FOX has just scheduled the all-new half-hour CGI special “Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy” for telecast on Sunday, Dec. 19. King Features has placed all it’s bets on this 3-D TV-DVD special to renew the public’s interest in its Popeye franchise.If they only understood that if they allowed the re-release of the original Paramount classic cartoons, the public would re-discover the original charm of the animated characters - a charm that made Popeye a sensation in the 1930s and again in the late 1950s.For those of you want to see how Popeye should be animated, here’s some eye candy for ya: A group of original pencil animation drawings from the Max Fleischer Popeye cartoon SOCK-A-BYE BABY (1934) have been collected and are flashed sequentially at this website.

Not since Orson Welles performed the voice of a planet (in the 1986 animated feature Transformers: The Movie) has an actors final performance been so embarrassing.Shortly before his recent passing, Marlon Brando voiced Mrs. Sour (see image at right) in BIG BUG MAN - an absolutely awful-looking hand drawn animated film about a candy factory worker (Brendan Fraser) who gets superpowers after insects bite him, set for release in 2006. Apparently Brando did it wearing a blond wig and a dress, with full makeup and white gloves, according to writer/co-director Bob Bendetson. “I guess it was part of his Method training or something,” Bendetson said.See a CNN report on this film here (Quicktime required) or read more about it here.

The San Diego Comic Con is so huge (80,000+ people expected this year), so overwhelming, so impossible to meet up with friends that I’m posting the list a panels I will try to attend so you can find me if you want…I will be hanging my hat on the convention floor at the Asifa-Hollywood table which is booth 5374 (across from the TokyoPop display). I cannot guarantee that I’ll stick to this schedule, but based on the advance programming scheduled posted on the comic con website - here’s what I hope to see:THURSDAY
2:30 GOLDEN & SILVER AGE PANEL - Room 8
3:00 COMIC CON’S 35th YEAR - Room 1B or…
3:00 - FREAKS & GEEKS REUNION - Room 6ab
4:40 - CFQ SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW Room 6CDEF
6:00 - HISTORY OF U.S. ANIME - Room 7FRIDAY
11:00 - JACK ADLER - Room 8
1:00 - I’m interviewing SID JACOBSON - Room 3
1:00 - CHUCK McCANN - Room 5ab (I’m pissed I will miss the first hour of this…)
2:30 - THE INCREDIBLES & BRAD BIRD - Room 20
3:00 - CARTOON NETWORK PREVIEW - Room 6ab
4:00 - BOB CLAMPETT TRIBUTE (I’m on the panel) - Room 8
6:00 - TOM SITO on ANIMATION STRIKES - Room 7b
6:00 - THE INKWELL (new fanboy TV show) Room 9
9:00 - LADY DEATH screening (I predict I will skip this)SATURDAY
12:30 - Fred Ladd & GIGANTOR - Room 2
3:00 - SKY CAPTAIN & TEAM AMERICA preview (two movies I’m dying to see) - Hall H
5:30 - CARTOON NETWORK ADULT SWIM PANEL - Room 6ab
6:00 - ANIMATION DEVELOPMENT PANEL Room 2
8:30 - WORST CARTOON EVER (My screening!) - Room 6ab
10:00 - HAIR HIGH (Bill Plympton’s latest film) - Room 6abSUNDAY
Before I leave, I’ll check out the dealers room in the morning and juggle these:
1:00 - JOHNNY DC (DC’s kids comics panel) - Room 3
1:00 - JOSS WHEDON (Buffy creator) - Room 20
1:30 - TEACHER’S PET PANEL (Gary Baseman and co.) - Room 5ab
These panels are just the tip of the iceberg, and I reserve the right to change my mind and just sit in room 8 or 6AB the entire con. I’m already exhausted! Hope to see you there!

Chris F. writes to ask if I ever heard of the book/DVD set, FLIPS 7, which presents the work of some dozen-and-half modern animation studios from around the globe. I haven’t heard of the book, but it looks like something worth picking up. Here is the description of FLIPS from the publisher’s website:

FLIPS Book Seven focus on independent animators and production houses. It caters animators and those who are interested in animations. In this latest publication, some 17 individuals and studios from around the world have presented their latest works, including encompassing animated short films, TV commercials and music videos. The stirring line-up includes Shynola from London, Duck Soup Studios from Los Angeles, Devilrobots and Furi Furi Company from Japan, and many other up and coming design companies.

FLIPS sounds like part of a recent trend of book/DVD combos with a focus on non-mainstream animation which are being released by design publishers like IdN, Taschen and Harper Design International. Another recent title along these lines is ANIMATION NOW! which based from the preview posted on the Taschen site is something I’d really like to get my hands on when the book is released in September. There’s also ANIMATION UNLIMITED: INNOVATIVE SHORT FILMS SINCE 1940 by Liz Faber and Helen Walters which is a book I actually have. This one doesn’t focus on studios but rather fifty individual directors, offering a one-page bio of each filmmaker and then 1-5 pages of stills from one of that director’s films. There’s an impressive range of artists covered from experimental legends like Len Lye, Stan Brakhage and Oskar Fischinger, indie mainstays including Caroline Leaf, Frédéric Back and Paul Dreissen, and digital motion graphics by the likes of the Pleix collective and Dylan Kendle. As is the nature of independent animation, it can hardly be expected that anybody will enjoy the works of all the artists featured in the book, but it’s a nice introduction to many well known and obscure independent animators and serves as a starting point for further exploration of the independent scene.

Animator turned self-publishing magnate, Michel Gagn&eacute files a REPORT from Anthrocon 2004, a major “furry” convention in Philadelphia. I’m not planning on attending one of these conventions anytime soon so it’s interesting to hear Michel’s outsider take on the proceedings. They apparently treat their guests of honor none too shabbily, picking them up in limos, housing them in top-floor hotel suites and feeding them nice dinners. The flip side is…well…just look at the pictures on his site. For folks who want to purchase Michel’s fine books and merchandise in a slightly less adventurous environment, they can see him at next week’s San Diego Comic-Con where Gagn&eacute International will be located at booth #1907.

And yet another blog. This one is by members of The Society of Ilustrators of Los Angeles and links to animation/cartoon-related items as well as illustration sites. Good stuff. (link via Scrubbles.net)

Jonathan Groff, exec producer of the forthcoming NBC series FATHER OF THE PRIDE, explains why they’re producing the show in CG animation: “It lets us tell human stories and go further, I think, and do more with them than we could if we were just doing it with live actors.” According to this Zap2it article, the episode that NBC recently screened for critics went further than live-action by depicting the following: “…panda-on-panda loving, several graphic (if euphemistic) discussions of lion intercourse, a healthy dose of man-chimp passion and several jokes about the shame that comes from being an elephant in love with a turkey. Throw in a banjo-playing monkey who calls his wife a bitch and an assortment of language and images that would make an inanimate cartoon cel blush.” Between this and his SHREK franchise, it looks like Jeffrey Katzenberg is vying to become the John Kricfalusi of unappealing computer animation. (article link via Animated-News)