ASIFA-Hollywood volunteers met last night to prep animation cels for sale at the up coming San Diego Comic Con  ¶ 10:10 AM

 

If you are an ASIFA volunteer going to comic con be sure to check the ASIFA comic con schedule. It will be updated daily until the convention.  ¶ 10:06 AM

  Joe Grant Remembered:
Tuesday Night I attended the celebration of the life of the great Disney artist Joe Grant at the Alex Theater in Glendale. Host Leonard Maltin introduced a number of animation notables including Pete Docktor, Charles Solomon, Eric & Sue Goldberg, Burny Mattinson, Dean DuBlois and Mike Gabriel. I was struck by how many people had such a strong attachment to Joe.

Some young people reading this may wonder, what is all the fuss is over folks like Joe? They were old and died and so what was special? The reason is we in animation learned much at the knees of the older masters, and I say that humbly as an Adjunct Professor of Animation myself. Sure, they gave us our first career breaks, but they also gave us our inspiration. Shamus Culhane taught me not only timing and how to fill out exposure sheets, he taught me about art and museums. That to be a cartoonist you didn't have to be rich to enjoy good taste. Joe Grant was a poet and calligrapher who loved to talk about the latest article he read in the New Yorker as much as what he did long ago on Dumbo.

Guys like Joe are the end of an era, the last of the Golden Age Generation who did the most famous cartoons ever. They all joined the business in the early 1930's, did their finest work in the 1940s-1950's, and now the average age of the remainder are in their 90s. Today besides Joe Barbera there are only two remaining animators from the original Tom & Jerry MGM Unit, One remaining Nine Old Man from Disney. It is the natural way of things for this generation of to slowly leave the stage, but we who came after want them to know we are proud and grateful to have known them. As the writer Michel de Montaigne once said: We can see far when we can stand on the shoulders of Giants.

Tom Sito  ¶ 6:51 AM

 
Last night the animation community came together to honor the life and work of Disney great Joe Grant.   ¶ 8:36 AM

 
the art of Joe Grant - old friends  ¶ 8:33 AM

 
the art of Joe Grant  ¶ 8:32 AM

 
the art of Joe Grant  ¶ 8:31 AM

 
The first on 3 panels made up of people who worked with and knew Joe Grant  ¶ 8:25 AM

 
When I stayed over to Uncle Joe`s I sleep right next to the witch and she still scares me!  ¶ 8:21 AM

 
Witch design  ¶ 8:16 AM

 
Joe`s granddaughter and niece   ¶ 8:12 AM

 
Joe Grant`s daughter and grandson  ¶ 8:09 AM

 
Some of the filmmakers and animators who learned from Joe  ¶ 8:05 AM

 

Don Hahn, the producer of Roger Rabbitt, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, presents the Grant Family with the Annie Award recieved last year for the short animation Lorenzo, a project that Joe Grant nursed into being against great odds over a large number of years.  ¶ 8:03 AM

  16 Days Until Comic Con:

I am trying to get into the Zen like state that helps me survive the madness of 85,000 Plus fans and lethal noise levels. Here is a look at some of this year`s offerings.

ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD STATE OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY
San Diego Comic Con
SATURDAY, JULY 16
12:30-2:00pm
ROOM 3

Matt O'Calaghan, Director of Curious George (2-D Feature Animation)
Akira Umemoto, Creative Director Mattel (Industrial / Commercial Animation)
Donovan Cook., Director Disney`s 3 Musketeers currently pitching 3-D projects (2-D to 3-D)
Lili Chin, Co-Director and Producer Mucha Lucha (TV and Flash Animaiton)
Eddie Mort, Co-Director and Producer Mucha Lucha (TV and Flash Animaiton)
Jon M. Gibson , Gaming Reporter and Curator Early Gaming Art Exhibit (Gaming)
Larry Loc, Animation Teacher ASIFA Board (Moderator & Animation Education)

Just remember that the sound of one hand clapping is a snap!  ¶ 12:43 PM

  Call For Volunteers:

On the last Wednesday of each month there is a meeting of ASIFA-Hollywood volunteers at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center in Burbank. This is the most important meeting on our monthly calendar. This is where the stuff is planned and volunteers make a difference.

This Wednesday night at 7 PM is the most important of these volunteer meeting for the year. This is the one where we put the finishing touches on our battle plan for the San Diego Comic Con.

