The Society of Animation Studies has their annual conference coming up July 7th through 10th at Trinity College in San Antonio, Texas. The theme of the conference this year is Animation at the Crossroads. Papers to be presented include Alan Cholodenko’s The Felicity of Felix, Michael Frierson’s J. Stuart Blackton’s Animated Films 1900-1910, Maureen Furniss’ John Whitney: The Early Years and Mark Langer on The Fleischer WWI Military Films.The Society for Animation Studies is an international organization dedicated to the study of animation history and theory. It was founded by Harvey Deneroff in 1987. Each year, the SAS holds an annual conference at locations throughout the world, where members present their recent research. For more information, contact president Maureen Furniss at mfurniss [at] calarts.edu.
I usually don’t plug internet comic strips - most of the ones I’ve seen are pure crap - but Brew reader Larry Levine sent me a few samples of his strip, Aw Prunes, and I must admit I like his cartooning style. He draws funny, like he’s watched too many cartoons or something, and that’s good enough for me. Good luck, Larry!
In 1946, long before it owned the ABC Television Network or created alphabet spelling books for children, Disney made an industrial film for General Motors called ABC’S of Hand Tools. Bill Roberts directed this educational short, aimed at adults, which demonstrates the proper use of common tools. The interesting thing is that the film (and accompanying booklet) re-uses the character “Emotion” (an uncouth caveman, and caricature of Ward Kimball, from the 1943 wartime cartoon Reason And Emotion - also directed by Roberts), here with a new name, “Primitive Pete”. Bob Sokol posted a pdf of the entire booklet here. J.J. Sedelmaier sent us large scans (below) of several pages of his copy.
John Lasseter sat down and answered questions at the French Premiere of CARS last night. Our friend Kinoo (of the French website, Pixar’s Room) has posted video and pictures from the event.
I had the luck to be at the premiere of CARS yesterday in Paris and attended the discussion with John Lasseter following the digital projection of the new movie (and the well received Ratatouille teaser). I was able to ask him a question about his future, as he has many resposibilities now following the merger with Disney, and if he will be able to direct another movie soon? His answer can be seen on the first video clip.
This second video clip (below) shows Lasseter discussing his early cartoon influences, STAR WARS and TRON, the inspiration for CARS, and 2-D animation.(Thanks, Kinoo)
My favorite anime critic, Ben Ettinger, recently wrote a piece about the long-running Japanese animated series CRAYON SHIN-CHAN and how since its debut in 1992, the animators’ styles have evolved and become more distinct and personal. Initially, the show remained faithful to the comic that it was based on, which from what I’ve seen is rather poorly drawn, but within a couple seasons the animators were pushing the look of the show into a more experimental (and even abstract) direction. Check out the revealing stills above - left is from a 1992 episode, right is from 1996. (Ben’s article also includes links to video clips.)
What strikes me as fascinating about this stylistic evolution is that it’s the complete opposite of the tendencies of US series. Here, the drawing in shows - most shows, at least - tightens up with every passing season, exemplified most clearly (and sadly) in America’s longest running animated series THE SIMPSONS, which hasn’t had an original character expression or bit of movement in well over a decade.
SIMPSONS producers, quite unbelievably, pride themselves on putting out a show that doesn’t exhibit stylistic evolution - and they certainly wouldn’t stand for anything that showed personal creativity or the sign of an individual’s hand in the production. Imagine a record label that asks a musician to compose one song and then replay that song for the rest of his career. No self-respecting musician would ever agee. But on the SIMPSONS, machine-like repetition of style is the order of the day. If a layout artist on the SIMPSONS draws ‘off-model,’ that’s viewed without question as an error, never as a creative choice on the part of the artist. It wasn’t always like that. THE SIMPSONS allowed artists some extent of creative feedom for quite a few seasons, especially during its earliest Klasky Csupo years, and also in some of the subsequent Film Roman seasons. By season six or seven, however, the producers had clamped down and decided that the show was going to exclusively be a platform for smug writing and dialogue, not for anything resembling art or animation. It’s refreshing to find that in Japan, certain animated shows still allow for artists to be a creative partner in the production of the series. Animation producers in the US could stand to learn from this and recognize that letting artists grow with a show can only be something positive.
On Wednesday, May 17th, Van Eaton Galleries will host a benefit for the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives: The Art of Voice Acting for Animation, featuring a conversation with June Foray and Corey Burton.After the discussion, Burton and Foray will be signing original art featuring characters whose voices they’ve created, with a percentage of the sales of art sold that evening donated back to the ASIFA Archives. The program starts promptly at 7:30 p.m. and reservations are required. Seating is limited so people are encouraged to call soon! Tickets are $8 at the door for both members and non-members and all proceeds from ticket sales go to the Archive Project. Van Eaton Galleries is located at 13613 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. For reservations call (818) 788-2357 and tell them you saw it on Cartoon Brew.
Disney has released the second full-length trailer for Pixar’s CARS. The animation looks much more appealing than earlier footage, but the trailer gives away too much of the story and leaves me wishing I hadn’t watched it. View it at your own risk.
As a follow-up to our post on Disney At War, our pal J.J. Sedelmaier sent us this 2 page spread from the April 1944 issue of Popular Science showing off more Disney wartime insignia in color.(Click on pages below for larger image)
