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What's new with "Cow & Chicken" creator David Feiss?

The post From ‘Cow & Chicken’ to ‘Open Season’: Q&A with David Feiss appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Hanna-Barbera is getting an art show, and it's not the one they deserve.

The post Hanna-Barbera Exhibit To Open At Norman Rockwell Museum appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Hanna-Barbera characters like you've never seen them before.

The post DC’s ‘Hanna-Barbera Beyond’ Will Remix and Reimagine Classic Characters appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

"Top Cat Begins" arrives October 9 in Mexico from Warner Bros. Pictures.

Time Warner is relaunching its archival animation showcase Boomerang with original content -- and commercials.

The classic Hanna-Barbera TV series will get new life as a live-action feature film franchise.

Walt Peregoy, the legendary artist who was the color stylist of Disney's "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" and headed up Hanna-Barbera's background department for a time during the late-Sixties, has passed away at the age 89.

Mexican animation producer Anima Estudios has announced production on "Top Cat Begins," a sequel to its 2011 hit "Top Cat: The Movie."

In November 1960, "LIFE" magazine published an article about the breakout success of Hanna-Barbera's seminal primetime animated series "The Flintstones." The piece featured three photos of the studio, but what they didn't publish is even more amazing. Photographer Allan Grant took 850 photographs for the piece. Amazingly

Comic-Con International: San Diego is almost upon us, and the organizers have released the event's mammoth program schedule. The madness, taking place from July 24-27, includes hundreds of panels, discussions, art demos, and screenings, with everyone from Buzz Aldrin to Betty White getting their moment to shine.

Young ladies, put down that issue of "Tiger Beat" because this is the only poster you'll ever need to hang above your bed.

Here’s a recent car commercial for the Peugeot 208 produced by Partizan and commmissioned by Y&R Brazil, where the car outperforms the cast of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera TV series Wacky Races. While it’s kind of fun to see the characters and their outlandish vehicles being translated into live-action, it’s more than a bit horrifying seeing these real-life versions of the characters suffering ultra-realistic crashes and fiery explosions. At least Muttley makes it through in one piece.

CREDITS
Client: Peugeot
Product: Peugeot 208
Title: Wacky Races
Agency: Y&R Brasil
Creative VP: Rui Branquinho
Creative Director: Victor Sant’Anna/ Rui Branquinho
Creatives: Fabio Tedeschi/ Leandro Camara/ Felipe Pavani/ Victor Sant’Anna/ Rui Branquinho
Agency Producer: Nicole Godoy
Production Company: Partizan/ Movie & Art
Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet
DOP: Damien Morisot
Executive Producer: Douglas Costa/ David Stewart, Paulo Dantas
Editor: Bill Smedley
Post production: Electric Theatre Collective
Music: A9 Audio
Music Producer: Apollo 9/ Henrique Racz
Sound Design/Final Mix: Factory UK

For comparison, here’s the opening of the original 1968 television series:

Here’s an recent car commercial for the Peugeot 208 by Partizan, where the car outperforms the cast of Wacky Races. While it’s kinda fun to see these characters and their outlandish vehicles being translated into live-action, it’s a bit horrifying seeing these real-life versions of the characters getting into this ultra-realistic crashes and fiery explosions. At least puppet Muttley made it through in one piece.

Credits
Client: Peugeot
Product: Peugeot 208
Title: Wacky Races
Agency: YR Brasil
Creative VP: Rui Branquinho
Creative Director: Victor Sant’Anna/ Rui Branquinho
Creatives: Fabio Tedeschi/ Leandro Camara/ Felipe Pavani/ Victor Sant’Anna/ Rui Branquinho
Agency Producer: Nicole Godoy
Production Company: Partizan/ Movie & Art
Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet
DOP: Damien Morisot
Executive Producer: Douglas Costa/ David Stewart, Paulo Dantas
Editor: Bill Smedley
Post production: Electric Theatre Collective
Music: A9 Audio
Music Producer: Apollo 9/ Henrique Racz
Sound Design/Final Mix: Factory UK

For comparison, here’s the opening to the original 1968 television series:

The Flintstones have been duly celebrated throughout the years, but one part of the Hanna-Barbera series that hasn’t received much attention is its iconic architectural setting: those brilliantly appealing and organic circular ranch houses topped with pancaked granite slabs.

The designer of the prehistoric Flintstones universe was a man named Ed Benedict (1912-2006), the same man who designed the show’s characters.

Benedict dreamt up the Flintstones homes almost entirely from imagination. He was once asked if he used any reference to design them. He replied, “No, with the exception of on the interior of one of the samples I made, I did look up some prehistoric stuff—cave paintings. I just looked up in there and got the old typical buffalo looking thing running across a wall, just to get the flavor of it.”

