Only on Cartoon Brew do you get scoops like this:

Just in time for Passover: Brew reader Afonso Bruno snapped this pic of the new rodent-head shaped ham slices now available in Paris supermarkets. It’s right up there with our previous posts on Disney food tie-ins like Aristo-Cats Cat Food, Old Yeller Dog Food and Mickey Mouse Liver Paste.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the title Tangled isn’t the only thing being changed about Disney’s production of Rapunzel - it’s repositioning the film to attract a male audience.

From the article:

The makeover of “Rapunzel” is more than cosmetic. Disney can ill afford a moniker that alienates half the potential audience, young boys, who are needed to make an expensive family film a success.

Concluding it had too many animated girl flicks in its lineup, Disney has shelved its long-gestating project “The Snow Queen,” based on the Hans Christian Andersen story. “Snow Queen” would have marked the company’s fourth animated film with a female protagonist, following “The Princess and the Frog,” “Tangled” and Pixar’s forthcoming “The Bear and the Bow,” directed by Pixar’s first female director, Brenda Chapman, and starring Reese Witherspoon.

Since the release of its first movie, “Toy Story,” in 1995, Pixar has uniformly featured male leads in its films, including Buzz and Woody; Mr. Incredible, the middle-aged superhero in “The Incredibles”; and Lightning McQueen, the stock-car star of “Cars.”

Disney’s Tangled open on December 10th, 2010. Below is the latest teaser:

This homage to Disney’s Alice in Wonderland is one of the nicest cartoon tattoos I’ve ever seen. A larger version of the pic above can be found HERE. The artist Holly Azzara has a post on her blog about the process of creating the tattoo. I’d like to see Disney’s legal team try to get rid of this example of “copyright infringement.”

The Getty Conservation Institute and Disney’s Animation Research Library (ARL) division are partnering to study why the plastic in certain cels deteriorates more quickly than others and to find ways of slowing down the deterioration process. The study is expected to take three years to complete. Like the Tim Burton exhibit currently at MoMA, this is another encouraging example of animation artwork receiving serious consideration from an art institute. According to the LA Times which broke the story:

The Getty said the initial phase of research will involve an assessment of the best methods for the identification of the actual plastics used in the cels, and for monitoring the condition of cels made with cellulose nitrate and acetate. Scientists at the Getty will also examine the physical and thermal properties of the plastics. The new collaboration is part of the Getty’s “Preservation of Plastics” project that was initiated to study signs of deterioration in plastic objects in museum collections.

Another take-away from the article is that Disney’s ARL houses 65 million pieces of Disney art. Granted, the drawings and cels add up quickly in animation, but wow, that’s still a whole lot of artwork!

(Thanks, Alexander Rannie)

There’s something special going on in Hollywood this weekend, especially if you love classic Disney music as much as I do. Disney’s Howard Green just informed me that songwriter Richard M. Sherman is doing a special show this Friday and Saturday at the El Capitan Theater. Sherman, the Oscar winning composer of Mary Poppins and more than 150 songs heard in Disney films and theme parks, will make a rare personal stage appearance, singing and telling the stories behind his songs, in what is being billed as A Supercalifragilistic Evening with Richard M. Sherman.

The second half of the program will include additional performers (”including wacky Joanne Worley”) joining in on songs from Richard’s latest show, Pazzazz, co-written with Magic Castle founder, Milt Larsen. The show will be performed on Friday, February 26 at 7 p.m., and Saturday February 27 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the El Capitan Theatre Box Office (6838 Hollywood Blvd.) or by calling 1-818-845-3110.

Don Hahn’s documentary on the Disney Animation renaissance of the 1990s is opening on March 26th in LA, NY, San Francisco and Chicago. I’m looking forward to seeing it. Here’s the trailer:

Well, it’s official. Disney’s Rapunzel has been renamed Tangled. *sigh* Not as bad a title as The Emperor’s New Groove, but still…

They obviously want to make it very clear that this isn’t a traditional re-telling of Rapunzel. In fact, according to Tangled’s producer Roy Conli on Facebook, “It’s a really fresh, smart take on the Rapunzel story.”

“In our film, the infamous bandit Flynn Rider meets his match in the girl with the 70 feet of magical golden hair. We’re having a lot of fun pairing Flynn, who’s seen it all, with Rapunzel, who’s been locked away in a tower for 18 years.

“I’m so proud of the crew working on this film – they’re doing a fantastic job creating an awesome story with great characters and a stunning world – and it’s all going to look amazing in 3D. All of us here at the studio are incredibly excited for you to see Tangled when it comes out in theaters this November.”

(Thanks, Edward Himmel)

Disney artists recently designed five Disney-themed string basses for a charity auction. The pieces look pretty slick. They’ll be displayed around the US before they’re auctioned this summer as a benefit for the Grammy In The Schools music education program. Photos of all of them can be seen in this article at BlogDowntown.com.

(Thanks, Erik Wiese)