Inktober Day 31 - "The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile"

Oh goodness, this is the cutest thing ever:



So today's fanart is just a Jones-y pumpkin wearing the same expression I had during this entire show:


Happy Halloween everyone!

In Which I Give You A Tour of My Bookshelves!

For my birthday this year, I cleaned my bookshelves!  This is a Big Deal!

Seriously, I follow a lot of blogs by other illustrators and the one thing we all seem to have in common is breaking out in chronic literature, as in the above wonderful Arnold Lobel poster.  Now that my books are as organized as they are probably ever going to get (which means that they are actually in bookshelves; I really did have piles of books all over the place), it seems like a good time to give you, dear readers, a tour.  This is going to take a couple of posts and table-breaking photos.



Going from left to right (this shelf refused to photograph well thanks to the light seeping in from the adjacent window):

Jim Henson: The Works, Christopher Finch - This is one of the first art books I owned and it has spoiled me rotten ever since.  Loaded with concept art and history, this is a must-have.

Sesame Street Unpaved, David Borgenicht - Nice companion to The Works and very similar in format.  Plus you can currently find it for dirt cheap on Amazon.

Chuck Amuck and Chuck Reducks, Chuck Jones - Even if I wasn't such a Chuck Jones maniac, I'd consider these books essential. They're packed with concept art, anecdotes, and drawing tips.

Imaginative Realism and Color and Light, James Gurney - These books together have a wealth of information for painters. I don't paint very often, so I appreciate them more as a collection of Gurney's artwork.

Various Anatomy for Artists Books - Hey, remember these guys from the very earliest days of this blog? Wow, that takes me back.  Specifically, I've kept Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, Ken Hultgren's The Art of Animal Drawing, Fritz Schider's Atlas of Anatomy for Artists, and a little later we'll be seeing Eadweard Muybridge's essential Animals in Motion, Ellenberger and Davis' Atlas Of Animal Anatomy For Artists, Eliot Goldfinger's Animal Anatomy For Artists: the Elements of Form (it was on sale), and Katrina Van Grouw's The Unfeathered Bird.

Character Animation Crash Course, Eric Goldberg - I've been referencing it more than I thought I would when I first reviewed it.

Paleoart Galore! - OK, let's see here. We've got The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of DINOSAURS and Prehistoric Animals, at least until an updated reference of every known prehistoric animal comes along, Mark Witton's beautiful Pterosaurs, Henry Gee and Louis V. Rey's beautiful beautiful Field Guide to Dinosaurs: The Essential Handbook for Travelers in the Mesozoic, Gregory S. Paul's Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, William Stout's awesome The (New) Dinosaurs, the two Dinosaurs: Past and Present exhibit catalog books (I haven't read them but my succinct review of this wealth of classic paleoart is awesome), and Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart. And there's more on other shelves...

The Art of Maurice Sendak, Selma Lanes - I haven't been able to properly read this yet but it's an excellent collection of Sendak's art and since you can find copies for under ten dollars, it is a must-have.

Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo, Chris McDonnell - Here's the first series-specific art book I've found that's as good as the two aforementioned Jim Henson art books. It's a must-have for fans of "Adventure Time" and is packed to the gills with concept art, interviews, and trivia.

Next, more animation, comics, and children's books.

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Sketch of the Day!  The first "Final Fantasy" is a little strange, it turns out.

"There Goes My Hero..." Let's Watch "Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens"!

This is an awesome documentary that ran back in 2000 as part of the PBS series "Great Performances".  It's a very nice, heartwarming overview of Chuck Jones' experience at Warner Bros. animation and of some of the current filmmakers he has influenced.  It's also a nice little crash-course in character animation.  Enjoy:



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Sketch of the Day!  Some random mythology ladies.

Links of Interest - Disney Cruise Recovery Edition!

Well, I just got back from my family's very first Disney Cruise Line experience.  It'll take a while to sort through everything and get the trip report accomplished.  So until then, have a good old Links of Interest post!

* - First off, new "Hobbit" trailer!  New "Hobbit" trailer!  New "Hobbit" trailer!!!

* - Oh dear lord, this XKCD strip...  Don't miss the zoomable version.

* - My Year of Flops takes on the biggest flop of the year and attempts to parse the thinking behind the truly insane "Oogieloves' Big Balloon Adventure".

