Next week the Woody Woodpecker DVD comes out, the following week the Popeye collection goes on sale.

While we wait, here are two recent vintage commercials that didn’t quite make it as bonus material (courtesy of Larry Tremblay).

Woody at Swiss Chalet:

Popeye goes cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs:

Animation World Magazine has an interview with 99-year-old animation veteran Jack Zander whose career includes stints at studios like Romer Grey, Van Beuren, MGM and Terrytoons, as well as running his own commercial studios Pelican Films and Zander’s Animation Parlour. I saw Zander speak in LA about five years ago and his memory was impressively sharp. In fact, he seems quite sharp in this interview as well, though it would have been a more interesting chat if the interviewer had been more familiar with Zander’s history. As it is, it’s still worth a read.

Last year on the Cartoon Modern blog, I highlighted a couple advertising productions by Zander which have been lost to time. I thought I’d share a few more Zander artifacts. At the top of this post is a late-’50s magazine advertisement for his studio Pelican. Below is a 1962 Pelican-produced ad for Jax Beer designed by Chris Ishii and animated by Emery Hawkins. Click on the image to see a set of stills from the spot. And below that is another one of the Jax commercials. The comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May provided the tracks for the Jax spots.

Brew reader Billie Towser found this old magazine ad on Flickr. (Click on thumbnail at left for an enlarged version).

Long before Cal Arts, there was “The First School in America exclusively devoted to Animated Cartoon Instruction.” No, not in New York or Hollywood… but in Washington DC - the Washington Studios of Animation. I wonder which Disney artist is the instructor. And remember their motto, “If you can draw a circle, we can teach you animated cartooning!”

Stop motion animator/historian, Ken Priebe, thinks he has found the creepiest puppet animation ever:

Greg Lawson, owner of Amsterdam-based animation studio Lawson & Whatshisname, is directing a series of 40 interstitials for the Dutch TV station BNN. The 8-second spots, which depict humorous moments in the lives of three twenty-somethings, are being broadast daily on BNN as well as on the site DennisenDylan.nl. I’m digging the loose feel of the hand-drawn spots, which are designed by Johan Klungel and animated by Lukas Krepel, Dario van Vree and Liaf Lijbers.

An era has ended. Kellogg’s has announced it will no longer market its sugared cereals to children.

Kellogg’s also said it would stop using licensed characters (like Shrek and Spongebob) and branded toys to promote its products, according to today’s New York Times.

Will Toucan Sam (Froot Loops) and Dig ‘em Frog (Smacks) soon go the way of Sugar Pops Pete? Stay Tuned!

I saw this spot during Leno last night. Not sure how long it’s been running (or what studio is responsible), but it put a smile on my face.

It was just a couple weeks ago that I was lamenting on the Cartoon Modern blog the unavailability of the UPA commercials. Today I have some good news to report. I just got word that animation legend Tissa David has contributed her collection of rare UPA-NY TV commercials and original artwork to the Museum of Modern Art’s Film Study Center. David, age 86 and still animating, donated a dozen pristine 16mm and two 35 mm b&w films of TV commercials for products such as Piels Beer, Cheer, Cannon, and Windex.

Also in the donation are original animation production folders for UPA TV commercials (Nescafe, Chrysler, The Danny Thomas Show, Ford Edsel, Grape Nuts and Coca Cola, among others) containing designs, character models, layouts, exposure sheets and hundreds of sequential animation drawings (in rough and cleaned-up versions). The drawings are by both by Grim Natwick, and Tissa David, who was Natwick’s chief assistant for many years. A huge thanks to John Canemaker for orchestrating this donation and helping Ms. David prepare the material for transfer to the museum.