October 02, 2004

Discovering Dogs In Iceland

Saturday, July 17, 2004
_________________________

Mark Zaslove has killed me. He's shown me where to get the BEST HOT DOGS IN THE WORLD, and I know I'm going to eat them until I explode. The no-preservative meat has a crisp-but-tender quality that's probably attributable to some cruel, Icelandic butchering technique, there's a sort of yellow sauce squirted on them that must have crack or something in it because I WANT MORE RIGHT NOW, but the absolutely orgasmic aspect of these weenies is the crisp bed of fried onion bits that lines the bottom of every bun! YUM!

Nothing else today has happened that's as important as this, so I'll sign off now.

Ken Pontac
Writing with my mouth full,
Iceland

Posted by at 01:14 AM

October 01, 2004

Ottawa Report

While I continue to procrastinate writing my Ottawa report (it'll be sometime next week folks), check out the September 28 entry HERE for some Ottawa thoughts by Tom Neely, co-director of the Flash short BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A JOB?.

Posted by AMID at 05:44 PM

Satan...With A Learning Disability

Scrubbles.net has a brief report on a talk given by SIMPSONS writer/producer Mike Reiss, which confirms that the SIMPSONS movie is moving full steam ahead, as well as a couple other bits that may interest SIMPSONS buffs.


Posted by AMID at 01:44 PM

Ronnie and Enrico in LA

Pixar's Ronnie del Carmen and Enrico Casarosa will be having an art show, "Fragments and More", at Meltdown Comics (7522 Sunset Blvd) this weekend. The opening reception is Saturday, October 2, from 6-9 pm. Enrico and Ronnie will be showing original artwork from their various indie projects like NINA, MIA and FRAGMENTS. Find out more about the show HERE.


Posted by AMID at 12:41 PM

FPS IS BACK

Emru Townsend, the original editor of FPS: FRAMES PER SECOND, is relaunching the magazine in February 2005 as an online-only pub that will include a free downloadable PDF version. He's also just started up the fps blog which promises to be a thoughtful outlet for cartoon views. There's already some nice posts about his experiences at the Ottawa Animation Festival.

Posted by AMID at 12:33 PM

Sleep...Finally

Friday, July 16, 2004
_________________________

Jumping Jesus on a smoldering birch bark canoe, these slave-driving Vikings have got me working harder than I ever have in my life! There are multiple meetings with the mercurial Magnus today, and he's such a fast thinker and talker that I'd have to be a stenographer to write down everything he wants to see in the script. As it is, I'm too busy taking pictures of him jumping around as he describes the action of the characters to take any notes. Thank God Susan got me an iTalk attachment when she bought me my iPod. With the iTalk I digitize the notes, listen to them with headphones, and insert them all in a revised script.

I turn in my revision and am allowed to collapse, every calorie of energy sucked from my body. I catch a few quick winks then take off to join some friends for dinner. David Latham is an astrophysicist who's here to attend a Mad Scientist Convention discussing the possibility of life on other planets, and his equally bigbrained wife Ginny is a doctor who I hope can answer a question that's been nagging me since the first time I closed my eyes in Iceland:

Mystery solved! The cure for my condition: GET SOME DAMN SLEEP!
Goodnight to all (doctor's orders!) - Ken Pontac, Iceland

Posted by at 02:22 AM

September 30, 2004

A SIMPSONS SCOOP

patty.jpg
The Simpsons is set to reveal that Marge's sister is a lesbian.

According to Ananova.com, this season the purple-haired Patty decides to pursue women after being snubbed by every man in Springfield. She finds true love after being seduced in a bar by a butch lesbian. Homer - who dubbed Patty and twin sister Selma the "gruesome twosome - is horrified at first. But according to early scripts, he ends up being ordained as a minister - then marrying Patty and her girlfriend.

Posted by at 10:39 PM

More Girl Graffiti

Ward Jenkins, a talented director and designer at Atlanta's Primal Screen who I finally met in Ottawa last week after many email exchanges, points out that there's another Toulouse, France-based graffiti artist, Miss Van who has been doing the 'plump girl-style' longer than Fafi. Says Ward, "[Miss Van]'s work does fall into a certain rut, as all her girls look the same, with highly-stylized features and over-the-top sexuality, but there's something more to them than from what I saw in Fafi's work. My two cents."


Posted by AMID at 10:06 PM

Prehistoric Rice

Katie Rice (aka 'KatieNice'), currently working as a designer on Disney's MAGGIE THE MAGGOT series, has posted a handful of super-appealing cavegirl sketches HERE. (Thanks to Shane G. for the link)


Posted by AMID at 09:47 PM

THE NEW "TOON BOOM"

Evidence that a new "toon boom" is upon us - with the highly anticipated release of THE INCREDIBLES, ROBOTS, CHICKEN LITTLE, MADAGASGAR, CARS in the next 18 months - comes with this announcement about Wild Brain and Miramax.

