For the second year in a row, Cartoon Brew is giving away two full festival passes to the Ottawa International Animation Festival (September 20-24) courtesy of the fine folks up at the Ottawa fest. This is North America’s biggest, and quite frankly, only major animation festival. It’s THE place to get connected with animation artists and other people who love the animation medium. This year promises to be extra special since it’s the festival’s 30th anniversary. And, of course, both Brewmasters – Jerry and Amid – will be hanging around the festival as well.

Each pass we’re giving away is valued at $200 (Canadian) and includes:

* Access to all OIAF screenings and workshops
* Access to the OIAF picnic
* Access to all parties
* OIAF Program Book
* Personal hug from the festival’s artistic director Chris Robinson

Ok, we made up that last perk, but you get everything else. To enter just send us a drawing that tells us why you deserve to go to the festival. Creativity, originality and draftsmanship count. The deadline to enter is by the end of this Sunday, August 27. Email your drawings to amid (at) animationblast (dot) com and jbeck6540 (at) aol (dot) com. Here are last year’s winners.

Disney story artist Mark Kennedy has been posting a wonderfully informative series of thoughts about design and drawing on his blog Temple of the Seven Golden Camels. There’s five entries so far and each one is well worth your time.

Large front page story in the Sunday Calendar Section of the L.A. Times today on animation writers – particularly feature animation writers – and their desire to get residuals like their live-action counterparts.

My latest Flickr set is comprised of photos from the collection of animation legend Ray Aragon. The photos were taken in June and July 1958 at Disney. Most of the artists in these pics worked in the layout and background departments at Disney; at the time they were completing work on SLEEPING BEAUTY and beginning production on 101 DALMATIANS. These photos also appear in ANIMATION BLAST #9. Speaking of which, the issues have just arrived! I’ll have an update posted soon about that.

I’m way overdue in mentioning this traditional hand drawn adult feature now in production at IDT Film Roman in Burbank.I was visiting some friends on The Simpsons yesterday and wound up checking out some of the pre-production art for the Rob Zombie animated feature The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto. There’s no doubt in my mind that this, at worst, will become a cult classic — and at best, it just might inspire other traditional animators to produce something equally innovative, commercially atractive and as artistically satisfying as this.Based on a Zombie-authored comic book from a few years back, the film is an R-rated action-comedy cartoon about a retired Luchador and his sexy secret agent sister and their battle against an evil super villian, his zombies and… oh yes… Hitler’s head in a jar. It’s loaded with female nudity and lots of gratuitous bloodshed… and it looks hilarious. Laugh out loud funny. It’s got funny drawings and an all-star voice cast (Paul Giamatti is Dr. Satan, pictured above) — it looks a lot better than it has any right to be.Mr. Lawrence (Spongebob Squarepants) is the director on the project and Rob Zombie himself has a hands-on creative role as co-writer and executive producer. Bob Jaques (Ren & Stimpy) is involved with the timing. The film was originally a direct-to-video project but it’s turning out so well that a theatrical release is being planned. I’ll try have more info on this film as the production continues on – it’ll certainly be one to keep your eye on for next year.

If you’re in Edinburgh, Scotland anytime in the next week, you may want to check out a play called MICKEY MOUSE IS DEAD writen by Jessi D. Hill. Here’s the description:

A searing look into friendship, national identity and the politics of paranoia, the Happiest Place on Earth will never be the same.

Hollywood, 1952. Are the Communists coming? Senator McCarthy hunts Reds, the Rosenbergs are doomed to die, and Walt Disney spies for the FBI. Harris and Finch, scriptwriters at the Disney Studio, are plotting to unionize. Walt’s just been called to name names. How much does he know about them? Can Grace, Finch’s trust-fund girlfriend, penetrate Walt’s private playground? How far will Walt go to save Mickey Mouse from becoming a Commie Yid?

After reading reviews of the play, the first thing I noticed is that it’s about two Disney scriptwriters who write animated shorts. Notice a problem with that? Scriptwriters didn’t write shorts at Disney, story artists did. Also, in this play, the writers are trying to unionize in the early-1950s, which makes no sense because at the time Disney artists had already been unionized for over a decade. I understand that it’s a piece of fiction, but if the playwright hasn’t even made the effort to create a semi-believable set-up, it makes one seriously question the rest of the production. For my money, a play about the actual Disney strike of ’41, and the tensions between artists on the picketline and those who remained inside, would make a far more riveting and interesting production. Then again, a play like that would require a writer who actually knows his history. Reviews of this play can be found HERE, HERE and HERE.
(Thanks, Andrew Osmond)

UPDATE: Corey Klemow writes about a Disney-themed play currently being staged in Los Angeles:

There must be something in the air… there’s also a play in L.A. right now set at the Disney studios. “Lobster Alice” (which I haven’t seen yet; reviews range from raves to decidedly mixed) takes place during the time Salvador Dali was working at Disney in 1946 on “Destino,” while production is also getting started on “Alice in Wonderland.” Judging from the reviews, it’s not really about animation at all (Dali helps a repressed young animator who is working on “Alice” to pursue the woman he loves), but at least the person Dali befriends at Disney is an animator and not a scriptwriter.” Details HERE.

