New Dates Set for DreamWorks...
Fox has announced the latest release dates for two of upcoming DreamWorks...
Archive
The Tale of ‘The Tale of Tillie’s Dragon’
One of these years I’m going to sit down and put together an entire book-length history of the “Toon Boom.” I’m not speaking of the Canadian software company by that name, but rather the period from the mid 1990s through the early 2000s, when every studio in Hollywood and even [...]
Remembering Ray
In 2002 I received a call from my editor at the Los Angeles Times, asking if I would be interested in interviewing Ray Harryhausen. After ascertaining who I had to kill to get such an assignment, I found myself a few days later driving out to a house in the [...]
Who Can Turn the World on with His Voice
Whereas once animation was the province of a small, but talented group of actors who specialized in voice work––Mel Blanc, June Foray, Daws Butler and Don Messick among others––today one is just as apt to see a major Hollywood A-lister taking a role in an animated project as not. This [...]
The Life Cycle of DNA
Don’t worry, there isn’t going to be a science quiz at the end of this week’s blog. The “DNA” in question is the great, and unfortunately late, Texas-based animation studio that was responsible for the hit TV show and feature Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and the 2006 film The Ant [...]
The End of an Era …Yet Again
Last month’s announcement that the Walt Disney Company would no longer pursue traditional feature animation brought some mixed responses among toon heads. For many it was the final death knell for hand-drawn animation. For others, though, the announcement was déjà vu all over again. Like the Western movie, traditional feature [...]
Remembering Annette
I’m going to take a little detour this week out of the Toon Trenches to remember a person who was enormously important to the Walt Disney Studios in the 1950s, and whose passing was just was announced: Annette Funicello. Anyone of my generation knows both versions of Annette: the teenaged [...]
So Stan Lee Walks out of a Bar…
If there was one take-away from last week’s WonderCon in Anaheim, it was this: the barriers between comic books, animation and live action have probably never been thinner from a creative standpoint. At least, that was the message I came home with (well, that and that people who look like [...]
A Face Made for Voice-Over
Few men in the history of animation had as hard a time forging a career as actor Regis Frick. It was not that Frick wasn’t a good actor; in fact, his recitations of Shakespeare were said to move audiences to tears. The problem was that Regis Frick’s had a face [...]
Jerry Eisenberg’s Flying Hippo
Like all professional toonheads, I’m sometimes asked to identify my favorite cartoon character. More specifically, those who know I tend to specialize in the history of Hanna-Barbera often want me to pinpoint my favorite H-B character. I usually reply with a laundry list of characters, saying that there is not [...]
So Jack and the Giant Haven’t Slayed ‘Em
Okay, I’m not here this week to heap any untoward abuse onto Warner Bros.’ CG/vfx extravaganza, Jack the Giant Slayer, whose beanstalk has so far failed to reach the heavens, financially. Instead I’m going to use this venue to remind people that, whatever might have caused Jack to languish at [...]
Wiig and Cooper Guest Voice...
The parade of stars stopping by The Simpsons office to do guest voice stints on...
Boinx Unveils New Features of...
German software producer Boinx has unveiled some special upgrades the 3.1...
