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Mater to Star in Pixar's "Cars Toons"

The rusty tow truck from the 2005 Pixar film Cars will be the headliner for a 3-part short series set to launch later this fall. The new cartoons will be directed by John Lasseter.
http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/8969
On a side note, expect to see a sequel to Cars released in the summer of 2011!

Depp Goes Mad

Johnny Depp has decided to help out his good friend Tim Burton again by taking on the role as the Mad Hatter for Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland adaptation.
http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/8961
The film is going to feature a live-action/CG animation mix and even though I'm not a fan of motion capture, Tim Burton + Wonderland should = "awesomeness".(on a side note from the linked article, "He’s (Depp) also suiting up for a fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean saga, and is set to play Tonto in a new Lone Ranger flick.")
Depp as Tonto? I don't know about that....

Astro Boy Hits Theaters October '09

Animation house Imagi Studios has announced an October 23, 2009 release of their CG-animated Astro Boy movie by Summit Ent.
http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/8953
Expect to see a slew of Astro Boy related merchandise in stores next summer to promote the film.

Waste Reduction Week "Spokes-Muppet"

Oscar the Grouch, that trash-loving, can-dwelling Muppet from Sesame Street has been tapped to be the official spokes-Muppet for Waste Reduction Week in Canada which kicks off next month.
http://green.sympatico.msn.ca/canadianpressarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=639345
I'm surprised nobody else thought of this yet...

Rabbit's Kin Redux

Misce-Looney-ous has posted something quite interesting. Someone on YouTube posted a version of 1952's "Rabbit's Kin" with the audio of the jabbering bunny sped down so you can hear Mel Blanc's original audio pitch.The original cartoon audio has the bunny's voice sped up so quickly, it's hard to catch what he's saying, but not anymore! Check it out here:
http://toolooney.blogspot.com/2008/09/rabbits-kin-1952-normal-speed-audio.html

Book Look: The Art of Roger Rabbit

Here's a great find I came across online...The Art of Who Framed Roger Rabbit is actually an illustrated catalog published by Sotheby's for an animation cel auction that was held in June of 1989.The book has a 9 page description of went into the making of the film and is filled with various animation art used in the movie. A lot of nice images make up this catalog.It seems they had the rights to sell the Disney, Warner Bros and Fleischer characters but no sight of the MGM and Walter Lantz characters.While flipping through the pages, I noticed some images that were not shown in the final picture. This notice was included: "All cels included in this sale are images actually used in, or deleted from, or were created in pre-production of the film..."
Mary Poppins and Music Land can be seen in these cels used(?) during the Yosemite Sam scene.A deleted scene had Baby Herman slipping a fin to his nursemaid.The scene where Eddie tries to throw Roger out his office seemed to be re-shot and animated.When the Weasels show up at Eddie's, Roger's anticipation into his wild take was trimmed out.A scene of Eddie explaining the connection between Cloverleaf and Maroon Cartoons was deleted.Here's an awesome cel collection that would look nice on my wall. The only time both Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny shared the screen together.Wonder if any of these are still available to purchase? I bet they would be worth a lot more than what they were 20 years ago...

Powerpuff Girls: Complete Anniversary Collector's Set

According to TVshowsonDVD.com, Warner Home Video is going to be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Craig McCracken's 78 episode series with a 6-disc set to be released this January!
http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Powerpuff-Girls-Anniversary-Collector-Set/10552
No official word from Warners themselves yet, but I'll keep you posted!

Little Go Beep on YouTube

This modern Looney Tunes cartoon from 2000 is finally viewable for cartoon fans out of the USA.
It has been available on AOL but only in the US. Watch it now before YouTube yanks it!

The basic plot has Wile's father, Cage E. Coyote telling his son that catching roadrunners are a coyote's fact of life. Wile is told "not another word until you catch a roadrunner"...

My Pet Monster on DVD?

If your a kid of the 80's, you probably remember the popular toy that featured a furry creature with horns that wore handcuffs?
My Pet Monster was quite a fad that also spun off an animated series in 1987. The doll seemed to be more interesting than the cartoon for some reason so it only ran for one season consisting of 13 episodes.

