Cynthia Petrovic of Red Tango spotted this package (above) in a local supermarket:

Maybe I’m just getting more perverted in my old age, but I could not resist this packaging by Vons, who has it’s own “eating right” selection of foods, and they are now enlisting Warner Brothers characters to help hock the goods. What stopped me in my tracks was this insane pic of Daffy, coated gleefully in pudding, having a gay old time. What pudding has to do with eating well I don’t know, but the image of Daffy reveling in being splattered with goop on the front of a food product certainly made my day!

These products, exclusive to Safeway, Vons and Pavilions supermarkets, are part of an initiative announced several months ago by Warner Bros. to begin linking their characters to healthier food choices for kids. For more information on this, here’s an intereview (below) with Brad Globe, President of Warner’s Consumer Products, shot earlier this year at the Licensing Expo in New York.

Here are the winners from our Ottawa International Animation Festival contest. The two winners will each receive an all-access AnimaPasses (valued at $200) to this week’s festival. The festival takes place this week from September 17-21. Thanks to our generous friends at the festival for making this contest possible.

The winning captions are below the photo:

WINNERS
Sirkey
Carter: “I think the gentleman behind me is really happy to see you.”

Artisticulated
“Uh Mickey? I’m, ah, not so sure this is the, ah, appropriate venue for “whiteface”.

RUNNER-UP
Brooke Keesling
Jimmy says: This isn’t exactly what I meant when I said, “I’d love to slip that rotten old Ayatollah a Mickey!”

This new trailer for Spaceballs The Animated Series is a lot more “adult” than the kiddie show I was expecting. I had no interest in seeing this show - the character design and animation look awful - but now I must admit I’m intrigued to see what low level this series has descended to. Spaceballs begins airing September 24th on G4 Network.

“Dancing” is a goofy music video for the Israeli pop band The Walking Man. The eclectic mix of Hockney-esque photo collage, pixilation and 2D animation is directed by brothers Yuval and Merav Nathan.

(Thanks, Jake Parker)

Just how bad is Sarah Palin’s candidacy for vice-president?

It’s like a really bad Disney movie.

I’ve replayed Matt Damon’s Disney comment a dozen times and I’m still laughing. It comes at about 40 seconds into the video clip.

This just in! Mark your calendars! The animation event of the year! Nicktoons Network will start airing Random! Cartoons begining on Saturday, December 6th. Below are the premieres for 2008. All times are 1:30 p.m.

Saturday, 12/6 - Episode 101 (Solomon Fix, MooBeard, Two Witch Sisters)

Sunday, 12/7 - Episode 102 (Finster Finster, Adventure Time, Mind the Kitty)

Saturday, 12/13 - Episode 103 (Ivan, Boneheads, Tiffany)

Saturday, 12/20 - Episode 104 (Call Me Bessie, Teapot, Hornswiggle)

Saturday, 12/27 - Episode 105 (Hero Heights, Yaki & Yumi, Gary Guitar)

More details to come…

Another great photo from the Warner Club News. Here’s layout artist and background painter Robert Gibbroek from the December 1959 issue. He’s a real unsung hero of many classic Warner Bros. cartoons. His work appears in such great films as One Froggy Evening, Fast and Furry-ous, Operation: Rabbit and The Mouse That Jack Built to name but a few. Note the image below left (click on thumbnails to enlarge) where Gribbroek worked his name into the background of One Froggy Evening. His fine art was outstanding too (see examples below).

A can’t-miss event is coming up in NY. Richard Williams will appear at the Museum of Modern Art on Monday, September 22. He will discuss his career with historian and filmmaker John Canemaker. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for students. Here is the event description:

Three-time Academy Award winner Richard Williams discusses his long and influential career in a conversation with animation filmmaker and historian (and fellow Oscar-winner) John Canemaker. Williams, who was awarded Oscars for Special Achievement and for Visual Effects as the director of animation of the Walt Disney/Steven Spielberg blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and for his short film A Christmas Carol (1971), is one of the finest animation filmmakers of our time. His stunningly crafted, award-winning films have featured the work of veteran animators from the Disney studio’s “Golden Age” and from Warner Bros. Cartoons, most notably Grim Natwick (Snow White), Art Babbitt (Fantasia), and Ken Harris (Bugs Bunny). Williams also learned from his friends Milt Kahl (Pinocchio, The Jungle Book), and Frank Thomas (Bambi, Cinderella). A distillation of his acquired knowledge went into the exuberant animation he directed for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and, most recently, into an unparalleled and indispensable series of instructional DVD master classes based on his bestselling book The Animator’s Survival Kit. Illustrated with clips from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Charge of the Light Brigade, A Christmas Carol, Raggedy Ann & Andy, the animated titles from The Return of the Pink Panther, award-winning commercials, segments from The Animator’s Survival Kit, and more. Organized by Joshua Siegel (Associate Curator, Department of Film) and John Canemaker.

Link to event page at MoMA’s website