The New York Times is reporting that Hayao Miyazaki will indeed appear (with John Lasseter) on July 24th at the San Diego Comic Con.

At Comic-Con Mr. Miyazaki and Mr. Lasseter are expected to appear as part of an animation presentation that will give a glimpse not only at “Ponyo,” but also at a series of coming Disney films, including “Toy Story 3,” “Beauty and the Beast 3-D” and “The Princess and the Frog.”

The only way to see this is to sit in Hall H - NOW!

Miyazaki will also appear at presentations in San Francisco and LA. Read the entire NY Times article here.

A couple years back, Montreal-based animator Malcolm Sutherland picked up a copy of my book Cartoon Modern at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. He wrote to tell me that, “A year or so later it inspired a short film as a present to my mom for Christmas, called Great Ambition.” The short is based on a vintage recording called “The Arizona Yodeler” performed by the DeZurik Sisters (aka the Cackle Sisters), and it’s a lovely example of how to capture the spirit of stylized Fifties animation using contemporary production tools:

Sutherland just completed a short called The Astronomer’s Dream, which is in a different style that is more lush and illustrative. A description of the film: “When a hungry astronomer falls asleep while working on a problem, he discovers a solution not in outer space, but in the surreal food-chain of his subconscious mind.” Viewers who enjoy the film below can purchase a DVD of ten of his animated shorts plus bonus materials, directly from his website.

Here’s a rare treat. Ralph Bakshi and Don Bluth discuss the future of animation on Nightcap, a literary roundtable hosted by journalists Studs Terkel and Calvin Trillin.

Here Bakshi and Bluth are joined by Larry Elin, who represents computer animation. All have great things to say, much of it still relevant — except for Elin, who essentially claims that computer animation will never create real characters. It’s a great peek into the animation mindset of 1982. What a blast to see Bakshi and Bluth on the same set, grilled by two of America’s most noted writers, talking about, among other things, Saturday morning cartoons. It’s also a reminder of how intelligent talk shows used to be — and perhaps, could be again.

Nightcap aired weekly on the forerunner of A&E, ARTS - when the channel aired as the nighttime programming block of Nickelodeon (pre-Nick-at-Nite)! The whole show is about 26 minutes. I split the episode into three parts for YouTube, but for your viewing pleasure, I’ve compiled them into a playlist below:

(Thanks, Mark Kausler)

Longtime animator and director Jaime Diaz passed away this past Saturday.

I met Jaime several times during 2005-6 when I was working at Nickelodeon on my Random Cartoon, Hornswiggle. Jaime was an amazing talent and generous with his memories of breaking into the animation scene during the 1960s. You’ll see his credit on some of the last Warner Bros. cartoons of the late 1960s. From there, he worked mainly on Saturday morning shows for Hanna Barbera and Filmation in a variety of roles, from storyboard to character designer. He became a director on Duckman and on later Frederator shows like ChalkZone and Fairly Odd Parents. I really enjoyed his designs from his Random short Dr. Froyd’s Funny Farm (Diaz, pictured below left with Froyd co-creator Bill Burnett).

Larry Huber has posted a wonderful heartfelt remembrance of Jaime on his website.

There’s no debate that animator Irving Spector was, like John Dunn, an under appreciated cartoonist and storyman — working in animation at a time when the finished product didn’t do justice to the talents behind it. Thanks to Spector’s son, Irv’s work is getting some long overdue appreciation in a blog dedicated to his work.

Among the best of the late Paramount output, Chew Chew Baby was produced during a brief period when the studio put some actual effort behind its limited animation. This particular film is one of my favorites, and contains one of Jackson Beck’s (no relation) best performances. It’s also notable as one of the last cartoons to ignore political correctness and feature a pygmy cannibal - as well as one of the last cartoons credited to Isadore Sparber, released a few days before his death in August 1958.

This is also one of the “Harveytoons” not contained in Classic Media’s Complete Harveytoons DVD collection. Mike Van Eaton (of Van Eaton Gallery) recently unearthed a cache of original Spector storyboards from this film (click thumbnails below to enlarge). These drawings are a lot of fun - and this film may be the closest representation of Spector’s design style to make it faithfully to the screen.

Waiting at the Geneva Airport for my flight back to New York and thought I’d share pics of a few of the fine animation folk I hung out with this past week in Annecy.

New York crew: PES, Fran Krause and Signe Baumane

Eddie White, co-director of The Cat Piano from The People’s Republic of Animation

Directors Andreas Hykade (Ring of Fire, The Runt) and Bill Plympton

Director Candy Kugel of Buzzco Associates , designer Harald Siepermann, and director David OReilly

Filmmaker Ruth Lingford, Projector festival director Susie Wilson, animation curator of the Cinémathèque Québecoise Marco de Blois, and Studio AKA creative director and Lost and Found director Philip Hunt

Mike and Tim Rauch of Rauch Bros. Animation and designer Erin Kilkenny

Joost van den Bosch (l.) of Ka-Ching Cartoons and Tomm Moore, co-director of Brendan and the Secret of Kells

Director Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back) surrounded by men from Annecy’s Popeye fan club.

Pixar’s Teddy Newton produced and co-wrote (with director Gregor Joackim) an independent live action feature, The Trouble with Lou, in 2001. It’s NSFW, laugh-out-loud hilarious and is now on iTunes. It stars animation designer Lou Romano (Ratatouille) as “Himself”, and composer Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Up, Star Trek ) did the score. It’s almost like Pixar’s bastard step-child.

Teddy sent me these facts about he film:

1. The Trouble with Lou was shot over a 33 day period.

2. It was independently financed by Teddy Newton for the cost of $300,000.

3. The entire cast was made up of unknowns.

4. Dr. Killgore is played by Doodie.com cartoonist Tom Winkler.

Below is the first two and a half minutes. Download the entire feature here.

Internet broadcaster Stu Shostak has an almost complete collection of TV Guide magazine. While waiting for his radio show to start (which I was a guest on yesterday; rebroadcasts of the program run everyday at 7pm EST/4pm PST) I browsed through several back issues and found a few items of interest for Cartoon Brew readers.

For example, this three page spread from the December 30th, 1961 issue, on the fine art of Format Films animators Jules Engel, Bob McIntosh, Joe Mugnaini and Herb Klynn. Engel, McIntosh and Klynn are well known animation veterans, Mugnaini is best known for his illustrations for Ray Bradbury novels. It’s great they received this sort of exposure in a national magazine at a time when the perception of animation as an adult artform was waning. (Click thumbnails below to enlarge)