Tomorrow’s April 1 and that could only mean one thing: the annual Animation Nation meeting in Los Angeles. This year is the sixth edition and it’ll take place at 1:30 pm at the Pickwick Center (1001 Riverside Drive, Burbank, California). Food and beverages will be served and everybody will have a chance to speak and vent about the crappy state of the animation biz. No charge but contributions are welcome. For more details, check out this thread at AnimationNation.com.

Here’s a terrific on-line collection of Cliff Sterrett’s classic comic strip POLLY AND HER PALS. Sterrett’s work is what cartooning is all about - personality, humor and appeal. Not to mention Sterrett has an exquisite sense of storytelling, composition, design and color. It’s an all-in-one cartooning master class well worth studying. The French website that features these comics also has sections on other fine cartoonists like T.S. Sullivant and Lyonel Feininger.

(Thanks to Marc Deckter for the link)

On Friday, June 25, John Canemaker brings “The Art and Flair of Mary Blair” to the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.The widely respected independent animator and animation historian John Canemaker will sign his latest book, THE ART AND FLAIR OF MARY BLAIR, and present a profusely illustrated lecture on designer Blair’s life and influential career. The multimedia presentation won acclaim last year at both New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Following an intermission, there will be a rare 35mm screening of the Disney feature ALICE IN WONDERLAND, with color and styling by Blair.Mary Blair (1911-1978) was one of Walt Disney’s most brilliant conceptual designers, helping define the look of such classics as CINDERELLA (1950), ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1951), and PETER PAN (1953). Although much of her art veers away from naturalism toward abstraction and Surrealism, she was one of Walt Disney’s favorite artists.The Pacific Film Archive theatre is located at 2575 Bancroft Way near Bowditch Street, Berkeley, California.
For more info, call: 510/642-1412 or check www.bampfa.berkeley.edu Tickets, $4-$8.

Big news story of the day:
John Mancini has a beef with some cartoon fish. Mancini is the founder of the Italic Institute of America, which decries what it calls Hollywood’s stereotyping of Italians as dumb thugs or murderous gangsters. Now the organization has targeted the upcoming DreamWorks movie “Shark Tale,” because some of its villainous sea creatures are played by Italians and have Italian names.
Read the full story HERE.

The BREW mailbox has been flooded with colorful postcards for Artists gallery openings. Here’s two of note:Glenn Barr (Ren & Stimpy, et al) will present new paintings and prints under the title “Haunted World”, at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Feliz, CA. The Artists reception is Friday April 2nd at 8pm.A Sick & Twisted favorite, Miles Thompson (Brian’s Brain) has a new exhibit “Idol Time” at the Copro Nason Gallery in Culver City. The Artists reception is Saturday April 10th at 8pm.

As long as we’re posting examples of inappropriate uses of CG (like the image from the new GARFIELD movie below), here’s a look at the DreamWorks primetime animated series FATHER OF THE PRIDE, which will debut in the fall on NBC.

You can see the full image HERE, which also includes the equally grotesque CG versions of Siegfried and Roy. One thing you have to give Jeffrey Katzenberg credit for is that he always manages to defy everybody’s expectations. Just when you thought a DreamWorks animated project couldn’t become any more unappealing, Katzenberg proves that his lack of visual taste knows no bounds and he produces something like FATHER OF THE PRIDE. I’ll be watching at least one episode of the show, if only to see how DreamWorks could blow a reported $2 million per episode and still end up with a cartoon that looks this sad.

For those of you who haven’t choked on your Scooby snacks yet - here’s the trailer for the forthcoming live action/CG GARFIELD THE MOVIE, with Bill Murray as the voice.
I’m just wondering how much mileage is left in this new hybrid genre (CASPER, SCOOBY-DOO, ROCKY & BULLWINKLE, STUART LITTLE, KANGAROO JACK, CATS & DOGS and others). I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of it already. And this GARFIELD flick looks horrible.

Check out this article posted on THE TOQUE (Canada’s version to THE ONION), which asks “Whatever Happened to Wholesome Cartoon Violence”?