August 9th is Betty Boop’s 75th Anniversary. And if you happen to be in Southern California on Saturday and Sunday July 16th and 17th - and you aren’t at the San Diego Comic Con - you can celebrate a few weeks early in Montebello (look it up on Mapquest). That’s where & when the 20th Annual Betty Boop Festival will be held, sponsored by Heavenly Choice, the world’s largest Betty Boop store. Festival director Denise Hagopian has programmed two full days of events which include a Betty Boop look-alike contest, a Boop swap meet, a collectors club meeting and err… a Betty Boop tattoo show n’ tell.HEAVENLY CHOICE
534 No. Montebello Blvd.
Montebello, CA 90640
(323) 728-2728

Pixar’s latest short film ONE MAN BAND debuted last week at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The film was written and directed by Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews. The short tells the “tale of a peasant girl who encounters two competing street performers who’d prefer the coin find its way their tip jars. As the two one-man bands’ rivalry crescendos, the two overly eager musicians vie to win the little girl’s attention.”
(images via Liudger blog)

Nice still from Tex Avery’s final MGM cartoon CELLBOUND (1955). Note that background painter Vera Ohman and ink & paint supervisor Art Goble signed the certificate on the wall.Amid and I are busy toiling on separate projects… thus the lack of new posts here recently. We’ll be back soon, with several contests and giveaways… as well as more links, critiques, reviews and rants. Stay tooned…

Our friend Brooke Keesling (aka Boobie Girl) wrote in to tell us about a very unique art show that will be taking place for one day only, this Sunday June 19 at THE FOUNDRY in downtown Los Angeles.

It is an art show commissioned by Ray Bradbury featuring the artwork of CalArts animation students, alumni and one of their key professors, E. Michael Mitchell.There will be many industry professionals attending from live action, visual effects and animation. Both Ray Bradbury and Roy Disney will be in attendance as well. The show runs all day, from 11am to 11pm so there is plenty of time to drop by to be amazed.

RAY BRADBURY Future Fest
Sunday, June 19, 2005
11:00 a.m. trough 11:00 p.m
*Ray Bradbury will be present from 7pm to 9pm
THE FOUNDRY
1583 Fishburn Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90063

Remember Beginner Books? The Random House series of books for kids initiated by Dr. Suess with THE CAT IN THE HAT and GREEN EGGS AND HAM?They continue on - and I’m happy to report animator Tony Eastman (under the pen name Peter Eastman) has picked up where his father (animation writer Phil Eastman - aka P.D. Eastman of “Go, Dog, Go!”) left off. Tony has just released FRED AND TED GO CAMPING.

This is my first children’s book. I am doing less animation work, which gave me time to do this book. As you must know, Fred and Ted are from my father’s book “Big Dog… Little Dog”. I did some additional illustrations for that book when it was reissued in a hard cover format. That led to me doing this book. I believe my father intended to do a series of books with these characters and was unable to see it through. I picked up where he left off… almost 35 years later.

Tony is one of New York’s best animators and cartoon directors, and is currently doing storyboards for various New York studios and animation for J.J. Sedelmaier.

Here’s a lost industrial cartoon I’d like to see… THE AMAZING RECOVERY OF INBAD THE AILER. This animated cartoon was shown somewhere during the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and hasn’t been seen since. Sultan Inbad was the cartoon spokesperson for Saraka Laxative, a product of the Schering Corporation. This animated cartoon has all the earmarks of a Walter Lantz production. An 18 page color storybooklet (illustrated with stills from the film) and button were distributed to Fair goers - and that’s all that remains of this piece.If anyone has a film print, let us know. Here are some intriguing images from the production.

Now, if you’ll pardon me, I gotta go…

Several months ago I was interviewed for a segment of Animal Icons, a series on the ANIMAL PLANET cable TV network. I just found out it has begun airing this month, and is airing again on Saturday. Mark Evanier, Bob Miller and several Cartoon Brew readers saw it and have informed me it will be rerun again Saturday June 11th at 2pm Eastern (11am on the west coast).Entitled “Animated Animals”, the hour discusses the history of animated animal cartoon stars with June Foray, Mark Hamill, Tom Kenny, Noel Blanc, Billy West and with numerous clips.

Mark Kausler has made yet another discovery among his fabulous film collection…His nitrate print of Tex Avery’s 1945 cartoon THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGOO has several altered shots when compared to the common 1951 re-release version we are used to seeing on TV and home video. I’ve pictured several of these differences on my Cartoon Research.com MGM Original Titles page. Chief among the changes were the elimination of several gags relating to cigarettes - which in 1945 were rationed and considered valuable. Not so in 1951.MGM’s pre-1951 cartoon negatives were destroyed in a vault fire three decades ago. Thus the only master material available are dupe negs from the reissue versions - or rare one of a kind nitrate original release prints. Unfortunetly, not many of the volatile nitrate prints survive. Let’s hope more turn up before it’s too late.