A while back I told ya'll about ASIFA-EAST President for Life and sooper author David Levy's upcoming new book.
It's called ANIMATION DEVELOPMENT; From Pitch To Production and I just got an advance copy in the mail yesterday! And ya know what? I gotta tell you the sooper honest truth--
IT ROCKS!
At least the parts I've read so far... which were mostly the parts about me. I'm particularly proud that I didn't say anything TOO stoopid. I also made sure to chekc out some of the quotes and passages from other big shots Mr. Levy interviewed-- Craig McCracken, Jackson Publick, Mo Willems, Linda Simensky, Stephen Hillenburg, Los Brothers Krause, and sooooooo many more! And it was kind of annoying because I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking, "UGH-- I wish I said THAT!"
Still... I need to read this WHOLE THING and so do you.
One of things I definitely love about LA is that there's no shortage of animation related events going on at all times. Why, just last week I had the honor of being invited to the sooper big Hanna Barbera Anniversary party:
My first pilot was one of the the last few (if not THE last) project that went through HB before it became absorbed into the vast Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network juggernaut. And lucky me, both Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera were still around back then-- in fact, my office was RIGHT NEXT to Mr. Hanna's and only a couple doors down from Mr. B's! And you could just stop in and talk to them any time you wanted! Unbelievable...
Unfortunately they've long since passed on and could only be at the reunion in spirit. But there were hundreds of alumni and fans milling about the Paley Center, enjoying the rare HB artwork on display, catching up with old friends and co-workers, and filling their pockets with the passed hors doeuvres.
Sooper old school animation director/timer Robert Alvarez, CN executive wrangler Linda Barry (and person who took these pics), Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible (who put the event together), background painter Don Watson and I'm not sure who that is in the back (sorry, dude!)
Chris Battle, me and Greg Miller looking all classy-like
That's Titmouse founders Chris and Shannon Prynoski in the front there.
Don Watson again and Billy and Mandy creator Maxwell Atoms.
CN Admiral of Studio Operations Zita LeFebvre and recently escaped CN Jay Bastian and me in the middle
Great times...
And on Friday night I made my way down to Santa Monica to a sooper special screening of Mike Judge's office space and Beavis and Butthead Do America!
For those who don't know, I was the production designer on the first season of B and B when it was done at J.J. Sedelmaier Productions. The rest of the series was done at MTV's brand new animation studio, but I stayed behind at JJSP to cause havoc there. Still, I could often be found lurking about MTV visiting my sooper pals. And even though I didn't work on the movie, I felt almost like I did since I saw so much of it going on.
It was definitely a blast from the past seeing it... and hard to believe its 10 years old. What made it extra special was the introduction by director Yvette Kaplan and Exec Producer John Andrews, two old school New Yorkers I hadn't seen in a long while.
Imagine my thrill when the mailman comes and hands me a sooper-shiny-hot-off-the-press-brand-new-not-even-out-yet Elephant and Piggie book by Mr. Willems!
Because usually Mo makes me beg to get his latest books. Sometimes he makes me do backflips. Or he has me bake him 1000 chocolate chip cookies-- and then decides he wants oatmeal instead. There was also the time he wanted to see how many naked mole rats I could fit in my underpants (less than you think).
But you know something? It's all TOTALLY worth it. Because in return for all the backflippin', cookie bakin', scratchy pants craziness I get a signed copy of Mo's books.
So I can't say I wasn't suspicious when I got an unsolicited copy of 'Pigs Make Me Sneeze'
Then I looked at the the title page:
GASP!
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!
A DEDICATION?!
To MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!?!?
Talk about being HONORED beyond all honorifficality.
But now I'm afraid to answer the phone for fear its Mo asking for another 'favor'.
I have a feeling it has something to do with that 'itchy' comment. (shiver)
Wow! Just read an AWESOME review of 1000 Times No in the Boston Globe!
