How the Father of Claymation Lost His Company
I’ve been a huge fan of stop-motion/claymation since I was a very little kid, and Will Vinton has always been one of my favorites. I was vagely aware of what happened when his studio was taken over by Phil Knight of Nike fame, but I didn’t know the whole story. It’s pretty incredible what happened to him, but it has to be said, would films like Coraline and ParaNorman have been made if the change didn’t happen? I think Laika has a bright future but it sucks that Vinton got booted from his own company.

Watch Stop-Motion ‘Usagi Yojimbo’ Short Film
This short is rough, but it was just used as a proof-of-concept for the filmmakers to get the rights to Usagi Yojimbo to make a stop-motion animated feature. I love stop-motion and I love Usagi Yojimbo (through his TMNT connection of course) so this is pretty awesome.

How Laika Pushed 3D Printing to New Heights with ‘The Boxtrolls’
I love that 3D printing is helping keep stop-motion animation alive. Laika’s movies are great and I can’t wait to see the Boxtrolls.

See the Ghostbusters Ride That Was Never Built
This would have been a really fun ride.

Inside the Wild UI Design of Guardians of the Galaxy
I love when a sci-fi movie has a great UI design, and Guardians certainly did. Beyond the screens and holograms that we’re used to seeing, it had some amazingly weird “UI” in Ronan’s ships. Just another thing that this movie did right.

The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.

Five Reasons Why Hasbro’s “Star Wars Black” Will Fail
Excellent write-up about the new Star Wars 6' line and why they will (probably) fail.

BIGFOOT TOYS OF THE 1970s! | TheFwoosh.com
I approve of this post.

Adventure Time: The Complete First & Second Season Blu-rays
Awesome, you don't see new cartoons get Blu-ray releases very often. I would actually buy these to upgrade the episodes on my media center. Why only the first two season though?

SG Nerf: Nerf Rebelle!
This is kind of silly. I have tons of nieces with bigger Nerf gun arsenals than me, and none of their guns are pink with feather designs.

Man Cookie Cutter (Action) – CopperGifts.com
It may say ‘Man’ cookie cutter, but they’re not fooling anyone. It’s a Bigfoot cookie cutter. What can I say, I’m on a bigfoot kick this week.

The next Laika movie will be The Boxtrolls, co-directed by Graham Annable
You had me at "The next Laika movie"

I love Coraline. I’ve always been a huge stop-motion nerd, but Coraline got me really excited about the medium again, and I’ve been waiting and waiting for Laika’s second movie to hit theaters. ParaNorman looked amazing from the first teaser, but could the new studio pull off another awesome animated film without Henry Selick’s directing or Neil Gaiman’s story?

I was really worried ParaNorman would be all style and no substance. Thankfully I was wrong.
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After many years removed, I am finally journeying back into the world of comic books. I’m just now discovering the amazing talents of artist Skottie Young. He has to be one of the best fantasy illustrators working today. His work on the Oz series is nothing short of spectacular.

Of course I follow this talented guy on Instagram (username skottie) where I hope to get glimpses of his new work. That wasn’t exactly what I discovered on the photo-sharing app today but what I did see had me even more enthralled. Young had posted a very interesting series of snapshots. He chronicled the opening of a special shipment he had received from LAIKA, the animators behind the upcoming film ParaNorman.

Just as he has a talent for telling a story through his drawings, Skottie had created an excellent narrative by slowly unveiling the package’s contents through photographs.
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