And Now... A Zombie Cartoon?

Everyone seems to be very excited about this minute-and-a-half of footage that's been making the rounds on the web the past few days, and it's easy to see why. It's a teaser trailer from the computer-animated zombie film A.D., currently in development. I wish I had more to add than everyone else, but I pretty much agree that this snippet looks amazing, and had to share it with the rest of you Vault dwellers in case there are any of you out there who haven't seen this yet. Check it out:



Pick your jaw up off the floor, please. Thank you. Amazing--every time I think the whole zombie thing is done to death (pardon the pun), someone comes along with a fresh idea. Something about those undead buggers brings out the creative best in a lot of people.

For those wondering, the movie is being scripted by Haylar Garcia, whom fans may best remember for his involvement in the popular 2004 fan flick Freddy vs. Ghostbusters. It's set to be directed by Ben Hibon, a UK-based animator who has done some work on horror-based video games (we'll see if that can translate to solid moviemaking). The money man is Bernie Goldmann, a producer who is probably hoping this turns out to be a better financial venture than his last zombie project, Land of the Dead.

A Quarter-Century of Krueger: Freddy in Love

Behold, an animated short which is sure to get a chuckle from any die-hard Nightmare on Elm Street fan, particularly if you're an over-eager fangirl who ever harbored a secret crush for the bastard son of a hundred maniacs. Enjoy...

Night of the Living Dead, Re-Enacted in 30 Seconds. By Bunnies.

The Tuesday Top 10: Most Horrifying Cartoon Characters

One of the things that appeals to me about doing a weekly Top 10 is the ability to think outside the box and go for topics that might not be strictly tied to horror movies, but more to horror in general. Case in point: this week's Tuesday Top 10, in which I am taking a look at the most frightening animated characters it's ever been my perverse pleasure to witness.

When considering candidates, I ruled out movies/shows intended only for grown-ups; it would've been too easy to collect a bunch of baddies from Heavy Metal, The Maxx, Wizards, etc. No, I thought it would be much more of a challenge to focus on characters that have actually scared the bejeezus out of little kids--in some cases, little B-Sol himself. Oh, the benefits of a horror-drenched childhood!

10. Cruella De Vil
101 Dalmations (1961)
She resembles a harpy, has vicious streaks of white through her hair, and her all-consuming goal in life is to slaughter a gigantic litter of puppies and use their skin to make a coat for herself. If that isn't the stuff of nightmares, then I don't know what is.

9. Gollum
The Hobbit (1977)
My fifth grade teacher thought it would be cool to show us this Rankin-Bass TV chestnut in class. Imagine my ten-year-old mind reeling at the sight of this bizarre, freakish thing. Still, this movie did kick off a lifelong Tolkien obsession. "Where there's a whip...there's a way!"

8. Maleficent
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
One of Disney's more underrated evil queens, I first came across her Satanic majesty at a double-feature of Sleeping Beauty and The Black Hole way back in Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty. I maintain this is one of the Mouse House's most boy-friendly features, and this shape-shifting bitch is one of the main reasons why.

7. Skeletor
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-85)
Kind of a no-brainer. He's a roided-out blue dude with a skull for a head. Even though he's voiced by the same guy who did the voice of that lovable Falcor in The Neverending Story, he still freaked the snot out of me every weekday afternoon after school...

6. The Apple Bonkers
Yellow Submarine (1968)
OK, I chalk this up mainly to being a really little kid, but good lord did these guys creep me the eff out. Towering, mindless drones dropping giant apples on people's heads and turning them to stone. "Smash them! Crash them! O-BLUE-TIRATE THEM!!" Shivers...

5. The Witch
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
She was pretty hot in a secret-BDSM-fantasy kinda way in her evil queen form, but once she transforms herself into that gnarled-up, bug-eyed old crone... permanent childhood trauma. Never realized how many nightmarish villains Disney cooked up...

4. Mumm-Ra
Thundercats (1985-87)
I know, I spent way too much time on weekday afternoons watching action cartoons instead of doing my homework. But how could I pass up a show in which the main villain was a jacked-up, maniacal mummy? Although I never remember hearing him say this. Would've ruled, though.

3. Gen. Woundwort
Watership Down (1978)
OK, do you see that picture over there? Do I need to say anything else? This flick was on constant rotation on HBO when my fam first got it in the early '80s, and this grizzled hideous old rabbit, kept me glued to the couch in terror. Or maybe that was just my mom's plastic couch coverings...?

2. Gargamel
Smurfs (1981-90)
A hideous wizard who tried relentlessly to track down a cute village of friendly, fun-loving little blue fairies. So he could cook and eat them. Maybe not as many kids deconstructed their cartoons as much as I did...

1. Other Mother
Coraline (2009)
My big regret is that I'll never know what it's like to experience the sublimely frightening Coraline as a child. But at least I got to vicariously experience it through my own progeny. And for my money, there has never been a more thoroughly soul-chilling creation to ever appear in an animated film than this grasping, malevolent, twisted perversion of motherhood. It just taps into the psyche on so many levels. Or at least my psyche. Paging Dr. Freud...

The Skeleton Dance As You've Never Seen It

From the same company that today is responsible for High School Musical and Hannah Montana. With a touch of Irving Berlin, by way of '80 Euro synth popper Taco, thrown in for good measure...



