More Kong: Behind the 1998 Warner Bros. Animated Musical Feature
The Mighty Kong is a seventy minute direct-to-video Warner Brothers animated musical adaptation, with songs by the Sherman brothers. How did this project come to be?
Cartoons For The Confined
This week I’m putting together some thematic cartoon play-lists for the coming weeks as we all hunker down. Here’s a few ideas for mine – including a beautiful new transfer of UPA’s Rooty Toot Toot.
Beware the Leprechauns! (Part 2)
The glory days of theatrical animation were passing on, and several studios, to quote an oft-used Irish phrase, were “not long for this world.” But two studios in particular would return to mining the realm of the leprechauns
Looney Tunes 1937-38: Steady As She Goes
By the beginning of the 1937-1938 season, both the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were zooming their Warner Brothers’ shields at the audience.
Irv Spence’s “Rats In Spats”
Irv Spence directed his own amateur film entitled Rats in Spats, a parody of 1930s gangster films – using his fellow animators at MGM.
“Song of the South” Animation
With Disney+ not including Song of the South in its offerings, it once again ignited the controversies about the film that are often based on misunderstandings and urban legends.
Thunderbean Travels – and an RKO Newsreel Featuring ‘Snow White’ (1938)
Here’s an RKO Newsreel from 1938, the second half of which features behind the scenes footage of the Disney Studio producing several shorts and Snow White.
Beware the Leprechauns! (Part 1)
With a tip o’ me hat, I present the first in a series of articles paying tribute to those diminutive Irish mischief makers: The Leprechauns!
Spin Special: Remembering Hanna-Barbera Composer Jack de Mello
Renowned for helping to popularize music and artists of the Polynesian artists, Jack de Mello’s music could also be heard on The Flintstones, Magilla Gorilla and other cartoons.
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 CalArts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [Click Here]
