Animation Anecdotes #201
Disney’s Boysenberry Mountain. In the Disney animated feature, Fantasia (1940), the majority of the action in the Pastoral Symphony takes place in the brightly colored Elysian Fields at the foot…
“Dead End Cats” (1947)
Note: I wanted to start today’s article with an apology to the cover artist on Van Beuren Classics, Milton Knight. In designing the cover for the set, we altered the…
In Her Own Words: Virginia Davis
The Disney Brothers Studio did not start with a mouse but a little girl named Virgina Davis. On October 16, 1923, a New York distributor, M. J. Winkler, contracted to…
Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” on Records
A fond look back at how the two-time Oscar winning song and score from Disney’s Pinocchio took the form of soundtrack albums over the last 60 years. All the Songs…
Paramount Sales News #39: “Superman” “Popeye” and “Mr. Bug”
September-October 1941 We’re in the homestretch of the Fleischers’ reign now. There’s a fascinating history behind how Paramount got the deal to do the Superman cartoons (a series the Fleischers…
French Animated Features – Part 16: 2014
This is the 16th installment of my ongoing survey of French animated features – this week, a look at the features released only last year, with films by Jacques-Rémy Girerd,…
What Were The Earliest Foreign Animated Films Shown in Japanese Cinemas?
Editor’s Note: For the next few Saturdays we are posting a special series of intriguing historical essays on aspects of early animation in Japan. I think this is information that…
Animation Anecdotes #200
Animated Bone. In 1991, cartoonist and animator Jeff Smith released his independent comic book, “Bone”, which immediately received critical acclaim and complimentary comparisons to the works of Walt Kelly and…
FIRST LOOK: “Van Beuren Classics” on DVD & Blu-Ray
Here at Thunderbean, there are more projects in some kind of progress than I can honestly keep daily track of, but it’s clear already it will be the busiest year…
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]
