After almost four years, J. J. Sedelmaier Productions and Robert Smigel, the creators of NBC’s Saturday Night Live “Saturday TV Funhouse” cartoons, are bringing back Ace and Gary, The Ambiguously Gay Duo, to host the “Best of Saturday TV Funhouse” on NBC, airing April 29th. This is the first ever collection of animation shorts to run as an SNL special. The ninety-minute program will showcase the recurring series of “Funhouse” segments including “The X-Presidents,” “Fun with Real Audio” and of course “The Ambiguously Gay Duo.” The SNL animated special will feature new material especially animated for this show, with Ace and Gary as the show’s hosts interacting “live” with the current cast throughout the program. Ace and Gary are voiced by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell of “The Office.”

Heads up, New Yorkers! The Film Forum is presenting CARTOONS: No Laughing Matter?, a program of new animated shorts begining Wednesday, May 10th. These new works, by eight well known independent animators, include Suzan Pitt’s bizarre Mexican fantasy, “El Doctor” (pictured above), Lisa Crafts’s “The Flooded Playground”, a nightmare of childhood fears, the latest film from George Griffin, “It Pains Me to Say This” and JJ Villard’s riff on Charles Bukowski, “Son Of Satan”. Films from Andy & Carolyn London, Suzie Templeton, Chris Shepherd & David Shrigley and Debra Solomon are also included. CARTOONS: No Laughing Matter? will play for two weeks, May 10-23, and they say the program is not appropriate for children.

Pixar animator Andrew Gordon has posted an extensive 45-minute audio interview with fellow Pixarian, art director/production designer Ralph Eggleston, on his Spline Doctors blog.

Story artist Jenny Lerew has posted another excellent entry about storytelling in animation on her blog, Blackwing Diaries. This time, she tackles the importance of creating honest, likeable characters that the audience can relate to. It seems like an obvious point, and yet, the type of characters which she speaks about are missing from the vast majority of contemporary feature and TV animation.

Director/designer Dave Wasson (TIME SQUAD, MAX AND HIS SPECIAL PROBLEM) has launched a new line of T-shirts called Vot-Not. He’s starting out with three designs and they’re all quite fetching. Ordering info HERE.
(via Gabe Swarr)

On April 20th, Cartoon Network will be holding a silent auction to benefit Fyn Stec. Fyn is the young son of current Nickelodeon and former Cartoon Network animation art director Paul Stec (Fosters) and his wife Dayla Corcoran (production coordinator on Dexter’s Lab and Shrek). Fyn has recently been hospitalized with a rare form of liver cancer. They are raising funds to help defray the astronomical medical expenses that won’t be covered by insurance. Craig Kellman, Chris Reccardi, Lynne Naylor, Tim Biskup, Craig McCracken, Seonna Hong, Miles Thompson, Don Shank and many other great artists are contributing art for this cause. The studio will be open next Thursday night from 5:30 to 9:00pm, and they’ll be live music. Here is a website with more info. Here is a blog with updates on Fyn’s progress. Please help!

Better watch where you step!As if there isn’t enough s–t in Hollywood already, now there’s permanent Pooh on the sidewalk. From the AP:

Johnny Grant, the honorary Mayor of Hollywood, poses for a photo with from left, Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger during a ceremony yesterday, celebrating Pooh’s 80th anniversary with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Pooh, created in the 1920’s by British author A.A. Milne, debuted as a cartoon character in the 1966 Disney featurette “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree,” and went on to star in dozens of films, specials and several cartoon series.

Our buddy Scott Shaw! designed these cool new action-packed Hanna Barbera figures. Tom & Jerry (above), Fred Flintstone, Hong Kong Phooey and Quick Draw McGraw (as El KaBong) never looked so good. MacFarlane Toys are producing these under license from Warner Bros. Nice stuff.