Portal:Animation

"Hell Is Other Robots" is the ninth episode of season one of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on May 18, 1999, as the season finale of the first season. The episode was written by Eric Kaplan and directed by Rich Moore. Guest stars in this episode include the Beastie Boys as themselves and Dan Castellaneta voicing the Robot Devil. The episode is one of the first to focus heavily on Bender. In the episode he develops an addiction to electricity. When this addiction becomes problematic, Bender joins the Temple of Robotology, but after Fry and Leela tempt Bender with alcohol and prostitutes, he quits the Temple of Robotology and is visited by the Robot Devil for sinning. Finally Fry and Leela come to rescue him, and the three escape. The episode introduces the Robot Devil, Reverend Lionel Preacherbot and the religion of the Temple of Robotology, a Futurama spoof on the Church of Scientology. The episode received positive reviews, and was one of four featured on the DVD boxed set of Matt Groening's favorite episodes, Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection.

• ... that Princess Mononoke was the most expensively animated, most expensively promoted, and highest-grossing Japanese film of its time?
• ... that The Book of Virtues inspired PBS's first animated primetime series?
• ... that Nobody is the highest-grossing 2D Chinese animated film?
• ... that director Isao Takahata reportedly stayed overnight at a doss-house to ensure that the Japanese animated film Jarinko Chie accurately depicts the city of Osaka?
• ... that Barbara Wilk once hand-painted two thousand frames for her animated film?
• ... that a re-edit of an animated film produced for a 2024 Milan exhibition became popular among one site's furry userbase?

Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening (born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, screenwriter and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama. Groening made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. Life in Hell caught the attention of James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. The shorts would be spun off into their own series: The Simpsons, which has since aired 805 episodes. In 1997, Groening, along with former Simpsons writer David X. Cohen, developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999. After four years on the air, the show was canceled by Fox in 2003, but Comedy Central commissioned 16 new episodes from four direct-to-DVD movies in 2008. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell.

The accolades received by Up, a 2009 computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film, which premiered on May 29, 2009, in North America, became the first animated 3D film to open the Cannes Film Festival. It was directed by Pete Docter (pictured), co-directed by Bob Peterson, and produced by Jonas Rivera. It garnered various awards and nominations, most of them for the "Best Animated Picture" category and for the film's soundtrack. Up was nominated for five Academy Awards at the 2010 Ceremony, winning two, for Best Animated Feature and for Best Original Score. Rivera received the Motion Pictures Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award, for Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures, given by the Producers Guild of America, while Docter, Peterson and Giacchino were honored with British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for their work on the film. Furthermore the film was nominated at the 2009 Satellite Awards in the categories "Best Animated or Mixed Media Film", "Best Original Screenplay" and "Best Original Score".

• ....that the South Park episode "The Coon" spoofs such dark comic book movies as The Dark Knight, The Spirit and Watchmen?
• ...that the 1999 anime series Digimon Adventure was first seen as an imitation of Nintendo's Pokémon franchise when its episodes first aired in North America?
• ...that the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends special "Destination: Imagination" won the Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More)" in 2009?

Films released

• 1925 – Alice Solves the Puzzle (United States)
• 1928 – Love Sunk (United States)
• 1934 – Funny Little Bunnies (United States)
• 1945 – Life with Feathers (United States)
• 1951 – Scentimental Romeo (United States)
• 1956 – Tweet and Sour (United States)

Births

• 1911 – Joseph Barbera, American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist (pictured) (d. 2006)