Sunday, February 26, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Feb 26,2012

Fred "Tex" Avery born.

1942- Walt Disney received the Irving Thallberg Award at the Oscars.

1991- Tim Berner's-Lee introduced the Web Browser.

2002- A suspected bomb that caused Sacramento Airport to evacuate, turned out to be a Disney characters snow globe.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Feb 25,2011

1932- TOONTOWN SCANDALS. Former Australian prizefighter Pat Sullivan was the producer of the Felix the Cat cartoons, the first true animation star. Although animator Otto Mesmer actually created him, Sullivan's name is the only one on the titles. Felix was one of the top film stars of the 1920s. Lindbergh supposedly had a Felix doll with him in the Spirit of St. Louis and his body shape was the prototype of Mickey Mouse and dozens of other characters.While Mesmer quietly drew pictures Sullivan lived the fast life of a roaring twenties celebrity.

Mrs. Marjorie Sullivan had been having an affair with her chauffeur. After a nasty scene when husband confronted wife and the chauffeur fled, Mrs. Sullivan mysteriously fell out of her window to her death. The scandal was front page news and Sullivan never got over it. He soon drank himself to death which during Prohibition was difficult to do. Sullivan's death and his failure to get Felix into sound cartoons doomed his studio. Otto Mesmer went on to animate the first Broadway light signs but did not receive any recognition for his contributions to animation until he was re-introduced to the public at a Bob Clampett night at the Museum of Modern Art in 1975. Kid animators Eric Goldberg and Tom Sito were in the audience.

1943- Master animator Bill Tytla resigned from Disney.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Feb 23, 2011

1935- Walt Disney Mickey & Donald cartoon "The Band Concert". This was the first color Mickey Mouse cartoon.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Feb. 20, 2011

Birthdays: Honore' Daumier

1845- The Battle of the Cahuenga Pass. Angry Spanish Californians led by rancher Juan de Alvarado clashed with the regular Mexican governor Miguel de Micheltorena. The only casualty was a mule. The story of Alvarado may be one of the origins of Zorro.

1925- Willis O’Brien’s silent movie the Lost World premiered. The stop motion animation of dinosaurs and exploding volcanoes issued in a new era of special effects films.

2006- The animated film Wallace & Gromet: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, won the British Academy Award (BAFTA) for the best British Film of the year. It beat out the Constant Gardner, and Pride & Prejudice.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Feb 19,2011

Birthdays: Paul Terry


1942-PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT signed Executive Order# 9066- The JAPANESE INTERNMENT ACT- All along the Pacific Coast first and second generation Japanese-Americans were uprooted from their homes and property and with what only they could carry were shipped off to camps in the desert. Few Japanese-Americans were interned in Hawaii however, because it would have seriously depleted the population. Many got no restitution for their lost property. Animators interned included Disney background artist Chris Ishii, and Iwao Takamoto, who would one day design Scooby Doo.


1960- Bill Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuts.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Feb. 18, 2011

Birthdays: Cartoonists Gahan Wilson, Johnny Hart,

1885-Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' published.

1950- First Mr. Magoo cartoon "Ragtime Bear".

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Feb. 15,2012

Birthdays: Chris Farley the original voice of Shrek, Matt Groening is 58


1984- Touchstone Pictures created so the Walt Disney Company could do more adult movies. Their first film was Splash, starring a tastefully topless Darryl Hannah.
Touchstone was the co-releaser with Amblin' of Who Famed Roger Rabbit?

1994- After months of insane bidding, Viacom’s Sumner Redstone beat out QVC’s Barry Diller to buy Paramount Pictures. The cost is $20 billion, although the studio’s net worth was estimated at $8 billion. When asked, Diller replied: “What’s done is done. Next.”

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Feb 11,2012

Birthdays: Eva Gabor voice in Disney's The Rescuers, animator Al Eugster, Brandy Norwood-Voice on Osmosis Jones, Jennifer Aniston is 43, a voice on The Iron Giant.

1936- Famed German Expressionist animator Oscar Fishinger escaped Nazi Germany for the U.S.

1948- Famed Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein died of a heart attack.

1963- Bell Jar author Sylvia Plath laid out bread and butter and two glasses of milk for her children, then stuck her head into an oven and committed suicide. Her poet husband Ted Hughes who had abandoned her, waited until 1998 to tell his side of the story. Hughes wrote stories for his children like The Iron Giant.

1976-Chuck Jone’s TV special "Mowgli’s Brothers."

1995- Disney Studios planned neighborhood suburban community Celebration opened.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Feb 10, 2012

1938- RKO screwball comedy with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant “ Bringing Up Baby” premiered.

1940-MGM's "Puss gets the boot" the first Tom and Jerry cartoon and the first collaboration of the team of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.

1992- The children’s book- The Stinky Cheese Man debuted.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Feb 7,2011

Birthdays- Chris Rock, the voice of Osmosis Jones and the Giraffe in Madagascar

1940- Walt Disney's Pinocchio opened nationwide.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Feb 6, 2012

Birthdays: Elias Disney- Walt’s dad, Looney Tune writer Mike Maltese, Thurl Ravenscroft the voice of Tony the Tiger

1937- John Steinbecks novel “Of Mice and Men” published. In a result Mr Steinbeck probably didn’t anticipate was the stereotype image of a mildly retarded man as the big dumb sidekick Lenny, cartoonists used so often. “Duh, tell me about da rabbits, George.” used in a lot of cartoons.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Friday 3, 2012

Birthdays- Nathan Lane is 56

1930- Roy Disney signed a deal with M. George Borgfeldt Co. of New York to sell figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Disney merchandising is born!

1945- Walt Disney’s the Three Caballeros premiered.

1986- Steve Jobs bought the George Lucas Film Graphics Division, now under their new name Pixar Inc.

1989- Swiss firm L'Oreal/Nestle bought animation studio Filmation from Westinghouse and shut it down laying off 229 artists the day before a new federal regulation requiring a company give it's employees 60 day notice before closing went into effect.