Last week the Wall Street Journal ran an article about a new animated series on Fox called Oleg the Taxi Man. The cartoons, however, are only 8-seconds long and will run inbetween commercials to entice viewers not to flip the channel during commercial breaks. In the short clips, Oleg the taxi driver will offer up random thoughts and talk to ’spoof versions’ of Tom Cruise and Donald Trump. Fox Broadcasting’s president of sales Jon Nesvig, told the WSJ: “It’s something that pops up that is unexpected and the viewer says, ‘What the hell is that?’ It may keep them around for a while longer.” The paper also reported that other networks are starting to experiment with programming inbetween commercial breaks, though Fox seems to be the only one taking an animated approach.

A couple of the 8-second vignettes are viewable at the Wall Street Journal’s video page (look for “Turn up the Commercials”). Granted, there’s only so much that one can do in eight seconds, but I was still surprised by the concept’s pointlessness. If anybody at Fox had understood the medium of animation and how it could be applied, they could have captured everybody’s attention with something eye-catching, funny and exciting; instead they came up with an unappealing CG character sitting in a taxi and talking, something that would have likely been funnier in live-action. TV commercials don’t usually make me want to change the channel, but having to watch these lamely conceived animated vignettes certainly will.

This is an entertaining Flash-animated website for DUBOIS meets FUGGER, an advertising and marketing agency. The design of the site is very Cartoon Modern and includes thirty animated transitions and five clickable hotspots. Flash development is by Belgian studio Studio Plum; design and animation from Eugene & Louise.

(via FWA)

Drawn by Jessica Plummer

Okay, this post is only for rabid Warner Bros. cartoon fans desparate to see any lost bits and pieces of animation created by the original animation studio.

On Memorial Day Weekend in 1962, Warner Bros. released a family film, Lad: A Dog which featured, on the same bill, the Chuck Jones pilot-turned-half hour featurette The Adventures Of The Road Runner. According to the film’s pressbook there were four different Technicolor theatrical trailers for LAD: A DOG - two of them featuring special animation of Bugs Bunny.

Trailer 1-A contained Bugs introducing the Lad: A Dog stars. Trailer 1-C is a special Adventures of the Road Runner trailer introduced by Bugs Bunny. There were two b/w TV spots which were shortened versions of the two theatrical trailers. I’ve just obtained one of the TV spots and, as you can see below, the brief animated inserts were produced by Chuck Jones’ unit (note the Maurice Noble background layout). Mel Blanc provides the voice characterization. Ed Prentiss narrates the trailer.

Jones left the studio in July 1962. This must be some of last Bugs Bunny animation produced before the studio ceased producing new Looney Tunes later that year. With any luck, we’ll dig up the longer, color theatrical trailers - and include them on a future Golden Collection DVD set.

In Gina Piccalo’s carefully worded puff piece in today’s LA Times Sunday Calendar section (”Aqua Teen Jumps to Big Screen”, April 8th, 2007), even the one die-hard Hunger Force fan they got to go on record, Chuck Warren of Long Beach, couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for the so-called “colon movie”:

Aside from the band of drunk frat guys next to them, Warren said the crowd response was pretty tame. As far as the film itself, Warren considered it just another poke in the ribs from Maiellaro and Willis.

“It’s them saying it doesn’t matter,” he said. “As a fan, I kind of liked that. They threw it all in your face and you had to take what you wanted.”

The LA Times article is typical of the kind of publicity stories placed by the movie studios each week, prior to a film’s release, in hopes of generating some box office numbers on opening day. But even by puff piece standards (which are pretty low), this one has a hard time marshaling anything positive to say about the film. (It was reviewed on the Brew, March 17th)

The jist of the piece is that AQHF-C-MFFT is a feature film is based on a TV “cult” hit that, before the Boston bomb scare incident, most people never heard of. And that most viewers either love it or hate it.

