Just a week after the news about Nick’s downsizing in New York comes this rumor about NY studio Animation Collective. A reliable Cartoon Brew reader writes:

“I wanted to let you know that I recently spoke to one of my friends and colleagues who works (worked) at Animation Collective in NYC. It looks like they shut down shop (whole staff) because they couldn’t pay their employees. Larry Schwarz (CEO) told the staff that one of their contracted clients can’t pay them. Word on the street is that Animation Collective hasn’t paid their staff in four weeks! Another gloom sign in the animation world. Ugh. Can it get worse? I’m guessing yes.”

Can anybody provide more details about the situation? Let’s hope this is not true because it would be a disgraceful and unacceptable way for any studio to treat their employees.

UPDATE: We received an email from an artist who had been working at Animation Collective. The artist asked for anonymity but allowed some of the information to be shared with Cartoon Brew readers. The artist says that not all the productions at the studio were affected, however the studio was never compensated for one of the productions that they completed for a French producer. Since being laid off, the artist still hasn’t received AT LEAST four weeks of payroll, some of it dating back to September and October. According to this artist, the studio hired accountants and lawyers to help them recover the money owed, but to date Animation Collective hasn’t delivered any of the backpay and isn’t offering details about what’s happening. They only apologize to employees and say their payments have been delayed.

The “twelve days of Christmas” technically begin after Christmas Day, but we’re starting them early. Every day between now and Christmas, we’re offering one holiday-themed piece of animation.

To get things started, here’s a classic from the NFB: the Oscar-nominated 1963 short Christmas Cracker with segments directed by Norman McLaren, Jeff Hale, Gerald Potterton and Grant Munro.

Thank you Mark Evanier for pointing us towards a must-read L.A. Times article by former Chuck Jones/Bill Melendez/Richard Williams publicist-turned-animation producer Steven Paul Leiva (Space Jam), about his ill-fated attempts to bring Will Eisner’s The Spirit to the screen. The story tells how Brad Bird, John Lasseter, John Musker, Jerry Rees (and other Hollywood bigshots) tried to make a potentially ground-breaking animated feature over 20 years ago (Leiva is pictured above left, in 1981, with Brad Bird (center) and Will Eisner at right). Read it now!

Several animators have expanded beyond simply publishing their own sketchbooks and have moved up into creating personal illustrated stories, and authoring children’s books. Here are a few suggestions, off the beaten path, for gifts you might want to give your animated loved ones this holiday season.

First off, if you were wondering where to find a great childrens’ book about a town of hamburger-headed people… Well, your worries are over! Writer Mike Reiss (The Simpsons) has teamed once again with animator Xeth Feinberg (their past collaborations include Queer Duck and Hard Drinkin’ Lincoln) to create a clever, funny book just published by Inkwater Press, City of Hamburgers.

Next, meet Gabriele Pennacchioli, a Dreamworks animator-story artist who’s spent one year of weekends developing the story of a little horned hero. Now he’s collected his incredibly appealing drawings into a book, The Young Minotaur, which he’s selling $15.00 (which includes his signature and a sketch). See his blog for more information.

David G. Derrick Jr. is an artist and sculptor at Dreamworks Animation who has documented his adventures sketching animals in Africa in a new self published soft cover, African Diaries. It’s a first person account, in words and drawings, of his recent trek through the dark continent. Check out his website to order and see his amazing sculptures.

Speaking of Africa and Dreamworks, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, once again, my own holiday gift book The Art of Madagascar. Take a look:

(Thanks to Teoh Yi Chie/Parka81 for making the video above)

What a perfect way to start the weekend! Today marks the debut of a new music video by illustrator/comic artist Dave Cooper in collaboration with animator/director Nick Cross. The video is for Danko Jones’ song “King of Magazines.” Nick says, “The animation was all done in Flash by myself and Steve Stefanelli, working from Dave’s storyboard and rough designs.”

I’ve already watched it a few times and can’t get enough of it. It’s so refreshing to see a cartoon that actually indulges and celebrates its cartooniness. Lots of joyful animated FUN in this one.

This just in from France: 2D isn’t quite dead yet…

Based on Dargaud’s graphic novel Siegfried by Alex Alice. Animation by Pendragon Imageforge.

UPDATE: Reader Tsuka says, “This is not a trailer but a pilot produced in 2004 for an aborted feature project. Subsequently the author, Alex Alice, turned the project into a comic book last year.”

(Thanks, Sandra Khoo)

As our outgoing Commander-in-Chief is fond of saying, “Fool me once, shame on you—fool me…you can’t get fooled again.” So while I didn’t get fooled again by going to see Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, I also managed to miss the film’s opening end titles, which actually offer a fun and creative take on the characters. The sequence can be viewed and downloaded in hi-res at the DUCK Studios website. If the style looks familiar that’s because the paper cut-out animation was designed and animated by Jamie Caliri, who is also responsible for the end credits of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and United Airlines’ “Dragon” commercial.

UPDATE: Below is the credit list for the artists who worked on this stop-motion sequence. Also, Megan Brain who created the paper cut-outs, has a couple blog entries here and here displaying her paper puppetry. (Thanks, Jorge Ribeiro)

Preproduction
Jamie Caliri:Director & storyboard
Dan Ridgers:Line Producer
Megan Brain:Art director, puppet design/fabrication
Alex Juhasz:Storyboard & background art
Pablo Grande:Prop design/fabrication & background art
Todd Hemker:Animation Director

Animators
Yorico Murakami
Scott Kravitz
Jinna Kim
Hsinping Pan
Hsin-I Tseng
Blake Robertson
Evan James
Jan Chen

There are bad animation ideas, and then there are ideas so utterly imbecilic that make you wish you had never become interested in cartoons in the first place. This one is of the latter variety. Jstache is a series idea featuring Eighties rocker John Oates of Hall & Oates and, get ready, his crime-fighting mustache, voiced by stand-up comic Dave Attell. According to Billboard, the idea was concocted by Evan Duby, the creative director of Primary Wave Music Publishing, which owns the Hall & Oates music catalog. A Jstache pilot was recently produced by NY-based Curious Pictures. Here’s the setup for the pilot:

It will portray Oates opening a new wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that focuses on mustachioed musicians. Suddenly, a dying David Crosby appears and with his last breath warns Oates of a mysterious secret group of mustache wearers bent on killing other mustache wearers. As actor Tom Selleck attempts to escape from the latest murder scene, Oates summons his own mustache with a fist pump that simultaneously changes his clothes from conservative attire to pink pants and white boots.

Perhaps what’s most depressing is the last line of the Billboard article: “As one network executive who has seen the trailer says, ‘These guys are approaching the publishing business from a new angle. They’re taking rich copyrights and doing something innovative with them.’” Anybody who is familiar with animation knows that this type of innovation is nothing new within the art form. Producers, execs and all manner of creatively-clueless people have been ‘innovating’ since the earliest days of this art form. Thankully these people rarely last long in the business. Then again, sometimes they’re voted the smartest person in television too.