A quote from animation producer Larry Kasanoff, founder of Threshold Entertainment, explaining why he can produce CG films faster and cheaper than the major studios:

Animation is the only part of film production where quality is going up while costs are going down.

I was going to argue with his statement (made in this recent FAST COMPANY article) but then I saw these stills from Kasanoff’s first feature FOODFIGHT! that eloquently illustrate the surging upward quality in low-budget CG animation. Jobs and Katzenberg must surely be tossing and turning in their beds tonight.

There is little doubt in my mind that Kasanoff is on the fast track to animation success. The same FAST COMPANY article reveals that Kasanoff even borrowed a classic Orson Welles technique to come up with the idea for FOODFIGHT!: he put one of his colleagues in his car and said, “We’re going to drive around Santa Monica until we come up with an idea for a movie.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s how Welles conceived THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. And I’m predicting FOODFIGHT! will be another instant classic, if not on a par with the AMBERSONS, then at least with HOODWINKED.
(via Harry-Go-Round)

On Saturday January 28th, Asifa-Hollywood, Women In Animation & The Animation Guild present their annual Afternoon of Remembrance, a “non-demominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community who touched our hearts and furthered the advance of the art of animation.”Honorees this year include: Don Adams, Ruben Apodaca, Henry Corden, Ed Friedman, Vance Gerry, Joe Grant, Wendy Jackson Hall, Gene Hazelton, Selby Kelly, Derek Lamb, Norm Prescott, Joe Ranft, Thurl Ravenscroft, Hal Seeger, Paul Winchell - and many others who passed away in 2005. Usually a friend or co-worker speaks about the person for five minutes… it’s a wonderful and touching tribute. No RSVP necessary. It’s free of charge and open to all. Light refreshments will be served. It starts at noon and runs all afternoon at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, 2100 N. Highland (across from the Hollywood Bowl) in Hollywood.

Christmas may be over, but this stop motion film is too good to wrap away until next year. SANTASTEIN is a short and funny animated Christmas card by AMP NYC. It was directed by Peter Wallach.
(Thanks, Signe Baumane)

The Library of Congress announced it’s annual list of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry. Pixar’s TOY STORY was the sole animated film selected this year.Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant motion pictures to the Registry. This group of titles brings the total number of films placed on the Registry to 425.

Here is a WNYC INTERVIEW with John Lasseter about the new Pixar show at MoMA. The co-curator of the MoMA show, Ron Magliozzi, joins him in the chat.

Aurora Miranda (sister of Carmen Miranda) passed away at the age of 90 on Thursday, December 22nd 2005. A major star in Brazil, Aurora was best known in the U.S. for her appearence in Walt Disney’s The Three Caballeros (1945) - where she danced with Donald Duck and Jose Carioca in the Bahia sequence, to the tune of Ary Barroso’s Os Quindins de Iaiá.(Thanks, Celbi Pegoraro)

A little bit of holiday Oreb that I posted at the CARTOON MODERN blog. Full image and story HERE. Happy holidays to all our readers.

Daniel Goldmark (”Tunes for Toons”) speaks to Sara Fishko about classical music in animated films on WNYC.

I actually met Suzanne Muldowny dressed as Underdog at New York comic cons back in the 1970s when she was no more eccentric than any other crazed comic book/cartoon fanatic. But in the intervening years her cult of celebrity has grown - in no small part by exposure on the Howard Stern show (Stern’s father happened to be a sound engineer on the original 1960s Total Television series). Now someone is making a movie about her. Just watching the trailer is enough for me - but it proves Andy Warhol’s famous statement, paraphrased: if you act crazy enough, for long enough, anyone can be “famous for 15 minutes”.

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