Bob Kurtz reports that veteran animator Gary Mooney passed away on Tuesday August 5th at age 78. The cause was cancer. Kurtz called Mooney, who animated many commercials and movie titles for the producer, “The best draftsman I ever worked with”. Mooney’s work can be seen in films ranging from Disney’s Lady and The Tramp and Sleeping Beauty to John Hubley’s The Hole and The Hat. He also animated on Jay Ward’s George of the Jungle, Total Television’s Underdog and the Taarna sequence in Heavy Metal. Mooney is caricatured above by John Sparey (Mooney is fourth from the left - from left to right, Bill Mahood, Osvaldo Franca, John Sparey, Gary Mooney, Bob Carr, Dick Hoffman and Wes Herschensohn - see the complete image on the TAG blog)

Once again John McElwee has an intriguing post about animation on his Greenbriar Picture Shows blog. This time he reminisces about the 1955 Disneyland TV episode “The Story of the Animated Drawing” and Disney’s subsequent meeting with Max Fleischer. As usual, McElwee illustrates his piece with rare photos and trade ads.

Art Binninger contributes to our never ending parade of Preston Blair rip-offs. Says Art:

“The set-up: last night I went over to a converted Von’s supermarket that’s now a Mexican-themed plaza with a restaurant, food marts and other booths that will be ready for their grand opening. I wandered through the aisles of the standard issue Coke’s, Pepsi’s and candy until I spotted this interesting packge. I’ll have to stop back when they’re fully up and running to see what other Preston Blair images turn up. Or turnips?”

Next, Kyle Carrozza sent this whoopee cushion spotted at a Dollar Tree in Riverside. Says Kyle: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rip from this part of the book before!”

Ideation is a well drawn and very short short by East Coast animator Jeremiah Dickey.

The cuddliest man in animation, Eric Goldberg, is interviewed on the latest edition of the Animation Podcast. The chat is an hour long, and it’s only part one of the discussion. Haven’t listened to it yet, but surely a lot of wisdom is being dispensed. On a related note, Goldberg will be signing his new book Character Animation Crash Course! tomorrow night in LA. It can also be ordered on Amazon.

Chop Socky Chooks is a CG television series produced by Aardman for Cartoon Network UK. The show, starring kung fu chickens, was created in-house by one of its animators, Sergio Delfino. I’m not exactly sure why I’m linking to it other than it’s amusing to keep track of all the kung fu-related productions we’re going to be seeing over the next few years. Just in case you’re keeping score, first there was the TV series Skunk Fu! which was produced by Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon and premiered in September 2007, then there’s Chop Socky Chooks which has apparently been airing since March ‘08, and finally DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda, released theatrically in June ‘08.

About Los Angeles is a 1948 childrens text book published by D.C. Heath and Company, which was distributed mainly to Southern California public schools. The illustrations are by Edna Potter. In one chapter, Jack and Carol (the protagonists) visit The Walt Disney Studio in Burbank. It’s simplistic, but essentially accurate. Note the picture of Ward Kimball on page 200, and also note that on page 199 it says:

“…new ideas for Disney cartoons were usually suggested by the artists. They drew the story in pictures.”

I’ve posted the relevant pages below (click on thumbnails to enlarge).

Looks like a lot of fun. I love it!

(Via MarketSaw)