While I agree with most of the reviewers comments, I disagree with his opinions of some of the Nine Old Mens work, which is clearly subjective. However, Canemakers book is a terrific read from cover to cover. It's great to read about some of the mediums' best artists who never got their due, Like Johnny Lounsbery and Les Clark. Lounsbery was a great draftsman and a wonderful animator and so was Les. However, even though this book was about the Nine Old Men, it would have been nice to see some attention paid to other animators who were also important to Disney, but always ignored. Character animators like Hal King, John Sibley, Bill Justice, Hal Ambro, and Ken Hultgren have never truly been given their due. Ken Anderson, who was an important key to producing these films is hardly ever mentioned. All were top talents and should have received some major mention in the book. Hal King was even a directing animator for a feature or two.

Mr Gene Deitch,

A very informative site indeed! I am a long-time fan of Tom and Jerry and while I never enjoyed your Tom and Jerry's as much as the earlier renditions when I was a kid growing up in the 60's, I nevertheless can really appreciate what you accomplished with such limited resources. They are by far better than the later Chuck Jones attempts and we won't even talk about the later two series. I have the oldest Tom and Jerry website on the net and you can't believe how many people still ask about your 13 versions...especially "Dicky Moe."

The questions I have are:

Where did that music come from? Many fans say it reminds them of a psychedelic drug trip!

Why are your versions not on dvd, vhs, etc...here in the USA?

I assume you made an error on the 12 cartoons... weren't there 13?

Thanks for creating a very unique set of cartoons in the Tom and Jerry history.

Randy Simcox
tomandjerrycartoons.com

Without the doubt the finest thing Chris has ever written. The only time I couldn't argue with everything he said! Lets do it like this every month!! -LightwaveDave

Martin Where ... on the net ... could one find back issues of "Funnyworld" ??? Last night, tried the libraries and ran into a snag & haven't a clue ... on line ... where to search ... Thank You Chae

Dear Martin, Just finished reading, "Walking to Toontown", Prts 1 & 2, and following thru on your links. Smiled a bit at the section, 'Taking the Plunge' ... "surfing for the first time at the age of forty" ... This past summer, having just joined the '56-yr-olds' was my first plunge into computor animation .... Studied this the proverbial 18-hour, 7-day week & finally, Feb 1st, went on the web. Your article is a great inspiration !!! Following thru on your references to the 'greats', i.e., Bob Clampett, Max Fleischer, Ralph Bakshi, Gene Deitch will certainly give me leads on how to improve my own style. Thank You very much for a most enjoyable "tour" of the industry and for sharing so much of yourself with us. Chaeli

Dear Editor, Thank you for the article by Fred Seibert and Bill Burnett on Bill Hanna. I've said for years that Hanna-Barbera was never given its due for almost single-handedly saving animation from becoming a lost art during the 50's, 60's, and 70's. They kept the industry and those in it working and viable until the boom times came again. Their efforts are directly responsible for giving many people (myself included) the opportunity to make funny drawings come to life for a living. It's great to see two noted industry professionals feel the same way. Sincerely, Paul Naas

Kenny, What a wonderful and insightful tribute to Bob. You captured what many of us felt about the man, myth and legend. Your story brought back many memories that I had not thought about in years. It was a pleasure being a part of that tremendously creative group and I treasure the relationships I was able to have with so many talented people. I am most grateful that I had the opportunity to have been a front-line witness to the creative genius of Bob and the assembly of visionaries that he found and guided. Steve Kasper

I want to tell you that your article was at the right place at the right time for me. I am a full time night student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, or at least I was before they canceled my nighttime class I need to graduate. I should be finishing my associate’s degree in Illustration this coming summer. That is if I don’t run into any more Bulls#!% from FIT. Anyway because of my situation I was contemplating going to a school for animation. But the question of do I stay or do I go and find another school came up. I just want to say that your article gave me something to think about. It made me reevaluate my decision to be at FIT and to ask “Do I still what to be there?” But the most important thing it gave me was some insight in to what Questions I should be asking myself. For that I thank you SHYAMAL

I found it very interesting but you did not say anything about an independent feature film that is also the first CGI film in Europe, was in top ten of Spanish films box office in 2001 and won two Spanish film academy awards. It is called The Living Forest and when I met Dan Sarto last November at LEAFG and I gave him info, also check www.thelivingforest.com Best regards, Manuel Cristobal Executive Producer

I would like to say that firstly that this article is a very unfair analysis of features in particular that have not even yet even been released, hence the scooby doo movie, and as a co-animator working on the flick, I feel very distraught that someone can describe our animation not on par with that of the legends such as art babbit, tex-avery, who's to say there are'nt more would be legends lurking within the CGI community, I myself have put a great deal of work into the animation, and feel we have taken the scooby one step further, than that of the traditional scooby cartoon, and some of the guys I am fortunate enough to be working alongside have committed many man hours into producing quality animation, and what I have seen of the feature myself, it looks very entertaining, are'nt we supposed to suspend disbelief when watching these films, are'nt they just a source of entertainment, who cares who particular stars in them, just enjoy the movie, and I can say that the actor who plays the shagster, is absoulutly awesome, even growing up myself with the scooby cartoons, I think that what i have seen so far, proves to be a excellent rendition and compliment to the traditional scooby cartoons, and also more importantly, we should realise that these features are targetted at a much younger audience, and the children I have witnessed getting a sneak peak, have been rolling around in laughter, and were really exicited by the film. Personally my hat goe's off to all the people who have worked on this movie, it's been a barrel of laughs, and I think this will certainly be portrayed in the flick..

