Monthly Archives: March 2010

Ray Favata

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Ray Favata
Ray Favata (l.) with Jules Feiffer at Terrytoons

My pal, Ray Favata, is the subject of a lengthy profile in this week’s Post-Star paper. He started his career at Tempo Productions, one of the early ‘cartoon modern’ studios that was later shuttered because of the blacklist. He went on to design commercials at Academy Pictures, John Sutherland Productions, and Deitch-era Terrytoons (where he boarded an unproduced sequel to Flebus), before starting a commercial studio with Bill Tytla, and then launching Ray Favata Productions. Since then, he’s worked on everything imaginable from projects with Frank Zappa to the TV series Doug. More of his work can be seen on the Cartoon Modern blog.

Here’s an episode of “Billy Jo Jive” that Favata made for Sesame Street:

Pink Panther and Pals

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I don’t know much about the new Pink Panther and Pals series – which premieres this Sunday March 7th on Cartoon Network at 7:30am Eastern (4:30am Pacific) – except I like the redesigns of the Ant and the Aardvark. The new show features three six-minute cartoons – two featuring a “teenage Pink Panther” and one Ant and Aardvark short in the middle. 26 episodes were produced by MGM Animation. There’s no animation online, but here’s a bunch of still images to tide you over till Sunday.

(Thanks, Bob Spang)

The Book Nobody’s Been Waiting For

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Filmation book

Lou Scheimer tells all . . . like about the time he produced something crappy, or that other time he produced something crappy, or those few decades where he had an impressive streak of producing lots and lots of crap in a row. There’s also an uplifting personal story about the time he vowed to produce something decent, but then realized it was more important to stay true to himself and produce crap.

Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation drops in July.

Frog in a Suit by Joe Murray

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That’s a clip from Joe Murray’s Frog in a Suit, a new short film that doubles as a pilot. Here’s the set-up:

Peete Moss has just moved to Croakville ( a town full of toads) with his family. Croakville is a town on the fast track, with Industrialist Harvey Croak running everyone crazy. Peete Moss tries to fit in, sports a suit, and tries to “run with the bulls”. In this clip, he has a run in with a local coffee shop, and offends the love of his life, Lilly Patt, who is the local school teacher.

Murray, who is the creator of Rocko’s Modern Life and Camp Lazlo, has a book (with a really long title) coming out later this year: Creating Animated Cartoons with Character: A Guide to Developing and Producing Your Own Series for TV, the Web, and Short Film. He also writes an online journal.

(Thanks, David Essman)

Happy 90th Birthday, Ronald Searle!

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Ronald Searle and Walt
Ronald Searle with Walt Disney. Click for bigger version

Happy birthday to Ronald Searle, one of the true legends of 20th (and now 21st) century cartooning and illustration. His artwork is the first thing that greets visitors to my pad, which should give some clue as to how highly I revere his work. In addition to his print work, he’s worked on numerous animation projects throughout his career including Energetically Yours and Dick Deadeye, and has indirectly been responsible for the look of countless other works of animation, most notably Disney’s 101 Dalmatians. My pal Matt Jones has been posting lots of birthday celebration news on the Ronald Searle blog.

Here’s a new interview with Searle on the occasion of his birthday:

“Je Pars” by Stéphanie Cabdevila

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I like the simple but direct graphic concept that Stéphanie Cabdevila employs in this video for Mary’s Dream. She produced it at Paris-based Metronomic. If it’s not already clear from this video and the front page of her website, Cabdevila’s work has a playfully twisted visual sensibility. It’s also on display in this video for Claire Diterzi’s “La Vieille Chanteuse”.

Secret of Kells In The News

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Secret of Kells

Today’s New York Times has an article about the surprise Oscar nomination of Secret of Kells. There are some fascinating details in the article about the grassroots campaign to get the film nominated:

GKIDS was aided by a “superfan,” Jamie Bolio, an animator who had fallen in love with the film at Edinburgh. The company essentially enabled her to be a citizen publicist, allowing her to post on “The Secret of Kells” Facebook page and giving her 200 DVDs to distribute to the Los Angeles cartooning industry.

Also, if you’ve seen the film and want to understand all of its historical references and settings, I can recommend no finer article than this in-depth analysis by Robert Tan posted on Roger Ebert’s blog.

John Canemaker’s New Blog

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John Canemaker blog
John Canemaker (far left) with John Kricfalusi, Frank Gladstone and Glen Keane

Finally! Our friend, the esteemed animation historian/filmmaker/teacher John Canemaker has started a regular monthly blog column for Print magazine. He says that the blog will take “a wide-ranging look at many and varied artistic influences on animation, including comic art and CGI, games, book illustration, fine art, classic films, literature, and performance art,” and will explore everything “from Giotto to Johnny Gruelle, Elaine Stritch to Snow White, with the same personal perspective I bring to my teaching, lectures, and books.”

In his first post, Canemaker expresses his appreciation for the comic Bone and chats with Jeff Smith about his forthcoming animated adaptation of Bone. My only suggestion is that Print offers a direct link to his blog that always links to the latest article and Canemaker’s archives, otherwise it’ll be difficult to link to his blog or keep up with his posts.