You may have already heard that Disney is re-releasing Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS on October 20th in Disney Digital 3-D (see the trailer here). The film was not originally shot in 3D, but is being digitally manipulated to create a three dimensional version.Animator Joel Fletcher, who worked on the film as an animator, photographed several set ups during production with his own 3-D camera. Since the film is coming out next month in a “converted” 3D version, these photos give an idea of what it might look like - or should look like. They are presented in anaglyph format, so red/blue glasses are required to see the stereo effect. Here is a direct link to Joel’s 3-D Nightmare gallery.UPDATE: Jeff Kurtti comments: “Am I just seeing this? When did Walt Disney Pictures reclaim Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas? For years it has been a Touchstone Pictures-branded release…”

An old friend of mine surprised me yesterday by sending me a batch of great comic books based on animated cartoons, none of which I had in my own collection. So this weekend, in between the screenings at Cinecon, I’ll be immersed in some fun reading… like the 1943 issue of Walter Lantz’ NEW FUNNIES which included this ad (above).(Thanks, David Mruz)

This was already mentioned on the Brew last month, but just a reminder that next week (September 9) is the benefit auction for CalArts’s Martha Baxton. All the info can be found HERE. Be sure and check out all the great cartoon items that have been donated for this auction. My favorites are the caricatures of John Lasseter (above) and Tim Burton by ALADDIN director John Musker.

We mentioned this quite a while back and now it’s finally available: the Dark Horse re-release of Disney’s ultra-rare 1943 children’s book THE GREMLINS, written by Roald Dahl, can be picked up on Amazon for a little over $10. The book has cover art by Mary Blair, interior illustrations by Bill Justice and Al Dempster, and a new introduction by Leonard Maltin, who discusses the history of the book and the unproduced GREMLINS animated feature that Disney was planning to make in the 1940s.

There’s a 13-page preview of the book at the Dark Horse website, as well as an interview with the people involved in this revival. This re-release is also accompanied by new GREMLINS toys (which are previewed in the interview) and a limited 3-issue comic series.

(Thanks, Jason Vanderhill)

See that photo above? It’s not Ed Benedict. I repeat, It’s NOT Ed Benedict. It’s veteran East Coast animator/board artist Don Duga, who worked on a number of the Rankin/Bass projects, among many other things. He’s alive and well so why is everybody using this photo in their posts about Ed Benedict’s passing? Perhaps Don Duga has become the new official symbol to represent an animation artist’s death? It’s not as if Duga and Benedict look anything alike, yet I’ve seen a number of sites using this particular photo of Duga. Two of the more notables are ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive and this Brazilian newspaper.

I was really curious why everybody is using Duga’s image so I did a bit of searching around and it turns out that when you type in “Ed Benedict” into Google Images, this photo of Duga comes up with the caption “Legendary Animator Ed Benedict.” If you go to the actual website where the photo is hosted, it’s very clearly labelled Don Duga, but if you simply take the photo from Google Images without looking at the actual page, you’ll end up wrongly believing that it’s Benedict. An important lesson that we can all here is that letting Google Images do your homework for you will get you busted every time. And plus, you’ll confuse poor Don Duga and make him think he’s dead. For the record, here’s what the older Ed Benedict looked like:

Director/animator Jordan Reichek, who was friends with Ed Benedict, has posted a nice tribute to Ed on his blog, including the Fred and Wilma drawings above, which Ed drew while in his late-80s. Be sure to also check out the rest of Reichek’s fascinating new blog, which focuses on the Disneyland park back when its design and construction was supervised by artists. Nowadays that’d be called Fantasyland.

Director/animator Uli Meyer sent in the following personal story after I posted the link to the NY TIMES story about Art Babbitt’s second wife. It’s a great read:

In 1986 Dick Williams sent me to LA to work with Art Babbitt in preparation for ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit.’ I was 23 years old then and felt like the luckiest guy in the world. When I first met Art at the little studio he was working in at that time, the reception was a bit frosty to say the least. A few days went past and I decided to approach the grumpy great man to ask him what the problem was. Art was very frank with me and said that he just didn’t like the fact that I was German. He continued to tell me about his ex-wife, who survived Auschwitz only because Mengele used her artistic skills to document his sick experiments. I don’t know how to describe the way this made me feel. I was born way after the Nazi regime disappeared, but still, the history of the country I was born in kept (and still keeps) haunting me. I tried to explain to Art that the Germans of my generation are fully aware of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and that we are all trying to live a normal life in love and peace, just like everybody else.

Art told me that one of his daughters was at that time an opera singer in Vienna, Austria. He had a real problem with that too, Austria being the birth-place of that Chaplin-moustached mad-man. He was fearing for her well-being, and when I told him there was no need for that, he didn’t really buy it. A few more weeks went past and Art and me became good friends in a mentor-student kind of way. When the 3 months learning from the great, old man were over, I bought him a little good-bye present, which he was visibly moved by. He asked me to stay in touch and the same time said that I should not be surprised if he didn’t answer. The last time I saw him was when he was driving off in this big old, white car and all that was visible was the top of his head and those bony hands on the steering wheel.

I will never forget that precious time with Art and I owe him forever for teaching me and giving me a first hand inside look of an era long gone.

Cheerio and double cheers to Art Babbitt.

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MERMAID AND MATCHGIRL AT EL CAP

September 1, 2006 6:55 am

Songwriter Alan Menken will join the opening night panel celebrating The Little Mermaid digital restoration at the El Capitan in Hollywood next Thursday. Producer Don Hahn is hosting the event that will include Glen Keane, John Musker and Ron Clements, actress Jodi Benson (Ariel), and Sherri Stoner (live-action reference model for Ariel). The fun begins at 6:30pm and tickets are still available. Disney’s latest 2-D short, The Little Matchgirl, will also be screened that night.

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