The Editor’s pick of videos by some awfully talented people.
Sticks and Spoons
We have been fans of The Brothers McLeod (pronounced MacCloud) since the viral success or their 2006 videos animating semi-sensical spam emails that had evaded their inbox filters. Spamland, as the videos were called, had a quirky cleverness to them that stood out even among other viral hits of those early YouTube days. The brothers soon proved they could be more than clever with another viral hit — a series of videos about a pint-sized but enthusiastic aspiring ninja named Fuggy Fuggy. That one briefly caught the attention of MTV and later Mondo Media.
Their work rather brilliantly combines analog and digital techniques to create a unique animation style (which manages at times to be simultaneously endearing and a little off-putting with its surrealist edge). Their early animations were hand drawn and then digitally animated. The McLeods also experimented with stop-motion animation, creating several award-winning shorts of the art film festival variety. And their later work, such as this episode of Sticks for the BBC, smoothly melds drawing and stop-motion into a third form that serves the narrative while also delighting the audience with its ingenuity.
The Brothers McLeod have enjoyed steady successes in recent years, writing and directing a number of television commercials and campaigns (Guinness and Skittles). They also have written and directed series for BBC (Pedro and Frankensheep, Quiff and Boot, Sticks) and Tate Galleries (Art Sparks), and written for a range of TV, games, and web projects (Noddy in Toyland, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Octonauts).
In early 2009, they were nominated for a BAFTA Film Award in the Short Animation category for their film Codswallop. Late 2009, they were nominated for two BAFTA Children’s Awards for their work with Tate.
