According to Daily Variety, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has officially qualified 11 films for competition in the animated feature race. The 11 are Disney-Pixar’s “The Incredibles,” Disney’s “Home on the Range” and “Disney’s Teacher’s Pet”; DreamWorks’ “Shrek 2,” “Shark Tale” and “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence”; Paramount-Nickelodeon’s “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie”; Warner Bros. “Polar Express” and “Clifford’s Really Big Movie” (two ends of the spectrum, both distributed by WB); Masquerade Films’ “Sky Blue” (Korean anime); and Pentamedia’s “The Legend of Buddha” (traditional 2D from India).The Academy has an eight-16 rule for animation features: For there to be a category with three nominations, eight features must open within a given year. For five nominations, there must be 16 or more. The Academy’s executive committee of the short films/feature animation branch declared these 11 eligible. That panel technically has the right to state that there will be no category this year, but it is expected to recommend to the board of governors on Dec. 14 that the award be given. Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 25, and winners will be unveiled Feb. 27.

When the clock strikes midnight tonight, Brad Bird’s THE INCREDIBLES hits theaters–and yes, there’s a 12:00am showing. I was going to celebrate with some links to reviews, but it’s easier to simply point you to Ken Bautista’s Pixar blog, which is doing an excellent job of collecting pointers to reviews and other Pixar stuff on the Web (including items relating to John Lasseter’s CARS, which won’t show up until next year).

Oh, OK, one INCREDIBLES review link: When I looked, Ken hadn’t yet pointed to David Edelstein’s rave review at Slate, which intriguingly says that it’s one of his favorite live-action (sic) superhero movies ever.

MUCHA LUCHA creators Eddie Mort and Lili Chin offer this message on their fwak! blog - “TO OUR US FRIENDS: Remember… the answer to extreme conservatism, is a creative, free-spirited and humane, counter-culture. Stay positive and creative.”

One of the most thoughtfully written ‘depressed artist’ commentaries I’ve read on post-election blues is at this blog of a local LA graphic designer. And master animator Oscar Grillo offers his bleak and succinct across-the-Atlantic cartoon commentary on the election (sketched out on the back of an envelope).

Still upset over the election? I know what you need. You need something warm and cozy. Safe and reassuring. Something like the trailer for POOH’S HEFFALUMP MOVIE.It comes out on February 11, 2005, a perfect way to start the next four years…

One of the most essential animation reference works ever created is E.O. Costello’s Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion–a remarkably erudite guide to the studio’s films and history, and particularly to the cultural references the cartoons contain. I liked it so much I put it on my list of the 100 Greatest Things About Animation.

The WBCC first appeared almost a decade ago, and a few years after that, it found a home on Spumco’s Web site. But it’s been a long time since it was available there. And I, for one, have missed it.

I’m tickled to report that I’ve just heard from E.O. that the Spumco edition of the Companion is available again at this site. E.O. cautions that this version has some bugs and other little glitches, and hasn’t been updated. He plans to address both of these issues, and invites Cartoon Brew readers to send him suggestions at this address. Even in a somewhat raw form, it’s great to have the WBCC back. If you never knew it in the first place, you’re in for a treat…

If you are still smarting over yesterday’s election, one remedy is to cast your vote on Britian’s Channel 4 website - where they are sponsoring a 100 GREATEST CARTOONS poll. This is part of their research for a new TV special they plan to produce honoring the winners.They have an alphabetical list of pre-selected nominees (mixing features as diverse as A Bug’s Life and Akira, next to TV shows like Battle of the Planets, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, along with characters such as Beavis & Butthead, Betty Boop and Huckleberry Hound!). You can vote for these pre-selected nominations - or write-in your own candidates.

The 1st Pictoplasma Conference On Contemporary Character Design & Art (my previous comments HERE) took place in Berlin, Germany from Oct. 28-30. Character designer Harald Siepermann (TARZAN, MULAN, BROTHER BEAR) who was profiled on the Brew a couple weeks ago, attended the conference and kindly shares a few thoughts about what he saw there:

The purpose of Pictoplasma is to create a collection of characters that promote products or tell stories, or exist simply as a character or an icon. A quote from the program: “Industrial production conditions have created a universally applicable visual vocabulary. The recent increase of ideograms on Internet sites, adverts and packaging, street art and company logos can also be interpreted as a developing universal language. These characters however are not the result of standardised production conditions but are the outcome of the desire and ability to communicate with increasing numbers of people networks.”

I was amazed at the variety of the events at the Pictoplasma conference. There were many artists who presented their work, beautiful and innovative stuff from creative minds like Rinzen, Gary Baseman and lots and lots of others. I had expected to see a lot of soulless designy characters, fit for t-shirts and CD covers, without a personality or a story to tell. To be frank, I had expected to feel like a wine connoisseur in an exhibition of fancy bottles or labels. Of course those things were there too. As you know, some of them even aim for that approach, like Annlee, the character, which opened the screening by telling you that she is a product, a shell without a ghost, right to your face. Personally, that is not my cup of tea; there’s just too much obvious artificial self-pity in this.

But thankfully, there were also presentations by studios like Passion Pictures, showing the development of “The Gorillaz” and a preview of their future projects (SCARY GIRL and THE LOST THING), as well as studio aka, both of which I found extremely interesting. With aka’s work, I was particularly fond of JOJO IN THE STARS, a labor of love by one of aka’s art directors. It is in black-and-white and reminiscent of the ELEPHANT MAN, ERASERHEAD and Fellini’s LA STRADA. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. What these studios do - namely in British commercials - is utilize their state-of-the-art style to transform icons into characters, give them a story and most of all, appeal. Both Passion and aka have a way of dealing with 3D and incorporating it into their commercials and music videos that is extremely refreshing, innovative, and taking it further than anything I’ve seen in a major Hollywood studio production. This, at least for me personally, offers a glimpse at what could be (and should be) the future of computer animation, an approach that is so completely different from everything that DreamWorks and Disney have to offer. What I saw even made me think over my aversion against 3D and sort of reconciled my feelings about CG. It makes me hope for a different style and a different understanding of its possibilities as a storytelling medium.

I would recommend the conference to anybody who is looking for a forum that shows how the subculture deals with characters instead of the major studios. It is characters in the hands and hearts of the people, instead of the understanding of character by Hollywood executives. They, the young people on the street as well as the artists, are inspired (or not) by what they see in the movies and advertising and they make it their own. I found it very inspiring. It’s up to us to complete the circle and bring the fresh stuff that these designers are creating back into our animated features.

CNN is reporting that NBC is about to quietly cancel Dreamworks’ FATHER OF THE PRIDE, the pricey and apparently lousy (I haven’t seen it) animated series about Sigfried and Roy’s lions.

Why did I never get around to watching the show? In part because just about every animation fan I respect who saw it was revulsed by it. But subconsciously, I think, I was also put off by the Sigfried and Roy angle–there was just something wrong about animated, cuddly S&R animals showing up so soon after poor Roy’s unfortunate incident. I’ll bet that a goodly percentage of America felt the same way.

Anyhow, yet another prime-time animated series has failed. Looks like bad computer animation is no more of a surefire thing than bad hand-drawn animation. Who knew?