The teaser trailer for Ratatouille is now on the internet – click here to see it. Note the voice of the French waiter is none other than director Brad Bird. I have no doubt he will serve up another great film in 2007.

Walt Disney’s first movie star, Virginia Davis, will appear in person at a screening of two of her Alice Comedies from the mid-1920s at the Hollywood Heritage Museum on June 22, 2006. Included on the program will be Michael Broggie, son of Disney’s first Imagineer, Roger Broggie. Michael is the author of Walt Disney’s Railroad Story and an upcoming book on the history of the Disney Studio. Broggie also spearheaded the opening of Walt’s Barn, a museum in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park dedicated to Disney. For more information on the Alice event, go to hollywoodheritage.org.

Traditional animator Jamie Oliff (Mulan, Hercules) and CG animator Angie Jones (Scooby Doo 2, Stuart Little) have teamed up to produce a new book Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG, which will be published next month.

Thinking Animation is a one-of-a-kind book that emphasizes how artists can use traditional animation techniques and principles with today’s computer generated animation technology. This full-color book includes numerous interviews with experienced contributing authors from a wide range of backgrounds, including stop-motion, visual effects, traditional animation, and CG.

Thinking Animation includes forewords written by traditional animator Floyd Norman and animation designer Richard Taylor – and interviews with Eric Goldberg, Ed Hooks, Conrad Vernon, Tom Sito, Bert Klein, Dave Brewster and many more.Check out the book’s website for more information.

Here’s the news I’ve been dying to announce for over 20 years.Warner Bros. and King Features have come to an agreement – at long last – which will allow Warner Home Video to release the original Max Fleischer Popeye cartoons. The deal clears up a rights muddle that has kept these films from prior VHS and DVD home video release – and grants Warner Bros. the video rights, in perpetuity, to the entire Paramount Popeye theatrical library. (Warner Home Video will also be the official distributor of the King Features and Hanna-Barbera TV Popeye cartoons – but that will wait for now).Warner Bros. will commence restoration (with the original titles) of all the Popeye theatricals from the original negatives, and the first DVD boxed set (of the entire series, in original release order) is planned for 2007 release. I am already involved as a consulting producer.Thank you Warner Bros. (especially George Feltenstein) – and thank you, King Features – for making this cartoon DVD “Holy Grail” a reality.

Once again, our buddy Bob Bergen (current day voice of Porky Pig) is hosting another Voice Over Cruise up the west coast. Says Bob:

My 2006 VO cruise was such a hit I’ve decided to do another one in April, 2007. I’m promoting now because the ship needs to reserve cabins way in advance. Prices and cabin availability are subject to change after August 16, 2006.Here’s the scoop on my next one. This is a five night cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver, with stops in San Francisco and Victoria, BC. In addition to my animation VO workshop, this excursion will also include commercial workshops with Leigh Gilbert and promo workshops with Joyce Castellanos. We only have 60 cabins held!One more thing!!! If people mention they heard about the cruise on Cartoon Brew I’ll give them 10% off the workshop! (This is good only for the workshops, not the cruise itself!)

See, it pays to read CARTOON BREW! Check out Bob’s website for more details on this exciting animation vacation. And Bon Voyage!

Yo! Check this out on Craig Yoe’s ARF LOVERS website. Scroll down the blog to see a rare 1928 magazine cartoon by animator Walter Lantz.

Could this be the coolest kids show since Pee-Wee’s Playhouse? YO GABBA GABBA has that surreal-1970s Kroft-meets-New Zoo Revue vibe, and it looks like a lot of fun. If Cartoon Network insists on showing live action, this is the sort of thing they should consider picking up. Check out the groovy trailer here.(Thanks, DRAWN!)

Here’s a one-of-a-kind item currently listed on ebay you might like. Scuptor Pete Carsillo is offering a life sized wax figure of Walt Disney. This is for the collector who has absolutely everything. Move over, Lumiere! Now it’s Uncle Walt in wax! Here are some of the details described in the ebay listing:

Hair and eye color authenticated by people that knew Walt!
Real human hair inserted stand by strand!
Glass eyes!
Teeth are matched to Walt circa 1961!
The texture and skin tone is perfect and his fingernails look absolutely real!

Be afraid. Be very afraid.(Thanks, Mike)

We figured it out. Thanks to some slick detective work by Brew reader Brian Nelson, we have identified the mystery photo of “Norm“. It’s Norman Z. McLeod, famed Hollywood director of the 1930s and 40s (Horsefeathers, Monkey Business, It’s A Gift, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, etc.). McLeod got his start illustrating silent movie intertitles with his stick figure cartoons. This article explains how McLeod directed his feature films (in this case Topper) using stick figures to illustrate the action. Case closed!

I don’t usually plug non-animation artists here on Brew, but the work of Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham really appeals to me. They have just teamed up to sell their cool artwork on a new website, Fleet Street Scandal, where you can buy prints of their latest work.

“To Sally, from one of her men – Norm”Norm who? Any ideas? Norm McCabe? Collector Gordon Reid found this still (click on it for larger image) and sent it to Leonard Maltin for identification. I took the liberty of posting it here, mainly because I love the cartoon he’s drawing (and his Mohair sweater – but I digress). If anyone knows who this is, we’d appreciate hearing from you.

Our favorite Oscar winning animation historian John Canemaker has quite a busy schedule this summer. John will appear at the Zagreb Animafest in Croatia on June 13 to accept the “Award for Special Achievement in the Theory of Animation.” He is the third animation historian to be chosen for the distinguished award, after Giannalberto Bendazzi and Donald Crafton.Next, his Academy Award-winning film THE MOON AND THE SON airs on Cinemax on Sun. June 18 at 8 P.M.Then Canemaker travels to Brazil in July for the Anima Mundi Festival in Rio and Sao Paulo to screen his films and lecture on Winsor McCay and Mary Blair.On August 26, he lectures on Winsor McCay at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, CA.;
and then is a guest of the 33rd Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, for which he designed this year’s poster.We highly recommend you catch John at one of his public appearences, whenever, where ever you can!

Regular Brew readers already know that once a month (the first Thursday of each month) Jerry Beck shows vintage 16mm musical shorts and cartoons at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood, as the opening act of for the live performance of Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys. Tomorrow night, Thursday June 1st, is our next show and if you are interested in attending, you might order your tickets in advance – the shows are now selling out on a regular basis. The show starts at 8pm, at 4773 Hollywood Blvd.

Don’t barf!A groovy new blog called Mondo Daddykin is posting the bubblegum soundtracks to 1960-70s series like Partridge Family 2200 A.D. and The Beagles. No, there was never an official release of Hanna-Barbera Partridge Family soundtrack tunes (by Hoyt Curtin no less), but that hasn’t stopped Daddykin from compiling one himself.