Nearly every single US presidential television ad from 1952 to the present can be seen HERE. Noticeably there aren’t many animated commercials, except in 1952 when both Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson had cartoon spots. Poor Stevenson was getting bargain-basement animation, as evidenced by the hands of one of the characters which is screwed on backwards in the “Double Talk” spot. Also in 1960 there’s the John F. Kennedy spot which was produced by none other than UPA director/ROGER RAMJET creator Fred Crippen, who is the subject of a retrospective that I’m putting together for this year’s Ottawa Animation Festival. The story behind the ad is that Fred and some co-workers had decided to create a spot for Adlai Stevenson’s 1960 run against Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and others at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. They put the ad on a loop and took it down to the Memorial Sports Arena where at night they projected it against the side of the building. They hadn’t been commissioned by Adlai’s campaign to do this, but were merely ardent Stevenson fans who wanted to show their support for him. The ad was something of a hit, and while Stevenson lost the Democratic nomination, some of Kennedy’s people who had seen it projected at the convention liked it enough to hire Fred’s studio Pantomime Pictures to produce the catchy Kennedy jingle spot. (link via BoingBoing.net)

Our buddy Mike Van Eaton at the wonderful Van Eaton Gallery on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks, California recently came up with this wonderful piece of animation history: a 1933 Charles Mintz studio Christmas Card featuring photos of the entire staff!Check it out by clicking here! If you look close you’ll see the likes of Ed Benedict, Art Davis, Joe DeNat, Emery Hawkins and many other famous names - as well as the inkers, painters, producers and support staff. What a treasure this is! Thanks for sharing this with us, Mike.

Timothy Albee moved to Alaska after working on Disney’s DINOSAUR and created his own 22-minute CG short called KAZE, GHOST WARRIOR. He made the film not just to tell a story, but also to make a statement, namely that animators can create feature quality animation on their own personal computers for a fraction of the cost of studio features. Albee says that he spent only $5000 on the film. His production credits for KAZE are another strong indictment of the Hollywood system, highlighting the bureaucratic and archaic production system which plagues modern animated features. There’s more about Albee’s film in this article from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Tim also recently wrote a book about the film’s independent production process - CGI FILMMAKING: THE CREATION OF GHOST WARRIOR.

Next is a very different type of project. Sergio Pablos, an animator who worked at Disney Feature in both Paris and Burbank, has moved to Spain where he has become creative director of the Madrid-based studio Animagic. Here he’s produced a beautiful trailer for a hand-drawn animated film called GIACOMO’S SECRET (click on the “What we are doing” link). The film also has an intriguing story to support the artwork, however it’ll be a few more years before anybody can see the completed film. Sergio recently wrote a bit about the trailer on Animation Nation:

To answer some of your questions, it’s still too early to know whether or not the film will be released in the States. First we need to find out whether the film will get enough financing, although all signs are pointing to yes so far. In any case, the film wouldn’t go into production for another year or so. Unfortunatelly, that’s the way things work in Europe. You have to get companies from different countries involved in the project, then each of these companies requests funds from their own governments, and that can take a while. No private investor in Europe will ever produce an animated film on his own. And it doesn’t look like this is about to change either.

As for the trailer, it’s the work of one lay out artist, one BG painter, two animators (myself included), and a few people who chipped in by doing just about everything. It was a very low budget, and a very short schedule, but we were somehow able to finish it in time.

As for any other ex-Disney guys beside myself, the other animator was Borja Montoro, another Spaniard with whom I worked with at Disney Paris. Most of the character design work is also his. Very talented guy.

Jorge Gutierrez’s wife, Sandra Equihua, was kind enough to forward some photos she took during the Flash & TV Production panel, which I moderated at ASIFA-Hollywood’s 2D Expo a couple weeks ago. They serve little purpose but I figured as long as I had them, it wouldn’t hurt to post them. There’s also a photo from the TV Development panel which featured Eric Homan (Frederator) and Peter Gal (Nickelodeon). If you’re trying to get a show on Nickelodeon, you should consider being nice to at least one of these fine gents.

