Speaking of Ninja Turtles… My next screening at the Cinefamily/Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood is a tribute to animator Fred Wolf.

Wolf collaborated with Harry Nilsson to create The Point!, with Frank Zappa to produce 200 Motels, and with Peter Yarrow to make Puff The Magic Dragon. He’s the man behind the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series, Marlo Thomas’ TV special Free To Be You And Me, the animated feature The Mouse And His Child, the classic “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” commercial (see below) and won an Oscar for his short The Box. He even animated the iconic opening sequence to The Flintstones! Yours truly (Jerry Beck) will present rare clips from his movies, TV shows, vintage TV commercials, his award winning shorts and will conduct a live on-stage interview with Wolf himself, discussing his career in film and his relationships with his world famous collaborators.

Join me on Tuesday November 3rd at 8pm. Advance tickets available now… the first 100 admissions will receive a free DVD of The Point!, and every admission will receive a free Tootsie Pop! Buy Tickets Here!

This trailer has been out for a while, but I just have to ask: Does anyone in Hollywood have the cajones to tell Zemeckis to just STOP?

Robert Zemeckis has made several of my all-time favorite films, but this motion-capture madness must end. He’s doing Yellow Submarine next. Are any of our readers looking forward to this Christmas Carol? Does anyone think it looks good?

Last week we posted about Asifa-Hollywood’s Iron Giant 10-Year Reunion. It sold out within 24 hours.

Now, a limited number of additional tickets are available for the reunion, because the event has been moved from Woodbury University to the Stephen J. Ross Theater on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank - a much larger venue.

Here’s what you do if you want to attend: send an email to antran@asifa-hollywood.org with the number of guests and your guests’ names. You will then be given further instructions via email on purchasing tickets. Tickets are $10 for ASIFA-Hollywood members and $15 for non-members. Tickets are non-refundable.

The Iron Giant reunion is this Friday, October 23rd, at 7:30pm. Among the many artists expected is writer and director Brad Bird, background artist Anne Guenther, art director Alan Bodner, lead animator Steve Markowski, and artistic coordinator Scott Johnston. The panel will be moderated by animator Tom Sito.

Ticket holders are required to park in the Franklin parking structure, located at 4301 W. Olive Ave, Burbank, which is across the street from the Warner Bros. Studio Lot. At the parking structure, guests will be given an entrance pass, then directed across the street to Gate 2 for entrance onto the studio lot, and then to the theater. You must purchase tickets ahead of time to be included on the guest list, as Warner Bros. studio security requires a list of every person attending. In addition, all guests are required to show a valid government photo ID, in order to be admitted into the parking structure and onto the studio lot.

Due to the large turnout to this event, guests are advised you to arrive no later than 7:00 p.m., to insure that they have enough time to park and get to the theater before the program begins. Seats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information, visit asifa-hollywood.org.

Disney buys Marvel, so it only stands to reason that Nickelodeon would pick up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

But Nick didn’t just buy the old TV shows and movies, they bought the property in its entirety, including the merchandising rights and the ability to make new series and TV shows.

MTV Networks acquired the global rights to the Turtles from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment for roughly $60 million dollars. Nickelodeon plans to develop a new CG-animated TMNT television series to premiere in 2012 and, in partnership with Paramount Pictures, a new Ninja Turtles feature film for 2012.

One of the most popular kids’ television programs of the 1980s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was created in 1984 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as an independent comic book. Note, the current network TMNT animated series now running on CW4Kids Saturday morning will continue to air through Aug. 31, 2010.

Shhhh…. We are having a top secret performance of Cartoon Dump this month. Why top secret? Because the date was shifted around with little to no publicity. So we expect a small turn out this month.

We used to be every fourth Tuesday of each month, but starting in 2010 we are moving to fourth Mondays. As for our remaining dates in 2009: In October, we are on this Wednesday (10/21) at 8pm; In November we perform the fourth Monday (11/23); and in December (our Xmas party) we’ll party on the third Monday, Dec. 21st.

This month, Cartoon Dump stars MST3K’s Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank) and J. Elvis Weinstein (Dr. Erhardt & the original Tom Servo), Erica Doering and special guest star comedian Jay London. It’s Wednesday night 8pm at The Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. Comedy! Songs! Puppets! Magic! And God-awful cartoons from the wasteland of 50s and 60s Saturday morning television! Advanced tickets click here.

I’m not going to post on every oddball piece of merchandising Disney is doing these days - and this one isn’t particularly oddball - but I thought it was worth a note.

The premise of The Princess and the Frog lends itself to new merchandising opportunities within the black community and the company has now reached out to the black-owned Carol’s Daughter to create a new line of limited edition grooming merchandise aimed directly at black consumers. The Magical Beauty Collection, features Princess Tiana Hair Detangler, Bubble Bath, Shampoo and Conditioner products. For more information, the Afrobella blog has posted an interview with Carol’s Daughter president Lisa Price.

(Thanks, Tamu Townsend)

(Thanks, Eric Graf)

I admit it, this one has me stumped. Don Martin, Antonio Prohias, Al Jafee, Mort Drucker and Dave Berg - adapted to animation! How did I miss this? Did it ever air? If so, what network?

It was co-directed by Chris Ishii, Jimmy Murakami and Gordon Bellamy. You can hear Allan Swift and Len Maxwell on the soundtrack. There are some New York animation veterans, such as Johnny Gent and Cosmo Anzilotti, as well as many Hollywood freelancers, including Gerard Baldwin and Bud Luckey, listed in the end credits. Perhaps my friends Mark Kausler and David Brain (who are also credited) can send us some info on this in the comments section below.

It’s been uploaded in three parts. Start here:

UPDATE: MAD’s Maddest Writer, Dick DeBartolo wrote to JJ Sedelmaier about the special. Quote: “We had a copy of that show up in the office, but I haven’t seen it in years. It never aired. That was the pilot. Nobody wanted to sponsor a show that made fun of products that were advertised on TV, like car manufacturers.”

(Thanks, Charles Brubaker)