That Day Don Bluth & Gary Goldman Visited Powerhouse

On Friday, Powerhouse Animation had a pretty fantastic and surreal experience. Don Bluth & Gary Goldman, the revolutionary Director/Producer team of yours/mine/everyone's favorite childhood animated films came to visit us at the studio.

The Alamo Drafthouse, in conjunction with the good folks at Toy Joy, brought Mr. Bluth & Mr. Goldman to Austin for several screening events this past weekend including The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Secret of NIMH, and An American Tail. While they were here, Powerhouse Co-Founder Bruce Tinnin, who worked for Don Bluth at Fox Animation Studios, was able to coordinate a studio tour, and it was pretty much the greatest.

These talented filmmaking geniuses awed us with their generosity--signing numerous items for the staff and helping to orchestrate several full studio photos. Check out the write-up from the Alamo Drafthouse blog below, and because it had more impact on me than probably anything else from my childhood, the trailer for An American Tail. FIEVEL MOUSEKEWITZ, YOU GUYS! 

http://drafthouse.com/blog/entry/don-bluth-is-coming-to-the-alamo

Wale (feat. French Montana), 'Back 2 Ballin' Video

Earlier this year, Powerhouse got the amazing opportunity to work with some of the folks from Funny or Die on creating an animation/live action hybrid music video for DC-based rapper Wale. We worked closely with the fantastic Director Brothers who are well known for YouTube phenomenon The Gorburger Show, as well as ads for Old Milwaukee and Jeff Gordon’s Harlem Shake for Pepsi Max.

The video, sponsored by the team at Skullcandy, features throwback animation inspired by some of Wale’s favorite old 8-bit games, with segments based on Streets of Rage, Outrun, Altered Beast, and NBA Jam, amongst a few others. ‘Back 2 Ballin’ which features French Montana, is the lead single off of Wale’s 2012 mixtape ‘Folarin.’ His 3^rd studio album, “The Gifted,” just released on June 24, 2013.

Check out the official release announcement on Skullcandy's blog: http://www.skullcandy.com/blog/2013/07/08/wale-goes-digital-in-funny-or-dies-latest-video.Music1

As well as this great review from Hip Hop Wired: http://hiphopwired.com/2013/07/09/wale-ft-french-montana-back-2-ballin-video/

A Webby, a CLIO, and the Continuation of Humanity...

The Powerhouse team was informed today that the delightfully absurd Dikembe Mutombo Old Spice project we worked on last fall won some very prestigious advertising awards!

First of all, a HUGE congratulations to the entire team at Wieden + Kennedy Portland, Driftlab, and Adam Atomic for their work conceptualizing, writing, and developing this game. We had a blast working with every single person on the team.

WEBBY AWARDS:

Dikembe Mutombo's 4 1/2 Weeks to Save the World won BOTH the Webby AND the People's Voice Award in the Game or Application Category as well as the Promotions and Contests Category. A very rare and impressive feat if we do say so ourselves...

CLIO Awards:

It ALSO won the Gold Prize in the Digital/Mobile category for a CLIO Award! Check out this great summary video they posted about the entire campaign, featuring some of our cinematic animation.

Mrs Brown's Boys Premiere in Manchester

About 6 months ago, we announced that we were excited to be starting work on a pilot for Universal & The BBC. Well, after months of hard work, we've wrapped production on the pilot episode for the animated version of Mrs. Brown's Boys!

Last week, Powerhouse co-founders Bruce Tinnin and Frank Gabriel traveled to Manchester to attend the official premiere of our pilot. They had a great time, and even got to meet the cast of the live show, including writer/creator and Mrs. Brown him/herself, Brendan O'Carroll. Check out some photos from their trip below!

What is Powerhouse Creative?

If you follow this blog then you have probably already noticed that the good folks here at Powerhouse Animation recently launched a sister site called Powerhouse Creative. If this is news to you, then please take this time to head over there and check it out. I'll wait.

Now that we're all on the same page, Powerhouse Creative just finished our second promotional piece designed at explaining what we do while also subtly inundating viewers with embedded subliminal messages. If we've done our job, the calls should start flooding in at any minute. Check out the video below and share it with your friends and neighbors and relatives and whatnot. We really appreciate it.

Plein Air Southwest Salon

Powerhouse's own Bruce Tinnin will be one of the many talented artists to be showcased at this year’s Plein Air Southwest Salon 2013. This event, in its seventh year and sponsored by the Outdoor Painters Society, will be held at the Southwest Gallery in Dallas, Texas from April 6 – May 4, 2013. For more information, visit the event website. To see more of Bruce’s paintings, check out his website.

Super Important Oreo Test

After the success of the infamous Old Spice game where Dikembe Mutombo and Science the Bear save the world from its destruction, Powerhouse teamed up with the hilarious folks at Wieden + Kennedy Portland again to create some short animated videos for their latest ad campaign.

W+K worked with Oreo to develop the "Super Important Test" which asks users to determine which is the best part of an Oreo: the cookie or the cream. We don't want to spoil the results, so while the debate between Cookie vs Cream rages on, check out the videos we created to celebrate the correct answer!

Imperium: Galactic Wars

Powerhouse has been working with the talented team at Kabam for the past several months doing some game concepting, character designs, and cinematic animation for their newest game Imperium: Galactic Wars. We are excited to announce that the game is finally live and free to play!!

Check out the opening cinema we did and then head on over to Kabam's website to sign up!

The B.S. Report featuring Arnold, Andre and Wilt!

Powerhouse has been working with the incredibly funny and talented folks at ESPN's Grantland for quite a while now, creating video content for the B.S. Report's Animated Archives as well as the infamous Jalen Rose Story Time. Yesterday, our latest animated segment aired on the Grantland Channel, and it might be our favorite one yet!

Banner Saga: Factions Now Available!

We've been talking about our work with the amazing team at Stoic on the Banner Saga for almost a year now, and we are happy to announce that the multiplayer version is finally available to the public!! Banner Saga: Factions launched yesterday and it has already gotten some fantastic attention. In today's review, Kotaku called it "one of the most beautiful video games I've ever seen," and we couldn't agree more.

Ben Affleck: King of Hollywood

Ben Affleck took home the Oscar for Best Picture last night at the Academy Awards. It is hard to believe that it has been almost a decade since Powerhouse had their brush with the actor/director and his then girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, on the set of Jersey Girl.

Powerhouse Animation has worked with Kevin Smith on a number of projects, including a personally commissioned game and matching arcade cabinet for "Bennifer" as their wrap present for the film Jersey Girl.

Do It For the Children

Powerhouse Animation has been fighting the Z-Axis for over 11 years. Please join us in this fight:

If you need pure, organic, traditional, AMERICAN Animation... you know where to find us.

Exciting Announcement Coming in February...

Powerhouse Animation has some exciting news coming in the next few weeks...

I'm going to be super vague and not really say anything about it, but here are a few images to whet your appetite:

We've got a Green Screen!

Powerhouse Animation has been broadening our horizons in 2013. Check out our first new adventure: a green screen studio we set up in a back corner of the office.