There’s been a lot of griping and grousing recently on animation message boards (HERE, HERE and HERE) about DVNR. What’s that you say? DVNR stands for “digital video noise reduction” and it’s one of the many ways that studios ruin classic cartoons when they release them onto home video. The telecine technology was originally intended as an affordable way of digitally cleaning up dirt and grain when film is transferred to tape. It typically works fine for live-action films, but if used carelessly with animation (as it most often is), it ends up erasing and distorting parts of the image.

For a more detailed explanation of DVNR (also known as DNR) and how it compromises the integrity of the cartoon image, here’s a link to a piece I wrote back in 1999 while I was working at ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE. You’d think six years later, the studios would have learned something, but they’re as negligent as ever. Recent releases of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Woody Woodpecker, Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes have all been marred by DVNR technology. The irony is that many times when studios release a “digitally restored/remastered” version of a cartoon, it looks worse than in previous “unrestored” editions.

Here’s a terrific new piece at Lyris-Lite.net that specifically illustrates the DVNR artifacting in WB, Disney and MGM cartoon releases. Though the article shows examples of a DVNR’d Disney cartoon, they are incidentally the studio that has been best at preventing DVNR and deserve praise for their generally careful restoration of classic cartoons.

UPDATE: Thanks to Boing Boing for their post about DVNR.

This sounds like a fun Bay Area event taking place this Friday, April 8:

Kartoon Kocktail 2005 is the second annual screening of independent animation and comics performance, set to coincide with the Alternative Press Expo. This shimmery, silly two hours of cartoon fun is organized by Stefan Gruber, Davey Oil, Fausto Caceres, and Jesse Reklaw.

Featuring Kartoons by Tom Neely, Stefan Gruber, Melody Yenn, Shynola, Rebecca Rojer, Irene Arifin, Peter Richardson, Seattle Experimental Animation Team, Chris Romano, Kristen McCormick, Jeff Roysdon, Amy Lockhart, Monkmus, Hickee, and Tim Miller.

Complete details HERE.

FLIGHT 2 debuts this weekend at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco. FLIGHT is, in short, one of the most original and visually satisfying comic anthologies being published today. It’s the type of comic that makes me excited about making a trip to the comic book shop, which is indeed a rare occurence for me nowadays. There’s a lengthy preview for the second volume posted HERE. The book has plenty of contributions from animation folk including Michel Gagné, Doug TenNapel, Ovi Nedelcu, Ryan Sias and Justin Ridge. FLIGHT editor Kazu Kibuishi, who I had the pleasure of meeting a couple months back, also has a background in animation. In fact, he left animation last year to focus purely on comic book work. He told an interviewer recently, “Working in animation, I felt I was being stretched a little too thin on multiple aspects of 3D production… My love was not in the technical aspects of production, but in the writing and storytelling aspect of it all.” Now with FLIGHT, Kazu has created a wonderful outlet where all types of great artists have the opportunity to tell great stories.

Animehell.org, the host of Jim Reardon’s student film BRING ME THE HEAD OF CHARLIE BROWN (originally linked HERE) had to take down the film because our plug used up all of their bandwidth (sorry guys!). They explain the situation on their BLOG and offer a torrent and an alternate link where you can download the film (HERE).

The Girls Productions is a new animation company founded by illustrator/painter Amanda Visell and writer Michelle Valigura. Both of them used to work in stop motion as sculptors and fabricators, but they’re now developing their own animation projects. Currently posted on their site are a number of Visell’s paintings, which have a playful quality with pleasing colors and shapes. There are promises of more content to come.

From the “Isn’t This Incestuous Dep’t.”: At the recent Tokyo Animation Fair, Toei Animation, Aniplex and Cartoon Network announced a new series tentatively titled DAMESHITAA! POWERPUFF GIRLS Z. So the POWERPUFF GIRLS, an American cartoon that was originally inspired by Japanese anime, has now been optioned by the Japanese and translated back into a very conventional-looking piece of TV anime. Noticeable differences in the new version are that the Powerpuff Girls are now older, have fingers instead of stub-hands, carry weapons, and the Professor has been turned into an angry-looking preschooler. Promotional art can be seen HERE and HERE, while stills from the pilot episode are HERE. (Thanks, Scott Warren)

Oscar Grillo sent in this recent drawing he did of Leon Schlesinger (click for larger image):

The post I did a couple days ago, “Animation’s Greatest Executives”, wasn’t really intended to be about Leon Schlesinger, but that’s what Mark Evanier and Larry Loc are talking about. So while we’re on the subject of Leon, here’s a great story from Warner Bros. background painter Zach Schwartz about his dealings with Leon.

UPA founder Zach Schwartz recalls his experience when he started at Schlesinger’s in the Thirties:

[I was] full of all the marvelous things I was going to do for animation, the color schemes and the compositions I was going to bring there. I was sitting there painting some watercolors one day and a fat, red, pudgy finger came over my shoulder, and the finger said, ‘Use poiple. We got poiple now. Use it!’ It turned out to be Leon Schlesinger, who didn’t care a terrible lot about the quality of his films. He just liked to be able to get them out on time, and get them over to Warner Bros. But they had finally gotten Technicolor, after muddling around with a two-color process that turned everything brown or green, and he was so proud of the fact that they had purple that he couldn’t stand it, because I was painting everything yellow.

There’s a first time for everything, and I believe this is the first time I’ve ever agreed with something FAMILY GUY creator Seth MacFarlane has said or done. In this week’s NEWSWEEK article about the upcoming return of FAMILY GUY to Fox primetime, MacFarlane says of Fox’s original decision to cancel the show: “They kept the show on longer than they really should’ve. Canceling it was absolutely the right decision.” Can’t argue with that. And to celebrate the return of the show, here’s a link to Jaime Weinman’s piece “Why I Hate FAMILY GUY.” Also can’t argue with that, though I could easily list twice as many reasons for why this show represents the nadir of primetime tv animation.

3 pm on Saturday @ the American Film Institute: Jerry Beck & ASIFA-Hollywood present rare animated TV spots from the 50s and 60s. Details HERE.

Harvey Kurtzman is among a handful of cartoonists who can be labeled a true genius, and just one example of his genius can be found in his pre-MAD comic strip HEY LOOK!, which he created in 1946. These full-page strips still look and feel remarkably fresh today, nearly sixty years after they were first drawn. They were reprinted in a book collection in the early-90s which is now out of print, but it’s possible to see over 150 of the HEY LOOK! strips online at the Cartoonist Group. When you go to the search page, just select Harvey Kurtzman as the artist. For even rarer Kurtzman, check out this amazing Cartoon Retro forum thread. (HEY LOOK! link via Frog Blog)

Here’s one from the Disney rumor mill. I recently heard that Disney is developing a CG-animated version of Tim Burton’s 1984 live-action short FRANKENWEENIE. Not many details emerged yet, though according to folks who have seen the CG tests, it looks to be a very promising project.

Whoever said corporations don’t listen to their customers? Cartoon Brew has found out that following the embarassing debut of LOONATICS, the fine folks at Warner Bros. have taken significant steps to improve the quality of that cartoon concept. Here’s a chart to help you understand the comprehensive changes WB has made.