Benedict had had a bit of practice with this kind of work. He had designed cavemen and cavehomes once before for the 1955 Tex Avery short The First Bad Man:

The cave homes in The First Bad Man, built into the sides of rock formations, look uncomfortable compared to the domesticated setting of the Flintstones, replete with garages, front yards with flower beds, swimming pools and living rooms with couches. Benedict probably didn’t come up with the original idea of allowing the Flintstones all the creature comforts of suburbia, but the credit for making the idea work visually belongs to him.

The Flintstones designs in the image gallery below were created by Benedict for the original network presentation. These pieces established the general look and feel of the Flintstones universe and served as a guide for the layout artists who were charged with building out the world in each episode. A rare photographic print set of these drawings is currently being auctioned on HowardLowery.com.

This year, Warner Home Video is releasing several DVD boxed sets designed to celebrate the film studio’s 90th anniversary. A few of them will actually compile cartoons. They’ve just announced one of these: The Best of Warner Bros.: Hanna Barbera 25 Cartoon Collection, a 2-DVD set available on May 21st, for $26.99 ($18.89 on Amazon). It includes selected H-B cartoons from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70′s. The contents are:

1950s
The Ruff & Reddy Show (1957) “Planet Pirates” (episode 1)
Huckleberry Hound (1958) “Spud Dud”
Yogi Bear (1958) “Snow White Bear”
Hokey Wolf (1961) “Castle Hassle”
Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks (1958) “A Wise Quack,”
The Quick Draw McGraw Show (1959) “Masking for Trouble”
Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy (1959) “Gone to the Ducks”
Snooper and Blabber (1959) “The Lion is Busy” with Snagglepuss
Loopy De Loop (1959) “Wolf Hounded”

1960s
The Flintstones (1960) “Love Letters On The Rocks” 30 mins.
The Yogi Bear Show (1961)
Snagglepuss “The Roaring Lion”
Yakky Doodle “Hasty Tasty”
Top Cat (1961) “T.C. Minds the Baby” 30 mins.
Wally Gator “Gator-Napper”
Touché Turtle and Dum Dum “Rapid Rabbit” with Ricochet Rabbit Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har “Hick Hikers”
The Jetsons (1962) “Rosie the Robot” 30 mins
The Magilla Gorilla Show (1964) “Makin’ with the Magilla”
Punkin’ Puss & Mushmouse “Callin’ All Kin”
Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long “Will ‘O the Whip”
Jonny Quest (1964) “The Robot Spy” 30 mins.
Peter Potamus (1964) “Cleo Trio”
Breezly and Sneezly “Stars and Gripes”
Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey “Black Bart”
Atom Ant “The Big Gimmick”
Secret Squirrel “Cuckoo Clock Cuckoo”
Squiddly Diddly “Way Out Squiddly”
Precious Pupp “Precious Jewels”
The Hillbilly Bears “Do The Bear”
Winsome Witch “Have Broom will Travel”
Frankenstein, Jr. “The Shocking Electrical Monster’
The Impossibles (1966) “The Spinner”
Space Ghost “The Heat Thing”
Dino Boy “The Sacrifice”
Space Kidettes (1966) “Moleman Menace’
The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show “Gadzooka”
Birdman (1967) “Birdman Meets Birdboy”
The Galaxy Trio (1967) “Revolt of the Robots”
The Herculoids (1967) “Attack from Space”
Cattanooga Cats (1969) “Witch Whacky”
It’s The Wolf (1969) “Slumber Jacks”
Motormouse and Autocat (1969) “Wheelin’ and Dealin’”

1970s
The Funky Phantom (1971) “The Liberty Bell Caper” 30 mins.
Jabberjaw (1976) “Dr. Lo has Got to Go” 30 mins.

Sounds like quite a bargain to me. Sharp-eyed CB readers Rodrigo Tramonte and Homero Bender noted on Cartoon Brew’s Facebook page that the rabbit pictured on the box between Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw is not a familiar Hanna Barbera character (see below). It’s actually “Rapid Rabbit” from a late Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical short, Rabbit Stew And Rabbits Too (1969).

Apparently the artist meant to use a Ricochet Rabbit (the particular Ricochet Rabbit cartoon on this set is titled “Rapid Rabbit“). I’ve been told Warner Bros. will correct the artwork on the final package.

(Thanks, TV Shows on DVD)

File this one under “Things I Did Not Know About Dick Clark.” Apparently, he owns a one-bedroom Flintstones-inspired home in Malibu, and the LA Times reports that he’s selling it for $3.5 million, though the asking price doesn’t reflect the value of the home so much as it does the 23-acre plot of land it sits on. If you’re curious, here’s the full home tour in all its stone-age goodness.

