New Dates Set for DreamWorks...
Fox has announced the latest release dates for two of upcoming DreamWorks...
Archive
Alexander Film: A Forgotten Toon Powerhouse
Some years back I was talking with a veteran animation director about animation’s Golden Age. “Golden age?” he replied, with an expression of disdain, “I don’t remember getting very much gold.” It’s no secret that the hardworking, talented artists who created the classic cartoons of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s were [...]
Pixar’s Buried Treasures
Among my favorite things to discover and write about are “Easter eggs:” the little hidden references and in-jokes that crop up in practically everything that has ever been animated. Back in 2003, while researching an article about the Pizza Planet Truck, which has appeared in a cameo in nearly every [...]
Rick Hoberg’s Seriously ‘Amazing Friends’
What’s the classic line…“Everything old is new again?” Nowhere is that more evident than in the world of television. This week I’m thinking of what has happened to the television series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, which originally aired on NBC from 1981 to 1983. The show created a teen [...]
George Miller: The Eyes Have It
Hey, do you know that a feature-length version of Tim Burton’s 1984 animated short Frankenweenie is coming out? Of course you do. It’s hard not to, given the ad campaign. This week’s tale, however, is not about Frankenweenie or Burton specifically, or even how to market a toon feature; instead [...]
Hip, Hip, Foray!
I write these words on September 18, 2012, which happens to be the birthday of the First Lady of Animation, June Foray. What better time to once more celebrate the life and career of the best friend animation ever had? June—who won her first Emmy Award in June (when else?) [...]
Jeffrey and the Academy
One of the best things about having 25 years’ worth of interview transcripts in one’s garage is that it allows you to look back and see peoples’ assessments of and predictions for the ever-evolving animation industry. DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg has been at the forefront of toon trade for decades, providing [...]
John and Ron Mention ‘The Unmentionable’
This past weekend I had the pleasure of reconnecting with Disney Animation’s legendary “John and Ron”—John Musker and Ron Clements—at a Sherlock Holmes symposium sponsored by the Baker Street Irregulars. The two were there, of course, to speak about their 1986 film The Great Mouse Detective, which was their first [...]
Tartakovsky and the Road to Transylvania
Animation Renaissance man Tom Sito has a stock line he uses whenever he gives talks: he wonders what happened to the years in between, “Hey, kid, sharpen these pencils for me,” and, “You worked with Shamus Culhane?” In my own way I can relate, though it’s even harder for me [...]
Working with Phyllis Diller (Sort of!)
As I write this, the media is abuzz with news of the passing of two Hollywood figures that were in their own ways legends: Phyllis Diller and director Tony Scott. Phyllis died of natural causes and the age of 95, and had spent the last decade of her professional life [...]
Remembering the Olympiad of Animation
With the 2012 London Olympics still ringing in our eyes and ears (and with another four-year’s worth of post-event commentary to look forward to), I was reminded about the last time the Summer Games came to L.A., in 1984. The entertainment industry all but shut down for those two-plus weeks, [...]
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...
