According to LA TIMES, Sony Invented Squash & Stretch

The LA TIMES published a piece today by Josh Friedman with this mind-bogglingly ignorant sentence about animation:

[OPEN SEASON], based on the humor of cartoonist Steve Moore, introduces a technique dubbed “squash and stretch” that allows the cartoon characters to change shape during action sequences.

I hear the animators working on HAPPY FEET have also come up with an exciting new technique. They call it a “walk cycle.” What will they think of next?

UPDATE #1: Paul Naas writes the following:

I saw the item out of this morning’s L.A. Times about squash and stretch, and dropped a quick email to the author, Josh Friedman. To my surprise, he responded quickly, saying:

“Sorry about that. I’m working up a correction for Tuesday’s paper.”

Quite a difference from the response a few months back from Mick LaSalle and his ridiculous comments about facial animation. I’m looking forward to seeing if the correction actually appears.

UPDATE #2: Story artist Jenny Lerew comments about the LA TIMES piece on her blog Blackwing Diaries.

UPDATE #3: The LA TIMES indeed ran a correction in Tuesday’s paper. It reads:

An article in Monday’s Business section reporting the weekend box-office results incorrectly described as new the “squash and stretch” technique used in the film “Open Season.” The method, which enables the cartoon characters to change shape during action sequences, has been used before.