on most shows).

Carefully follow your established rules and you will likely get the same results.  Sometimes, you want the exact same results (assuming things are going well and high quality), but most times we want better results and linked improvement.  You get that from small iterations, adaptations to the rules.  You want exponential results?  You better be ok with breaking some things.

‘Move slow and follow the rules’ is a good thing to tell the novice, someone inexperienced, or someone struggling with quality.  Otherwise, I’m always going to recommend we take a good look at things, move faster and adapt.