Eric Goldberg is a supervising animator at Walt Disney Pictures, well known for his work on such classic cartoon films as Aladdin, Hercules, and Fantasia 2000. He also recently began a stint as an artist-in-residence instructor for character animation at the University of Southern California (USC). For the opening of a new Disneyland in Shanghai, China, Mr. Goldberg helped to decorate one of the restaurants by drawing a series of Disney characters in the caricature style made famous by restaurants like The Brown Derby and Sardi’s in Hollywood. In fact, Mr. Goldberg wound up drawing nearly 200 pictures for the project! Now no less than 180 of these black & white illustrations have been gathered together in a new hardcover book — An Animator’s Gallery: Eric Goldberg Draw The Disney Characters from Disney Editions. According to an article at Stitch Kingdom, “Fans of all ages, and from all over, can enjoy Eric’s playful portraits, starting with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse from the Company’s early days through Anna and Elsa from Frozen. Bonus sections will even feature some of the most beloved characters from Pixar (Toy Story, Cars, Monsters, Inc.) and live-action films (Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pirates of the Caribbean).” Featuring text by fellow Disney animator David Bossert and a foreword by John Lasseter, An Animator’s Gallery will be available this September.
Tramp Tramp Tramp
Far Out Fairy Tales is a new, very odd graphic novel series for young readers from Stone Arch Books. And at least one of them is of note to furry fans: In Super Billy Goats Gruff, the three brothers named Gruff head off to get themselves some grass… and wind up trapped inside a video game! Now they face evil trolls with the powers of a warrior, a wizard, and a ninja! All brought to you in full color by writer Sean Tulien and illustrator Fernando Cano. It’s available now, and Capstone has more.
Award-Winning Art and Stories
Ursa Major Award winner Rukis recently announced a new set of books coming out from FurPlanet. Following the award-winning novel Off the Beaten Path and its sequel, Lost on Dark Trails, the third book in the trilogy comes out this July. In The Long Road Home, “Shivah’s journey continues, taking her not only across a country she never truly knew, but soon the oceans, as well. She finds herself journeying to a distant land, but even so far from home, she can’t hide from her grief, or the anger eating away at her heart.” Also this July comes a collection of full-color mature-themed art that Rukis and Myenia created for their popular Menagerie series. Check out over at FurPlanet’s web site to find out more.
Find the Phoenix, Beat the Moo!
One of several Pokemon-wannabe series that appeared in the wake of that series’ massive success, Monster Farm (aka Monster Rancher for the US release) is one of a select few that made it to American shores in translated form. Now Discotek Media have release Monster Farm: The Complete Series on DVD. The story “… follows a boy named Genki Sakura, who is an avid player of the Monster Rancher video games. After winning a tournament hosted by the game’s creators, Genki wins a special CD that he can use to unlock a special monster in his game at home. However, upon using this disk in his game console, he finds himself transported to a world of monsters that, much like Genki’s game, are given life by scanning special stone disks within temples. There he meets a girl named Holly, who is seeking a stone disk containing a legendary Phoenix that will save the land from the tyranny of an evil ruler named Moo. While attempting to use the disk to try and release the Phoenix, they instead bring forth a different sort of monster, which Genki names ‘Mocchi’. Wanting to free the land from Moo’s rule, Genki, Holly, Mocchi and their other monster companions set forth on a quest to find the stone disk that contains the Phoenix!” Got all that? Good! Check it out over at Previews.
The Cat Will Be A Knight
Caterwall is a fantasy comic series created, written, and illustrated by Spain Fischer. It’s had a convoluted creation and release history, on line and on paper, but now Sofawolf Press is offering the first of three planned full-color graphic novels. It’s called Caterwall: The Isle of Manx and it’s available in both hard and soft-cover editions starting this July. The story? Pax is a young cat in the peaceable Kingdom of Katia. He’s determined to become a noble, heroic knight like his famous father — but his antics and attitude mostly get him in trouble, and eventually get him banished. But he and his rag-tag band of friends are still determined to help the nearby dog kingdom in their war against the wolves of the north. Find out more over at the Sofawolf Press web site.
Ganba, You’ve Changed!
The future can be scary — and welcome to it! Writer Brian Ashcraft notes in an article at Kotaku.com that he’s not very thrilled with the re-design of the characters for the upcoming CGI feature version of Ganba no Bouken (also known as The Adventures of Ganba). If you didn’t know, Ganba no Bouken was originally an anime TV series in the 1970’s about a rat and his rodent companions who sail off on adventures while trying to avoid a terrifying white weasel. In the 1980’s the series was made into a popular 2D anime feature as well. The article includes a trailer for the CGI version. See what you think.
9 Lives Again
“Caught in a mad scientist’s experiment gone wrong, an ordinary house cat named Scratch gains the extraordinary ability to summon any of his nine lives to get out of a fix.” That’s the story behind Scratch 9, a well-known comic book series for young readers created by writer Rob M. Worley. Now Hermes Press have released the latest adventures of Scratch as a 176-page full-color graphic novel, Scratch 9: Cat of Nine Worlds. It’s illustrated by Joshua Buchanan and features a cover by Herobear creator Mike Kunkel. Find out more at the Scratch 9 web site and look for the book on shelves this month.
Scare the Bear!
CartoonBrew.com made note that the fourth feature-length animation in the Open Season series is in production and scheduled for release on home video in the spring of 2016. “Directed by Cow and Chicken creator David Feiss (who was also head of story on the original Open Season) and produced by The Simpsons’ John Bush, Open Season’s fourth installment [Open Season: Scared Silly], animated by Canada’s Rainmaker Entertainment, centers on the mystery of the Wailing Wampus Werewolf, who reportedly haunts the Timberline National Forest that serves as the setting for the franchise. Its possible existence so intensely scares the crap out of Open Season’s domesticated grizzly bear Boog that he elects to skip summer camp, which inspires his companions, led by the one-antlered mule deer Elliot, to bombard their ursine pal with exposure therapy to cure his fears.” No word yet on who’ll be voicing Boog and Elliot this time.
Fox and Rabbit are Friends… Eventually
ComingSoon.net recently ran an article summarizing an article in USA Today (the Internet is so circular sometimes…) about Disney Animation releasing a preview image from their upcoming 2016 CGI feature Zootopia. The new picture gives us the first glimpse of lead characters Nick Wilde (fox, voiced by Jason Bateman) and Judy Hopps (rabbit, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) as they’ll actually appear in the finished film. For those who don’t know, “The story involves these two characters who don’t get along at first but must work together when Nick needs Judy’s help getting out of a jam as she’s trying to crack a big case. [Co-director Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph)] describes the film as the story of ‘two animals who would naturally never hang out or like one another in the beginning, but over the course of the movie develop a relationship and become friends.’ So apparently, it’s a buddy comedy via anthrapamorphic Disney cartoon characters.” And apparently, the writer for ComingSoon.net doesn’t know how to spell “anthropomorphic”. Anyway, the film’s other director is Byron Howard (Tangled) and it’s set to be released in March of next year.