Animation Anecdotes #136
Clarence Nash Is Not Mel Blanc. In 1977 when I talked with him, Clarence Nash was not happy. “Everybody thinks Mel Blanc is Donald Duck! He’s not. I’m Donald Duck….
The Genius of Les Elton
It’s a short one today folks… I’m over at Jerry Beck’s house, here in California for the CTN Expo with some of the animation students from the school I teach…
That Strange, Strange Little Girl: “Sarutobi Ecchan”(1971)
Anime starring ninjas has been around as long as the medium has been around. I’ve already covered two of Toei’s efforts on the genre for this website (Fujimaru of the…
“Mickey’s Christmas Carol”
Eight years before Mickey’s Christmas Carol was an Oscar-nominated short cartoon, it was a Disneyland LP and book set called Dickens’ Christmas Carol Presented By The Popular Repertory Company, The…
In His Own Words: Bill Scott at Warner Bros.
Bill Scott was born in Philadelphia on August 20,1920. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1942 with the hopes of entering aerial photography. Through an interesting series of events,…
Anime and the Horrors of World War Two
Ever since Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II, the Japanese have been conflicted about the amount of blame they bear for the war. The Japanese military, of…
Commercials Animated by “Those MGM Guys”
Okay, maybe it isn’t quite accurate to call them “MGM guys” since they all worked for other studios as well. But these are some of the animators that come to…
Animation Anecdotes # 135
The “Hurray for Betty Boop” Story – Part One. Record producer Dan Dalton took scenes from thirty-five Korean colored Betty Boop cartoons and wrote a continuity for them to make…
Work-In-Progress: Restoring Eshbaugh Films in Color
These have been busy weeks at Thunderbean. There are four dvd or BluRay sets wrapping up at close to the same time – One finished entirely now, The Fleischer Classics…
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, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [Click Here]
