Have you ever wondered what Chuck Jones’s HIGH NOTE (1960) would look like if it was remade in CG? Well, neither have I, but somebody went ahead and made it anyway. “One Bad Note” is a 50-second TV commercial directed by Craig Wessels of the South African studio Wicked Pixels. The results are pretty decent. Watch it below:

(via Hydrocephalic Bunny)

While Eyvind Earle is the best known of the Disney artists who illustrated Christmas cards, a number of other Disney artists had successful careers as card designers including BAMBI background stylist Tyrus Wong and longtime background painter Ralph Hulett. Hulett’s son, Steve, who is the business rep of the Animation Guild Local 839, is posting thirty-six of his father’s Christmas cards on the Animation Guild blog. There’ll be one a day between now and New Year’s Day. The first three cards are already posted:

Day 1 with Introduction
Day 2
Day 3

In the second part of Ward Jenkins’s terrific John Canemaker interview, Canemaker reveals a project he recently contributed to which should be of interest to Disney fans. It’s an upcoming documentary by Frank Thomas’s son, Ted Thomas, about the 1941 South America trip by Walt Disney and some of his top artists, including Frank Thomas, Mary Blair and Ken Anderson. Ted Thomas was also the director of the 1995 doc FRANK AND OLLIE.

Either Makinita (a.k.a. independent cartoonist Andres Silva, in Ecuador) is a demented genius – or just demented. You decide:Also check out more Makinita madness with this bizarro intro piece and this other thing in color.

A couple talented animation folk have redesigned their websites to incorporate journal/blogs:

Indie filmmaker Chris Harding (of LEARN SELF DEFENSE fame) has just unveiled the new ChrisHarding.net, which features a production log for his next animated short as well as a CafePress store.

Dice Tsutsumi, color stylist and visual development artist at Blue Sky, has added a journal which he plans to updated regularly, and has also posted many new beautiful paintings to his site. Check him out at SimpleStroke.com.

Animation festivals are fine nowadays, but I can’t think of any event that could possibly compare to the Montreal Expo’s World Exhibition of Animation Cinema which took place in 1967. Michael Sporn has some info and photos from the event posted on his blog.

The guest list is a jaw-dropping who’s who of animation legends from around the world: Chuck Jones, Peter Foldes, John Halas, Ward Kimball, Ub Iwerks, Ion Popescu-Gopo, Carmen d’Avino, Len Lye, Bill Hurtz, Dave Hilberman, Robert Breer, Art Babbitt, Feodor Khitruk, Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Paul Terry, J.R. Bray, Walter Lantz, Otto Messmer, Dave Fleischer, Norman McLaren, Bruno Bozzetto, Bill Tytla, Bob Clampett, Karel Zeman, Dusan Vukotic, Bretislav Pojar, Jean Image, Grim Natwick, and John Whitney, to name but a few. If I had a time travel machine, I know the first place I’d be headed.

Here’s an oddity I just had to share. If you thought a live-action Flintstones was a bad idea, check this out. A live action Japanese ASTRO BOY movie (or TV show?) from the early 1960s, followed by a few seconds of a live action GIGANTOR film from the same period. Anyone know what year these clips are from? There are other clips from the GIGANTOR movie scattered on YouTube (here’s one and here’s another). But this Astro Boy footage is unique and hilarious. Maybe Cartoon Network ought to dig this up for their live-action Adult Swim block.UPDATE: Reader Charles Brubaker writes:

Regarding the live-action “Astro Boy” clip you posted on Cartoon Brew. That was from the live-action TV show that came out BEFORE the anime version. It ran March 7, 1959 to May 28, 1960 on Fuji Television. 65 episodes were made.

My good friend, Miles Thompson, a full-time painter and sometimes animation artist, is currently working on his next solo art show, which will debut at La Luz de Jesus in September 2007. The theme of the show is “California” and he’s set up a blog HERE to share his research for the paintings and to post finished work for the show. Unlike many tributes to the Golden State, Miles seems to be digging beyond the superficial aspects of California and exploring the rich heritage and character of the state. It’s shaping up to be an excellent art show.