It’s nice to see our little neck of the woods get a bit of attention from mainstream media now and then, especially with meaningful and thoughtful commentary about films that while known to many in the industry, for the most part are unknown to most everyone else on the planet.

A guest post by Robert Appleton, Faculty, 3-D Animation Program, New York Film Academy

Was famous voice actor Mel Blanc the actual genius of character development in 20^th century animation? Most baby boomer fans in childhood may not have realized it, but the voice he gave to Looney Tunes’ Bugs Bunny was largely borrowed from a show their parents were listening to on the radio on The Jack Benny Program (1932-1955) and its television incarnation of the same name (1950-1965). Phrases that the Oscar-winning rabbit or his sidekick, Daffy Duck (also Blanc’s voice) used – “Now cut that out!” and “Cuc….amonga!” among them – were directly borrowed from Jack Benny. The intra-show theft worked in reverse when once, on Benny’s radio show, the protagonist had a visit from the wascally wabbit in a dream.

Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk

and Vinni-Pukh

We thank those AWN readers who contributed their thoughts on the passing of legendary Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk.

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"This is a great loss to Russian animation. Khitruk was the teacher of many famous Russian directors - Norshtein, Nazarov, Petrov, Maksimov, Aldashin and many others.  He was my teacher also. Khitruk was not only a good director and a teacher but also a unique person, a great conversationalist.  He always had positive energy."

Igor Kovalyov

Director

"Fyodor Khitruk helped modernize Russian animation. His sense of rhythm, his humor, his ability to tell stories concisely made him an example. But more importantly, his graphic virtuosity made history. Othello 67, the very short film (50 seconds) he made for the international competition organized for the Montreal World Exhibition is a masterpiece of irony and pacing."

Marcel Jean

Artistic Director, Annecy International Animation Film Festival

Pixar Director and Writer Andrew Stanton.

We've posted two-time Oscar-winner Andrew Stanton's (Monsters Inc, Toy Story, John Carter, Finding Nemo and others) commencement address from last month's Animation Mentor graduation.  Humor, insight and enthusiasm from one of Pixar's brightest stars.

Bully Alvin and Hero-to-be Norman, from ParaNorman. Image courtesy of LAIKA, Inc.

Before I tell you why you must go see LAIKA’s new stop-motion tour de force, ParaNorman, I’m going to share some deeply personal recollections from my wayward past.  There is relevance here, I assure you.  Just give me a chance.  Many years, ago, when I was a young lad, I often faced the derisive taunts of my schoolmates, who took delight in calling me anything from “Farto” (a deviously pithy replacement of the first letter of my last name – I still get mail to Dan Farto and it pisses me off as much now as it did when I was 7) to “Fat Fuck” to “Jew.”   Many of these upstanding citizens grew up to become pillars of business, doctors, lawyers, disgraced investment bankers.  Two of the meanest became cops.  A couple from the pre-Jackass gene pool died in nasty drug-fueled car crashes soon after dropping out of high school. Even though Facebook was decades away from germinating in the loins of that you-know-which Harvard nabob (I can’t say his name or I’ll break into 20 minutes of angry muttering) and text messaging involved nothing more than a pencil, some paper and a reasonable sidearm throwing motion, very few of my friends and none of the various school bullies ever had any problems finding new and efficient ways of singling me out for their verbal abuse.  They didn’t need no stinking mobile computing devices to focus their bullying.  They were just naturally talented, like Michael Phelps of Jenna Jamison.

Perry showing his father some of his latest work on his tribute film, Changyou's Journey.

It is with great sadness that I report Dr. Changyou Chen, father of AWN contributing writer and Ingrid Pitt: Beyond The Forest animator Perry Chen, passed away from cancer last Thursday, July 19.  A memorial service is scheduled this Sunday, details below.

Click here to watch the latest trailer for Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.

A new trailer has been released for Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.  Come October 5th, we'll see how Burton's early live action short translates into a stop-motion feature.