Steve Hulett, over on the daily must-read The Animation Guild blog, lists all the known union projects currently in production in L.A. — including a few Disney items I’d never heard of (Joe Jump? King of the Elves?).
Most intriguing project: Batman Anime (Gotham Knight?) at Warner Bros. Scariest titles mentioned: Tinkerbell 2 and 3(!) from Disneytoon Studios.
Are you ready to put this in your “Bikini Bottom”?
I was shopping at the supermarket yesterday when I came upon a unique piece of Nickelodeon merchandising – a Spongebob Squarepants Musical Rectal Thermometer! Yes, it’s musical. And yes, it’s clearly marked for rectal use. It actually plays the Spongebob theme in your ass when your temperature is taken!
Spongebob is a huge success, and merchandise like this literally sticks it to the competition. But this product ranks with the infamous Mickey Mouse vibrator as one of the most miscast in cartoon licensing history! What were they thinking? Spongebob has enough trouble regarding his sexual identity. Ren & Stimpy may have been a better choice here… but Spongebob? Nah!
“It’s like a children’s show, but in Bosnia!” -Patton Oswalt
“Highly Recommended!” and “Best pick of the week!” – Time Out NY
One more quick little plug for our Cartoon Dump live comedy show tonight in New York City. Join Frank Conniff and Erica Doering at 8pm at Comix at 353 West 14th Street. Ordering advance tickets (before 2pm) is a few bucks cheaper than buying them at the door.
The Brothers McLeod have recently completed a series of shorts called Pedro and Frankensheep for Children’s BBC (CBBC) in the United Kingdom. It starts airing on UK TV everyday begining next week (for the next two weeks at 4:30pm). Ten 5-minute episodes were produced, co-written by the brothers with Phil Cooper. Characters were designed by Greg McLeod in his distinctive style and voices were supplied by Simon Greenall and Myles McLeod (the latter as the voice of Frank and Hugo). Here’s the first one, given an “online pre-release” to generate buzz:
Start buzzing.
New York: The worst cartoons ever made, live music, and subversive comedy return. Cartoon Dump once again visits the Big Apple this Tuesday, Feb. 19th at 8pm, at Comix 353 W. 14th St. (Just east of 9th Ave.). Special comedy guest: Rena Zager. Order Advance Tickets HERE or call the box office (212) 524-2500.
Next week, back in Los Angeles Cartoon Dump continues its monthly performances at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. Our February show is on Tuesday, February 26th at 8pm, with special comedy guest star Morgan Murphy.
It’s a great big load of fun. Don’t take my word for it… read Peter Sanderson’s review at Quick Stop Entertainment. Join us this month!
Indulge me – this post is only for true Looney Tunes trivia nerds. The kind, like me, who find the tiniest piece of cartoon minutiae fascinating.
Last April I posted a TV trailer for Lad: A Dog which contained several seconds of new Bugs Bunny footage from Chuck Jones unit. Recently, film collector Bill Colleton unearthed a companion 20-second TV spot which promotes the initial pairing of Lad: A Dog with the featurette The Adventures of the Road Runner. It’s just a small piece of lost Looney Tunes history, but I think it’s cool – and I just had to share:
The Adventures of the Road Runner featurette has since been released on DVD, included with the bonus materials in Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 2. (Lad: A Dog, alas, has never been released on DVD).
Animator Mark Kausler found this cover image online. Anyone got a copy?
I’ve neglected to acknowledge the release this week of Warner Bros. Academy Award Animation Collection. It came out last Tuesday and it’s a teriffic compilation containing all the Oscar winning animated cartoons, and most of the nominees, that Warner Bros. owns the rights to. This includes several great Looney Tunes, MGM Tom & Jerry, Tex Avery, Fleischer Popeye and Superman cartoons.
The prints are gorgeous, and there is expert commentary on several tracks provided by Mark Kausler, Eric Goldberg, Greg Ford, Paul Dini and Brewmasters Amid Amidi and Jerry Beck. Also worthy of mention is the special round table audio commentary on Popeye The Sailor Meets Sindbad The Sailor by Bob Jaques, Leslie Cabarga and Ray Pointer, moderated by myself. There is also a wonderful one hour documentary on Oscar winning cartoons (with additional clips from Disney, Zagreb and Hubley films) and comments from Michael Sporn, Mark Kausler, Howard Beckerman, Charles Solomon, Bill Plympton, Jimmy Picker, Tom Sito, Eric Goldberg, and archival quotes from Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Many of these cartoons already appeared in several scattered video collections, though several of them were previously issued in edited form. Here, all the cartoons are complete and uncut – and it’s great to have them all collected in one place. A great package, highly recommended.
Next Tuesday, 2/19, at 7:30 p.m., ASIFA Atlanta is putting on To Hell with Hitler, a program of WW2-era cartoons at the Plaza Theatre ($4 members admission; $7 non-members).
Clay Croker (of ArgleBargle blog fame) curated the show, created the cool poster, and is providing the 16mm prints that will be shown. The only caution is that the screening willl take place in a part of the theatre that holds around 100 folks, so expect it to be standing-room-only!
(Thanks, Robert Pope)
Based on what little I’ve seen from this film, it looks awesome.
Here’s the latest trailer from Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda.
Directed by Andrei T. Bakhurin, this fun collaborative animation jam (Multfilm) from Russia (whose full title translates as St. Petersburg is More Than Twice as Little as Moscow) was entirely animated on or with Post-It notes.
(Thanks, Sal Dekku)
From the golden age of TV commercials.
(via Bedazzled)
UPDATE: More details about new Adventure Time merchandise here.
I was a fan of Pen Ward’s warped cartoon genius before I saw his two incredible Random Cartoons: Adventure Time and The Bravest Warriors. I have no idea when this series of cartoons will air on Nickelodeon (I’d assume they’ll show up sometime this year, considering they got a four page spread in the Nicktoons book), but while we wait, Ward has started marketing Adventure Time with a series of tee shirts based on the short.
Ward had a bunch of good ideas for the tees (12 in all) and is making a different one available each week on Cafe Press. Collect them all! The whole set will be posted on Channel Frederator Raw as they are produced.
One of the highlights of the Annie Awards last Friday night was a small video concocted by the cast of Spongebob Squarepants (M.C. Tom Kenny, along with presenters Rodger Bumpass, Carolyn Lawrence and Bill Fagerbakke), created to prove they shouldn’t be stereotyped simply as Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward and Sandy. Here’s the video, see if you agree:
Yes, it’s me with my June Foray Award.
I just got in from a wonderful night at the Annie Award ceremony, and yeah, it’s my birthday today. What a wonderful present and what a fantastic party.
Ratatouille was the big winner last night, winning several Annie Awards including Best Animated Feature, Best Director and Best Writing (Animated Feature). I’m a bit too tired to recall all the winners, but Pixar’s Your Friend The Rat won for best short, El Tigre for Best Children’s TV Animation, Creature Comforts America for Best Animated Program, Power Shares Escape Average (Acme Filmworks) won for Best Commercial, and Surf’s Up, The Simpsons and Robot Chicken took home other prizes.
It was a blast to be surrounded by some of the greatest names in animation (Groening, Bird, Kricfalusi, Canemaker, Keane, etc.). Tom Kenny did an amazing job as the master of ceremonies (more about this in a future post). The new venue, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, was terrific. If you were there please share your memories of the evening in our comments bellow.
