[Video link was removed from Google]

Horton Hears A Who is a 1992 Russian animated short directed by Alexei Karayev, who also directed another Dr. Seuss adaptation that we’d linked to earlier called Welcome (1986). The English translation of the piece, producd at Pilot Studio, was done by Niffiwan who writes more about the film on his excellent Russian animation blog Animatsiya in English.

Haven’t had a moment to watch the film yet, although the man-elephant design of the title character is a bit off-putting at first glance. Niffiwan writes, “The art took me a little time to get used to, but I soon realized that it is really quite beautiful…It shows the exaggerated, overly-saturated, slightly unreal world of the creatures which must seem like gods to the people on the dust speck.” He also offers a thought about how this Russian version compares to the recent trailer for Blue Sky’s Horton:

I think that Pilot Studio’s version changes the surface layer by using an utterly different art style (among other things), but keeps the heart and soul of the story completely intact. The Blue Sky adaptation looks like it will do the opposite; keep the pretty crust and toss the insides.

Once again the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive provides a new piece of the giant jigsaw puzzle that is the history of animated cartoons.

Steve Worth has scanned sections of a December 1945 issue of Coronet magazine which includes an autobiography of Bugs Bunny (illustrated with original images loosely based on the storyboards from A Hare Grows In Manhattan (released in May 1947). Anybody have any guesses as to who did the art?

This short Reuters video tells the story of how soap stone carvers in the Kenyan village of Tabaka are earning more money than ever by turning out delectably off-model carvings of Simpsons characters. In particular, the shot of the villagers trying to watch an episode of the Simpsons is priceless. According to Reuters, the village has an official license from Fox to produce these figurines. Now the question is, where can one purchase these statues?

UPDATE: Brew reader Hunter writes in the comments that the statues will soon be available here.

(Thanks, SpockBoy and Michelle66)

The show may put viewers to sleep but the artwork certainly doesn’t. Bill Wray has posted a gorgeous selection of backgrounds that he and Scott Wills painted while working on Samurai Jack.

Director Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch), currently helming Crood Awakening at DreamWorks, has launched a website — ChrisSandersArt.com. The site is new and still growing although there is a nice selection of his personal drawings currently posted.

Here’s a nice environmentally-themed complement to the Koji Yamamura piece posted on the Brew yesterday. Spilled Oil is a new hand-drawn short produced as an internal project at Minneapolis-based animation studio Make. It was animated by Andrew Chesworth and Aaron Quist. The film can be viewed at SpilledOil.com and a ‘making of’ version with pencil tests can be viewed here.

(via No Fat Clips)

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has posted another gem, my favorite piece of Disneyana of all time: the wartime in-house publication Dispatch From Disney. They’ve scanned the pages (click here for Part 1, here for Part 2).

This publication (only one issue was produced in 1943) was beautifully produced and loaded with unique information and art by Fred Moore, T. Hee, Roy Williams and others. I always wanted a copy and now, thanks to the Archive, I can read it anytime I want.