Animation producer Lydia Holness has teamed with directors Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura to launch a new design/animation studio, PandaPanther, based in New York. This G4 ID spot is representative of their work - but check out their website for pure psychedelic eye candy.

Roughly a month from now, on Saturday March 31st, the American Cinematheque and The Japan Foundation are presenting a double bill of two new animated features at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

Aachi & Ssipak from Korea will screen at 11am. According to a synopsis found on koreanfilm.org the film is “about a futuristic world powered entirely by human feces. With the government anxious to control this sole, important source of energy, they install special sensors on its citizens’ anuses to monitor production, while controlling the populace by distributing addictive popsicles.” Sounds good to me. Watch the very cool first five minutes here. I can’t wait to see this on the big screen.

A reception with food and drink follows at 12:30pm and a second film, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the new feature from the Japan’s Madhouse studio, will screen at 1:30pm.

After the second film will be a panel discussion with the filmmakers (the directors of both films are scheduled to attend) moderated by producer Ken Duer (The Animatrix). This entire event is FREE! You must RSVP at www.jflalc.org and pick up your tickets at the door on the day of the show.

Check out this sweet animation for a proposed videogame called Neo-Mickey. Apparently the project isn’t going forward at the moment which is a shame because it looks like it could be fun. Matt Cruickshank designed and boarded the piece, Barry Baker did the animation.

(Thanks, Stephane)

After Robert “Bobe” Cannon (the genius director of Gerald McBoing Boing) left UPA around 1958, he began to do a lot of commercial freelance. Among the places he worked was Playhouse Pictures, where he directed and animated this :20 second spot for the US Navy featuring a somewhat Thurber-esque cat and dog talking about their owner’s decision to join the Navy.

Despite the bare-bones simplicity of the piece (or perhaps because of it), it’s highly effective and does a great job of communicating the message. The commercial didn’t have much ad agency involvement as far as I can tell. The circular script where the characters repeat one another’s words was written in-house by Chris Jenkyns, who was the primary writer/storyboard artist at Playhouse.

The Presets’ “Girl and the Sea” is an incredibly lovely mixed-media music video directed by Lee Lennox. It’s not a new video—it was released in 2005—but now, a hi-res AVI has appeared online over here. The video, which is obviously an homage to Russian master Yuri Norstein, deserves to be seen in this higher quality to be fully appreciated. Lee Lennox is represented by Draw Pictures in the UK (click on “Promo Directors” on the site to see more of his work).

(Thanks, Philip Rogosky)

Once again this Thursday night - and every first Thursday of the each month - Jerry Beck will be the opening act for Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood.

Janet and her boys play authentic 20s jazz music live, and I start the proceedings by providing about 45 minutes of vintage musical shorts and cartoons in glorious 16mm monophonic movie projection. It’s a lot of fun - and if you’re in the area, I highly recommend you check out the show. Janet and her band are amazing! Here’s a clip of Janet teaching you how to play Tonight You Belong To Me on the Ukulele. Come on down!

Thursday, March 1st, 8:00 pm
The Steve Allen Theatre
4773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
(West of Vermont, across from Barnsdale Park)
$15 323-666-4268 for reservations
More info at JanetKlein.com

Here are a few more caricatures from Jules Engel’s estate, courtesy of USC’s Christine Panushka, Jules’s executor. Christine wants to share them with the animation community. Perhaps someone will recognize the style and can identify the artists who drew these. Click on each to see a full-size version.

This hilarious MP3 clip from the Howard Stern Show features an excerpt from a commercial recording session by William Shatner. Listen to the interaction between Shatner and the clueless producer. The relevance of it to animation should be clear to anybody who’s ever worked in the industry; I never thought I’d say this but we definitely need more Shatner-type artists in the animation biz.

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