Monday, February 26, 2007

EL TIGRE is almost here!


Check out the latest issue of ANIMATION MAGAZINE for a cover story on EL TIGRE, featuring cover art from an upcoming episode, as realized by the whole crew of the show, including original pencil art by ME, and additional work by Gabe Swarr and Steve Lambe, among others. Here's my original art for the show, which freeze-frames into a full-clor painting by ol 'Lambey:


The big news? EL TIGRE premieres Saturday Morning March 3rd at 10:30 AM on Nickelodeon, right after SPONGEBOB and right before AVATAR. Grab a bowl of Cap'n Crunch and a hot cup of coffee, settle in, and have fun!

COOL NEWS: The 1st episode is available FOR FREE on iTunes! Just go to the "Free on iTunes" section of the iTunes Store front page and you too can carry EL TIGRE in your pocket!

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BONUS Cartoon Treasure!


Check out this hidden animation gem from 1963: "Little Prince And Eight Headed Dragon" (Wanpaku Oji No Orochi Taiji) Produced by Toei Animation, it's the film that inspired SAMURAI JACK (Thanks to Chris Mitchell letting Genndy and the crew watch his laserdisc), WINDWAKER, and it's what Disney ripped off for the Pegasus/Hydra sequence in HERCULES.

The guy who posted the trailer above was good enough to put up the entire film in 3 chunks, which can be found HERE, HERE, and HERE.

32 comments:

Jay D Smith said...

ahhhh, my fav film!!!

Joe said...

Pretty excited for El Tigre. It looks awesome. That little prince animation is inspiring. I can see how it could influence people so much. Thanks for sharing.

PotatoFarmGirl said...

Cool! Lambe/Battle combo action. The smoke effects are very niiiccee... Congrats on working on another promising project. And thank you for posting that Prince clip!! (another thing about Disney's Hercules, I remember the climax at the end being similar to the tower chase in Miyazaki's "Puss n Boots", but that may be my imagination.)

Sean Szeles said...

Holy crap! Thanks for posting that clip! That's amazing!

Sandra Khoo said...

This is absolutely fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing this gem of a clip and the links,Chris! It is definitely inspiring.

Mukpuddy said...

Dude, this is awesome, you guys have an awesome line-up of artists on the crew, can't wait for the show to air!! Also thanks for the link to that japanese film, it's freakin amazing!!

T' said...

Boy, you weren't kidding about Disney ripping off that sequence. It makes me wonder, though, how that sort of thing happens; had one of the animators seen this, animated it and though no one would know, or was the film brought into the studio and generally copied? I'm nto an aniimator myself, but I'd like to think that folks wouldn't willingly copy something so blatantly when there's no need to. I love the design of Windwaker, and so now must watch this film. Thanks for the link!

Chris Battle said...

Disney has a history of it:

THE LION KING > Osamu Tezuka's KIMBA THE WHITE LION

ALADDIN > Richard Williams' THIEF & THE COBBLER (Zig Zag + Hirschfeld = Genie!)

There's a fine line between being "inspired by" and out-and-out theft of ideas.

Biters suck.

Niko Anesti said...

I saw a preview last night for El Tigre, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. Nick hasn't had too many good shows as of late, and this looks like it could save their streak.

T' said...

(Wow, my spelling in my earlier comment was atrocious.. what's with that?)

I loved Kimba as a child. Watched it non-stop. I still don't see that big a connection between Lion King and Kimba as the story in Lion King is SO basic, it's even, if anything, a rip-off of most Disney storylines. Stylistically, they looked nothing alike, either. They just both had lions. Aladdin=Thief and Cobbler? Ok, THAT I can see! That example, too relies on most people never having seen the original material. I guess I wasn't questioning the fact that Disney stole, more that I wondered at what level the theft came from. Was it the animators themselves? The director? I just can't imagine sitting there knowingly copying someone else's work. It's just.. sad.

Paco Sordo said...

can't wait to watch el tigre!And thanx for the bonus treasure,rocks sooo much!

Alexei Martins said...

AMAZING love the design!!!!
And WOOWW!!!I love this film!!It's so beautiful!!

More Disney inspiration:
ATLANTIS > from gainax studio Nadia: Secret of Blue Water http://www.gainax.co.jp/anime/nadia/index.html

T' said...

Hey, bonus! For those interested in the Little Prince cartoon, I found some links to model sheets from the movie here:

http://www.quilts-club.com/animation/wanpaku.html

Shellie K said...

Hey wait. I remember
someone bringing this in when we were all
on Power Puff...in the bank building as it slowly was
getting knocked down around us...how dare you give Chris Mitchell credit...HAHAHHAH !!!

paige said...

Awesome job to you and Lambey for the magazine cover! I'm very excited for El Tigre and hope it's a huge success for all involved.

And thanks for posting that gorgeous clip. BEAUTIFUL! I'll have to come back to watch the other clips.

Zorilita - Mary Bellamy said...

Congrats on the show!

That clip is awesome too. Thanks for posting it.

tomm said...

this awesome movie is a big influence on our feature, Brendan and the secret of kells too. its gorgeous,i had the modelsheets pinned up over my desk during vis dev.

Chris Battle said...

Tomm, if those model sheets are something better than the ones that can be found online, do be so kind as to e-mail 'em to me :)

ZSL said...

Ya know...I think the AMC or Turner Classic Movies channel showed that film once. It was a long time ago, though.

Warren Lee said...

AWESOME!!!! Congratulations on the cover art. El Tigre looks really good!

Dagan Moriarty said...

ah, cool! :)
Lookin' forward to catching El Tigre!
And that 'Little Prince' clip is
AMAZING... I never heard of it, shows what kind of animation nerd I am... I'm slackin! ;)
-Dagan

Unknown said...

Excellent work to you and the El Tigre design team! Thanks for the Prince clip!

Drake Brodahl (pumml) said...

Chris, I've been reading your blog for some time now and am a big fan of your work. Finally chiming in because I watched the El Tigre premiere this morning. Holy crap it kicked ass! Such a great team on this show and you really deliver. It's gonna be a big hit!

Also, I'd not heard of the Little Prince... awesome. Thanks for posting those links!

Lauren said...

Boy am I a late comer. I just saw your childhood art work and I've got to say it's awesome! Better than anything I could do at those ages, and probably better than most of the stuff I do now. :(

Ridd Sorensen said...

great sketch chris! and holy cow what a great find. thanks!

paublo said...

wow.. what a dream team.. deadly work!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Hey that looks super cool in the extreme !!

Soo said...

Awesome work Chris.

Scott Tolleson said...

You and Steve ROCK! That simple.

MARILLA said...

I watched it... I liked it! there are many of you in it...!!!!YEY super COOL CHRIS-KUN!!!!

Unknown said...

Rad work for the magazine man! I saw Steve Lambs paintings on his blog as well. And Yeah , how bad ass is that freaking little prince stuff!! AMAZING!

Anonymous said...

I saw this film many many year ago in Spain during holidays...
it's still a fantastic job