Snap, Crackle, and Peck: Woody Woodpecker for Kellogg’s
No doubt about it. Cereal giant Kellogg’s was heavily into television advertising. They sponsored an unwholesome number of programs, and that included many cartoon shows. In the fall of 1957,…
Animation Anecdotes #151
Lantz Remembers Oswald. “I was on the lot the day Disney left Universal. I had animated a scene for a Laurel and Hardy film where they were asleep and dreaming…
“Cave of the Wobbly Wizard” (1929)
Some quick updates from the land of the Thunderbeans: • Technicolor Dreams and B/W Nightmares is chugging along. We hope to have a master in the next few weeks. •…
Let’s Watch: “The Gutsy Frog” (1972)
One of the landmark shows for the Tokyo Movie Shinsha company was Dokonjo Gaeru (aka The Gutsy Frog), which aired for two years in the early 1970s. Based on a…
It’s The First Two “Peanuts” Albums, Charlie Brown!
Who were the first people to play Charlie Brown and Lucy before the TV specials? Who played the singing Snoopy and Linus before the stage show? Charles M. Schulz was…
The Bosko Comic Strip – Part 4
Alas, poor Bosko! I knew him well. The stretch-and-squash star of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes for three years, his rubber-hose antics became a victim of the “realism movement” in Hollywood…
Early Anime Features: “Animal Treasure Island” (1971)
This week we conclude our look at Tōei Dōga’s earliest anime features with a focus on “Dōbutsu Takarajima” aka Animal Treasure Island. The film was originally released on March 20th,…
Weird Ads I Know Nothing About
As embarrassing as is to admit, I don’t actually know everything. Sometimes a fellow cartoon buff will ask me if I can tell them something about a particular spot, and…
Animation Anecdotes #150
The Animated Calloway. A rotoscoped version of scat singer Cab Calloway appeared in the Betty Boop cartoon shorts Minnie the Moocher (1932), Snow White (1933) and The Old Man of…
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]
