One person who doesn’t need a plug on Cartoon Brew is Mo Willems. Successful animator turned popular children’s book author, Willems now returns to animation with two new short films based on his books.

This Saturday afternoon at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass. Mo will be premiering two new animated shorts based on his books, produced by Weston Woods: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! - animated by Pete List with Willems voicing the Pigeon and Jon Scieszka as the Bus Driver; and Knuffle Bunny Too - animated by Karen Villarreal with the voices of Willems, his wife and daughter as the family. For more info on this Saturday’s film screening and book signing, go to the museum’s website.

Apparently it’s the season for children’s books by animation artists. A couple weeks ago, we wrote about the new kids’ book by Tom Warburton. This week marks the release of a title that really excites me: Let’s Do Nothing! by animator superstar Tony Fucile. Tony has created a funny animated book trailer that is viewable below, and there’s also an interview with him here (click on “download an article”).

Click here to order the book on Amazon.

Pixar is opening a satellite studio in Vancouver which will be dedicated to producing short subjects. According to a story in The Vancouver Sun, the new studio will not work on Pixar’s feature films, but will make shorts which, general manager Amir Nasrabadi hints, could include TV series.

“First and foremost for us is to concentrate on Pixar legacy characters,” said Nasrabadi, citing Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, and Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars as four of its legacy characters. “We want to keep these well-known and well-liked characters alive without creating a distraction to those working on the full-length motion pictures in California.

“The types of products we produce will be niche products, such as short films, whether they are standalone or episodic in nature,” said Nasrabadi, a 12-year veteran of the digital entertainment business. “They will be helpful to all of Disney’s ancillary businesses, such as television, compilations on DVD, Internet broadcasting, as well as theatres.”

It sounds like the new studio will be producing DVD bonus materials, at least to start with. After that… who knows?

UPDATE: Canadian animation director and historian Mark Mayerson offers his take on Pixar’s new studio. Historically, he writes, “[S]atellite studios tend to stay satellites. Rather than regard the satellites as minor league teams, where talent is developed and then moved up to the majors, the satellites are walled-off as facilities for lower budget work.”

Come October, I know I’ll definitely be adding two new books to my bookshelf:

South of the Border with Disney: Walt Disney and the Good Neighbor Program 1941-1948 by J.B. Kaufman. The topic is fascinating, the historian is impeccably qualified. This should be incredible!

The Duchess of Whimsy is the first time that Ice Age designer and New Yorker cover artist Peter de Sève has created original illustrations for a children’s book. I’ve seen it and can say that this isn’t your average children’s book. Every page is a work of art.

I’ve linked to a number of animated book trailers in recent months, and the trend appears to be growing. In the overcrowded fiction marketplace, these trailers are a smart way of standing out from the pack and allows publishers to turn audiences on to books they may have otherwise not heard about. The latest book trailer I’ve found is for the book White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. The trailer can be seen on the book’s website WhiteisforWitching.com. The spot’s illustrations were created by Jon Klassen and animation/compositing work was done by Julia Pott.

Just published this week from HarperCollins is Mr. Warburton’s first childrens book 1000 Times No.

Warburton (Code Name: Kids Next Door) created a promo for it at curious pictures which is pretty much the whole damn book animated. Enjoy:

I’ve posted the last part of my 2009 animation and cartoon book sale. Rare goodies straight ahead on the book sale page.

I’m continuing the great animation book purge of 2009. Everything I posted earlier today is already sold, but I’ve just posted more cool stuff by Jack Kinney, Eyvind Earle, Ernie Pintoff, Bob Dranko, Chris Jenkyns, Ken Anderson, Charles Schulz, Harvey Kurtzman, Friz Freleng, etc. Help me empty my life by going to the book sale page. Even more stuff coming soon!