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POSTS FOR “May, 2008“Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
May 15, 2008 3:36 am
Back before Walter Lantz created Woody Woodpecker, he liked to draw ‘woodies’ of a different kind. Animator Marc Deckter offers an appreciation of the skewed cartoon logic in the 1920 silent “Jerry on the Job” short called Swinging His Vacation. Crudely drawn and animated no doubt but still oddly entertaining. 5 Comments » posted in Classic 
May 15, 2008 12:05 am
Today is Joe Grant’s 100th birthday (or the 100th anniversary of his birth). Howard Green sent us these pix with a note, “He passed away in 2005, just one week shy of his 97th but his spirit lives on in the many folks he mentored and influenced. Attached is a nice pic of him at the DVD reissue event for Dumbo (below), and a studio portrait from 1938 (above).”
1 Comment » posted in Disney
May 14, 2008 11:34 pm
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, but unfortunately, none of those words are appropriate for printing on this blog. Even when I dismiss all prior knowledge of what Chris Sanders’ original vision for this film was, these designs for Disney’s next feature, Bolt, look downright embarrassing. They veer disturbingly close to this, but we’re not talking about some cheap startup animation studio here. This is Disney dammit…the friggin standard-bearer of this art form for much of the past hundred years. What could possibly be the defense for such witless homely unimaginative designs? Somebody at Disney please fill me in…publicly or privately. Because I’m seriously having difficulty believing that some of the most highly skilled animation artists in the world could come up with something that looks only slightly better than your average student film. (image via Character Design blog) 90 Comments » posted in Disney, Ideas/Commentary
May 14, 2008 10:52 am
I saw a lot of films that I enjoyed last week at the SVA student animation show. One of my favorites was Rob Bohn’s Orderly Confusion, a series of nutty animated interludes that defy description. Check out the film over here. (Thanks, Tim Rauch) 6 Comments » posted in Shorts
May 14, 2008 7:11 am
This Variety article explains how 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Broadcasting Co. are launching Fox Inkubator, a new inititative designed to find and develop animated projects. The program will give animators the opportunity to make two-to-three minute shorts, and the successful ones will later be developed into pilots and series. Inkubator, headed by Jennifer Howell, a former supervising producer on South Park, could eventually turn out up to 25 shorts a year. Most notable, unlike development programs at other networks, the Inkubator shorts will be distributed online and available to the public. In addition to Inkubator, 20th Century Fox has established an in-house animation department for the first time in its history. It is also headed by Howell. The Variety article makes it sound as if Fox is dedicating its future to animation in a big way. Various Fox execs are quoted in the piece saying that animated series “have done so much for us financially and building the brand of this studio. We felt we needed to shine a bigger and brighter light on the future of animation production at this studio,” and “Animation is the perfect product for the world we live in, where DVD sales are so critical, appealing to young men is so critical, and there’s growing digital distribution of shortform content.” Read between the lines though and things look less rosy. For example, take this quote from one of the suits about the production costs of the Inkubator shorts: “It will be cost effective given the way technology has developed…This isn’t about paying big premiums or big fees to writers. It’s intended to be done on a less-expensive scale.” In other words, they’re likely planning to hire a bunch of young artists and have them produce a crapload of cheapo Flash cartoons with the hope that audiences latch onto one of them. That’s too bad. I’ve long felt that development programs today are shortsighted by focusing on the creation of one-hit wonders and trendy properties, instead of pouring their resources into the long-term development and nurturing of talented artists, who in turn could develop many successful properties. Perhaps if any good comes out of the Inkubator, Fox will finally realize that there are plenty of talented animation creators out there whose names don’t begin with “Seth” and end with “MacFarlane.” I’m not holding my breath though. 31 Comments » posted in Ideas/Commentary, Shorts, TV
May 14, 2008 2:06 am
Nick Uff’s new videos for Portishead songs “The Rip” and “We Carry On” are two of my favorite pieces of animation so far this year. This article from the Bournemouth Echo says that the 44-year-old Uff makes his living as a gardener, which helps to explain why I’ve never heard of him or seen his beautiful hand-drawn animation before. The lo-fi look is authentic; Uff shoots all his work on 16mm. He says about his work, “I don’t storyboard my ideas, but let the films go where they take themselves. There’s all sorts of ideas in there – things that have happened, a bit of social comment – like a stream of consciousness you could say. Each frame has to be different, animated films cannot stand still. That means they can be quite difficult on the eye, especially in the style I use, it’s very busy, a bit scratchy.” “The Rip” “We Carry On” 8 Comments » posted in Music Videos
May 13, 2008 3:24 pm
“Bugs Bunny, Greatest Banned Player Ever”, a ridiculously long and deadpan examination of Friz Freleng’s Baseball Bugs (1946), is a treat for any baseball fan like myself. The piece was recently selected for inclusion in the 2007 Best American Sportswriting annual. To follow along with the analysis, I’ve posted Freleng’s short below. (Thanks, Mark Newgarden) 4 Comments » posted in Cartoon Culture, Classic
May 13, 2008 1:35 pm
The illustration above appears in the latest issue of Southwest Airlines inflight Spirit Magazine. This month the magazine has a fun article written by a parent who spent a marathon day watching all the kids cartoon channels. It’s an interesting snapshot of what’s right – and mostly wrong – with kids TV these days. Read the whole article here. The article also features several great illustrations (below and above) by Pasadena based cartoonist Mark Matcho. |
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