Cartoon Brew

HOW BETTY BOOP GETS THAT WAY

Digging through the archives today, I came across this two page article from a coverless magazine (I have no idea what publication or what year this is from) detailing the behind the scenes process of making a Betty Boop cartoon! If anyone can positively identify the people these photos, we'd greatly appreciate!

McBOING BOING IN FLASH

Here's a sneak peak at Classic Media's new Gerald McBoing Boing show for Cartoon Network, courtesy of Cookie Jar Entertainment

JOE GRANT TRIBUTE

Disney will host a tribute to the late Joe Grant (1908-2005) on Tuesday night June 28th at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Leonard Maltin will host, and guest speakers (including Eric Goldberg, Mike Gabriel, Pete Docter, David Stainton, Don Hahn, Burny Mattinson, Dean DeBlois, Roy Disney, among others) will tell personal stories of their collaborations and encounters with the legendary storyman. "Pink Elephants on Parade," "Baby Weems," "Willie the Operatic Whale," and "Lorenzo" will be screened.

LORD OF THE BEANS

Director Kent Butterworth (Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures) has informed us of his current project - and animated feature he created, got funded, and is currently in production on: Lord of the Beans.

Got animation back on the 1st 5 minutes of the movie, and I'll be posting it as a Promo and showing at VSDA in Las Vegas next month. I'm pretty excited about this - there needs to be more independent cartoons made - Am I the only one trying to do this?

PIXAR GOES MAD

I don't know how I missed this, but Steve Segal just pointed out the December 2004 issue of MAD MAGAZINE (with The Incredibles on the cover) which featured dozens of cameos (Brad Bird and Steve Jobs, above) of the Pixar staff - and then some. Two of the "unemployed hand drawn animators" look like my pals Eric Goldberg and Nancy Beiman (see below). The MAD spread is loaded with in-jokes and great digs at Disney. Well worth the effort to track down the back issue.

BOOP FEST

August 9th is Betty Boop's 75th Anniversary. And if you happen to be in Southern California on Saturday and Sunday July 16th and 17th - and you aren't at the San Diego Comic Con - you can celebrate a few weeks early in Montebello (look it up on Mapquest). That's where & when the 20th Annual Betty Boop Festival will be held, sponsored by Heavenly Choice, the world's largest Betty Boop store. Festival director Denise Hagopian has programmed two full days of events which include a Betty Boop look-alike contest, a Boop swap meet, a collectors club meeting and err... a Betty Boop tattoo show n' tell.

HEAVENLY CHOICE
534 No. Montebello Blvd.
Montebello, CA 90640
(323) 728-2728

One Man Band

Pixar's latest short film ONE MAN BAND debuted last week at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The film was written and directed by Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews. The short tells the "tale of a peasant girl who encounters two competing street performers who'd prefer the coin find its way their tip jars. As the two one-man bands' rivalry crescendos, the two overly eager musicians vie to win the little girl's attention."
(images via Liudger blog)

BREWING

Nice still from Tex Avery's final MGM cartoon CELLBOUND (1955). Note that background painter Vera Ohman and ink & paint supervisor Art Goble signed the certificate on the wall.

Amid and I are busy toiling on separate projects... thus the lack of new posts here recently. We'll be back soon, with several contests and giveaways... as well as more links, critiques, reviews and rants. Stay tooned...

RAY BRADBURY

Our friend Brooke Keesling (aka Boobie Girl) wrote in to tell us about a very unique art show that will be taking place for one day only, this Sunday June 19 at THE FOUNDRY in downtown Los Angeles.

It is an art show commissioned by Ray Bradbury featuring the artwork of CalArts animation students, alumni and one of their key professors, E. Michael Mitchell.

There will be many industry professionals attending from live action, visual effects and animation. Both Ray Bradbury and Roy Disney will be in attendance as well. The show runs all day, from 11am to 11pm so there is plenty of time to drop by to be amazed.

RAY BRADBURY Future Fest
Sunday, June 19, 2005
11:00 a.m. trough 11:00 p.m
*Ray Bradbury will be present from 7pm to 9pm
THE FOUNDRY
1583 Fishburn Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90063

FRED & TED

Remember Beginner Books? The Random House series of books for kids initiated by Dr. Suess with THE CAT IN THE HAT and GREEN EGGS AND HAM?

They continue on - and I'm happy to report animator Tony Eastman (under the pen name Peter Eastman) has picked up where his father (animation writer Phil Eastman - aka P.D. Eastman of "Go, Dog, Go!") left off. Tony has just released FRED AND TED GO CAMPING.

This is my first children's book. I am doing less animation work, which gave me time to do this book. As you must know, Fred and Ted are from my father's book "Big Dog... Little Dog". I did some additional illustrations for that book when it was reissued in a hard cover format. That led to me doing this book. I believe my father intended to do a series of books with these characters and was unable to see it through. I picked up where he left off... almost 35 years later.

Tony is one of New York's best animators and cartoon directors, and is currently doing storyboards for various New York studios and animation for J.J. Sedelmaier.

ANIMATED AND CONSTIPATED

Here's a lost industrial cartoon I'd like to see... THE AMAZING RECOVERY OF INBAD THE AILER. This animated cartoon was shown somewhere during the 1939 New York World's Fair, and hasn't been seen since. Sultan Inbad was the cartoon spokesperson for Saraka Laxative, a product of the Schering Corporation. This animated cartoon has all the earmarks of a Walter Lantz production. An 18 page color storybooklet (illustrated with stills from the film) and button were distributed to Fair goers - and that's all that remains of this piece.

If anyone has a film print, let us know. Here are some intriguing images from the production.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I gotta go...