Comic Con is a lot of work and a lot of fun and we need your help to make it happen. Join us:

Wednesday June 29th
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center
2114 W. Burbank Blvd.
Burbank, CA

Come learn how you can be part of this amazing event. Pizza will be served. Good times will be had. Come take part in ASIFA-Hollywood.  ¶ 4:24 AM

  Tom Sito Puts Foot in Blog-y Water

Animation great Tom Sito starts his own blog at his Gang of 7 website. Tom, who submits items to the ASIFA blog, has taken the plunge into the murky waters of blogging.

This is good, because when I run out of things to say I can just steal from him or if I`m real lazy, I can just link to his blog: http://www.g7animation.com/news/  ¶ 7:03 AM

  R.I.P. Paul Winchell:

Paul Winchell died last night (Sat) in his home in Moorpark in his sleep at age 82.

Besides being the voice of Tigger in the Winny the Pooh films, Winchell did voices for Fox & the Hound, The Aristocats and a myriad of voices for Hanna & Barbera including Dick Dastardly in Penelope Pittstop.

I'll always remember him for his childrens show with his ventriloquist dolls Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smith. I begged my parents for a Jerry Mahoney Doll.

Annie Award Winner, Winchell also was an early designer of a valve in the first Jarvick 7 artificial hearts. So adieu Paul, look up to the heavens and give one last : Scottie-Wattie-Doo-Doo!!

-Tom Sito  ¶ 6:52 AM

  New Look and Feel

If you were at this site yesterday you might have noticed that the blog looked a little messed up. It just went strange. No idea why. There were big gaps in the text.

I tried everything to fix it. After a lot of work and a change to the template, a loss of the page counter and other fun things that took more time than I had to spend we have a new look. So what are you going to do.

Me, I`m going to a party for Martha Sigall that animation art collector Dave Lowanstein is holding today. His collection is legend and this will be my first chance to see all the cool animation art he has gathered.  ¶ 6:31 AM

  End of Semester Blues

Man this semester went fast. Just finishing out grading today on my Friday animation history class. Students with last minute papers trying to sneak through. Deadline folks, the best work in the world is useless if it gets there after the movie is made.

There were good students and good work, lots of it but at the end of semester that stuff is already in and graded. So what are you going to do?  ¶ 10:58 AM

  Night of the living Freds:

So, okay, I know that the title of today`s blog is really tacky and that I really had to push to use it but where else am I going to get a chance to use such a line? And last night`s ASIFA screening at Harmony Gold was dominated by 2 animation and Anime greats with the name of Fred; Fred Ladd and Fred Patten.

Animation and Anime historian Fred Patten looked and sound great last night is his first public appearance since his stroke of last winter. He has lost a little weight. He was is a wheelchair and his right arm was immobilized in a form rubber arm support but his speech was clear and mind as sharp as ever.

Thank the gods, I have been worried about my friend, that was my first thought, but let`s be honest, I am sure that I am not the only animation history buff in the community that has been worried about losing all the knowledge inside on Fred Patten`s head.

Fred entered the screening after the lights went down which meant his presence was a nice surprise after a very enjoyable movie. A large crowd of well wishers formed around Fred Patten and I just had time to talk to him a little bit and pick up an envelope from him to pass on to Jerry Beck and Bob Miller, then I was crowded out by his other friends wanting to wish him well. It was great to see him out and about.

The love of animation makes us all a family. We come together at these events like favorite cousins that grew up together and only get to see each other at periodic family gatherings.

I am not sure if my wife understands about the animation family feeling. She did try to climb under her chair when I lead a verse of Kimba the White Lion to mark the pre-show entrance of Fred Ladd, the man that brought us Kimba, Astroboy, Gigantor, and many others.

As luck would have it my son, Tobias, was wearing a Gigantor 40th anniversary T-shirts that I had left over from last year`s Comic Con.

Do you think I should Ask Fred to sign my Gigantor T-shirt, joked my son?

Oh yes!! I said borrowing a Sharpy from an audience member in the seat behind me.



My wife, Ruth, who doesn`t come to these events often, for some unknown reason, buried her head in her hands and pretended not to know me.

After Toby got his shirt signed, a small group formed around Fred Ladd and he had to sign a couple of other autograph books before he could free himself. Luckily the movie started.

