“It lives in a rainforest, under a tree…” Scientists have discovered a new fungus growing in the jungle and have named it after Spongebob.

“Shaped like a sea sponge, the bright orange (and sometimes purple) mushroom, Spongiforma squarepantsii, was discovered in the forests of Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo in 2010, and just described in May in the journal Mycologia. The fungus has a particular odor, smelling “vaguely fruity or strongly musty,” according to Dennis Desjardin of San Francisco State University.”

“Vaguely fruity”? Yep, that’s our Spongebob!

(Thanks, Red Pill Junkie)

I love this drawing (from 2003)!

(Thanks Devlin, via Brian Hughes blog: Again With the Comics)

Stop the presses, hold the phone: It’s greatest news since the invention of the Digital Video Disc itself! Unlike the post below, this is NO JOKE! My friend David Lambert at TVshowsonDVD.com is reporting that Classic Media will be releasing Herman and Katnip: The Complete Series on September 6th.

Herman and Katnip were a knock-off of MGM’s Tom and Jerry by Paramount’s Famous Studios. They are some of the most violent cartoons ever created – so much so, they are acknowledged as the inspiration of The Simpsons‘ Itchy and Scratchy. I posted about my favorite Herman and Katnip moment back in 2009. This is not first time these cartoons have appeared on DVD (which their press release implies), they were part of Classic Media’s incomplete Harveytoons Complete Collection. This new single-disc release will cost at measly $7.93, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com. They will be presented as originally shown in theaters and on television: in full-screen 1.33:1 video format and with English mono audio. Supposedly this is the box art (above left), using the cover of an old Harvey comic book, instead of commissioning a new image. For $7.93, what do you expect?

Very cool, very violent, must-see music video for London based indie band, Is Tropical. Not for kids.

Credits:
Directed by MEGAFORCE
Animation by “Seven” at Machine Molle
Produced by Jules Dieng at El Nino

(Thanks, Peter Avanzino)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today several changes to the Oscar nomination process, with modifications to certain category rules.

For Best Animated Feature, the rules were tweaked as follows (my analysis in parentheses):

1. The need for the Board to vote to “activate” the category each year was eliminated, though a minimum number of eligible releases – eight – is still required for a competitive category (in other words, if I understand this correctly, the Animated Feature category is now permanent with no need for the Board to vote on its existence year after year.)
2. If there are eight-to-twelve features that year “two or three of them may be nominated” (previously, a minimum of 3 films would be nominated. This new rule allows the possibility of only 2 films to run against each other – in theory a third, “lesser film”, could be dropped).
3. If 13 to 15 films qualify, a maximum of four films can be nominated (this is a good new tweak, allowing for more than three films to be nominated if less than 16 animated features are released).
4. If 16 animated features are released and qualify, a maximum of five may be nominated (the tweak here allows the committee to nominate less than five films, if they so decide).

The optimist in me feels that these new tweaks won’t change the potential nominees much. To sum up: If 8-12 films qualify, three will be nominated. If 13-15 films qualify, four will be nominated. And if over 16 films qualify, five will be nominated. Read more about the new rule changes in the Academy press release here.

Dreamworks’ The Croods, Rise of the Guardians and Madagascar 3, Sony/Aardman’s The Pirates and Illumination’s The Lorax are among the properties being showcased this week at the International Licensing Expo in Las Vegas. Luckily our friends from ComingSoon.net snapped a bunch of photos, the most relevant to us are posted below (click the bottom three for a larger image):

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Two weeks ago I warned you informed you about the existence of Tom & Jerry Live!, Argentina’s new stage musical based on the MGM cartoon superstars. In case you didn’t believe me – here’s a 90 second clip… (I apologize for this in advance)

Lord have mercy. Scott Bradley is rolling around in his grave.

(Thanks, Jorge Finkielman)

Short, silent, but priceless color footage of Jim Henson working at his animation stand in Bethesda, MD around 1961.

(Thanks, Floyd Bishop for the tip and the Henson Company for posting the film)

Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody as you haven’t seen them before. Reimagined as action figure “badasses” by designer Luis Eduardo Vargas Montoya. No word if these custom-made “toys” will ever be mass produced, but I’ll be first in line if they are.

(Thanks, Andrew Murray)

The last time we did a post about Mike Nguyen’s feature-length film-in-progress was way back in 2004. Life had gotten in the way of completing the movie in all these years, but now Mike is serious about finishing the personal hand-drawn My Little World and has started a blog and revised his July Films website. He’s also posted a recut trailer (embed below). Mike Nguyen is an incredible animator (Iron Giant) and teacher (Cal Arts) and I personally wish him the best of luck in completing this amazing looking film.

As reported here back in February, here’s the trailer for Disney’s spin-off of Pixar’s Cars – an original direct-to-video movie called Planes:

UPDATE: Disney has removed the trailer from You Tube

Ya’ know, I was just thinking the other day that we don’t feature enough industrial and medical animation here on Cartoon Brew. Then I found this nice little demonstration film depicting a dramatic bite from a bed bug. The animation was created at Meditech Communications by Joel Erkkinen and Brian Michaelin using Maya2012, with compositing in After Effects.