Cory Edwards, director/writer of HOODWINKED, defends criticism of the film and discusses the process of its production on the Animation Nation forums.

Film buff John McElwee has started a blog, Greenbriar Picture Shows, devoted to his love of old movies. His comments are witty and he illustrates each entry with amazing photos, ad clippings and rare material from his extensive archive. In the last two days he has posted some observations on watching cartoons on TV in the 50s and 60s – illustrated with pages from a rare A.A.P. sales brochure. His first post is about seeing cartoons at the local movie house, his second post is about theatrical cartoons on TV.UPDATE: A third post about the end of theatrical cartoons and serials features some great trade ads from 1957.

Yesterday, Amid and I joined Roy Disney, Don Hahn, David Stainton, Leonard Maltin and several others at a preview screening of a wonderful new Disney short, THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, based on the classic Hans Christian Andersen story. We’ll discuss the film in a forthcoming post… but while there we heard some news we hadn’t read elsewhere: Starting this summer, Disney will be making all its Oscar-winning (and Oscar-nominated) shorts available on iTunes – for Internet downloading to iPods and the like. Yes, Der Fuehrer’s Face will be available to carry around in your hand – along with The Three Little Pigs and Destino. The films willl be released in waves and not all at the same time. In the summer, a DVD boxed set will be released with the same content. This is great news. It’ll be fun to have It’s Tough To Be a Bird on my iPod.

Disney recently restored its CinemaScope materials on LADY & THE TRAMP (1955) for a forthcoming DVD release. But to experience the film in its full glory, I highly recommend a trip to the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood February 2nd through the 14th (Valentine’s Day) where they will showcase this latest restoration on the widescreen. On Thursday night February 2nd, a special panel will convene before the screening to discuss the picture. Andreas Deja and Stan Freberg will be among the panelists.

The erosion of the animated feature continues. The Weinstein Co. and Kanbar Entertainment said Tuesday that they’ll team up on a sequel to their current CG-animated release Hoodwinked.From today’s Daily Variety:

Pic — the Weinstein Co.’s first animated venture, budgeted at less than $20 million — overcame lukewarm reviews to grab $16.9 million at the box office in its debut frame. Harvey Weinstein said that this time around, the pic’s producers will double the budget to improve animation, and that he spoke to the pic’s lead, Anne Hathaway, about returning while at the Golden Globes over the weekend.”Our whole marketing team rose to the occasion,” said Harvey Weinstein about “Hoodwinked’s” perf. “For every rave, there was someone saying that the animation isn’t as great as Pixar, but the movie is funny and fun for kids and adults. We never would have been able to do this at Disney.”New installment, dubbed “Hood Vs. Evil”, will find a teen Red training in a distant land with a mysterious, covert group called Sisters of the Hood. She is then called upon by Nicky Flippers — head of the Happily Ever After Agency — who teams her with the Wolf to investigate the disappearance of Hansel and Gretel.

Ebert on animation in today’s Chicago Sun-Times.

If you live in Southern California you have two unique opportunities to meet animator and animation historian John Canemaker this week. The first one is Thursday night (January 12th) at Dreamworks Studios, in Burbank, as I host a Q & A with John and screen a selection of animated films that have inspired him and his work – and screen his latest film, the widely acclaimed THE MOON AND THE SON. It’s free, but you must RSVP to attend – it isn’t too late – go to the ASIFA website for more details. On Saturday (January 14th) John will be presenting a special program devoted to WINSOR McCAY at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Blvd. Two special evenings of animation history. See you there.

Brew readers will enjoy the latest issue of FPS magazine (#6), edited by Emru Townsend. The latest issue of the on-line publication has just hit the net and is packed with articles of interest, ranging from opinions on anime and digital filmmaking to a review of Ducktales; articles by animators Mark Mayerson and Charles Bonifacio and much commentary reflecting the year-in-review. It costs 99 cents to download. This free preview gives a sneak peek at the layout and contents. Recommended.

Not the greatest interview but it’s short – and fun to listen to. Mae Questel (Betty Boop, Olive Oyl, Little Audrey, et al) recorded at a 1986 Sons of the Desert convention. Click here!(Thanks, Mark Mayerson)

Wanna see a new animated movie voiced by Paul Giamatti, Brad Garrett, Sean Astin and Evan Rachel Wood? Then get yourself over to Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland or Denmark during April and May when the hand drawn cartoon feature ASTERIX AND THE VIKINGS opens there in movie theatres. This film is but one (of many) produced by A. Film A/S in Copenhagen, the largest animation studio in Scandinavia, that never played in Peroia (or New York and L.A. for that matter).And it’s also one of dozens (hundreds?) of animated features that never make it past the Atlantic Ocean. Chris Panzer wrote an excellent article for AWN about the glut of these foreign features not coming soon to a theatre or DVD rack near you anytime soon. I’m sure that there are more than a few duds among these offerings – but how many potential TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE or MIND GAME’s are we being denied?

Your history lesson for today: William Sturm (1906-1981) was a noted 20s-30s Fleischer artist and 40s Disney animator who later drew comics and had one of the more successful television commercial studios of the 1950s. His home town of Budd Lake, New Jersey has posted this small web tribute to man and his life. (Note: The research isn’t entirely accurate – but it’s sweet).

Tonight, once again, at 8pm I will be running several vintage 16mm old time movie films at the Steve Allen Theatre preceeding Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys. Join us!Starting Saturday January 7th (and for the next eight weeks) at 10pm, Scott Shaw will take his ODDBALL COMICS show legit. He’ll be performing it live on stage in Hollywood at the Acme Comedy Theatre on LaBrea. If you are in town, don’t miss it!