John McElwee, on his Greenbriar Picture Shows blog, recalls the horror of 1960s theatrical cartoon shorts:

These were dark days for animation. It’s a wonder our generation survived it. Never mind the damage sustained by Viet Nam and the drug culture. It was these cartoons that consigned many of us to a lifetime of sloth and indirection.

McElwee discusses the budgets these films were made under - and the meager profits they returned. No wonder they were soon to be history.

An excellent front page story by Claudia Eller on Pixar’s Ed Catmull in today’s L.A. Times (registration may be required). Couple of quotes from the article worth noting:

“Sometimes, it’s the leadership that’s blocking something,” Catmull said in a recent interview in his new office at Disney, a place where animators have griped for decades about being micromanaged. “I’ve always believed that you shape the management team around the talent rather than try to force people into a certain way of doing it.”

Later in the piece Eller notes several of Catmull’s managerial beliefs:

Ed believes that you should always hire people who are smarter than you.Ed believes that it’s more important to invest in good people than good ideas.Ed believes in a “talent-ocracy.” If you make films for everybody, you need to listen to everybody’s ideas, whether they come from a janitor or a storyboard artist.Ed believes that you learn by making mistakes and that success often disguises problems.Ed believes that magic happens when you don’t operate out of fear.

For years, Ray Pointer of Inkwell Images has been compiling the best of early American cartoon art and preserving animation history through a series of self-produced home video releases. Ray not only finds the best prints of this material, but showcases them in their proper historical context with facts, rare photos, advertising art and practical explainations of how the animation pioneers applied their craft.Ray’s latest release, BEFORE WALT, is a must-have for any serious student of animation history. All the important films, the important players and the vital facts are here. The films include the established firsts - Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906), Fantasmagorie (1907), Little Nemo (1911) - and prime examples of vintage Fleischer, Messmer, Terry - and yes, Walt Disney. Ray also includes an informative illustrated insert and his DVD contains bonus cartoons, animators biographies and a silent cartoon poster gallery.Next Saturday, as part of the Centennial of American Animation, Asifa-Hollywood is holding the premiere presentation of BEFORE WALT at their monthly screening on the AFI campus (details here). Ray will be on hand with copies of BEFORE WALT for sale, and will screen some special surprises not contained on the DVD.

We’ve come a long way since Dragon’s Lair. Disney animator Broose Johnson has been applying his talents to a neat new interactive project, The Act, “a romantic comedy filmgame with a unique story, visually stunning graphics and personality animation.” Watch the trailer here. “Using only a simple control knob, players intuitively manipulate the emotions and consequent actions of a short film’s main character while being immersed in an appealing story.”(Thanks, David Silva)

Last year I raved about Craig Yoe’s Modern Arf, but I just got a copy of Yoe’s follow up, Arf Museum, and it’s even better. Is it a book? Is it a perodical? Whatever it is, it’s a series of publications (from Fantagraphics) that seem at first glance like a surreal stream of consciousness direct from Yoe’s brain - but upon closer inspection, it’s clear this is cleverly compiled and meticulously researched, with rare art from the masters of the form; a highly entertaining volume you’ll peruse over and over again. Any book that can artistically connect Picasso, Cliff Starrett, Rube Goldberg, Chester Gould and Curt Swan has got my vote. In this volume, Yoe presents examples of cartoonists and their relation to 20th Century modern art. He also examines the girly gag cartoons of Reamer Keller, cartoonists and tattoos, comic strip giant apes, Charles Bennett’s evolutionary cartoons of the 1800s, unpublished paintings of The Yellow Kid by Outcault, and much much more.If you know who Keller, Bennett and Outcault are you need to get this book now. If you don’t know who they are - you really need to order this book immediately. Buy it here.

The teaser trailer for Ratatouille is now on the internet - click here to see it. Note the voice of the French waiter is none other than director Brad Bird. I have no doubt he will serve up another great film in 2007.

Walt Disney’s first movie star, Virginia Davis, will appear in person at a screening of two of her Alice Comedies from the mid-1920s at the Hollywood Heritage Museum on June 22, 2006. Included on the program will be Michael Broggie, son of Disney’s first Imagineer, Roger Broggie. Michael is the author of Walt Disney’s Railroad Story and an upcoming book on the history of the Disney Studio. Broggie also spearheaded the opening of Walt’s Barn, a museum in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park dedicated to Disney. For more information on the Alice event, go to hollywoodheritage.org.

Traditional animator Jamie Oliff (Mulan, Hercules) and CG animator Angie Jones (Scooby Doo 2, Stuart Little) have teamed up to produce a new book Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG, which will be published next month.

Thinking Animation is a one-of-a-kind book that emphasizes how artists can use traditional animation techniques and principles with today’s computer generated animation technology. This full-color book includes numerous interviews with experienced contributing authors from a wide range of backgrounds, including stop-motion, visual effects, traditional animation, and CG.

Thinking Animation includes forewords written by traditional animator Floyd Norman and animation designer Richard Taylor - and interviews with Eric Goldberg, Ed Hooks, Conrad Vernon, Tom Sito, Bert Klein, Dave Brewster and many more.Check out the book’s website for more information.