March 20, 2004

The Disney Strike

Disney Strike

Shane Glines has posted an interesting historical artifact on his CartoonRetro.com message board - a comic strip from the publication FRIDAY drawn by striking artists during the infamous Disney Studios strike of 1941. I wonder if that's master animator Bill Tytla in the photo at right?




Posted by AMID at 04:39 AM

Rhapsody in Obscurity

If they gave Clios for pretentiousness, then United Airlines' new animated ad campaign would be a shoo-in. I just saw their second of four one-minute TV spots, and this one makes almost as little sense as the first ad that's been playing all over TV these past few weeks.





United Airlines
The new spot, which has lots of light bulbs in it, is by British animator Joanna Quinn who has also recently created more straightforward and enjoyable animated spots for Charmin toilet paper (with the bears) and Whiskas cat food. All four of the United Airlines ads are set to George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and are produced through Acme Filmworks. Like Quinn, the directors of the other spots - Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (image at right), Michael Dudok De Wit and Aleksandr Petrov - have all been either nominated or won an Oscar for animated short. I'm all in favor of distinctive quality animation in TV commercials and the two United ads I've seen so far are pleasing to look at, but the storytelling is unnecessarily confusing, and I still haven't figured out what message, if any, United is trying to communicate through these spots.


Posted by AMID at 03:29 AM

March 19, 2004

Sunday In The Park with Disney

Book Cover

Where will I be on Sunday?
I've been asked to join a number of authors who have written books on the subject of Disney (I guess a few entries in THE 50 GREATEST CARTOONS qualifies me) on "Disney Author Day" at Walt Disney’s Barn in Griffith Park on Sunday, March 21.
Scheduled to appear and sign are:
Michael Broggie, author of “Walt Disney’s Railroad Story”.
Peggy VanPelt, co-author (with the late John Hench) of “Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show”
Buzz Price, author of “Walt’s Revolution by the Numbers”
Kendra Trahan, author of the newly published “Disneyland Detective”.
Jeff Kurtti, author of "The Art of Mulan" and "The Art and Making of A Bug's Life"
Bill Cotter, author of "The Wonderful World of Disney Television"
And me.
It's at Walt’s Barn on Sunday, March 21, from 11:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
For more details follow this link.


Posted by at 08:19 PM

March 18, 2004

QUISP




quisp
I can't help it. I'm a sucker for QUISP.
One of Jay Ward's last great characters, and one of the most memorable in his stable of commercial stars (CAP'N CRUNCH is perhaps his most enduring).
I never really liked the cereal (I was a QUAKE man myself), but somehow the character just won't die (and neither will the cereal). And that's ok because I think Quisp is a great character.
Following a recent Spumco commercial, and a Funko bobblehead figure, now comes an action figure (or doll), which I just spotted at a comic shop here in Dallas (The store was called Zeus, and it's quite good).
Majestic Studios are the producers of this fine product (and check out their DAVEY & GOLIATH line while you're at it).


Posted by at 08:44 PM

March 17, 2004

DAD, CAN I BORROW THE CAR?

Ward Kimball

Ward Kimball (1914-2002) was a great animator, but the reason he's my personal favorite of Disney's Nine Old Men reaches far beyond his animation work. Peter Adamakos nails it when he writes in this REMEMBRANCE of Kimball, "In a way, it seemed there were Eight Old Men and then there was Ward Kimball." Ward, like his Old Men counterparts, was a fine draftsman and animator, but it's his singular sense of humor and subversive imagination that distinguishes him from the pack and for which I appreciate him most. These elements are evident not only in his animation, but throughout his career in the arts. I was reminded of this yesterday when a friend gave me a videotape copy of a Kimball film I'd never seen before, DAD, CAN I BORROW THE CAR?, a 47-minute live-action episode of THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY from the early-Seventies. The special does not by any stretch of the imagination qualify as a masterpiece of 20th century American cinema, but it is enjoyable to watch and filled with delightfully silly and inventive bits as only Kimball could conjure.


DAD, CAN I BORROW THE CAR? takes a hackneyed concept: our fascination with cars from the time we're born through our teen years, and uses it as an excuse for a variety of absurd montages and sequences: a breakneck-paced spoof of used car TV commercials, a musical segment that involves driving an open-top convertible through a car wash, and a sequence about the incredible frustrations of going to the DMV (the California Department of Motor Vehicles is thanked in the credits for their cooperation, although it's hard to imagine they'd have agreed to participate in this had they been aware of Ward's intentions). There are also bits and pieces of animation interspersed throughout - a bit of pixellation here, some cut-out there, and an abstract cel animated sequence that follows two speeding paint stripes around a car. There is nothing particularly ambitious animation-wise, probably due to the budgets, but the cartoon pieces are effective and work nicely within the context of the film. The animation is credited to Art Stevens, who was an animator at Disney since the early-Forties and one of Ward's main animators beginning in the early-Fifties with MELODY and TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK & BOOM. I'm pleased to report that Stevens is among the few legendary Disney animators who is still with us today.

