“PM Picnic” (1948)
“PM is pleasing millions with it’s clear, clean taste.” I had a post a while back that was about Alcohol in cartoons- I should have included this back then, but…
“Dr. Slump and Arale”
Compared to most shows I have written about, Dr. Slump isn’t exactly the most obscure. After all, it was created by Akira Toriyama, who would have an even bigger success…
Walt Disney’s “Alice In Wonderland”
The much-heralded 1951 release of Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland became a collector’s bonanza that includes these RCA Victor records that were the closest thing to experiencing the movie in…
Toons of the Orient 3: East Steals West
Probably because their films were unlikely to be seen in America, 1930s Japanese animators of the 1930s freely “borrowed” drawings and characters from American sources. Sometimes Popeye or Mickey Mouse…
Out Of The Computer: The Mainframe Story
Back on my post of December 15th, in his comments on the Christmas CGI DVD movie Casper’s Haunted Christmas, reader Shane Skekel said, “I remember seeing that Mainframe/Rainmaker Casper special…
Ethel and Albert, Hank Saperstein, and the Phone Company
Greenfield. Murray Hill. Sycamore. Tyler. Kingswood. What do these words have in common? Once upon a time they were all telephone exchanges. You know, like PEnnsylvania 6-500. The words were…
Animation Anecdotes #144
Synchro-Vox. Animation fans are familiar with “Synchro-Vox” used on Cambria Studios shows like “Clutch Cargo” and “Space Angel”. Basically, talking human lips superimposed over a cartoon image of a face….
A Visit to “Scrappy’s Art Gallery” (1934)
I hope that sooner-than-later the Scrappy cartoons are released on DVD or BluRay. They remain some of the hardest of series to see, along with the Krazy Kat’s produced by…
“Goku’s Big Adventure” (1967)
Yes, I’m finally writing about a Osamu Tezuka anime. Kinda. One of the many, many comics Tezuka drew was Boku no Son Goku (My Son Goku), which ran 1952 to…
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of Cal Arts in Valencia – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [Click Here]