Maybe Fred Ladd will forgive me if I mention here that the early planning for Kimba`s 40 anniversary is under way set to coincide with the anniversary of the first New York City blackout that happened on the last day of voice work for the first U.S. episode of Kimba.

Okay, I had a little fun. I was hanging with my family, my people. These are my family, my people. People who set through the credits at the end of the movie and clap as the names of voice actors, the animators, and the director come up on the screen.

Oh, the movie. The movie was great. You know it is great. I`ve said it here before and I will say it again. Thank you for making it happen, Studios Disney, Pixar, and Ghibli. I needed to see it a second time. I would like to see it a few more times. I would like to have my own copy. HINT to Disney, Pixar, and Ghibli: Annie screenings and screeners, they make the animation community so happy.  ¶ 10:42 AM

  Looking for Ed Friedman Tape Still trying to catch. I got this from Bill Turner last week and just getting around to posting it. Shame on me.

Larry,

A friend of the family of Ed Friedman's called asking if we have a tape (audio) of Tom Sito's interview with him. Tom thinks this was done many years ago... Maybe 10 years ago. I made audio tapes of many of the "Evening's With", but apparently not this one. Usually there are two or three people taping these events. Can you put the call out on your blog asking if anyone has a copy of Tom's interview with Ed? Ed recently passed away and his daughter would really like the tape. Tom has given the ok for this. Thanks,

Bill

  ¶ 4:41 PM

  Tom on the Great Wall This report from Tom Sito about his trip to China came in sometime yesterday but with only 3 hours sleep under my belt (students think they are the only ones missing sleep on finals week) I just got around to my e-mail this morning.

China

Recently Pat and I were invited to Japan to lecture to the Japan Digital Animation Festival held in Nagoya. While planning this trip I was contacted by the Beijing Film Academy. They said that since I would be on that side of the Earth anyway, perhaps I would want to come out to China to lecture their students? Mao Tse Tung once said a person who has not seen the Great Wall has had an incomplete life, so I accepted. After the JDAF/Nagoya ended we winged our way to Beijing.

Beijing is a big sprawling metropolis reflecting a society in rapid transition. The capitol is dotted with new construction everywhere. Beijing is sprucing itself up to host the Olympic Games in 2008. The East is Red, but you wouldn`t know it for all the new corporate offices for Microsoft, HP and Haagan Daaz that rise up all around you. The number of autos purchased has gone up 400% in the past two years. The streets that once teemed with bicycles now were jammed with autos all honking and screeching furiously.
Some taxi-drivers hang a red-tasseled image of Mao Tse Tung from their rear-view mirrors as a charm to ward off accidents. And guess what kind of dog I saw most people walking? Why, Pekinese, of course!

The Beijing Film Academy is in the Haidian District northwest of the Forbidden City. It is called the Silicon Valley of China. I will write a more in-depth account in Animation World Network -AWN.com. Pat and I were warmly greeted by the students and faculty. My translator, Jenny Yue Sun, was a graduate student of mine from USC. Fight on! She did a great job translating all my blather into fine Mandarin.

We lectured in the morning to graduate students and in the afternoon to undergrads and faculty. The film academy total has about 5,000 students and the animation group is about 250. They have about 150 MAYA workstations as well as facilities for stop motion and 2D. I saw many well-made student films, some very cartoony, and some reflecting uniquely Chinese imagery, like brush-painting. It was a joy to run for them the sequence from Disney`s DUMBO where Dumbo is rocked by his imprisoned mother. My mind went back to my friend Joe Grant, who wrote much of Dumbo. I wish I could have told him how his ideas still moved people, half a world away and several decades later. We toured an animation studio attached to the CCTV television stations. They were making programming for Chinese daytime TV.

Later we got to visit the Great Wall, the Ming Emperor Tombs and the Forbidden City. We had Peking Duck and checked out the McDonalds near Tienahmen Square. It was hazy and humid all our time there. Even a front of thunderstorms one night couldn`t clear the fog. For some reason, in Beijing, Jon Stewart`s `The Daily Show" is run on CNN , and they had a Vin Deisel festival on another station. Hmm, maybe this Open Door Policy isn`t all it`s cracked up to be . . .

Before we left Professor Sun LiJun presented me with a certificate as honorary faculty from the Academy and a bottle of Himalayan Brandy. I gave them Some goodies from Madagascar, and an animation union pin. I was told my talk was very inspiring to the students. I was grateful for the opportunity.