It's hard to describe the appeal of this film. There are plenty of wry little touches throughout, like when the live-action kid requires his father's signature on a driving form, a clawed monster hand comes into frame and marks the paper with an "X" or when a newborn baby is slapped at birth by a doctor, the accompanying sound effect is a car horn. Perhaps in the mundaneness of everyday routine, it's simply inspiring to see a film by somebody whose outlook on life was so drastically different from the vast majority of the populace. Or maybe it's the brief shot of Ward Kimball eating a toy car. Cartoonists eating cars is not something you see everday.


Posted by AMID at 08:19 PM

March 16, 2004

COLUMBIA CARTOONS on VOOM





Voom
I've been informed by several BREW readers that classic Columbia (Screen Gems & UPA) cartoons are now running, restored and uncut, on ANIMANIA HD, a digital network exclusively part of a High Def suite of channels in a package called VOOM.
If anyone has schedule information, we'd love to hear about it. I understand ANIMANIA HD also runs Felix The Cat (the color Oriolo ones) and the British CG series DAN DARE: PILOT OF THE FUTURE. But what else?
Enquiring minds want to know.

Posted by at 01:20 PM

JERRY IN HARVEY-LAND





art by kremer
I am away from my home base of Los Angeles this week, visiting the beautiful city of Dallas, where I am lending my expertise to the fine folks at HERITAGE COMICS AUCTIONS.
If I lived in Dallas, this is where I'd want to work. Heritage has obtained the complete library of original art from Harvey Comics - all of it from 1942 to 1988 - Harvey didn't throw any of it out.
Heritage has begun auctioning off select pieces - from the early Green Hornet, to the later "Thriller" line of oddball superheroes - and of course, the famous kids characters Casper, Richie Rich, Baby Huey, Little Dot, etc.
I'm here to help sort the material and identify artists.
Sounds grueling, but it's a blast to see this incredible art and hold it in my hands - comics by the like of Famous Studios animators Dave Tendlar, Steve Muffatti, Bill Hudson, Marty Taras - not to mention comics greats Warren Kremer, Howie Post, Ernie Colon and others.
For example, check out the original art to this terrific Tendlar Herman & Katnip cover currently up for bid.
Good stuff - or should I say "Hot Stuff"!

Posted by at 08:54 AM

March 15, 2004

SANITIZED SOUTH PARK

They're finally washing Cartman's mouth out with soap. Just as Congress is slamming broadcasters over foul language, producers are squeezing more money out of cable's most risqué shows by selling them in syndication to broadcast stations and tamer cable networks. A sanitized version of Comedy Central's South Park, slated to bow on broadcast TV stations in fall 2005, has been created by a syndicator who is taking it to stations to demonstrate they'll work on broadcast TV.
Here's a link to an article which explains all the editing they have to do (Warning: Article contains naughty words).

Posted by at 02:52 PM

Welcome to the Brew

On behalf of Jerry Beck and myself, Amid Amidi, I'd like to welcome everybody to our new home on the Web, CartoonBrew.com. The news and commentary that was found previously on our own websites, CartoonResearch.com and AnimationBlast.com respectively, will now be housed exclusively at CartoonBrew.com. Our old sites will both remain active and will serve other purposes, but CartoonBrew.com is the page to bookmark for your daily dose of intelligent animation commentary.

Our plans for CartoonBrew do not end with what you see here today. Over the coming months, we're going to be introducing a number of other features to this site including the addition of guest bloggers. We look forward to having artists and historians from around the industry join us on the Brew to share their own thoughts on the art form of animation.

Please be patient with us as we try to work out the various technical kinks of this site over the coming weeks. If the site is showing up oddly on your browser, please drop me a line at amid(at)animationblast(dot)com with details of what's wrong. And if anybody is proficient with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), please feel free to offer solutions to any problems that you encounter. Jerry and I welcome and appreciate any such help. Finally, a shout-out to Leslie Cabarga who designed the various Cartoon Brew logos that we're using on this site. Thanks Leslie!



Posted by AMID at 03:15 AM

March 14, 2004

DUCK & COVER





Watch out Bert! Bert the Turtle knows how to DUCK AND COVER!
On March 1st CONELRAD, the website devoted to Cold War popular culture, launched a campaign to get the 1951 Civil Defense film “Duck and Cover”into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. The deadline is March 30th. “Duck and Cover” features animator Lars Calonius’s (now deceased) cartoon creation “Bert the Turtle,” a character that has become synonymous with the Atomic Age.
In this time of "Homeland Security", what could be more appropriate?
So check out this website for more information - and learn why Mia Farrow is the "Duck & Cover Girl"!

Posted by at 08:44 PM