‘SirPef’ just posted these videos on YouTube and I had to share. If this music doesn’t make you smile, then I’m flat out of ideas. It’s toe-tappin’, finger-snappin’ goodness performed by legendary animation artists like Ward Kimball on trombone, Frank Thomas on piano and Harper Goff on banjo. Enjoy!

I’ve been tinkering around with Flickr the past couple days (so maybe that should be spelled ‘tinkring’) and the results are the following Flickr set: Cartoon Modern Yearbook. It is a photo collection of Modernist animation artists who were working during the 1950s. The photo set includes directors, animators, story artists, character designers, layout artists, background painters and even a few important studio owners.

There’s a similar ‘yearbook’ section in my new book CARTOON MODERN. Not to take anything away from the book, but I think this particular section works even better online. For one, the images can be shown at a much larger size. Also, as I uncover new photos, I can add them to the set and continue expanding the yearbook until it’s complete. At some point, I’ll go back and add biographical details for each of the artists and link their photos to relevant sites online. Flickr as a historical tool…who woulda thunk?

A bunch of fine articles were sent our way…First, The New York Times ran a small piece in yesterday’s Sunday edition, about our friends in the New York animation scene, calling them The Real Cartoon Network.Next, Keith Lango, a character animator on The Ant Bully, discusses what it was like working on a project that he describes as “a big stinking pile of average corporate mush”. Keith Lango on The Ant Bully.And finally… think film piracy is bad in U.S.? BBC News is reporting that CARS 2 is on sale in Peru!(Thanks Gary Meyer, Bryan Ballinger and Signe Baumane)

The Sunday L.A. Times mentioned that a new film called ROMEO AND JULIET: SEALED WITH A KISS was being released in southern California this Friday. That was news to me, so I did a quick Google search and found its website. Sheesh! Traditional 2-D animation has enough problems without theatrical releases like this! I support the efforts traditional animation artists (and in this case, the co-director of WE’RE BACK and FIEVEL GOES WEST) who choose to ignore current market trends and find funding for personal projects or commercial independent productions - but this clearly low-budget effort may set the cause back another five years. Don’t believe me? Check the trailer.This feature is being distributed by Indican Pictures, a small L.A. based outfit, and it may be fine kiddie fodder for home video - but theatrical audiences, even those who might attend Saturday matinees, have moved on from this sort of thing. At least the film gave work to several talented local animators - Indican’s next release, the Norwegian import Capatin Sabertooth, looks even more aesthetically horrendous.

This is a lot of fun…An MP3 of The Shell Show (January 16th, 1937) starring Joe Cook, with special guest Mae Questel (as the voice of Betty Boop). Betty (Questel) shows up about half way through and she joins Cook in a musical fairy tale skit. Betty sings the Gordon and Revel “Shirley Temple” hit, Oh My Goodness and it could easily be the track of a lost Fleischer cartoon. Hmmm… Perhaps someone will be inspired to make it.(Thanks, Mark Mayerson)

Sounds like John Canemaker, Bill Plympton and hundreds of South American animation fans had a great time at the Anima Mundi festival last month in Brazil. Celbi Pegoraro of the Portuguese language Animation Animagic website posted a report in English (with pictures) here. Looks like everyone had a blast.

One of the coolest things about Nickelodeon during the past 12 years has been its print magazine, particularly “The Comic Book” section which regularly features story and art by underground and alternative cartoonists such as Sam Henderson, Justin Green, Kaz, David Mazzuchelli, Wayno, Johnny Ryan and Kim Deitch. Now Nick editors Dave Roman and Chris Duffy haved started a Nick Mag Comics Live Journal, a new blog, which will give us the lowdown on the artists who contribute to The Comic Book. This little sub-section of the magazine is one of the best kept secrets in the cartooning world and it deserves some long overdue recognition. Take a look.

There’s an interesting article in VARIETY about the lukewarm box office performance of recent CG animated feature and the countless other talking-and-farting animal movies that are still awaiting release. The article is generally accurate, except for a few instances, such as when the writer says, “Before this year, the only CGI failure ever was last summer’s “Valiant…”. The other huge CG bomb was, of course, FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN. For those who want to keep score of CG box office grosses, bookmark this great chart at Box Office Mojo.