A Chat with Bill Melendez and Bill Littlejohn
Producer-director Bill Meléndez and animator Bill Littlejohn are the subject of this previously lost 1998 interview by Martha and Sol Sigall done for the Animation Guild.
Forgotten Anime #56: Osamu Tezuka’s “Adachi-ga Hara” and “Akuemon”
After his death in 1989, Tezuka Productions animated two manga novels as 25-minute film festival releases; “Adachi-ga Hara”, based on a 1971 manga, and “Akuemon”.
Huck and Jim (Crow)
To be sure, television was a democratizing force in animation. It allowed African Americans to see cartoons in their homes, in contrast to being restricted to balcony seats at theaters.
Animation Anecdotes #300
For my special 300th column: The Secret Origin of ‘Animation Anecdotes’ – and I tell of a time I was in a Filmation production… and actually got paid for it!
Flip the Frog Update: Sometimes a little piece of music goes a long way…
Here are three openings from my new transfers with rare music cues – and projection notes, to make sure they sync the film to the sound disc.
Robert McKimson’s “Paying The Piper” (1949)
“Ahh…your sister drives a pickle wagon!” Here’s a fairy-tale spoof from Bob McKimson, featuring Porky Pig, which could be considered a revised version of the earlier Bob Clampett film.
The Ghosts, The Martian and “Mary Poppins”
Two of Hollywood’s most prolific off-screen vocalists and the star of a beloved fantasy sitcom brought their talents to the Sherman Brothers’ Oscar winning score.
A Chat with Maurice Noble and Bob Givens
Here’s a surprising find – a cache of rare interviews, for an unfinished oral history project done for the Animation Guild by Martha Sigall, turned up in my quest for Golden Award Banquet materials.
Forgotten Anime #55: “The Abashiri Family” (1991)
Go Nagai’s The Abashiri Family was animated by Studio Pierrot as an OAV in 1991. More specifically, it was a series of four 20-minute OAVs, that were too violent and too much for children’s TV.
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]
