(Thanks, Steve Moore)
Donald Duck and Cheerios Kid in The Explorer
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Author Archives: Jerry Beck
An Afternoon of Remembrance
Once each year, at the DeMille Barn in Hollywood, the Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present An Afternoon of Remembrance, “a non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community”.
This year it takes place on Saturday, March 1, at 1pm. Tributes will be paid to:
Renee Alcazar · Roger Armstrong · Dick Arnall · Warren Batchelder · Max Becraft · Pat Boyd · Sheila Brown · Erica Cassetti · Harvey Cohen · Alberto De Mello · Greg Drolette · Walker Edmiston • Ray Erlenborn · Natatcha Estebanez · Becky Fallberg · Mary Lou Ferguson · Ben Ferrer · Lu Guarnier. Ed Hansen · Terry Harrison · Florence Heintz · Dave Hilberman · Dick Hoffman · Steve Krantz . Ryan Larkin · Carol Lundberg · Celine Miles Marcus · John Marshall · Roberta Gruetert Marshall . Tom O’Loughlin · Henry Ortiz · Brant Parker · Nicole Pascal · Charles Nelson Reilly · Will Schaefer . Charlene Singleton · Ken Southworth · Art Stevens · James Street · Iwao Takamoto · Aleksandr Tatarskiy . Caren Terry · Jim Thurman · Elbert Tuganov · Al Wilson · Jack Zander
The Afternoon of Remembrance is free of charge and is open to all. No RSVPs necessary. Food and refreshments, 1 pm * Memoriams, 2 pm
Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)
2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood, California.
Stu’s Show
The image above can only mean one thing: Brewmaster Jerry Beck will once again be broadcasting live on Shokus Internet Radio.
Tomorrow, Wednesday February 27th from 4pm to 6pm Pacific time (that’s 7pm to 9pm for you in the Eastern Time Zone) Stu Shostak and I will be discussing classic cartoon DVD compilations like Popeye Vol. 2, Woody Woodpecker Vol. 2 and other classic animation DVDs. If you have a specific question you want answered, call in during the broadcast and ask me, toll free (888) 746-5875. Click here to listen in. If you miss the show, it’ll be rerun for the next seven days at the same time.
Goobies
Brew reader Michael Losure is a graduate student at the Texas A&M Viz lab who recently finished work on a couple of projects worth a look.
The first is a 3 minute CG short, just finished, named Goobees. It’s a darkly comic film about the inner workings of a vending machine, with a senario that’s a cross between Braveheart and Candyland. Losure and his partners — Seth Freeman, Tony Piedra, Patrick O’Brien — spent 18 months making the CG short inbetween taking classes and dealing with other college obligations.
The second is a stop-motion music video for the band Motion City Soundtrack. A fellow A&M lab student, Lauren Simpson, won an mtvU contest to direct a music video. Losure became the lead animator and editor. The resulting video, It Had To Be You, is a lot of fun – and a pretty good song. Losure adds:
I’m sending the films to you because I’m proud of them as films, not because I think the actual character animation itself necessarily meets Cartoon Brew standards. I have a strong interest in animation, but my schooling and job (I’ll start an FX position at Dreamworks this summer) are more technical. The viz lab specializes in the technical side of computer graphics – and on merging artistic skills with the technical – but there is no specific coursework in animation. I don’t think we’re very well known in the animation industry as a whole (probably because we don’t usually produce animators or shorts), but a lot of our graduates end up in various TD positions at the big animation companies (Seth and Tony are now at Pixar doing rigging and matte painting, and Patrick, Lauren and I are signed with Dreamworks for lighting and FX).
Pretty good for student work at a school that doesn’t teach animation per se. Pixar and Dreamworks are lucky to get you.
Cartoon Dump: Tonight in Los Angeles
Cartoon Dump resumes its monthly Los Angeles performances tonight at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. Our February show includes our regular cast — including MST3K’s Frank Conniff, me (above left) and “Cue Card Goddess” (above right) — the worst cartoons ever made, and special comedy guest star Morgan Murphy.
It’s a great big load of fun. And don’t take my word for it… read Peter Sanderson’s rave review at Quick Stop Entertainment. Join us tonight at 8pm!
Pebbles & Bamm Bamm on KFWB (1965)
Here’s a fun website to browse: Radio Use Only is a new site devoted to collecting and making accessible downloads of rare radio station promo discs. One highlight is this rare Hanna Barbera recording especially made for Los Angeles radio station KFWB, featuring the song (with special lyrics) “Open Up Your Heart and Let The Sunshine In” (famously featured on the 1965 Flintstones episode “No Biz Like Show Biz”).
(Thanks, Joel O’Brien)
My First Imperial ABC
I had the pleasure of meeting animator Jakob Jensen over this past weekend. Jensen has worked in the animation industry since the age of 17 with stints at A Film in Copenhagen and Amblimation in London, before settling down at Dreamworks Animation in Los Angeles in 1995 (as animator on The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Madagascar and all the others. He is currently the Animation Director on Warner Bros. Astro Boy at Imagi Animation Studios).
Jensen gave me a copy of his recently self-published book My First Imperial ABC, a beautifully illustrated spoof of American media and politics disguised as a children’s primer. Jensen “juxtaposes over-used, politically charged words with drawings expressing the author’s dismay with our current state of affairs.” Jensen edited together a video preview (with a bit of animation) of the books cartoon content and posted it on You Tube. I’d love to see a fully animated film based on these ABC’s – till then, this delightful book will have to do.
And the Oscar went to…
At the Academy Awards tonight the Oscar for Best Animated Feature went to Pixar’s Ratatouille.
