A former minor-league baseball club known as the Casper Rockies will now be known as the Casper Ghosts.

The club unveiled their new team name and logos Wednesday, adopting their new identity from the animated character, Casper the Friendly Ghost. An agreement with Classic Media will allow the baseball franchise use of the Ghost’s name and to develop an entire souvenir line featuring the friendly ghost. Team merchandise, including Glow-in-the-Dark game caps, are available online at GhostsBaseball.com. This announcement was made — where else? — in Casper Wyoming.

First day of the new month. Lots of cool stuff to do.

I’m showing cartoons tonight at the Janet Klein performance. In Hollywood at 8pm.

At the same time, USC is hosting the Redefining Animation Symposium. Tonight at 7pm.

And Steve Moore has post a new edition of Flip Magazine. This month: Alan Smart’s Tiki Room, a memo from Don Graham to Walt Disney, featured artist Steve Purcell, and one of Moore’s almost-true Hollywood horror stories.

Apparently a new Pixar short – their first with extensive 2-D traditional animation – will available on the Ratatouille DVD and Blu-Ray Discs (on sale November 6th). The short was directed by Jim Capobianco, who says he was particularly inspired by Ward Kimball, and was written by Jeff Pidgeon and Alexander Woo.

Sci-Fi.com has some more information. Animated-News has posted several stills.

Slightly off topic, but fans of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Cartoon Dump will appreciate this news.

Original MST3K writer/performers Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Josh Weinstein and Mary Jo Pehl have re-teamed with creator Joel Hodgson to create a whole new movie spoof comedy machine, Cinematic Titantic.

Details on this new show will be posted on Joel’s new website as it develops. Frank and I are still producing Cartoon Dump, and Joel (as “Dumpster Diver Dan”) is still part of the regular Cartoon Dump cast at our live shows each month. I wish the cast and crew of CT the best of luck with this new venture… consider me your number #1 fan!

It’s a good day for DVD collectors: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 5 and The Three Stooges Collection Vol. 1 have been released.

Actually, this portrait of the Mouse (by Marcelo Braga) is one of the nicer ones.

A blog devoted to bad drawings of Mickey, sent in by its readers, is quite entertaining in its own right. Click here to enter the unhappiest place on Earth: Mickey Feio.

Howard Green sends us this sad news: Janie Reitherman — Woolie’s widow — passed away on Saturday at her home in Burbank from complications due to cancer. She was 83 years old. There will a memorial service for her this Saturday at 11 am at Crippen Mortuary (2900 Honolulu Ave in La Crescenta) followed by a reception at her home in Burbank. She is survived by three sons: Bruce (voice of Mowgli, Christopher Robin) of Summerland, CA; Richard who lives in Orange County, and Robert who lives in Half Moon Bay. Janie attended the special “Jungle Book” evening at the El Capitan Theatre on Sept. 6th.

(Pictured above, Robert, Woolie, Richard and Janie)

I thought we’d celebrate the day with a viewing of my favorite Bakshi short, the grooviest cartoon ever made: Marvin Digs (1967).