Not too many folks in animation caught this great story. Check out the Ain’t It Cool News interview with Jon Favreau about his Genndy Tartakovsky fandom and how it ended up with Genndy and his Orphanage Animation team bringing their cartoon sensibility to Iron Man 2.
Great minds are thinking alike. First, Ben Ross and the UltraKawaii team came up with this video. Then our friend Alan Katz sent me this song, which Ben will be animating this weekend:
Pick Me!
(Sung by a dog who wants to be the Obama family’s pup, to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”)
Barack, you just won the election
America gave you a smooch
Now we all await the selection
Just who will you choose as First Pooch?
Pick me, pick me
With kids of all ages
I’ve played, I’ve played
Pick me, pick me
I’m already neutered and spayed!
Malia and Sasha, such sweeties
One look and their hearts will be mush (the kids looking at the dog who’s singing)
We’ll snuggle while you’re signing treaties
For laughs, I can pee on a Bush! (peeing on George W)
Pick me, pick me
Your papers and slippers
I’ll fetch, I’ll fetch
You can sic me
When folks like Joe Lieberman kvetch!
Pick me, pick me
No collies, or schnauzers
No danes, no danes
Pick me, quickly,
I’m glad I’ll be yours
Not McCains!
(Big howl)
Anyone who knows me is aware of my music habit, and close readers of this blog will pick up on my affection for cartoon music in particular.
Hanna-Barbera Pic-a-Nic Box
So it was extremely gratifying when my friend, Rhino Records founder Richard Foos, agreed to indulge me in the 1990’s with a (now out-of-print) four CD boxed set of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons themes, underscores, sound effects, and other audio ephemera and artifacts of our historic studio. It was compiled and produced with passion and knowledge by cartoon writer/producer Earl Kress.I’ve posted before about my worship and respect for the under appreciated HB music director and composer Hoyt Curtin but I’ve finally gotten around to scanning the great booklet Earl put together for the set. It not only includes a listing of all the sound in the box, but has great essays by Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, David Burd, Bill Burnett, and Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento). Plus Marty Pekar conducted an interview about the studio’s unique sound effects library with Joe, Bill, Greg Watson, and Pat Foley. (As we get around to it, you can look at separate transcripts of the essays here.)For a quick preview, here’s a Quick Draw McGraw track from the box set, composed, arranged and conducted by Hoyt:Hoyt Curtain & The Hanna-Barbera Studio Big Band >Quick Draw McGraw (Underscore & Syndicated End Titles)
Happy Frederween! from justin on Vimeo.
I’m a lucky guy in almost every way, always have been. And when it comes to my work colleagues that goes triple. I’ve always been surrounded by smart, supportive folks that have made work even more fun and productive than I would have ever imagined. And they invariably have a great sense of humor, like everyone at Next New Networks. As you can see by the Halloween video Justin Johnson made with them yesterday. [Read more…]
