This 1961 film clip of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera explaining the TV animation process is well worth a view. There’s a lot of crazy stuff that happens in the mere span of three-and-a-half minutes. First there’s the shot of layout man Alex Lovy, who takes a long drag on his cigarette before he even starts to draw, which is a unique sight for any animation documentary. That’s followed by a shot of a stereotypically obese animator who barely fits in the frame. I more or less expect animators to look like this today, but it’s something of a surprise to see such a bulky animator in 1961.

Mark Mayerson, who originally linked to this clip, also notes the video’s “casual sexism” in which “‘girls’ do ink and paint, but a ‘man’ paints the backgrounds.” Along those lines, it’s worth noting that the best “how-to” advice in the video has nothing to do with animation. Just watch as Joe Barbera puts the moves on the foxy woman interviewer at around 1:30 into the clip. Now there’s a glimpse into a long-lost era when animation execs were also smooth operators.

The Academy has released its list of animated features that qualify for Oscar consideration. 14 titles. Had Universal deemed to enter The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything and if Warner Bros. submitted Star Wars: The Clone Wars, or had Fox entered Space Chimps, we might have had the opportunity for five nominees. As it is Academy members will pick three from this selection:

Bolt - Disney
Delgo – Fathom Studios
Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! – 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky
Dragon Hunters – Futurikon/Peace Arch
Fly Me to the Moon – Summit Ent./nWave
Igor – MGM/ Weinstein Co./Exodus
Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa – DreamWorks Animation
$9.99 – Regent Releasing
The Sky Crawlers – Production IG./Nippon/Sony Pictures Classics
Sword of the Stranger (Stranger Mukoh Hadan) - Shochiku/Bones/Bandai
The Tale of Despereaux - Universal
WALL-E – Disney/Pixar
Waltz with Bashir – Sony Pictures Classics

If anyone knows where and when The Sky Crawlers and Dragon Hunters are booked for their one-week Oscar qualifying release in Los Angeles, please let me know. I’m curious to see these.

Any thoughts on which three the Academy may nominate?

I’m not sure why I’m linking to this one-minute short besides the fact that it made me want to have an omelette. This is what happens when food-related cartoons show up in my newsreader before breakfast. Animation and music are by NYU grad Stephen Neary, who most recently was working in the story department at Blue Sky Studios. Neary also created the student film Shark Suit: The Musical.

It’s time for a new edition of “Brew Vaults” with exclusive audio commentary by animation historians Jerry Beck and Mark Kausler. This week’s offering is It’s a Grand Old Nag, the lost theatrical short from 1947 directed by animation legend Bob Clampett. Click on this link to watch It’s a Grand Old Nag on Cartoon Brew TV!

Saw Bolt yesterday. Before the screening they gave everyone a promotional deck of playing cards featuring development artwork from the film. Aren’t the pencil images of the lead characters (above) beautiful. I really wanted to see that movie.

Instead I saw the CG version (and I saw it flat, not in Disney Digital 3D). What did I think? First off, let me recommend that all Cartoon Brew readers see this feature. It’s definitely a good solid family film and an improvement (story-wise) over Chicken Little and Meet The Robinsons. I don’t know all the behind-the-scenes problems - but I’m aware John Lasseter got involved, the director was replaced, the film was reworked and pushed through production in eighteen months.

The first ten or 15 minutes of the film is pure action. I’m talkin’ Incredibles, 007, Jason Bourne-style fast cutting with wild stunts, chases, explosions, cliff-hangers and a dog with super powers. Could Brad Bird have had a hand in this section? This was exciting stuff. Actually, this action-packed opening sequence is preceded by a heart-tugging opening scene that shows Bolt being adopted several years earlier.

Following the action set-piece, the film then goes to great lengths to explain the set-up: Bolt is the star of a TV show who is motivated to “act”, by his director (James Lipton, a nice touch), because he believes the situations (and his super-powers) are real. Before you can say “deus ex machina”, Bolt is accidently shipped to New York and the remainder of the film is taken up with his journey back to Hollywood, his traveling companions, and his realization that he isn’t who he thinks he is.

John Travolta does a great job as Bolt’s voice. Susie Essman (from Curb Your Enthusiasm, as Mittens the alley cat) and Disney story artist Mark Walton (as a fanboy hamster) deserve kudos as the true co-stars of the picture. I suppose I should mention Miley Cyrus. Her part is much smaller despite it being the pivotal role of Bolt’s human master. Does anyone know if Miley was in this film from day one - or did she replace another actress and was shoehorned into the production after the success of Hannah Montana?

The film hits all the right notes as the characters trek across America and have numerous adventures. The climactic rescue of Penny from a burning Hollywood sound stage is also quite effective. The production has all the polish we’ve come to expect from a Disney (or Pixar) production (including the now-requisite 50s stylized 2D end titles) - however there were several little things that kept pulling me out of the film. For one, the film’s settings (in the old days we’d say “the backgrounds”) are mainly photo-real, but are sometimes painted. There’s one scene in New York, where Bolt is staring at the back of a U-Haul truck. My eye was distracted by the unrealistic painting of the truck’s poorly rendered license plate.

Another thing got to me… there’s a dialogue scene between Bolt and Mittens in a field in Las Vegas. I admired how they got the intense Nevada daytime sunlight just right. But the dialogue track took me out of the scene. The characters sounded like they were in a recording booth - not in a Las Vegas field. I’ve never thought about this before seeing this scene - but couldn’t dialogue for an important outdoor scene actually be recorded outside? It would’ve added touch of realism to the situation.

But these are just tiny nit-picks. Overall, I really enjoyed the film - especially its digs at the behind the scenes world of network television production. Bolt is a lot of fun, and a good step in the right direction as Disney continues to rebuild its brand in Feature Animation. I’m rooting for Bolt, and the studio, to succeed.

P.S. to Disney brass: I still wouldn’t mind seeing a hand drawn version of Bolt as depicted in the development art. Could such an idea be in the cards - and not just in the playing cards?

Kanye West writes on his blog that this new video for “Heartless”, directed by Hype Williams, was inspired by the rotoscope-animation in Ralph Bakshi’s American Pop. The Jetsons also make an appearance in the vid. West says, “WE RECORDED REAL PEOPLE AND THEN HAD 65 ANIMATORS IN HONG KONG HAND DRAW OVER EVERY CELL [sic] . INSPIRED BY THE MOVIE “AMERICAN POP” . HYPE SHOWED ME THE MOVIE AND I WAS SOLD.”

(Thanks, Jeremy Bernstein)

The image above comes from a London art exhibit, Splatter, which we reported here last month. The show has now closed (yesterday was the last day) but in case you missed it, artist James Cauty has posted several pics from the opening and slashfilm.com has posted several more.

And if that isn’t enough, Cauty is selling exclusive merchandise here. My only question: is this stuff authorized by Warner Bros.?

(Thanks, Steve Gordon)

Disney Feature animation artists Joe Pitt and Alex Hirsch have started an animation blog project, 24 Hour Toons. Every other week, on Fridays at midnight, they put up a theme and challenge their colleagues to make a animated film about it within the course of 24 hours. They’ve only had a couple rounds so far but the results are intriguing and fun - for example: