Thanks to Jerry who’s been holding down the Brew fort while I was away in New York City. I was out there working on the design and layout for my upcoming 1950s animation design book. I’m pleased to report that the book is coming together really nicely. It’s been a long, occasionally difficult, journey getting to this point, but everything’s on track and the massive amount of artwork and text is slowly but surely taking form as a mighty solid book. I have to give props to Chronicle; they’ve been immensely supportive and helpful throughout the entire process. Last week, my editor offered up an additional sixteen pages, bringing the book’s total page count to 192. My designer and I will definitely be putting those extra pages to good use.

Also, a couple more New York book plugs. My cartoonist friend Mark “Garbage Pail Kids” Newgarden is wrapping up work on a coffeetable collection of his cartoons and artwork called WE ALL DIE ALONE. I’ve seen handfuls of his work before, and I’m really looking forward to finally seeing an extensive collection of Mark’s funny and skewed cartoon work. The book will be out in October from Fantagraphics. Also, got to visit with the esteemed John Canemaker and had a chance to see the new revised edition of his book on Winsor McCay. No surprise here, but it’s yet another must-have Canemaker book. When I got back to LA, there was a review copy waiting for me in the mail and I can’t wait to dig in. Classic cartoonists rarely get this type of classy coffeetable book presentation, but if anybody deserves it, it’s McCay. Even if you already have the earlier version of John’s Winsor McCay book, there’s more than enough new material in this revised edition to justify the purchase.

As a sidenote, Mark Newgarden also treated me to a cartoon screening of some of the weirdest classic cartoons I’ve seen in a while. If Jerry Beck is the master of the “worst cartoons show” then Mark is king of the “oddball cartoons show.” Among the highlights:

* An early-1960s John Sutherland industrial, FAMILIES OF STEEL, which is the only time illustrator Boris Artzybasheff designed characters for an animated film. Other notable elements in this short: groovy Sixties color styling by Bob Dranko and goofy dancing steel animation by Art Babbitt.
* The cheapest, most poorly animated UPA film I’ve ever seen, a no-budget project for the American Cancer Society called SAPPY HOMIENS (1956). Half of the film is a live-action sequence starring UPA storyman Leo Salkin thinking about how he’s going to make the cartoon. “So bad it’s good” certainly applies in this case.
* One of the most grotesquely designed stop motion films ever, a gem from the 1920s called IN THE SPRING. It’s stop motion bizarreness on a “Charlie Bowers” level and even includes a dog milking a cow. If anybody out there knows who did this film, please let us know.

The other animation highlight of my New York trip was finally getting the chance to see the much-lauded animated feature MIND GAME (2004), directed by Masaaki Yuasa. The film was screening as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s anime film series, and as far as I know, it’s the first time the film has received theatrical play in the United States (Tamu Townsend writes that the film’s first US theatrical screening was actually this past June at the NY Asian Film Festival). If ever there was an appropriate rebuttal to the modern American animator’s insistence of imposing live-action scripts and filmmaking techniques onto the cartoon art form, MIND GAME is it. This film is fully and truly animated, from conception through execution, every one of its frames stretching the medium to the limits of its expressive potential. Comparisons between MIND GAME and other animated films are simply inadequate. Granted, at moments it recalls FANTASIA, YELLOW SUBMARINE and Bob Clampett’s Warner Bros. shorts, but its sum total is more than any of these; MIND GAME stands alone as one of the most fearlessly original and creative pieces of animation ever produced.

The film’s brilliance doesn’t stem simply from the variety of visual styles and techniques that it employs, but rather from how director Yuasa incorporates style and technique into a thematically-complex, emotionally-involving narrative. To borrow a thought from animation critic Ben Ettinger (the individual who first turned me onto this film), “Few films I’ve ever seen combined artistic experimentation and comprehensibility in as thought-provoking and mind-bogglingly imaginative a package as this one…Never have I seen animation that was simultaneously so constantly interesting and exciting and that served a greater purpose than mere surface-level titillation. It all works together perfectly, and every moment has surprises.”

My mind is so swamped with other things at the moment that I can’t devote the time to writing a proper review of this film, but rest assured I’ll be writing plenty more about MIND GAME in the months to come. This film heralds the arrival of a new age of the animated film where art, technology and story will be integrated in previously unimaginable ways. Here are links to more MIND GAME praise (and believe me, not a single word of it is hype):

Phil Hall on FILM THREAT
Joshua Smith on Cartoon Brew
Mark Mann at Twitch
A.O. Scott in the NY TIMES (free reg. req’d)
and a huge archive of MIND GAME coverage at Ben Ettinger’s AniPages Daily

Michel Gagné has just posted a free, hi-quality Quicktime version of his cult classic animated short PRELUDE TO EDEN (1995). The film is a tour de force of EFX animation and dynamic staging and layout. According to the production details posted on his site, it took Michel over four years to complete this film. Download PRELUDE TO EDEN HERE.

It opened in Australia! Steven Rowley has posted the first review I’ve seen, of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, on his Cinephobia website.

Following up on my post below about the theatrical release of the new TOM & JERRY movie, Michele Martell of KIDTOON FILMS wrote in to clarify what her company does:

I just saw your posting about Kidtoon Films and our theatrical releases of new animated movies for kids and thought I’d drop you a note to give you some background.The theatrical distribution arm, Kidtoon Films, is part of Sabella Dern Entertainment - a production company run by Paul Sabella and Jonathan Dern. Paul and Jonathan were the co-heads of MGM Animation (ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN 2)for most of the 90’s, and I’m sure you are aware of Paul’s experience and reputation in the field (especially given your book on Pink Panther!).One of the primary motivations for creating Kidtoon Films was our awareness that much of the animation being produced for kids these days is destined for the direct-to-DVD market, and we believed that there would be a theatrical audience for this content. The response from audiences, theatre circuits, and the companies making and releasing these films has validated that belief. In particular, we are happy to be working closely with the folks at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, as it has such a great legacy in animation and cartoons.In addition to new films, we are also showing cartoon shorts - some classic such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, and new, award-winning shorts like “Gopher Broke” from Blur Studios. We see this new theatrical pipeline as a way to create additional opportunities for animation of all kinds - shorts or features, 2D or 3D, made independently or by studios, and from the US or international territories.

Oh Yeah!For over ten years, Fred Seibert has been championing the production of funny, original cartoons - first as president of Hanna Barbera in the mid-1990s, and since 1997 with Nickelodeon and his Oh Yeah! Cartoons program. Fred has promoted his cartoons throughout the years with clever limited edition promo postcards which only went out to select few (only 200 of each were printed). These featured special artwork by the likes of Seth MacFarlane, Tim Biskup, Dave Wasson, Craig Kellman, Vincent Waller, Miles Thompson and many other current cartoon notables. You can see the postcards on his Frederator Studios website - but even better, the card artwork is being collected in a 256 page full-color book, beautifully printed on slick glossy stock - with informative text pieces (including an introduction by yours truly).This is no Cafe Press affair, it’s a big, honest-to-goodness real live book (published by Easton Studio Press)! And I’m impressed! It officially goes on sale November 30th, but Fred is selling a few advance copies on his website now - at a $10 discount, and with two free Frederator collectibles: an actual studio postcard and an original Frederator silkscreen poster. For more information, see www.Frederator.kz

WOMEN DO ANIMATE - and they are apparently doing it very well in Australia.Marian Quigley interviews ten Australian animators’ in her new book - which comes packed with a DVD sampler. Not available in the U.S. (yet), the book can be ordered from Insight Publications in Victoria, Australia.

Our dear friend Fred Patten suffered a stroke last March. I’m happy to say he’s recovering nicely (slowly, but nicely) - and he now has a new webpage which is being updated with his current health status and activities. Fred is the foremost U.S. historian on Japanese anime - and his contributions to my forthcoming book, THE ANIMATED MOVIE GUIDE, were invaluable.Get well Fred - I need you for the revised edition!

After seeing our previous post on the ABC SUPER SATURDAY CLUB, J.J. Sedelmaier comes clean with his past transgressions by sending in the the above image - with a note:

“It’s SO sad that I still have this. . .”

(Click on image to see much larger picture)