According to this link, My Pet Monster: The Complete Series will be shipping out on October 28th from Kaboom Entertainment.
From what I remember of the series, a boy finds a garbage eating monster that has escaped from Monsterland with a character named Beastur hot on his tracks. It was a fun, nostalgic series that was produced by Canada's Nelvana Animation Studio.

Ren & Stimpy Roughs

Jim Smith has posted some more rough sketches and production drawings used for the classic Ren & Stimpy Show.
http://jimsmithcartoons.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html
I colored the above image in Photoshop, I hope Jim doesn't mind...

A Simpsons Brain Cell?

According to this recent article, Californian researchers studying the neuroscience of memory have stumbled across an individual brain cell that fires up when a person watches an episode of The Simpsons and when remembering what happened in the episode, it fires up again.
The cell in question is located near the hippocampus, the area of the brain that is believed to be linked to memory.

Little Golden Inspiration

Hey there fellow cartoonists and illustrators!
Here is yet another gem that was recently released by Little Golden Books, 2007's "Your Friend the Rat".
The Pixar short was released along with the Ratatouille DVD and features quite the retro graphic look and the story book reflects that.
It helps when the images are illustrated by 10 artists: Nate Wragg, Teddy Newton, Scott Morse, Craig Foster, Jeff Pidgeon, Bob Scott, Willy Hwang, Jamie Frye, Sam Marin and Sanjay Patel!
(click the links for more info on each artist!)
Here's a sample of what this great book has to offer...

Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

Presented by Burger King, the creator of Family Guy will be in charge of a new internet series of animated shorts premiering September 10th...

I'm not sure if I agree with such statements as "Funniest Writer", "Genius of Parody" or "T.V.'s Most Innovative Mind" (kinda' full of himself, ain't he?) but to each their own.
Judging from the trailer, they might be good for a chuckle or two...

The Hanna Barbera Ride

Check out the animation from the now gone Hanna Barbera Ride from 1991 at Universal Studios!

This would be a sweet special feature if The Jetsons Movie was released on DVD ...
(A big thanks to Mike Media for the link!)

Bill Melendez 1916 - 2008

Another great Golden Age animator has passed on.
Animator, director and producer Bill Melendez died on September 2 at the age of ninety-one.
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/bill-melendez-rip.html
Bill started out as an assistant for Walt Disney Animation in 1938 working on various features and shorts. He later went to Warner Bros and worked in the Bob Clampett unit. UPA soon followed.
He finally met Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown, and proposed a television special called "A Charlie Brown Christmas". The rest is animation history.
RIP Mr. Melendez.

Heatchcliff Returning to Animation?

The other orange, fat and striped cat Heathcliff is going to be celebrating his 35th anniversary and the nephew of his creator George Gately, Peter Gallagher, is teaming up with FitzRoy Media to make sure he has an animation comeback.
http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/8851
There are talks about animated features and DVD releases...

Cartoon Collectables 2


Retro Woody, originally uploaded by JPox.

Here is a great piece produced by Electric Tiki Design!
Woody Woodpecker made his debut in the 1940 Andy Panda cartoon "Knock Knock". He was a crazy character and his original design suited his personality. Woody would be the headliner of his next cartoon in 1941 which is aptly named "Woody Woodpecker".

Cartoon Collectables 1


You Bad Ol' Puddy Tat, originally uploaded by JPox.

Over the years, an animation fan tends to find it irresistible to hold onto and collect toys and other memorabilia based on their favorite cartoon characters. I'm no different.
Here is a transformed Tweety from the 1960 cartoon "Hyde and Go Tweet". This figure was released with the line of action figures made to promote "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" from 2003. Tweety's "Hyde-transformation" scene was cut from the final film.

Original Disney Character Designs?

After watching the trailer for Disney's upcoming animated feature "Bolt", there are a couple of things that come to mind.
Not only do I personally prefer the original look of Chris Sander's "American Dog" which "Bolt" evolved from,
http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/2008/06/disneys-bolt.html
but the pigeons that appear in the trailer instantly reminded me of Warner Bros' Good Feathers characters that appeared in "Animaniacs".

I will give kudos to their hamster which seems like a fun character to watch, but there doesn't seem very much else that is "original". I guess only time and box office receipts will tell if this is a classic...