The Oscar for Best Animated Short went to Suzie Templeton’s Peter and the Wolf.
Congratulations to the winners!
1930′s wartime Japanese cartoon
David Gerstein and Cole Johnson found this delightfully primitive 1934 Japanese cartoon about a war in 1936(?). Clearly inspired by Hollywood cartoons of the era, one can read plenty into the fact that the brave Japanese warriors are doing battle with a “mickey mouse” army. Says Gerstein:
Maybe it’s a “Nutcracker Suite”-inspired thing? Dunno if the “Nutcracker” was known in Japan in the 1930s, and this uses pre-”Nutcracker” classical themes, but it does have a mouse kingdom trying to take over a toyland-like world. What’s great, though, is that the mice are obvious Mickey clones, and at about 1:45 a cat lead briefly mutates into Felix. The music over the main and end titles sounds like it belongs with a 1930 Terrytoon or Van Beuren, doesn’t it?
If anyone can translate the title or tell us more about the film’s plot, we are eager to learn.
1942 Comic Book story about Animation
Courtesy of Marc Schirmeister, The Asifa Hollywood Animation Archive has posted the complete 18-page Crimebuster story from a 1942 issue of Boy Comics. The story, written by Charles Biro and drawn by future stooge-in-law Norman Maurer, uses the fictional Acme Animation Studio as a backdrop. There are references to animators with some familiar sounding names (Gordon, Tyre (sic), Lovey (sic), Foster). Read it here.
Roy Jenkins’ Good-Girl Art
Brew reader Andy Kinyon writes in with a query:
Over ten years ago I was given two drawings. I guess youd call them pin-up cartoon girls. They’re signed JENKINS. On the back of one says, ROY JENKINS, 12625 Welby Way, N. Hollywood. Could it be the same animator who’s name appears on several Columbia Screen Gems cartoons (Cat-tastrophy, Big House Blues and Boston Beanie). Any information would be much appreciated.
Jenkins also did a stint at Walter Lantz in the 1960s. I’ll throw it open to our readers. Does anyone know anymore about the life and career of Roy Jenkins? These drawings (which seem to be inspired by the Bill Ward school) are pretty hot. (click on thumbnails below for larger image)
Popeye DVD Vol. 2
It was officially announced today that Popeye the Sailor Vol. 2 from Warner Home Video will be released on June 17th 2008. Bonus materials will include a documentary on the Fleischer Studios, an interview with Jack Mercer, and the complete Fleischer feature film Gulliver’s Travels (1939). I’ll reveal more information on the bonus features in a future post, closer to the release date. In the meantime, enjoy this rare title card (below), snapped with my notoriously funky cel phone camera, off a glare-filled TV screen. It’s the original opening title card to Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp, not seen since it’s initial release in 1939. This film, the third Technicolor two-reel Popeye special, and thirty other Popeye black & white classics will presented complete, uncut and beautifully restored on this landmark volume.
Liquor Store or Disney Animation Building?
Does this look familiar?
Steve Stanchfield (Thunderbean Animation) — forever on the outlook for Preston Blair swipes as he travels across the nation — spotted this architectural curiosity (above).
Mary and I were travelling recently through Lexington, KY and saw this.
Doesn’t this building scream “Drinking is FUN!”??? It seems as if they either really liked a certain newer animation building in Burbank (at left), or were making fun of the fact that so many animators loved the sauce. Maybe if Disney ever decides to scrap animation all together they can sell the building to these folks!
I’d like to make a reference to “Pink Elephants On Parade”… but I think I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
More on the Bullwinkle restoration
Ric Scozzari, the sculptor who supervised the resoration of the beloved Rocky and Bullwinkle statue on Sunset Blvd. sent in these photos (below) and recollections:
I worked exclusively for Tiffany Ward (his daughter) and Ramona Ward (Jay’s wife). I was the carpenter, sculptor, coordinator, engineer, plasterer, painter, draftsman/artist for both the statue and the final restoration of the store (before it closed, and was renovated, yet again, by a new tenant). I have a before (above) and after (below) of Jay Ward’s, “Animation Dream Machine” mural that I totally redid myself (after 50 years of oxidation,..that might be interesting for your readers to see also).I was the “total package” for Tiffany regarding the construction and consultation and she loved having a “one stop shop” guy look out for her and her families precious 2-dimensional jewels.
The Bullwinkle and Rocky statue was originally done in steel and fiberglass (back in the late 1950′s),..then years later, someone thought to cover it in “paper mache” (wrong!… on so many levels) I stripped that off, wrapped Bullwinkle and Rocky in surgical plaster bandages and then put a slurry of outdoor industrial plaster for a final coat,..just like the old days in Coney Island figures on the boardwalk. Then I primed and painted with industrial paint with a high UV content (’cause of all that California weather, non fading). Now they are ready for their close-up after getting really, really plastered! Hoky Smoke!
Anyone know who designed the original Animation Dream Machine mural (above)? Bill Hurtz? Click on images below for a closer look.
Gisele Kerozene
Our recent posts about Stop, Look and Listen reminded Brew reader Kermyt Anderson of another pixilation film he saw a few years ago about witches, using the same technique. He wrote to me asking about it, but I’d never heard of it myself. Coincidentally Kermyt just found it on You Tube (below) and I found it on No Fat Clips. It’s titled Gisele Kerozene, by Jan Kounen. It won the Grand Prix du Court-Métrage at the Avoriaz (France) Fantastic Film Festival in 1989.
Looks like Kounen and crew had just as much fun as Menville and Janson did while making their film.
