With all the recent discussion about Charles Schulz, I thought it’d be fun to share this 1969 photo of Schulz pulling a ‘Lucy’ on Peanuts animation director Bill Melendez.

Actually, this portrait of the Mouse (by Marcelo Braga) is one of the nicer ones.

A blog devoted to bad drawings of Mickey, sent in by its readers, is quite entertaining in its own right. Click here to enter the unhappiest place on Earth: Mickey Feio.

Howard Green sends us this sad news: Janie Reitherman — Woolie’s widow — passed away on Saturday at her home in Burbank from complications due to cancer. She was 83 years old. There will a memorial service for her this Saturday at 11 am at Crippen Mortuary (2900 Honolulu Ave in La Crescenta) followed by a reception at her home in Burbank. She is survived by three sons: Bruce (voice of Mowgli, Christopher Robin) of Summerland, CA; Richard who lives in Orange County, and Robert who lives in Half Moon Bay. Janie attended the special “Jungle Book” evening at the El Capitan Theatre on Sept. 6th.

(Pictured above, Robert, Woolie, Richard and Janie)

I thought we’d celebrate the day with a viewing of my favorite Bakshi short, the grooviest cartoon ever made: Marvin Digs (1967).

Back in February 2006, I wrote about an intriguing French animated feature Peur(s) du Noir (Fears of the Dark), which is a black-and-white anthology of scary stories. Each of the stories has a distinct look designed by alternative comic artists and illustrators like Charles Burns, Lorenzo Mattotti and Richard McGuire. The English trailer can be viewed here (Quicktime) and the film website is here. The film opens on February 13, 2008 in France. No word yet on whether there’ll be an international release.

Over the weekend, Mike Kazaleh snapped this picture (above) of the window of a North Hollywood chicken resturant. Their mascot is an obvious swipe of Paramount Pictures beloved (and long-forgotten) 1940s cartoon star, Henry the Henpecked Rooster (at left, with co-star Herman the Mouse). Did they think we wouldn’t notice? I love how he’s dressed like a pimp and pointing towards the resturant’s “B” rating.

Meanwhile, last night, I was driving past the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive in Burbank and snapped this pic, below (with my funky cell phone). After two years, we finally have signage - classy metal signage - on our headquarters building on Burbank Blvd. It looks great, and now you have no excuse not to find it. Next time you are in the area, please drop in.

After months of seeing clips, excerpts, storyreels and tons of production art, I finally saw the finished film for the first time today.

Let me back up a little. About fifteen months ago I began working on latest volume in Chronicle Books ongoing “Art Of” series, The Art of Bee Movie. I’d been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld’s since viewing the first episode of his famous TV series in 1989. Working on this book project allowed me to take a first hand look at the making of a modern animated CG feature and the rare chance to immerse myself with the spectacular preproduction sketches, paintings, visualizations and character designs that both made it and didn’t make it in the finished film.

The book, just going on sale this week, is loaded with much of the incredible art that didn’t make it, and early versions of characters, props and places that ultimately helped the filmmakers realize Seinfeld’s script. There’s enough good stuff here for ten different visual versions of the film. The book is justified if only to preserve the amazing unused material that Craig Kellman, Nico Marlett, Christophe Lautrette and Tony Siruno produced, and I’m proud to have done my part to preserve it.

Obviously I’m biased about the finished film. If you are (or were) a Seinfeld fan, you won’t be disappointed. It’s funny - very funny - and sweet (no pun intended). The film is a “screwball comedy”, as just about everything in it is about getting laughs, telling jokes or a set-up for a comic set piece. It has a good story and I even learned a few things about bees I never knew before (some of them factual: like how honey is produced; some of them fanciful: that bees can talk). Producers Christina Steinberg and Jerry Seinfeld also attended todays screening and were clearly jazzed by the reception the film got: almost non-stop laughs from begining to end (this was a screening for members of the Producer’s Guild - not Dreamworks employees).

Members of ASIFA-Hollywood, ASIFA-East and ASIFA-San Francisco are invited to a members only sneak preview screening on Tuesday night (10/30) in their respective cities. I’ll be there, in Hollywood, to do a Q&A with the directors after the film. Can’t wait to see it again. I’m buzzed.

Here’s another film to look out for.

The winner of the public prize at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival was a stop motion puppet film called Max & Co. Produced by a relatively new studio called cinemagination with puppets constructed by mackinnon and saunders (responsible for the Corpse Bride models), it’s the first feature film by brothers Fred and Sam Guillaume. Currently playing on the festival circuit, Max & Co is now scheduled for a theatrical release in Europe next February. Here’s a link to the trailer.

(Thanks, Russell Peet)