We’re giving away another limited edition ANIMATION SHOW poster featuring the terrific painting by Tim Biskup. Tonight’s question is related to ANIMATION SHOW co-founder Mike Judge: “Which studio produced the animation for the first season of his MTV series BEAVIS & BUTT-HEAD?” First person (North America only) to answer at amid (at) animationblast (dot) com will win today’s poster.

TODAY’S WINNER: Jacob Grove is the winner for today. The correct answer was J.J. Sedelmaier Productions. The final question will be posted Friday morning between 10-11am.

A friend last night made this perceptive comment about the new Looney Tunes-inspired TV series LOONATICS: “Warners has already desecrated these characters so many times, why the hell would anybody care at this point?” That pretty succinctly sums up how I feel about the new series. When you’ve had BABY LOONEY TUNES, DUCK DODGERS, SPACE JAM, LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION, and the new Looney Tunes theatrical shorts that were so atrociously incompetent that Warner Bros. declined to publicly release them, why would audiences suddenly, now of all times, feel an urge to get up in arms over this particular misinterpretation of the Warner stock company. Let’s face it, Warner Bros. cartoons were done and over with forty years ago. Isn’t it about time we rid ourselves of this unhealthy fetish for geriatric cartoon characters? We can enjoy them and appreciate them anytime we want on the Looney Tunes Golden DVD collection and in any number of revival screenings. Shouldn’t that be enough? Chuck, Friz, Tex; they’re all dead and don’t give a rat’s ass about what’s going on. Why should we? It’s pointless to shed tears because Beloved Bugs is now named “Buzz Bunny” (apparently after a popular women’s sex toy) and drawn anime-style by some white boy who’s watched one too many episodes of FLCL.

That having been said, I’m still pissed about this project. But for a wholly different reason. Pissed, because for every misguided show like LOONATICS, we lose out (and Warner Bros. loses out) on discovering the next Chuck Jones, the next Bob Clampett, the next Tex Avery, the next individual who could be creating the Bugs Bunny’s and Daffy Duck’s of our generation. There are countless modern creators out there who have ideas…who have something to say…and it’s a slap in the face of every talented artist working in this business whenever a major animation studio chickens out like this. Shoving a tired rabbit down America’s throat for the umpteenth time will never reap WB the rewards of giving America a great new cartoon star, an honestly-created cartoon that speaks to our time and place. But why take risks, especially when you can be successful by playing it safe: successful like BABY LOONEY TUNES and its sweet ranking of 104th in children’s programming or LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION and that delectable $20.9 mil it accrued in North American box office receipts.

To display anger over LOONATICS means that Warner Bros. has won yet again. The executives love hearing affirmation that people still care about these characters; when somebody likes the cartoons enough to voice concern, they know their job is safe. It’s not like they’ve created any cartoon characters of their own that audiences actually give a fuck about. These classic characters are their lifeline to a weekly paycheck. So let me be the first to say to Warner Bros.: take Bugs and fuck him however many ways you want - make him anime, give him pants and a spongy complexion, pair him up with Snoop Dogg and produce a Broadway rap-musical…I just don’t care.

It’s about time that we set aside our misguided reverence for Bugs Bunny and redirected that into respect for today’s artists and the enormous potential that they hold. I think Clampett, Jones and Avery would be proud to know that their legacy has been to inspire the creation of more great cartoons. Unfortunately, those cartoons aren’t going to happen until audiences stop acknowledging every last-ditch effort by studios to milk their trademarked relics of the past.

> ASIFA MAGAZINE is relaunching this summer as the CARTOON JOURNAL. Chris Robinson will remain the magazine’s editor, but instead of being published independently by the ASIFA organization, it will now be published and distributed by John Libbey Publishing. The magazine will be expanding in both size and scope, and color pages are also being added. Robinson says, “We’ll be doing a mix of academic, historical, technology and feature pieces on all facets of animation.” With Chris’s strong editorial vision and Libbey’s involvement, I think this magazine should be well worth picking up, which is something I haven’t been able to say about a print animation magazine in a long time. More details to come.

> STASH magazine is a new monthly collection of animation, vfx and motion graphics released on dvd. It’s not cheap ($228 for a one-year subscription or $35 for individual dvds), but there’s a lot of interesting short films and commercials included in each edition. Previews and content listings for the first five issues are posted on-line. I suspect a lot of creatively-deficient animation producers will be subscribing to this and using it as a cribsheet to studios and styles that are currently hot.

Click here for a large size image of the Loonatics poster.

In honor of the new 2005 ANIMATION SHOW program, Cartoon Brew is giving away three beautiful one-sheet (28″x39″) movie posters with Tim Biskup’s SHOW painting. These have been printed in a swanky limited edition of 400 and won’t be easy to find in the future. We’re giving away one today, one tomorrow and another on Friday. Today’s question is, “What classic piece of Disney animation was shown in last year’s edition of the ANIMATION SHOW and who was the director of that film?” First person (North America only) to answer at amid (at) animationblast (dot) com will win today’s poster.

TODAY’S WINNER: Raymond Delgadillo is the winner for today. The correct answer was MARS & BEYOND and the director was Ward Kimball. New question will be posted tomorrow evening between 7-8 pm.

Brew reader Lee Burack sent in this fuzzy image (at right) with a note:

We ran this graphic of the new Bugs design on CNN this morning, thought you might want to see it, if you haven’t already….
all I can say is, “Good God”.

Read the complete story in today’s Wall Street Journal. What’s your opinion of Bugs new look? Leave your COMMENTS HERE

This Thursday, Feb 17, four of the best alternative comics artists will have a joint… a joint art show in the gallery at FILM ROMAN, that is.Jordan Crane, Sam Henderson, Johnny Ryan and Steven Weissman present WIMP ATTACK 2: THE SEARCH FOR CURLY’S GOLD from 5:30pm-7pm. To see what they are all about, click on each of their names above to sample their work.FILM ROMAN
12020 Chandler Blvd. (2F)
N. Hollywood, CA

The 2005 edition of the ANIMATION SHOW premieres this Friday, February 18, in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theatre (11272 Santa Monica Boulevard). There’s a diverse, inspiring line-up of films this year including gems like WARD 13, GUARD DOG, THE MAN WITH NO SHADOW and PAN WITH US. ANIMATION SHOW co-founder Don Hertzfeldt will be in attendance at the premiere this Friday to discuss his amazing new short THE MEANING OF LIFE. I’ve seen the film and let me say that this film alone is well worth the price of admission. I have the honor of interviewing Hertzfeldt on Friday so drop by- a jolly time will be had by all. The ANIMATION SHOW opens in Seattle and Vancouver next week, and both Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge will be present for those screenings. Details at TheAnimationShow.com.