Former Disney 2D animators James Baker (Mulan, Tarzan, etc) and Joe Haidar (Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas) have directed a new combination live action/animation independent short film, Animated American. I don’t know much about it, but I was handed a postcard announcing a screening of it at the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena on Thursday night. Click on image above to see the full poster for the film. Voice actors Jason Marsden (Batman) and Bill Farmer (Goofy) star. It sounds intriguing. Hopefully James and Joe will write in and give us more information.

One of the highlights of the forthcoming Popeye Vol. 2 DVD is the remastered print of the 1939 two-reel special, Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp. The image above is from the very rare set of still photos released by Paramount for promotional purposes. A set of three are currently being auctioned off on ebay. These stills are actually black and white images of production cels and backgrounds, repositioned, “colorized” with inks using primary colors. Click on image at left to see the same set up, in full color, from the actual restored film.

Back in February I posted the rare opening title, previously lost, to this Technicolor Popeye cartoon. That image was snapped with my funky cel phone off a TV screen. Below are the actual frames (of the three cards that make up the titles) for your calligraphic pleasure. The DVD set goes on sale June 17th.

Today’s The Argyle Sweater, Scott Hilburn’s new panel cartoon, recently launched in 130 newspapers by Universal Press.

Apparently the Clinton’s are watching the Looney Tunes Golden Collection on their flat screen in this Mike Luckovich editorial cartoon from Thursday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Whoa! I got quite a shock as I entered the lobby of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills tonight. I attended this evening’s incredible Marc Davis Lecture, but the Academy had a surprise for us attendees - the Ink and Paint exhibit, scheduled to open next Friday (with a reception next Thursday night), was up on the walls today!

It’s an amazing exhibit - a must-see if you live/work or are visiting L.A. in the next four months. Of particular interest: the lost Horton Hatches The Egg (1942) original title cel set up (above, click image to enlarge). There are dozens of pieces from Disney, UPA, Warner Bros. and even DePatie Freleng. But my favorite material was on loan from the fabled Bob Clampett archive. Here’s a partial list of the Clampett goodies on display:

1. HORTON HATCHES THE EGG (1942) ­ Cel Set-up (below) and model sheet
2. Clampett’s Employee Card 1940
3. WHAT’S COOKING, DOC? (1944) Story Sketch - Bugs
4. WHAT’S COOKING, DOC? (1944) Cel Set-up of Bugs at table in Coconut Grove
5. THE GREAT PIGGY BANK ROBBERY (1946) ­ Two (2) pages of Story Meeting Notes!
6. ROVER’S RIVAL (1937) ­ a page of Mel Blanc’s Recording Script!
7. BIRDIE AND THE BEAST (1944) Storyboard Panels
8. BOOK REVUE (1946) Original Daffy Duck model sheet

The exhibit opens to the public next Friday, May 16th. Do not miss this! And it’s FREE!

Interesting year at the box office. Horton Hears A Who was a huge box office success. Kung Fu Panda and Wall•E are going to be gigantic hits.

Fox (Space Chimps), Warners (Clone Wars) and MGM (Igor) will join in with several “B-pictures” later this year. They look intriguing from their newly released trailers, but you be the judge: Igor has possibilities. Space Chimps features the ubiquitous voice work of Patrick Warburton.

Whaddya think?

I’ve linked to Vince Collins’s animation before, but I hadn’t run across this hallucinogenic 1982 piece of animation he made called Malice in Wonderland. Quite appropriately, it was pointed out to me by Christy Karacas, who’s currently working on a trippy animated series of his own, Superjail. It’s probably NSFW but don’t let that stop you. Creator Collins also has a MySpace with an entertaining account of his animation career thus far and links to more of his work.

Gary Panter (designer of Pee Wee’s Playhouse) has a new book from PictureBox Inc. Panter is doing a book tour this month that might be of interest to Cartoon Brew readers, including a show in Chicago where he’s introduced by Chris Ware and an LA signing introduced by Matt Groening.

Note these dates:
Saturday, May 10th, Gary Panter at PictureBox Departmental Store, 121 3rd St. in Brooklyn NY.

Saturday May 24th at 1 pm, introduced by Chris Ware at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL.

Tuesday May 27th, 2008 at 7:30 pm Lecture and Slideshow, at Skylight Books, introduced by Matt Groening, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA.

For a complete list of other appearences including San Francisco, Texas, New York, Mexico, click here.

(Thanks, Hiland Hall)

Recently I became curious to find out what is the most viewed original piece of animation on YouTube. The answer turned out to be a bit of a surprise: Charlie the Unicorn. The original posting of the short has nearly 23 million views, while another copy of the short is approaching 9 million views. There are dozens of other copies of the film floating around YouTube, so it’s safe to say that Charlie the Unicorn now has well over 32 million views on the video sharing site.

Anyway the reason I mention all this is that the creator, Jason Steele, recently unveiled the long-awaited followup Charlie the Unicorn 2 (posted below). In less than a month, the video has garnered nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube. Jason also has a website Filmcow.com that offers hi-res QuickTimes of the shorts and an online store selling Charlie merchandise.

The two Charlie the Unicorn shorts are firmly rooted in the contemporary strain of nonsensical non sequitur humor. Sometimes this type of humor works (Pen Ward’s Adventure Time) and most of the time it doesn’t (Family Guy, almost everything on “Adult Swim”). In the case of Charlie the Unicorn, I have to concede that the humor works nicely, and the clumsy animation only heightens the effect. I wasn’t expecting this short to be the most viewed original animation on YouTube, but looking at the success of Charlie can perhaps offer some clues about the type of cartoons that resonate with today’s online animation audiences.

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