It was a unique experience to visit and I look forward to future trips.
TS  ¶ 9:04 AM

  Catch Up So here I am still running behind. Feel like I`m in post production of something. Got in my list of presentations and presenters for Comic Con. Sorry I`m lat Gary. Sorry I still don`t know rock solid if one the people on the State of the Industry panel will be on the panel. Monday I say 2 student animations both of which have be as an animated character. In one I am run over by a wheel chair in the other I give an endorsement for a high school for demons. This is not the first time I have turned up in student animatons. I should hunt up the students and the rights to put an animated Larry Loc festival from all the students that did evil things to me in their animations. I always take it a s good thing that students want to use me as an animated character but maybe I am just too animated in my character and therefore an easy target?

My main recording deck died Sunday just before I started editing for Comic Con and classes. May have to pull another deck over by it does a really good job and I miss it.

Got a Perception card set in a tower case given to me. I love Perception cards. One of the best video in/video out card set ever. I plan of putting a new mother board in the case and building it up as an animation deck as soon as I have the time and money. Thanks John.  ¶ 7:17 AM

  To Dub or Not to Dub In honor of the up coming ASIFA screening of Howl`s Moving Castle

Friday, June 24, 2005 - 7:30pm
Harmony Gold Preview House
7655 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA

RSVP to (818) 295-5213

I thought I would take a look at Anime. Anime is here to stay. Something is going on here. Japanese animation is filling a need that is going unaddressed by Hollywood studios. I would guess that 60% to 70% of the students in my animation classes are trying to draw in an Anime style. That is huge, like the 60`s British Invasion in rock music.

But it is foreign film and needs to be made accessible in the English language. Howl`s Moving Castle and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence , the two big Japanese animation of this season, deal with this in different ways.

Howl`s was lovingly dubbed into English with an all star cast. Ghost in the Shell was subtitled. I am ambivalent here. If the dub is well done with a lot of care then it can translate the film into a form that American audiences can understand. There is a lot to be said for this approach since it means a wider audience and therefore more Anime in the U.S. market. A good thing as far as fans are concerned.

On the other hand, something is always lost in translation. Among the diehard Anime freaks the preferred style of watching Japanese animation is with subtitles. No one is trying to rewrite the script for U.S. markets they are just trying to translate it as closely as they can. But then with an English dub you can always put the subtitles back on and change to the Japanese soundtrack or even the English soundtrack with English subtitles for a deeper understanding there by getting closer to the true meaning.

But on the other hand subtitles are cheaper and means that a wider area of Japanese animation can be brought over. Since it is mostly the fans that are going to the movies so if they want to read subtitles then that is a way to get a movie in theaters with a low enough cost that the distributor can turn a profit with a smaller total box office.

I very much enjoyed both Ghost in the Shell and Howl`s Moving Castle. So I am up in the air about good quality English dubbing. I think it is a case by case situation. But one thing I can tell you is that I hate poor and shoddy English dubs. Or even good dubs that aren`t thought out.

Throwing star power at a dub without thought is never the answer either. Thinking back a number of years to a movie that no one knew what to do with, he may be a great, but weird actor. He may have an Oscar. I may have liked him in a lot of things but I will watch the movie in Japanese without subtitles every time before I will watch it with his out of place voice.  ¶ 5:40 PM

  Friday Round Up

Yesterday saw strangeness in the page stats. Big numbers coming in. Lots of people in Japan lookng for things on Tom Sito I would guess. For the first time ever we had more over seas traffic than U.S. traffic. A total of 30% from Japan and 35% from Japan and China combined. Tom, you`re a star of the East. A lot of this came in before I even posted Tom Sito`s Far East Report Part 1 (Part 2 still to come).

It hurts, but I have had to put my animation project on hold until after comic con, just too much to do.

I started sorting animations yesterday. Big stacks to be viewed, picked, and edited. I have my silent animation screening to get ready. Always a fun one but a little hard to come up with new stuff.

I also have a screening this year called the Animation that Time Forgot, a screening of rare stuff that does not find its way to the TV for one reason or another (I plan on having a good mix of the or other).

