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
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?.
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.
Friday, July 16, 2004
_________________________
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
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.
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)
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.
Now, THIS looks good: the teaser trailer for MADAGASCAR.
Charicature by Ollie Johnston |
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.
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.
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!
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)