MUCHA LUCHA! creators Eddie Mort and Lili Chin have figured out what the next big trend in animation will be: Christian anime! Of course they’re joking, but you just know somebody somewhere is developing this for real right now. Also in their update yesterday, they posted some cool artwork from their new project ENDSVILLE, which Eddie describes as their “Kustom Kulture/Ed Roth is God” series. Check out their blog HERE.

SaveDisney.com has posted a fine new editorial by animator Merlin Jones (a pseudonym obviously) who writes about how this is hardly the first time that hand-drawn animation has been pronounced dead. His bottom line: “It’s [Disney's] management style that must change, not the medium.” Truer words have never been written. Read the piece HERE.

MGM apparently decided that the best way to celebrate Pink Panther’s 40th anniversary was to hire pop illustrator Shag to redesign him so that the character no longer has the slightest suggestion of appeal or charm. If you’re familiar with Shag’s contrived beatnik-tiki-mod-lounge paintings, then his redesign (or perhaps more appropriately, un-design) should be nothing surprising - stiffly and blandly drawn, awkward angularity, no sense of weight, and little flow or rhythm between the shapes. Somehow this utter contempt for draftsmanship, passing under the banner of “style”, translates to “hip” and “cool”. What’s sad is that now corporations are exhibiting the same lack of taste as the individuals who purchase his paintings, and seeking him out to ruin classic cartoon characters. There are countless artists out there with unique styles, and the draftsmanship skills to back it up, who could have re-interpreted the Pink Panther in myriad interesting ways. Instead, Shag’s insipid renderings of the Pink Panther now adorn New York City storefronts, all sorts of print advertising, and the official Pink Panther website. For the record, I’ve never met Shag and have nothing against him personally, but it angers me to see somebody who can barely hold a pencil ruin the legacy of terrific artists like Panther designer Hawley Pratt, animators Ken Harris and Bob Matz, and directors like Gerry Chiniquy, Friz Freleng and Richard Williams.

Mike Barrier has posted the first part of a very long 1972 article about Ralph Bakshi and the production of his first feature FRITZ THE CAT. The piece was originally published in FUNNYWORLD #14. Check out the article at MichaelBarrier.com. An interesting bit of trivia about historical accuracy: while FRITZ THE CAT is recognized as the first X-rated animated feature, it was not the first X-rated piece of animation released theatrically in the US. The 1971 live-action feature THE TELEPHONE BOOK features a lengthy animated sequence, which though explicit is, like FRITZ, fairly tame by today’s standards. The animation was directed and designed by Len Glasser’s NY studio Stars & Stripes Productions Forever, whose outfit also produced some of the funniest and most inventive TV commercials of the Sixties and Seventies.

APRIL FOOLS!A reliable source from deep within the bowels of the Mouse informs the Brew that Disney is developing a new animated TV series, which wouldn’t ordinarily be a big deal, except that this show is based on an original concept by Mr. Michael Eisner himself. The all-CG project, called DIS & EIS, is being kept under tight wraps. An 11-minute pilot is currently in production. The show follows the gentle kids-in-school formula of DOUG and RECESS, but here’s the twist: the stars are a 10-year-old Walt Disney and 12-year-old Michael Eisner, who happen to be best friends at a school in Marceline, Missouri (for Disney buffs, that’s the actual town where Walt Disney grew up). According to my source, Eisner is insisting that the show exhibit reverence for Walt’s legacy and as a result, the characters will stay very true to their actual personalities: Walt will be sort of the oddball goofy creator type who’s constantly getting into mischief while Eisner is his smart responsible friend always bailing “the Dis” out of trouble. Reportedly, the mean principal of the school that Dis and Eis attend is a caricature of Roy Disney Jr. There will be plenty of other “cameos” by famous Disney personalities. For example, caricatures of the Nine Old Men’s Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston will be used for the school janitors, except that they’ll both be black in the cartoon. Frank will be voiced by Damon Wayans and Ollie will be voiced by David Alan Grier. Sound like a winning concept to me.

Tomorrow’s April 1 and that could only mean one thing: the annual Animation Nation meeting in Los Angeles. This year is the sixth edition and it’ll take place at 1:30 pm at the Pickwick Center (1001 Riverside Drive, Burbank, California). Food and beverages will be served and everybody will have a chance to speak and vent about the crappy state of the animation biz. No charge but contributions are welcome. For more details, check out this thread at AnimationNation.com.

Here’s a terrific on-line collection of Cliff Sterrett’s classic comic strip POLLY AND HER PALS. Sterrett’s work is what cartooning is all about - personality, humor and appeal. Not to mention Sterrett has an exquisite sense of storytelling, composition, design and color. It’s an all-in-one cartooning master class well worth studying. The French website that features these comics also has sections on other fine cartoonists like T.S. Sullivant and Lyonel Feininger.

(Thanks to Marc Deckter for the link)

As long as we’re posting examples of inappropriate uses of CG (like the image from the new GARFIELD movie below), here’s a look at the DreamWorks primetime animated series FATHER OF THE PRIDE, which will debut in the fall on NBC.

You can see the full image HERE, which also includes the equally grotesque CG versions of Siegfried and Roy. One thing you have to give Jeffrey Katzenberg credit for is that he always manages to defy everybody’s expectations. Just when you thought a DreamWorks animated project couldn’t become any more unappealing, Katzenberg proves that his lack of visual taste knows no bounds and he produces something like FATHER OF THE PRIDE. I’ll be watching at least one episode of the show, if only to see how DreamWorks could blow a reported $2 million per episode and still end up with a cartoon that looks this sad.