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. 

THE END OF THE WORLD

Well, it looks like we made it! It was a long shot, but somehow, some way, we were able to avert the mega crisis of a lifetime and continue on existing. I don't know about you, but I'd like to think a lot of the credit goes to Dikembe Mutombo for his tireless work over the past 4 1/2 weeks. And also you: player of games, waster of time, procrastinator extraordinaire. You've done your civic duty. Thank you and congratulations.

Powerhouse Celebrates the Holidays!

Powerhouse Animation celebrated the holidays in style (as usual) with our annual holiday party at Cannoli Joe's. Everyone was in a festive mood-- possibly due to the significant quantities of wine-- and we had a great time getting together for food, fun, and our always enlightening Secret Santa gift exchange. We also welcomed one new animator to the team this year so congrats to Shaun Bryant on finally receiving his embroidered Powerhouse jacket. Welcome to the fold, Shaun! There's no going back now.

Help Dikembe Mutombo Save the World!

On Wednesday, Old Spice launched their latest and most awesomely irreverent campaign to date. Thanks to the fine folks at Wieden + Kennedy, Old Spice's newest spokesperson, retired NBA superstar Dikembe Mutombo has 4 1/2 weeks to save the world!

This campaign is a series of online 8-bit style games that feature Mutombo and his cast of bizarre characters, such as his brilliant and fashionable friend Science Bear. As each game launches, users are introduced to that week's mission via a wacky animated cinematic, and then they must work through the weekly challenge in order to help Dikembe save the world!

The Power of Two

As many of you probably know, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two hit shelves yesterday as part of the Nintendo Wii U release.

It's been getting a lot of great press, including some segments on major programs such as Good Morning America and The View!






Kotaku and the LA Times also had nice things to say about the latest game from Disney's Junction Point and the great Warren Spector. Powerhouse has been working with the Junction Point crew on this project for some time and we are so excited to see it finally come to life! We are very grateful to them for including us in this fantastic project and are so honored to be in the company of such incredible work.

The folks at IGN had some REALLY generous things to say about our cinematic work:

"There’s pleasure to be found in Epic Mickey 2’s cut-scenes, too. Lightning has struck twice for Powerhouse Studio, the outsourced animation team reunited to create Epic Mickey 2’s retro-flavored 2D cut-scenes. These are a stunning visual highlight, Powerhouse capturing a character’s bemusement or glee with just a raise of a squiggle or a slight shift of a black dot. The team has done well to create animations that retain Spector’s mad vision while feeling distinctively old-school."

Check out the cinema from the LA Times article here and go grab your copy of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two as soon as possible!!!!

Granny's Frying Pans of Fury!

Powerhouse just finished a very exciting project for one of our long-time clients, Drew Bates, and his property, Redneck Ninjas! The PHA team has been doing work for Drew and his RNN gang for years, and we're happy to announce that we've now had the opportunity to bring his characters to life in a different way... Enter: Granny's Frying Pans of Fury!

The first ever Redneck Ninjas game is a side-scroller that allows you to play as Granny in order to rescue her best friend Miss Chicken. Play the game now for free on Drew's site, Unique Publications.

Special thanks to Andy Schlossberg for helping us out in this process and making sure our vision became a reality. And as always, thanks to Drew for involving us in his dream. Play the game now and let us know what you think!

School of Rock Presents: Little Wing!

The Powerhouse team recently finished production on a new iOS game! 

The game, called Little Wing (after the greatest Jimi Hendrix song ever, of course), was created for a new client, School of Rock, and is aimed at young children in order to teach them to read and understand music. The School of Rock is an international organization that has over 50 campuses throughout the US and Mexico. Powerhouse did all of the design, in-game animation and cinematics for Little Wing, and we partnered with our friend Billy Garretsen to create the functionality.

Check it out for yourself by grabbing your own copy off the app store today!