Check out this stomach-churning talk show appearance by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, creators of Comedy Central’s animated series DRAWN TOGETHER. It’s from an episode of REALITY REMIX which aired last week on Fox Reality channel. (WARNING: Don’t click the above link if you’re offended by vomit.) Between this and last Friday’s appearance of FAMILY GUY creator Seth MacFarlane on the LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, one would think that the animation industry is populated entirely by talent-deprived, unfunny hacks. It’s not often that animation artists get air time and it’s annoying that when they do, it’s always the lowest representatives of the art form. At least on German talk shows, they get Andreas Deja. See below:

The new SIMPSONS MOVIE trailer premiered last night on Fox during a new episode of the TV series. Watch it HERE. With all the recent animated features, it’s smart marketing strategy on Fox’s part to use the show’s animation technique as a way of distinguishing the SIMPSONS from the pack. The fact that the SIMPSONS is hand-drawn is, of course, hardly a revelation to animation folk, but as I’ve repeatedly witnessed first-hand, the average moviegoer can’t differentiate between hand-drawn and CG animation so this trailer should play quite effectively to general audiences. Those of us in animation can chuckle at the irony that the SIMPSONS portion of the trailer is also loaded with CG elements (the machinery and wrecking ball both appear to be CG).

I love when newspaper comic strips do crossovers and this weeks continuity of GASOLINE ALLEY is a particular treat. Walt Wallet visits the “Old Comics Home” and has a reunion with the likes of Smokey Stover, Joe Palooka, Steve Canyon, The Little King, and Albert Aligator. But that’s not all. Animated stars Felix the Cat, Betty Boop, Farmer Al Falfa, Mighty Mouse and Tom Teriffic show up in cameo. Even ancient characters Old Doc Yak and the Yellow Kid get into the act. Start here (Nov. 7th) and read forward to today’s strip. I’m not sure how many more days this will continue, but it’s sure nice to see.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER published a couple pieces recently about ‘06 Oscar predictions for animated features and animated shorts. Jerry and I are both quoted liberally in the pieces and we offer our predictions as do others like the Animation Guild’s Kevin Koch and Acme Filmworks producer Ron Diamond. The interview was conducted a while back and at the time I didn’t know that Satoshi Kon’s PAPRIKA had also qualified for the animated feature Oscar. Not a whole lot of people are aware of Kon’s film at the moment, which really hurts its chances, but you have to assume that it stands a good shot of an Oscar nod if people actually have a chance to see it. Also, for the animated shorts, I recently found out that Don Hertzfeldt’s new short EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, Bruce Alcock’s AT THE QUINTE HOTEL and Jonas Odell’s NEVER LIKE THE FIRST TIME qualified. These are all superb animated shorts and I hope Academy voters don’t overlook them in favor of this year’s batch of typical (and in my opinion, much blander) mainstream studio shorts from Disney (THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL), Pixar (LIFTED), Blue Sky (NO TIME FOR NUTS) and DreamWorks (FIRST FLIGHT).

Directors Notes is a weekly audio podcast that interviews indie filmmakers who create short films, docs, music videos, art films, etc. The site doesn’t focus exclusively on animation, though so far they have solid interviews with Brazilian animator Guilherme Marcondes of TYGER fame and Japanese filmmakers Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno who are responsible for LIGHTNING DOODLE PROJECT [PIKAPIKA]. This is one podcast I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on.

(via Motionographer)

There’s not a whole lot to recommend about the 1964 Hanna-Barbera cartoon PUNKIN’ PUSS AND MUSHMOUSE, but this background pan that Brew reader Bob Perman emailed is pretty nice to look at. Click on the pic below for the full image. I wonder if the original painting still exists somewhere?

What is it with The Weinstein Company? Harvey Weinstein is perhaps the smartest and savviest of the current Hollywood moguls, but his taste in animated films leaves much to be desired. Last year he launched his new company with the low budget (but clever) Hoodwinked, then fumbled with the British import Doogal. Now this? Weinstein’s art house competitors, such as Sony Pictures Classics (Triplettes of Belleville, Paprika, Persepolis), Warner Independent (Scanner Darkly) and even his previous studio Miramax (Renaissance), have picked up challenging adult animated features that push the envelope. Weinstein has apparently bought into the stereotype that animated films are childrens films – not family films, children’s films. He leaves on the table over a dozen brand new, more sophisticated international animated features (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Princess and everything being shown next week at the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema) that are more deserving of U.S. distribution.Weinstein’s latest acquisition, Piccolo, Saxo and Company, is a French production, with animation produced in Romania and plot ripped from Paul Tripp’s Tubby The Tuba:

The film tells the story of a far away planet on which musical instruments live. Marco Villamizar’s tale follows Piccolo, Saxo and other brass and string instruments that band together to form a grand symphonic orchestra. The group goes on a quest to find musical notes and other instruments stolen by an evil doctor who dreams of building the perfect instrument.

Weinstein will no doubt dress Piccolo up with an all-star American voice cast and give it a token theatrical release en route to its permanent home on DVD racks at Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, etc. I have nothing against well made animated films for children (Curious George was a fine example), but animators need more visionary distributors who will expose U.S. audiences to the great work being produced around the world. Weinstein, Miramax, Lionsgate, Sony, Fox Searchlight and the others do a fine job with handling live action foreign films. Their animated siblings are waiting to be adopted.I’ve given this rant before. And I probably will again. Maybe one of these days I’ll end up doing something about it myself.

For most artists, paper is an expendable material that one creates their art on, but Megan Brain’s paper sculptures show that the paper itself can be transformed into a piece of art as well. While the art of paper sculpture is nothing new, Megan brings an appealing cartoon sensibility to the practice that I haven’t seen before. The closest thing that I can compare her work to are the characters from the early-60s Disney short A SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR SONGS though that cartoon never pushed it quite as far design-wise. Brain recently contributed her distinctive paper sculpture skills to Henry Selick’s feature CORALINE, which is being produced at Laika. See more of her delightful work at MeganBrain.com (see if you can find the Craig Kellman piece) and meganbrain.blogspot.com.