John Canemaker tells us of a search for a 3-D Computer Animation Teacher at NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Tisch School of the Arts Kanbar Institute of Film & Television:
The Department of Undergraduate Film & Television seeks to fill a full-time faculty position in 3D computer animation for the 2005/2006 academic year. Position is available at the junior or senior level – tenure track or on a one-year visiting basis for a senior faculty applicant or for a professional in the industry.Qualifications: 3-D computer animator with solid professional experience, preferably in features, television and/or commercial production; an in-depth knowledge of MAYA is a must and a working knowledge of a range of 2-D and 3-D computer animation software and applications as well as solid teaching experience at the university level. Applicants must know the animation process from storyboard to post-production in traditional and computer animation and multimedia.Duties include teaching five undergraduate-level courses per year, student advisement, and participation in departmental and school-wide committees. On-going professional work while teaching is encouraged and expected.Salary to be negotiated & excellent benefits package. Please send letter stating your qualifications, curriculum vitae, and list of 3 references by December 15, 2004 to: Undergraduate Film & Television Search Committee, Attn: Wendy Kaplan, Administrative Director, Kanbar Institute of Film & Television, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, 721 Broadway, Room 1102, New York, NY 10003 (fax 212/995-4062, wendy.kaplan@nyu.edu)
Finalists will be asked to submit creative portfolio. NYU encourages applications from women and minorities.
Mo-CrapThis isn’t so much a review than it is a rant.I saw THE POLAR EXPRESS today, and my immediate take is: It’s awful. The INCREDIBLES is so much better a film in every way, I can’t wait to see it a third time. It’s like a new song that get’s stuck in your head and you just have to hear it again.Not so THE POLAR EXPRESS. It never grabbed me. I waited. I gave it chance. But I just couldn’t get past those fake looking “people”: the kids, the conductor, the elves. It’s funny, all the artificial enviroments – props, the train – all of that looked photo real. All of the things that were real (the mo-cap actors) looked fake.As I was watching the film, I kept thinking about how this could have worked for me – and I came up with two solutions. The first, I would’ve placed real actors in a CG world (ala SKY CAPTAIN). It might’ve been a truly breathtaking adventure that way. My other idea would have been to have the opening five minutes and closing five minutes shot on real sets with real actors, in live action. The real boy goes to sleep at the begining and wakes up at the end. The film is his dream – they say so several times in the film, as is. The CG/mo-cap would’ve worked for me as a visualization of a dream.Some people won’t have a problem with this film. People in my audience, when it was over, were talking about how much they loved it. I may be in the minority here – but I thought the whole thing was a waste of major talent. Tom Hanks is a great actor, Zemeckis has made many films I really admire, Sony Imageworks can do amazing work – but this is an experiment gone terribly wrong. Don’t waste your time.
The man who talked for “the talking magpies” has passed away. Comedian and comic actor Dayton Allen has died. He was a mainstay at the Terrytoons studio who, in addition to Heckle & Jeckle, voiced Astronut, James Hound, Lariat Sam and my favorite of his, Deputy Dawg. He also voiced Professor Weirdo, Fearless Fly and Flukey Luke on The Milton The Monster Show for Hal Seegar. Mark Evanier has a fuller 
With those 99¢ Store dvds of Van Beuren’s TOM & JERRY flying off the shelves, interest in this early talkie cartoon duo has never been higher. To the rescue come David Gerstein and Pietro Shakarian with a brand new website devoted to the underappreciated rubber-hose pair.Hosted by Cartoon Research.com, this new 
Mike Mallory dropped us this note:
Brew readers who live in the New York metropolitan area, may want to attend this special classic cartoon screening next Monday night.The Academy Theater at Lighthouse International is screening a weekly showcase of Oscar nominated films entitled, “MONDAY NIGHTS WITH OSCAR”. This Monday, the screening will be focused on cartoons that either won or have been nominated for the Academy Award, in a program entitled 