Archive for the 'Animation' Category
California Girl
August 1st, 2008Swindle magazine interviews L.A.-based artist Amanda Visell (via the wonderful Grain Edit). Looking around Amanda’s website, I’d say she has the “twisted ’50s animation study” look down pat. Lovely, lovely work. I would so love to have a framed print of this one in my bedroom:
Blue Ribbon Release
July 31st, 2008Jerry Beck reveals the special features included on the sixth and final Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set (via Something Old, Nothing New). While it’s sad that this will be the last set, I can understand the reasoning behind it. Warner Home Video still plans to release restored vintage WB cartoons on DVD for the […]
Cheap Thrill: Color Classics Cartoons
May 29th, 2008We’ve been spending the last few nights having a re-viewing of the nicely packaged Max Fleischer Color Classics: Somewhere In Dreamland DVD, which originally came out in 2002. The shorts in the set are pallid imitations of Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies cartoons of the ’30s, for sure, but they are fun despite the sometimes shoddy […]
Company Picnic
April 11th, 2008While viewing one of Shout! Factory’s Best of the Electric Company DVDs yesterday, a couple of clips stood out in a) unearthing tingly deja-vu feelings, and b) showcasing the often daring visual and musical cues the show took. These are both from episode #453, which first aired on January 15, 1975. The kinetic and colorful […]
Differently Animated
December 3rd, 2007We love Aardman and Creature Comforts. So I was delighted to find that they’ve applied the C.C. formula to a series of British PSAs that call attention to people with disabilities. (via Cartoon Brew)
P.S. I should also note that the flop American version of Creature Comforts has been released on DVD. The disc contains the […]
Revisiting Twice Upon a Time
September 14th, 2007Looks like our pal Ward Jenkins has done it again with a lengthy examination on the forgotten 1983 animated feature Twice Upon a Time in which he interviews animation expert and Twice superfan Taylor Jenssen. Like Ward, I first came across this movie long ago on VHS after reading something about it somewhere (Premiere magazine […]
The Electric Light Orchestra/Animation Connection
August 12th, 2007Recently I bought one of the recently marked-down Simpsons DVD box sets at Amazon. Needing something else to qualify for freee Super Saver shipping, I tossed in a copy of The Essential Electric Light Orchestra. Now, this was a band that I liked as a kid. I can remember having my mom buy me a […]
Mostly I Want to Play ‘Baby Bash’
July 29th, 2007As a special treat for Christopher’s birthday, the two of us caught an opening day screening of The Simpsons Movie. I was excited, and a bit leery. The Simpsons is a classic, one of the best shows on TV, but the creators have gone into autopilot over the last decade. I cherish the first 8 […]
Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart
July 8th, 2007X-Entertainment visits one of the 7-11 outlets restyled as The Simpsons‘ Kwik-E-Mart. The makeover looks like a fun idea, and an insanely popular one at that, but they did it to only eleven outlets across the country. What kind of Mr. Burns-style exec approved that one? D’Oh! Via Gael at PCJM, who also got to […]
Furry Gourmet
July 7th, 2007We had a relatively exciting Saturday today. Out of the house by 10:00 a.m. (because no Phoenician does anything after noon in July), we journeyed to the local multiplex to catch an early showing of Ratatouille. It was sweet fun, filled with wonderful characters and a tangible sense of the aromas and tastes that fine […]
God Hates Reckless Drivers
June 12th, 2007You gotta love the internet these days, when you can read about something in a book and then turn around and check it out online. The book: Amid Amidi’s Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation. The film: Stop Driving Us Crazy from 1959. This jazzy short occupies the weird intersection where Christian values […]
Clay Pigeons (And Other Critters)
June 6th, 2007Did anybody see the Americanized Creature Comforts on CBS? Did anything in that preceding sentence make sense? I’m a huge fan of the UK edition of this program, along with pretty much anything Nick Park/Aardman does, so personally this was a genuine treat. For those unfamiliar with C.C., they take the recordings of real people […]
Military Style Hare Cut
May 28th, 2007Happy Memorial Day. In honor of our fighting men and women, let’s watch Bugs Bunny, fat Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig shilling war bonds to the tune of Any Bonds Today? Because nothing says “patriotism” like Bugs doing an Al Jolson impersonation:
The Land of Coulda Shoulda
April 26th, 2007You probably already know that I’m crazy about theme parks, both real and imagined. So it kinda blew my mind when I came across these concept drawings for an unbuilt Hanna-Barbera theme park which Dan Goodsell shared at his Sampler of Things weblog. The six-year-old inner me is jumping up and down at the thought […]
LOL in Activity
April 22nd, 2007I’d file Something Awful’s hilarious parody of Cartoon Brew in the “better late than never” category since it came out on the 12th. It’s still funny, though. From the obituary of fictional old-as-dirt animator Terp Henderson:
Though most of Terp’s work has gone unseen by the public, he will mainly be remembered by the competent cel-painting […]