“1000 Times No’’ is Warburton’s first children’s book, but one hopes it will not be his last. Picture books live somewhere between the speed of a poem and a painting, yet possess all the seeming power of a novel - often within fewer than 100 words, and Warburton gets it just right. And, of course, they gotta mention HIM in the review:
The baby has a rubber face and body a la Mo Willems, and Warburton’s confident use of the cartoony line lends charm and dynamic movement to the book. Any child still young enough to have a meltdown will cherish the wild humor of this book.
It's Mo-time all the time...
Which is WAAAAAAAY better than always being compared to, say, this guy:
Read the rest of the wonderfully wonderful review HERE!
Waaaaaaaaaay back when I was a scrawny, zitty, shy teenager, I used to go to a little mini comic convention in Valley Forge, PA to pick up back issues of The Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil, Alien Legion and stuff like that. It was an exciting place... comics weren't as mainstream as they are nowadays and my parents didn't exactly approve so it had a kinda subversive feeling. And there was always cool new stuff to see.
And one of the most important things I ever saw in my life was on a crappy little video player at a table in a remote corner of that convention. It was playing some animation that was absolutely beautiful, and absolutely unintelligible-- at least to me since I didn't understand a syllable of Japanese. There were no subtitles, the transfer was lousy, and I no idea what was happening but I couldn't pull myself away from it.
Regardless, I bought it and watched it over and over and over again. I watched it frame by frame (at least as frame by frame as a VHS player could go), I made up stories as to what I thought was happening in the film, I figured out little bits of Japanese by sheer guesswork.
That film was called Laputa, Castle in the Sky and was my introduction to anime, something that at the time, was just starting to trickle into the US. And it made me want more. I tracked down anime fan mags (Protoculture Addict, Animag, etc) that gave synopses of the movies I bought. Remember... this was before the internet made finding stuff easy so it took some real digging through phone books to find weird little Japanese books stores.
Eventually I learned that it was Hayao Miyazaki who directed Laputa so I tracked down other films by him and was just as in love. And I still am to this day! (Yay Ponyo!)
So now, as I'm getting my office set up at my new home, I started choosing artwork to hang on the walls. And of course, I can't NOT hang up the Miyazaki cels I've picked up over the years.
So here's a little gallery of my collection:
From My Neighbor Totoro. I would buy a cel of Totoro himself but I've never had eleventy thousand dollars to spend on one.
The next three are from another of my favorite films, Kurenai No Buta or The Crimson Pig or Porco Rosso.
And this one's just awesome for it's sheer smushiness.
I actually bought this one so I could study the water effects on the cel. And because it was cool.
Laputa cels have always been hard to find and stupidly expensive. But I got this one years back and love it. It came with a grainy xerox background that works semi-kinda okay
Again, I've always wanted a really great shot of Kiki on her broom but have had to settle for this little one.
I don't miss working with cels-- but I do miss the cool feeling of having an actual piece of the film in your hands...
No... that wasn't the name of my band in high school (but I wish it was).
I'm just tossin' you some bite size chunks of 1000 Times No from the internets:
Firstly, the bees at the Bookhive are abuzz with nice words about the book:
"A truly entertaining book to read aloud and share with the naysayer in your life."
The rest of the review is hiding behind this word right HERE!
Next, the Westchester Library System has got a lil sumthin' to say:
"This cute and simple story evokes the frustration of a parent when they are up against the unfailing determination of a child who doesn’t want to do something. The outcome will provide a good belly laugh for all, and the opportunity to experience the down side of negativity."
For more of that kinda stuff you can go over HERE.
And who woulda known that when folks from the Church of Latter Day Saints gather they talk about 1000 Times No? Not me... but I love 'em for it: "...here’s a book to enlighten the little one on a very popular word used by them. 1000 Times NO, by Tom Warburton, brings out this negative in many different languages and messages".
And there's even more nice stuff over at the Not Just For Kids blog:
"It is an amusing and straightforward story of a toddler who wants to make himself absolutely understood by declaring "no" not once, not twice, but 1000 times in 1000 different ways."
And while this last one isn't quite a review, someone named Sue Hodaras used one of the pages from 1000 Times No to illustrate a blog post on the power of NO right over HERE!
