Merrie Melodies 1941-42: Bugs Bunny Takes the Lead (Part 1)
The 1941-42 season saw Bugs Bunny became the main character at Warner Brothers cartons. Here were the tunes that backed him up.
Promoting ‘Fun and Fancy Free’
A personal appearance or a radio broadcast by the one and only Donald Duck was an event, guaranteed to attract attention. And audiences were never disappointed.
Who Was Ferdinand Horvath?
Hundreds of thousands of artists worked in animation over the decades but very few of their names are known to the people who enjoyed their work.
The Good Habit Kids and the Mysterious ‘House of Puzzy’
This week I thought I’d ask all of you to try and figure out a little bit of a mystery.
Toons Trip Out (Part 5)
1941 would of course be an eventful year for the United States, but through it all, toons still found time to get away from the pressures of the world.
Fred Flintstone Meets Jiminy Cricket: A Salute to Alan Reed
The birthday of the great Alan Reed was last week and the Flintstones will arrive on Blu-ray in October, so let’s take a Spin through some lesser-known Disney-Reed recordings.
The (Annotated) Handwritten Notes of Ben Harrison
These notes, a written overview of Harrison’s career, provide a vast insight into an important but unsung figure who appears never to have been formally interviewed otherwise.
Mad Madam Mim
While Madam Mim is cited as the main villainess of Disney’s The Sword in The Stone, her character and short scene are completely irrelevant to the story.
Snapshot Sneak Previews
I thought it might be fun to give a sneak peak into some of the many things going on here in Thunderbean-Land.
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]
