Short Films & Animation: The Green Ruby Pumpkin

The Green Ruby Pumpkin was made by visual effects artist Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma in their living room, with the help of a small crew of their friends. It was "inspired by the work on Edward Gorey, Dr.Seuss, Charles Addams and Shel Silverstein" and the film has an overall storybook feel to it.

Although the space and budget were limited, the pair managed to create and elaborate, spooky world and characters through the use of green screens and digital effects.

The story takes place on Halloween, in a town where all the children visit the house of Bella Deats each year, for a chance to get some of the candy from her green ruby pumpkin.

There is, however, one rule: "No costume, no candy"...

For more information on The Green Ruby Pumpkin, its creators and their current, feature-length project The Ningyo, visit the sites below↓:

• Miguel Ortega's Site
• The Ningyo Kickstarter Site

Animation: Violeta, la pescadora del mar negro

Violeta, la pescadora del mar negro (Violeta, fisherwoman of the black sea) is a stop motion animation by Spanish duo Marc Riba & Anna Solanas. It is a dark horror tale and the gloomy visuals - which remind me slightly of films by The Quay Brothers - reflect this well.

The models in the animation are big-eyed and innocent-looking, but don't be fooled; things turn bizarre and disgusting very quickly! That, of course, is not a negative point and it's the strangeness that makes Violeta... a more memorable animation.

Animation: 'The Maker'

Still from The Maker by Christopher Kezelos

The Maker, directed by Australian Christopher Kezelos, is a stop motion animation in which "a strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life". It has a very definite dark fantasy aesthetic and it is animated beautifully! I should point out, though, that I adore stop motion animation, so those of you who don't may disagree with me there. 

Still from The Maker by Christopher Kezelos

In addition to the wonderful visuals, music plays an important role in the film - from the f-hole shapes on "The Maker's" head to his violin playing - and the lovely soundtrack throughout is provided by Paul Halley. Of course, if you aren't a fan of violins, you probably won't like it. However, according to the creators of the film, the point of The Maker was to illustrate how little time each of us has and that "life is what you make it". So the use of stringed instruments gives the film a faster feel, I think.

It's only about five and a half minutes long, so if you want to see it for yourself you can watch it on The Maker's official website, or below.

A-Z Challenge: O is for...Oblina

O is for...Oblina

Oblina was a character in the animated series 'Aaahh! Real Monsters', which centred around a scare school for monsters and its students. The tall, stripy, upside down candy cane Oblina shares a room with the main character, Ickis, and Krum the eyeball holding scarer. 

Oblina and Ickis

A model student at The Monster Academy, Oblina excels at terrifying humans, which makes her a favourite with the usually bad-tempered headmaster, The Gromble. 

This post is part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge.

Movies & Animation: Pumpkin Moon

Based on the Simon Bartram children's book of the same name, 'Pumpkin Moon' is a delightful, animated Halloween tale, directed by Hilary Audus. The story centres around a black cat that gets caught in the middle of a battle between a group of "good" jack-o'-lanterns, and some "evil" witches that want to take over the world. (Naturally. I mean, what else would evil witches in a kids movie want to do?)

The unusually large, orange, Pumpkin Moon is apparently what gives life to the jack-o'-lanterns, as well as all the Halloween decorations that the witches summon. 

The animation isn't that wonderful, but it's a very sweet, spooky film, and even a little bit sad at the end. Though I won't tell you what happens of course ;) Also, for those of you that don't like musicals and cheesy songs, there's only one corny number in the whole film. Admittedly, the movie is only 30 minutes long, but still, it's not so bad.

If you have the DVD version of 'Pumpkin Moon', you will also get the extras, which consist of a mummy puppet and scary helper hands demonstrating how to make various creepy Halloween decorations. They look quite effective and are all super simple to make.

More screenshots of 'Pumpkin Moon' after the cut below:

Nostalgia: Childhood Horror Cartoons

The other day, I had a very nostalgic flashback to my childhood as I was cleaning old VHS tapes away in the garage, and to my suprise, I found my Count Duckula tapes. I mean who didn't watch Count Duckula, The Addams Family, Little Dracula, or even those old Bugs Bunny halloween specials? Not to mention the numerous other amazing cartoons.

