Today’s 22nd episode of Cartoon Brew TV is a special one as we present an exclusive preview of Disney’s return to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog. This behind-the-scenes clip, courtesy of The Walt Disney Company, discusses the villain of the film, Dr. Facilier. The piece, entitled “Conjuring the Villain,” includes comments from supervising animator Bruce Smith and voice actor Keith David about their work on the character. Click over to Cartoon Brew TV to catch an early look at Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.

A few months ago I shared my thoughts about the student screening at the School of Visual Arts, and in there I noted that Rebecca Sugar’s Singles was one of the highlights of SVA’s graduating class. Today we’re delighted to present the online debut of her film on Cartoon Brew TV. Frankly, I have no idea how anybody manages to become so adept at drawing and animation by the time they’re 22, but Rebecca’s done it, and the beneficiaries of her hard work are my eyeballs and yours. Click over to Cartoon Brew TV and watch her film Singles.

When I saw this short last month at the student film screening for the School of Visual Arts, I instantly knew it was something that we had to put on Cartoon Brew TV. To be perfectly honest, part of the reason was pure selfishness. It’s because I wanted to watch the film again…and again…and again. Jake Armstrong’s The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! is not only one of the best student shorts I’ve seen in a long time, it’s one of the finest animated shorts, period.

From the opening scene with its striking blood-red color styling, you know you’re watching a short of uncommon quality. The personality animation in this film is superb, and the physical movement of the alien is Mars and Beyond worthy. The use of cutting and camera shows a confident filmmaker at work. The visual style is refreshingly different and a treat for the eyes. Where the film really shines though is in its storytelling; the humor isn’t gag driven, but rather evolves organically from the interactions between the two main characters. This is a cartoon that is sophisticated in all respects, yet done so expertly that the end results appear effortless.

I could praise this film till the cows come home, but the best thing I can do is to invite you to watch The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! exclusively on Cartoon Brew TV.

Thank you to Warner Bros. who has sponsored our site for the past couple weeks. They are promoting The Jetsons Season 2 Volume 1 dvd. The company continues to be ambitious in making available the library of cartoons it owns. Recent releases include the Fleischer’s Superman shorts, Chuck Jones’s Tom & Jerry shorts, and a couple sets of Saturday morning cartoons from the Sixties and Seventies. For info about all of their video releases, visit the Warner Home Video website.

Cartoon Brew TV returns later this week with the exclusive online premiere of an animated short. We’re going to be presenting new films and other goodies throughout the year on Brew TV, but unlike the first season, we won’t be doing it on a weekly basis. Instead, we’ll serve up new episodes only when we have something really cool to show.

In anticipation of the new Brew TV episodes, we thought it’d be fun to revisit the top five most-viewed episodes from our inaugural season. Click on the title of any film to watch:

5. Like Me, Only Better by Martin Pickles

4. The Story of One-Eyed Ophelia Jackson by Kat Morris

3. The Pumpkin of Nyefar by Tod Polson and Mark Oftedal

2. BREW VAULTS: Superman’s Secret Cartoon History

And by a long-shot, the #1 most viewed episode from our first season was:
Doxology by Michael Langan

We wanted to take a quick timeout to thank Cartoon Brew’s sponsors from the last couple months. The support of these companies allows us to devote a greater amount of our time to the site, as well as to add new features like Cartoon Brew TV and Guest Brewers, both of which will continue to expand in the coming months.

We work hard to find sponsors who offer relevant products and services to our readership. Unlike most other animation media, we are editorially independent and these companies respect our independence. That’s why we’re so pleased to have these companies advertising on the Brew, and we encourage you to learn more about them by clicking on their ads or on the links below:

Animation Mentor is an online animation school founded by industry animators. Their current roster of teachers includes artists working at Pixar, Sony, DreamWorks and Disney. The school’s eighteen-month program has a well-defined curriculum focused on teaching animation and character performance, and preparing students for careers as CG character animators. Check out some of the recent student work in their student showcases.

LA-based Gallery Nucleus chose to promote their art show for the “Ancient Book of Sex and Science,” but they’ve got excellent art exhibitions year round, not to mention an awesome store.

