Sintel

I’ve just watched a movie that is my strong favorite of all those I’ve seen this year, and which has earned a place in my lifetime top ten. It’s animated, it’s only fifteen minutes long (of which two are credits) and it’s free. It’s called Sintel, and you should stop what you’re doing and go watch it right now. (While you can see the whole thing on YouTube, it is well worth the download of one of the full-res versions. If you must go the YouTube route, at the very least choose one of the higher resolutions.)

More spoiler-free images and discussions after the jump.

Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities

A little over a year ago, I posted regarding the dragon as represented in the medium of cake. While I didn’t have any plans to revisit that topic, the recent Smaug cake by Maria Campos instantly made me reconsider. My first encounter with this work was via Cake Wrecks (in the Sunday Sweets section, of course!), which linked additional images in Sugar Madness’ Flickr photostream. More details of construction can be found on the artist’s blog, The Cakerator.

Additional images after the jump.