But these days, sadly the cartoons and children's television shows are more, well to be blunt, f*cked up. I randomly was watching a children's show on the TV, and it truly felt like having an epileptic seizure and an acid-trip at the same time. I had one of those 'I have been poisoned' moments, "This drink tastes like almond! I have been poisoned!" ...Anyway, you get the point, hopefully. (Not that cyanide gives hallucinations, but that is hardly the issue here!) 

What I am trying to say is, what the hell are these people creating? And thinking THIS is a lot better to show kids than something by far more educational like The Addams Family. Very poorly drawn and animted shows, colours flashing, men in costumes bouncing and touching each other, oh! So educational. If I ever have kids, I will show them these kind of cartoons I watched and grew up with.

What cartoons did you watch as a young ghoul?

TV & Animation: Ugly Americans

Ugly Americans is a horror & twisted cartoon created in 2010 by Devin Clark. The show premiered on march 17th 2010, with just 7 episodes. Due to it's popularity, 7 more episodes were added to season 1. And now, well, around a month ago season 2 began, which I cannot be more thankful for! I think the best way to explain what exaclty Ugly Americans is about, read the following quote from IMDb:

"Take New York City, add every horrifying beast, science-fiction freak, and fantasy faerie, shake thoroughly, and you've got Ugly Americans."

The cartoon's main character is about a social worker called Mark Lilly, who works at the New York's Department of Integration. His bosses are demons, and his immediate superior Callie (half human half succubus) is his on and off girlfriend. Callie is one of those she-devils who get turned on by the sight of physical injury, so she is seen with Mark having their BDSM sessions. Moving along from Callie to Leonard, Mark's best buddy at work. Leonard is a wizard who is one damn heavy drinker, really doesn't do anything at work, just relies on Mark all the time.

He shares an apartment with a flesh-eating zombie who he found on craigslist. Who wouldn't want to live with a zombie? I mean c'mon now! Randall, the zombie that is, became a zombie because the girl he was into at the time had a thing going on for zombie guys. Turned out she wasn't into zombies anymore after Randall turned in to one though!

I really don't think it is that fair if I just will go on writing and babbling about the characters in the cartoon, because you really have to watch this show. Especially if you love horror (which of course you do.) and sick and twisted humour. This show luckily aimed towards adults, so there isn't really any dry and lame humour in this. You need to watch it!

Animation: Classic Trick and Treating

With Halloween fast approaching, I wanted to share three  video clips that represent a older, more classic view of the mischievous holiday.

Let's start with a classic Disney video from the 20's.

This clip is tremendously charming, holding quite a bit of black humor. The children's classic cartoon company really went all out creative to represent "Comical death."

A very amusing clip, also from Disney. The music and lyrics are probably the best thing on the clip; very childish indeed, but surely any halloween-loving adult may enjoy!

Lastly, a short clip titled Season Greetings by Mike Dougherty. Sam goes out trick or treating, and the essence of the holiday, and it's traditions, are represented in Sam, a little "boy" who loves the holiday.

Animation: Pet of Dracula

Even Dracula can't resist the hypnotic stare of a cat!

Animation: Ernest, le Vampire

I owe many thanks to my friend Nasu-hime for finding out that the cartoon I loved when I was a child so much that I forgot the title of it was in fact the French show, 'Ernest, le Vampire' (Ernest, the vampire)!

"Each morning as dawn breaks, after nights of lunatic activity, Ernest the Vampire settles himself comfortably into his coffin and falls asleep. Ernest is somewhat clumsly and does not exactly strike fear in the heart of others. He is never short of ideas but they invariably end in catastrophes."

So of course, I thought I'd share it with you!





Except that I watched it on a German TV station, so it was called 'Ernest, der Vampir', not that it really mattered anyway though, because there isn't any dialogue. If you want to buy the series on DVD you can do so from the ICTV website.

Ah, spooky childhood memories!

Speaking of which, if you happen to read this entry, tell me - what's your first horror/Halloween-related childhood experience? Anything from trick or treating to being completely freaked out by a movie to hearing an urban legend.