So good! Classic cartoons on Hollywood Legion Theater big screen
Jun
1
2022
WE’RE ON OUR WAY TO RIO (1945, J. Tyler/I. Sparber)Popeye and Bluto, on shore leave, visit Rio and fall in love with a bewitching Samba dancer, in this beautifully produced musical cartoon. Her name? Olive Oyl. So good! The 10th edition of the Alex Film Society’s The Greatest Cartoons Ever! to spool at the most ...
Tales of neuroses from Roz Chast
New Yorker magazine cartoonist Roz Chast has a new book. That makes me anxious. It’s not that I’m jealous. I would be totally fine, but I couldn’t sleep last night. I think the waiter at that restaurant was looking at me funny. Then my neighbors were keeping me up … argh! Chast’s new book, Going ...
Female artists of film animation honored @ AMPAS
Aug
2
2017
From the earliest pioneers of hand-rendered animated films, to the advent of digital technology, women have been at the forefront of the animation medium. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the women who have been at the forefront of film animation Mindy Johnson, author of Ink & Paint: The Women of ...
A fond farewell to animator Hal Geer
Feb
6
2017
“Hal Geer, my great mentor at Warner Brothers Animation, has passed away at age 100,” writes Geer’s fellow animator Jack Enyart in a recent e-newsletter. As Enyart recalls, “I was in my 20s when Hal brought me into the department. On his desk, each time he faced me with his sly Bugs Bunny grin, rested ...
‘Tooner’ trio tipped to tell ’bout time at Hanna-Barbera
A trio of ‘tooners’: Tony Benedict, Willie Ito and Jerry Eisenberg, talented, original animators from the Hanna-Barbera Studio in the sixties, will share memories of working at the legendary animation house — the home of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, and the Flintstones. The ‘kid fun for grown-ups’ program will address how Bill Hanna and ...
The subtle art of the New Yorker cartoon in an HBO documentary
Whether they leave readers amused, inspired or baffled, the iconic single-panel cartoons in The New Yorker magazine have been a cultural touchstone over the past 90 years. They power not on a laugh out loud, but on a brain-tickling smile. VERY SEMI-SERIOUS, a film directed by Leah Wolchok that glimpses the process behind publishing the ...
Grover Dale’s Labor Day wish for dancers 1
It takes a dance legend with a resume as impressive as dancer/choreographer/dance educator Grover Dale to bring it down to what really matters. Yes, it’s work. Yes, you need the money. But, hey, dancer … do it because you have to. The above sketch was shared on this Labor Day weekend by Grover, the creative ...
“I’m flying!” Pundits to prattle on Peter Pan panel
Jan
10
2013
“I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan and Wendy A special celebration takes place Friday night at the marvelous El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. It’s a “Peter Pan” panel discussion, moderated by Leonard Maltin, at 7pm, with Walt Disney’s animated classic from 1953, “Peter ...
Jerry Beck & the fine art of classic animation on TCM
Expert Jerry Beck defines classic animation as “theatrically-released studio or independent animated shorts and features from 1906 through roughly 1976.” The fun, arty fodder is getting its due this Sunday, October 21, with “Rare Animation,” a six-hour broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. Jerry, who blogs at cartoonbrew, co-hosts the evening with Robert Osborne. I had ...
Daughter Judy … Jane, his wife! Meet the Jetsons, 50 years later. 1
Gotta admit I was blown away to learn that “The Jetsons,” the venerable prime-time cartoon show that lasted all of one television season, turns fifty years old tomorrow. The show, a huge American cultural event, first aired on September 23, 1962. Talkin’ ’bout my generation…. The insane hyped-up theme song, the lyrics for which got ...