Spielberg to Produce...
Steven Spielberg will exec produce a live-action TV series based on the popular...
Archive
You’re Goin’ to the Moon, June?
If there is anyone in the animation field who truly needs no introduction, it is June Foray. The First Lady of Animation has accomplished so much in her long and varied career—which is still going strong—that it is difficult to recount it all. She is celebrated worldwide for her cartoon [...]
Roman Knows: What’s In a Name
Phil Roman has settled into being an elder statesman of the animation industry—something of an irony (if an inevitable one) for a man once described by Chuck Jones as “the youngest animator in the business.” When Jones declared him so, in the mid-1960s, Phil really was: he spanned the gap [...]
Fighting the System: Merle Welton
For every recorded love story between an artist and their animation studio, there are many other relationships that landed on the rocks. One such involved Merle Welton, a native New Yorker who in the late 1940s came to California armed with a college degree and the goal of being an [...]
Simon Said
One of the true pioneers of comic books, Joe Simon, passed away last week at the age of 98. Unlike his early creative partner Jack Kirby, Joe never worked directly in the toon trenches, though Captain America, the character he co-created with Kirby in 1941, has certainly been animated, first [...]
Acting 101 with Don Bluth
How many of these blogs have begun with the phrase, or even the thought: As hard as it may be to imagine today, back then it was like this…? And “back then” wasn’t all that long ago, but that is the point: the changes that have occurred in animation over [...]
Into the Woods with Keane & Pocahontas
One often hears animators described as actors with pencils. You also hear Walt Disney Feature Animation legend Glen Keane described as “the Laurence Olivier of animation.” Anyone who doubts that should take a look at Pocahontas (1995), for which Keane supervised the animation of the title character, and “dracted”—a combination [...]
Big Innovation from Little Packages
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a chat I had with Brendan Fraser regarding the fine art of acting on a set opposite characters that aren’t really there, but will be added later through animation. Whether the animation in question is a gigantic, towering robot, as in the case [...]
Don’t Judge a Judge by his Characters!
Recently I bumped into an old acquaintance who happened to mention that he had been a good friend of Bob Clampett during the legendary toonmaker’s latter-day career. He described Clampett as being just as funny and crazy in his private life as his characters were on-screen (well, maybe not quite [...]
Ralph Bakshi and the Canadian Caper, Part 3 of 3
The story so far: In the late 1960s Ralph Bakshi is sent by American producer Steve Krantz to Al Guest Productions in Toronto to try and salvage the animated series Rocket Robin Hood, which is in lawsuit hell. But when Ralph plans to bring layouts and model sheets back to [...]
Ralph Bakshi and the Canadian Caper, Part 2
Our story so far: Ralph Bakshi is asked by producer Steve Krantz to take over production of a troubled series, Rocket Robin Hood, which is being produced in Canada by Al Guest and a multi-national crew. He goes, having no idea what he’s walking into… “I took over the studio, [...]
Jon Vitti to Pen ‘Angry...
Emmy-winning writer Jon Vitti, who has worked on hit toons The Simpsons and...
Global TV News Bytes: Guru,...
+ Canadian indie Guru Studio and publishing partner Immedium have released a...
