“The Magic Slipper” (1948)
Some good, pure cartoon escapism is on the plate for this week’s cartoon – take a little break and enjoy a Terrytoon in HD, from a rare, spliceless Kodachrome! print.
Beware the Leprechauns! (Part 3)
Bejabbers! Those wee men are everywhere. Not content to continue to invade both big and small screens, they even find a way to mix their roguish pranks and shenanigans into…
“He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown” on Records
A look at the Emmy-nominated Peanuts TV special as brought to a wide selection of recorded products in the late 1970s as part of Disney’s Charlie Brown Records line.
The Art of Abe Levitow – from the Family Archives
A gallery of goodies from the archives of Abe Levitow, an animator at Warner Bros in the Chuck Jones unit, and a director for UPA. His daughters Roberta and Judy open up about their dad.
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.
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]
