Fred Seibert's Blog

Buy The Animation Journal issues. Read some of the essays online. If you think for more than a millisecond about serious issues in animation you probably already do, but for newbies, check it out.

I read the most recent issue after I was visited with Maureen Furniss‘ class at CalArts (Maureen isn’t just a animation historian and professor, she’s also The Animation Journal editor). An article about black Hollywood animation veteran Floyd Norman fed my continuing interest in the underrepresentation of minorities and women in our industry, and Maureen’s article on television for the under 2 year olds (!) frightened even my liberal attitude about kids and TV. And I caught up on some of the newest books about animation that I’d missed (I miss a lot).

I briefly started working with animation during college, when I was in my most abstract intellectual phase. I came of age over 15 years in the New York indie animation scene, with filmmakers like Eli Noyes & George Griffin. It was natural for my friends to discuss the artistic side of the equation. Reading the Journal and books like Chris Robinson’s The Animation Pimp remind me of one of the less traveled, exhilarating side of what we all do. Maybe you’ll like them too.

We all visit Calarts as often as possible since so many people we work with have attended. (The oldest graduate we’ve worked with graduated in 1964, the youngest in 2008). Eric usually makes it to their producers’ shows (I attend whenever it happens during my California trips) and we’ve met some of our favorite folks there.

Two weeks ago I made a long overdue return to Maureen Furniss‘ class. I told them a bit about Frederator Studios and my path into the cartoon business, answered a lot of their quesitons, and played Adventure Time. A good time was had by all. I hope.