It may fall through, by the AP is reporting that Sony is in talks to buy MGM.What does that mean to us? Well it would combine the theatrical UPA libray with the DePatie-Freleng cartoons - as well as the Screen Gems (Scrappy, Fox & Crow), and a bunch of TV series from Dilbert and Real Ghostbusters to Mighty Orbots and Super President!Perhaps the basis of a (another) new animation channel? It would also return MGM to its historic Culver City backlot (which Sony now owns), but I digress…

Mark Evanier offers more insightful thoughts about the contract renegotiations of the voice actors on THE SIMPSONS. I think ultimately we both arrived at the same conclusion: that the actors deserve more money.

ASIFA-Hollywood has started two new blogs: one that keeps people posted on the general activities of the organization and another dedicated solely to ASIFA’s Animation Archive Project.

BREW reader Gerit Vandenberg points out a rare small-press book currently posted on eBay: Neal Seymour’s novel RE-ANIMATING WALT. I’ve never heard of the book, but apparently it’s an amusing fictional what-if account of Walt Disney’s resurrection. Here’s Gerit’s description:

The book aspires to the innocent flavor of a Hardy Boys Mystery… Two young guys trying to make a buck working the janitorial night shift at a cryogenics lab accidentally hit the wrong switch with a mop handle, and presto! –unthawed living Walt. They whisk him home under the cover of night and nurse Walt back to human functionality. Walt then hangs out with the two lead characters and spins stories about the past and helps them film their own movie packed with Disney values.

I would love to see this concept realized into a film where Walt gets his revenge on Eisner with an electrical storm backdrop! The author also has a real penchant for technical details and he makes Walt describe the virtues of old Mitchell movie cameras. It’s a geek’s delight and a stupid, sloppy book. I love it!

Gerit also offers this dialogue excerpt from the part of the book where Walt is regaining consciousness…

“Am I in Heaven?” asked the patient whose voice was getting stronger and stronger by the minute. “It’s not quite what I expected. I didn’t go to church, but I always believed I was a Christian.”

“No, you’re in Studio City and we’re trying our best to warm you up,” said Tim.

(Thanks to Gerit for the news item headline as well. Couldn’t have thought of a better one.)

How do I feel about THE SIMPSONS voice actors asking for pay raises from $125,000 per episode to $360,000 per episode (or from about $3 million to $8 million per year), as well as demanding a share of the show’s profits? Frankly I think as talented as they are, there is no voice actor, not even the venerable Mel Blanc, who deserves that amount of money. Bear in mind, the vocal cast on THE SIMPSONS only puts in 6-7 hours of work per episode, which amounts to less than one month of labor throughout the year.

On the other hand, there’s no denying that the six principal voice actors - Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Julie Kavner, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer - are the true stars of THE SIMPSONS. The animation and artwork are little more than a bland and formulaic stage for the writer’s precious one-liners and cloying pop culture references, which are somehow made more tolerable by the creative delivery of the vocal sextet. The show, which is still the second-highest rated program on Fox, earns the network $2.5 billion each year. And if this money doesn’t go to the voice actors, it also doesn’t benefit anybody else like the artists who toil on the show at Film Roman in North Hollywood or the animators who labor on it overseas. As Mark Evanier points out on his weblog, “The money the actors don’t get paid is money that the studio gets to keep…and even pay out in bonuses to people who have less to do with the show’s success than the actors.” Looking at it from that perspective, it seems that the voice actors are the lesser of two evils in this case, and more deserving of the money, although hardly the most deserving.

For more background on this dispute, here are articles from the NY TIMES and THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER which explain the situation. Also this article from USA TODAY talks about the practical implications of the strike for fans of the show, and that’s a shortened 16th season of THE SIMPSONS. What I’m curious about is whether any artists at Film Roman have had to be temporarily laid off because of the strike, or whether there were enough episodes already in the pipeline to keep the production running smoothly?

Grim NatwickUb IwerksASIFA-Hollywood and Vintage Ink & Paint have teamed to produce a series of collectible postcards and limited edition prints honoring great artists from the history of cartoon animation. The first two artists featured in the series are Ub Iwerks (a self portrait) and Grim Natwick (caricature by Chuck Jones). Included with the postcards and prints is biographical information on these important figures.
I just recieved a set of these postcards and they are really nice. I highly recommend these limited editions. A set of 20 5×7 inch postcards (10 of each) are available for $20 a set; and a pair of numbered 8×10 archival digital prints (1 of each) is $30 a set, plus shipping and handling. A significant portion of the proceeds from the sale of these items will be donated to the ASIFA Animation Archive Project.

It’s official! Michael Eisner received a 72.5% no confidence vote from Disney employee 401K plan participants. Save Disney.com has come up with some new figures that don’t bode well for Michael.
Associated Press prints Disney’s rebuttal.

Two of the special themes at the upcoming 35th San Diego Comic Con International (July 22-25, 2004) are animation related: the 75th anniversary of Popeye and the 90th birthday of Bob Clampett (as well as the 20th anniversary of the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award which the Con awards each year in Bob’s memory). No word yet on what special events they’re planning for these anniversaries. Also worth noting, two of the special Con guests this year are legendary voice actress June Foray and independent filmmaker Bill Plympton. Speaking of Bill, here’s a great interview with him on AICN where he offers his thoughts on the best way to get your film accepted into The Animation Show and explains the backstory of his new short film PARKING. He also offers the following quote, which serves as an elegant rebuttal to Mike Lazzo’s inane comments from an earlier post.

Bill Plympton: “Animation, for me, is the truest art form because the fantasies I have in my head really would be very difficult to do in live action. Animation seems to be the purest art form to expressing those visuals. And I must say they mostly are *visual*. I’m not a very good writer in terms of dialogue and scripting. I’m a visual person, and, for me, the subconscious of the brain really hatches these incredibly surrealistic and bizarre images.”