It had to happen, after years of gossip.(Thanks, Joe D.)

One more piece of rare animation to point out today, and this one is an incredible treat. BLUM BLUM was the student film of Duane Crowther (1928-1998), who was one of the best commercial animators of the 1950s. He made this film when he was only twenty years old at UCLA. I wrote about the film back in 2004 HERE and HERE.

The film was posted by Steve Moore, who has directed a number of films in recent years that I’ve enjoyed, including the kooky Disney short REDUX RIDING HOOD and his personal film THE INDESCRIBABLE NTH. Steve tells me that he’s going to be posting all sorts of rare films on his site, including student shorts from when he was at CalArts in the early-1980s, by the likes of Chris Sanders, Kirk Wise, Kevin Lima, Brenda Chapman, Ralph Eggleston and Tony Fucile.

Check out these two examples of super-rare (and perhaps, unintentionally funny) Japanese cartoons from the first half of the 20th century:

Ikuo Oishi’s UGOKIE-KO-RI-NO-TATEHIKI (FOX AND ASIAN RACCOON CHEAT EACH OTHER) - 1933

Kenzo Masaoka’s KUMO-TO-CHURIPPU (SPIDER AND TULIP) - 1943

(Thanks, Chuck Thompson)

Again, thanks to the Internet, it’s possible to discover the work of an animator whose work is otherwise inaccessible nowadays. North County Public Radio has a terrific website about experimental animator/filmmaker Carmen D’Avino. The site has audio interviews with him, as well as complete Quicktimes of nine of his films, including the Oscar-nominated animated short PIANISSIMO (1963) and the Oscar-nominated short documentary THE BACKGROUND (1973). To find out more about D’Avino, check out the interview with him in Robert Russett and Cecile Starr’s out-of-print EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION: ORIGINS OF A NEW ART.
(Thanks, Karl Cohen)

Dr. Strange-Q has posted a set of great Jim Tyer animation clips from old Terrytoon cartoons on YOU TUBE. Below is a great “shrink take” from a Mighty Mouse cartoon.

The Animation Guild’s ever-reliable Steve Hulett has a brief update on some of the recent developments at Disney Feature. Impressively, Disney has been able to reassign around 75% of the crew that was working on the canned TOY STORY III, with the remaining 25% laid off.

I’ve been meaning to write about cartoonist/animation artist Mark Newgarden’s new book WE ALL DIE ALONE (Fantagraphics), a beautifully designed, laugh-packed anthology of his career-to-date that collects his print cartoons from the 1980s and ’90s among many other things. Yesterday’s NEW YORK TIMES published a piece on Mark’s book that serves as a solid introduction to what makes his work so unique:

“Why isn’t humor funny?” was a working title for “We All Die Alone,” Mr. Newgarden said. “That’s what a lot of the work is exploring.” He recalled the desolate world of stand-up comedians he has known. “I have a friend who’s a very physical comedian, and his life has been about literally hurting himself onstage in order to get laughs,” he said. “He embodies that desperation, that willingness to do anything because, somehow, he has convinced himself that this is his purpose in life: to make people laugh.”

In his interview with Mr. Nadel, Mr. Newgarden provides an oblique explanation, in the form of a childhood reminiscence, of the roots of his obsession. He recalls watching the Three Stooges on television, laughing uproariously at their “magnificent abuse,” when his grandfather would barrel into the room and rant: “How can you laugh? Those men are dead! Those men are dead!”

“That made it all much funnier,” he says.

Use BugMeNot to bypass NY TIMES registration.
(link via HarryMcCracken.com)

Just a quick note: Amazon currently has a good deal on my book, THE ART OF ROBOTS, as well as on THE ART OF THE INCREDIBLES Each book is selling for $14.99, which is over 60% off the cover price. Amazon ran this same deal some months back and they sold out of the bargain-priced books very quickly. (Update: Both of these bargain-priced books are now sold out at Amazon.)