adult animation Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's not every day that our animation comes with a slice of political commentary and adult themes. But now, following in the steps of South Park and Team America, Variety reports that the off-Broadway musical Smoking Bloomberg is getting animated. The vague plot sounds alright, stating that Bloomberg "follows a Korean dry cleaner who hopes to overturn the 2003 smoking ban championed by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg." But that's like reducing Watchmen to a bunch of people running around in superhero outfits.

You can read a very detailed synopsis at the project's site, which makes the whole plot a whole lot clearer. Here are some of the bits -- by "overturn," we're talking all-out Bloomberg revenge, and there's Alif, a man who keeps getting arrested for being Arab American, a fellow dry cleaner who supports himself as a prostitute, smoking rebellions, and Gary Busey, who is mistaken for Nick Nolte and seems to be the icon for the movement, right down to a song that belts out: "Cuz no one wants to mess around with the motherf**king Prince of Tides!"

You can check out some early animation here, and the full Nolte song here. The animation brings to mind a better-done collection of Wii Miis, and I can't get enough of the Busey Nolte. In fact -- Variety says the producers are "exploring more than one media platform," so could we get a Nolte smackdown game? That'd be prime.

Will you get in line for some smoking animation?

As evidenced by its constantly-moving release date (from September 2005, to March 31, 2006, to the current target of July 7, 2006), there have been a lot of problems with the practical side of Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. Because the internet exists and leaks occur, there have been copious rumors about what exactly happened behind the scenes but now, thanks to an article in this month's Wired, we don't have to guess any more.

Robert La Franco's fascinating piece, written with the participation of Linklater, is a chronological examination of the excruciating process of finishing the film. Though the shoot took only six weeks in May and June of 2004, the animation phase has been endless and fraught with conflict. With crises ranging from animators who took months to learn to use the rotoscoping program to others with no experience whatsoever and, ultimately, an usurped lead animator and changed studio locks, the experience comes across as an absolute nightmare. And, though Linklater idealistically hopes that Scanner "will be the first of a new wave of animated feature films made specifically for adults," he simultaneously calls making an animated film "torture," and vows never to do it again. Gee, with recommendations like these, how can American, adult animation fail to take off like a rocket?

[via Greg.org]