* - Speaking of insane ideas for movies, Warner Bros. (*sigh*) is going to make yet another attempt (*sigh*) at a Looney Tunes movie (*sigh*...  Believe me, I'd like to be optimistic for this. But after years of "Space Jam", "Baby Looney Tunes", "Loonatics Unleashed", "Back in Action", those recent weird Flash and CGI cartoons, and other, worse things, I'm pretty much conditioned to anticipate any officially sanctioned new thing involving these characters with dread.)

* - If you happen to be at Walt Disney World on the week of October 1, don't miss the special events being held to celebrate Epcot's 30'th anniversary.

* - Passport to Dreams Old and New shares the strange history of the segment of WDW's Magic Kingdom now known as Storybook Circus, observations on it's current incarnation, as well as where the look of Toontown in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" might have come from.

* - Holy crap, "Saving Mr. Banks" is actually happening!  With Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, yet!

* - Geek Dad reviews the "Chuck Jones' Mouse Chronicles" DVD collection.

* - TetZoo informs us that iguanas may have a far more complicated social life than you'd think.  (Yes, I squeed at the fraternal behaviors.)

* - Emily Willoughby met a Green Heron and pondered the implications of heron necks.

* - Comics Alliance brought attention to concept artist Ashley Stoddard, who in turn came up with an alternate version of "Willow" that would have been fascinating.

* - Tor.com shared another inspirational seasonal art gallery, this one, naturally, themed to autumn (some NSFW images).

* - I'm starting to put together my four-part(!?!) Disney Cruise trip report.  Here's the beginning of a much more cynical (but hilarious) take on one of the newer boats by TeevTee at Parkeology.

* - I finally got to see "Brave" recently.  I was going to write a full review but Lili Loofbourow's essay, "Just Another Princess Movie" expresses my feelings more eloquently than I ever could (my review would have just been, "Y'all are high!  'Brave' is great!" over and over.)  It is by far the most intelligent reaction to the film I've seen.  (Spoilers galore!)

* - Tim Brayton of Antagony and Ecstasy has just launched into his own Disney sequel marathon.  Given his hilarious take on "Belle's Magical World" (oh my God, the whole bit about Crane the writing paper), we are in for a hell of a ride.  I wish him Godspeed, and good luck!

* - If you're a "Brave Little Toaster" fan, you're going to want to see the film's director Jerry Rees' extensive website, filled with memorabilia and information.   Rees also recently hosted an open Q+A with fans.  (LOL at the people who thought Toaster was male...)

* -  And finally, The Rotoscopers/Animation Addicts posted their incredible interview with Don Bluth, in which he talks about his work on "Sleeping Beauty", his surprising new career as a teacher and theater director, and gets downright philosophical about art.  Definitely a must-listen!

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Sketch of the day!

In Which Trish Impulsively Joins the Short Animation Blogathon Party

So the idea, started by the Pussy Goes Grrr blog, is to pick a number of animated shorts that you like that can all be viewed in under one hour.  This is going to be hard as hell.

To make this very slightly easier for myself I will focus only on Warner Bros. animation since (a) I haven't had much opportunity to share my adoration for Looney Tunes and (b) my foggy memory has a better grasp on my favorite favorite Looney Tunes cartoons.  Anyway, the math will be much easier to do since each Looney Tune is about seven minutes and my Gold Collection discs are right here on my desk.

I am just going to list (and hopefully find links for) the first excellent animated Warner Bros. shorts that come to my mind.  Please don't read too much into this list and PLEASE don't fill the comments section with, "But what about...?"  Those will only make me feel horrible for forgetting/not having room for a favorite.  So without further stalling...

"Duck Amuck" (1953, Chuck Jones) - This might be my absolute favorite cartoon of all time if I am forced to pick one.  I only wish I could have been in the theater audience the day it premiered.  See, nestled in a compilation on Saturday morning, this short was hilarious but also kind of mind blowing.  By then I was already used to characters breaking the fourth wall and even engaging in meta-commentary about the nature of their being animated.  God knows what people in the early '50s thought of it.

"Feed the Kitty" (1952, Chuck Jones) - Sometimes straight-up adorable is just as good as mind-bending.  Anyone who watches this and does not go "Awww" even once has problems.

"What's Opera, Doc?" (1957, Chuck Jones) - You cried when Bambi's mother died?  Ffft!

"Waikiki Wabbit" (1943, Chuck Jones) -  My favorite among the more stylized Chuck Jones shorts, and nearly all of them ("Dover Boys", "Hair-Raising Hare", "Haredevil Hare", "Super Wabbit") are awesome.  The backgrounds are just so pretty!

"The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" (1946, Bob Clampett) - This is getting a little Jones-heavy isn't it?  So let's have a few adrenalin shots to the heart care of Bob Clampett.  I'd be in a happier place if more comic-to-film adaptations were like this.

