Highly regarded stop motion animator Barry Purves has wrapped up a new book called Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance which is due in December. The book will be available for pre-order in a few weeks on Amazon and the publisher’s site FocalPress.com.

Here is Purves’s description of the book:

Above all, this book is about the very personal experience, not just mine but others, of being an animator, working laboriously with puppets, and why so many of us still get so much from, as the late Paul Berry described it, ‘dolly waggling’. Just what is satisfying about bringing puppets to life that, for all the hard work, the tedium, and the back aches, keeps us doing it and keeps so many people watching it? It’s not the most prolific of jobs. Other directors make many hours of film in the time it takes us to do a short film. Actors perform the same role several hundred times in the months it takes us to perform our role just once, but even so, there is something deeply satisfying about bringing a lump of latex, metal and cloth to life. At every level, it is a performance, and for those who have never delicately held a puppet, squeezing it gently and sensually into life, that can be a strange concept.

The fully illustrated book also offers advice and insights from various stop motion animators including Tom Brierton, Adam Elliot, Mark Hall, Peter Lord, Ken Priebe and David Sproxton, among others.

Okay, this is slighty OT, but I absolutely love it.

Our cartoon pal Joe Dante (Looney Tunes: Back In Action) and his movie director buddies John Landis (Animal House), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) and Mick Garris (Tales From The Crypt) have teamed up to create a website/podcast where they do audio commentary on their favorite exploitation movies—not the films themselves, but the 3-minute trailers.

As they say, “Even a bad movie can have a great trailer.” The initial videos on Trailers From Hell are funny, informative and very entertaining. I already have dibs on doing guest commentary for some animated features from hell (I can think of quite a few trailers that qualify). In the meantime, check out the inaugural offerings. Highly recommended.

What if Hitler were a cupcake?

For those who were wondering why they don’t make World War II propaganda cartoons like they used to, that lunatic luchadore cartoonist from South of the Border, Makinita (Andres Silva), provides an answer:

Once again, the original title from Popeye The Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves. This time I was able to grab the frame from the DVD itself. Compare it to the version I posted last week with my cel phone.

I’ve now got the disc in my grubby little hands… and it’s breathtaking. Wanna see a few more frame grabs from some shorts and menus?
Click here and here!

Props to Ruben Procopio — who worked at Disney animation for many years, and whose father was a sculptor at Disney for 35 years — who has been doing great sculpts for Tracy Mark Lee and Electric Tiki. The Woody Woodpecker statues he did are particulary great (and I should know, I have ‘em myself).

Speaking of Woody, my friends at StoryMakers Studio tell me that response to our announcement last week about the big Salute to Woody Woodpecker and Walter Lantz at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood has been tremendous.

Preceeding a screening of 12 Lantz classics, they’ve got a panel with June Foray, Maurice LeMarche and Billy West, who will now be joined by animator Phil Roman and our friend Leonard Maltin — sounds like a fun evening. The panel will be video taped and available online at a later date (to be announced). I’ve been informed there is still a small block of seats available for the live event – which for Cartoon Brew readers is free. To sign up for the event, or to reserve your online viewing pass, click here. If you sign up for the live event or an online viewing pass, you can post questions for the panel.

Ahhh… The joys of Thurl collecting.

If you love old cartoons (or are simply addicted to Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes) then you have to admire the deep baritone voice of Thurl Ravenscroft (”You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”).

Music historian Bob Purse has contributed a lengthy post on WFMU’s blog about his obsession with Thurl’s recording career - and posts many grrr-reat examples from his extensive collection.

Last week at Platform, Jerry and I both received a lot of compliments about our new CartoonBrew/CartoonBrewFilms promo piece. So I thought it’d be nice to take a moment and give credit where it’s due. Chris McD is the artist we commissioned to do our first two promo pieces and we’re quite pleased with how they both turned out. I think that’s because Chris is equal parts designer and illustrator, and he focuses as much on getting the concept and message right as he does into producing a striking visual piece.

I’ve known Chris since his days at SVA when we used to trade Animation Blast and Meathaus issues. Later on, I saw him frequently while I was working at Spumco and he was developing a feature project there for Ralph Bakshi. I actually have no idea how Chris found the time to do these pieces for us since he’s always super busy working on animated series (Yo Gabba Gabba, Tom Goes to the Mayor), designing books (the upcoming Ralph Bakshi one) and serving as one of the guiding forces behind the Meathaus illustration collective, which also has an excellent blog here.

Here are the two pieces Chris did for us. The first is an 8.5″x11″ flyer, the second is a double-sided 5.5″x8.5″ postcard (only the front is shown).

Animator David Nethery has created a wonderful photo album of classic and contemporary animators at their animation desks.