Japanese refrigerator commercial with Tom & Jerry, talking beer cans and anthropomorphic vegetables. You can’t make this up folks.

(Thanks Malcom Thomas via the Cartoon Brew Facebook page)

A second trailer for Laika’s ParaNorman has been leaked to our pals at Bloody-Disgusting.com. Combined with the first teaser it gives us a sharper idea of what’s in store. Focus Features (the art house division of Universal pictures) will release the 3D stop-mo film on August 17th, 2012.

As part of their Library of American Comics series, IDW Publishing just released Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was, a spectacular must-have book reprinting all (and more) of Jones’ ill-fated 1977-78 newspaper comic strip, Crawford. It’s an absolutely beautiful volume that recounts the story behind this character, which apparently Jones felt very close to. Editors Dean Mullaney and Kurtis Findlay reprint every strip, published and unpublished, of the daily and Sunday feature – mostly scanned from original art loaned by the Jones estate. Additionally, there is a complete storyboard to an unproduced 1969 Crawford TV pilot, and lots of rare photographs and Jones art that accompany Findlay’s introduction – which discusses in fine detail Jones’ post Warner Bros. experiences with Tower 12, MGM and ABC – new information overlooked in previous histories, including those by Jones himself! Crawford wasn’t one of Jones’ great creations, but it was a concept he never gave up on because the character was essentially a younger version of himself. This volume is essential for those who admire Jones as an artist and it will add to your understanding of his creative process. Highly recommended. Get it.

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That “Mad, Mad” Rankin-Bass historian/enthusiast Rick Goldschmidt has done it again! After already throughly examining the “Enchanted Worlds” of Rankin Bass via books, websites, dvds and CD compilations, Rick has just self-published another volume that is the last word on my second-favorite R-B production (Rudolph will always be first): Mad Monster Party. It’s not so much a history as it is a celebration of all things Animagic, containing the entire MMP script (co-written by Harvey Kurtzman), chapters devoted to artists Jack Davis and Don Duga, voices Alan Swift, Gale Garnett, and Boris Karloff, musician Maury Laws, a b/w reprinting of the entire Dell comic book (above), the pressbook, lobby cards, posters and stills. It’s everything EXCEPT the movie itself (which Goldschmidt had a hand in restoring). You’ve seen the movie – now read the book. It’s also a great gift for the stop-mo maniac on your Christmas “chopping” list.

Donato Sansone (aka Milkyeyes) is back. His previous film was the experimental Videogioco. His new film, Topo Glassato al Cioccolato, is (literally) a mind-blowing stream-of-consciousness pencil sketch animation. Not Safe For Work.

This fun little Christmas short by students (Jess Hilliam, Carlyle Wilson, Lillian Lai, Mike Jones, Courtney Pearson and Josh Pan) from North Vancouver’s Capilano University’s was the final for their first semester 3D program.

An animated interpretation of musicologist and filmmaker John Cohen’s first meeting with Harry Smith, the experimental filmmaker and animator who compiled the Anthology of American Folk Music. Done for Greg Vandy’s folk music blog, American Standard Time by Drew Christie.

Here’s a beautiful holiday viral short by Yves Gelyn on behalf of Chobani Greek Yogurt.

A speck of dust in a desk drawer finds himself sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Poussière (aka Dust) is a sweet little film made ​​by Vic Chhun, Leyla Kaddoura and Nicolas Ughen at France’s EMCA in Angoulême.

(Thanks, J.J. Sedelmaier via The Reel)