Welcome to Cartoon Brew - where rejected pilots from Cartoon Network come to play. Here’s another one:

Here is what the creator, Lincoln Peirce, had to say about it:

“Spang Ho is the latest of several pilots of mine Cartoon Network has rejected over the years. No, it wasn’t for Cartoonstitute; that program hadn’t officially been launched when CN bought Spang Ho. Frankly, I’m not sure exactly why they bought it, since nobody there seemed too sanguine about its prospects as a CN series. There was a lot of turmoil going on in the CN programming and development depts at the time (as there continues to be), and CN actually fired Spang Ho’s in-house producer when we were about halfway done without telling us. (When I say “us” I’m referring to myself, my director Rich Ferguson-Hull, and the crew of Global Mechanic, the house that did the animation.) But they allowed us to finish it, and then they focus-grouped it. The kids were only luke-warm about it, and that was the end of that. It was likely my last TV writing stint for awhile, since I’m working on some kids books for Harper Collins right now featuring my comic strip character, Big Nate.”

(Thanks, Joshua Bailey)

As a change of pace, here’s some happy news about a veteran animation artist: today is Bud Luckey’s 75th birthday. Luckey’s career stretches from Quartet and Format Films in the 1950s to design and story work on most of the Pixar features and the short Boundin’, which he directed. And, of course, he will always be fondly remembered for the many catchy Sesame Street segments he wrote, performed and animated, like “The Ladybugs’ Picnic,” “The Alligator King,” “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Nine,” and this one:

UPDATE: Animation artist Phil Rynda wrote a post about Bud Luckey’s influence on him and drew this birthday tribute with Luckey’s character, Donny Budd. Awesome!

Story artist Ed Gombert has started a blog dedicated to the work of Disney storyman Vance Gerry, who passed away in 2005. Gombert writes on the blog, “Fortunately, the geek in me started making copies of his work and instead of sitting in a folder in my personal archive I want to share these drawings with as many people as possible. If you look long enough at these drawings and paintings you will be able to see the kind, funny, humble and generous man that was Vance Gerry.”

The Gerry blog joins a growing number of blogs, sites and Facebook pages dedicated to individual artists from animation’s Golden Age, including:

Abe Levitow
Homer Jonas
Chuck Jones
Irv Spector
Ward Kimball
Claude Coats
Jack Bradbury

(Thanks, Mark Kennedy)

One of the saddest things about the current deconstruction of Cartoon Network is the bits and pieces of pilots and projects being leaked that point to what could have been. Animator Stephane Coedel has posted these charming opening and closing title sequences for a CN rejected pilot created by Rikke Asbjorn.

Little Rikke was co-directed by Rikke Asbjorn and Chris Garbutt
- Character design: Rikke Asbjorn
- Storyboard: Chris Garbutt
- Backgrounds: Sylvain Marc
- Character animation: Rikke Asbjorne, Sylvain Marc, Ben Marsaud
- Compositing, animation, sound supervision: Stephane Coedel.
-Development team of concept: Rikke Asbjoern, Chris Garbutt, Alan Kerswell, Dave Needham, Charlie Bean, Sylvain Marc.

A fact that took me by surprise: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is now the fifth-highest grossing animated feature of all-time at the worldwide box office. Here’s the list:

1. Shrek 2 - $919.8 million
2. Finding Nemo - $864.6 million
3. Shrek the Third - $799 million
4. The Lion King - $783.8 million
5. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - $673.5 million

The film has performed phenomenally overseas, pulling in excess of $500 million from foreign markets. This Variety article mentions that the film is on its way to becoming the top-grossing animated feature at the foreign box office, surpassing the current title holder, Pixar’s Finding Nemo ($524 million).

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the reason for the film’s box office success isn’t because the entire world loves Ray Romano, but rather that the world loves Scrat, a refreshing cartoon creation whose appeal stems from his personality and mannerisms instead of his dialogue (a virtually unheard of innovation in contemporary animation).

The episode of Simon’s Cat I posted yesterday couldn’t be more different in style and tone than Ice Age, but at its core, I think the success of both of these cartoons revolves around an understanding that audiences still enjoy watching funny and appealing visually-driven cartoon characters.

I haven’t seen a new piece of animation by stop-motion animator Corky Quackenbush in what seems like forever, so I was pleasantly surprised to run across his latest: Harry Potter and the Office of Unemployment.

I also found this “sex and violence” reel with clips from Quakenbush’s familiar classics along with newer works that I hadn’t seen. Family Guy could stand to take a lesson from Corky about what it means to be edgy and outrageous.

For more about Corky, visit his charmingly outdated website SpaceBassFilms.com.

If you’re stuck in Los Angeles, and you can’t get into tonight’s Academy program with John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki, take heart! Cartoon Dump goes on this evening at 8pm with our gala 2nd Anniversary Show!

That’s right! It’s our second birthday (our first performance was in July 2007) and tonight we celebrate with special guests David Feldman (from Conan, Comedy Central, and Bill Maher) and Dave “Gruber” Allen (Freak & Geeks, Naked Trucker, Two Headed Dog)!

Join me, Frank Conniff, Erica Doering, J. Elvis Weinstein, and Mighty Mr. Titan (putting the spotlight on his ass, above) tonight at the Steve Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood Blvd. • Free Parking! • Advanced Tickets here • Phone: (323) 666-9797 • Map & Directions

We linked to a preview of Justin Weber’s Juiced and Jazzed a few months ago, but now the whole film is viewable online at liquorflicker.com

The cartoon began as Weber’s senior film at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. It was completed at MAKE in Minneapolis. Weber writes:

“I graduated in December 2008, having completed a black and white version of the cartoon, I was employed at MAKE, a design studio in Minneapolis that specializes in motion graphics and animation. There, with the help of fellow MCAD graduates Andrew Chesworth, Aaron Quist, and Joe Kim, we colored and finished the cartoon. It premiered at the Palm Springs International ShortFest in June and won 2nd Place in the Animation category.”

The cartoon features the recordings “The Uptown Lowdown” by Joe Venuti and “The Charelston” by Spike Jones. I always have a soft spot for “retro-30s” rubber hose tributes like this. Well done, Justin.