CTN Animation Expo is a major animation event coming to Burbank in November.

Schoolism offers online storyboarding, caricature and design courses taught by leading industry professionals

Animation legend Don Bluth is promoting a special two-disc DVD edition of Banjo the Woodpile Cat, which Jerry reviewed earlier on Cartoon Brew.

The Labyrinth is Toronto’s source for comic, illustration and animation books.

The Guys is a quirky online animated series from Finland in which the characters are animated over user-submitted home videos.

If you’d like to advertise on Cartoon Brew, especially any San Diego Comic-Con related products, please visit our ad rep Reachout Media.

Last weekend marked the 5th anniversary of the Cartoon Brew blog. I thought it might be fun to celebrate by looking at who’s reading the blog nowadays, especially since we’ve been experiencing record-breaking site traffic since the beginning of the year. After examining the reports on Google Analytics (something which I’d never bothered to do in-depth before), I learned that the majority of visits to Cartoon Brew come through Internet service providers, which means that we have no idea of the company or educational affiliations of those readers. However, a not-insignificant percentage of readers visit from their jobs or schools and this is the data we’ll be looking at today.

In the period between January 1st and March 15, the top private corporate network that we received visitors from was Pixar, followed closely by DreamWorks, Disney, Viacom (Nickelodeon), Blue Sky, Turner (Cartoon Network), Laika and Electronic Arts. As far as schools go, the biggest traffic came from CalArts folllowed by Savannah College of Art and Design, School of Visual Arts, Ringling and Sheridan. In this two-and-a-half month period, Pixar employees snagged the top spot by logging over 3,700 visits. Averaged out to a daily figure, it amounts to quite a few readers emanating from just one company.

Some other surprises: There are a lot more readers at videogame companies than I knew we had. There are also lots of colleges and universities on the list that don’t have well-known animation programs, but apparently have significant numbers of students who are interested in animation. The amount of traffic we receive from people working at the cable channel Starz Encore is also perplexing. I have no idea why we’re so popular over there.

The list of the top 86 private networks driving traffic to the Brew can be seen after the jump. To keep it manageable, I’ve limited the survey to only companies/schools that have logged 100 or more visits between January and March. (Note: I took the info straight from an Analytics report so I apologize that the network names are uncapitalized.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Whether your company is big or small, if you want to advertise on Cartoon Brew, there’s now an easy and efficient way to do so. Beginning today, all advertising on Cartoon Brew will be handled exclusively by the Reachout ad network. We’re especially proud to make this announcement because Reachout is an initiative of Cartoon Brew. Even better, we’ve partnered up with some amazing blogs to build an ad network from the ground-up that is geared towards our needs. It is the largest network of its kind, capable of delivering millions of ad impressions a month throughout animation, illustration, CG and film blogs.

The initial roster of sites represented by the Reachout network are blogs that we not only respect but that we’re fans of and read regularly. In addition to Cartoon Brew, Reachout now sells advertising for the following sites:

ArtoftheTitle.com
Booooooom.com
Drawn.ca
Motionographer.com
SubmarineChannel.com
TrailersFromHell.com
TwitchFilm.net

So what does this mean to the average Cartoon Brew reader? Perhaps not much except for the simple fact that we’re going to be able to continue doing what we’re doing. Cartoon Brew will remain free as always, and we will continue to expand and add new features like Brew TV. Hopefully the ads that we run on this site will enhance your experience and introduce you to interesting and relevant products. If you enjoy Cartoon Brew, the most effective way of showing your support is to click on the ads every once in a while and learn about what our advertisers have to offer. Who knows, you may just find something that you want or need.

And if you’re a company looking to reach creative people, and people who appreciate creativity in all its many forms, look no further than Reachout. To learn more about advertising on Cartoon Brew or any of the sites listed above, please visit ReachoutMedia.com. Our sales team looks forward to working with you.

Now for a couple shout-outs. First, to our webguru Rob Kohr whose tech expertise never fails us. He has been instrumental in getting the backend of the ad network up and running, as well as designing the Reachout site. Second shout-out goes to Scotty Reifsnyder who created our lovely Reachout header illo. Check out more of Scotty’s work at SeeScotty.com.