The end of the semester if looming with all that entails. Comic Con Planning is taking over everything that is left over. Still have to update my e-Book; Animation on a ShoeString (TM). Just wrote a section on building a Support Rod System for Stop Motion Animation. Have to update the Digital Camera Section next. Life goes on.  ¶ 5:15 AM

  Bambi Screening Mark Evanier has a report on the Bambi screening at the Motion Picture Academy posted here: newsfromme.com  ¶ 6:52 AM

  Way Out East, Part 1 Tom Sito, Way Out East, Part 1


----A picture of me in a Japanese Newspaper enjoying Oshii's pavilion. Looks rather macabre to me.

Recently I traveled to China and Japan to lecture on animation. Stay tooned for some in-depth articles I'm writing for Animation World Network (AWN.com). But in the meantime I thought I'd blogg you a bit about it.

Pat and I flew out to Nagoya Japan to be a judge in the JDAF, the Japan Digital Animation Festival. It is a bi-annual competition for student films. Besides Japanese student work animated films were submitted from France, China, Thailand, Spain and Hungary. I gave a lecture on character animation and sat on a judge's panel with famed filmmaker Mamoru Oshii (PATLABOR, GHOST IN THE SHELL). Also part of the panel was IG producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa (SPIRITED AWAY, GHOST IN THE SHELL), Professor Takami Yasuda of the Univ. of Tokyo and Prof. Yasuki Hamano, who is on the board of Ghibli besides director of the Akira Kurosawa Foundation. Studio Ghibli for those who don't know is the animation studio settled among the quiet beanfields outside Tokyo where Hayao Miyazaki made his films PRINCESS MONONOKE, TOTORRO and NAUSICAA.

We all had several dinners of Nagoya regional cuisine -barbecued eel, ground chicken balls and spaghetti noodles, and talked animation. Oshi is a soft-spoken man with a strong love for filmmaking and his pet Basset hound. He actually made the dog a character in his last film INNOCENCE, which played in North America as GHOST IN THE SHELL II. At one point he asked me to draw his dog "in the Hollywood-style". Oshii urged young filmmakers to not just study other animae films but be influenced by all world cinema. He in particular was inspired by many films of the European New Wave of the 50's and 60's. I showed him my copy of his biography in English, Stray Dog of Anime by Brian Ruh. He decided to do another portrait of himself on the inner cover.


Oshii's self portrait

It was a great competition and the judges were invited to critique student work as well as discuss how we all got in the business. The Grand Prize Winner was the short TOUGH GUY! By Shintaro Kishimoto. Oshii-san is writing a new film. Studio Ghibli has begun to develop the old European story Heidi. Prof Hamano gave me a new collection of famous Disney stories illustrated by old anime master Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka wanted to make a film of Pinnochio in the 1960's but the story goes that Disney legal department stepped in and Tezuka abandoned the project. They invited me to tour the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, which I shall write about in an upcoming blogg.

During the festival we traveled to the Nagoya Expo 2005, the Worlds Fair. The fair had dozens of major pavilions demonstrating the finest in environmental research and the most advanced robotics. Oshii-san had designed an entire pavilion there he calls the Mountain of Dreams. The upper canopy of the pavilion is shaped to recall Mount Fuji, an important symbol in the Japanese character. The inside is a multimedia extravaganza of light and sound. Studio Ghibli also was represented by an exhibit. It is an exact replica of Setsuki and Mei's house from Miyazaki's classic MY NEIGHBOR TOTORRO. The Nagoya Expo is set to run until Sept 25th. I'll have full details on it in AWN.

The festival ended and prizes given, we bid goodbye to Oshii, Ishikawa, Yasuda and Hamano and headed off for China.

Tom Sito  ¶ 5:59 AM

  The Art of Pre-Production It is that time again, end of semester presentations in my Research and Development class. Time for students to pitch their projects that they have been working on all semester.

It is the best of times it is the worst of times. Here is one of my students that stepped up to the plate today prepared. Not all of them do. Good job John.



Space Oddities images © Jonathan Williams 2005 Used with permission   ¶ 5:10 PM

  Welcome Back A big welcome back to Tom and Pat Sito. They should be returning today from the Far East where they took part in a couple of Animation Festivals.

Maybe if we ask real nicely Tom will write up his travels and show us some pictures? Good to have you back Tom and Pat. P.S. Antran wants to move about 65 boxes of animation archives stuff this Saturday.  ¶ 7:23 AM

  The Los Angeles Film Festival June 16th to 24th

This year, as most years, the LA Film Festival has some interesting animation programming.

