A little mid-week entertainment. For your consideration - Cours Toujours, a charming little video by Elise Garcette and Olivier Barré, with music by Pilöt and produced by La Station Animation.

Cours Toujours - animation short film from Cours Toujours Team on Vimeo.

It’s not often I can say that I really like a commercial. More often than not they just give me license to complain for four minutes between segments of whatever program I’m watching. That being said, I’m kinda crazy for this new spot in AT&T’s ‘Rethink Possible’ commercial campaign.

Recognize that voice? Come on…think! Here’s a clue:

It’s the original Willy Wonka! - Gene Wilder singing Pure Imagination from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Here are the lyrics:

Come with me, and you’ll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you’ll see
Into your imagination

We’ll begin, with a spin
Traveling in a world of my creation
What we’ll see will defy explanation

And if you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There’s nothing to it

There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there, you’ll be free
If you truly wish to be

And if you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There’s nothing to it

There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there, you’ll be free
If you truly wish to be

(image via Collectors’ Quest)

To celebrate its 60th anniversary yesterday, Lombard Street in San Francisco was transformed into a life size version of Candyland! Hundreds of colorful foam pads were arranged on the 575-foot-long path recreating the classic kids board game. Four teams of six children played a massive round of the game, running up and down Lombard (known as the “crookedest street in the world.”)

The original Candyland was created by a San Diego resident name Eleanor Abbott while she was recovering from polio as a way to entertain children also recuperating from the disease. According to the San Francisco Examiner, “To honor Abbott’s inspiration, event organizers arranged for children age 6 to 10 from UC San Francisco Children’s Hospital and the nonprofit Friends of the Children to compete…”

To read more about Candyland’s history and to see great images of vintage game boxes, visit Hasbro’s web site.

(photos via SFist)

“And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!”

I am loving the collection of paintings and drawings compiled by artist Cory Godbey as a tribute to and celebration of the book Where the Wild Things Are . With the film version of the Maurice Sendak classic slated for release in October of this year, Corey’s blog Terrible Yellow Eyes is timely and inspiring.

The classic paper doll is a kid craft that’s been around for ages - the first manufactured version (named Little Fanny) appeared in London in 1810. Below, please find an itty bitty selection of modern paper doll kits, downloads and virtual varieties. And read more about the history of the paper doll at the Original Paper Doll Artists Guild.

• Brand spankin’ new paper doll kit from the crafty folks at Paper Source. Multi-ethnic kids in a DIY, all-inclusive kit - even include removable adhesive.
• Paper dolls by the darling Emily Martin of the Black Apple. Read about her most recent round of dolls here and visit her shop here.
• A charming (and free!) paper doll craft created by Sarah Neuburger of the Small Object. (via Kiddley)

Paper dolls without the paper? Give these virtual paper dolls a try!

• Jenny B. Harris’ Virtual Softie
• Jen Corace’s Dress Up

‘Bubbleologist’ Samsam Bubbleman (aka Sam Heath) may have just set the record for world’s largest free-floating soap bubble!

In an attempt to break the current 2005 record of a 105.4 cubic feet bubble, he created one that stretched at least 20ft by 5ft by 5ft in Finsbury Park, North London this week. Pending official confirmation from the folks at Guinness World Records, the huge bubble (made with a piece of rope between two sticks and Samsam’s secret bubble solution) could be the new record holder.  Whatever the outcome (witnesses say he has it in the bag!) it was one impressive and beautiful bubble.  (via NotCot, via Daily Mail)

While you may not achieve the same gigantic results, I found a tutorial over at Ziggity Zoom to make a bubble apparatus somewhat similar to Samsam’s but on a kid-friendly scale using two drinking straws and cotton string! They also provide a simple bubble solution recipe.  My suggestion?  Bathing suits.  Let the kids have some sticky fun in the backyard and then hose ‘em down or break out the sprinkler. Happy bubbling!

Today, a fond farewell to Mr. John Hughes, a writer, director and producer whose films made such an impression on my teenage years.

“Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. ”

-Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 1986

“Saturday, March 24,1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did *was* wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed.”

-Bran Johnson, The Breakfast Club, 1985

“We don’t have none of this stuff in the boy’s room! Wait a minute! We don’t got none of this… we don’t got doors on the stalls in the boy’s room, we don’t have, what is this? What’s this? We don’t have a candy machine in the boy’s room!”

-Duckie, Pretty in Pink, 1986

“There is no use trying,” said Alice;
“one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen.
“When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day.
Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as
six impossible things before breakfast.”

Have you seen these concept art images and publicity photos for Tim Burton’s upcoming version of Alice in Wonderland? Veteran favorites Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp return to play the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter respectively in this feature slated for release in March of 2010. Live action merged with computer generated animation and motion-capture creatures all transferred into 3-D. Curiouser and curiouser!

Last weekend the mechanical marionette street theater company Royal de Luxe took over the streets of their hometown Nantes, France. In an elaborate dance of puppeteers and behemoth marionettes, the theater company performed a fantastic story written by founder Jean-Luc Courcoult entitled Giantess of the Titanic and the Diver.

Learn more about this performance and see the day by day documentation including amazing photos and video on the village of Nantes website. You can also read more about Royal de Luxe on this unofficial fan website providing a chronological history of past performances. Both websites are written in French so I’ve linked to them using Google translation tools. The auto translations are a little rough but you can make out most of the information provided.

The following images are from the Royal de Luxe photo pool on Flickr. Links to specific images can be found each mosaic.

1. Nantes, Estuaire 2009, Royal de Luxe, 2. Scaphandrier, 3. IMG_2936, 4. Portrait

1. Le scaphandrier 2e jour #17, 2. Nantes Royal de Luxe juin 2009, 3. Geant assis, 4. This World Should Swallow You Whole, 5. Nantes, Estuaire 2009, Royal de Luxe, 6. Nantes, Estuaire 2009, Royal de Luxe, 7. Untitled, 8. Dance III, 9. pas de deux, enfin…quatre, 10. La petite géante - 5, 11. Royal Deluxe-2.jpg, 12. Royal Deluxe-13.jpg

It’s likely you’ve visited the little town of Chewandswallow during nightly bedtime stories and fans of Judi Barret’s absurdist tall-tale Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will be interested to know that Sony Pictures Animation has just released the trailer for their movie adaptation. It’s always hit and miss with pictures adapted from literary favorites and I was a little disappointed to see that there was no reference to Ron Barrett’s great book illustrations - but nonetheless, you’ll probably find me in the audience this September. Check out the full length trailer below or view it here.

And what’s a meatball without some spaghetti? I came across these fantastic 1957 pictures and film footage from the BBC of that year’s Swiss spaghetti harvest. Check out the video from the news show Panorama below or view it here. Read more about spaghetti harvesting here.