At yesterday’s ASIFA-Hollywood screening we crowned “Miss Krazy Kat” of 2006. The surprise winner, selected by our panel of blue ribbon judges, was Barbara Babbitt (pictured above at center). Mrs. Babbitt (widow of animator Art Babbitt) recieved a jewel encrusted tiara and sash, as well as a lifetime supply of 9 Lives Cat Food. Pictured above is M.C. Jerry Beck (left) and last year’s winner, Marea Boylan (at right). In attendance at the ceremony were such animation luminaries as Milton Knight, Joe Dante, Milt Gray, Bob Jaques, Greg Ford, Mark Kausler, Joe Adamson, Mike Kazaleh and Will Ryan. Michael Schlesinger of Sony Pictures sanctified the event.(Thanks to Art Binninger for the photo)

Here’s a Sunday morning treat. Steve Worth at ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive has posted a beautiful set of eight TERRYTOON lobby cards for all to see.

The Great American Ink animation gallery in Brentwood, CA has commissioned animation artist and director Toby Bluth (brother of Don) to create paintings based on Max Fleischer’s Betty Boop and Popeye. The Boop-Oop-A-Doop Collection will be unveiled with an artists reception on June 8th at 6:30pm. It’s an interesting mix of styles (Toby’s lush watercolor late-1930s feel combined with the grittier early-30s Fleischer). Not all the pieces are displayed online, so a trip to the gallery is worth it. (And they have some killer original pieces from Warner Bros. and Disney.)

This is the trailer for Aardman’s first CG film FLUSHED AWAY.
Looks like the new formula is (Aardman+CG = Aardman-charm).

Heads up! Nancy Beiman says:

This one’s a must have. I was one of the reviewers on Tony’s proposal and he covers nearly EVERYTHING. The book also includes a copy of ENDANGERED SPECIES, Tony’s new film which features a cameo voice by none other than Roy Disney Jr.!

Tony White’s new book ANIMATION From Pencil to Pixels seems to cover everything required to conceive, produce, direct, animate, assemble, and distribute an animated film. And if Beiman says it’s good… it must be!

We’ve had some crazy ideas before here at Cartoon Brew, but this one may top them all. We’re having a contest to find a Guest Brewer, somebody who will blog right alongside the Brewmasters - Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi. Anybody can enter - animators, fans, directors, historians, board artists, executives - if you like the Brew and feel you have something interesting to say, we want to hear from you. The winner will receive a two-week gig on the Brew. Now here’s where it gets interesting. At the end of two weeks, the entire Cartoon Brew readership will get to vote on whether the Guest Brewer can continue blogging or not. If so, our Guest Brewer gets another two-week term, if not, we introduce the next Guest Brewer.

Why are we doing this? Because while we both love discussing the art and craft of animation, we know that we’re not the only passionate voices out there. By doing this, we hope to encourage new voices in the animation blogging community and bring to light different points of view about the art form. Plus, we think it can be a lot of fun. If you’re interested, simply send an email to cartoonbrewer [at] yahoo.com. Tell us (briefly) why you should be our Guest Brewer. Tell us your areas of expertise and give a sense of the topics you’ll be writing about. This is such an untested idea that we don’t quite know how we’ll be judging this yet. We simply want to hear from passionate voices in the community and give them exposure on the Brew. Convince us that you’re going to be the best Brewer. Entries will be accepted until noon on Thursday, May 25. We’ll announce a winner here on Friday, May 26.

Deputy Dawg lives!We found him on MySpace.(Thanks, Andrew J. Lederer)

Here’s the TRAILER for PRINCESS, a new hand-drawn animation/live-action feature from Denmark directed by Anders Morgenthaler. The film is playing at Cannes this month. The synopsis, from the film’s official website, makes it clear that this is a very different type of animated film:

The 32-year-old clergyman August returns home from years of missionary work abroad because of the death of his sister Christina, who - after going from greatness to the gutter as the famous porno star “The Princess” - has finally died of drug abuse. She has left her five-year-old daughter Mia with Karen, a prostitute. August pays them a visit to bring Mia home with him and become her guardian. Burdened by sorrow and guilt, he decides to avenge Christina’s death and brings Mia along on a crusade to clear his sister’s name of pornographic connotations. The mission escalates into a brutal and violent rout as August attempts desperately to protect the only thing he holds dear - namely Mia - forcing him to make a fateful decision.

While in the US, audiences have resigned themselves to accepting one ‘farting animal’ CG film after another, there is a mini-renaissance of mature, intelligent feature animation currently being produced in Europe, including PRINCESS, as well as Norway’s FREE JIMMY, and France’s PEUR[S] DU NOIR and RENAISSANCE.