Bliss.

Poe's Work Adapted to Comic Book

Since debuting at Harry Knowles' BNAT film festival last summer, Marc Lougee's stop-motion animated version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum has been making the rounds at literally hundreds of film festivals (unfortunately, the main outlet for short subjects these days). It has generated quite a bit of positive buzz in the process.

Now, Bluewater Productions, the same comic book company responsible for Vincent Price Presents (the first issue of which was written by The League of Tana Tea Drinkers' own Chad Helder) will be bringing the film to the sequential art medium.

The comic book has been put together without hand-drawn art--in a clever stroke, it is instead using actual stills from the animated film, which is sure to give the book a unique look indeed. If you don't believe me, just check out these sample pages at Where the Long Tail Ends.

The first issue hits comic book stores February 25.

Final Coraline Trailer Is the Best Yet

The last promotional clip for Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick's Coraline hit the net last night. According to Ain't It Cool News, it's Selick's personal favorite trailer, and it's pretty easy to see why. Here it is, enjoy:

Neil Gaiman Discusses Coraline

Wired.com has some exclusive new footage from Henry Selick's stop-motion animated feature Coraline, based on the Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The author also goes into detail on what makes this project so unique. You don't have to sell me on it. The writer of Sandman and the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas teaming up to create a twisted children's horror story? I'm in. Look for the movie in theaters in February. In the meantime, check this out:

See Monsters vs. Aliens Trailer Three Days Early

First of all, how could you not automatically love a movie that's called Monsters vs. Aliens? I'm not usually a big fan of Dreamworks' animated films, but this one, at least from the trailer, looks like it may be nearly as ingenious and funny as anything Pixar has put out there. I can honestly say I laughed out loud, a couple of times. The trailer will be running in theaters along with Madagascar: Back to Africa starting this weekend. But you can have a look for yourselves right now, courtesy of TrailerAddict:

It's the Mummy!

A bloody good Halloween to one and all, from the one and only Vault of Horror!



P.S. For an extra All Hallow's treat, be sure and check out my rundown of the Top 10 Scariest Paintings of All Time over at Examiner.com!

Buffy the Animated Series: What Might Have Been

Yes, there really was going to be a Buffy the Vampire Slayer cartoon. As a matter of fact, Joss Whedon was developing it for Fox Kids four years ago. Unfortunately, the project never got beyond a four-minute teaser clip. However, that clip has now surfaced online (EW was the first to pick up on it earlier today.) All you Buffy fans enjoy this, 'cause it's all you're gonna get:


The voice of Buffy was provided by Giselle Loren, who also filled Sarah Michelle Gellar's shoes in video game incarnations of the show.

Igor Trailer Debuts at New York Comic Con

The Weinstein Company unveiled the trailer for its animated horror comedy Igor yesterday afternoon at the NYCC, and the movie is already shaping up to be the coolest family film of the year. Unfortunately, the world-premiered clip is not yet available online.

Produced by a staff of animators salvaged mainly from one of Disney's defunct European houses, Igor tells the story of the town of Malaria, where anyone with a hunchback (I can just hear the offended disabled rights' groups now) is shipped off to Igor School, where they learn to become a mad scientist's assistant. John Cusack provides the voice of the lead character, who attempts to achieve success on his own by creating his very own monster. It was written by American Dad's Chris McKenna, and directed by Anthony Leondis, who has previously worked for Disney.

Obviously, the pic is a tip of the hat to the classic Universal monster movies, which its creators admitted at the Igor panel yesterday. They also stated that they chose Weinstein as the company to work with since it would allow them to produce more dark and edgy material than a company like Disney or Dreamworks. For example, the film features a reanimated bunny that longs to be dead again, and spends most of the movie trying to kill himself. Not exactly Shrek material.


In addition to Universal, the creators also mention Rankin-Bass as a major influence, particularly the legendarily beloved Mad Monster Party. Leondis and McKenna discussed how they were going for a classic Warner Brothers type of feel--a picture that will appeal to both kids and parents.


Joining Cusack are Steve Buscemi as the voice of the rabbit, John Cleese as Igor's mad scientist master and Molly Shannon as the monster. Igor opens on September 19. Put me down as majorly intrigued.

Creepy Kids Rule!

Get ready goth boys and girls...from the man who brought you The Nightmare Before Christmas comes another stop-motion animated flick based on a warped children's book. That's right, Henry Selick, director of the Tim Burton-produced 1993 holiday classic has been hard at work adapting Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and Gaiman himself has just posted the first bit of footage on his website. Finally, a family movie I can be proud to take my progeny to see! Check it out below. Take that, Alvin & The Chipmunks!!

For the super hi-res Quicktime version, go here.

RE in 3-D CG!

Apparently, the next installment in the Resident Evil series will more closely resemble the actual game itself. That's because Sony Pictures and Capcom, the creators of the original 1996 Resident Evil arcade game, are teaming up to put out a 3-D computer-animated flick.
It'll be called Biohazard: Degeneration (the game is known as "Biohazard" in Japan) and will use a completely original story, once again based on the game about a monstrous plague unleashed by a shady pharmaceutical lab. No word yet on cast and crew, or if anyone from the live-action flicks will be included (still couldn't resist putting up a Milla pic). Variety, which broke the news this morning, indicates we can expect a late 2008 release.