Animator Bruce Woodside (Cool World, Space Jam, Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse, etc.) made this film on his own, and posted it on You Tube last week to get the message out.

We’ve plugged Leslie Iwerks’ new Pixar documentary on the Brew many times before. It’s a must see. I want to alert the Los Angeles area animation community to a special screening coming up on Tuesday December 11th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

The Pixar Story will screen at 7:30pm, with a Q&A following with Director/Producer Leslie Iwerks and special guest, Roy E. Disney. For ticket and addtional information visit The Egyptian Theatre website. For more info on The Pixar Story and national playdates, Click here.

Join me this Saturday, December 1st at 1pm, at the Van Eaton Gallery where I’ll be signing my new book The Hanna Barbera Treasury. The book turned out rather well - but don’t take my word for it, read Sherm Cohen’s rave review and Leonard Maltin’s endorsement.

Please don’t be shy. We’ll be serving Cocoa Pebbles! I’ll be hanging out eager to talk Yogi, Huck, Quick Draw and Boo-Boo. I’ll even sign my other books (if you bring them). For more information: Van Eaton Gallery website.

San Francisco commercial director Carl Willat has the shocking and hilarious answer.

(Thanks, Karl Cohen)

UPI is reporting that for “the first time in its 40-year history, New Line will release an animated feature”.

That’s not quite true. New Line Cinema has previously released the animated features Hooray For Betty Boop (aka Betty Boop For President) in 1976, Nelvana’s Babar The Movie in 1989, and Richard Rich’s The Swan Princess in 1994. That’s one per decade. Perhaps they meant to say it’s the first animated film New Line will release in the 21st Century. Or maybe they mean it’s the first CG film the studio’s ever distributed.

However they meant it, it’s a slap in the face to the previous hand drawn cartoon films (admittedly a forgettable lot) that the studio had a hand in. The new film is Planet 51, written by Joe Stillman (Shrek), produced by Ilion Animation Studios in Spain and directed by Jorge Blanco and the team behind the video game Commando. It’ll be released in 2009.

Three nerds turn a nativity scene into a roleplaying battleground.

Matt Burnett and Ben Levin spent a year animating this entirely by hand, on paper with pencils, and fancied it up in Photoshop and After Effects. Here’s their studio website, where you can also find a Quicktime version.

Virgin America’s cool in-flight Safety Film has popped up on You Tube. This piece alone would sway me toward using the upscale, low-cost air carrier. It was produced by Anomaly, with animation by Wild Brain.

(Thanks, Chet Gulland)

Daily Show associate producer Dave Blog posted a flickr set scanned from an old cartooning manual he picked up at an estate sale.

Tack’s Cartoon Tips for the Aspiring Cartoonist (Devoe & Reynolds, 1923). If anyone has any further information on B. “Tack” Knight, please fill us in.

The music video “Lollipop” for musician Mika is a joyful if somewhat overproduced Seventies graphic pastiche. It is the promising debut work of the young French director’s collective Bonzom. Bonzom is comprised of five animators—Jack, Kalkair, Pozla, Waterlili and Moke—who are grads of various French animation schools like Les Gobelins, La Poudriere and L’ESAAT. They are repped by Passion Pictures Paris.

(via Feed)

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