Cartoons

Oh, so you think you’ve seen bad?

I don’t know who’s behind this animated feature, but they are looking for distribution. Desperately seeking distribution. How bad can it be? Check out the trailer!

And have a nice day!

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Brooklyn’s homegrown cartoon festival Animation Block Party will return for its fifth edition from July 25-27. Over 100 animated shorts will screen during the three-day festival, chosen from 800 plus entries.The line-up of films and ticket info was officially announced today. If the event’s promotional materials (above) are any indicator, this is not to be confused with traditional festivals. It has an informal and indie spirit with plenty of opportunities for mingling and partying. I’ve heard positive things from everybody who has attended. Here are more details from their press release about the various festivities:

ABP opens on Friday July 25th at Rooftop Films, featuring live music from Plushgun, followed by a screening of ABP’s most fun and fan friendly cartoons. A party at Bar Matchless will follow ABP-Rooftop screenings with free beer from Radeberger.

ABP continues on Saturday July 26th at Bam Cinematek, with experimental works and music vids in Program One and a storytelling focus in Program Two. Screenings will be followed by an after party at Cherry Tree with free Newcastle courtesy of America’s Finest News Source, The Onion, Inc.

ABP closes on Sunday July 27th at Bam Cinematek, with top professional-independent works in Program Three and narrative local-international shorts in Program Four with an after party at Habana Outpost, featuring streaming toons, food specials and free beer courtesy of Autodesk.

Bonus Amid Geek-Note: The guy who did the drawing above is Doug Crane, who was the primary inker on the Terrytoons classics Flebus and The Juggler of Our Lady.

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When I seek out films for my Worst Cartoons Ever! screenings or Cartoon Dump I look for animation so bad it’s unintentionally funny. So when I came across a batch of old issues of My Weekly Reader I had in stashed my archives and found this comic strip - Uncle Funny Bunny and Chumpy - I felt I’d found a comics equivalent to Paddy The Pelican and Bucky and Pepito: the lamest comic strip ever created! Mesmerizingly so. I just had to share. Click on thumbnails below to read some samples.

Admittedly it’s aimed at children, and produced in the more innocent era of the early 50s. But the consistently corny gags, the awful stiff artwork… surely this takes the prize. Unless one considers the Weekly Reader’s back up strip: Loki, Your Fuzzy Forest Friend.

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Ken Priebe spotted this cameo (above right) by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in the Little Golden Book adaptation of Wall•E.

As with the previous Golden Books based on the Pixar films, this one is delightfully illustrated and, for the price ($2.99), a great value.

(Via Scuzzbopper)

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Fran Krause created the signal film for this year’s Rooftop Films screening series. It’s animated nicely in Flash.

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“Wall-E for President” is an op-ed column written by NY Times political commentator Frank Rich. In it, he implores everybody from John McCain to Barack Obama to see the film:

Mr. McCain should be required to see “Wall-E” to learn just how far adrift he is from an America whose economic fears cannot be remedied by his flip-flop embrace of the Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy) and his sham gas-tax holiday (for everyone else). Mr. Obama should see it to be reminded of just how bold his vision of change had been before he settled into a front-runner’s complacency. Americans should see it to appreciate just how much things are out of joint on an Independence Day when a cartoon robot evokes America’s patriotic ideals with more conviction than either of the men who would be president.

(Thanks, Alex Rannie)

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Does anyone remember this short lived comic strip (1984-1988) by The Walker Brothers (Brian, Morgan, Greg, and Neal, the sons of Beetle Bailey’s Mort)? This was the height of Garfield’s popularity, and the thought of pairing these two classic, and essentially orphaned, properties must have been intriguing to King Featuures.

I just found this Sunday page from January 13th 1985 while I was rumaging through my files this weekend. Not a particularly funny entry, but it’s all I have as reference. Was this ever reprinted in book form? Or is it anywhere on the internet?

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New Orleans movie critic David Dubos is now writing for, and podcasting about, movies each week on NewOrleans.com. He’s recorded me twice now during the last few weeks, allowing me to ramble on with my opinions of Kung Fu Panda and Wall•E, and debate the pros and cons of both films. Be warned, the editing makes me sound a bit hyper on these podcasts. But I applaud David for showcasing these animated features - both highlights of the current summer movie season.

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Kristen Morgan, an artist and professor at Cal State Long Beach, has a current installation in Hollywood which combines pop culture itself (mainly cartoon character comics, board games, coloring books and merchandising artifacts) with sculpture, using found objects to create statues of animation icons Mighty Mouse and Popeye. The show, Objects for Everyone I Have Ever Known, runs through August 16th at Marc Selwyn Fine Art Gallery on Wilshire Blvd. The L.A. Times reviewed the show in today’s Calendar section.

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Larry Harmon, the actor and animation producer who acquired the rights to Bozo the Clown and turned him into a long running TV franchise and cash cow, died yesterday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.

Harmon purchased the licensing rights to the Bozo character, created by Alan Livingston and first portrayed by Pinto Colvig, from Capitol Records in 1956. In 1958, Harmon produced several Bozo TV cartoons. He later acquired the animation rights to Laurel and Hardy and produced a series of Laurel and Hardy cartoons through Hanna Barbera in 1966. Harmon also produced several Popeye cartoons for King Features in 1960.

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