Cartoon Brew

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The Gospel According to Zemeckis

Here's a SLATE piece on the marketing of THE POLAR EXPRESS as...an evangelical film? Read it and be fascinated.

Merry Christmas!

POPEYE IN NEW YORK

The last time I was in the Big Apple, I wanted to go to the Popeye exhibit at the Museum of Television and Radio--but I got food poisoning and was too weak to make the two-block trek from my hotel. I'm back in NYC for the holidays--I join Jerry and Amid in hoping yours are happy, by the way--and feeling fine, so I visited it today.

The good news? The show includes some Segar originals, a decent amount of Fleischer and Famous Studios art, a few wonderful vintage posters, a smattering of fun collectibles, and a film loop that includes a newsreel visit to the Fleischer studio in Miami. The Museum is also showing Popeye cartoons in one of its theaters in conjunction with the exhibit; I didn't attend today's screening, but if it involved any Fleischers or early Famous shorts, I'm sorry I missed it. And in general, the exhibit seems carefully curated in terms of attention to detail--for instance, the signage includes dates whenever possible, and they seem to be accurate.

But this show had something in common with a pretty high percentage of cartoon-related museum exhibits: An inability or unwillingness to be discriminating. So the film loop also includes stretches of 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, there are multiple POPEYE AND SON cel setups on display, and the recent CGI special is touted heavily and approvingly compared to Segar and Fleischer. It's as if all Popeye were good Popeye, or it didn't really matter whether Popeye was any good in the first place.

After spending 20 minutes in the exhibit (and a bit more time watching an unrelated but fascinating compilation of TV clips of Bobby Darrin, selected by Kevin Spacey), I left both happy and dejected. If you love Popeye and get the chance to attend it--it's on until January 29th--you'll probably come away with the same feeling.

Happy Holidays!

Best wishes for a safe and happy holidays to all of our friends and readers!

I'll personally be taking a break from the Brew until after the first of the year. Jerry Beck, or our guest contributor Harry McCracken, may post before this, but I'll see everybody on the other side...

For more great artwork, like the illustration above by Lowell Hess, take out a subscription to Shane Glines's CartoonRetro.com.

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS...

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our readers who check in to read whatever comments, opinions, wisdom or nonsense we post here on daily basis.

2005 looks to be an exciting year. I have two book projects coming out next year, I'll be a on the jury (and will present a program) at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in October, and at the movies a Wallace & Gromit feature, Disney's Chicken Little, a new Miyazaki film, and a new Tim Burton puppet animation feature await us.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 3 will come out on DVD, and more inroads will be made on the efforts to release Popeye, Tex Avery and Song of The South. And who knows what we'll find next at the 99¢ Store.

Happy Holidays to all of you!

Notes from Northern California

A few notes from my trip to northern California last week...

I visited Chronicle Books for a meeting with Alan Rapp, the editor of my Fifties animation design book. I have to say, it's terrific having an editor who is totally in tune with the project and is supportive of what I'm trying to accomplish. I don't know if this is the norm for the publishing industry -- both editors I've worked with at Chronicle have been great -- but it's reassuring to know that Chronicle is just as devoted as I am to turning out a really cool book. Right now I'm in the midst of a grueling schedule to finish the book, which means countless hours of research, writing and image-gathering. If all goes according to plan, the Fifties design book should be released sometime in 2006.

While at Chronicle, I also managed to get my hands on an advance copy of THE ART OF ROBOTS, which will hit stores in another month or two. The book turned out exactly as I had expected, and considering everything, I'm pleased with the results. The only surprise, and a pleasant one at that, is that I received solo writing credit on the book; originally I shared a co-writing credit with ROBOTS production designer/exec producer Bill Joyce. A co-author credit would have been useful in the event that somebody dislikes the book, because then I could have simply said, "Oh, that's Bill's fault." Now I'll need to come up with another excuse -- not that I'm expecting anybody will dislike this fine 'art of' book. Here's the final dustjacket and the silver cover underneath.

I visited with various artists for the Fifties book, notably Ed Benedict and Charles and Rosemary McElmurry. Benedict, of course, everybody already knows (if you don't, see BLAST #8), but Charles McElmurry is another terrific animation designer from that era whose name is not as well known. Hopefully that'll change once this book is out. I also visited with John Dunn's brother Alvin. This visit wasn't related to the book, but for ANIMATION BLAST #9, which is still in production. I'm working concurrently on both the book and BLAST #9 and my hope is to have BLAST #9 out sometime in June/July '05, only a year-and-a-half later than its original release date (jeez...looks like I'm becoming the Richard Williams of animation magazines).

Also dropped by ASIFA-San Francisco's annual Christmas party, where among other people I finally met the infamous Lippy. I can't vouch for the fact that he's infamous, but with a name like Lippy, you just have to assume there's some infamy lurking in his past. He gave me a copy of his latest short film, DINO-SORE DAYS, a new "Happy Tree Friends" epsiode included on the THIRD STRIKE dvd. The 1920s-styled short is animated in Flash, but with a beautiful tribute scene to the 3D "turntable" model sets that the Fleischer Studios utilized in some of their shorts. The "set" was modelled entirely in Maya (by Ted Pratt), but looks like an authentic hand-made plaster-and-clay set. Very nice job. You can see a clip from the short and find out more about how they created the turntable effect at Lippy.com. Thanks to everybody else who made the San Francisco trip so enjoyable: Andy Beall at Pixar, Harry McCracken at PC WORLD, Carla Liss, Nik and Nancy Phelps, Ted Pratt and Karl Cohen.

