Header Ads

Web Animation Watch: Baby Steps, Thomax The Tank, Opposite Day and More

Welcome back to Web Animation Watch, AFA's regular round-up of new releases and our latest discoveries in the realm of online animation. This time: childhood favourites subverted,  a topsy turvy world turned upside down and a lot more!

Are you an animator who has made something that would be at home here? Or just a fan who's found something you think we should see? Drop us a line today!






Cartoon Nightmares: Thomax The Tank




You may never be able to look at Thomas The Tank Engine quite the same way, thanks to this dark spin on the enduring childhood favourite. As the name hints, this new unholy union from those evil geniuses at Mashed takes Thomas and mashes it up with the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max.  Definitely lives up the 'nightmare' label. Animated by Pegbarians.






Baby Steps (Simon's Cat origin Story)- Part 2





After featuring the first part last time, we obviously couldn't resist including the second part of the ongoing origin story of Simon's Cat. After their first meeting in the previous episode, Simon brings home his new kitten, and we get to see what mischief the adorable, pint-sized version of our fave animated internet moggie got up to when he first came home. And there's more still to come!

Opposite Day





Opposite Day from Grant Kolton on Vimeo.





Animator Grant Kolton has taken a wonderfully simple jumping-off point, the often joked about concept of "opposite day" and explores it in a series of very brief scenes of what exactly that might look like.  To say any more would spoil the surprise. Mind you, if we were going to really commit to the whole opposite day concept, we should probably say it's rubbish and you shouldn't watch it!  And you definitely shouldn't check out Grant's channel for more. WINK WINK.


The Ultimate 'My Neighbour Totoro' Recap Cartoon 




Cas van de Pol's 'Ultimate recap cartoons' retell the stories of well-known movies or series, in a compressed, manic and not entirely accurate to the original style. Having retold Bambi, The Lion King and Avatar The Last Air Bender and more,  Cas dares to step on sacred ground... Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro. It's fair to say this isn't quite how you remember it. Support Cas on Patreon here.

Bytesize Recaps: The Last Of Us

 


 
★PICK OF THE WEEK And that's not all from Cas this time! Cas has also collaborated with the popular channel How It Should Have Ended and fellow animator  Junaid Chundrigar to launch a new video game focused series Bytesize Recaps.  Just in time for the launch of The Last Of Us Part II,  comes this retelling of the original. It definitely carries over elements of the style of Cas's Ultimate Recaps, but has a slightly more controlled, conventional and polished feel (for example, it actually features dialogue of more than about five words at a time). The combination is really effective, making for a really funny result. We're looking forward to the next in the series. It should go without saying, but this does contain spoilers for the game.