Online Animation News Round-Up

*Disney animator and character designer Jin Kim has started a sketchblog that includes the humorous image above of animator Glen Keane playing the role of his character Tarzan.

* DreamWorks character designer Shannon Tindle is peeved (and justifiably so) about the new Blu-Ray DVD edition of Sleeping Beauty and how all of the DVD’s bonus features and documentary material omit mention of one of the film’s primary visual architects: character stylist Tom Oreb. When I wrote about Tom Oreb in my magazine Animation Blast back in 2001, there was admittedly very little information available about his career. It was only after a year of research and interviews with the likes of Vic Haboush, Ward Kimball, Ollie Johnston, David Swift, Iwao Takamoto, Marty Murphy, Ray Aragon, and Oreb’s sister Mary that I managed to compile a substantial account of his life and work. Today, thankfully, it’s a different story. Everybody is aware of Tom Oreb and his invaluable contributions to the Disney studio…well, everybody it seems except for the people that Disney hires to produce documentaries about their company.

* “Of Cabbages and Kleins” is a thoughtful (and thought-provoking) essay by animation historian Michael Barrier about labor politics, the Disney strike of 1941, animator Phil Klein and liberal journalist Naomi Klein (author of No Logo).

* I can’t remember the last time I’ve been jealous of anybody, but I’m definitely jealous of my animation pal Matt Jones who recently visited the legendary cartoonist Ronald Searle in France. He writes about the experience on his blog. Matt also runs the fine Ronald Searle Tribute blog.

* Richard O’Connor of Asterisk Animation has written an insightful post about collaborating with Kim Deitch and They Might Be Giants on this piece of animation: