I wanted to find out what was the most viewed Tom and Jerry short on YouTube tonight, and it turned out to be Salt Water Tabby with 24.4 million views. But this is no ordinary copy of the short; it has a completely new dialogue track in a Moroccan Arabic dialect by Bouchana Abdelilah. By comparison, the non-Arabic version (i.e. the boring original) of Salt Water Tabby has a mere 346,000 views. Why does a remixed version of a classic short have seventy (yes, 70!) times more viewers than the original? And will an Arabic voice-over make any cartoon funny and popular? In that case, Allen Gregory could’ve used a whole lot of Arabic. I don’t claim to have the answers to such questions, but I’m intrigued by this YouTube anomaly.

This smartly crafted book trailer for Patrick Ness’s YA novel A Monster Calls actually makes me want to read the book. The After Effects animation was done by Eric Guémise based on artwork by Jim Kay.

(via Super Punch)

Here’s a real treat to start the weekend: Aaron Springer (SpongeBob SquarePants, Korgoth of Barbaria) created this series of Periwinkle shorts in the mid-2000s for Cartoon Network. Originally intended as a pilot, the network asked him to instead transform it into a series of two-minute vignettes that it wanted to use as cell phone content. They eventually aired them on a short-lived CN series called Sunday Pants and they’ve been out of sight since then. That’s a shame because they are among the most inspired, laugh-out-loud pieces of animation that Cartoon Network has ever produced. If I had to make a list of the necessary ingredients for a funny animated short, I couldn’t do better than what’s contained in Periwinkle: appealing characters who are fun to watch, simple set-ups that allow for visual storytelling, gags that build in intensity, and inventive animation.

Earlier this week, I traveled to the Bahamas for the wedding of my pal Rob Kohr (seen above in his self-designed cake topper). Rob is not only a friend, but also the webhost and tech guru for Cartoon Brew. He’s the unsung hero who keeps us up and running, and without his attentive daily management and skillful problem solving, there’s a very good chance you wouldn’t be reading this site right now.

Of course, it’s only fitting that Cartoon Brew’s tech genius would also be an animator. Rob’s day job is at Viacom where he works in their on-air promo department, animating Nick Jr. projects in both Maya and Flash, like this:

But having a full-time job and running a webhosting company isn’t nearly enough for Rob, who gives new meaning to the term workaholic. He also recently completed his first independent animated production, the anime-flavored The Lift, which has screened in nearly fifty festivals and won multiple awards. Take a look:

So here’s three cheers for Rob—for finding a great lady AND for keeping Cartoon Brew pumping!

Ward Kimball and family show you the proper way to do a Christmas card family photo:

Brew reader Tim Hodge points out that Stuart Ng Books has published a Pres Romanillos sketchbook. Romanillos, who animated at Disney and DreamWorks, passed away in July, 2010 following an extended battle with leukemia.

According to Stuart’s website:

This sketchbook was conceived by his widow Jeannine Romanillos and reproduces artwork from Pres’ sketchpads and sketchbooks: life drawings, horse and animal studies, Disney character drawings, travel sketches, and a sampling of his personal cartoons and drawings. It includes a short biography of the artist written by Charles Solomon and a page of Pres’ notes from a 1993 lecture by Glen Keane.

The 32-page book is limited to 1,000 copies and sells for $15 on Stuart Ng’s website.