(via Laughing Squid)

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Dick Clark, Hanna Barbera, Real Estate, The Flintstones

This thing’s gone viral in the past week. Amid first posted about it back in November, and I have been getting flooded with readers sending me the link to the final product. So, here it is – a superb stop-motion recreation of the opening titles to Hanna Barbera’s Jonny Quest by filmmaker Roger Evans. Bravo, sir! Excellent job!

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Hanna Barbera, Jonny Quest, Roger Evans

Here’s another one of those wonderful articles from Popular Mechanics magazine (September 1960) explaining the tricks behind creating animated cartoons: “TV Hit From A Cartoon Factory” by Thomas E. Stimson, Jr.

The piece includes a Huckleberry Hound storyboard sequence, character mouth chart and some great behind the scenes photos. Check out Carlo Vinci animating on the article’s second page (page 121). Read the whole piece through this link to Google Books.

(Thanks, Wynn Hamonic)

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Hanna Barbera

Sheila Barbera, the wife of the late Hanna-Barbera co-founder Joe Barbera, has listed their Studio City estate for $6.795 million dollars. According to the LA Times, Mrs. Barbera “will be making her primary residence at her Old Las Palmas estate in Palm Springs.”

The 2-acre property has a 6,900 square foot feet home with 4 bedrooms, staff quarters, and a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace in the living room. There’s also a 7,200 square feet car garage, lighted tennis court, pool and spa. The home was built in 1988 so it’s not the site of any real animation history, unless you’re an admirer of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Jetsons: The Movie.

The home is listed by Karen Misraje of Partners Trust, Beverly Hills. Here’s the ALL-CAPS listing from her site:

ONE ENTERS THIS GATED ESTATE ALONG A WINDING DRIVEWAY TO A LARGE MOTOR COURT WITH A GRANDE PORTE-CO-CHERE. THIS TRADITION CLASSIC, COMMISSIONED IN 1988, IS A GATED BYRD DESIGN ESTATE AND IS SITUATED ON APPROXIMATELY 2 ACRES IN FRYMAN CANYON. THE ESTATE RESONATES SERENITY AND A COMFORTABLE FAMILY LIFESTYLE. IF OFFERS A CENTER ENTRY WITH A POWDER ROOM, A LIVING ROOM WITH FLOOR TO CEILING STONE FIREPLACE AND ACCESS TO AN OUTSIDE TERRACE WITH TREE TOP CANYON VIEWS. THE FORMAL DINING ROOM SEATS 10 GUESTS COMFORTABLY TO A MAXIMUN OF 16 GUESTS. THE GRACIOUS FAMILY ROOM/DEN HAS A FULL BAR, A FLOOR TO CEILING STONE FIREPLACE AND BEAUTIFULLY DESIGN LEADED GLASS WINDOW. THE MASTER SUITE IS ON THE MAIN FLOOR WITH A MASTER BATH AND A HUGE MASTER CLOSET. THE MASTER SUITE HAS VIEWS TO COLORFUL FOILAGE AND MATURE TREES. THE KITCHEN OFFERS A SUBZERO REFRIGERATOR AND FREEZER, A VIKING COOKTOP, BUILT-IN OVENS, CENTER ISLAND WITH SINK, WARMING DRAWERS AND A TRASH COMPACTOR WITH OVERVIEWS TO A PARK-LIKE SETTING. IN THE MAIN RESIDENCE THERE ARE 3 ADDITIONAL FAMILY BEDROOM SUITES, 1 STAFF SUITE, A LARGE LAUNDRY ROOM AND 2 STAIRCASES. A “GENTLEMAN’S” CAR GARAGE OFFERS 7200 SQ. FEET OF SPACE. THE SPACE IN THE GARAGE HAS ROOM FOR A NUMBER OF AUTOMOBILES, A PRIVATE GENTLEMAN’S OFFICE OR PLAYROOM, AN ADMISTRATIVE OFFICE, A STORAGE ROOM WITH A ROLL-UP DOOR AND A BATH. THERE IS A OUTSIDE ENTERTAINMENT PATIO ADJACENT THE POOL AND SPA. THIS ESTATE ALSO HAS A SECLUDED CHAMPIONSHIP LIGHTED TENNIS COURT AND ITS OWN COMMERCIAL GENARATOR. SHOWN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY!

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Hanna Barbera, Joe Barbera, Real Estate

Here’s an unaired pilot from a few years back for an update to Hanna Barbera’s 1968 series, Wacky Races. It features the sons and daughters of the original cast and heck, its pretty good. How do I know its good? Cartoon Network didn’t pick it up.

(Thanks, Matthew Gaastra)

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Hanna Barbera, Wacky Racers

Check this out: A size chart of about 600 different Hanna-Barbara characters – from Ruff and Reddy (1957) to The Powerpuff Girls (1998) – drawn to scale by Chilean-based graphic designer Juan Pablo Bravo. Click Here.

(Thanks, Kelly Aarons)