This is an excerpt from an issue of Warner Club News, the studio’s in house magazine, from February 1958. Each issue had a column, aptly titled “What’s Up, Doc?” written by a member of the cartoon division staff. I picked up half-a-dozen issues from the late 50s, early 60s at the recent Cinecon and I’ll be posting bits and pics from these issues all this week. The cartoon being discussed above was released in April 1959. To be included in the February ‘58 magazine, I’d place the recording session in January ‘58 or possibly December ‘57.

Isn’t this photo terrific? Where are the original negatives and prints to photos like this? I’ll have to check with Warner Bros. Archives. These are gold.

This is rather bizarre, but leave it to the French. A current project out of Paris,
Reality Toon, is an homage to classic Hollywood cartoons and the silent comedies that inspired them. The French love cartoons, slapstick, and perhaps above all Tex Avery and Jerry Lewis. This project combines all these into one strange set of three webisodes. Check them out - also view the behind the scenes, making-of film at realitytoon.com.

(Thanks, James Daniels)

Jon Stewart made a very funny comparison of some of our current politicians to a pair of cartoon favorites on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show this week.

You Tube pulled down the clip we had embed. You can catch the video over at TheDailyShow.com (John McCain: The Person He Is). Skip ahead to the three-minute mark.

(Thanks Aaron H. Bynum)

Welcome to our updated look. As the title of this post implies, this is not a complete overhaul. Rather it’s a refresh of the existing site. We liked the site we already had (designed by Also) so we asked designer and tech guru Rob Kohr to retain the core of that design while enhancing functionality and adding new features. Some of the additions are:

* View Posts by Author: This gives you the option to read posts by a specific Brewmaster. Once our guest Brewers start adding content, you will also have the option to view their specific posts.

* Guest Brewers: This is among our most exciting new additions. We’re making an effort to bring new voices to the animation conversation by inviting some of the art form’s leading figures to blog alongside us. We chose our guest bloggers based on the following critera: people (a.) who have made significant contributions to the art of animation; (b.) who we both respect and admire; (c.) who are interesting and have something to say; and (d.) who have never blogged before. We couldn’t be more pleased with our first trio of Guest Brewers: Linda Simensky, Eric Goldberg and PES, who respectively specialize in TV, Feature and Short Films/Commercials. All three of them are extremely busy so they won’t be posting as frequently as us, but we look forward to hearing from them whenever they have a chance.

* Enhanced Search: All search results now load chronologically in a handy Cartoon Brew-formatted page, instead of redirecting to cumbersome Google link pages.

* Event Listings: A handy guide to upcoming animation-related events is now available in our right-hand column.

* Related Posts: On each individual post page, there are links to additional posts on similar topics.

* Weighted Tags: The sizes of the tags are now dynamically proportional to the amount of posts in each category. So now you can see which topics we write about most frequently. We are also in the process of adding new categories to help make navigation easier.

* Cartoon Brew TV: Our most ambitious new feature, Brew TV, is still in the works. This will launch on September 15. We’re truly excited about expanding the Cartoon Brew name and we think you’ll be too once you see what we have in store.

If you run across bugs or if something isn’t working the way you want, let us know in the comments. We’ll be tweaking the site throughout the weekend to get it right.

Thank you to all of our faithful readers who visit and support Cartoon Brew. We love this art form, and we’re thrilled to be able to share our passion with people who feel just as strongly about cartoons as we do. Together we will continue to lead the animation conversation. Enjoy the new site!

As a response to YouTube’s takedown of Signe Baumane’s animated short, Canadian animation director Mike Grimshaw has posted an old film of his onto the file sharing service to highlight their screwy editorial policies. He writes, “I want to help out my pal Signe so I’ve posted my film Quiet Please to show what can be accomplished without resorting to nudity. We’ll see how long this lasts.” The video is possibly NSFW depending on where you work.

Today’s L.A. Times features a story on Waltz With Bashir, the sure-to-be-controversial animated feature from Israel, being screened at the Toronto International Film Festival tonight, and at the Ottawa Animation Festival on September 17th.

Waltz With Bashir is a documentary, spoken by veterans of a 1982 invasion of South Lebannon, woven into a narrative containing shocking violence (the film is a hard “R” rating) and potent graphic images. I had the opportunity to screen the film last week. It’s an effective anti-war film and a strong denouncement of the Israeli Army. The powerful story it tells transcends the technique - the animation is not the point here, it’s simply the medium to communicate the message. We all know animation is not just talking animals and can do more than tell jokes. Here’s a film that proves it. I admire Bashir, not as an animated film, but as an important film with significant things to say, that leaves you with lots to think about. It also pushes the artform into a bigger arena of filmmaking potential and points towards the possibilities of where else it can go.

Bill Melendez, the Mexican-born American character animator, film director, and film producer, best known for his animation for Warner Bros, UPA and the Peanuts specials and feature films, has passed away.

In 1938, Melendez was hired by Walt Disney to work on animated short films and feature-length films such as Bambi, Fantasia and Dumbo. Three years later, he joined Leon Schlesinger’s team at Warner Bros. studios, where, as a member of the Bob Clampett and Art Davis units, he animated on a number of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck shorts. Among the classic Warner Bros. shorts he animated on are Book Revue, The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, Baby Bottleneck, and The Big Snooze. UPA put him on their payroll in 1948 to work on many television commercials, as well as the Gerald McBoing Boing and Madeline shorts.

After a decade working on commercial and industrial films at studios like John Sutherland Productions and Playhouse Pictures, Melendez founded his own production company in 1964. Bill Melendez Productions helped produce the annually broadcast Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas, for which he won an Emmy Award and the George Foster Peabody Award despite having to work on short notice and with a tight budget.

Melendez has gone on to do over 75 half-hour Peanuts specials, including the 1989 miniseries, all with partner Lee Mendelson. In 1979, he directed a made-for-TV animated version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

(click on image for bigger version) Bill Melendez (far left) at UPA in 1953 during a story session for Ballet-Oop (1954). Other artists in photo from l. to r. are Jules Engel, Alan Zaslove, Frank Smith, T. Hee, C.L. Hartman and Bobe Cannon.

An 8-minute interview with Melendez posted on YouTube:

British department store Harvey Nichols has concocted a brilliant advertising campaign starring Wallace and Gromit. It heralds the company’s expansion into Bristol, England, the hometown of Aardman Animations. The typically casual Wallace now sports Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith suits, Dolce and Gabbana shirt and Giorgio Armani tie, while the undressed Gromit is decked out in a Paul Smith scarf and Ray-Bans. Wallace’s love interest, Lady Campanula Tottington, also appears in the print ads. The Daily Mail has an article including a nice “making of” video with Nick Park and company explaining how the ads were photographed.

Kudos to Aardman for understanding their characters, and making tasteful and witty choices about how they license their characters for advertising. Compare this to the utterly clueless dopes at Warner Bros. who recently licensed Bugs Bunny to advertise ketchup. The quizzical expression on Bugs’ face says it all.