Mr. Goodman I agree with your comments on LAAFs. But one thing I don't agree with you on is the comment you made about Forest Whitaker. Mr. Whitaker is very talented and gifted actor, director and producer. He directed four movies and produce some as well. I didn't see when hope float but I did see Waiting to Exhale. In my opinion it was a good movie with a talented cast. Not lightweight.

"It is irrelevant, I suppose, that Freddie Prinze Jr., a Latino, has been cast as Alan and sports a bleached-blond do over his swarthy features." Excuse me, mr. all know it all, that's Freddie, not Alan in this movie(unless WB has gone nuts and changed his name). Maybe you were thrown off by mr. stupid freddie prinze jr.'s name.. If you're going to rant about classic cartoons being made into movies, make sure you truelly know your cartoons, or you come off as a hack.

Aside from "Rocky & Bullwinkle," virtually all 'toon-to-film conversions have been abysmal and as Scooby-Doo is so dumb it insulted a friend's 5-year-old, which is rather telling, wouldn't you say? As with film noir, certain mediums should be left as they are; their original states are a large part of what makes them memorable. Some "films" should be used as ukelele picks and never released at all. I found a small plastic Scooby in a parking lot. I cut off the head and swapped it with the head of an Alien action figure. I will mail the results to two friends who will laugh like big dawgs. Thus, you can see where I stand.

This business of turning cartoons into live action properties is nothing new. However,it seems that the combination of print cartoon characters (those originating from comic strips, panel cartoons or comic books) and television works best. Dennis the Menace, Superman, Batman, the Hulk, Wonder Woman,The Adams Family, Sabrina the Teen Age Witch, etc. all fall into this category. It seems that audiences are more forgiving than taking an animated show and making a live action movie out of it. I think Dr Toon is right about the visualization aspect-a show like the Flintstones is harder to create in live action than say, a superhero comic where the artists draw more "realistically" than cartoony. Even Disney has taken two classic features (101 Dalmatians and Jungle Book) and turned them l.a.! I think what bugs me more is when they take live action stuff and turn it into a cartoon to cash in!

Cutting Corners in 3D Render at a lower resolution and upres in Photoshop. Render at 24 or 15 FPS. and if you need ones you can use Retimer to create them. Motion blur can be added as POST (Reelsmart motion blur for after effects) as well as DOF effects using depth maps. Good animation will cover everything else. Animate using Low res version of your high res models. then switch at rendertime. Far away objects can be less detailed. and the main thing is dont be afraid to cheat...just make sure that what does get seem doesnt suck. And while i hate to criticize anyone, and i only saw 2 minutes of BUM....the martians didnt have any life to their motions...i believe they should be animated more like ANTZ. SNAP, Squash and stretch!! hope this helped out someone.

In your article you mention the lack of DirectX support in the Wildcat series of cards: "Film, broadcast and post-production animators, however, will hardly notice the problem." I must say this is far from the truth. Many of the post production and broadcast work is now being done with the output going to DVD. You need DirectX in order to run most (if not all) of the DVD players such as WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. Without the DirectX support and thus without the ability to do post production onto a DVD-R(w), the high end graphics card does no good.

Jhonen is a comedy genious. JTHM brought about a new prespective to my life. It's the most entertaining thing in the world, aside from maybe squee or Invader Zim. I personally dont have cable but my boyfriend tapes em for me (^_^) EEP! so sweet. NEways, thanks Vasquez for everything you've created.

I love Zim and I watch cartoons 8hrs. a day so in my mind Nic. sucks

Um..I seem not to be able to start these kind of things so great so um...yeah.There I started it! First of all I happen to be a huge Jhonen Vasquez fan.I was also like that other kid who posted a comment working on a commic with a writer,i guess you can say friend. I have grown not to like that because you never know what may happen,I mean the kid that wrote my comic and I aren't speaking.I also plan on never speaking to him again, so I think you(the kid who wrote that comment) should try once to write your own,and NO I am not trying to be mean.JTHM was the first comic book I read believe it or not,and it was the past November 23rd.Yes,it's sad really.What also is sad,is that I haven't read any of Jhonen's work besides JTHM. I want to.Since then I really started to enjoy drawing in that style.Although I don't exactly count on doing anything about it in the future, I don't exactly want to make an animated TV show when I get older...not at all,it won't happen. I don't even have a good reason for it,I just don't want to.I would like to write a comic though.I am working on one write now,one that I plan on writing myself. Well,I WOULD write more but this comment is just way to long as it is.TY for your time...Oh and I agree,watching Scooby Doo is like watching feces for a half hour.I don't like it >.

Thank you, this web site has been such a blessing and learning tool into the world of animation. Being a writer and creator I have found some very important lessons. I am only small fry at this stage of my new adventure. I would like to pass on a Quote from an old Tutor: "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Once again Thanks. Anthony Fay