There are two reasons to go to a film festival (not counting networking). One is to see films you can never see anywhere else. The other reason is to see films you have seen before but you have never seen on the big screen.

Los Angeles Film Festival fills each needs for me. Pre Anime Japanese animation, Iranian animation and African animation are not something you can ever see outside of a festival. As for the Alice Comedies (plus an Osweld and Walt`s earliest surviving Kansas City animation) are all well known to me. But is will be nice to see them in a clean print on the big screen.

For more information on the Los Angeles Film Festival`s animation programming go to: www.lafilmfest.com/film_spotlight.php

Screening Schedule:
Before Anime: Japanese Animation
Tue, Jun 21 9:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Sat, Jun 25 5:00 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00

A Decade of Iranian Animation-The 70s
Sat, Jun 18 4:45 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00

Tales and Legends from Africa
Sun, Jun 19 4:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Wed, Jun 22 1:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00

Walt Disney's Alice Comedies
Sun, Jun 19 1:30 pm DGA Theatre 1 $10.00  ¶ 7:05 AM

 

Brooks College Animation Seminar: presented by Stephen Silver. He is the head designer for Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, Dragon Tales, Crash Nebula.

Date: Monday, June 13, 2005
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: Brooks Cafeteria (Room P204)
4825 E Pacific Coast Hwy
Long Beach , CA 90804

Admission: Free

RSVP to: Jodi Hobbs
Lead Instructor Animation / Network Technology

562-277-4123

Jhobbs@Brookscollege.edu  ¶ 12:25 PM

  Where it is At: San Diego Comic Con

We just got our booth Number for Comic Con, 5473. The far left hand side of the convention center on the front wall next to the entrance. We are still looking for people to work the booth and cover the panels. July 14th. thorugh 17th. larry@agni-animation.com

CLICK: for full size image  ¶ 8:46 AM

 

Pete Doctor told the story of being shocked and pleased that Hayao Miyazaki sat through the English dub of Howl`s moving Castle in New York City. Pete took it as a complement to the English dub. He did entertain the possibility that maybe Miyazaki might have stayed because of a crush on Lauren Bacall.

The story goes that Miyazaki turned bright red at the after party when Ms. Bacall asked him if he was single.

Weather he stayed because he liked the dub or because he liked Lauren Becall makes no difference to me. I liked Howl`s Moving Castle. Like most Miyazaki films I feel I need to see it 4 or 5 more times before I can get a handle on it.

Miyazaki`s work is like good 70`s French Cinema, layered and thought provoking. The film does not stop after you leave the theater. It stays with you in your thoughts as you try to figure out the deeper meanings.

I miss that in film. Americans stopped making that kind of motion picture about the time that Night Moves left the art houses.

Miyazaki makes films (FILMS) that are animated. Everybody else seems to be making animated movies. No matter how entertaining they may be we all know that animated movies in Hollywood are a ghettoized sub-genre of movies and they are all about selling popcorn and DVD`s. And that filmmakers have to fight tooth and nail to get the quality.

Thank the gods for a motion picture environment that lets a filmmaker like Hayao Miyazaki make his films.   ¶ 5:14 PM

  Thursday Nigh Press Screening

Howl`s Moving Castle Pre-Screening Panel (English Voice Panel with animation critic Charles Solomon)  ¶ 6:09 AM

 

Animation Critic Charles Solomon: Howl`s Moving Castle Screening  ¶ 6:07 AM

 

Emily Mortimer, Jean Simmons, Don Hewitt, Charles Solomon, Cindy Hewitt, Ned Lott, Rick Dempsey and Pete Doctor: the English version  ¶ 5:53 AM

 

Don Hewitt, Charles Solomon, Cindy Hewitt (the Hewitts wrote the English screenplay of Howl`s Moving Castle)  ¶ 5:52 AM

 

Jean Simmons the voice of Grandma Sophie: Howl`s Moving Castle Screening  ¶ 5:50 AM

 

Howl`s Moving Castle Screening  ¶ 5:43 AM

 

Emily Mortimer voice of young Sophe: Howl`s Moving Castle Screening  ¶ 5:41 AM

 

Cindy Hewitt one half of English version screen writer team for Howl`s Moving Castle Screening  ¶ 5:40 AM

  Animation as a Tool of Understanding? I haven`t been on these pages for a couple days. I have been working on my animation. Have to steal time from somewhere. Below is a rough low res animation for the title.



