As long as we are exploring The Smoking Gun - check out this mainly live action, somewhat campy, obscure educational film by Hugh Harman Productions: A Message To Women (1945). The film, produced for the United States Public Health Service, is a frank discussion on the perils of veneral disease. It’s about eighteen minutes long and contains some simple human body diagram animation by Robert Allen. A far cry from the Happy Harmonies of just a few years earlier - but an interesting footnote nonetheless.

(Thanks, Tom Maynard)

The Smoking Gun presents an assortment of iconic American cartoon stars depicted on the shirts of these recent arrestees.
(Thanks, Hiland Hall)

The NFB has already released one terrifically original stop-motion film this year—Madame Tutli-Putli—and next month they’re rolling out another promising stop-mo piece onto the festival circuit. Paradise by writer/director Jesse Rosensweet debuts in September at both the Toronto International Film Festival and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The stop-motion characters in the film are painted metal tin toys and move in a correspondingly staccato toyish manner. The visual style is apparently a metaphor for the film’s subject matter, which is “the story of a man [voiced by Dave Foley] whose actions are controlled by fate, who is forced to follow a predetermined path.” More details and a trailer are available at the NFB website.

Fascinating story in yesterday’s LA Times about Afterworld, a new CG animated series which premieres online this week at MySpace. The $3 million production (a significant sum for an online animated series) is comprised of 130 episodes, each between 2-3 minutes. The first ten episodes have been posted onto MySpace and the series can also be seen at Afterworld.tv. Below is an excerpt from the Times about how the creators intend to make money from the series:

Instead of a traditional licensing fee, [production company] Electric Farm gets a cut of the ad revenue MySpace generates from the show. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The company also has made money by selling international television, Internet, mobile and gaming rights to Sony Pictures International, which helped finance the project. Sony also is developing a mobile game to be released early next year based on the series.

The global rollout began this month when the Sci-Fi Channel in Australia began airing the show, which is also available in 13 half-hour episodes.

It also will air on television and mobile phones in several other countries.

Afterworld is a great example of the multi-platform future of animation. While series animation on TV is far from dead, it can no longer be regarded as the final frontier for animation creators. There are an ever-increasing number of distribution platforms and revenue streams for animated series nowadays, and projects like Afterworld are helping to pave the way and find what works in this exciting post-TV environment.

Starting today, an Oscar qualifying one week engagement of Leslie Iwerks new feature documentary The Pixar Story will be screening at Laemmle’s One Colorado Theatre, 42 Miller Alley in Old Pasadena, California. There’ll be two showings daily, at 7:10pm and 8:45pm. Leslie will be at the theater in person (along with family and friends) at the 7:10 screenings on Saturday 8/25 and Sunday 8/26. The film will only play through Thursday, August 30, and it’s really worth seeing on the big screen. I’ve seen it and it’s really good.

The 88 minute film was written, directed & produced by Iwerks and features narration by Stacy Keach. Its only prior public showings have been at Annecy and at the San Diego Comic Con (where it was reviewed by Variety). For periodic screening updates, visit www.LeslieIwerks.com.

If you love Looney Tunes even the little details are interesting. Warner Bros. uber-art collector Eric Calande recently added this item to his collection: A 1944 paystub belonging to animator Thomas McKimson (click above to see slightly larger image). Notes Eric:

Schlesinger was paying him a whopping $90 a week. This comes to about $4700 a year when an average salary in 1944 was $20 - $25,000 $2, 600. As these were the war years, the check shows a “Victory Tax” deduction. There’s also a field for a “war bonds” deduction.

Examine the rest of Eric’s collection at WarnerArt.com.

Who says Cartoon Brew isn’t up on the world of fashion?

Warner Bros. Studio Stores may be a thing of the past, but that hasn’t stopped the Warner Consumer Products division from selling high end designer Looney Tunes items and opening a fancy Tweety boutique in Beverly Hills.

Located at 9699 Wilshire Boulevard, and open for a limited time (through September 3rd), the boutique had a splashy opening last month with several photo ops with Hollywood starlets (including Hillary’s Duff’s sister Haylie, pictured at left). According to the press release:

The latest offerings from the Tweety collection are decidedly more designer-oriented and cater to a more sophisticated female shopper, as the line expands to include appropriately themed products from Alexandre Herchcovitch, Alexander Wang, Alice Ritter, Erickson Beamon, Issa London, Miss Davenporte, and Scoop.

Not that we need anything else to further blur the line regarding Tweety’s sexual status. For the record: He’s a man, baby!