CARTOON BLOG

Suddenly Hades

James Woods had a recurring role on Disney's House of Mouse whenever Hades made an appearance on the show.

Hades is one of the more popular villains from a Disney film (Hercules) so it's no surprise there are a couple of episodes devoted to the character.
"Suddenly Hades" is the first episode from House of Mouse's third and final season making it the 27th episode in all. Enjoy the story here with the 3 short cartoons removed making it more concentrated on James Woods' performance. ("What type of club you runnin' here Mick?" lol)

Freak Out on DVD

Warner Home Video has announced that April 21st will bring Freakazoid!: Season 2 to DVD.
http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Freakazoid-Season-2/11226
The final 11 episodes will be packaged together on 2 discs with plenty of special features.

Snagglepuss Backgrounds

I've always liked the simplistic painted backgrounds used in classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Here's an example of artwork by Richard H. Thomas from "Fraidy Cat Lion" a Snagglepuss cartoon featured during The Yogi Bear Show.

Comic Ball Cards 2

Last time, I blogged about "Looney Tunes All-Stars: Comic Ball Cards" that featured original artwork by Chuck Jones.
I guess both Warner Bros and Upper Deck thought they had a good idea going, so why stop there?
"Comic Ball Cards 2" was released the following year in 1991 featuring stories & artwork by The Dover Boys Studio.

I guess the idea was to create a sort of live action/animation feel to the stories by having the Looney Tunes characters interact with popular baseball players.

Here are a couple of stories that this series produced.

These cards actually have artwork on one side while baseball and Looney Tunes trivia take over the back side. When the cards are placed in collector sheets, the back of the cards create bigger pics of baseball players and Looney Tunes interacting.
I actually purchased a box of this series only to find out I did not get all the cards. These 2 stories are the only ones that come close to complete while missing 1 or 2 cards.

WHV to Release Saturday Morning Cartoon Collections

Warner Home Video is dipping into their rights to the Hanna-Barbera line of animated programming and is going to be releasing 2 DVD volumes of Saturday Morning Cartoon collections this May!
http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Bugs-Bunny-Looney-Tunes-Comedy-Hour-Sat_Morning_Cartoons/11199
Saturday Morning Cartoons - 1960's Volume 1 will feature such animated classics such as Top Cat, Atom Ant, Quick Draw McGraw, Secret Squirrel, The Porky Pig Show, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Jetsons, etc...etc...
Saturday Morning Cartoons - 1970's Volume 1 will feature more animated classics such as The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, Scooby's All Star Laff-a-Lympics Hour, The Flintstones Comedy Hour, Roman Holidays, Josie & The Pussycats in Outer Space, etc...etc...

More WB/HB Live Action Films Coming

With the surprising success that Fox had with "Alvin and the Chipmunks", Warner Bros feels they have a chance to cash in on a live-action/CG 'toon film with "Tom & Jerry".

http://www.variety.com/VR1117998898.html
It has worked before for Warners with the "successful" Scooby-Doo franchise as well as 2 films featuring the original Warner Bros 'toon crew, The Looney Tunes.

Along with Tom & Jerry, and the rights to Hanna-Barbera's line of animated properties, Warners also has big-screen adaptations in development featuring "The Jetsons" and "Yogi Bear".

Time and box office revenue will tell if these are good ideas after all. I don't have my fingers crossed though.

More Martin Tom & Jerry

Here's another example of Oscar Martin's Tom & Jerry with translation by Christopher Signore.
I wonder if we'll be seeing any of these T&J stories in collected volumes over here in North America anytime in the future? Great artwork and stories!

Gold Key Bunnies

I was looking through my comic collection yet again and came across this interesting strip from a 1956 Bugs Bunny Winter Fun Giant Comic from Gold Key Comics.
The story doesn't have a title but Bugs seemed to have other rabbits involved in his Gold Key universe.

