If you’re not reading John K.’s new blog, you’re missing one of the most entertaining animation blogs on the Internet. John’s most recent post revolves around the following premise: “Spumco is responsible for the 3 biggest business, marketing and technological innovations in the last 15 years and everyone else has benefitted greatly.”Agree?Didn’t think so.To play devil’s advocate though, name another individual who’s had as much influence on contemporary TV animation as John K? Perhaps Matt Groening? Bruce Timm? Mike Judge? Could make for an interesting discussion. Of course, considering the current state of TV animation, I’m not sure why anybody would be chomping at the bit to take credit for it.

Just another night on the town for John “Pimp Daddy” Lasseter.

MIDNIGHT EYE has this interview with Eiko Tanaka, co-founder and president of Japan’s Studio 4°C, the company that produced the amazing MIND GAME. I’ve actually been a fan of a number of 4°C’s productions, including MEMORIES and NOISEMAN SOUND INSECT, but the funny thing is that I didn’t realize until recently that they were all made by the same studio. I’ll definitely be paying much closer attention to what they produce in the future.

“The Over the Hedge trailer is horrible,” says Jim Hull. He should know since he worked on the film. Jim has an interesting post on Seward Street where he compares it to what he feels is a more successful trailer for Pixar’s CARS.

I had a first look at OVER THE HEDGE yesterday (thank you, Dreamworks) and it’s not the 90 minute talk-fest, per the trailer, that Amid described yesterday. It’s got appealing characters (particularly the Garry Shandling turtle), lots of slapstick action and a great score by Ben Folds.They also screened a new seven minute short called FIRST FLIGHT. It’s the first Dreamworks short not spun off from one of their hit features, and their first film not featuring an all star voice cast. In fact it’s marvelously performed sans dialog! Directed by Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, the story involves a harried office worker who misses his bus and ends up spending his morning teaching a baby bird to to fly. It’s very cute.With Pixar’s ongoing shorts program, Disney’s LITTLE MATCH GIRL, and now Dreamworks entering the shorts arena … are the majors slowly returning to creating meaningful short films? With video iPods, online downloads, You Tube and animation podcasts booming, the short film hasn’t been this popular since… I don’t know… 1934?? Whatever it is, I’m all for it. Keep ‘em coming!UPDATE: Floyd Bishop points out: “I read your post on the Brew about the new short from Dreamworks. In it, you said it was the first Dreamworks short not spun off from one of their hit features. This is not entirely true. PDI/Dreamworks did the short film Fishing in 1999, which featured no dialog at all. It was a watercolor, non-photorealistic rendered piece about the man who catches so many fish, they turn into a wave and knock him over.” Thanks, Floyd. I guess I should have said FIRST FLIGHT is the first short of the merged 2D/3D Dreamworks Animation studio in Glendale.

The 18th Annual Society for Animation Studies Conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas, at Trinity University from July 7th through to July 10th 2006. The theme for the 2006 conference is “Animation at the Crossroads.” Program Participants include:

Alan Cholodenko, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia who will present a paper on “(The) Death (of) The Animator, or: The Felicity of Felix”.Pierre Floquet, Bordeaux University, France, on “What is (not) so French in Les Triplettes de Belleville”.Michael Frierson, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina, who has researched “A Decade of Early Animation: John Stuart Blackton’s Animated Films 1900-1910″.Maureen Furniss, CalArts, Valencia, California will present her paper on “John Whitney: The Early Years”.And Mark Langer, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada on “The Fleischer WWI Military Films”.

The SAS, held in a different city each year, is always worth attending for insights on animation history and perspectives on current films. More info about this event is posted on their website.

Our friend Paul Dini informs us of a performance in Hollywood this Friday of human cartoon, Sylvester the Jester (aka Danny Sylvester).

Sylvester is a huge Tex Avery and Bob Clampett fan and he does a wild, high-energy, very funny magic act inspired by classic MGM and Looney Tunes sight gags. The show is at Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, this Friday March 17th starting at 11:00 PM and runs about an hour. Tickets are 12 bucks and there is free parking across the street. Come spend St. Paddy’s Day watching a guy in a red zoot suit blow his own head off.

To get a better idea of what Mr. Sylvester is up to (with video of some of his performances), check out his website.

Animator Nate Pacheco has posted two must-see episodes of the early-1960s cartoon series JOT. He calls it one of his biggest sources of inspiration. JOT is certainly one of the most underrated cartoon shows ever produced and it’s nice to see it getting some attention online.

What is most striking about these JOT episodes is how the storytelling is driven by the graphics and animation. For example, in the episode where Jot steals the toy, notice how the story is told almost entirely through visuals. The limited dialogue in the cartoon is integrated fluidly into the action and drives the story forward. Furthermore, the animators create personality through the animation, not through dialogue. Note the little Irish jig that Jot does after he gets out of school - completely unnecessary from a story standpoint, but a perfectly expressive moment that puts across Jot’s happy mood while going home from school. Watching the graphic storytelling in JOT reminds one of the anemic state of TV animation nowadays. Most contemporary shows produced by Nick, Cartoon Network and Disney look good superficially, but they rarely take advantage of the animation medium to tell stories visually, instead relying on the ‘talking-head’ TV animation formulas of Hanna-Barbera and Filmation with characters garrulously explaining every bit of action to audiences.

The production backstory of JOT is also pretty interesting. The reason the cartoon has such a strong religious theme is because it was produced for the Southern Baptist’s Radio and Television Commission. The show was created by Ruth Byers and Ted Perry. More history about the show can be found here and here. The company that produced the show was Keitz & Herndon, an animation studio located in Dallas, Texas. The studio was started in the early-1950s and the crew was comprised primarily of self-taught animators. Below is a photo of the studio founders, Larry Herndon (left) and Roddy Keitz. Herndon dealt primarily with the business aspects of the studio, while Keitz was the artistic director. Both of them still live in Texas.