Here’s a talkback post dedicated to all the students who have graduated from animation schools in 2010. Now that it’s been three to four months since graduation, I’m curious to hear who’s had success finding a job in the animation industry. Would love to hear from students all over about what the job situation is like in your part of the world. And with schools starting up again right now, this year’s juniors and... 

Yesterday’s post about Marge Champion (née Belcher) reminded me of an article in the April 4, 1938 issue of Life about her role in Snow White . The two-page piece has some nice images of her acting alongside Louis Hightower, the movement model for Prince Charming. The article also mentions that “Miss Belcher’s Prince Charming in private life is Arthur Babbitt, one of the Disney animators, whom she married last summer.”... 

With all the RIP posts recently, it’s refreshing to hear some news about animation veterans who are alive. Today is the 91st birthday of Marge Champion. Tomorrow is the 96th birthday of Willis Pyle. If you don’t know who these talented individuals are (or even if you do), it’s worth heading over to John Canemaker’s blog for a very nice tribute to both of them .  Read More →

Animation historian Harvey Deneroff writes perceptively about animation past and present, and not so long ago, he wrote something about computer animation that caught my attention and which helps to explain the ever-increasing complexity of animation imagery. He calls it “Deneroff’s Law” : In 1958, C. Northcote Parkinson, famously stated in Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress, that, “Work expands so as to fill the... 

Rummaging through some old paperwork, animator Mike Kazaleh recently came across a Disney TV publicity packet he obtained in 1989 while working on Tiny Toon Adventures . This was material sent to TV stations around the country to prepare them for the coming syndicated package The Disney Afternoon. What surprised him (and I) was that the material is page-after-page of anti-Bugs Bunny, anti-Warner cartoon information, with charts and graphs and... 

There’s a holiday weekend coming up – and as usual, I’ll be spending most of it in a darkened theatre – starting tonight! I’ll start the long weekend by showing vintage 16mm musical films and cartoons to open the Janet Klein show tonight at the Steve Allen Theatre . Tonight’s show is a party to celebrate her new album, Whoopee Hey! Hey! . It’s gonna be good. It starts at 8pm. Tickets: here . Beginning... 

Check this out: A size chart of about 600 different Hanna-Barbara characters – from Ruff and Reddy (1957) to The Powerpuff Girls (1998) – drawn to scale by Chilean-based graphic designer Juan Pablo Bravo. Click Here . (Thanks, Kelly Aarons )  Read More →

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack ends its series run tonight on Cartoon Network after forty-six episodes. Chowder , which also ended its run earlier this year, lasted forty-nine episodes. The last eleven-minute episode of Flapjack titled “Fish Out of Water” will have live-action portions, and features an appearance by creator Thurop van Orman, and his son, Leif (pictured above), who portrays Flapjack. (Thanks, Compn)  Read More →

(Thanks, Ed Austin, via The Movie Blog )  Read More →

Slim pickings this week: Lio (8/26) by Mark Tatulli; The Argyle Sweater (8/22) by Scott Hilburn; and Reality Check (8/27) by Dave Whammond. (Thank you Jim Lahue, Kurtis Findlay, Charles Brubaker and Ed Austin)  Read More →

Here’s a roundup of few new books that several publishers and authors were kind enough to send my way: ANIMATED PERFORMANCE (Ava Publishing) by Nancy Beiman is an instant classic. There have been many many “how-to” books written by current and past animation masters in recent years, many of them quite good (Richard Williams and Eric Goldberg’s books come to mind first). Beiman’s new book concentrates solely on character... 

Speaking of animator Paul Fierlinger (as we did yesterday ), The Animal Shelter Project and the Humane Society has brought Fierlinger together with cartoonist Patrick McDonnell (Mutts) to create six public service spots based on the book Mutts Shelter Stories . According to producer Peter Barg, “McDonnell felt Paul’s ability to capture true-to-nature body language was the perfect complement to his famous Mutts characters”. Fierlinger’s... 

It’s not a good week to be a Japanese animation legend. Stop motion animator and puppeteer Kihachiro Kawamoto, passed away last Monday at age 85. The cause of death was pneumonia. From Wikipedia : Born in 1925, from an early age Kihachiro Kawamoto was captivated by the art of doll and puppet making. After seeing the works of maestro Czech animator Jiri Trnka, he first became interested in stop motion puppet animation and during the 50s... 

Paul Fierlinger’s animated feature My Dog Tulip opens for an exclusive two-week run on September 1st at the Film Forum in New York. It opens later in other US cities ( complete list of cities here ). Fierlinger is an exceptional and exceptionally devoted animation filmmaker (he made the artwork for his film with only one other person—his wife, Sandra), and I can’t wait to finally see the results. As this article from the Boston... 

A few weeks ago I recieved a call from the fine folks at the PBS show History Detectives . Seems they had someone who found a cache of animation cels, but couldn’t figure out who the characters were, and wondered if these cels had any historical significance. I met up with history detective Tukufu Zuberi and took a look at what they found: rare cels from the first Buddy cartoon, Buddy’s Day Out (1933). Pretty cool. If you haven’t...