There is a quiet revolution happening in the animation community, and it’s all thanks to the Internet. With the explosion of blogs in the past year, a wide range of difficult-to-find historical material is becoming publicly available for the first time. The availability of this material, which includes artwork, documents, films, and analysis, doesn’t only benefit historians; it also benefits artists in all parts of the world, who now have open access to examples of quality animation. In other words, there’s no longer any excuse for cartoons that look like this. It can be a full-time job keeping track of all the amazing knowledge being posted on blogs nowadays, but here is a brief look at just a few of the gems which have been posted on-line recently:

Kevin Langley posted some gorgeous BG paintings from the MGM shorts RED HOT RIDING HOOD and MOUSE IN MANHATTAN.

Hans Perk has posted the complete animator’s draft to the 1940 Disney short MR. DUCK STEPS OUT.

Jenny Lerew offers a who-animated-what analysis of the “All the Cats Join In” sequence from Disney’s MAKE MINE MUSIC (1946). Thanks belong to historian Michael Barrier who provided the drafts. Also, for easy reference, “All the Cats Join In” can be viewed on-line HERE.

Brandon Vietti, a director on BATMAN at Warner Bros., has written an amazing analysis of the Anthony Mann live-action Western WINCHESTER 73. Brandon does a superb job of breaking down the composition in the film and explaining why he likes particular shot choices. He also does original sketches of the scene compositions to visually describe his points.

Mark Mayerson shares a letter he received in 1976 from Golden Age animator/director Dick Lundy (Disney, Lantz, MGM) wherein Lundy discusses the specifics of his career.

Jaime Weinman writes an appreciation of the minor Chuck Jones character Frisky Puppy and offers two cartoons in their entirety: TWO’S A CROWD and TERRIER-STRICKEN.

Matt Jones has started a Ronald Searle tribute blog.

Oscar Grillo’s “inspiration” blog is at the top of my favorite blogs list right now. He’s posting the mouth-watering works of one incredible artist after another: David Low (whose illustration leads off this post), Florencio Molina Campos, Cal�, Carel Wright, Rudolph Schlichter, Vlado Kristl, the list goes on and on. It’s kind of like the Animation Archive except with the exquisite visual taste of a master animator like Grillo.

From the Cannes Film Festival: The Hollywood Reporter HATES IT and Time Out calls it “even less generally accessible than Waking Life.” This doesn’t bode well for its success.

This is Eddie Fitzgerald, animation artist and director, in a photo taken by me circa 1988 at the Bakshi studio during the production of Tattertown (aka Nickelodeon’s Christmas In Tattertrown). Eddie is one of the nicest, and funniest, guys I know – and one of the best cartoonists in the business. Eddie, who has worked for just about every studio in Hollywood (most notably on Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse, Spumco’s Ren & Stimpy and Warner’s Tiny Toon Adventures), has a well-known laugh – and lots of theories about classic animation, drawing, and life itself. It’s always worth spending time with Uncle Eddie – and now you can grab some of his demented genius everyday! He has started a blog, Uncle Eddie’s Theory Corner, where he will display his funny drawings, make lofty predictions, and even post his witty poetry. A daily visit is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Remember folks, the deadline is tomorrow afternoon to submit your entries for becoming a “guest brewer” on Cartoon Brew. We’ve already received dozens of terrific entries, and it’s going to be mighty difficult choosing our first winner. Submission rules are HERE.

I caught up with Leonard Maltin last week and he told me about two new books he contributed to – and I think you ought to to know about them too.Leonard wrote an introduction (actually “an appreciation”) for Fantagraphics’ new collection of Walt Kelly’s OUR GANG comics. This first volume reprints, in color, Kelly’s comic book work from 1942 and 1943 and is printed on a nice smooth/thick paper stock. Leonard’s appreciation, and an intro by Kelly historian Steve Thompson, really put this early work in perspective – both Kelly’s work for Western Publishing, and Our Gang’s literary history. Kelly wrote and drew these comics shortly after leaving Disney and moving back east, and it’s fun to see his take on Spanky, Buckwheat, Mickey (Robert Blake) and Froggy – especially during the war years, the last days of the MGM shorts series. Oh, and Jeff Smith (of “Bone”) also contributed a great cover.The other book Leonard showed me isn’t available on Amazon.com, Disneyland, nor at your local bookstore. And yet it’s published by Disney Editions and anyone can purchase it – if you know how. Disney Insider Yearbook 2005 is an interesting publication aimed at hard-core Disney buffs. Apparently, the folks who published the now defunct Disney Magazine have rounded up their writers to create a special annual limited-edition book, packed with unique articles on different aspects of Disney history – yesterday, today and tomorrow. Twenty six heavily illustrated articles are featured, including Leslie Iwerks on Pixar, Charles Solomon on the artists behind BAMBI, Paula Sigmond Lowery on the new Walt Disney Family Library currently under construction on San Francisco, Brenda Chapman and Mike Gabriel offer tributes to Joe Grant and Joe Ranft, and Leonard Maltin discussing the Disney Treasures “Rarities” DVD. Other notable contributors to this volume include David R. Smith, Jim Fanning, Brian Sibley, Jeff Kurtti and Tim O’Day.It’s over 170 color glossy pages of material that really adds to your Disney I.Q. There is a softcover version available for $24.95 or a hardcover edition (which comes with a limited edition lithograph and a bonus DVD of stuff) for $49.95. More information, and ordering instructions are located here.

Artist Caleb Johnston has taken a bunch of 19th century public domain illustrations and engravings from the Dover books, and transformed them into a sublime interactive Flash experience at NFCTD.com. Click around on objects to get different pieces of animation and to move forward to new scenes.

Cartoon writer Earl Kress discusses “The best Looney Tune you’ve never seen”, on his blog. The film, a Warner Bros. cartoon he wrote several years ago called LITTLE GO BEEP, is indeed an excellent one. I saw it at an animation festival several years ago and reviewed it on my Cartoon Research website here. Warner’s has several cartoon shorts, fully produced, sitting on the shelf. Let’s hope they make it to DVD in the near future.

On Thursday night, May 25th, the Walt Disney Company will celebrate the 65th anniversay of MY favorite Disney feature, DUMBO, with a two week booking at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. It will be paired with WINNIE THE POOH AND THE HONEY TREE (itself celebrating its 40th anniversay). Animator Eric Goldberg, songwriter Richard Sherman and music historian Miles Kruger will discuss Dumbo on a special panel preceeding the Thursday night screening.

At yesterday’s ASIFA-Hollywood screening we crowned “Miss Krazy Kat” of 2006. The surprise winner, selected by our panel of blue ribbon judges, was Barbara Babbitt (pictured above at center). Mrs. Babbitt (widow of animator Art Babbitt) recieved a jewel encrusted tiara and sash, as well as a lifetime supply of 9 Lives Cat Food. Pictured above is M.C. Jerry Beck (left) and last year’s winner, Marea Boylan (at right). In attendance at the ceremony were such animation luminaries as Milton Knight, Joe Dante, Milt Gray, Bob Jaques, Greg Ford, Mark Kausler, Joe Adamson, Mike Kazaleh and Will Ryan. Michael Schlesinger of Sony Pictures sanctified the event.(Thanks to Art Binninger for the photo)

Here’s a Sunday morning treat. Steve Worth at ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive has posted a beautiful set of eight TERRYTOON lobby cards for all to see.

The Great American Ink animation gallery in Brentwood, CA has commissioned animation artist and director Toby Bluth (brother of Don) to create paintings based on Max Fleischer’s Betty Boop and Popeye. The Boop-Oop-A-Doop Collection will be unveiled with an artists reception on June 8th at 6:30pm. It’s an interesting mix of styles (Toby’s lush watercolor late-1930s feel combined with the grittier early-30s Fleischer). Not all the pieces are displayed online, so a trip to the gallery is worth it. (And they have some killer original pieces from Warner Bros. and Disney.)

Heads up! Nancy Beiman says:

This one’s a must have. I was one of the reviewers on Tony’s proposal and he covers nearly EVERYTHING. The book also includes a copy of ENDANGERED SPECIES, Tony’s new film which features a cameo voice by none other than Roy Disney Jr.!

Tony White’s new book ANIMATION From Pencil to Pixels seems to cover everything required to conceive, produce, direct, animate, assemble, and distribute an animated film. And if Beiman says it’s good… it must be!

We’ve had some crazy ideas before here at Cartoon Brew, but this one may top them all. We’re having a contest to find a Guest Brewer, somebody who will blog right alongside the Brewmasters – Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi. Anybody can enter – animators, fans, directors, historians, board artists, executives – if you like the Brew and feel you have something interesting to say, we want to hear from you. The winner will receive a two-week gig on the Brew. Now here’s where it gets interesting. At the end of two weeks, the entire Cartoon Brew readership will get to vote on whether the Guest Brewer can continue blogging or not. If so, our Guest Brewer gets another two-week term, if not, we introduce the next Guest Brewer.

Why are we doing this? Because while we both love discussing the art and craft of animation, we know that we’re not the only passionate voices out there. By doing this, we hope to encourage new voices in the animation blogging community and bring to light different points of view about the art form. Plus, we think it can be a lot of fun. If you’re interested, simply send an email to cartoonbrewer [at] yahoo.com. Tell us (briefly) why you should be our Guest Brewer. Tell us your areas of expertise and give a sense of the topics you’ll be writing about. This is such an untested idea that we don’t quite know how we’ll be judging this yet. We simply want to hear from passionate voices in the community and give them exposure on the Brew. Convince us that you’re going to be the best Brewer. Entries will be accepted until noon on Thursday, May 25. We’ll announce a winner here on Friday, May 26.