Monthly Archives: March 2010

Free Animation Book Idea #2

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Picking up where we left off last month, here’s another book idea that’s free for the taking. The proposal is rather straightforward: a collection of fine artwork created by animation artists. This was actually the first book idea I ever pitched (and subsequently had rejected) around 2001. I still think it’s a keen idea.

While most animators dabble with artwork on the side, a certain subset has treated their extracurricular artistic pursuits with the same passion and discipline as their animation day jobs. Seeing their artwork reveals unique insights into the artistic process, and serves as a fascinating study of the compromises that individual artists have to make when synthesizing their work for the group-oriented demands of animation production.

The key to such a book would be curating it with the right mix of artists. It wouldn’t be too difficult to get started. Any number of personal blogs and websites showcase the fine art of contemporary animation artists. There are also a handful of websites showcasing examples of artwork by Golden Age animation artists. For example, Chuck Jones has this page of personal work:Chuck Jones

Disney and UPA background painter Bob McIntosh is repped at Trigg Ison Fine Art:Bob McIntosh

McIntosh’s co-worker at Disney and UPA, Jules Engel, is displayed here: Jules Engel

Examples of Marc Davis’s art are scattered online here, here, and here.Marc Davis

And Len Glasser has a video of his personal art projects posted onto YouTube:

These guys are just the tip of the iceberg. The richness and diversity of artwork by animators spans across the twentieth century through every conceivable art movement and style. This has the potential of being a beautiful and very unconventional animation art book.

Waking Sleeping Beauty opens Friday

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Don Hahn’s documentary on the renaissance of Disney animation in the 1990s, Waking Sleeping Beauty, opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles. It’s fast paced, entertaining film that is, no matter how you feel about Disney, pretty much a must-see for readers of Cartoon Brew.

Don Hahn will make Q&A appearances in L.A. after the following showings this weekend:

Friday, March 26 — Q&A following the 7:45pm showing at AMC Century City

Saturday, Marcy 27 — Q&A following 1210p-150p show at the AMC Burbank 16, 125 East Palm Ave
Saturday, March 27 — Q&A following 7:55-9:35p show at the AMC Burbank 16, 125 East Palm Ave

Peter Schneider will make Q&A appearances this weekend in NYC after the following showings at Landmark’s Sunshine Cinemas on Houston Street:

Friday, March 26 — Q&A following the 5pm and 7:15pm showings.
Saturday, Marcy 27 — Q&A following the 12 noon, 2:30pm, 5pm and 7:15pm showings.
Saturday, March 27 — Q&A following the 12 noon, 2:30pm and 5pm showings.

Here’s an exclusive clip:

DreamWorks and Wal-Mart Partner For Dragon

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Walmart and DreamWorks

The Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart will be the exclusive retailer for merchandise related to the DreamWorks feature How To Train Your Dragon. According to the paper, 95% of the products tied in to the movie will be available only at Wal-Mart, including “apparel and toys to custom-made Oreos with a red filling, to symbolize the fiery exhalations of the titular creatures.” The video on the WSJ website has more details about the extent of the deal, and mentions that Wal-Mart is the film’s master toy licensee and was involved in product and package design.

Rinky Dink by John Dilworth

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Rinky Dink

A new short by John Dilworth (Courage the Cowardly Dog, Dirdy Birdy) is always an occasion for a post. Rinky Dink combines drawn animation with stop motion and photo cut-outs. It has the trademark Dilworthian oddness, more than a few giggles, and a cute (if common) message. The film can be viewed on his website StretchFilms.com. (Click on the little yellow creature on the upper left of the site.)

Long Drawn-Out Trip by Gerald Scarfe

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Long Drawn-out Trip by Gerald Scarfe

The Lost Continent is a real treasure of a blog and has introduced me to lots of great British animation over the past few months, some of which I should have already known about. One such film is Long Drawn-Out Trip: Sketches from Los Angeles by Gerald Scarfe. The eighteen-minute film was shown on TV only once in its entirety and that occurred 1973 on the BBC. It has a stream-of-conscious flavor as evidenced by this tantalizing four-minute clip.

The film’s lack of distribution is largely due to the fact that Scarfe didn’t obtain clearances to the music he used, which included everything from Jimi Hendrix to Neil Diamond. (Shades of Nina Paley’s problems with Sita Sings the Blues). It’s unlikely he would have ever been able to make the film either had he pursued legitimate channels. Try asking Disney for permission to use “When You Wish upon a Star” when your film has an extended sequence of Mickey smoking a spliff.

In this interview, Scarfe spoke about how the film came about:

Well the BBC in London sent me to Los Angeles, to work on what they thought was a new animation system. It was something called the de joux (ju) system which is spelled dejoux. That was a system started by a Frenchman which was supposed to make animation an easier experience. When I got there I found that it wasn’t a computerized system at all. It was just a system whereby between shall we say frame a and frame e, it kind of mixed through b, c, d, into e. It kind of dissolved from one picture to another. So if one drew a picture it would then dissolve through, or mix through, to the next picture.