The way I am working on this one, the animation seems to have a mind of it`s own. Currently the working title is

Gender Perceptions
of Childhood Toys

I know it sounds like an anthropology dissertation. I should know, anthropology was one of the schools I passed briefly through in my 11 year sojourn as a college student.

The subject mater is turning serious too. I started out just wanting to do a slasher flick with a Barbie Doll and now the film has turned into a serious look into how boys and girls see the same childhood icon with completely different eyes and meaning.

Maybe I will come out of this with an understanding of why my wife and daughter love Barbie and I want to animated her bloody stabbing death?

As Leonard Rothman use to say; you send a fool to college and you get a fool with knowledge.  ¶ 10:54 AM

  A TRIBUTE TO DICK HUEMER Don`t miss this once in a lifetime event:

Fleischer animator; Creator of Scrappy; Disney story artist, Comic
strip creator, etc.

Animation producer and historian Ray Pointer presents a full
retrospective of the career of animator Dick Huemer with special
guest, his son Dr. Richard Huemer, Jr.

Screenings of rare cartoons include Huemer's earliest work in the
silent era, his work with the Max Fleischer and Charles Mintz Studio,
and examples of his career at Disney.

Thursday June 9th - 7pm
THE GLENDALE CENTRAL LIBRARY
222 E. Harvard Street
Glendale, CA  ¶ 7:24 AM

 


Comic Con Schedule

Comic Con is coming at us like freight train. We are looking for volunteers to woman and/or man the ASIFA-Hollywood Booth.

With that in mind I have added a new feature to the blog, a link in the side bare area that takes you straight to our Comic Con combined schedule that lists booth coverage and ASIFA presentations. This will be updated daily right up until Comic Con. Then I will remove it until next year.

If you are going to be at the San Diego Comic Con this year and would like to volunteer for a shift in the ASIFA booth please contact me larry@agni-animation.com

ASIFA Flyers/ASIFA Reps

Speaking of links, David Derks just sent out the link to this month`s ASIFA-Hollywood flyers. This is sent to ASIFA representatives at studios and schools. The representatives then print up copies and hang them in their workplace.

If you would like to join the ranks of ASIFA Reps and keep your peers informed then contact David at David Derks If you just want to see this month`s event flyers a little early then click here flyers  ¶ 7:11 AM

  As of 10 minutes ago the RSVP line should be back up FOR ASIFA MEMBERS

RSVP line for Howl`s Moving Castle (818-295-5213)

Howl`s Moving Castle
Friday, June 24, 2005 - 7:30pm
Harmony Gold Preview House
7655 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA  ¶ 5:24 AM

  Bill Melendez at Gallery Opening

First thing I saw when I entered the Fashion Island Chuck Jones Gallery was a lifesize cut out of Chuck seeming to draw.  ¶ 6:35 PM

 
Chuck Jones Gallery Opening 6-5-05  ¶ 6:20 PM

 

Chuck Jones Gallery next to the Koi Pond  ¶ 6:19 PM

 
Chuck Jones Gallery Opening 6-5-05  ¶ 6:18 PM

 

There was a 2 hour long line of people wanting to have artwork signed. Not the ideal event for someone wanting to talk about animation history but without the money to buy the artwork on the walls.

The Gallery opening was about selling artwork, as well it should be, and they seemed to do very well. I saw a lot of green dots go up on some fine pieces.

In a very smart move they had something priced for everybody (except teachers). Some of the pieces started as low as $180 and went up from there.  ¶ 6:15 PM

 

The line got held up for a 10 minute interview by the Spanish speaking press. http://www.ocexcelsior.com Not for the first time I wished that I could speak Spanish. Sounded like some cool questions. I wonder if I get at the site through one of the search engines with a translator program if I can figure out what he said?  ¶ 6:14 PM

 
Chuck Jones Gallery Opening 6-5-05  ¶ 6:13 PM

 
Chuck Jones Gallery Opening 6-5-05  ¶ 6:13 PM

 

Catching up on old times. 40 years ago this man lived next to a great animator and Bill use to come to Christmas parties.  ¶ 6:12 PM

 
Chuck Jones Gallery Opening 6-5-05  ¶ 6:11 PM