Here’s a strangely abrupt teaser trailer for Studio Ghibli’s newest film, From Up on Poppy Hill (Kokurikozaka kara). It’s based on the 1980 two-volume manga of the same name written by Tetsurō Sayama and drawn by Chizuru Takahashi. The film is a collaboration between Gorō Miyazaki (Tales from Earthsea), who directed it and his father, Hayao Miyazaki, who wrote the screenplay.

(Thanks, Ben Price)

They appeared in comic books, military insignia, as dolls, and in advertisements but Disney’s Gremlins never appeared in an animated film. Or did they?

There are still a lot of animated films made for the U.S. Army and Navy during World War II that are completely undocumented. Recently a military film collector wrote to me asking about a film he had in his collection that contained Disney animation. The film he said, Fundamental Fixed Gunnery Approaches (1943), contained a sequence of Gremlins pulling a plane away from its mission.

I haven’t viewed the film myself, but I had him send me a few frame grabs so I could see what he was talking about. Take a look. What do you think? Five little Gremlins, with the letter “G” on their flight jackets, with large goggles, noses, gloves and aviator caps – similar to the Disney character designs. Could this be the only Disney animation of Dahl’s Gremlins?

Click the thumbnails below to see larger images of the film’s titles and an extreme close-up of the Gremlin frame grab.

In another sign of Hollywood’s slow recognition of animation as a money-making powerhouse: Paramount Pictures announced today the formation of a new in-house animation studio to create animated features, mainly (but not entirely) in conjunction with its Nickelodeon Movies unit. Their goal is one feature per year.

Paramount has been releasing Dreamworks Animation films for the last several years, but that arrangement is said to be ending. Warner Bros. is a potential distributor for Dreamworks post-2012. Disney, which is distributing Dreamworks live action movies, will never touch the Dreamworks Animation films.

Paramount has been releasing Nickelodeon Movies animated features – as well as films spawned by other Viacom Networks, MTV (Beavis and Butt-head) and Comedy Central (South Park) – for years now. The success of ILM/Nick’s Rango this past spring, and the potential of the forthcoming Spielberg/ Jackson Tintin movie has spurred this new division.

Longtime readers of this site know that Paramount has long ties with animation, going back to 1917 1916. It’s relationship with Max Fleischer was its most significant commitment to the form (yielding Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and Gulliver’s Travels), and its in-house Famous Studios created Casper the Friendly Ghost in the 1940s. Paramount released several Hanna Barbera and Peanuts features in the 1970s and 80s, and had a long series of Nick spin-offs (Rugrats, Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, etc.) since.

Pixar animator Bob Scott (Day and Night, Toy Story 3) has been drawing a delightful comic strip, Molly and the Bear, for the past few years. It’s worth a read any ol’ time, but this week is a great place to jump in: the strip introduces an animation theme many of our readers can relate to. The current continuity started Monday (7/4), and you can catch up with the whole strip at the Molly and The Bear website.

1972 was a low-point in the history of the medium (the theatrical release of Fritz The Cat and Snoopy Come Home excepted). That year may also have been the nadir of bad Saturday morning cartoons. Critical writing relating to animated films was practically non-existent (Funnyworld #14 was all we had). Brew reader Tony Wisneske was looking through some old LIFE magazines and found this rather cynical little write-up on the status of the Saturday morning shows. Worth a read to experience the mind-set back then, when the best we had to offer was The Brady Kids, Roman Holidays and The Osmonds. The date of the magazine was December 1, 1972.

“If it looks like a Cartoon, moves like a Cartoon and sounds like a Cartoon …It must be too John K!”

So says a quote on the blog of Sheridan student Amir Avni, who spent two years creating The Barley Way (which might be better titled “The Spumco Way” …if you ask me):

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the largest silent film festival in the country, will be holding their 16th Annual Festival this July 14-17 at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco. This year, the SFSFF in coordination with the Walt Disney Family Museum and Pixar, will be presenting Walt Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams on Saturday, July 16th at 10:00am. Disney historians Leonard Maltin and JB Kaufman will introduce a selection of rare Laugh-O-Gram shorts from 1921–23, which have been recently preserved by The Museum of Modern Art.

