Author Archives: Jerry Beck

Ruff And Reddy Pitch Picture Tubes

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Yesterday I appeared on Stu Shostack’s internet radio show. While waiting for our broadcast to begin, I was rummaging through several copies of Stu’s collection of vintage TV Guide back issues. In one 1960 edition, I found two cartoon items of interest. The first was this full page ad for Sylvania television picture tubes featuring radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey interacting with Hanna Barbera TV stars Ruff and Reddy.

I love it when cartoon stars were used to sell products to adults. This was the same year The Flintstones were sponsored by Winston cigarettes and Mr. Magoo was hawking Stag Beer. And what a great sketch of the characters! An very appealing pose of Ruff — and check out the attitude on Reddy.

As for the second animation item I found in that TV Guide — check back tomorrow.

Saturday Morning Cartoon collections

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Once upon a time, long before home video, the internet, and 24 hour cartoon channels – Saturday mornings were an oasis of animation. Most of it wasn’t very good, but like junk food, it was addicting. For those jonesing for another fix, Warner Home Video will be releasing two double-disc DVD sets on May 19th that collects many of classic Saturday Morning Cartoons we grew up with.

These sets feature the first DVD appearence of many well known characters – including Hanna Barbera’s Quick Draw McGraw, 60s anime Marine Boy and Filmation’s Tarzan.

The 1960s disc features:
Disc #1
TOP CAT – The Tycoon
ATOM ANT/PRECIOUS PUP/HILLBILLY BEARS
THE PETER POTAMUS SHOW (with Breezly & Sneezly, Yippee, Yappee and Yahooney)
SECRET SQUIRREL/SQUIDDLEY DIDDLY/WINSOME WITCH
THE FLINTSTONES – The Happy Household
THE PORKY PIG SHOW – Often An Orphan/Mice Follies/The Super Snooper)
THE QUICK DRAW McGRAW SHOW (with SNOOPER AND BLABBER and AUGIE DOGIE) – Dynamite Fright/Outer Space Case/Growing Growing Gone

Disc #2
THE JETSONS – Rosey The Robot
MARINE BOY – Battle To Save The World
SPACE GHOST/DINO BOY
HERCLULOIDS – The Beaked People / The Raider Apes
FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES – The Shocking Electric Monster / The Bibbler / The Spinner
THE MAGILLA GORILLA SHOW (with PUNKIN PUSS and RICOCHET RABBIT)

Bonus Materials:
THE QUCK DRAW McGRAW SHOW (with SNOOPER AND BLABBER and AUGIE DOGIE) – Dough Nutty / El Kabong Was Wrong / Gem Jam
Bonus Documentaries on QUICK DRAW McGRAW, MAGILLA GORILLA, FRANKENSTEIN JR. and THE IMPOSSIBLES.

The 1970s disc contains:

Disc #1
THE JETSONS – The Space Car
THE BATMAN TARZAN ADVENTURE HOUR
HONG KONG PHOONEY
GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS
SPEED BUGGY
WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH

Disc #2
YOGI’S GANG
AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN
ROMAN HOLIDAYS
JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS
THE NEW SCOOBY DOO MOVIES
FUNKY PHANTOM

Bonus Documentaries on THE FUNKY PHANTOM, JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS and THE CHAN CLAN.

$26.99 is the official retail price per set. Amazon has it on pre-order for $18.99.

Jerry on Stu’s Show today

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I will be the featured guest today on Shokus Internet Radio’s Stu’s Show. This will be my ninth visit to discuss all things animation with Stu and his listeners, live beginning at 4:00 p.m. PDT (7:00 p.m. EDT). Topics this time will include the upcoming Saturday Morning DVD box set from Warner Home Video, the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes book and as always, whatever the listeners want to talk about. You are encouraged to call in with your questions and comments on the station’s toll-free telephone number.

Stu’s Show airs live each Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. PST, with rebroadcasts at the same time daily. Access to the station’s feed is free, with no registration required, and is available either by clicking on the Enter Site button on the home page (www.shokusradio.com), by choosing one of the audio player links on the site’s main page, via iTunes by selecting Radio/Eclectic and then locating the station’s name alphabetically in the list, and now via iPhone by installing the WunderRadio program available from the iTunes online store. Cell phones with Windows Mobile and Internet access can also listen to the station via the new Live 365 Mobile software available at the station’s broadcast facility, www.live365.com .

Animated TV Show Titles

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I’ve always been fascinated by TV shows with animated titles. I was planning to compile some of these off You Tube, but my ol’ pal Michael Pinto got there ahead of me. He’s posted on his Fanboy blog a mini-history of the genre, collecting several well known ones from the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s.

I’m not an expert on which studio did what – oh, it’s well known Hanna-Barbera did Bewitched, UPA The Twilight Zone, DePatie Freleng animated I Dream Of Jeannie, Ken Mundie The Wild Wild West, et al. – but if any experts out there want to chime in with their knowledge on the subject (such as who drew this terrific animatic-style Mr. Terrific open above), I welcome it.

(Thanks, Chris Pepin)

January Cartoon Dump in L.A. and San Fran

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Hear Ye! Hear Ye! This be the official plug for the Jan 27th Cartoon Dump show at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. In addition to hosts Compost Brite and Moodsey, the Clinically Depressed Owl, the show will also feature the return of Buff Badger — and guest comedians Laura Kightlinger and Jay London! Reserve tickets here. Join us next Tuesday at 8pm.