"Baby Bottleneck" (1946, Bob Clampett) - Clampett Daffy is the best Daffy.  The animation in this short is just straight-up screamingly funny, plus the baby characters are adorable.

"The Heckling Hare" (1941, Tex Avery) - In the last, like, minute and a half we get a genuinely cute and moving moment and then... you can't not love that finale.  Avery thought Different.

"A Wild Hare" (1940, Tex Avery) - And sometimes you have to go for the obvious.  There had been cartoons with clever rabbits and hunters getting way in over their heads thanks to aforementioned clever rabbits before.  But this is where the legend really began, if we want to get all highfalutin' about it.  And let's leave that for the Disney animation.

More Animation Marathons

* - The Chronological Disney Animated Canon

* - Don Bluth Month

* - Dreamworks' "Tradigitals"

* - The Short Animation Blogathon

* - My Summer of Sequels

* - Random 90's Animation

* - The Princess Project

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Sketch of the Day!

The Internet needs another drawing of Yutyrannus, doesn't it?  Keepin' that beard meme alive.

Have a Trippy Independance Day...

A very special quick holiday post, because this was too amazing not to share:



I feel like I have just been shown everything ever all at once.

This is "200 / Bi Centennial" by psychedelic animator Vincent Collins. I only know about it thanks to somebody on Facebook. It's been darn near impossible to find any more information about it other than:

* - It was commissioned by the United States Information Agency in 1976 to commemorate the upcoming Bicentennial (of course).

* - Vincent is one of the last notable MySpace holdouts. He's quite a character and all of his films are incredible.

A few more Links of Interest for the road since this post was so short:

* - Want. Want so hard. (Yes, I am a sucker for Dunkin' Donuts and slushy fruity drinks.)

* - The Onion AV Club has been reviewing every episode of "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" for a while now, but this entry caught my fancy because of it's opening. It's really hard to find more than very basic information about television shows from that weird period right before the internet took off; "(all) we’ve got (are) a couple of scanned articles, a cassingle that came in a cereal box, and some orange VHS tapes". Keep this in mind for something I'll be writing hopefully next week.

* - ArtEvolved has the Carboniferous Gallery up! (Sad news though: I'm still working on my piece. Fortunately it can be added later.)

* - Speaking of outsized creatures, here's an awesome compilation of every Ray Harryhausen movie:



* - A segment from another obscure Chuck Jones' holiday special, "Yankee Doodle Cricket":



* - And while this is a bit old, it's still adorable:



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Art of the Day



No matter what your location, have a great and safe holiday!

Forgotten Christmas Specials 2010!!! Part One

As I stated on Thanksgiving, I found a YouTube Channel that had a bunch of Christmas specials I never thought I'd see again. Among them is "George and the Christmas Star", a strange and oddly melancholy little special from our Canadian friends:



I remember seeing this in New Hampshire a very long time ago, and all I remembered was Ralph the Robot's song. All the songs are by Paul Anka and... you can tell.

The aforementioned YouTuber was also kind enough to share "Raggedy Anne and Andy and the Great Santa Claus Caper":



When we think of Chuck Jones Christmas Specials, we probably immediately think of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" But that's not the only one. "Santa Claus Caper" is an oddity from the late 1970's and the world has seemed to forget it entirely even though it's cute and really quite good.

Fun things to notice: I don't think Chuck could ever let Wile E. Coyote go. June Foray should be in every Christmas special ever. The message of the special comes across as "Don't leave your toys mint in the box because that is bad and wrong," which is... an odd point of contention to have indeed.

Chances are you'd see commercials like these during these specials:



I love the montage of all the "Celebrate the Season with Kraft" ads that ran during the first-ever broadcast of "The Christmas Toy". They made all that cheesy goop look *so* appealing!

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Obliquely Festive Thing of the Day! It is, in Any Case, Timely!

So, there's this movie adaptation of "Yogi Bear" out now. It looks like pretty much the Worst Thing. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and io9 writer Cyriaque Lamar has watched the film for our sins. Cyriaque then wrote this amazing review, which is a must-read, because it gets downright philosophical about Yogi and his fellow Hannah-Barbera animal characters:

"If chipmunks, beagles, and platyhelminthes suddenly begin yammering at us about shamanistic folk remedies, humanity's entire philosophical, religious, and legal edifices will be blasted to smithereens... the Jellystone bears are creatures that should make SETI sh*t its pants, but they're greeted with apathy."

