Don Hertzfeldt's Simpsons Opening Is Completely Insane

I'm partially kicking myself for having not posted this sooner, but after watching Don Hertzfeldt's mind-shattering opening for the Simpsons' season premiere last Sunday, I needed a couple of days to put my head back together. In his attempt to correct his accidental aging, Homer inadvertently speeds up time and reality to a terrifying alien future of amorphous amoeba-like existence fueled only by capitalism. Sound familiar?

Can't wait to see a David Cronenberg Couch Gag.

Remaining true to his legacy of juxtaposing dark humor and stick figure simplicity, Hertzfeldt's couch gag is a meta-commentary on the once venerable sitcom's longevity and whether anything good can truly last 26 seasons. My question is, how the hell did this make it on the air!?

Visual Bites - H-Man, Sting, Coven, Sunset

We run into plenty of awesome content that might be too short to warrant a full dedicate post, so we'll be using the 'Visual Bites' monicker to promote these bite sized visual treats from artists around the world. Animation loops, quick shorts and experimentation will be the main focus in this ongoing series.

H-Man is the opening for an upcoming live action series premiering on the artist centered channel 'Arte.' The series was created by Miyu Productions, channeling a vintage animation style that feels a little Monty Python in parts. More visual bites after the break.

Inside The Mind Of Leonardo Opening

Created for a feature length documentary directed by Julian Jones for the UK market, Inside the Mind of Leonardo is a fascinating documentary delving into the core of history's most fabled genius, renaissance man and inventor. Ron Gervais lead a team to bring the images of his rich codex to life, using a mix of 3D, layering imagery on cards for depth and overlaying Da Vinci's anatomical proportion breakdowns onto real life footage for full effect. Loved the final look and feel they accomplished, offering a snapshot of the many talents of Da Vinci.

The story centers around Leonardo’s personal journals (codex) which hold over 6,000 pages of handwritten notes and drawings. The film stars award winning actor Peter Capaldi as he narrates the translated text and passages directly from Leonardo's journals. Our task was to help develop a look and feel and then animate the mind-scape that transports the audience into Leonardo's thoughts and ambitions. After working 8 very full months with a small but tremendously hard working team, we created roughly 30 minutes of stereoscopic animation.

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Opening

We talked quite a bit about Girl With The Dragon Tattoo during our first podcast (Its a fantastic film, for those who haven't seen it), but we forgot to mention the absolutely incredible, and disturbing opening credits created by Blur featuring the excellent music by Trent Reznor.

The sequence features abstracted oil figures of  Lisbeth Salander (played by Rooney Mara, the "Girl withe Dragon Tatto") and Mikael Blomvkist (played by Daniel Craig) portrayed in an abstract manner dealing with their demons in a nightmare like sequence. For example, at around 1:50  you see manly hands coming up to Lisbeth's face before tearing her face to bits, representative of the terrible things that men have done to her in the past. I won't spoil it further, just go watch it!

Bunraku: Opening Sequence

These amazing opening credits were created for Guy Moshe's newest, hyper stylized martial action film, Bunraku by Guillerme Marcondes using a variety of paper cut out techniques, puppetry and other analog art forms. Very cool work all around. Check out the trailer for the actual flick after the break!

Take Shelter

This very intriguing psychological thriller is premiering tomorrow on a limited basis, featuring the epic Michael Shannon...Who most can easily say was discovered during his amazing work as Agent Nelson on HBO's Boardwalk Empire. I can imagine that this movie will definitely play out like a descent into madness, as his character...Curtis La Forche struggles to maintain a grip on reality as his apocalyptic nightmares continue to plunge him into ever darker places.

Considering the stellar reviews that this movie got during Cannes, this is definitely a flick worth checking out. Consider us quite intrigued.

Game of Thrones: Character Breakdown

The first season of "Game of Thrones" has been over for several weeks now, and we're already going through withdrawals.  And we won't get more for another year.  Bummer.  If you started the first season a little confused about who is who, then let this awesome alternative opening be your guide.  I mean, I wasn't confused, let's not be silly.  But I, uh.. heard others were.  Enjoy!

Opening To Limitless

I haven't seen this thriller just yet, but somebody posted the amazing opening to the movie (No spoilers, it just looks really cool). The movie has to do with the main protagonist, Eddie Mora (Bradley Cooper) finding a top secret drug that gives him super human abilities. Once he reaches the top, he comes to realize that his powers come at a price. The movie has been out for a while, but this opening piqued my interest again.