It’s been an Eyvind Earle kind of week. A couple days ago I stumbled onto an obscure post-Sleeping Beauty Chevrolet commercial that he directed and animated. And tonight I found this half-hour documentary that was written and narrated by him shortly before he died in 2000. The film contains lots of personal history, more of his rarely seen commercial and abstract animation, and a generous serving of his personal philosophies about life. Watch the entire program in three parts:

Let’s give it up for Google! October 21 marks the 100th anniversary of animation legend Mary Blair’s birth, and Google honored her with the Google Doodle above. And credit to the Google artist who drew it, Mike Dutton.

Just for the record, Disney’s own website has done nothing (as far as I can tell) to commemorate Mary Blair’s birth, though when I went there, I was treated to a pop-up congratulating me on being selected to take a Disney Online survey.

It’s unlikely that you’ll miss this, but for the sake of posterity, let us note that Google’s homepage is celebrating the birth of Gumby and Davey and Goliath creator Art Clokey. Clokey, who passed away last year, would have been 90 years old today.

(Thanks to all who emailed us about this.)

Interesting hand-drawn (on Cintiq, using TVPaint) film by Erick Oh (Student Academy Award finalist, Heart). Oh is a Korean animation artist based in California, currently at Pixar. His independent films have been screened at Annecy, Hiroshima, Zagreb, SIGGRAPH and Anima Mundi.

(Thanks, David Nethery)

A reminder that the public memorial service for Corny Cole, who passed away last month, is planned for this Sunday, October 9th.

The Animation Guild had already scheduled an open-to-the-public Fine Art of Corny Cole exhibit and reception for this Friday, October 7 at 6pm. However, the official memorial event has been added on Sunday, October 9, from noon to 6pm in the Guild’s meeting room on the second floor. Both these events will be held at The Animation Guild building, at 1105 N. Hollywood Way, in Burbank, CA.

For the Sunday memorial, which will open at 12 noon, attendees are encouraged to bring Corny Cole artwork to display or any video of his work, or of him, on DVD. At 1pm Tom Sito will introduce several friends and guest speakers. Anyone who has a Corny story to share is invited to do so. Contact Sito at tom (at) tomsito (dot) com so he can add you to the list and introduce you. Refreshments will be served.

(photo above via Jon Gomez)

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack creator Thurop van Orman has taken fan interaction to a whole new level. This video (reposted HERE) recorded during the Ottawa International Animation Festival, which is happening right now, shows Thurop wrestling one of his fans to the ground. Here’s the setup, according to Andrew Stewart, who filmed the action:

A few of us were talking with Thurop (guy who created the show Flapjack.) and Steve Smith faked wrestled with him, but then Thurop took him out into the bushes. Steve then challenged Thurop to a 2nd match 10min later and this is that match!

Rest assured that this kind of wrestling is considered perfectly normal by Thurop, and according to Stewart’s followup tweet, might even be a kind of kinky foreplay in the van Orman household: “Thurop said he loves to wrestle and he does that with his wife too. He said she cheats by pulling his beard.”

Add this as one more reason why LA artists should consider attending Ottawa: if you’re looking for a good place to bodyslam your fans into the ground, Canada and its universal health care system beckons!