Harry Lee Green posts a lot of cool stuff on his Hairy Green Eyeball blog. Today he delights us with a complete reprint of the 1953 “Tell-A-Tale Book” Beany and His Magic Set - “story and illustrations” by Bob Clampett, adapted (in other words “really illustrated by”) by Samuel Armstrong and Harvey Eisenberg.

The L.A. Times reported yesterday on Disney’s new plans for the California Adventure theme park. The idea now is to redo the park so it’s themed literally around Walt Disney’s personal California adventure. For example, the entrance will resemble Hollywood in the 1920s and, as you make your way through the park, you’ll encounter rides and attractions themed around milestones in Disney’s life: The Mickey Mouse “Fun Wheel”; the “Silly Symphony Swings”; a re-creation of the Carthay Circle Theatre where Snow White premiered; a Wonderful World of Color water show, and so on.

How Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and the rest of the Pixar-themed attractions will fit in with the Disney nostalgia remains to be seen. If it’s not too late I’d like to offer several suggestions of my own:

I’d love to see some reference to the Alice Comedies and Oswald The Lucky Rabbit in the 1920s shopping plaza.

Maybe a ride based on Victory Through Air Power?

How about a a place to play polo?

I always thought they should turn California Adventure into a Retro-Disneyland, recreating the retired rides and attractions from the 1950s and 60s: The Carousel of Progress; The Mickey Mouse Club Theatre showing 3-D Jamboree; The Flying Saucers, and the Monsanto House of the Future. Wouldn’t that be cool?

“In Our Talons” is a stop-motion music video directed by Alan Poon (repped by Circle Productions) for The Bowerbirds. It has a lovely and naturalistic, almost ethereal, feel to it. A few notes about the production:

Principle animation took 3 months. The stop-motion puppets were custom made for this video. The bird alone took over a month for the puppet fabricators to build with over 300 feathers manually sized and glued on. Most of the miniature sets were made out of foam and clay and then painted, while the clouds were made from cotton.

Credits for “In Our Talons”
Directed by Alan Poon
Produced by Circle Productions & Alan Poon
Cinematographer: Adam Makarenko
Edited by Mark Paiva/School Editing
Lead Animator: Mike Hollenbeck
Animator: Sylvie Trouve, Anibal Davila
Sculptor: Christy Langer
Lead Fabricator: Diana Savage
Set Designer: Adam Makarenko
Set Construction: Joel Harrison-Off
Visual Effects Lead: Yoga Kurniawan
Compositing: Alan Poon & Yoga Kurniawan

I love this new channel ident for BBC2 directed by Guilherme Marcondes (of Tyger fame). I also love the behind-the-scenes photos that Guilherme posted on his Flickr. He writes about the spot:

This spot was one in a series of six (each directed by a different person) promoting some of the hosts of the most popular shows on BBC2. Bruce Parry presents some wild reality shows in the channel, like “Tribe” and “Amazon”. My job was too create a visual interpretation of Bruce’s own concerns about environment and life in a materialistic society.

We built the “ultimate exploitation machine”, powered by human beings, ravaging the land, sucking nature on one side and spitting consumer goods on the other. We placed the scene inside a mirror box to create a sense of boundlessness to the destructive process imposed by the machine.

Animation credits are:
Direction: Guilherme Marcondes
Production designers: Ryan Heck and Andy Byers
Design: Guilherme Marcondes and Douglas Alves
Animation and Compositing: Guilherme Marcondes
Additional Compositing: John Harrison

Hey, I really like these guys. Their work is strange - but fun.

Back in August Amid linked to a United Airlines spot by the Norwegian/Japanese animation collective SSSR. Above is their music video The Mercury Craze for Subtle. Check out their other videos F.K.O. and Swan Meat.

Now, SSSR directors Marc Reisbig and Hanne Berkaak have a new video for indie band Of Montreal for their song Id Engager. Neat stuff.

(Thanks, Jeff Kuykendall)

Legendary animator and CalArts faculty Corny Cole has lost his home and everything in it during the recent fires in Southern California. Corny evacuated before the fire hit and is unharmed, but his home, pets, and all of his artwork, save for what he has in his office at CalArts, are gone. LA’s KTTV has posted a story about him on their website.

Update #1: The Creative Talent Network held an online fundraiser. The CTN fundraiser has closed and on Oct 24th at midnight the total was $12,168.00 donated. CTN will be handing a cashiers check to Corny for $12,168.00 before Nov. 1st along with the list of donors (See the Comments below for the list of donors).

Update #2: Jeff Pidgeon has informed us that you can make a check payable to Cornelius Cole and mail it to:

California Institute of the Arts
ATT: Trish Patryla, Office of the Provost
24700 McBean Parkway
Valencia, CA 91355

Update #3: CalArts is providing housing for Corny, so he’s being well cared for. They’ve even stocked the place up with food for him. One of his cats has been found alive and well, and Jackie at Cal Arts is checking area animal shelters for more. So keep your fingers crossed.

(Thanks, Nathan Strum & Jeff Pidgeon)

This Saturday and Sunday, Julian’s Auctions is having a Bob Hope estate sale in Beverly Hills, California.

A friend of mine who once interviewed Hope asked him if he’d ever seen DC’s Bob Hope comic books. Hope replied he had — and that he saved every issue. It was in his contract to have copies of each issue sent to him as published. (I wonder what he thought of Super Hip?). Alas, those rare personal copies are not among the voluminous material being offered. Can you imagine owning Hope’s personal bound volumes of those beauties?

The only “cartoon” stuff in the catalogue (which can be viewed completely online) are some caricatures by Mort Walker, Milton Caniff, Russell Patterson and others (click on thumbnail below to see this lot). No Techincolor prints of any of the Paramount cartoons he was parodied in (like Popeye’s 20th Anniversary, pictured above), nor any autographed Frank Tashlin scripts. Oh well… thanks for the memories, Bob.

This beautiful anti-gun violence TV spot was directed by French animator, designer and illustrator Caroline Attia. This is her first commercial for a U.S. client, Citizens for a Safer Minnesota and Martin/Williams Advertising in Minneapolis. The dialogue was originally conceived and recorded for a radio campaign. Peter Barg of Z Animation exec produced, and Attia designed and animated the entire spot in traditional 2D from her Paris studio (with color done in Photoshop CS3 and compositing/editing in After Effects CS3). Click here for a high rez version.