“It wouldn’t be the first time a labor of love arrived stillborn.” That was the closing line to a 1980s Film Comment article about animator Richard Williams’ ongoing quest to complete his long-gestating animated feature The Thief and the Cobbler.

The author of that article was close; what ultimately (and briefly) made it into the theaters as Arabian Knight wasn’t just stillborn; it was an abortion.

A fellow named Kevin Schreck has made a spot-on doc documenting Williams’ personal heart of darkness, aptly titled Persistence of Vision. It’s been popping up here and there (evidently he’s been working on it a few years himself) and I was fortunate enough to catch it at a recent Manhattan screening.

There they are, lined up left to right – the dream team, the creative powerhouse behind DreamWorks’ latest, ‘let’s leave out the snark this time’ animated feature Rise of the Guardians. They’re bookended on one side by executive producer Guillermo del Toro and on the other by William Joyce, the creative genius/illustrator whose Guardians of Childhood book series serve as the movie’s foundation.

Dental hygiene, Zombie-style. Photo by LAIKA – © 2012 - LAIKA-Focus Features.

“It’s John Carpenter meets John Hughes.” 

 That’s how Chris Butler describes Paranorman, the spooky, shot in 3D stop-motion film co-directed by himself and Sam Fell (Flushed Away). And that’s just for starters; there’s no shortage of pop culture markers in the film, everything from The Goonies to Ghostbusters and even the random Scooby-Doo episode. “It’s a grab bag of anything from the 1980s.”

Image ©2012 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Brave is a generational tale, the story of a young princess, a kick-ass Celt and wild child named Merida (voiced by Kellie Macdonald) who couldn’t be less interested in the life her royal mom Elinor (Emma Thompson) has mapped out for her.

This may be Pixar’s first female protagonist but Disney’s had no shortage of fairy tale heroines, from the demure Snow White to the determined Rapunzel in Tangled. It’s interesting how these gals become more assertive as the decades roll by, and they don’t come more headstrong than Merida.

Overall, Brave is an entertaining and even groundbreaking piece of work, both for its gutsy heroine and Pixar’s new ‘Presto’ animation system, responsible for Merida’s fiery red flowing locks.

A Monster in Paris. All film images © 2011 EuropaCorp, Bibo Films, France 3 Cinema, Walking the Dog.

It’s baa-ack! The days are getting longer and warmer, but the real sign of spring’s incipient arrival is of the return of the New York International Children’s Film Festival. A Monster in Paris was the opening night feature, which festival director Eric Beckman first saw at  last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Seems there’s a monster loose in Belle Époque Paris (duh) – but is he really a monster? The 3D CGI film is a charming piece of work with stylish character design and a sharp eye for getting its period details just right. (And be careful with those 3D glasses; bust them and the festival’s out $25.) It’s well-worth seeing for the mid-film fantasy dance number alone.

“Spin-off!"  Is there any word more thrilling to the human soul?”

Or so The Simpsons’ Troy McClure would have you believe. Evidently DreamWorks does too, with DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots about to hit theaters tomorrow. (Or last week, or last month when you might come across this review.)

Heathcliff, Garfield, and now Puss; orange tabbies seem to be at the front of the line when it comes to getting their own movie. it’s about time too, after years of Si and Am (Lady and the Tramp), Mr. Tinkles (Cats and Dogs) and Kitty Galore (Cats and Dogs redux) depicting cats as villains.

Can a former supporting player (Shreks II, II and IV) carry his own film? The answer is yes, especially if it sets up his backstory, introduces a female rival/love interest, provides plenty of entertaining set-pieces and a despicable villain or two.

Bugs Bunny and Daffy - The Looney Tunes Show

Now that CN has aired the first season of their new Looney Tunes series (or to be precise, The Looney Tunes Show), it’s time to enjoy them on DVD. What to do with these characters has been Warner Bros.’ challenge for years now. The classic theatrical shorts have matured from classic to just plain old. (Masterpieces all, but old just the same.) Attempts to bring them up to date have given us excretions like Loonatics, so-whats like Baby Looney Tunes and faux old-time toons like Carrotblanca.

Under exec-producer Sam Register, they’ve finally gotten it right: contemporized their merrie menagerie while keeping their core personalities intact. It took a bit of a trip into sitcom-land to accomplish, but IMHO (as they say online) it works.

Saturday morning at the movies, watching a cartoon – what could be more reminiscent of the joys of childhood?

Well, the cartoon this particular Saturday morning (September 10, 2011) was not exactly the kind of matinee I used attend back in Brooklyn when the theaters had ‘matrons’ who kept the kiddie section in line. Today I’m wearing polarized lenses and watching Disney’s upcoming 3D re-release of The Lion King.

Been a while since I’ve seen Simba and company in action onscreen. In fact, I think I’ve seen the Broadway show more recently than the movie. (No.2 box office champ for 1994, and the film that triggered the short-lived 1990’s feature animation craze that gave us classics like Anastasia and Quest for Camelot.)

The New York Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s Education program rolls on, ably overseen by the museum’s Senior VP of Education, Danny Fingeroth. Fingeroth’s impressive credits include a lengthy stint as group editor of Marvel’s Spider-Man books, college-level comics instructor and author, co-author and editor of various books and magazines on the subject of writing for comics. As part of his job Fingeroth rounds up pros at the level of Peter Kuper, Larry Hama, Paul Levitz and J.M. DeMatteis to share their knowledge and experience with aspiring comics creators.

As befitting the second ‘C' in MoCCA, cartoon courses are part of the curriculum too, like last year’s storyboarding class taught by Stephen DeStefano, or this past March’s “Animation Writing: How to Write Scripts that will Make You a Key Member of the Creative Team,” led by David Steven Cohen.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic group shot. Courtesy of The Hub.

The Transformers may be raking in the box office gold and G.I. Joe battled COBRA in the multiplexes, but while those once-upon-the-eighties Hasbro cartoon shows made the leap from TV cartoon to big screen live action, the diminutive equines collectively known as My Little Pony have returned in a new animated series that has surprised a lot of people.

To put it simply, The Hub Channel’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is one hip show.

MLP:FiM is the creation of Lauren Faust, an animation veteran whose career began as an animator on 1990’s features like Cats Don’t Dance and Quest for Camelot. After directing a stack of Powerpuff Girls episodes, Faust hit her stride as Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends’ head writer and supervising producer. (And in all likelihood, the visual inspiration for Frankie, the show’s red-haired teenage problem-solver.)