Abner Graboff

I hadn't heard of Abner Graboff until recently, but really like his work - a very stylized approach yet also a bit more light and airy than the Golden Book stylization of Mary Blair, Mel Crawford and company. Most of his books were done in the Fifties and Sixties. This Japanese website has a lot of thumbnail sized images from his books and is worth a browse.

KIDDIE RECORDS WEEKLY

In 2005, KiddieRecords.com will feature an entire year of albums from the golden age of children's records, transferred from original 78s and encoded to 192kbps MP3 format. That's one a week for 52 weeks! The goal, according to the website, is to keep these recordings from being forgotten. "Our mission is to give these wonderful old recordings a new lease on life."

All year long you will be able to access streams and cover scans of all records used in the project. Please note that MP3s of each record will only be available during the week it is featured.

(via Scrubbles.net)

VOOM GOES BOOM

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Cablevision has decided to suspend its Voom satellite service, which included the ANIMANIA channel that was showing vintage UPA, Screen Gems (Fox & Crow), Dick Tracy, Felix The Cat (60s), Pink Panther and assorted DePatie Freleng cartoons in glorious high-def. The service never grew beyond a modest 25,000 subscribers in 2004.

Check out their classic website while you still have a chance.

Seasonal, Slightly Animation-Related Tidbit

Harry Shearer is unquestionably one of the best voice artists working in animation today--with THE SIMPSONS, he's created more rich, funny characterizations than most performers do in a lifetime. But he's been involved in so many non-animation projects that have brought me pleasure--dating back to the Albert Brooks comedy album A STAR IS BOUGHT and Norman Lear's FERNWOOD 2-NIGHT in the 1970s, and continuing on to his wonderful weekly LE SHOW radio program--that I never think of him as being a cartoon guy. Instead, he's an observer of the American scene who works in a variety of media, including radio, prose, music, TV, movies...and animation.

I'm happy to say that I chatted with him and thanked him in person last night--Harry visited San Francisco as bass player/sidekick for his talented singer wife, Judith Owen, who played a local club. Funny seems to run in the family--Judith's wicked wit ran through her patter and some of her song choices. She has a new holiday CD out, CHRISTMAS IN JULY (I bought a copy and got an autograph, but it's also available at her site). I'd like it even if she didn't happen to be married to Harry Shearer.

HOLIDAY GIFT SUGGESTION #2

Cartoon historian Ray Pointer, through his Inkwell Images label, has just issued George Herriman's Kinomatic KRAZY KAT Kartoon Klassics, an important dvd documentary and rare cartoon compilation covering the early animated cartoon career of this beloved comic strip character. The documentary traces Herriman's career and controversies -- and the rare cartoons contained here date back to 1916 from the Hearst Studio, the early 20s from the Bray studio and late 20s from the Winkler group.

Includes: Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing (1916), The Bugologist (1916), Krazy Kat-Invalid (1916), Krazy Kat And Ignatz Mouse In A Tail That Is Knot (1916), The Great Cheese Robbery (1920), The Best Mouse Loses (1920), The Awful Spook (1920), Bokays And Brickbats (1925) and more, including an exclusive interview with Gene Deitch discussing his work on the 1960s Krazy Kat television series. A great package - well done! Order from Inkwell Images.

Notes from the Cartoon Blogosphere

> Eddiemuerte (a.k.a. MUCHA LUCHA's Eddie Mort) has finished a new music album LO-FI IN LOS FELIZ and you can download all fifteen tracks for free HERE. The songs are short, tightly constructed electronic compositions (synthesizers, samplers and grooveboxes) inspired by varied strands of pop culture like Coney Island, Chupacabras and Jack Cole's Plastic Man. Plus there's a cool CD cover by Lili Chin.

> Pixar story artist Ronnie del Carmen writes extensively about his recent trip to Japan, including a visit to the Ghibli Museum and his meeting with Japanese illustration great Tadahiro Uesugi.

> Animation director/designer Ward Jenkins not only dissects the visual deficiencies in THE POLAR EXPRESS, but actually goes so far as to fix the expressions on the characters via Photoshop. Check out his excellent thought-provoking post on the Ward-O-Matic. On a sidenote, a number of people have actually recommended that I check out the film on an IMAX 3D screen. Apparently, the film becomes slightly more watchable with 3D glasses. For example, Mark Bunker, who has seen the film in both flat and IMAX versions, writes, "I'm a sucker for 3D. The snow falling in the audience, the amazing vistas, the details of the dirt under the fingernails on the hobo or the icy sludge built up under the engine as it careens to a stop out into the audience. None of this forgives the story weaknesses but it does add up to a worthwhile experience in the theater. One which was greeted by a round of applause both times I saw the film."

Dressing Like Mickey: Abormal?

The NEW YORK TIMES has an interesting article (registration probably required) on autism and recent controversy over whether it's an illness to be treated with therapies such as Autism Behavorial Analysis--or whether it's simply a way of being. Why am I mentioning it here? Well, towards the bottom, the story says the following:

"Ms. Weintraub's son, Nicholas, has benefited greatly from A.B.A., she said, and she is unapologetic about wanting to remove his remaining quirks, like his stilted manner of speaking and his wanting to be Mickey Mouse for Halloween when other 8-year-olds want to be Frodo from 'The Lord of the Rings.'"

Since when is an eight year old wanting to dress as Mickey Mouse for Halloween something that demands medical treatment? Heck, it was once a sign of normality--and if I had a kid who was trying to decide whether to go out as Mickey or Frodo, I know which costume I'd recommend...