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Sketch of the Day!

More Craft Fair silliness!

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs... tonight?

Yes, tonight. At eight PM EST. On TBS. Followed by "Shrek" and "The Cat in the Hat". Yes, THAT "The Cat in the Hat". The visual representation of the opposite of fun that also made Audrey Geisel halt any further live-action film adaptations of her late husband's books and keep very strict quality control on any other adaptations (deep breath) THAT "The Cat in the Hat". I guess we should be grateful they aren't airing the ghastly live-action "Grinch", but still,

OK, that issue aside, why November? Why the week before Thanksgiving? I recall "Grinch" being aired very early last year as well, and at this rate, we'll be seeing the special air in October some year.

But who am I kidding? It's the Grinch! You could make a great argument that this was Chuck Jones' Crowning Moment of Awesome. And having Jones and Dr. Suess and Boris Karloff and Thurl Ravenscrofft and June Foray all working together is like a perfect storm of win. This is easily the greatest Christmas special of all time and is also an excellent litmus test. Any adult who doesn't go "aww" at any moment in the show, particularly the ending (only acid reflux is more guaranteed to bring me to tears), is very likely going to display worse problems later on.

In most markets, I have noticed that "The Grinch" is often rerun in December, closer to Christmas. I'll have a list of things to look for ready by then; I just need to dig out my copy of Chuck Reducks.

What's a little bit more interesting is that there is a brandy-new "Futurama" holiday special this Sunday...
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In other news, New England Comicon is this Sunday. Lots of Comic Art Guild people will be there (but possibly not me as I have a prior commitment and just learned about this event.)

Also, the AV Club has a very nice write-up on watching the DC Animated Universe. They are dead-on about "Superman" but I disagree with them on "Batman Beyond".

ALSO also, here is a drinking game idea. "Harry Potter" fans, Drink when you have flashbacks of the long, l-o-n-g summer of 2003 (when a considerable number of movie reviews for the second and third "Matrix" movies -which are essentially one long movie released in two parts and also it had been a while since the first movie- were written by people -people paid to write reviews of movies, mind you- who did not bother to go back and watch the first movie...)

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Art of the day! Actually, it is time to start thinking of this year's Christmas card design isn't it?



EDIT: I didn't go with these designs, but cards are now available at the Zazzle store.

"Gay Purr-ee" - the feature-length Chuck Jones involving film you've never heard of

It will be some time before I can get a Disney World trip report ready for you (I will probably start writing it as a series of subject-specific blog posts after I finish catching up on my various internet type things). So here's a quick review of an animated film I found on Netflix, gawked at, screamed "THAT'S what it was called!", rented, and watched."Gay Purr-ee" is an oddly-named animated film made by United Productions of America in the early '60s, based upon a short-story written by Chuck and Dorothy Jones, and directed by Abe Levitow. And boy does it look like it. I must say that Chuck Jones' style doesn't often mesh well with the ultra-stylized UPA style. It's often jarring to see such fluidly animated characters against such psychedelic backgrounds. Then again, that means that this is an animated film that really doesn't look like anything else out there.The plot concerns the adventures of Mewsette, a farm cat living in the French countryside who dreams of a better, more fabulous life. Her suitor Jaune-Tom is content to live out in the country. Mewsette overhears some humans talking about Paris and she stows away in a Paris-bound suitcase. Jaune-Tom runs after her with his Obligatory Sidekick in tow. Before they can catch up with her, Mewsette falls in with a conman (or concat, whatever) and... you can guess the rest.

Except, perhaps, for the part about the Alaska gold rush.It's funny how this movie could very easily be confused with "The Aristocats", with a dash of Don Bluth's "All Dogs Go To Heaven" (in that it is another movie where you also must not ask why the animals are conning each-other out of money -- what do animals even *want* with man's money?) But this was made almost a full decade *before* "Aristocats". Hmmm...So is the movie any good? Well, it's always fun to watch something Chuck Jones was involved in, but there is one major thing to consider: The leads are voiced by Judy Garland and Robert Goulet. Now ask me, a person who it has been established does not enjoy musicals, if they EVER STOP SINGING...



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Sketch of the Day!

"How The Grinch Stole Christmas" is on tonight!

But not for all of us.
While eating leftover apple pie for breakfast for the third morning in a row, sitting in a weird amalgamation of Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations, and fretting over how I'm going to tackle the holiday season on this blog, I saw this at the Christmas Specials Wiki and thought I should share the heads-up:

Viewers in the Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire areas are going to need to have a DVR ready as the specials "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Shrek the Halls" will be pre-empted for the New England Patriots-New Orleans Saints NFL Monday Night Football game telecast produced by ESPN this Monday (10/30).
The programs are scheduled to air at approximately 3 AM EST. (Emphasis mine.)

