A little food for thought about the age of drawn animation...

I think this is kinda neat, although very Disney-centric. And hey there...you wouldn't have been able to DO this short had it not been for your friendly plastic pal who's fun to be with, aka your computer. I am willing to wager that either ToonBoom or Flash was used in the production of this short. One need only see the trailer for the recently released Sita Sings The Blues to see just how computer tools have made it possible for one sufficiently motivated auteur -- Nina Paley -- to animate a whole movie solo. It took her five years to do it, but damn that looks awesome.

I also think the dis of Bakshi was totally undeserved. Raunch was not the only thing he pioneered in cartoons. One need only look at "Wizards" to see how far he raised the bar technically. Also Miyazaki got a tip of the hat, but not the rest of the Japanese animation industry. People like Anno Hideaki, Oshii Mamoru and Watanabe Shinichiro are taking drawn animation into the future. And that's only a few names. The scene is struggling there, make no mistake. I was at Anime Expo and it's clear that Japan and also the American companies who distribute Japanese animation are in trouble. The global economy is in trouble, what else is new?

Still, this is a great short. I hope this gets in theatres so it can go into competition for the Academy Award best animated short race.

He yam what he yam and the DVD set drops 7/31

Yes!

POPEYE ON DVD!!!

And this time it's being done right!!!!

I know Jerry Beck said nice things about the Warner Bros. Golden Collections which have been DVNR-ed to death and are not necessarily so great, but his estimation of the Popeye set sounds like he's genuinely thrilled about it. I'm hoping that this is not anywhere near like the abortion that was the Betty Boop DVDs, which again were DVNR-ed into sub-Korean Traceover mishmash.

FINALLY, the Fleischers get their propers. Hopefully this marks a new beginning at Warner Home Video...perhaps another try at the Boops might be in the cards? There's already scuttlebutt that a "Forbidden WB Cartoons" Golden Collection might be coming down the pike as well. The cover art for the Popeye set has a very important disclaimer: "Warning: these cartoons are not for children, but for adult cartoon fans." Perhaps Warner Home Video is finally taking the treasures in the WB film archives seriously, and giving them the serious treatment? I hope so, dammit.

And I hope there's advance copies at Comic-Con. That would be something fun to have to watch on the train trip back home.