Bella Doña, the innovative brand rooted in Chicano and LA culture and co-founded by best friends LaLa Romero and Natalia Durazo, together with leading brand-licensing agency Global Icons and Fleischer Studios, owner of Betty Boop and a number of other classic animated characters, have announced a new licensing collaboration for the beloved Queen of Cartoons […]
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Global Icons and Fleischer Studios Announce New Brand Collaborations for Animated Icon Betty Boop
April 10th, 2024 
Jerry Beck The Queen of Cartoons is More Popular Than Ever with New Apparel, Accessories, Pet Products, and an Upcoming Broadway Musical Leading brand-licensing agency Global Icons and Fleischer Studios, owner of a number of classic animated characters including Betty Boop, have entered into a wide range of new licensing collaborations for the beloved Queen of Cartoons, […]
Warner Archive Collection Announces “Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice” blu-ray
March 28th, 2023 Jerry Beck Good news for Physical Media collectors – Warner Archive Collection is giving its fiercest collectors their choice of rare titles in the Looney Tunes catalog. Announced by George Feltenstein (and yours truly) earlier today on The Extra’s podcast, a new 20-title collection, Vol. 1 of a new series called Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice, is expected […]
Disney’s Jennifer Lee and Director Michel Ocelot To Receive Honorary Cristal Awards at Annecy
April 12th, 2022 Jerry Beck The Annecy Festival is thrilled to honor not one, but two greats names in animation: Jennifer Lee and Michel Ocelot as recipients of the Honorary Cristal, an honor rarely bestowed in the decades of the Festival’s history. For the Festival’s Artistic Director, Marcel Jean, “the return of the Annecy Festival to its pre-pandemic state is […]
Twenty-Six Features are Eligible for Academy Consideration
December 6th, 2021 Jerry Beck The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced feature films eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 94th Academy Awards. Some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfill that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in […]
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Tags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oscars 
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INTERVIEW: “ClayDream” Director Marq Evans On New Will Vinton Documentary
June 10th, 2021 Jackson Murphy One of the most anticipated movies for animation fans at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is ClayDream – about the life and career of claymation master Will Vinton. Director Marq Evans interviewed Vinton before he passed away in 2018. Evans gives us Vinton’s highs (like the California Raisins characters and winning an Oscar) and lows […]
The Center for Learning Unlimited unveils Brainstorm Productions
June 8th, 2021 Jerry Beck The Center for Learning Unlimited, a non-public, WASC accredited day school in Torrance, California, proudly makes a dual announcement of convocation and expansion. On June 15, the inaugural graduating class of CLU’s career animation training program officially enters the workforce. Simultaneously, CLU flings open the doors of its blossoming, companion motion graphics studio: Brainstorm Productions.
Peilin Chou Debuts “Awakening”
May 16th, 2021 Jerry Beck Awakening is a PSA directed by Oscar-nominated producer Peilin Chou (Over The Moon), in response to the rise in Asian violence across the country. As part of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and with the goal of inspiring and uplifting the community and beyond, Awakening features an exciting line-up of top Asian American animation […]
Kinsane Entertainment Acquires Film and Associated Rights to “Young Captain Nemo”
May 28th, 2020 Jerry Beck Kinsane Entertainment Inc, a global kids and family entertainment company owned by Rainshine Entertainment, announces the acquisition of the book adaptation rights for best-selling author Jason Henderson’s Young Captain Nemo, an Amazon.com chart-topping middle-grade fiction trilogy. Kinsane will develop the literary franchise as an animated series, as mobile games, consumer products, and more for worldwide […]
Anime To Binge While Sheltering in Place
March 30th, 2020 Charles Solomon To help fill the enforced hours at home of “sheltering in place,” here are some anime series that lend themselves to binge watching. Some are older, some recent; adventures, comedies, romances. Typically, the adventures take the main characters on quests where they face much realer danger than American counterparts. The comedies have a take-no-prisoners silliness […]
Hype, PunkRobot & Red Animation Studios Join Pipelines to Form “Los Amigos”
February 11th, 2020 Jerry Beck Three of the most successful studios in Latin America today announce a coalition based on a shared production pipeline to be dubbed “Los Amigos.” Brazil’s Hype (Tainá and the Guardians of the Amazon), Chile’s Academy award-winning PunkRobot (Bear Story), and Peru’s Red Animation Studios (A Mouse Tale), have been working together since 2017 on a […]
Don Lusk (1913-2018)
December 30th, 2018 Jerry Beck Disney Legend Don Lusk has passed away today at age 105 – reported by his dear friend Navah Paskowitz-Asner (Ed Asner’s daughter-in-law) on her Facebook page this morning. Lusk was hired by The Walt Disney Company in 1933 and he became an animator in 1938 on Ferdinand The Bull. His animation graced key scenes in […]
Børge Ring R.I.P.
December 27th, 2018 Jerry Beck The animation community is mourning the passing today of one of its own and most beloved, Børge Ring – a renown Danish comic strip artist, jazz musician and animator. In 1978 he animated a short Oh My Darling, which won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Academy Award nomination – and in […]
Emily Hubley on “The Faith Journal Project”
December 17th, 2018 Jerry Beck Filmmaker Emily Hubley has announced her next project: The Faith Journal Project, a 3-part undertaking (short film, an installation and an application) related to the 7000+ self-portraits (in 49 journals) created by her mom, artist/filmmaker Faith Hubley, in the final decades of her life. “This has long been in the works,” says Hubley. “and now […]
Remembering Marcell Jankovics
I still remember when I discovered the work of the great Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics, who died on May 29th at the age of 79. In 1975, I saw Sisyphus in the 10th Annual International Tournée of Animation. The skill with which the artist captured the anatomy of the character, his frustration and the essence […]