Friday, December 17, 2010

"A Pinky and the Brain Christmas" -- Pinky's Letter to Santa

Happy Holidays!

Here's a cell set-up from "A Pinky and the Brain Christmas."  This special won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in the 1995-96 television season.  This is the one and only Primetime Emmy Award won by a WB program in the entire history of the WB network (1995-2006).  Ever!



                                           A Pinky and the Brain Christmas (1995)
                                                                  directed by Rusty Mills

17 comments:

  1. It definitely deserved the Emmy. I watch the Pinky & The Brain Christmas Special every year around the holidays. It's become a tradition for me actually. It always puts me in the mood for the Christmas season. The episode combines the absolute perfect amount of laughs, wit, Christmas feeling and emotion in one episode. This is something rarely seen in Christmas specials today. The entire thing, most notably the ending, is really touching. Thanks for this Tom!

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  2. Appreciate the kind words, Max. Much obliged.

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  3. Well written, Max. This episode remains in my top 5 Pinky and the Brain episodes ever :)

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  4. Couldn't agree more... this is very nice!
    http://tinyurl.com/37wxxwt

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  5. S
    A bit unrelated, but did anyone notice that Wakko's Wish was on television today? I kicked myself for missing it, even though I own it. I would have loved watching it on TV.

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  6. You also forgot Toshihiko Masuda (under the name Toshiko Masuda in the credits on this) , The Japanese TMS-Telecom Director that worked along side Rusty Mills on this.

    Anne way, I a very huge fan of your work as well, but yea.

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  8. Actually, Rusty Mills is the director of this holiday special.

    Toshihiko Masuda is the animation director for TMS, the company that provided animation services for this episode. Toshihiko Masuda and his TMS crew did a great job on the animation.

    Rusty was involved as the director of all aspects of the production, from the final script onward until the answer print. He and his crew handled storyboards, models, color keys, BG keys, timing, exposure sheets, key poses, layouts, etc.

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  9. While Toshihiko Masuda did work at TMS on this, in the credits, under the "TMS Kyokjichi Corporation" banner of text, he is listed as an "Episode Director", and Atsuko Tanaka was listed as an "animation director".

    Interestingly, both of these animators worked on Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle", and Tanaka was a big animator on the classics "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away".

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  10. As I mentioned, the TMS credits are for the animation services that TMS provided...which is a part of the process. Not the entire process. Rusty was the director of record for the entire process, start to finish.

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  11. A rare combination of funny and touching. This episode really deserved that Emmy.

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  12. This is a great episode of Pinky and the Brain because it takes the characters up to a new level. I already love these two, but this episode made me love them even more. It's a brilliant Christmas special; I find that most Christmas specials tend to be overly sentimental, but instead, you brilliant guys took the opportunity to bring character development and absolute joy to the front.

    Tom, when I'm asked to analyze Pinky and the Brain, I rant forever. I can't help it; I love it to pieces. So I'll end it by saying "thank you" for creating clever plot lines and endearing characters. I actually want to write an essay on these two, and when I make a statement like that, you know that you've done well.

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  13. Oh jeez, I forgot to say congratulations on the Emmy. I know it happened years ago, but I want to say that you all really deserve it.

    By the way, are you still making cartoons? What do you do now, if you don't mind me asking?

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  14. Marlena, you made my day! Thanks so much...if you ever write that essay, I'm sure it will be brilliant. You're a great writer.

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    1. Thank you so much. Yes, I will come back to it. I'm working on a poetry book right now, so I kind of put that essay further down my to do list, but I will do it.

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    2. Hi Tom!

      LOVE Pinky and the Brain! In every aspect (writing, animation, character voices)you guys did a top notch job!

      It's a bummer that the show was arbitrarily cancelled. What was that about? Because if you guys were allowed to, you would have created a great end show to go out on. In that spirit, there is some great P&B fan fiction out there! Is that an issue for you and the rest of the writers? Some of it is a bit odd but I've read some good ones, too.

      I'm in the process of creating a fan fiction site. If adding P&B fan fiction is an issue, please let me know and I'll remove it, you guys gave those two mice a lot of adventure possibilities! Thanks! :D

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  15. I don't know Warner Bros. Animation's policy regarding fan fiction. You'll need to check with them.

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