• Rediscovering the early illustration work of Fifties-era animation designer Cliff Roberts.

• The new two-disc dvd set of The Jungle Book has spurred some terrific blog posts. Story artist Mark Kennedy shares various thoughts on the film, including some incisive comments on pacing in animated features. Animator/director Will Finn writes an appreciation of Ken Anderson’s work on Jungle Book, and animator/director Michael Sporn talks about why the film is a dull celebrity-driven failure.

• Where did Disney artists live in Los Angeles when they were working on Three Little Pigs (1933)? Hans Perk maps it out for you.

• Two infrequently seen animated shorts for your viewing pleasure: MGM’s The Unwelcome Guest (1945) and UPA’s Punchy De Leon (1950).

• An incredible Betty Boop drawing by Grim Natwick.

Previously on Cartoon Brew:
Animation History Round-Up #1
Animation History Round-Up #2
Animation History Round-Up #3

Captain Fathom was the third and final cartoon series produced by Cambria Productions in their patented Synchro-Vox system. This was the technique where the studio spent as little money as possible on animation and super-imposed live action lips on the hand drawn characters. When I saw these as a kid, I thought it was very creepy.

It’s still creepy, and a perfect centerpiece to our latest Cartoon Dump podcast, which we’ve just posted on CartoonBrewFilms.com. Download all four podcasts (thus far) of Cartoon Dump: the worst cartoons—anytime you want them, everywhere you go!

Via Bizarro.com

Millard Kaufman - the Academy Award winning screenwriter, who got his start at UPA writing Fox & Crow and co-creating Mr. Magoo - has been getting some press this week regarding his first novel, Bowl Of Cherries. Kaufman, 90, was profiled in today’s Wall Street Journal and had a small interview in this week’s New York Magazine, both pieces playing up the fact that Kaufman co-created the near-sighted Magoo.

While I was traveling to New York and Canada last week, I had the opportunity to catch up on several new books - including a trio of biographies about three of my favorite classic cartoon voice actors, Paul Frees, Walter Tetley and Jack Mercer.

All three are published by small independent publisher Ben Ohmart of BearManor Media out of Albany Georgia. Ohmart has devoted himself to publishing books based on his favorite performers from old time radio, movies and classic television. His book on Daws Butler (written with Joe Bevilaquca) is highly recommended. The BearManor books are less indepth biography, and more a celebration of the professional careers of each subject; enthusiastic compilations of available facts and rare photos with great anecdotes and quotes.

Welcome Foolish Mortals… The Life and Voices of Paul Frees (by Ohmart, with a foreword by June Foray and an afterward by Keith Scott) was fascinating. I never knew much about the man behind the voices (Ludwig Von Drake, Boris Badanov, the Haunted Mansion, The Beary Family, Super President, etc.), and this career survey by Ohmart does a lot to explain who he was and his eccentricities. I come away with even more admiration for Free’s talents and insight into his offbeat, off-mike character.

Walter Tetley: For Corn’s Sake (by Ohmart and Charles Stumpf) presents all available information on the mysterious Mr. Tetley (voice of Walter Lantz’ Andy Panda and Sherman, of Jay Ward’s Peabody & Sherman) and his acting in numerous radio shows and movies. After a promising start in radio and movies in the 1930s, his career was hit or miss through the early 60s. His final years were particularly depressing.

He Am What He Am! Jack Mercer, The Voice Of Popeye (by Fred M. Grandinetti) relies on conversations and correspondence with the surviving Mrs. Mercer, and in-depth interviews with Mercer himself by Mike Barrier and Tom Hatten (both reprinted here, in full). Great illustrations including trade ads, rare photos and correspondence from Fleischer and Famous Studios highlight the book. Grandinetti spends a little too much time indexing the exact characters Mercer voiced in hundreds of cartoons… a thankless task, to be sure. Mercer is long overdue for recognition of his animation contributions (as an artist, an animation storyman, and the voice of Popeye and Felix the Cat). This book is a small step in the right direction.

All three books contain in-depth filmographies, credits and appearence listings. If you are interested in these performers you might find them of great value. For more information check the BearManor website.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be holding it’s 11th annual Marc Davis Lecture (now known as the “Marc Davis Celebration of Animation”) on Wednesday October 17th. This year the topic is Canadian Women In Animation with a panel discussion featuring Oscar nominees Janet Pearlman, Wendy Tilby, Caroline Leaf, Amanda Forbis and last year’s Oscar winner, Torill Kove (The Danish Poet). Charles Solomon will moderate the panel and host the evening. The program will be presented at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, starting at 7:30pm. Tickets are $5 (students $3). Click for more info.

Once again our friend Charles Shopsin posts another great animation article from his collection of vintage Modern Mechnix magazines. This time Sound Tricks of Mickey Mouse, a behind the scenes look at how sound effects were added to Disney cartoons in 1937. William Garity and Pinto Colvig are given a lot of credit here, with drawings by Colvig illustrating some of the piece.

Bye Bye Batman, Tom & Jerry, and The Legion of Super Heroes. Hello more Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and crap like that.

Variety is reporting that The CW will shut down Kids’ WB! at the end of this season and turn Saturday mornings over to 4Kids Entertainment (which has taken over Fox’s Saturday morning kids block for the past six years). According to Variety:

Under the five-year pact, 4Kids will program five hours of children’s programming between 7 a.m. and noon on Saturdays on the CW starting September 2008. 4Kids will handle all national commercial advertising, and will share in ad revenue with the CW.

The CW is the last broadcast network to air original kids programming produced in-house. With one less outlet for homegrown animated shows, this announcement is another blow to the local SoCal production community.

On the plus side, it’s one less outlet for the perennial spin-offs of Scooby Doo. Zoinks!