One of my sooper pals from college e-mailed me a short while ago to tell me that he was at the Jersey shore enjoying some delicious beverages at a friend's house. When he asked for a lime in his drink, the friend went into the fridge and pulled out a baggie chock full of the citrusy slices-- and who was on the baggie?
Yup... everyone's favorite battlers of adult tyranny!
These came out on grocery shelves a while ago. But the KND weren't the only ones to grace the zippy little bags. These girls were on them, too:
And this mad little scientist:
I made sure to buy up a ton of these so I'd never run out of awesome baggies! I don't think they're making them anymore but I still see them on the shelves occasionally and always buy more.
What's really cool about this is that Power Puff and Dexter were the shows I loved most on Cartoon Network and the whole reason I wanted a show on the channel! And here are my kids 'sandwiched' between them!
And how can you NOT like a blog called Superdumb Supervillain that likes 1000 TIMES NO so much?
Here's a little of what she has to say:
1000 Times No is a brilliant new book by Mr. Warburton, recent cross-coast transplant and creator of Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door. It's one of the few books that appeals to both Roo (5) and Jasper (2) with bright, bold illustrations and a story that rings true to the stubborn streak that demarcates toddlerdom: they don't want to do what you want them to do. Ever. (Oh, wait– that could hold true for most kids, of all ages. And adults!)
And furthermore:
I think it's the kind of funny that is actually smart in disguise: dude, there are hieroglyphs in there! Plenty of opportunities to discuss other cultures and how their toddlers are just as surly as Americans. Win-win!
I dunno... maybe the blog should be called Superdumb Supervillain Super Great Taste in Books. Check out the rest of the review HERE!
So even though he was in only one episode of Codename: Kids Next Door--- the muscle bound, English language mangling, former accountant turned legendary Tie Hunter Moosk seems to have a LOT of fans.
And quite a few of those fans have noticed a certain similarity between Moosk and a certain character...
from a certain videogame...
And my answer to that is...
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!
It is a COMPLETE COINCIDENCE that I played (and LOVED) all the Baldur's Gate games and that Moosk has slightly similar vocal styling, ramblings, and inane rants akin to the stylish, rambling, inanely ranting character Minsc.
It's also a COMPLETE coincidence that the same voice actor (the inimitable Jim Cummings) played both Minsc and Moosk.
Sure, they sound sooper kinda somewhat almost exactly a little alike.
But that's just one of those weird little coincidences...
Right?
Okay... fine.
Maybe not a TOTAL coincidence.
But still...
Anyway, for all you Minsc, I mean Moosk fans, he's making a comeback in the pages of Cartoon Network Action Pack real soon! Check out this sooper coincidental sneak peek page by Power Tie Penciller Maurice Fontenot!
And just so you know... this is the way I mark up Mr. Fontenot's pages so the letterer knows where to put all the dialogue from the script.
No more subways for me. I'm driving 'round town in my Honda Element (his name is Horton), having lots of meetings, catching up with all my old sooper pals who live here and trying to figure out just where to stuff those last boxes of things you're not quite sure what to do with after a big move.
I'm meeting lots of awesome new neighbors who have lots of awesome kids, trying to learn the ways of the garbage pick ups, navigating when I can turn on the lawn sprinklers, and of course, gorging myself on awesome sushi and mexican food (and in-n-out burger)
The weather, of course, rocks and I make sure to sit out on the patio every night and take it all in. Folks say it's hot here... but it ain't hot like the wet-wool-sweater-thrown-in-your-face humidity of the East Coast. So they should get over it and enjoy.
It's a weird feeling being here. So familiar since I've spent a lot of time in LA already. It feels like a bit of a vacation. Like I'll be heading 'home' any day now.
But I'm not.
And that's REALLY exciting.
In the meantime, I'm painting up some art for the new 1000 Times No short we're doing for a certain kids cable channel. Here's one hot off the presses:
So in closing...
Mr. Warburton used to represent Brooklyn... But now cold represents LA.
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