Where as in animation you have to kind of do a series of drawings in between to complete the movement. But it wasn’t a very successful system in that way. But since I was in Los Angeles, I decided to make the best of it, and I did a kind of stream of consciousness drawing everything I could think of about America at that time. Like, the Statue of Liberty, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Black Power, Mickey Mouse, Coca Cola, Playboy Magazine, sort of a million images all melting one into the other. I was supposed to be there for 10 days, but I stayed for about 6 or 7 weeks. Hence the title, Long Drawn Out Trip. And it was also a kind of a trip, cause it was very much the drug era. And it was a kind of a hallucinatory trip too.

The entire film doesn’t appear to be online, but there are plenty of frame grabs available on the Lost Continent blog.

Little Rascals From The Dwarfs World by Olaf Albers

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Lausbuben aus der Zwergenwelt (Little Rascals from the Dwarfs World) in Lausige Zeiten (Lousy Times) is a fractured fairy tale from the mind and pen of Olaf Albers. Created during the winter semester at Fachhochschule Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, Albers says, “The protagonists are two young dwarfs named Heinrich and Hannes who have nothing but nonsense on their mind and do not care about any socially rooted restrictions. Following their hedonistic way of life they nearly terrorize the other peace and harmony seeking creatures of the woodlands.”

Translation Wolf: “Oh, how nice! A warm summers rain!”

Translation children: “You have saved us -we grant you every wish!”

(Thanks, Thomas Wellman)

TODAY: Jerry on Stu’s Show

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I will be the featured guest today on Shokus Internet Radio’s Stu’s Show. It’ll air live beginning at 4:00 p.m. PDT (7:00 p.m. EDT). Topics this time will include the upcoming Looney Tunes DVDs, the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes book and as always, whatever the listeners want to talk about. You are encouraged to call in with your questions and comments on the station’s toll-free telephone number.

Stu’s Show airs live each Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. PST, with rebroadcasts at the same time daily. Access to the station’s feed is free, with no registration required, and is available either by clicking on the Enter Site button on the home page (www.shokusradio.com), by choosing one of the audio player links on the site’s main page, via iTunes by selecting Radio/Eclectic and then locating the station’s name alphabetically in the list, and now via iPhone by installing the WunderRadio program available from the iTunes online store. Cell phones with Windows Mobile and Internet access can also listen to the station via the new Live 365 Mobile software available at the station’s broadcast facility, www.live365.com .

Sony to produce CG 3D Popeye feature

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Once again we take note of a new Popeye project, again in CG, and for the second time in his career – in 3D. Variety is reporting on Sony’s plans to bring the Segar comic strip classic to theatres in a big screen adventure. Avi Arad (Spider-Man) is producing and writer Mike Jones is creating a screenplay. Popeye will be made by Sony Pictures Animation, with Sony Pictures ImageWorks handling the CG. We cannot predict when this film will come out, but hopefully it will push Warner Home Video into restoring the rest of their Popeye cartoon library for DVD, perhaps persuade Cartoon Network will revive The Popeye Show, and maybe inspire Warner Bros. to attach the 1954 Popeye The Ace Of Space 3D animated short to one of their upcoming 3D features.

Artists Want Alternative to San Diego Comic-Con

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Creator Con
Artwork by Jeff Pidgeon

A group of artists frustrated by the San Diego Comic-Con’s lack of emphasis on artists and art are pushing for the creation of an artist-friendly event called “Creator-Con”. They’ve started an informal Facebook page with this mission statement:

This page was created as a forum for the artists, writers, designers, self-publishers, retailers and fans that have become disillusioned and frustrated with what the flagship of comic conventions has become (y’all know the one…in San Diego).

The Creator Con idea was hatched a few years ago by a few exhibitor friends as a reaction to the popular media takeover of a convention that used to celebrate artists and creators. We were tired of being pushed further and further aside each year to make room for the bigger, louder and flashier attractions that had nothing to do with the convention’s humble beginnings. This page hopefully will give us all a platform to get the ball rolling on something new or at the very least, voice our opinions. So let it ring! We want to hear what you have to say.

In only a couple days, membership in the group has swelled to nearly five hundred people, which indicates not only the grassroots support for the idea, but how much discontent there is with the San Diego Comic Con’s treatment of the artist community. Many notable names in animation and comics have joined the group including Kazu Kibuishi, David Silverman, Stephen DeStefano, Scott Shaw!, Richard Sala, Katie Rice and Steve Purcell. Discussions are happening on the page about possible locations for a Creator-Con. Some are suggesting that it should be hosted in San Diego, while LA, Portland, Vegas and the Bay Area are also being name-dropped.

I’m in full support of a Creator-Con. As a former Comic-Con exhibitor (I exhibited three times with artists like Shane Glines, Gabe Swarr and Jim Smith), I eventually came to the realization that the Con wasn’t the most receptive outlet for indie companies and artists. The last time I attended (not as an exhibitor) was in 2007, and I cut my trip short after a day (a Thursday no less!). The emphasis of San Diego had shifted so far away from comics and artists that it was pointless spending any further time there.

In many ways, the very idea of a “comic-con” is outdated. Today, most artists practice across a wide range of artistic disciplines (comics, graphic novels, illustration, fine art, publishing, film, animation, toys, merchandising and branding, etc.). A Creator-Con that is focused around artists and their varied creative endeavors reflects more accurately how the contemporary visual artist thinks and works. The Creator-Con is an idea whose time has arrived–now it remains to be seen who will make it a reality.

UPDATE (6pm ET): Over 1,000 people have now joined the Creator-Con group on Facebook.