5 Highlights From The 2017 Animation Block Program

Animation Block Party (ABP), the long-running New York animation festival, has released the complete program for its 14th annual edition, set to take place July 27-30 across various venues in Brooklyn.

Beyond the competition short programs and special screenings, the festival has significantly expanded its program offerings this year. The festival will offer two mornings of filmmaker Q&As, along with discussions and other events, such as a panel on contemporary New York commercial studios with Aardman Nathan Love’s Joe Burrascano and Psyop’s Tom Brown, as well as a Dragonframe stop-motion demo by its creator Jamie Caliri.

Here are five other programming highlights from the upcoming ABP:

• In honor of its 40th anniversary, a restored 35mm print of Richard Williams’ Raggedy Ann and Andy : A Musical Adventure will be screened, followed by a discussion with Jerry Beck, Dan Haskett, Doug Crane, and Steve Stanchfield. The film featured virtuosic contributions by animation legends like Art Babbitt, Tissa David, Corny Cole, and Emery Hawkins (Hawkins’ The Greedy character is at the top of this post), while giving opportunities to young artists who would go on to make significant contributions in the industry, such as the aforementioned Haskett, Eric Goldberg, Susan Kroyer, and Tom Sito.
• The New York City premiere of Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero’s Birdboy: The Forgotten Children will take place on Saturday, July 29. Set to be released in the fall by GKIDS and known as Psiconautas, los niños olvidados in its native Spanish, the film is based on Vázquez’s comic work and won the Goya earlier this year for best animated feature.

  

• An Evening with Bojack will present “select new highlights and classic clips” from the Netflix series Bojack Horseman, followed by a Q&A with the show’s production designer and producer, Lisa Hanawalt, and supervising director, Mike Hollingsworth.
• For most of the decade following its release, audiences tried to forget the horror of the Dreamworks x Jerry Seinfeld collab Bee Movie, but more recently, the film has regained prominence in an array of internet memes. Viewed in that campy light, this 10th anniversary screening of the movie might be fun, or at least tolerable. The screening will be introduced by The Art of Bee Movie author Jerry Beck.
• Cartoon Network will present a screening of new shorts produced in its artist development program. The shorts include Calvin Wong’s Legendary Place, Owen Dennis’ Infinity Train, Diego Molano’s Victor & Valentino, Elizabeth Ito’s Welcome To My Life, and the NYC premiere of Stephen Neary’s The Fancies.

Tickets will be on sale at doors to each event, but individual tickets and passes can be purchased in advance on the Animation Block website.