In His Own Words: Ken O’Connor
From a lecture by Ken O’Connor presented at the Chouinard Art School on December 4, 1959 about his work on Fantasia.
Animation Anecdotes #310
Chuck Jones told the Union newsletter in 1976: “I suppose you could call it retroactive plagiarism, because we stole Izzie Klein’s idea of a little boy ghost ten years before he created Casper.”
Championing Orphan Films – One Frame At A Time
The Private Snafu cartoon “Going Home” (1944) was pulled from distribution because of its reference to a similar, then-in-progress, Atomic Bomb.
MOONLIGHTING ANIMATORS IN COMICS: Manny Perez
In the mid-‘40s, Manuel Perez moonlighted at James Davis’ shop, like many other animators in the West Coast, drawing animal stories for Sangor’s line of comics.
When Smurfs Ruled Record Stores
A dive into the first wave of Smurf albums to hit the U.S. when Hanna-Barbera’s series debuted – and the soundtrack to Belvision’s 1975 Animated Smurfeature.
Network Status Reports 1956-1964
These internal memos – I believe from the files of CBS – I post for no other reason than they’re just a few more pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of animation history.
Music For Some “Metal Munching Moon Mice”
Rather than hire somebody to write a plethora of old-sounding songs, the Jay Ward people went to Bill Scott’s memory of old songs he’d learned at camp.
Wild and Woody
Long before ‘infinity and beyond’, there was an original Sheriff Woody and a rival named Buzz.
Animation Anecdotes #309
Bill Clinton told Time Magazine in 1993, “I’m a lot like Baby Huey. I’m fat. I’m ugly. But if you push me down, I keep coming back. I just keep coming back.”
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]
