Talk to the Snail

Even the Mother of All Downpours couldn’t stop me from heading to L.A.’s Central Library this afternoon to check out the brand new Bunker Hill by Leo Politi exhibit (so new, in fact, it doesn’t officially open until Saturday, 2/2.)

Caldecott Medal-winning artist Leo Politi is best remembered as a children’s book illustrator and author who called downtown Los Angeles and nearby Angelino Heights home for most of his 87 years (he died in 1996). Many of his books are centered in L.A.

[Read more…]

So Bostonian Dave Schlafman stopped the Frederator compound in Burbank today. Oh, I had my camera, alright, I just forgot about it. So while I got to hang out with Dave and see some of the things on which he’s recently been working (very cool), you get to see neither his latest projects nor a snapshot of him at our offices. But you can go to his website for all sorts of art and animation. Thanks for stopping by, Dave, and see you at KidScreen next month.

– Eric

If you’ve got some free time tomorrow evening, please consider stopping by a benefit show/art auction at Monkeyhouse Toys in Los Angeles. Besides the normal you’ll-have-such-a-great-time thing, buying a piece of art would not only give you work by one of the terrific artists listed in the invite above (there are too many distinguished talents to name just a few), but you’d also be helping out a good friend of Frederator, Amy Rogers (Foster’s, Powerpuff Girls, Fairly OddParents, Teenage Robot), and her family. Please know that if you can’t make the opening reception tomorrow, you can still check out the artwork at the gallery until February 3.

– Eric

If you glued your hand to your bed to get out of going to school, what TV show would you watch?

Boy Glues Hand to Bed to Avoid School

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A 10-year-old Mexican boy dreaded returning to school after Christmas break so much that he glued his hand to his bed. Sandra Palacios spent nearly two hours Monday morning trying to free her son Diego’s hand with water, oil and nail polish remover before calling authorities, police chief Jorge Camacho told The Associated Press from outside the northern city of Monterrey.

“I didn’t want to go to school because vacation was so much fun,” Reforma newspaper quoted the boy as saying.

Palacios said Diego sneaked into the kitchen in the early morning to get the industrial glue, which he then slathered on his right hand. She didn’t hear him get up, but later awoke and found him watching TV with his hand [Read more…]

So Fred’s mentioned the new snazzy 10th Anniversary poster we’ll be sending out to FOFs over the next week. They’re silk-screened, weighty, and sitting outside my office waiting to be rolled and stuffed into tubes. In response to the many requests, the photo above is what 1/5 of a ton of posters looks like. They’ll be in the mail soon.

– Eric

Hey, look what New Yorker was in the House of Frederator yesterday. That’s right, Stephen Levinson! He stopped by to show off three new projects, including the already smash “Ace & Aqua”. Well, everything stank. Kidding! Steve made me laugh, he made me cry, then he made me take his car to get washed (teenagers!). The pitches were great, and, had you been here, you’d be surprised, too, that SL hasn’t been pitching cartoons for forty years. Like me, you’d also be surprised to learn that Steve’s still got two more years of high school to get out of the way before he goes off to animation school. I made him promise he’d hire me at his giant company – when he turns 19. Thanks for stopping by, Steve.

Alright, not animation-related but in the realm of kid entertainment for sure. When it comes to scary kids films, while I do remember going to see Santa Claus Conquers the Martians in the theatre as a kid, I either didn’t see this fairy tale or have since repressed it. A favorite blog of mine, Weekend Stubble, directs us to a Mark Jordan Legan and Slate V piece (watch it!) on this classic movie and its producer, K. Gordon Murray.

Then GO HERE for a list of some fantastic dialog quotes from the movie.

“Zombie Twins? I knew they were ugly, but I didn’t think they were zombies!”

– Eric

A: The 2007 Los Angeles Shorts Fest

Congratulations to Jim Wyatt and Karl Toerge for the acceptance of their Random! Cartoon short, “Ratzafratz”, into this September’s L.A. Shorts Fest, the largest shorts festival in the world. While made up of mostly live-action films, the event always has great animation thrown in (just look at the line-up from one of the programs last year: One Rat Short, Tart Aux Pommes, The Little Matchgirl, All Aboard, Kung-Fu Gecko, Little Blue, Tragic Story with Happy Ending, The Danish Poet, Close Your Eyes and Do Not Breathe, and Delivery).

Best of luck Jim, Karl, Cyrus, Squawk, and Urban. If you win, there will be extra cheese for all.

– Eric

If you’ve ever driven through downtown L.A., you’ve seen the big Felix the Cat sign at Felix Chevrolet on South Figueroa. Despite opposition from the mayor’s office and a local city councilwoman, the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission yesterday voted to declare it a Historic-Cultural Monument. This doesn’t mean it’s 100% protected forever, but it does mean it’ll be a lot harder to do away with.

Read about it here.

– Eric

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Yeah, yeah, I know. This post is all about the self-promotion, but here it is nonetheless. Noggin is now airing Bob Boyle’s Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! twice a day – at 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. during the week and at 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on weekends. The extra airings are more good news as Bob and his crew start production on the series’ second 26 half-hours.

– Eric