Author Archives: Jerry Beck

2008 Annie Award Nominations

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The nominations for the 36th annual Annie Awards were announced today. Kung Fu Panda recieved 17 nominations including Best Animated Feature and individual nominations for character animation, character design, directing, music, production design, storyboarding, voice acting and writing. Walt Disney Animation Studios, led by Bolt, received 9 nominations and Pixar, led by Wall-E, received 8 nominations.

The nominees in the production categories are:

Best Animated Feature

Bolt — Walt Disney Animation Studios
Kung Fu Panda — DreamWorks Animation
$9.99 — Sherman Pictures/Lama Films
Wall-E — Pixar Animation Studios
Waltz With Bashir — Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films

Best Animated Home Entertainment Production

Batman: Gotham Knight — Warner Bros. Animation
Christmas Is Here Again — Easy To Dream Entertainment
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs — The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Justice League: The New Frontier — Warner Bros. Animation
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning — DisneyToon Studios

Best Animated Short Subject

Glago’s Guest — Walt Disney Animation Studios
Hot Dog — Bill Plympton Studio
Presto — Pixar Animation Studios
Sebastian’s Voodoo — Joaquin Baldwin
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death — Aardman Animations Ltd.

Best Animated Television Commercial

Giant Monster — Curious Pictures
Long Legs Mr. Hyde — Curious Pictures
Rotofugi: The Collectors — Screen Novelties
Sarah — Z Animation
United Airlines “Heart” — Duck Studios

Best Animated Television Production

King of the Hill — 20th Century Fox TV
Moral Orel — ShadowMachine
Phineas and Ferb — Disney Television Animation
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II – ShadowMachine
The Simpsons — Gracie Films/Fox TV

Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children

A Miser Brothers Christmas — Warner Bros. Animation
Avatar: The Last Airbender — Nickelodeon
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Destination Imagination” — Cartoon Network Studios
The Mighty B! — Nickelodeon
Underfist: Halloween Bash — Cartoon Network Studios

This years Winsor McCay recipients, previously announced, include Mike Judge, John Lasseter and Nick Park for career contributions to the art of animation.

Winners will be announced at the 36th Annual Annie Awards ceremony on Friday, January 30, 2009, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, CA. A complete listing of all the Annie Award nominations is posted on annieawards.org.

Macy’s Parade Archive Photos

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The NY Daily News has posted a fantastic 46-image, 70+ year photo history of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade cartoon balloon characters. Check out image #15 – Behind the dachshund balloon, is a wraparound 2 story 3-D neon, Times Square billboard for Kleenex tissues featuring Little Lulu from 1950. Image #18 shows the Popeye balloon in 1957, #21 contains Superman from 1966, and other photos include Linus the Lionhearted, Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Betty Boop, and Woody Woodpecker.

(Thanks, Brent Alexander)

Cartoons Hate Families

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Did you know that CARTOONS HATE FAMILIES? It’s true, I guess. Otherwise they wouldn’t say in in all caps at christiansagainstcartoons.com. At first I thought it was a crazy over-the-top parody, but it seems to be the real thing. I, for one, would never have guessed that Monsters Inc. is an attempt by the Godless Disney organization to introduce Satanism to innocent children. But sure enough, it is!

This site apparently has not been updated in a year, so I’d hate to push up their numbers and encourage them to post more. Still, it’s an interesting find — in the same way that the life forms one discovers hiding under a rock make for “an interesting find”. It’s too late for me, but you may still be able to save yourself from these filthy, vile cartoons!

(Thanks Joe Dante and special thanks to Dewey McGuire)

Fox dumps Cartoons for Infomercials

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Another one bites the dust.

Variety reported yesterday that the Fox broadcast network will abandon running cartoons on Saturday morning – and will replace the programming block with infomercials.

Saturday Morning broadcast television lost its allure as a kids destination since the advent of multiple 24 hour-a-day kids cable networks (Nick, Disney, CN), home video (DVD) and the internet, so this is no surprise. And besides, was anyone watching the crap 4KidsTV programmed on that channel? 4Kids was paying Fox $20 million dollars a year to foist things like Kirby: Right Back At Ya! on unsuspecting toddlers.

Fox is actually only replacing two hours (of the four hour block) with infomercials. The other two hours are being returned to local stations. Some of those may run news or sitcom reruns in that slot. If we’re lucky, perhaps some clever independent Fox affiliates will pick up some syndicated animation programming – or better yet, something like the Warner Bros. cartoons. Currently the classic Looney Tunes shorts are homeless (they were dropped by Cartoon Network two years ago) and Warners is actively seeking a new place for them on the tube.

Will Warners syndication execs and local Fox TV programmers see a golden opportunity here? Not likely, but we can always hope.

Looney Tunes and Cartoon Dump

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What do Looney Tunes and Cartoon Dump have in common? Nothing… except both are part of the many animation events scheduled for L.A. over the next two weeks.

Tuesday November 25th – Cartoon Dump our monthly comedy and cartoon crap-tacular at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. This month with Patton Oswalt (guaranteed!) 8pm.

Saturday November 29th – Lou Bunin’s Alice In Wonderland (restored 35mm print) at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave. 6pm.

Sunday November 30th – Don Hertzfeldt in Person at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave. 7pm and 9:30pm.

Friday December 5th – Looney Tunes in 35mm at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. 18 cartoons – Admission: FREE! 7:30pm.

Frater Films

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We’ve posted about Benji Davis and Jim Field’s Frater Films before (their music video Out on the Water is still one of my favorites). They’ve been chugging along making several nice commercials and videos since – check this page for some of their highlights. They have a new short film in development – Grub (pictured above) – and are currently seeking funds to produce it. A teaser trailer is online here.

Their studio works in a variety of techniques. Here’s one of their best spots, for Oxfam, animated in After Effects, using vectors and a few handmade rubber stamp prints for the patterns:


Irv Spector storyboards

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It seems like suddenly everyone has just discovered animator, cartoonist and director Irv Spector. I’ve been a fan of his comic books for years, and now his son Paul has dedicated a new blog to his work, Spectorphile. I look forward to whatever goodies he posts from the family archives.

One of my prize finds, several years ago, was an original Spector storyboard for a Famous Studios cartoon Fido Beta Kappa (1954). I’ve been meaning to put it online for sometime and have finally posted it below (click on thumbnails to enlarge).

People have knocked Famous Studios for many things. In my opinion, the problem wasn’t the animation nor the stories – it was the direction. Here’s a perfect example. First read the Spector storyboard below and think about how you would pace the gags and time the animation. Irv’s sketches are great and poses are perfect. Next watch the finished film (You Tube video embed below; note the changes to the opening sequence). Almost every gag falls flat. The revised character designs don’t help.