This nicely crafted, character-driven viral advertisement, The Ultimate Break, was produced out of Paris based Akama Studio.
I don’t know about you, but I can go for a Kit Kat bar right now.
(via Motionographer, with thanks to Kris Boban)
Back in April, we posted to a YouTube link of Chuck Menville and Len Janson’s Oscar nominated live-action pixilation short, Stop, Look and Listen (1967). Warner Bros. keeps removing it from the ‘net (it was a MGM short), but you can capture it on video via TCM tomorrow night (actually early Saturday morning). It’s being broadcast Friday Feb 1 (really the wee hours of Feb 2) at approximately 4:13 AM, as part of their 31 Days of Oscar programming. So set your TiVo or DVR’s.
(Thanks, Kermyt Anderson)
Another great eBay find.
The seller wants too much money for this admittedly historic Walter Lantz studio staff photo. Anyone got $4 grand to spare?
It’s dated September 1934 and it’s a who’s who of great names in the field (and it’s autographed by everyone as well), including Tex Avery, Ed Benedict, Cal Howard, LaVerne Harding, Bill Nolan, Leo Salkin and Lantz himself. Wow!
(Thanks, Kevin Coffey)
We already have enough problems identifying the sex of Tweety… Now this:
Today’s Family Circus by Bil Keane (father of Disney animator Glen Keane).
Congratulations to our friends Joost van der Bosch and Erik Verkerk of Ka-Ching Cartoons, who just finished a new 3D cartoon short which will premiere tomorrow at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The 3D Machine, an homage to classic horror movies, about a professor who invents a machine that can bring everything he draws to life, was produced using the old anaglyph (red and blue) 3-D process. Bosch and Verkerk’s previous film, The Shoebox will soon be featured on Cartoon Brew Films. The 3D Machine premieres at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam on January 29th at 5pm at the Stadsschouwburg of Rotterdam.
It was common practice back in the golden age to release publicity stills for every Hollywood feature, short and cartoon. Cartoon producers usually had a staffer gather several cels and backgrounds after filming, to create special setups for a publicity shoot (Martha Sigall did this at MGM in the late 1940s, early 50s). Warner Bros., of course, had several pieces of special publicity art created (with titles, done lobby card style) for each Looney Tune and Merrie Melodie.
Here’s a nice set of six stills (below) which were released for Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves. They were auctioned on ebay this weekend. I didn’t win them (they went for over $290.) so I thought I’d preserve them by posting them here. I have several like these from Sindbad but had not seen the Ali Baba set before. Click on each thumbnail image to see it full size.
In this day and age, when we can make frame grabs off a dvd at whim, these ancient still photos may no longer be needed… but they sure look great to me.
Anyone know the name of the cartoon this scene is from?
No prizes… just thought this was a cool image from a classic cartoon I was reviewing this week and thought it would be fun to post it. This rare cartoon is part of a DVD collection I’ll be plugging a lot this year. Consider this your first sneak peek.
Recently sold off on ebay was a series of six sample comic strips for a purported Oswald The Lucky Rabbit daily comic strip from the late 1930s. David Gerstein grabbed images of them, and Andrea Ippoliti posted them on his Classic Cartoons website.
Any further information on this attempt to make Oswald a regular in the “funny pages” is appreciated. Any ideas on who might have drawn this, or what year this was created?
I’m back, with more madness from the same studio that brought you Animal Soccer World. Someone has just posted (on YouTube) their shameless rip-off of Disney’s Aladdin.
The language is German, but the voice-acting is much more bearable this way. There’s even a German “fanpage” dedicated to this company, offering plot overviews and direct comparisons of the characters with the original Disney characters.
If you haven’t had enough, check the Dingo Pictures website for information (and trailers) of their other movies. And don’t miss their inspired sequel More Dalmatians. Why hasn’t Disney thought of this?
The bigger question, you may ask, is why am I so fascinated with this crap?
(Thanks, Marco Scandurra)
Yesterday’s Bizarro by Dan Piraro.
Character actor Allan Melvin – the voice of Magilla Gorilla – has passed away at age 84.
He provided numerous voices for Hanna Barbera characters, including significant parts on The Banana Splits, Hong Kong Phooey and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. He was also the voice of Bluto on HB’s All New Popeye Hour and Popeye and Son. On camera, Melvin is best known as Sam The Butcher on The Brady Bunch and Cpl. Henshaw on The Phil Silvers Show. He died on Thursday January 17th of cancer.
Animator Dan Meth is hosting his second annual Drinking and Drawing event in both New York City and Portland Oregon next Wednesday (Amid and I participated in the first such event in Portland last year and it was a blast).
The sad truth is that alcohol was the vice of choice for many of our animation heroes of the 1930s, 40s and ’50s. And of course, drinking made its way into the cartoons themselves, dating back way before Prohibition was lifted. Scrappy, Buddy, Woody Woodpecker and Betty Boop (to name a few) all made cartoons with beer gags – or about making beer itself. Matthew Hunter recently compiled this clip reel of drinking gags from early 30s Warner Bros. cartoons:
Even the Flintstones did a special Busch Beer promotional episode. Perhaps it’s no surprise that there is a beer in Germany called “Animator” (Hacker-Pschorr Animator) — and there’s even a wine in Europe featuring Goofy on the label (label below)!
But honestly, I don’t think any character drank more than Magoo:
The Drinking and Drawing events commence January 23rd at 8PM. In New York it’s happening at the M1-5 Bar in lower Manhattan (52 Walker St. @ Church St.). To participate in NYC you need to RSVP: savemeaplace ( at ) frederator (dot) com. In Portland it’s being held at the Someday Lounge 125 NW 5 Avenue. RSVP to cascadesiggraph ( at ) gmail (dot) com by January 22nd at noon.
I’m way overdue in posting, plugging and praising these two fine publications.
In this day and age of blogs and dedicated websites, niche publications are getting scarcer and scarcer. However, the proprietors of these books have a passion and point of view that you have to admire—both putting a spotlight on overlooked and esoteric aspects of cartoon history.
Cereal:Geek covers animation of the 1980s, specifically action adventure cartoons, particularly of the Transformers, He-Man, Ghostbusters, Voltron variety. The latest issue (#2) features 100 glossy color pages, packed with artwork and articles such as “Things We Love About Thundercats”, “Why I dislike Defenders of the Universe” and “There’s Something About Jem”. It’s aimed squarely at those who grew up taking these things very seriously. If that’s not you—move on.
Craig Yoe’s Arf Forum (which we plugged before, in pre-production) is a work of art unto itself. I can’t praise this series highly enough. Yoe packs so much incredible cartoon history and eye candy into 122 pages, you are left breathless and amazed. Overlooked artisans George Crenshaw, Max Ernst, Ted Scheel, William Ekgren, Henry Heath and Italian girlie cartoonist Kremos are among those featured in this forum. I recommend this to all readers of the Brew. Order now!
As a follow up to my previous post on plush dolls (and I promise this will be the last one for the time being), I just found out they made one for Anton Ego, the beloved food critic from Ratatouille!
Who wouldn’t want to cuddle up with a plush doll of one of the most cherished characters in Disney/Pixar history? He’s certainly one of my favorites. Here’s an eBay link. However, I’m still waiting for the Anton Ego vinyl action figures and bobble-head toy.