Is this another Disney buffer against losing Pixar? Sounds like it to me - but it's an exciting move that adds another player to the growing list of current CGI cartoon factories: Blue Sky, Pixar, Disney, Sony, Dreamworks and ILM.

Posted by at 11:15 AM

"THE PENGUINS ARE PSYCHOTIC!"

Now, THIS looks good: the teaser trailer for MADAGASCAR.

Posted by at 09:54 AM

REMEMBERING FRANK

fthomas.jpg
Charicature by
Ollie Johnston
Last night at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Disney held a memorial for Frank Thomas. It was a wonderful heart felt, loving tribute to the man and his life, produced with class by the Disney Studio and Howard Green.

As we entered the theatre - large personal photos of Frank were projected on the El Capitan screen. Buena Vista President Dick Cook made a few opening remarks and introduced Amy and Howard Green, who acted as hosts for the evening. Among the speakers were animation historians John Culhane and Charles Solomon, animators Andreas Deja and John Lasseter, family members Gregg Thomas, Doug Thomas and Ted Thomas and personal friends Marshall Ayers and Alan Kay. Leonard Maltin did a short on-stage interview with Ollie Johnston.

A few clips were shown: an excerpt about the spagetti scene in Lady And The Tramp from Ted Thomas' Frank & Ollie documentary; Frank & Ollie's cameo scenes in The Iron Giant and The Incredibles; Frank's first computer animation (from 1986); a musical home recording Frank made in 1941; a great The Firehouse Five Plus Two performance from a 1962 TV show Jazz Scene; and the evening concluded with the squirrel sequence from The Sword In The Stone, a scene Frank apparently requested be shown at his memorial.

Chocolate chip cookies were given to everyone as they entered the theater. The mood was upbeat, the presentation was tasteful, funny and reverent.

Rest In Peace. Franklin Rosborough Thomas, September 5, 1912 - September 8, 2004.

Posted by at 09:17 AM

September 29, 2004

CANEMAKER ALERT!

This just in:
Get the New York Times this Sunday (Oct. 3) or visit them online, for John Canemaker's latest - a lengthy article on THE INCREDIBLES and Pixar's breakthrough animation of human characters.

Posted by at 11:29 AM

September 27, 2004

Ottawa Over...

Ottawa '04 has concluded and a complete list of winners can be found HERE. Grand prize for short film went to Chris Landreth's RYAN and best feature went to RAINING CATS AND FROGS. Numerous other awards were handed out in other categories, and notably, no award was given in the Machinima category (wink, wink...hint). Personally, I had a terrific time at the festival and it seems that everybody else did too (well, everybody but the Machinima filmmakers). I'll file a lengthy report upon my return to LA. At the moment, I've taken a little side trip to Montreal and have found a charming (and quite crowded) coffee shop on St. Laurent with wi-fi access (thanks for the tips Emru).


Posted by AMID at 07:00 PM

WATCHING ANIME

fredsbook.jpgI just recieved a copy of Fred Patten's book Watching Anime, Reading Manga, and I highly recommend it. It's hard to believe that this is technically Fred's first book. (He's contributed essays to several - and was co-editor of The Complete Anime Guide, 2nd Edition) I've known Fred for quite a long time now, and have always admired his knowledgable opinions and writings on anime. He may very well be anime's first true scholar.

This new book collects 25 years worth of Fred's best articles, columns and reviews. Reading it will give you a comprehensive overview of Japanese animation, as well as the story of American anime fandom and the emergence of it's influence in western popular culture. If you could only have one book on anime, this is the one to get. Fred covers everything from Tezuka to Miyazaki, From 8th Man to Dragonball Z in an entertaining, informative way.
Congratulations, Fred. Go-Go-Go!

Posted by at 04:05 PM

September 26, 2004

SURVEY RESULTS

According to the results of a just-released survey on behalf of Boomerang UK, Tom & Jerry are the most popular cartoon characters of adults aged between 25 and 54. Over 1000 adults were polled by telephone, according to this article on BBC News.

It's nice to see Popeye and Bugs Bunny rank so high. These results also explain why Warner Home Video is rushing a Wacky Races dvd collection to market. Can a Hong Kong Phooey season one boxed set be far behind? Here's the complete top ten:

1) Tom and Jerry (1940)
2) Scooby-Doo (1969)
3) Dangermouse (1981)
4) Top Cat (1961)
5) The Flintstones (1960)
6) Bugs Bunny (1940)
7) Popeye (1933)
8) Road Runner (1964)
9) Wacky Races (1968)
10) Hong Kong Phooey (1974)

Posted by at 08:25 PM