In 1952, the Tex Avery directed a short Rock-A-Bye Bear premiered. The short, written by Heck Allen and Rich Hogan featured a simple premise: Spike has a job running a house for a hibernating bear, who insists on quiet. Tex was strained by the amount of work, so he left MGM shortly after completing the piece (the film was actually completed in 1950, but not released until two years later due to the backlog of cartoon shorts). In Tex’s absence, his unit was directed by former Walter Lantz director, Dick Lundy.
Tex returned to MGM in 1951, where he took back his animation unit. He went on to direct eleven more cartoons. Most of these had a similar look to the UPA cartoons that were gaining popularity at the time. In March 1953, MGM closed down Tex’s unit, believing that 3D films that were quickly taking theaters by storm would end the [Read more…]
On this day in 1940, Walt Disney’s 3rd feature film, “Fantasia” premieres at New York’s Broadway Theater (formerly known as the Colony where Steamboat Willie debuted). The film introduces stereophonic sound to the motion picture via a special sound system dubbed “Fantasound”.
November 13th is also my birthday. I’m 33 today: 16 on the left, and 17 on the right.
Mark Mayerson has posted a great news clip he found from a CBC news story from 1961. In the clip, we see Joe Barbera and William Hanna walk the reporter through the stages of production from the initial layout to the final audio mix. One interesting note is that even though the news clip (and the cartoons at the time) were broadcast in black & white, the cartoons were all produced in color. Joe mentions that when everyone gets to see the cartoons in color, it will be really exciting. I would have to agree.
Maybe there’s hope yet for Hank Hill. Variety is reporting that ABC may pick up “King of the Hill”, now that Fox has decided not to order any new episodes of the series. According to Variety:
Fox’s decision not to order any new episodes of “King of the Hill,” meanwhile, came just three days before the animated laffer posted its best ratings in a year, averaging a 4.3 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 on Sunday night.
The Daily Mail is running a story about the top ten “tear jerker” films of all time. I thought it was interesting that three of the top ten films listed were animated, with two in the top three, and an animated film took the top spot.
Paul Newman has passed away after a long battle with cancer. While he was famous for such great films as “The Hustler”, “Cool Hand Luke”, and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, many animation fans will remember him as the voice of Doc Hudson from Disney/Pixar’s “Cars”.
There is a piece on “Sleeping Beauty” over at the 
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