Here’s a quote from a 1954 interview with UPA background painter/experimental filmmaker Jules Engel. Though the Hollywood context has changed, Engel’s message remains as relevant today as it was fifty years ago:

“Since the advent of 3-D and CinemaScope, there has been a great deal of talk by film executives about how they are going to ’save the industry.’ It’s my opinion if there’s any saving to be done of a business based on creative talent–it will be done by creative talent–not by the men behind the big, oak desks.”

LINK via LINK

There’s been a lot of griping and grousing recently on animation message boards (HERE, HERE and HERE) about DVNR. What’s that you say? DVNR stands for “digital video noise reduction” and it’s one of the many ways that studios ruin classic cartoons when they release them onto home video. The telecine technology was originally intended as an affordable way of digitally cleaning up dirt and grain when film is transferred to tape. It typically works fine for live-action films, but if used carelessly with animation (as it most often is), it ends up erasing and distorting parts of the image.

For a more detailed explanation of DVNR (also known as DNR) and how it compromises the integrity of the cartoon image, here’s a link to a piece I wrote back in 1999 while I was working at ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE. You’d think six years later, the studios would have learned something, but they’re as negligent as ever. Recent releases of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Woody Woodpecker, Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes have all been marred by DVNR technology. The irony is that many times when studios release a “digitally restored/remastered” version of a cartoon, it looks worse than in previous “unrestored” editions.

Here’s a terrific new piece at Lyris-Lite.net that specifically illustrates the DVNR artifacting in WB, Disney and MGM cartoon releases. Though the article shows examples of a DVNR’d Disney cartoon, they are incidentally the studio that has been best at preventing DVNR and deserve praise for their generally careful restoration of classic cartoons.

UPDATE: Thanks to Boing Boing for their post about DVNR.

Our 1000th post on Cartoon Brew! It took us just over a year to reach this mark. A huge thanks to all of our readers who check out the site daily, and a shout out to our Guest Brewers who have contributed to the site: Mark Mayerson, Ken Pontac, Harry McCracken and Rita Street. We both still have plenty to write about so let’s commence the next thousand.

This sounds like a fun Bay Area event taking place this Friday, April 8:

Kartoon Kocktail 2005 is the second annual screening of independent animation and comics performance, set to coincide with the Alternative Press Expo. This shimmery, silly two hours of cartoon fun is organized by Stefan Gruber, Davey Oil, Fausto Caceres, and Jesse Reklaw.

Featuring Kartoons by Tom Neely, Stefan Gruber, Melody Yenn, Shynola, Rebecca Rojer, Irene Arifin, Peter Richardson, Seattle Experimental Animation Team, Chris Romano, Kristen McCormick, Jeff Roysdon, Amy Lockhart, Monkmus, Hickee, and Tim Miller.

Complete details HERE.

FLIGHT 2 debuts this weekend at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco. FLIGHT is, in short, one of the most original and visually satisfying comic anthologies being published today. It’s the type of comic that makes me excited about making a trip to the comic book shop, which is indeed a rare occurence for me nowadays. There’s a lengthy preview for the second volume posted HERE. The book has plenty of contributions from animation folk including Michel Gagné, Doug TenNapel, Ovi Nedelcu, Ryan Sias and Justin Ridge. FLIGHT editor Kazu Kibuishi, who I had the pleasure of meeting a couple months back, also has a background in animation. In fact, he left animation last year to focus purely on comic book work. He told an interviewer recently, “Working in animation, I felt I was being stretched a little too thin on multiple aspects of 3D production… My love was not in the technical aspects of production, but in the writing and storytelling aspect of it all.” Now with FLIGHT, Kazu has created a wonderful outlet where all types of great artists have the opportunity to tell great stories.

Animehell.org, the host of Jim Reardon’s student film BRING ME THE HEAD OF CHARLIE BROWN (originally linked HERE) had to take down the film because our plug used up all of their bandwidth (sorry guys!). They explain the situation on their BLOG and offer a torrent and an alternate link where you can download the film (HERE).

Heads up all you creative types: Frederator Studios is calling for new submissions for a fourth season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons to be broadcast in the fall of 2006. After three seasons - with 99 original cartoons, and three successful spin-off series - Oh Yeah! Cartoons returns to production for Nickelodeon.Producer Fred Seibert is seeking storyboard pitches for comedy shorts, 7 minutes in length, in any style of animation. Oh Yeah! Cartoons remains TV’s biggest animation
development program, and was the birthplace of the Nick shows The Fairly Oddparents (created by Butch Hartman), ChalkZone (Bill Burnett & Larry Huber), and My Life as a Teenage Robot (Rob Renzetti).Storyboards and pitches can be submitted to:Melissa Wolfe
Frederator Studios
231 West Olive Avenue
Burbank, California
818 736-3847
melissa@frederator.kzP.S. Next week, on Wednesday April 13th, Asifa-Hollywood members are invited to Nickelodeon Studios to get a behind the scenes look at the production of My Life as a Teenage Robot. More details at Asifa-Hollywood.org