Coming to Netflix soon. It's enraged the online nazis for the usual reasons, but this time it's particularly delicious because they can't even pretend it was ever for them. When they say she looks like a boy, all you have to do is take that thought seriously, just for a second, to understand how completely they're losing that particular aspect of the culture wars.
Myisha Haynes and Jaz Malone released the second in their fun and interesting series on how cartoonists can draw black people while avoiding imagery fraught with negative connotations. Read the rest
If there's anyone out there who's never felt like an imposter, or suffered from FOMO (fear of missing out), or struggled with self doubt, I sure would like to meet them.
Yet, just because these are common human experiences, it doesn't make it any easier to deal with when they happen to you. (Can I get an a-men?!)
In 2017, for the 100 Day Project, Portland-based cartoonist Lucy Bellwood penned her own demon in a series of 100 comics. Those illustrations have now become a book titled 100 Demon Dialogues.
In the forward she writes, "Back in 2012, entering my first year as a full-time freelance cartoonist, I hit an art rut. Trying to shake things up, I doodled a picture of a tiny, taunting inner imp who apparently believed I’d never make anything of myself."
"He cropped up time and time again over the next five years — when things were going well and I was worried I’d lose everything, or when things were going poorly and I thought it’d never get any better. Each comic I drew about him brought a little more humor or clarity to our relationship, but I still felt like I was at his mercy," she continues.
"Then, in April of 2017 I set out to complete my second 100 Day Project, a themed challenge in which participants do something creative every day for 100 days. Spanning just over three months, it seemed like the perfect chance to really dig into what was going on with this little jerk and get a handle on how to banish him for good."
Her project resonated with people of all walks of life. Read the rest
The bootleg_daycare Instagram account is a fantastic stream of poor representations of famous cartoon characters emblazoned on the walls of dodgy daycare centers, ice cream trucks, and other locales. "Don't worry, your children are in good hands."
bootleg_daycare (Thanks, Lux!)
The Royal Ocean Film Society looks at the work of pioneering animator Richard Williams, whose work on Pink Panther and Roger Rabbit bucked animation trends and pushed for a more exaggerated style of movement. Read the rest
70 or so South American animators were assembled by Brazilian animator Ivanildo Soares to recreate a 1961 Woody Woodpecker short, "The Bird Who Came to Dinner."
It's a late-era Woody cartoon, and it's pretty uninspiring. But somehow it inspired these animators to reimagine the entire cartoon, individually, and in intervals of only a few seconds that are weird, creative, and jarring. The soundtrack is exactly the same, but every cel has been replaced, in very diverse styles.
Here is the original 1961 cartoon.
The Bird Who Came To Dinner - YouTube from Marcelo Glauco on Vimeo.
And here is the new South American twist. It's pretty fun to watch.
What spurred these animators to this project? I can't seem to find the answer, but it may have something to do with this: Like France's inexplicable love for Jerry Lewis, and the theory that "Germans Love David Hasselhoff," South Americans apparently love Woody Woodpecker.
via Mark Evanier and Cartoon Brew Read the rest
In this video [via Spacetwinks], Hanna-Barbera sound editor Paul Douglas's 10 favorite sound effects are presented for your amusement and transformative misuse. It's sadly missing the "running" sound, though, but it's not hard to find...
(There's an audio CD on Amazon purporting to offer a set of 100 official Hanna Barbera sound effects, and it's got good reviews, but YouTube surely has the lot anyway)
30. Boinks: Boink/Doink/Pixie And Dixie Boinks 31. Bongo Feet & Zip 32. Bonk, Zing, Crash & Zrit 33. Bonks & Conks
also i found the specific sound effect i was looking for, which i love https://t.co/B7NOMNHcmP
— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) October 17, 2017
Released in Japan in 1989, Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros is a series of three fairy tale animations starring the Super Mario characters. From the Mario Wiki:
The series contains: Super Mario Momotarō, Super Mario Issun-bōshi, and Super Mario Shirayuki-hime. The two former episodes in the series are retellings of fairy tales of the same name, while Super Mario Shirayuki-hime is a retelling of the Western fairy tale Snow White
Via Greenwood himself!
Each Radiohead album described with Spongebob https://t.co/mCCuQLd0TR is perfect in so many ways....
— Jonny Greenwood (@JnnyG) October 9, 2017
Cuphead is a strange and stunning video game (see the trailer below) that perfectly resembles a pre-war Grim Natwick cartoon. But seeing it in black and white on an old cathode ray tube (above) takes it to another level entirely.
Running a new console to an old monochrome TV requires a serious chain of dongles. First the composite HDMI adapter you know you need, but then an coax composite RF modulator because these things are so old they don't even have composite inputs, then maybe a twin-lead flat antenna plugs coax transformer as well, because these things are so old they don't even have coax.
P.S. black and white and technicolor filters are both available as in-game options, but you've got to beat it, and it's a very difficult game:
He makes the scene when things look mean. Read the rest
"So Much for So Little" is a 1949 Warner Brothers cartoon promoting universal health care. It was funded by the federal government and directed by Chuck Jones, with music by Carl Stallings, and narrated by Frank Graham. It won the Academy Award in 1950 for Documentary Short Subject.
From Open Culture:
Read the restWhile our country looks like it might be coming apart at the seams, it’s good to revisit, every once in a while, moments when it did work. And that’s not so that we can feel nostalgic about a lost time, but so that we can remind ourselves how, given the right conditions, things could work well once again.
One example from history (and recently rediscovered by a number of blogs during the AHCA debacle in Congress) is this government propaganda film from 1949—the Harry S. Truman era—that promotes the idea of cradle-to-grave health care, and all for three cents a week. This money went to school nurses, nutritionists, family doctors, and neighborhood health departments.
....
Three cents per American per week wouldn’t cut it now in terms of universal health coverage. But according to [John] Maher, quoting a 2009 Kingsepp study on the original Affordable Care Act, taxpayers would have to pay $3.61 a week.
The Magic of Oz, most likely from the early 1960s, is sometimes referred to as "the worst cartoon ever." I think that is hyperbolic but I appreciate the sentiment.
Animation historian Jerry Beck had this to say about it: "The film is a real mystery... and real awful."
(via /r/ObscureMedia)
The fine young men of MegaIceTV made a live action re-enactment of the entire "Pizza Delivery" episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. What a fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon! The original is below. Don't miss their other bad/good videos either!
(via r/DeepIntoYou)
In the 1970s, legendary Disney animator Art Babbitt, creator of Goofy, worked at Hanna-Barbera directing the studio's commercial division. His anti-drug PSA above, circa 1970, is a masterpiece of psychedelic cartooning.