Animated-News.com has a nice in-depth interview with recently-returned-to-Disney artist Eric Goldberg. He touches on a lot of subjects throughout the interview and also discusses A MONKEY’S TALE, the superb hand-drawn short he recently directed. I hope the film makes it onto the festival circuit but for the moment it’s playing only at a Buddhist cultural center in Hong Kong.

Tomorrow night, August 18th, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills will present A Salute To Norman McLaren, hosted by animation critic Charles Solomon. The evening will include the screening of thirteen newly restored and remasterd 35mm prints of McLaren’s pioneering work for the National Film Board of Canada. Films include NEIGHBORS (1952), A CHAIRY TALE (1957), BEGONE DULL CARE (1949), STARS AND STRIPES (1940), BLINKITY BLANK (1955) and eight others. A panel discussion will precede the screening; panelists include animator and former McLaren colleague Chris Hinton, USC animation professor Christine Panushka, McLaren colleague and Oscar nominated animator
Ishu Patel, and Simpson’s director David Silverman. Tickets are $5. and the event will be presented at 8pm in the Academy’s Goldwyn Theatre at 8949 Wilshire Blvd. More information is posted on the Academy’s website.

Found this piece on Cold Hard Flash. It’s not clear who made it, but Aaron Simpson writes that it’s “part of an anti-war campaign staged by a group of animators and illustrators in Israel.” The animation and design are both pretty funny.

There’s so many animation artist blogs out there nowadays. We can’t possibly link to all of them, but we’ll try to link to the best of the them. Here’s a few good ones I’ve run across recently.

Nate Wragg works at Pixar. Consistently good design and color in his artwork.

Jamie Mason is the director of the NFB short THE MAGIC OF ANANSI, which can be seen HERE. He’s got an eclectic mix of personal illustrations and animation clips posted on his blog.

Here’s an artist who needs no introduction: Stephen DeStefano. Actually, he probably could use an introduction, but I’m too lazy to write one. Just check out his new blog; you won’t be disappointed.

JibJab co-founder Evan Spiridellis does lots of figure drawing after-hours. He keeps track of his amazing work on this blog.

Chris George is a designer on VENTURE BROS. He takes a more illustrative approach. There’s solid work throughout his blog.

I’ve been tinkering around with Flickr the past couple days (so maybe that should be spelled ‘tinkring’) and the results are the following Flickr set: Cartoon Modern Yearbook. It is a photo collection of Modernist animation artists who were working during the 1950s. The photo set includes directors, animators, story artists, character designers, layout artists, background painters and even a few important studio owners.

There’s a similar ‘yearbook’ section in my new book CARTOON MODERN. Not to take anything away from the book, but I think this particular section works even better online. For one, the images can be shown at a much larger size. Also, as I uncover new photos, I can add them to the set and continue expanding the yearbook until it’s complete. At some point, I’ll go back and add biographical details for each of the artists and link their photos to relevant sites online. Flickr as a historical tool…who woulda thunk?

A bunch of fine articles were sent our way…First, The New York Times ran a small piece in yesterday’s Sunday edition, about our friends in the New York animation scene, calling them The Real Cartoon Network.Next, Keith Lango, a character animator on The Ant Bully, discusses what it was like working on a project that he describes as “a big stinking pile of average corporate mush”. Keith Lango on The Ant Bully.And finally… think film piracy is bad in U.S.? BBC News is reporting that CARS 2 is on sale in Peru!(Thanks Gary Meyer, Bryan Ballinger and Signe Baumane)

The Sunday L.A. Times mentioned that a new film called ROMEO AND JULIET: SEALED WITH A KISS was being released in southern California this Friday. That was news to me, so I did a quick Google search and found its website. Sheesh! Traditional 2-D animation has enough problems without theatrical releases like this! I support the efforts traditional animation artists (and in this case, the co-director of WE’RE BACK and FIEVEL GOES WEST) who choose to ignore current market trends and find funding for personal projects or commercial independent productions – but this clearly low-budget effort may set the cause back another five years. Don’t believe me? Check the trailer.This feature is being distributed by Indican Pictures, a small L.A. based outfit, and it may be fine kiddie fodder for home video – but theatrical audiences, even those who might attend Saturday matinees, have moved on from this sort of thing. At least the film gave work to several talented local animators – Indican’s next release, the Norwegian import Capatin Sabertooth, looks even more aesthetically horrendous.

This is a lot of fun…An MP3 of The Shell Show (January 16th, 1937) starring Joe Cook, with special guest Mae Questel (as the voice of Betty Boop). Betty (Questel) shows up about half way through and she joins Cook in a musical fairy tale skit. Betty sings the Gordon and Revel “Shirley Temple” hit, Oh My Goodness and it could easily be the track of a lost Fleischer cartoon. Hmmm… Perhaps someone will be inspired to make it.(Thanks, Mark Mayerson)