Oh man, it's Fox's treatment of the last season of "Futurama" all over again!!!
Seriously, though. This is the only time Chuck Jones' "Grinch" - arguably his crowning moment of awesome - will be viewable on broadcast television. Now, as a drooling Chuck Jones fangirl, I obviously have the DVD. And anyway, didn't ABC have the stones to cut scenes out of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" last year? For more commercials even?!
Ah, well. Here is a helpful schedule of almost every holiday special airing on television this season. The big three are all this week: "Charlie Brown" is on tomorrow night and "Rudolph" follows on Wednesday. I really wanted to do long, loving tributes to each of these animated Christmas special for the days on which they air (it is obligatory for an animation blog written by someone who grew up with them). I am probably going to do this anyway, but you'll have to DVR the specials to follow along, I guess. It's still November, dammit! Who'd expect Christmas specials on now? I remember when you didn't see any specials before the Solstice.
I'm rambling.
For now, eh, go Pats I guess.
EDIT: Boston gets the Grinch on December 23, which makes a heck of a lot more sense anyway.

Project Feederwatch -and- A Very Richard Williams Christmas Carol

Project Feederwatch begins this weekend!!! Oh frabjous day! Instructions here! Please join this year; they need your data!.

These three books were how I got into the world of amateur ornithology (I am not a Birdwatcher; I don't gotta catch 'em all). Truthfully, the battered copy of How to Know the Birds (you can't even believe how out of print this one is) was the real gateway drug. I found it in a pile of very old, hilariously outdated science books that were just going to be thrown away from a school library. I found it, read it, stuffed it in my purse and carried it around with me (most of my field guides shared that fate; I was twelve), colored the pictures in, wrote notes in the margin, and basically loved the book to death - though it's still holding together and still readable.
As far as other amusing bird feeding things I saw over the past year...

I spotted this on the back of an older bag of bird seed. Let's face it, a lot of people think bird feeding is the most square hobby ever (in other news, normal people think that placating flight-capable mutated Velociraptors is square.) This isn't helping.

I saw this in a Big Box store and I *almost* saw myself buying it. Then I remembered that I had long ago dedicated myself to standing up for unpopular animals (I had helped launch this trope for crying out loud) and above all else did not want to give people who advocate only feeding the pretty birds my ten dollars. Even for the sake of an experiment. (How would this even work anyway? Blackbirds eat anything!)

After doing some research and comparing prices online, I came to realize that you can't beat Ocean State Job Lot. I stocked up last week and scored 100 pounds in total for about fifty dollars. (The aforementioned eight pound "I Only Want to Feed the Pretty Birds" mix retails for $14.00.) I keep my seed in two big storage tubs.
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"Fantastic Mr. Fox" opens soon and it'll be interesting to see how this does against "A Christmas Carol". Speaking of, I've a special treat for those of you who dislike the idea of a 3D film based upon a Charles Dickens book.*
This 1971 animated short film adaptation was produced by Chuck Jones and directed by Richard Williams. It is the only film version of the story thus far to ever win an Oscar, and deservedly so as it is not only accurate to the letter of Dickens' book but also perfectly captures the eerie mood. (Tellingly, this is the one version of A Christmas Carol that is barely ever shown on television.) Hit the Fullscreen option to get the most out of this:

* - And aside from the linked CHUD review, I also like FARK poster Steve Zodiac's comment:
"I don't think I want Zemeckis anywhere near anything animated, especially Roger Rabbit. Hollywood has decided that:
1) Only 3D (I think he means CGI here) is worthwhile.
2) Capture Motion or whatever they are calling roto-scoping these days is good because it's cheaper.
3) We don't consider animated movies to be real movies anyway.
4) Only well-known actors should be used as voices. Has-beens are ok.
5) Is RIGHT OUT. (It took me a minute to get this one too; think Monty Python)
6) People who have never directed a successful animation feature are not only ok for the project, they are almost required.
7) Plot? Continuity? A good reason to make the Film beyond the fact that even a crummy sequel makes money? This is Hollywood! We don't have those things for real movies either!"
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Have I got any readers in the Pittsburgh, PA area? If so, the oddly-named IlluXCon is starting today and a large number of awesome artists are attending.

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And I hope it isn't too late to share my "Sesame Street" tribute. Click for large.