I'm not sure if Horton Hare or Beefy Bunny made any other appearances in more stories? Wonder if anyone knows who the artist was behind this one?

Tex's Kwicky Board

I came across a neat find over at the Frederator Studios Blog!

A couple of storyboard pages from Tex Avery's last project before his death in 1980, the first Kwicky Koala cartoon, "In a Pig's Eye".
http://frederatorblogs.com/talk_to_the_snail/2008/04/09/tex-averys-kwicky-koala-board/
I hope we can eventually see the rest of the pages featuring artwork from the Golden Age animator/director who pretty much invented "wacky" cartoons.

More Tiny Toons This Spring

Warner Home Video will be releasing Tiny Toon Adventures: Season 1 Volume 2 on April 21st!
http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/tiny-toon-adventures2.html
The remaining 30 episodes of season 1 will be spread across 4 discs!
Here's the list of the episodes which consist of 3 shorts or 1 half-hour adventure.

DISC 1
Animaniacs!
Career Oppor-Toon-ities
Strange Tales of Weird Science
Inside Plucky Duck
The Acme Bowl
Dating, Acme Acres Style
Looniversity Days
Best O' Plucky Duck Day

DISC 2
Hero Hamton
Whale's Tales
Ask Mr. Popular
Son On Looniversity Daze
Mr. Popular's Rules of Cool
Fairy Tales for the 90's
Who Bopped Bugs Bunny?
Tiny Toon Music Television

DISC 3
The Return to the Acme Acres Zone
The Acme Home Shopping Show
Weirdest Story Ever Told
Viewer Mail Day
Son of the Wacko World of Sports
Pollution Solution
You Asked for It Again
Brave Tales of Real Rabbits

DISC 4 - SIDE 1
How Sweetie It Is
New Character Day
Here's Hamton
No Toon is an Island
K-ACME TV
High Toon

Lots of awesome, classic episodes make up the rest of the season!
I assume that Disc 4 - Side 2 will consist of special features not yet known at this time. Stay Tooned for details!

10 Years of Spongebob Squarepants

Nickelodeon is getting ready to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Steve Hillenburg's Spongebob Squarepants!

Keep an eye out for a first-ever full-length original Spongebob TV documentary, a first-ever live cast performance, a new online destination, new episodes (duh!) and a Seinfeld-esque TV movie!
Read more about the festivities here:
http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/9435

Translated Tom & Jerry Strips

Cartoonist Oscar Martin received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Warner Bros in 2002 for his career as scriptwriter and cartoonist of the Tom & Jerry comics.
His work has been published in numerous countries in various languages. Martin's art and stories were available in North America for a brief time when Harvey Comics was publishing a T&J title in the early '90s.
Earlier posts of Oscar Martin's T&J work can be seen here and here.
Thanks to my online friend Christopher Signore who owns some French issues of Martin's Tom & Jerry comics, Chris took the time to translate and scan some strips for our reading pleasure. Be sure to check out Chris' artwork on his personal website!

More Spectacular Spidey on DVD

The modern animated series based on Marvel Comics' web-slinger has not 1, but 2 new DVD releases hitting shelves in March '09!
http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Spectacular-Spider-Man
The Spectacular Spider-Man - Vol 2: Rise of the Super-Villains and The Spectacular Spider-Man - Vol 3: The Goblin Strikes! will be single disc releases with a 90 minute run time.

Artsy Animation: Pizzicato Pussycat

A post ultimately inspired by reading Cartoon Modern by Amid Amidi, style and design of 50's animation was highly influenced by modern design and contemporary styles of the time.
1955's Pizzicato Pussycat, a Merrie Melodie directed by Friz Freleng, features a stylized look based on the modernist look of cartoons created during that period.
The character designs and backgrounds are simplistic but read well while simply being graphic shapes. Layouts and Backgrounds for the short are credited to Hawley Pratt and Richard H. Thomas.
Check out this great artwork!