Several of these shorts were thought lost for many years, and thanks to animation archaeologists David Gerstein and Cole Johnson, The Museum of Modern Art restored several lost Laugh-O-Grams cartoons (Goldie Locks and The Three Bears, Jack The Giant Killer) they had long held in their archives, previously misidentified under alternate titles. In addition to the two new discoveries, newly preserved and restored prints of Little Red Riding Hood, Puss In Boots and The Four Musicians Of Bremen will be screened. Donald Sosin will provide musical accompaniment.

For more background information on the discovery of these incredible finds, check David Gerstein’s blog; for tickets and additional info on the San Francisco screening, go to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website. Disney fans – this is a must-see!

Angel Vitamina is a personal project of animator Diego De Rose and a small team of independent animators in Argentina. This is the second time I’ve posted about this film’s progress (I posted an shorter teaser trailer here in 2009). De Rose has just debut a second, longer trailer – now five minutes, though the first two minutes is a talky set up – and has expanded his website and production blog. I wish them luck in getting this film finished!

My Animation Tuesday screening this month is the first in a new series of semi-regular face-offs: The Heavyweights of Cartoon Comedy. We will periodically pit two titans of animation anarchy against each other — and this month we’ll be comparing and contrasting the work of Tex Avery and Jay Ward.

Who was funnier: Avery or Ward? Does it matter? Avery was the “King of Cartoons” with his series of MGM theatrical shorts of the ‘40s and ‘50s. His animated masterpieces practically invented the language of cartoons, and are rife with exploding bombs, eye-popping doubletakes and girl-hungry Hollywood wolves. Jay Ward, the prize-winning Bay Area producer, revolutionized TV toons in the ‘60s with witty dialogue, funny artwork and zany characters like Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right and Super Chicken. This big-screen contest will screen some of the best of the best (in rare 35mm film prints) — and the audience will be the real winner! The showdown begins at 8pm on Tuesday July 5th at The Cinefamily (aka The Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax) in Hollywood. Advance tickets on sale now!

In 2009, we reported on the Ghibli Museum exhibit devoted to Max Fleischer’s Mr. Bug Goes To Town (1941). I believe this was somewhat tied into Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty (2010). Ghibli and Disney have since teamed to release Mr. Bug (aka Hoppity Goes To Town) on home video in Japan.

Brew reader Rick Nodal sent us this report about the DVD (and supplied the images in this post):

“Hoppity Goes to Town (Mr. Bug Goes to Town) was released on DVD (region 2) in Japan back in 2010 by Studio Ghibli through Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Japan. I just received the copy I purchased online and it’s fantastic. The audio & video quality is excellent, and although the disc defaults to Japanese subtitles when it begins, you can change the setting to “no subtitles.” I’ve attached a few screen shots/grabs including the end title Paramount logo.”

As Mr. Bug is still protected by copyright, does this mean Ghibli, Disney or Pony Canyon (their Japanese video distributor) sub-licensed the film from Paramount Pictures? If so, that’s very interesting! Disney presenting a Fleischer cartoon?!

Click thumbnails below to see larger images of the box (with Disney castle logo clearly visible, lower left on the label) and several frame grabs. According to Rick, this is a transfer of an NTA Technicolor print, with NTA’s reissue opening titles. This is a shame as the UCLA Film Archive recently restored the film from the original Paramount three-strip negatives. Hopefully we will see that version released soon – from Disney or anyone.

In the meantime you can order the Japanese Ghibli/Disney release from CDI Japan for $46.43 (U.S. $).

While we in the U.S. await word of a domestic release of Studio Ghibli’s latest film, an international trailer of an English dub has made its way to the internet. This UK release has Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones, Atonement) in the lead. Disney’s later English dub will feature Carol Burnett, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett and Bridget Mendler (Lemonade Mouth) as Arrietty.

Here’s a great way to begin the holiday weekend (in the States): a pair of newly released animated videos from Weird Al Yankovic. For his new album, Alpocalypse, much like how he did last time on Straight Outta Lynwood, Yankovic has employed several notable animators to create videos.

Here’s the music video for Another Tattoo (Parody of Nothin’ On You by B.o.B. featuring Bruno Mars). Animation produced at Augenblick Studios, directed by Chris Burns.

Party In The CIA (Parody of the song Party In The U.S.A. by Miley Cyrus) was animated by Roque Ballesteros and his team at Ghostbot (the studio behind the Erin Esurance commercials).

The rest of Weird Al’s new videos can be seen on Yankovic’s YouTube page.

(Thanks, Annie-Mae)