Japanese robot maker Vstone Corporation has just released its latest consumer product: Tetsu-jin 28 (aka Ironman 28 – or Gigantor™, as it’s known as in the U.S.). Based on the Japanese manga and classic anime series, the remote-controled robot – which is 15 inches high and weighs 5.5 pounds – comes as a kit you have to build yourself. If you construct it correctly, its arms and legs should move smoothly and it will walk around like a human being. But no, it doesn’t fly. The price is in the ballpark of $3 thousand dollars. For specs (in Japanese), to order one, or just to look at the box art, go here.(Thanks, Edwin Austin)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’s annual Marc Davis Lecture will be presented on Friday, April 21st. In a year that saw two stop motion films made in Britain nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar, it seems appropriate that the spotlight be cast on London’s most notorious stop motion artists. The Brothers Quay, in their first-ever speaking engagement in the United States, will discuss their work and screen clips from their unique, film noir-esque animations. This is a rare opportunity to meet and greet these two incredible filmmakers. Admission is only $5. For more details, visit the Academy’s website.

Get ready to hurl.With billboards and bus posters for ICE AGE 2 (opening today), THE WILD (4/14) and OVER THE HEDGE (5/19) plastering the city, I’m reminded that this could be the year of Hollywood’s rude awakening (re: computer animated features). Hey, I’m an optimist. I don’t want these films to fail. My hope is for animators to remain employed, to make great movies. But then I see something like THIS.Hollywood will get what what it deserves. And it can’t come too soon for me.

Just a brief update on the status of ANIMATION BLAST #9: I’m almost done with the issue and planning to send it to the Canadian printer in the next couple weeks. It should definitely be out by the end of April. A huge thanks to everybody for their patience.

Here’s something I had to cut from the issue this week. It’s a DePatie-Freleng era thumbnail board by one of the issue’s featured artists, John Dunn (1920-1983). I have no idea whether it was for production (unlikely) or just a personal idea. I also don’t know if there’s more to the board; these three pages are all that exist at the moment. There’s a bitter undercurrent in a lot of Dunn’s humor, and it comes through rather strongly in these boards.

(click on images for larger versions)

Film buff John McElwee posted another great entry on his blog about old cartoons. This time offering some perspectives on Fleischer’s Color Classics series. McElwee acquired a 1937 booking ledger from a rural North Carolina theatre, allowing him to compare actual rental prices for Paramount shorts against RKO (Disney Silly Symphonies) and MGM (Happy Harmonies) cartoons. This is great information.

“…a Silly Symphony through UA, Woodland Café, was $5.00 flat, while a later Donald Duck (Self-Control) through RKO got $5.25. Paramount took only $2.00 for a December 1937 booking of Christmas Comes But Once A Year, but that Fleischer Color Classic was by then an oldie, having come out the previous December, so terms were a little more favorable for this run. Otherwise, this theatre doesn’t appear to have used the Color Classics, although they did book heavily on the Popeyes (I Like Babies and Infinks cost $4.86). The best money for cartoons from this venue seems to have been collected by MGM, whose Bosko and The Pirates got $6.65, while Bosko’s subsequent encounter with the Cannibals netted $6.95 for the Metro exchange. Just a lot of numbers for long-ago, and long forgotten, bookings — but they give us some insight into the selling end of the cartoon business, at a time when such nickels-and-dimes as these kept small showmen, and big studios, afloat.”

(Thanks, Mark Mayerson)

It’s back! Randy Haberkamps’s great series of Monday night screenings at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Great To Be Nominated (Part 3), resumes in April. Every Monday night starting April 10th, the Academy screens a Best Picture nominee from each year, along with nominated live action and animated short subjects, newsreels, outtakes and special in-person guests. The prints (including the cartoon titles pictured above) are the best ones available (usually studio vault prints), and the Academy’s Goldwyn Theatre is state-of-the-art. For a complete list of films, the schedule and directions, go to the Academy website for details. A pass for the entire 2006 series – 20 evenings – is $30. Tickets for individual evenings are $5 a piece. What a bargain!

UMB is a graduate film created by Israeli animation/broadcast design student Liron Damir at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. The film is set to the song “Flugufrelsarinn” by the Icelandic group Sigur Rós, and it does a commendable job of capturing the otherworldly vibe of the band’s music.
(via hydrocephalic bunny)

Maybe it’s me – or maybe I’m just nostalgic for an old fashioned hand drawn animated feature – but this Asterix and the Vikings looks pretty darn good. I’m really anxious to see it.We’ve mentioned this flick before. It has no planned U.S. distribution, despite a great English voice cast which includes Paul Giamatti (as Asterix), Brad Garrett (as Obelix), Sean Astin, Evan Rachel Wood and John (“Bender”) DiMaggio. A FILM in Denmark produced the animation, which looks great (see the teaser trailer on the official site). It opens over the next few months in Europe. I’m rooting for an American pick-up.

My friend Wayne Daigrepont has a cell phone and just found out he had Toonworld TV Classics. Here’s his email to me:

So here’s my cell phone, right?? It only has 5,000 gadgets I don’t know about yet. In my fiddling-faddling with it….I find I can (and do) get “tv” (images only in increments of “stills”)….It is via Sprint, and it is a download called MobiTV. The Channel is 28 (ToonWorld TV). They play such non-stop (& non-interrupted) toons as Roger Ramjet (!), all Harveytoons! (theatrical Caspers, Baby Huey, Herman & Katnip, etc.) & “The Dick Tracy Show,” (yes…. with allllll those “politically incorrect” characters”). The fee is $10 a month….and its image is pristine!!

Toonworld TV Classics launched in 2003 and mainly broadcasts public domain Popeye, Superman, Betty Boop, Gumby and The Three Stooges shorts. They have also partnered with Classic Media to show Mister Magoo TV cartoons and Rankin Bass holiday specials. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

Holy Animated Sound Effects! As a child of the 1960s, I was a huge fan of the 1966 BATMAN TV show. So I have to say I’m delighted with the uber-geekiness of this Argentinian website devoted to Adam West and the series. My favorite page here is a complete index to the animated sound effects that would cover every fight scene. There are also alphabetic and episode numeric indexes to where each sound effect was shown.