Last week I gave you the scoop on Van Partible’s animation on this week’s season’s premiere of NBC’s MEDIUM. Now check out MEDIUM’S website for a neat little behind-the-scenes video about the animation sequence. And don’t forget to set the machine for Wednesday night.

Our friend Leslie Cabarga purchased several bound volumes of old newspapers from San Francisco years ago, and was going through them this weekend for inspiration when he came across several movie ads signed by “Natwick”. Yes, these vintage movie ads (click on image above for large version of them) were drawn by future Betty Boop/Snow White/UPA master animator Grim Natwick. They are from 1920 when Natwick was 30 years old. Grim most likely did the distinctive hand lettering in the ads as well. Note his harum girl for the Virgin of Stamboul, demonstrating his reputation for drawing beautiful girls. Grim passed away at age 101 in 1990, having applied his talents to many classic animated films and sharing his wisdom to several generations of animators.

Check out this stomach-churning talk show appearance by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, creators of Comedy Central’s animated series DRAWN TOGETHER. It’s from an episode of REALITY REMIX which aired last week on Fox Reality channel. (WARNING: Don’t click the above link if you’re offended by vomit.) Between this and last Friday’s appearance of FAMILY GUY creator Seth MacFarlane on the LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, one would think that the animation industry is populated entirely by talent-deprived, unfunny hacks. It’s not often that animation artists get air time and it’s annoying that when they do, it’s always the lowest representatives of the art form. At least on German talk shows, they get Andreas Deja. See below:

The new SIMPSONS MOVIE trailer premiered last night on Fox during a new episode of the TV series. Watch it HERE. With all the recent animated features, it’s smart marketing strategy on Fox’s part to use the show’s animation technique as a way of distinguishing the SIMPSONS from the pack. The fact that the SIMPSONS is hand-drawn is, of course, hardly a revelation to animation folk, but as I’ve repeatedly witnessed first-hand, the average moviegoer can’t differentiate between hand-drawn and CG animation so this trailer should play quite effectively to general audiences. Those of us in animation can chuckle at the irony that the SIMPSONS portion of the trailer is also loaded with CG elements (the machinery and wrecking ball both appear to be CG).

I love when newspaper comic strips do crossovers and this weeks continuity of GASOLINE ALLEY is a particular treat. Walt Wallet visits the “Old Comics Home” and has a reunion with the likes of Smokey Stover, Joe Palooka, Steve Canyon, The Little King, and Albert Aligator. But that’s not all. Animated stars Felix the Cat, Betty Boop, Farmer Al Falfa, Mighty Mouse and Tom Teriffic show up in cameo. Even ancient characters Old Doc Yak and the Yellow Kid get into the act. Start here (Nov. 7th) and read forward to today’s strip. I’m not sure how many more days this will continue, but it’s sure nice to see.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER published a couple pieces recently about ‘06 Oscar predictions for animated features and animated shorts. Jerry and I are both quoted liberally in the pieces and we offer our predictions as do others like the Animation Guild’s Kevin Koch and Acme Filmworks producer Ron Diamond. The interview was conducted a while back and at the time I didn’t know that Satoshi Kon’s PAPRIKA had also qualified for the animated feature Oscar. Not a whole lot of people are aware of Kon’s film at the moment, which really hurts its chances, but you have to assume that it stands a good shot of an Oscar nod if people actually have a chance to see it. Also, for the animated shorts, I recently found out that Don Hertzfeldt’s new short EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, Bruce Alcock’s AT THE QUINTE HOTEL and Jonas Odell’s NEVER LIKE THE FIRST TIME qualified. These are all superb animated shorts and I hope Academy voters don’t overlook them in favor of this year’s batch of typical (and in my opinion, much blander) mainstream studio shorts from Disney (THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL), Pixar (LIFTED), Blue Sky (NO TIME FOR NUTS) and DreamWorks (FIRST FLIGHT).

Directors Notes is a weekly audio podcast that interviews indie filmmakers who create short films, docs, music videos, art films, etc. The site doesn’t focus exclusively on animation, though so far they have solid interviews with Brazilian animator Guilherme Marcondes of TYGER fame and Japanese filmmakers Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno who are responsible for LIGHTNING DOODLE PROJECT [PIKAPIKA]. This is one podcast I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on.

(via Motionographer)

There’s not a whole lot to recommend about the 1964 Hanna-Barbera cartoon PUNKIN’ PUSS AND MUSHMOUSE, but this background pan that Brew reader Bob Perman emailed is pretty nice to look at. Click on the pic below for the full image. I wonder if the original painting still exists somewhere?