It’s time for another educational cartoon showing us how to take a crap. Courtesy of animator Greg Holfield down under—no pun intended.

Sadly, it’s come to this. Animation has been enlisted in the propaganda war between rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah. This shocking video from Hamas uses imagery inspired by Disney.

Above: Bill Littlejohn at Playhouse Pictures in 1962

Whenever I’m depressed about the state of contemporary animation, I think about what inspires and excites me about this art form. One of those things is great animation, the type of abstracted and invented movement (largely non-existent today) that is unique to the medium, and which was practiced by master animators like Rod Scribner, Jim Tyer, Grim Natwick, Bobe Cannon, Emery Hawkins and Bill Littlejohn. Of those animators, only Littlejohn is still alive, and Tom Sito recently did this great interview with the legendary Littlejohn.

I’d often heard the story that during the early-’50s the animation business was so slow that Littlejohn took a job at a car dealership. It’s hard to believe that an animator of his caliber could ever be lacking for work but Littlejohn indeed confirms the story in this interview. Of course, things eventually picked up and from the mid-’50s onwards, he animated for just about every commercial studio in LA including Storyboard, Animation Inc., Playhouse Pictures, Fine Arts Films and many others.

To learn more about Littlejohn, here are a few more links:
Personal memories of Littlejohn by June Foray

A few thoughts about his work from director Michael Sporn

My thoughts on the great drawing in one of Littlejohn’s commercials

It’s not just blogs that offer valuable animation-related content nowadays. Here are three recent audio podcasts with three super artists. I’ve listened to them and they’re all worth a download:

Toon In!, hosted by Tee Bosustow, has many interviews with animation artists. The one that caught my attention was the interview with Sam Clayberger. Clayberger was a designer and background painter at UPA between 1953-1958, produced the artwork for the Rocky & Bullwinkle pilot (along with Roy Morita), and has had a long career as a fine artist and art teacher. It’s a delight to finally hear him speak about his career since one never hears much about him, and the bonus is that he’s fun to listen to. The photo above is from Clayberger’s days at UPA.

The Spline Doctors, and in particular, animator Andrew Gordon, have come through with another solid interview with a fellow co-worker at Pixar. This time, it’s Monsters, Inc. director Pete Docter, who shares much wisdom about story and animation throughout the discussion.

Last but not least, the Sidebar podcast features a lengthy chat with character designer Shane Glines. While the two interviewers are comic fans with a limited knowledge of the animation process, the discussion is lively, and Shane offers good insights into his personal journey and development as an artist.

Our pal, Anne D. Bernstein found this online:

“I came across this animated film while doing some research about F. Scott Fitzgerald. She (the filmmaker, Eleanor Lanahan) is his granddaughter - which is probably not the first thing she wants animators to know about, but it is interesting!”

This film is unrelated to the Naked Moon Man, but I digress.