Extra! Cartoon Dump is also coming to San Francisco on Saturday January 31st. Our acclaimed cartoon/live-comedy show will be part of the San Francisco Sketchfest – with guest comedians Andy Kindler and Mary Lynn Rajskub (“24″) – at the Eureka Theatre, 8pm. Tickets available now!

Oscar Nominations

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The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. Nominated for BEST ANIMATED FEATURE were:

Bolt – Walt Disney
Kung Fu Panda – Dreamworks
Wall•E – Pixar

WALL•E was nominated for six Academy Awards. The Pixar hit was also nominated for Best Screenplay (congrats to Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Jim Reardon), sound mixing (Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt), sound editing (Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood), music (Thomas Newman) and Original Song.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR was nominated for Best Foreign Film.

Nominated for BEST ANIMATED SHORT are:

La Maison en Petits Cubes – Kunio Kato
Lavatory – A Love Story – Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi – A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production
Presto – Pixar, Doug Sweetland
This Way Up – Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

The winners will be announced Feb. 22 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

Tom & Jerry CG/live action movie

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Here we go again! Variety is reporting today that Warner Bros. is planning to turn Tom and Jerry into its own Alvin and the Chipmunks-like family franchise.

Plans are to bring the constantly warring cat and mouse to life as CG characters that run around in live-action settings.

Studio-based Dan Lin will adapt the classic Hanna-Barbera property as an origin story that reveals how Tom and Jerry first meet and form their rivalry before getting lost in Chicago and reluctantly working together during an arduous journey home. Eric Gravning is penning the script.

Warners owns the rights to Hanna-Barbera’s slate of popular animated properties and has several of them in development for bigscreen adaptation. Those include Robert Rodriguez’s version of The Jetsons and producer Donald De Line’s Yogi Bear.

It worked for Warners before (i.e. Scooby Doo), so adapting Hanna Barbera’s Tom & Jerry sounds logical, but its something that has to be very carefully approached.

The Annie Awards

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The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, will be presenting the 36th Annual Annie Awards a week from Friday, January 30, 2009, at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Westwood, California. The evening begins with a pre-reception at 6 p.m. followed by the Annie Awards ceremony at 8 p.m. and post award party at 10 p.m. Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) will once again be hosting. Presenters include voice actress June Foray, director Henry Selick (Coraline), actors Brad Garrett (Ratatouille), Seth Green (Robot Chicken), Michael Clarke Duncan (Kung Fu Panda), James Hong (Kung Fu Panda), Donald Faison (The Boondocks), and Ben Burtt (Wall-E). Presenting the Winsor McCay award to Pixar’s John Lasseter will be Roy Disney.

General Admission Tickets are $25. VIP tickets, which include the pre-reception and post awards party are $250. Discount VIP Tickets for ASIFA-Hollywood, The Animation Guild, Visual Effects Society and Women in Animation Members are $150. To order tickets or for further information, visit www.annieawards.org

Cartoon Brew will give away a pair of VIP tickets to four lucky winners in a contest on Friday. Check back here tomorrow (1/23) at 9am (Pacific Time) for details.

Los Campeones

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Eddie Mort and Lili Chin (Mucha Lucha!) have returned to the cartoon wrestling arena to create a full length flash feature, Los Campeones. The movie opened theatrically in Mexico back in October. It has no U.S. distributor yet, but will be screening in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theatre on Thursday February 5th. Eddie and Lili will be there to introduce the film and show off original art at the 7:30pm show. For more details check the Campeones MySpace or the Fwak blog.

Also check the Fwak! website to see some juicy images from other projects they’ve developed, like the retro-flash animated Hanna Barbera promos for Boomerang…

…and check this line-up (below) for La Familia Gonzales an aborted attempt by Warners and Cartoon Network to revive and update Speedy Gonzales:

Coraline artists at Gallery Nucleus

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Gallery Nucleus is having an artist panel with some the artists who worked on Coraline. The recent Art-Of book on the film mainly highlights Tadahiro Uesugi for characters and background designs. This panel will represent several of the other key artists who worked on the film. They’ll be bringing samples of their work to show and will talk about their involvement on the new Henry Selick film.

The artists are as follows: Shannon Tindle, Shane Prigmore, Dan Krall, Chris Appelhans and Jon Klassen. Gallery Nucleus is in Alhambra, California. The event is at 2pm on Saturday February 7th – Admission: FREE! Check the gallery website for more information.

“I Can’t Stand Modern Animation”

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That’s the headline in the Singapore based The Straits Times this morning. The outspoken Hayao Miyazaki was quoted by Hong Kong’s Sunday Morning Post in an interview to promote his latest movie, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.:

Miyazaki said his recruits are tested in a boot camp where mobile phones, iPods and other electronic devices are banned. “Young people are surrounded by virtual things,” Miyazaki was quoted as saying. “They lack real experience or life, and lose their imagination. Animators can only draw from their own experience of pain and shock and emotions.”

That’s why we love this guy. Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and John Lasseter are currently producing the English dub featuring Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin and Cloris Leachman.