Valentine's Day Claymation Cartoon

Keeping in mind the oncoming holiday of Valentine's day I felt the need to create a new claymation cartoon using one of our recurring clay characters: Charlie Butters. Charlie is a very sort of clumsy guy whom is always finding himself in one problem or another. Sometimes the problems he encounters are of his own doing, other times as in this case he is just the hapless victim of someone else's folly. If you want to watch the video right away click the youtube video at the side of this paragraph. If not read on for more interesting info on the making of this claymation and our Charlie Butters character.

As many know I actively create claymation cartoons (also music, articles, other film projects and art forms). In this claymation Charlie decides to impress his wife with a nice Valentine's day gift of a heart shaped box of chocolates. Upon bring home the box and placing it nicely on the kitchen counter he calls to his wife to come down and receive her surprise. After a moment his stomch begins rumbling (sounding much like a Wookie from Star Wars) and he runs off to the bathroom to do some business. Apparently he had one too many bean burritos that didn't agree with him.

Meanwhile as Charlie's wife had not come downstairs yet the box of chocolates sat unguarded on the kitchen counter. At this point Charlie's daughter Izzy comes home from playing earlier than expected and enters the kitchen. Mesmerized by the chocolate box and with stars in her eyes she quickly runs to the box and goes crazy devouring the chocolates. She then hears her mom coming downstairs and makes a hasty retreat. Upon entering the kitchen and expecting a sweet surprise Charlie's wife sees the empty box of chocolates and becomes a bit confused.

Charlie exits the bathroom much relieved and runs to the kitchen. Not noticing the empty box he loudly proclaims, "Surprise!" to his wife who now a bit angry asks if that is why he called her down. Izzy peers into the kitchen from the doorway but disappears when it appears she may get into trouble. Charlie says, "Happy Valentine's day!" to his mad wife only to get smacked in the face. Charlie's wife storms off as he asks her if that means she didn't like her present. Thus ends another of Charlie Butters misadventures.

The making of this claymation cartoon was again a combined effort headed by yours truly but assisted by my wife and my daughter. Both contributed to the project making characters/props and lending their voices. I combined our collective efforts in Adobe Premiere CS5 editing and adding sound/voices/animation and of course production/taking the shots. We again used our Panasonic GS-500 with controlled lighting. We hope you enjoyed this cartoon as much as we did making it and we wish everyone an awesome Valentine's day.

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