Wanna see a new animated movie voiced by Paul Giamatti, Brad Garrett, Sean Astin and Evan Rachel Wood? Then get yourself over to Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland or Denmark during April and May when the hand drawn cartoon feature ASTERIX AND THE VIKINGS opens there in movie theatres. This film is but one (of many) produced by A. Film A/S in Copenhagen, the largest animation studio in Scandinavia, that never played in Peroia (or New York and L.A. for that matter).And it’s also one of dozens (hundreds?) of animated features that never make it past the Atlantic Ocean. Chris Panzer wrote an excellent article for AWN about the glut of these foreign features not coming soon to a theatre or DVD rack near you anytime soon. I’m sure that there are more than a few duds among these offerings - but how many potential TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE or MIND GAME’s are we being denied?

Your history lesson for today: William Sturm (1906-1981) was a noted 20s-30s Fleischer artist and 40s Disney animator who later drew comics and had one of the more successful television commercial studios of the 1950s. His home town of Budd Lake, New Jersey has posted this small web tribute to man and his life. (Note: The research isn’t entirely accurate - but it’s sweet).

In honor of our 1500th post here on Cartoon Brew, we’d like to offer you some 1930s Harman-Ising animated goodness in the form of MGM-era Bosko and Honey model sheets. Click on images for full versions:

Last October I proudly announced that I had started working full-time on the oft-delayed ANIMATION BLAST #9. Well, that lasted a good couple weeks until I got thrown back into intense edits for the CARTOON MODERN book. And once again I was forced to set aside BLAST 9 and not achieve my self-imposed deadline. Fortunately, all the revisions on CARTOON MODERN were finally wrapped up last week and I’m back full-time on BLAST 9. I’m hesistant to announce a new date, but I hope to wrap the issue up by the end of January and have it back from the printers by the end of February. This issue has been in the works for an incredibly long time and I certainly don’t want to create the sense that I’m holding onto people’s money without delivering, so if anybody is dissatisfied with the long wait, please send me an email and I’ll immediately issue a refund.

The image at the top of this post is an animation drawing by John Sibley from THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD. There’s a great article about Sibley in BLAST 9 by Pete Docter, and I fully expect that you’ll be able to read it one of these days.

WALT’S PEOPLE, VOLUME 2 was released recently and it’s a wonderful collection of rare and enlightening interviews with Golden Age animation artists including Friz Freleng, Grim Natwick, Frank Tashlin, Ward Kimball, Floyd Gottfredson, Herb Ryman, Frank Thomas, Dale Oliver, Eric Larson and Woolie Reitherman. The self-published series is edited by French author Didier Ghez, and contributors include Disney experts such as Robin Allan, Paul F. Anderson, Michael Barrier, J.B. Kaufman and Jim Korkis. The book weighs in at a hefty 375 pages, and sells for under $20 at Xlibris.com. And while you’re at it, pick up Volume 1 as well, which has interviews with Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, Rudy Ising, Bill Tytla and Ken Anderson, among others.

Tooning In is a snort-out-loud-funny ONION-esque blog about the animation industry. The creators of the blog, who’ve chosen to remain anonymous, are all artists who work in the industry. They skewer just about everything under the sun from independent animation to anime, but the funniest (and truest) entries are those that take aim at producers and executives and all the awful decisions they make.

Here’s an excerpt from a story titled “Producer Brings Cartoon Know-How To Winery”:

Producer Marcia Crandall, best known in the animation industry as producer of straight-to-video classics such as “Naptime Commandos” “The Kuddle-Lumps” and “The Penguin and Me”, for now-defunct “Great Vids” video, has moved out of tinseltown and is now working her magic on northern Calfornia wines.

“The wine business is a lot like animation in many ways.” Says Crandall. “These are groups of people dedicated to their craft, with skill and passion, serving an audience who appreciates what they do. It’s my job to make sure they don’t get too ‘wacky’ with the wine stuff, and to bring fresh ideas to the table, just like I did when “Great Vids” did the “Andy Capp” adaptation.”

Fans may recall “Great Vids” “Andy Capp”, notable for featuring the beloved English barfly and womanizer as a stuffed teddy bear who can cause dreams to come true. The series prompted howls of protest from the millions of Andy Capp fans around the world.

I was backing up computer files this morning and found this scan of an MGM model sheet of Jerry mouse. Lots of great poses and facial expressions — a veritable masterclass in character design. Didn’t have time to clean up all the pencil marks on the image, but you can click on the pic for a large version of the model sheet.

Tonight, once again, at 8pm I will be running several vintage 16mm old time movie films at the Steve Allen Theatre preceeding Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys. Join us!Starting Saturday January 7th (and for the next eight weeks) at 10pm, Scott Shaw will take his ODDBALL COMICS show legit. He’ll be performing it live on stage in Hollywood at the Acme Comedy Theatre on LaBrea. If you are in town, don’t miss it!