Author: Tom Kuebler (Page 1 of 3)

Ella Dobson is an animator and designer born in New Zealand! She’s worked in a lot of different places, mainly big cities like LA and she’s currently working in NYC

She has a website: https://elladobson.com/About

She actually worked a lot for google and stuff, she has a lot of graphic design and minimalistic animations that have been used for marketing but she also does some creative stuff as well

So her animation is “The World” and it’s the one we showed in class- I couldn’t really find a different one that was linked to any poems!! But I learned she made it as a collection of poems from the On Being Project, and there’s a playlist linked on YouTube that has all of them (it also has a lot of the animations shown in class and I think Charlie showed one from this collection):

The World

Written by Rumi

Translated and read by Fatemeh KeshavarzListen

The world is a mountain
Whatever you say, good or bad, it will echo it back to you
Don’t say I sang nicely and mountain echoed an ugly voice…
That is not possible

The human intellect is a place where hesitation and uncertainty take root
There is no way to overcome this hesitation…except by falling in love

To reach the sea and be happy with a jug water is a waste
The sea that has pearls…
And a hundred thousand other precious things.

I feel like the poem is about appreciating the Earth. And a reminder to be kind because you have to first be kind to get something kind back- “Whatever you say, good or bad, it will echo it back to you”.

One interesting thing was the contrast between Dobson’s professional work and personal work, they have very different styles. Her professional work is much more generalized and minimalistic, while a lot of her creative works actually take on a bit of a colorful painterly style which I like!

The adaptation I chose is a show available on Netflix called Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix!!!

It’s a really crazy show with a sort of futuristic corrupt government world and it ties into the adaptation because it’s a mashup of old Ubisoft characters from a lot of different games. A few worth noting are Assassin’s Creed, Rayman, and Splinter Cell. A lot of these characters are repurposed for the plot of the show and they do REALLY entertaining work with some of them!!

For example there’s a French frog (from Assassin’s Creed) who’s really hilarious and Rayman from the Rayman games is a TV host who’s addicted to crack (no joke)

It helped sell a lot of these old games too! I don’t know the exact numbers but a lot of these games were or still are really big and expansive franchises so it increased the sales for some of those games positively

I want a season two so bad but there still hasn’t been any news of one 🙁 but it’s one of my favorite shows

But an adaptation I hate would probably have to be the Minecraft movie for very obvious reasons I don’t even think I need to go into detail here

The entire film is pretty similar to The Breadwinner overall. They both have heavy themes of government oppression, particularly towards women, and both feature stories where a woman is the center focus. I liked this a lot as it showcased the harsh reality that many women face in oppressive countries like Iran.

One specific scene that immediately reminded me of the breadwinner was when Marjane’s mother stood up against a man insulting her on the street. He told her to put her scarf down more and she responded by addressing him angrily and demanding respect. He called her names but she and Marjane got in their car and left before things got worse, which was a display of power both the women had before the oppression in Iran got too bad. To me this seemed extremely similar to the kind of power the women had in The Breadwinner when Parwana’s father was present. He, being the head of the household, acted as a sort of cover if the family got into hot water. Until being sent to prison, the family was content with this setup and, as this was all they could do, they had to cope with the reality that they needed a man to do certain things for them.

Both settings oppress women by making them cover their bodies or it’s considered a “sin”.

I think both movies can tell us a lot about how people can survive under such smothering government rule. Sometimes if it’s all you know you think it’s normal, and you come to another country and realize it’s not and you have to try to fit in with people you don’t know. I also just overall think it’s a great way to learn about these sorts of things through complex storytelling and really compelling character. I found both to be very interesting and I definitely feel like there are a lot of nuances I may have missed by only watching them one time through.

Klimt was born in 1972 in Slovakia (formerly Chezchoslovakia)!

He is currently a writer and director and is known for multiple films.

He graduated from animation school in 1999 and does a lootttt of puppet films! He has sort of this grungy dirty style that’s super interesting. I found information that said he also works on TV and commercials as well, so he’s a part of both sides of art, the personal side and the more business side- he seems pretty well-rounded.

Klimt was also a teacher at an animation academy and the leader of an entire studio which is very impressive. I’d say the most interesting thing about him is how many things he’s involved in. He sort of has his hand in pretty much every side of producing art.

https://vimeo.com/aurelklimt here is his Vimeo link that has all of his films on it as well as just his general bio and things:

His music video Laika is about the dog Laika who went to space! Probably everyone knows but she was a stray dog who was taken to space and the first animal to orbit the earth. She was given very little food and water to help her survive and there were no preparations for her to return to earth so she unfortunately passed away in space

Very famous dog, and I think the animation is honoring her

https://vimeo.com/aurelklimt

Citations:

“Aurel Klimt.” Vimeo, 2015, vimeo.com/aurelklimt. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.

‌IMDb. “Aurel Klimt – Writer, Director, Animation Department.” IMDb, 2017, www.imdb.com/name/nm0459571/. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.

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Freleng was a director and animator at Warner Bros!!

He was born in 1905 and died in 1995. He started his animation career early, soon becoming one of the biggest directors at Warner Bros. and in the animation community at the time…

Most famously he worked on Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies, while also playing a huge part in the development and creation of many other beloved characters such as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety, etc. Many of the characters featured in the examples we watched in class. Because of his outstanding engagement in his work and career, he made the most cartoons out of anyone at the studio- 266, and among those he won multiple awards for.

(He also worked at the Termite Terrace which we talked about in class, so it shows that even while working at a run down place passion really drives you more than anything else)

Also a fun little fact I found was the nickname “Friz”. He got it from a friend who actually used to call him “Congressman Frizby”? Apparently it was a popular character in an LA newspaper so it’s cool how his work shaped him so much he took on the name of a fictional character!!!

So I found two things: here’s a website of still frames he drew that are all displayed with a little bio of him:

https://www.animationconnection.com/artist/friz-freleng

Not sure why/if this person is selling these things but I still thought it might be cool to show because he worked on so many cartoons you can see his skill showing through his ability to animate such a wide variety of characters

Then here’s an animation by him: Saps In Chaps

CITATIONS:

Not An Animation Historian. “Looney Tunes | Saps in Chaps | Friz Freleng | 1942×362 | HD (Upscaled).” YouTube, 17 Nov. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Husz5zYrqsU. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

‌to, Contributors. “Friz Freleng.” Looney Tunes Wiki, Fandom, Inc., 2025, looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Friz_Freleng. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

‌“Friz Freleng Animation Connection / Cartoon Art / Cels (Cells).” Animationconnection.com, 2025, www.animationconnection.com/artist/friz-freleng. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

‌“Friz Freleng.” Wikipedia, 13 Aug. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friz_Freleng.

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