“Mentor. Inspire. Move forward.” These could be words to describe the story of Disney and Pixar’s Brave, but they are also words written by the film’s director Brenda Chapman in a 2012 article in The New York Times entitled, “Stand Up for Yourself, and Mentor Others.” The back story of the production of Brave is one fraught with challenges, but the result is a unique, rousing film, as well as an original offering in a realm that was wholly new for Pixar and for animation itself. The film would be a first for Pixar, as it would be a fairy-tale-like story, set in medieval Scotland, center on P ..read more

The Little King blu-ray set is back from replication! We’ll be sending the pre-orders in the coming days along with a special bonus disc. It’s listed on Amazon as of today as well. Once these sets are done, I really love just watching the set as if we didn’t put it together. The work of Jim Tyer and George Stallings as well as the rest of the Van Beuren staff holds up pretty well exactly 90 years from when these cartoons were made. I think we’ve done their handiwork good service with this set. Trying to find the best prints for a series long scatted to the wind as the Little Kings are was a ..read more

We resume our survey of animated weather disasters in 1935, beginning with a landmark film well-remembered by classic animation afficionados. If you’re one of such persons, it’ll be an old friend. If you’re one of the uninitiated, you’re in for a treat, and a milestone lesson in animation history. Also included this week are numerous samples of the one-shots of Fleischer, Warner Brothers, and MGM, another forgotten visit with Buddy, and a wrap-up with Betty Boop, and Oswald the Rabbit (in color!). The Band Concert (Disney/United Artists, Mickey Mouse, 2/23/35 – Wilfred Jackson, dir.) – What ..read more

Staffers at Charles Mintz, circa 1932. L to R: Clark Watson, Jules Engel, Felix Alegre, Rudy Zamora, Phil Davis, and Izzy Klein. (Courtesy of Ben Shenkman, published in Funnyworld #20 by Michael Barrier.) In March 1933, one of Art Davis’ brothers, Phil Davis, left Charles Mintz’s studio in California to return to New York. His fellow artists gave him a scrapbook filled with caricatures and gag drawings. This treasure trove contains a “who’s who” of notable figures in animation that worked at Mintz during this period: Dick Huemer, Don and Ray Patterson, Al Eugster,&n ..read more

Walt Disney’s Three Little Pigs arrived in theaters with the same force as the Big Bad Wolf blowing a house in. It was a blockbuster. Released on May 27th, 1933, the short film was such a hit with audiences that some theaters held it over for weeks after it was scheduled to run (in fact, some theaters drew beards on the characters’ faces on the poster, to illustrate how long it was playing). Additionally, Three Little Pigs gave the country a song that provided hope during the difficult Depression, and the short has become one of Walt Disney and animation’s most iconic films. Ninety years late ..read more

This week is the Columbus Moving Picture Show, a convention-esque gathering of cinema fans and collectors. It follows closely in the footsteps of the long-running Cinevent in Columbus. As is the tradition for many years, I have a table in the dealer’s room with Thunderbean Blu-rays and DVDs. The event is always great in that I get to see a lot of old friends as well as make new ones. Saturday morning always features a great cartoon program, all in 16mm and always some Technicolor prints. There has rarely been a repeat of the same cartoon over the last 25 years or more! Here’s information abou ..read more

Perhaps late 1934 and early ‘35 would have classified in the almanacs as an El Niño season – as, in the animated world, heavy rain and snow appear to dominate. We’ll measure the prevailing winds that blow our toons into impossible situations in this article installment, watching them triumph over the elements or be merely left hung out to dry. Shiver Me Timbers (Fleischer/Paramount, Popeye, 7/27/34 – Dave Fleischer, dir., Willard Bowsky/William Sturm, anim.) – A classic Popeye, putting the sailor in a classic nautical setting – that of an abandoned ghost ship. (Oddly, Popeye would end his th ..read more

Irrespective and regardless of the success of the Noveltoons, bread and butter for Famous Studios continued to be Popeye the Sailor. The writers continued to think they had endless possibilities in the combination of Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto, with Olive always rejecting Bluto’s crass advances. It was developing into a formula. This was at about the same time one of Terrytoons’ series was similarly developing a formula, with the triangle of Mighty Mouse, Pearl Pureheart, and Oil Can Harry. The crosstown rivals were thinking alike. However, Win Sharples’ scores began to borrow less and less ..read more

KISS Pinball Backboard Art by Kevin O’Connor for Bally, 1979. From 1975 to 1979 you couldn’t look anywhere without seeing the rock band KISS, except for Saturday morning cartoons. A KISS cartoon seems like something that should have existed, just as The Beatles had a cartoon. Just as The Jackson 5, or The Osmonds. Heck, KISS even had a Marvel comic book. You would think they would have at least made an appearance in The New Scooby-Doo Movies, but that show had ended before the band started. With such an impact on pop culture it’s reasonable for someone to believe a cartoon had been made, bu ..read more

In the August 12, 1997 issue of Variety, critic Ray Richmond reviewed South Park and wrote: “Here it is, the show that will bring down the republic, that will warp your mind, that will fry the little brain cells inside the heads of impressionable children – – the one that God himself warned you about. It’s South Park, the cartoon from hell; Peanuts meets A Clockwork Orange.” Oh, how prophetic Mr. Richmond’s words were. However, as much as these words, echoed by many, seemed like a warning for all who attempted to watch South Park enter carefully, most everyone didn’t bother to heed these war ..read more