Ms. Piccalo has seen the movie, and you don’t have to read between the lines to get the idea that she is warning you to stay away. She sums it all up in this one sentence: “To an outsider, this is either self-indulgent bad writing or fodder for bong hits and acid trips.”

Russell Schroeder has written and self-published an eye-opening (and ear-opening) book on the unused music for Disney films (both animated and live-action). The book, called Disney’s Lost Chords, is being published in a limited edition of 1000 copies, and is available solely from the author. The book features 77 (mostly) unheard songs and is illustrated with over 200 pieces of never before published developmental art.

Disney’s Lost Chords presents the Vocal/Piano arrangements for 77 unused songs originally written such classic Disney films as Song of the South, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, So Dear to My Heart, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, The Story of Anyburg, U.S.A., Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book. As an added bonus this volume includes musical numbers from several projects like Rainbow Road to Oz and Chanticler that were eventually shelved after initial development. The cover art (by Mary Blair, at left) was created in 1948 for a souvenir program for an event benefiting the Hospitalized Veterans Music Service of the Musicians’ Emergency Fund.

Musician and Disney historian Alex Rannie has seen the book and has this to say:

Disney music is an area of personal interest and expertise; I’ve read most all there is to read about music at the Studio. But nothing could prepare me for the depth of research and breadth of artistry in Russell Schroeder’s book. I can’t offer enough praise for Russell’s labor of love, and once word gets out, Disney’s Lost Chords is going to disappear faster than you can say “Bob’s your uncle!”

DISNEY’S LOST CHORDS
Hardcover, 9 1/4 x 12 1/4
312 pp., illus.
A Limited, Numbered, Edition of1000 copies
$75
Available only through:
VOIGHT PUBLICATIONS
2055 Lower Tuskeegee Road
Robbinsville, NC 28771

Download order form here (PDF FILE)

Our friend Bob Bergen, the versatile voice actor, is reprising his one-man show Not Just Another Pretty Voice! (The Story of A Nice Jewish Boy Who Wanted To Be Porky Pig) every Wednesday night at 8:00PM, from April 25-May 30 at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood.

Bergen can be heard in hundreds of commercials, cartoons, TV shows and movies. He’s best known for playing Porky/Eager Young Space Cadet in the TV series Duck Dodgers. He was heard as Porky Pig, Tweety, and Speedy Gonzales in the 2006 WB holiday film, Bah, Humduck, and plays Bucky in Disney’s animated series, The Emperor’s New School.

Reservations for “Not Just Another Pretty Voice!� can be made by calling (323) 960-5771 or www.plays411.com. Tickets are $20. The Stella Adler Theater is located at 6773 Hollywood Boulevard, second floor. Parking is available at Hollywood and Highland for $2 with theatre validation.

Two upcoming John Canemaker events in the New York area:

The Tribeca Film Festival will salute the animator with The Animated World of John Canemaker, a program of shorts and documentaries spanning his career as a filmmaker, author, teacher and historian. Films in the program include: Confessions of a Stardreamer; Bridgehampton; The Wizard’s Son; Bottom’s Dream; Otto Messmer and Felix the Cat and the Academy Award-winning The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation. Monday, April 30, 6:15 p.m. and Sunday, May 6, 10:30 a.m. at AMC Kips Bay Theater 14, 570 Second Avenue (at 32nd St.) and Thursday, May 3, at midnight at the Tribeca Cinemas, Theater 2, 54 Varick Street (Below Canal Street, at Laight Street).

From April 16th through May 23rd a display of hand-drawn, original animation art from Canemaker’s Academy Award-winning film The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, will be on display in the Hewitt Gallery of Art at Marymount Manhattan College, located at 221 East 71st Street. On Thursday, April 19, 2007, at 7:00 P.M. there will be a reception for the artist at the Hewitt Gallery. It is preceded at 5:30 P.M. by a screening of THE MOON AND THE SON at the Beekman Theatre, which is located at 1271 Second Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets. This event is free of charge for all attendees.