Animation director Jim Clark is one lucky son of a !?*$!%. That’s because he just bought an incredible Ward Kimball painting from 1949 titled “The Committee.” He shares his thoughts about Kimball and the painting on his BLOG. Also, I’d previously blogged some other Kimball paintings HERE and HERE.

If you are in Hollywood tonight - I highly recommend you spend an evening with Janet Klein And Her Parlor Boys. I’ll be there with my 16mm projector, showing several 1930s musical shorts and cartoons, followed by a wonderful evening of live 1920s/early 1930s jazz, rag-time, blues and novelty songs. The fun starts tonight at 8pm, at the Steve Allen Theatre in Los Feliz, 4773 Hollywood Blvd. (two blocks west of Vermont Ave.). We do this the first Thursday of every month. Please check Janet’s website (under “Showtime”) for more details.

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck may be gone from the Cartoon Network, but we seem to be in the midst of a new “golden age” of Looney Tunes merchandising art. After yesterday’s post on the spotting of a Clampett-esque Hallmark greeting card, a reader sent me a scan of another in the series for Mother’s Day (above).

Another person directed me towards these new Looney Tunes designs (above) on Zazzle.com (an upscale cafepress), created for custom made t-shirts, mugs, etc. We are begining to suspect our friend at WB Merchandising (and former Spumco artist) Mike Fontanelli is the hand behind these cool new designs. I never thought I’d want a Tweety t-shirt - but that psycho-eyed Clampett Tweety design is a must-have!

I had a theory years ago… the greatest generator of modern Hollywood movie ideas must be the plot synopsis sections of Leonard Maltin’s 1972 book, THE GREAT MOVIE SHORTS. Throughout the years I noticed things like the plot of THREE MEN AND A BABY seemed to be taken directly from the Three Stooges short SOCK-A-BYE BABY (1942); THE GOONIES had the same story as Our Gang’s MAMA’S LITTLE PIRATES (1934); and NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION followed the same senario as the Hal Roach/Charlie Chase short ON THE WRONG TREK (1936).Now listen to the plot for the latest Wayans Brothers movie, LITTLE MAN:

A wannabe dad (Shawn Wayans) mistakes a vertically challenged criminal on the lam (Marlon Wayans) as his newly adopted son.

Wow, that sounds awfully familiar. I just hope they give credit to Michael Maltese and Chuck Jones. It’s the same plot of the 1954 Warner Bros. cartoon Baby Buggy Bunny.(Thanks, Gerson Koenig)

LITTLE RURAL RIDING HOOD (1949)
Director: Tex Avery

(Thanks to Kevin Langley for posting this on YouTube)

Today’s FOXTROT comic strip, by Bill Amend, sums it all up.

Earlier coverage of Cartoon Network’s decision to begin producing live-action series: 1, 2, 3(Thanks, Aron Bynum)

Brew reader Chris Jackson spotted this attractive greeting card at the drug store.

Says Chris:

I saw this greeting card in Walgreens this weekend. It caught my eye because it appeared to be Bugs Bunny peeking out of the rack, but it wasn’t your standard year 2006 lame, watered-down Bugs, it was a very Bob Clampett-esque Bugs (which, like many, is my favorite one). To my surprise, the whole card featured early Clampett designs, many looking like they were lifted directly from his cartoons (like “Daffy Doc” and “Gruesome Twosome”).

Is there a whole line of cards using designs like this? If anyone spots others, let us know.

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Shorts by Igor Kovalyov

May 2, 2006 2:12 am

Ukranian-born Igor Kovalyov has had a bit of a dual-career in animation, working both as an independent filmmaker and in the mainstream industry (he co-directed THE RUGRATS MOVIE and has done lots of other work for Klasky Csupo). Four of Kovalyov’s shorts can be viewed online at Klasky Csupo’s Global Tantrum website: HEN, HIS WIFE (1989), ANDREI SVISLOTSKI (1991), BIRD IN THE WINDOW (1996) and FLYING NANSEN (2000).

Kovalyov’s films are dialogue-less and demand a lot from the viewer; blink for one second and you might miss the entire point of the film, as happened the first time I watched BIRD IN THE WINDOW. I’m not sure if I entirely like Kovalyov’s films or his storytelling style, but I do appreciate that he brings an uncompromisingly personal vision to his work. Visually, his films are a delight, with chunky, imperfect characters that recall the drawings of José Luis Cuevas and George Grosz, and backgrounds that display a strong fine art sensibility with an unconventionally earthy sense of color. To gain further insight into Kovalyov’s personal background and the themes of his short films, be sure to check out this excellent essay penned by Chris Robinson.(via No Fat Clips)

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