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.

Geeky Ways to Mark the Year of the Rabbit

Just off the top of my head, since I have to admit I'm still in a bit of an emotional freefall sometimes. (The fact that it is it's downright dangerous to go for a walk outside with all the ice and pedestrian-hiding huge snowbanks isn't helping.)

Contribute to 700 Bunnies!
Yes, please. I need to step up to this one myself as I lost the thread sometime two years ago. There are still plenty of Bunnies left to be drawn. Wouldn't it be awesome if we got through the list together by this time next year?Have a Battery Commercial Film Festival!
Because who doesn't have a soft spot for that lovable pink drum-playing scamp? I am of course referring to... the Duracell Bunny.



Yes, he's faded into obscurity, but Duracell had a pink, drum-playing bunny mascot for a very long time. He has since been retired, thanks to the ad campaign that started with this commercial:

Do a Rabbit-Like Pokemon Only Speed Run
If you have lots of free time. And, err, good luck with it. (Depending on the particular game, you will be relegated to Pikachu, of course, Wigglytuff, Nidoran, Plusle/Minun, Azumarill and Slutbunny Lopunny. This might actually be better than it sounded at first glance.)Three Words: Bugs Bunny Marathon
Need more be said? Although, on that note, I think this is the year I should start seeking out more Weird Loony Tunes Things. (I've had a lot of Weird Disney Things mostly because they are easier to find and, well, there is a metric boatload of it and in quite an astonishing variety too.)
Then again, the lovely Misce-Loony-ous blog has essentially got that niche filled. They did uncover one of my favorite Loony oddities:



WHY do they keep turning the Loony Tunes into superheroes?! There is no reason for them to be superheroes (except that one Chuck Jones "Super Rabbit" short)!

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Feederwatch Thursday! Other People's Art of the Day!

Yeah... Have this instead:



It is a short promo piece for "Inception" and while it's just a little "PLEEEEASE vote for us, Academy!"-y (JUST a little), I hadn't seen the interviews or behind-the-scenes footage before. It's very cool, especially since it shows you that Christopher Nolan really was determined to use practical effects whenever possible, without giving away too much. The short contains the mildest of spoilers.



This was also too amazing not to share. And while I don't have all the training and experience Rob Pratt has had, it makes me wonder why I haven't sat down and made my own one-minute short. Best thing is, he GETS Superman.

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Aw heck, Feederwatch Thursday!

Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 -- Yeah... you will see sketches of her later.
Blue Jay 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Carolina Wren 1
Northern Cardinal 2
House Sparrow 11

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Sketch of the Day!

Bunnies! Bunnies bunnies bunnies bunnies... foreshadowing?

In Which we finally discuss the CGI Coyote in the Room

That is to say, I'm finally going to say something about "The Looney Tunes Show" and the new Wile E. Coyote shorts. Here's information about both series, via the wonderful /Film:

"Last time Warner Bros. tried to reinvent the classic Looney Tunes stable of characters, the result was a disaster. The 'Loonatics Unleashed' featured absurd 'extreme' versions of the characters that were booed off television within two years.

"Now WB is trying again with a new cartoon series and a set of 3D shorts that will play in theaters. Why would you even think about having confidence in this new approach? Because the studio is going back to the basics... Three new Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote shorts have been approved and three more are in development. The 3D shorts will debut in front of 'Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore' at the end of July. (Great. So now we have to go see that.)

"Then the new 'The Looney Tunes Show', a 26-episode half-hour series, will appear on Cartoon Network this fall. There Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck will be 'odd-couple roommates in a contemporary cul-de-sac' with neighbors Yosemite Sam, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Marvin the Martian and Porky Pig."

This is pretty much all we know for now.  Eh....... Could be worse. Not digging the "Bugs Bunny living in a suburban house" thing (that should have stayed in the comic books), but it could be worse.
Speaking of worse, that Fully-Rendered 3D CGI Wile E. Coyote.  Ugh.  It reminds me of this wonderful essay (with a follow-up here) written by Will Finn addressing the fact that not every computer animated character has to be almost-realistic. 

You can't really say that CGI!Wile E. isn't photo-realistic like, say, the characters in "Avatar" are. He is still recognizably based on the wonderfully expressive Chuck Jones character design we all fell in love with. Yet, for some dang reason, every damn strand of canine fur and scale of skin on his cold nose has to be fully rendered in ludicrous detail. Why? Just... why?

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Sketch of the Day! My Crack Pairing! Let me show you it!



Speaking of Crack Pairings, I kinda wish I was a projectionist right now. Because if I was, I would swap out the last reel of "Sex and the City 2" for the last reel of "Splice". I'd be fired on the spot for doing this, but I would regret nothing! Nothing!