Photos (identified left to right):

1. Gabe Swarr, Bob Harper

2. Eddie Mort, Lili Chin, Jorge Gutierrez

3. Me, Eddie, Lili, Jorge, Gabe, Bob

4. Development panel with moderator Rita Street (Animation Magazine), Eric Homan (Frederator) and Peter Gal (Nickelodeon).

I had the pleasure of working with Chris McDonnell for a while at Spumco last year when he was at the studio developing a Bakshi project. Chris is an industrious fellow who can do pretty much anything including illustration, animation, character design, web design and music. Learn of his many talents at ChrisMcD.com.

The future of Disney animation? You decide: Click Here!(Thanks for “Rzetlin” on Animation Nation for the link)

Every two years the UCLA Film and Television Archives opens it’s vaults and presents it’s latest restorations to the public in a gala program called “The Festival Of Preservation”. The 12th edition of this incredible film series runs from July 22nd through August 21st, mainly at the James Bridges theatre in Melnitz Hall on the UCLA Campus.Relevant to us, however, is the bounty of restored animation showcased during the festival. Opening night (7/22) “Paths Of Glory”will preceeded by a restored version of George Pal’s anti-war Puppetoon TULIPS SHALL GROW (1942). On the following Sunday night (7/25) a restoration of the Max Fleischer Color Classic A CARTUNE PORTRAIT (1937) will screen preceeeding “Penny Serenade”.A previously lost Toonerville Trolley cartoon, TOONERVILLE’S BOOZEM FRIENDS (1921), will preceed a double bill “The Roaring Road” and Harold Lloyd’s A Sailor-Made Man.But the big day for us animation historians is Sunday August 1st at 2pm: A TREASURY OF SILENT ANIMATION. This program will include rare animation by Hugh Harman and Ub Iwerks, Earl Hurd and Lyman Howe, and “lost” subjects by pioneers Emile Cohl and Max Fleischer as well as surviving fragments by Paul Terry and J. Stuart Blackton. A partial list of the program includes:

• THEATRE DE HULA HULA (1917)
• LES METAMORPHOSES COMIQUES (1912) Directed by Emile Cohl
• INDOOR SPORTS (1921) Animation: William C. Nolan.
• JOYS AND GLOOMS (1921) Animation: John C. Terry.
• FELIX THE CAT WEATHERS THE WEATHER (1926)
• SICK CYLINDERS (1926) An “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” cartoon.
• THE WANDERING TOY (1928) “Lyman H. Howe’s Hodge-Podge.”
• JIMMY GETS THE PENNANT (1917)
• KOKO PACKS UP (1925) Directed by Dave Fleischer
• DEEP SEA DIVING (1925) Red Seal Pictures.
• ANIMATED HAIR CARTOON, NO. 21 (1927) Directed by Sid Marcus.
• A MODERN MOTHER GOOSE (1924) Issue No. 1 of the Fleischer “Funshop” series.
• KOKO’S QUEST(1927) Directed by Dave Fleischer.• And surviving segments from films known and unknown, including early Vitagraph subjects, “Bobby Bumps,” “Aesop’s Film Fables,” “Mutt and Jeff” and other cartoon series.

This program is presented by Hugh M. Hefner and introduced by UCLA Archivist Jere Guldin.Do not miss this event! The live action films ain’t bad either. Check out the entire schedule HERE.

Here’s the official website for Craig McCracken’s new Flash animated series FOSTER’S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS which debuts on Cartoon Network next month. Seems CN is trying to woo me back with a show that I actually want to watch. While we’re on the subject of entertaining cartoons that actually care about the visuals, here’s a link to a new blog about Nick’s MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT. The blog is run by a writer working on the show so hopefully he’ll continue posting some of the sumptuous artwork being produced for that series. Hey, there’s an idea - wouldn’t it be cool if all animated TV series (well, the good ones at least) had their own official blogs? So far MUCHA LUCHA and TEENAGE ROBOT are on board. Who’s next?