Animation historian/author and voice actor Keith Scott, a foremost authority on Jay Ward, old-time radio and cartoon voice actors, has published an article on the origin of Foghorn Leghorn that is a must read. The common story of how Foggy’s characterization was based on Kenny Delmar’s radio character Senator Claghorn is only half true. Keith has finally cleared up the published misinformation which was mainly propagated by the animators themselves, including Bob McKimson, Chuck Jones and, in particular, Mel Blanc. Keith has allowed me to post the article online, and you can read it here.
The article is an excerpt from Keith’s ‘zine, (cleverly titled Eh… confidentially, Doc - I AM A WABBIT!!!), published in the current edition of Apatoons (#150, April-May 2008). Apatoons is a long running amateur press association publication, a private mailing for members only. If you are interested in joining the apa, or buying a sample issue, check its website for more information.

I was getting ready to junk a flyer I’d received for the Hiroshima International Animation Festival when I noticed a tiny image printed on the back of it that I hadn’t seen before: a still from the new Pixar short Presto that will open in front of Wall-E. It marks the first directorial effort by supervising animator Doug Sweetland.

Readers may recall that last year I posted about a group of Brazilian film students who had created a scene-by-scene live-action remake of the Oscar-winning Pixar short Geri’s Game (download from iTunes). Since then, there’s been a mini-online phenomenon in which fans of the film have been creating lots and lots of live-action remakes and parodies of the film.

Some of these films follow the film’s original scenes very closely while others are more parody-oriented taking liberties with the acting and staging. Is there any other example of an animated short being remade into live-action by fans of the film? I find the whole thing fascinating because this is not some contrived top-down corporate effort soliciting fans to do this for a contest or some such. It’s simply a bunch of people who enjoy and identify with the film’s character and want to try their hand at recreating him.

Here’s the original live-action remake from Brazil:

Amos’ Game

Don’s Game

This person remade the film with their grandfather in the title role:

A version made with a kid pretending to be Geri:

Disney’s reuse of past animation is nothing new. But seeing these sequences in motion, one scene followed by its subsequent reuse, is fascinating. Animator Michael J. Ruocco, on his For The Birds blog, has started compiling a series of videos comparing the original animation from Disney features with the later films in which the same animation is reused. He’s just posted Disney’s Gettin’ Lazy Episode #3 showing that Bambi’s Mom didn’t die - she lived on to appear in The Sword In the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Rescuers and Beauty and the Beast. My favorite is Episode #2 (embedded below) comparing a chase scene from Mr. Toad with one in The Jungle Book:

Also check his Episode #1 (which compares a bit from Fantasia with Make Mine Music and The Black Cauldron), and note that Ruocco’s planning many more of these.

A Brew reader sent me this link from ebay, wondering ‘what year this Betty Boop model sheet was from, or did the seller mis-identify this Fleischer character?’ The seller had identified it as a Warner Bros. model sheet - and he got that correct… it is a Warner Bros. model sheet, but certainly not Betty Boop. It’s an early model chart for “Cookie”, the girlfriend of Buddy in several Looney Tunes entries from 1935-36 (click on Looney Tunes frame grab at left for larger image). Since it’s something you don’t see everyday (at least, I don’t), I thought I’d post it on the Brew for our enjoyment.

I really like this video of a hardcore cartoon fan offering his opinions about various animated features. Many of us are so heavily immersed in the industry that it’s easy to forget how the average moviegoer looks at animated films. It’s refreshing to hear a fan’s perspective, even though I cringed a few times, like when he expressed affection for Once Upon a Forest. Our chubby-cheeked friend also calls Looney Tunes: Back In Action “a classic ’90s style film,” says DreamWorks’s Over the Hedge reminded him of Care Bears, and touts The Chipmunk Adventure as one of his “all-time favorite animated films.”

The tortured history of the TMS feature film Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland (1992) could rival that of Richard Williams The Thief And The Cobbler. It was an American/Japanese joint project, with no less than Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata involved in the pre-production stage (1982-83).

George Lucas, Chuck Jones, Gary Kurtz, Ray Bradbury, Chris Columbus, Moebius, John Canemaker, Leo Salkin, Paul Julian, Ken Anderson, Frank Thomas and Brad Bird (who talks about his involvement in the comments below) were attached to this film at one time or another. Bill Hurtz (George of the Jungle, Unicorn In The Garden) and Masami Hata (Sea Prince and the Fire Child) ultimately directed the final release, admittedly a mixed bag.

The idea of making a fully animated adaptation of Winsor McCay’s comic strip masterpiece somehow seems like a good idea (McCay himself authorized a musical stage play based on the strip in 1908), and the names assembled (above) to tackle such a project were certainly capable doing so.

If you’re wondering what a Miyazaki version might’ve been like, check this out. Below I’ve posted a short test film dating from December 1984. Key Miyazaki animator/director Yoshifumi Kondo (Whisper Of The Heart) directed this test sequence, supposedly filmed in 70mm. The mind boggles as to what could have been.

Oh, and who authorized this?

Earlier today, Disney and Pixar announced their theatrical line-up through 2012. This is the lengthy press release with story details and release info. Your thoughts?

Pixar’s line-up is as follows:

June 27, 2008
Wall-E directed by Andrew Stanton

May 29, 2009
Up directed by Pete Docter

June 18, 2010
Toy Story 3 directed by Lee Unkrich

Summer 2011
Newt directed by Gary Rydstrom

Winter 2011
The Bear and the Bow directed by Brenda Chapman

Summer 2012
Cars 2 directed by Brad Lewis

Meanwhile, on the Disney side, there is:

November 26, 2008
Bolt directed by Chris Williams and Byron Howard

Christmas 2009
The Princess and the Frog directed by John Musker and Ron Clements (Note: this marks the return of hand-drawn animation to Disney)

Christmas 2010
Rapunzel directed by Glen Keane and Dean Wellins

2012
King of the Elves directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker

It’s interesting to note that all of the Pixar films have one individual with top billing as director, while the Disney features are structured to have two directors per film. That certainly can’t be coincidence. As Disney regains its footing, hopefully they’ll discover individuals within the organization whose personal vision is strong enough to carry a film by itself.

Also, it was apparently important enough to merit being put into this announcement that Disney has four direct-to-dvd features starring Tinkerbell and friends: Tinker Bell (Oct. 28, 2008), Tinker Bell: North of Neverland (2009), Tinker Bell: A Midsummer Storm (2010) and Tinker Bell: A Winter Story (2011).