Author Archives: Jerry Beck

“Duck-ticks and Catapults” by Almir Correia

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Think American TV animation is bad? What if you tried to sell a series about ticks with duck beaks, who catapult their way around the universe? Even Cartoon Network would reject that one.

Not so in Brazil. I don’t know what they are drinking down there, but the most ridiculous concept to emerge from last week’s MIPCOM (the annual international television marketplace in Cannes) is something called Duck-ticks and Catapults. Thirteen episodes are being produced by studio Zoom Elefante for AnimaTV (here’s the pilot in Portuguese). Almir Correia is the creator, writer and director.

Mike Myers as Pepe LePew

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It’s one thing to destroy Yogi Bear. It’s quite another to violate Pepe LePew. New York Magazine is reporting that Warner Bros. is developing a live action feature film with a CGI Pepe, like the Garfield movies. If that’s not enough to make you ill, they are passing over former Pepe thespians Joe Alaskey and Maurice LaMarche to let Mike Myers (The Cat In the Hat, Shrek) voice the skunk. Confidentially, this stinks!

I wonder what our readers think?

Winky Dink

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The early television kids show, Winky Dink (CBS, 1953-57), was less an animated cartoon and more a two-dimensional puppet show (Mae Questel provides Winky’s voice live in the studio). A photoblog called Showbiz Imagery and Chicanery has just posted several great photographs taken on set of host Jack Barry and of kids demonstrating the draw-on-screen process that made the show so famous. It was a bit before my time, but no less interesting as a early interactive television experiment. These newly discovered photos are fascinating flashback to one of TV’s earliest kid’s shows.

For the record, Fred Calvert and Al Kouzel supervised a cheap, Tom Terrific-derivative, animated version in 1969, about which, the less said the better.

(Thanks, Devlin Thompson)

TUESDAY NIGHT in LA: “Cartoon Monster Mash!”

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This month my Animation Tuesdays screening at the Cinefamily/Silent Movie Theater is our third annual Halloween Spooktacular show. (Jeez, have I been doing these for three years already?) This year we have a double-bill, a “Cartoon Monster Mash”, if you will. First up, our pals Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero from Screen Novelties are presenting a selection of classic horror-toons that have inspired their marvelous stop motion monstrosities. I will be supplementing the show with a few hideous new finds of my own.

Then, in the second half of the program, we’ll the screening of a 35mm studio print of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 35mm (Thanks, Disney). Released exactly 61 years ago (on Oct. 5th 1949), Toad and Sleepy Hollow are two of my favorite Disney short films and, for me, mark a bittersweet end of an era. And of course, its a perfect way to usher in the Halloween season. Trick or treat? Check out the trailer below and you decide. Hope to see you there at 8pm.

Weekend Brew Reviews

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While waiting for the ultimate video presentation of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to come out this week on Blu-Ray, I’ve just caught up with Charles Solomon’s somewhat-recently released book Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and The Beast. Solomon relates the entire fascinating behind-the-scenes story of how this landmark film got made, through its box-office and industry success, to its re-release in Imax (with additional footage) and right up to the forthcoming 3-D version. He begins with a history of the original 1757 story itself, and its subsequent film and TV adaptations. He then devotes a chapter to the 1980s Disney animation re-birth and the early Michael Eisner era. Through interviews with key personnel we get an insider look at how the pieces came together to create this modern Disney classic. Of course, being a Disney book, it is lavishly illustrated with pre-vis materials, cast and crew photos, and loads of production art. Definitely worth a spot on your bookshelf.

Insight Editions sent me a copy of their latest Dreamworks tie-in book, The Art of Megamind (by Richard von Busack). I haven’t seen Megamind yet, but the book and the production art herein is very cool. Say what you will about their films, you cannot deny the artists at Dreamworks Animation and PDI are some of the best in the field — and these “Art Of” books are a godsend to those of us who appreciate the hand drawn artistry that never makes it to screen. Sketches, paintings, boards and much more from names you should know like Tony Siruno, Craig Kellman, Andy Bialk, Kory Heinzen and Tim Lamb (and many others) fill the pages.

Had a chance this weekend to finally check out the 5th box set of The Animation Show of Shows and had a wonderful time doing so. This set (previous sets reviewed here and here) contains 18 award winning shorts, on six separate DVDs, Volumes 25-30 (3 shorts per disc). All completely different (in tone, technique and subject matter), in perfect presentations, the best possible way to preserve these contemporary classics. The CG stop-mo Madame Tutli-Putli (Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski), clay-animated Oscar winner Harvie Crumpet (Adam Elliot), and hand drawn Your Face (Bill Plympton) exemplify the wide range of material offered here. Recommended for your video library. For complete contents and ordering information, visit filmporium.com.

Rhode Montijo, a co-creator of Happy Tree Friends, has gone on in recent years to a successful career as a children’s book writer and illustrator. He sent me two of his books and they are an absolute joy. Cloud Boy, which came out in 2006, is a gentle minimalist classic about a lonely cloud with a big imagination. His latest book has just come out, The Halloween Kid, about a heroic masked avenger who protects kids candy on Halloween eve. If this were ever animated it would become a Halloween classic — as it is, its a perfect storybook for the little ones to read after a night of candy gathering… and beautiful to look at for anyone, of any age.

“Sintel” by Colin Levy

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Sintel is an independently produced short film, initiated by the Amsterdam-based Blender Foundation, directed by Savannah College of Art and Design Student, Colin Levy. It is the third film produced by the foundation–the first two were Elephants Dream (2006) and Big Buck Bunny (2008).

With initial funding provided by thousands of donations via the internet, this fifteen minute film was produced in the studio of the Amsterdam Blender Institute, by an international team of artists and developers. Blender funds these films primarily to advance their software and improve their technology. For a small team with limited funds, I think this short is quite an accomplishment. For more behind-the-scenes information, check the Sintel production blog. But first, here’s the finished film:

(Thanks, Alex Curtis)

Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh present the Oscar to Bugs Bunny

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The Academy just posted (as a tribute to Tony Curtis) a clip from the 1959 Oscar telcast with Curtis (and wife Janet Leigh) presenting the Best Cartoon Short award to producer John Burton for the Bugs Bunny short, Knighty Knight Bugs. Click here to see the video. And I believe that’s James Algar accepting for Walt Disney (for live action short, Grand Canyon).

(Thanks, Ed Himel)