Folks who’d like to learn more about how animation is made — especially award-winning, box-0ffice conquering animation — might want to check out The Art of Pixar: Complete Color Scripts from 25 Years of Animation, written by Pixar Studio’s own John Lasseter and edited by Cartoon Brew’s own Amid Amidi. It’s available now in hardcover from Chronicle Books. Here’s the write-up from Amazon: “Over the past 25 years, Pixar s team of artists, writers, and directors have shaped the world of contemporary animation with their feature films and shorts. From classics such as Toy Story and A Bug s Life to recent masterpieces such as Up, Toy Story 3, and Cars 2, this comprehensive collection offers a behind-the-scenes tour of every Pixar film to date. Featuring a foreword by Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, the complete color scripts for every film published in full for the first time as well as stunning visual development art, The Art of Pixar is a treasure trove of rare artwork and an essential addition to the library of animation fans and Pixar enthusiasts.”
He was the Ace, he was Fantastic
News out of the UK: Mark Hall, one half of the production team Cosgrove/Hall, passed away from cancer this week at the age of 75. From 1971 until their retirement in 2000, Mark Hall (the quiet business-oriented one) and his partner Brian Cosgrove (the crazy artistic one) created numerous award-winning, world-famous, and financially successful animated programs and productions. Chief among them: Danger Mouse, the super-hero/super-spy spoof that’s still in repeats around the world. The pair were also well-known for The Wind in the Willows, a stop-motion animated series based on the books and stories of Kenneth Grahame. Furry fans might also want to seek out the company’s adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s fantasy novel The Talking Parcel from 1978. The Guardian UK has an obituary for Mr. Hall up on line, which discusses many of the shows that Cosgrove/Hall produced.
Mark Hall (left), Brian Cosgrove (right), and Mr. Toad
Woody Woodpecker on the Big Screen
We swiped this bit from Cartoon Brew, since they put it so well: “The Hollywood Reporter is reporting about Universal Pictures new plans to revive Walter Lantz’ classic cartoon star Woody Woodpecker in a CG feature film. Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, Hop, and The Lorax) is now developing the film with Blades of Glory co-writers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, who are planning to ‘modernize the character for contemporary audiences’. Altschuler and Krinsky were exec producers and writers on Fox’s King of the Hill and currently on MTV’s Beavis and Butt-head.” Should classic cartoon fans rejoice or shudder? Stay tooned and we’ll find out!
image c. 2011 Cartoon Brew
He is Monkey!
One of the most popular and well-known furries in history (no, really, we mean it!) is Sun Wu Kong, the Monkey King of Chinese legend. His story, Journey to the West, has been covered in movies, TV, plays, and of course comic books many times. And now here we go again with the latter, in Monkey King Volume 1: Birth of the Stone Monkey, a new full-color graphic novel from JR Comics. “Cited as one of China’s greatest novels, Monkey King follows the adventures of Sun Wu Kong, born from a stone on Spring Mountain and given the title of Handsome Monkey King, who seeks to learn the secret of eternal life. Under the tutelage of Master Puti, Sun Wu Kong becomes incredibly powerful, but his hubris grows until he has run afoul of the gods, who dispatch an army to subdue the Monkey King.” Here’s a write-up from Sci Fi Genre. Monkey King is coming to stores at the end of November.
image c. 2011 JR Comics
Sled Dogs with Issues
There’s simply no way we could top the publisher’s description of Mush! Sled Dogs with Issues, a new hardcover graphic novel, so we’ll not try. “Venus wants Buddy to quit asking her to ‘make puppies’. Buddy wants Winston’s help wooing Venus. Winston wants Guy’s respect. Guy wants Dolly’s job. Dolly wants to know the meaning of it all. Nobody knows what Fiddler really wants, not even Fiddler. But mostly . . . these sled dogs just want to run. Sounds simple? It should be, but even dogs have their office politics. Office politics with sharp, sharp teeth. From Colbert Report writer Glenn Eichler and dog-channeling artist Joe ‘Fur’ Infurnari comes a postmodern tale of heroism on the tundra, epic romance, and yellow snow. (Hint: don’t eat it.) Mush! is Arrested Development meets Call of the Wild — two great tastes that taste pretty funny together.” There’s more about this silliness on Amazon, of course, and it’s mushing our way this December in full color from First Second.
image c. 2011 First Second
Christmas in the Ice Age
Word is out that 20th Century Fox will be presenting Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas on Fox Network on Thanksgiving — with a later re-broadcast in December. The special concerns what happens when Sid the Sloth winds up on Santa’s naughty list… and Sid and his friends journey to the North Pole to try and get the old elf’s forgiveness! Along for the journey are voice actors Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Seann William Scott, Queen Latifah, and Denis Leary from the Ice Age trilogy of movies. Also in December, Boom! Studios’ Kaboom! imprint will release the Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas one-shot full-color comic book, written by Caleb Monroe and illustrated by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb. There’s a write-up and more pictures at Cinemablend.com.
image c. 20th Century Fox
Offerings from Arcana
Arcana Studio has several paperback graphic novels of interest to Furry Fandom coming up soon. Dragons vs. Dinosaurs by Chris Eric Peterson is a fantasy adventure (of course!) featuring, well, dragons battling dinosaurs! With a title like that, who needs to be worried about the plot? It’s coming in early January. Lethal Instinct (by Soares, Thompson, Jadson, and Borges) tells the story of a werewolf police detective — who discovers that he’s not the only shape-shifter in town — and his new competition is attacking politicians. The moon also rises next January. Finally, in a completely different and less violent vein, there’s A Cat Named Haiku by Mark Poulton and Dexter Weeks. It follows the adventures of a mischievous cat told completely in, you guessed it, haiku poetry. It’s available now. You can read more about these titles on Amazon here, here, and here respectively.
image c. 2011 Arcana Studio
Hear the Roar from the Past
With the new ThunderCats series on Cartoon Network doing very well and picking up lots of fans, it seems a good time to take another look at the original series from the 1980’s. That’s the purpose of Hear the Roar: The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Thundercats, available now in softcover from Telos Publishing. Even though it’s “Unofficial and Unauthorized”, editor and lead writer David Chrichton managed to interview numerous people associated with the production of the original series, which began airing in 1985. From the publisher’s release notes: “Featuring over 80 exclusive interviews with cast and crew members, this definitive reference guide charts ThunderCats’ creation and development, drawing on a wealth of never-before-seen production paperwork and leaving no stone unturned. Dedicated chapters highlight the writing, animating, scoring and recording of ThunderCats, while a comprehensive story guide reviews all 130 episodes, including notes from the scriptwriters themselves! The legendary ThunderCats toy line from LJN Toys is documented too, and even the associated series SilverHawks is explored. ” You can find out more about the book on Amazon.
image c. 2011 Telos Publishing
Dinosaur Defenders of the Universe
Jurassic Strike Force is a brand new full-color comic book series from Zenescope Entertainment. Written by Joe Brusha and illustrated by Julian Aguilera, it’s the first original title in Zenescope’s new Silver Dragon Books imprint of all-ages comic book titles. Here’s the publisher’s description: “For over 165 million years dinosaurs ruled the earth, until the alien overlord Zalex discovered the planet 100 million years ago. In search of an army to conquer the universe Zalex finds the perfect candidates to mutate into his ultimate soldiers in earth’s Jurassic reptiles. With his new army nothing can stop Zalex from ruling the galaxy and the universe beyond it… nothing but a team of mutated dinosaur heroes”. A special preview issue #0 is scheduled for release later this month, with issues #1 and #2 set to follow in December.
image c. 2011 Zenescope Entertainment
