A new book written by French academic Antoine Bueno suggests that the Smurfs are racist and spread anti-Semitism.

In Le Petit livre bleu (The Little Blue Book) Bueno tries to demonstrate that their community “is an archetype of a totalitarian utopia, full of Stalinism and Nazism”. He claims racism is clearly evident in the story Black Smurfs where purity of blood is vital – and brown is ugly – and that in The Smurfette the blond Aryan is idealized.

A perfect Memorial Day post… that crazy animator from south of the border, Makinita (aka Andres Silva), has painted the wall of his studio with this insane mural of all his favorite characters. You can click on the above image to see the full mural – and to see each character in detail, watch the 15-minute video below.

Please look at these closely before deciding it’s a good idea to get a Disney image permanently stained onto your body.

(via Trexarms)

Last weekend, Profiles in History in conjunction with Van Eaton Galleries (disclosure: they are an advertiser on Cartoon Brew) staged a massive animation art auction. I’m not a collector, but found it fascinating to browse through the auction results and see what prices the lots commanded as well as what pieces didn’t sell (for example, lots of Fantasia art).

Here’s a sampling of twenty pieces and how much each sold for. The last few prices are staggering.
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Couldn’t let the weekend pass without sharing the latest episode of The Ambiguously Gay Duo from this week’s Saturday Night Live. This episode goes live-action with Steve Carell, Jon Hamm, Jimmy Fallon and Steven Colbert – never has a live action version of a cartoon been so accurate:

(Thanks, Ed Austin)

Dan Adler is a former v-p of creative development at Walt Disney Imagineering. Now he’s running for Congress in California with kooky and borderline inappropriate ads like the ones above and below. His website features endorsements from people who’ll be familiar to the animation community, including former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, retired Imagineering exec Marty Sklar, and Geraldine Laybourne, who launched Nickelodeon’s original animation programming in the early 1990s. Have any Brew readers ever worked with him?

Lest we forget: a tribute to a pioneer.

(Thanks, Matt Enlow and The Birthday Boys)

A College Humor commentary on NBA player LeBron James that shows what would happen if he was in Space Jam instead of Michael Jordan. Probably makes more sense if you follow basketball. It’s an interesting day and age when unsanctioned cartoons using the Looney Tunes characters stay truer to the personalities of the characters than the official product that Warner Bros. is producing.

CREDITS
Director: Matt Pollock
Animation: Mike Parker
VFX: Gloo Studios
Director of Post Production: Michael Schaubach
Post Production Producer: Lacy Wittman
Editor: Drew Nissen
Producer: Creight Desimone