Early Anime Features: To 1958
Animation in Japan before World War II was very popular, but not to the point of helping any Japanese animation industry. Instead, Japanese theatrical distributors during the 1920s and 1930s…
Commercials Animated by Warren Batchelder and George Bakes
Hey Gang, another twofer! Former Warner Brothers animator Warren Batchelder, and former Terrytoon animator George Bakes. Bakes was one of those great natural animators. He did a lot of commercial…
Animation Anecdotes #147
Gene Kelly Don’t Dance With Cats. One of my favorite and I feel underrated animated features is Cats Don’t Dance (1997). Originally, it was going to be a live-action/animation vehicle…
The Art of Dreamworks Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Today, a small preview of some of the cool pre-production art created for the upcoming Dreamworks feature Mr. Peabody and Sherman. I was asked to write the text for the…
In His Own Words: Steve Segal on Toy Story
Born in Richmond, Virginia in 1949, Steve Segal began his animation career doing traditional animation for ten years making commercials and educational films. He co-directed the cult film Futuropolis with…
Disney Sequels with Sherman Brothers songs
Long before home video, “sequels” of sorts to Disney animated films were commonplace in books, comics and records that often featured new works by Disney artists and songwriters. Today we…
The Bosko Comic Strip – Part 2
Here’s quite a historic document – a letter from Leon Schlesinger to “Messrs. Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising” which was included with their final monies owed, as the producers split…
Recommended Anthropomorphics (2013)
Back on July 21 last year, I described here the Ursa Major Awards for the best in anthropomorphic literature and art of the year, in eleven categories. The two categories…
Leftover Commercial Round-Up
When Jerry and I put together these commercial posts, there’s always some stuff that ends up getting left out for one reason or another. This week we swept up a…
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]
