Tis the season… to post another batch of 60s era in-house Walter Lantz Productions studio Christmas Cards – from the grateful staff to their beloved bosses, Walter and Gracie Lantz. We posted several of these from 1964-1971 back in May, courtesy of animation art collector Martin Almeyra. Martin was kind enough to provide a few more (click thumbnails below to enlarge) from 1965, 1967 and 1968. Look close and you can see the signatures of Lantz mainstays Paul Smith, Cal Howard, Les Kline, Sid Marcus, Al Coe and others. Click the image above for the card from 1963, when Art Davis was there between gigs at Warner Bros. and DePatie-Freleng.

Denis Chapon has been animating twelve drawings a day—everyday—for the past four years. The resulting stream of conscious short feels like an animated journal, bursting with creative concepts and happy accidents. The drawings were all done in pen.

Heads up on another free-wheeling interview with Hanna-Barbera veteran animators Jerry Eisenberg and Willie Ito, today on internet radio’s Stu’s Show. It’s being broadcast live at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific on StusShow.com. Both Willie and Jerry designed some great characters during their years at H&B, and Stu will dig in to get the whole story, along with a look at both gentlemens’ careers pre-and-post Hanna Barbera, in what promises to be a great show for every animation buff.

And next week (Dec. 14th) yours truly, Jerry Beck, will be on the broadcast with a bunch of news about upcoming cartoon DVDs. I’ll remind you again next week.

The latest spot, a powerful piece, from Paris based CRCR for Amnesty International. CRCR is an independant collective of artists including Remi Bastie, Nicolas Dehghani, NIcolas Pegon and Jérémy Pires, Kevin Manach and Paul Lacolley (the same team as Les Chiens Isolés).

CREDITS
Client: Amnesty International
Agency: LaChose
Production: WizzProd
Direction/Animation: CRCR
Sound design: Kouz

(Thanks, Wesley Lewis)

With the release last month of the feature film Arthur Christmas, Aardman Animation and Sony Pictures Animation pulled off a memorable new induction into the pantheon of holiday film fare. But pulling off this $100 million dollar computer animated feature proved to be just as difficult – and technical – as the North Pole’s yearly machinations seen in Arthur Christmas to deliver Christmas gifts to kids worldwide.

In Arthur Christmas, delivering presents has become a 21^st century enterprise with an army of elves, technological marvels, and a high-tech sleigh for Santa himself. Santa’s two sons Steve and Arthur work to coordinate the logistics while Santa himself delivers presents. The two sons are vying for the mantle of Santa as their father is nearing retirement age, but he isn’t so ready to pass the torch. An unfortunate mishap involving an undelivered toy leads the family in a scramble to determine how to deliver Christmas to one little girl.

Tackling the subject of Christmas for a film such as this can be both heartwarming and harrowing for filmmakers, as they try to get to the heart of the holiday without resorting to clichés.

“We didn’t want to set the movie in an entire world of Christmas, but to bring the holiday and its elements into the real world,” said Doug Ikeler, a visual effects supervisor at Sony Pictures Entertainment. “We didn’t want to take viewers to a new world, but rather bring this imaginary place into theirs. Although we knew Arthur Christmas wasn’t going to be clay animated, we wanted it just as tactile as the classic Aardman films with the overwhelming gritty reality of it all. ‘Tactile’ is the word I keep coming back to, bringing that to the scale, the texture and the environment of the film.”
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What fresh hell is this?

From the people that brought you Chop Kick Panda, here’s a new 45-minute, direct-to-dvd Puss in Boots knockoff done in the style of a Jay Ward Fractured Fairy Tale. Darrell Van Citters (Renegade Animation) explains:

“The cover was meant to create confusion in the marketplace by intimating that the film is CG but unfortunately bears virtually no resemblance to what’s actually on the DVD. I only directed it, but I worked with the writer to make sure he didn’t write anything that couldn’t be executed for more than a $1.98.”

If you can’t locate it in the bargain bins at Target, you can order it on Amazon for $6.69. It actually looks like fun… here’s a sample clip:

Walt Disney was born December 5th, 1901. Today would be his 110th birthday. He started as an independent cartoonist and filmmaker and built an empire based on animated cartoons. Rest in peace Walt – the world is a better place because of you.

Cartoonist Mark Tatulli honored the day with today’s Lio (above). Brazilian animation director Ale McHaddo marked the occasion by creating this parody (embed below), D. On Ice, a sci fi animated musical and a satiric jab at the Disney of today (and tomorrow).

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, has announced the nominations for its 39th Annual Annie Awards, recognizing the year’s best in the field of animation.

The slate of nominations for Best Animated Features tops 10 this year and include: A Cat in Paris (Folimage), Arthur Christmas (Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations), Arrugas (Wrinkles) (Perro Verde Films, S.L.), Cars 2 (Pixar Animation Studios), Chico & Rita (Chico & Rita Distribution), Kung Fu Panda 2 (DreamWorks Animation), Puss In Boots (DreamWorks Animation), Rango (Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies), Rio (Blue Sky Studios) and The Adventures of Tintin (Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall). The Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement goes to color stylist and background painter Walt Peregoy, animator Borge Ring and artist Ronald Searle; and the June Foray Award will be given to animator Art Leonardi for his “significant and charitable impact on the art and industry of animation”.

The 2011 Annie Award winners will be announced at the Annie Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 4th, 2012, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, CA. A pre-reception begins at 5:00 pm with the awards ceremony following at 7:00 pm. A post-show celebration immediately follows the ceremony. For ticket and event information, please visit annieawards.org.

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES

#1 – Best Animated Feature

A Cat in Paris – Folimage
Arrugas (Wrinkles) – Perro Verde Films, S.L.
Arthur Christmas – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
Cars 2 – Pixar Animation Studios
Chico & Rita – Chico & Rita Distribution Limited
Kung Fu Panda 2 – DreamWorks Animation
Puss In Boots – DreamWorks Animation
Rango – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies; A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
Rio – Blue Sky Studios
The Adventures of Tintin – Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall

#2 – Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production

Adventure Time: Thank You – Cartoon Network Studios
Batman: Year One – Warner Bros. Animation
Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas – Blue Sky Studios
Kung Fu Panda – Secrets of the Masters – DreamWorks Animation
Prey 2 –Blur Studio
Star Tours – Industrial Light & Magic

# 3 – Best Animated Short Subject
Adam and Dog – Lodge Films
I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat – Warner Bros. Animation
La Luna – Pixar Animation Studios
(Notes on) Biology – Ornana Films
Paths of Hate – Platige Image
Sunday – National Film Board of Canada
The Ballad of Nessie –Walt Disney Animation Studios
The Girl and the Fox – Base14
Wild Life – National Film Board of Canada and Studio GDS

Complete list of nominees follows the jump.
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