Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- Winter/Spring 1970

From the February 27, 1970 edition of  Metuchen High School's newspaper The Bulldog's Bark, the following cartoon accompanied an editorial on chronic tardiness.

Environmentalism was starting to make its presence felt.  The very first Earth Day was less than one month away -- April 22, 1970 -- when the following editorial cartoon ran in the March 26, 1970 edition of the school paper.

 

Animaniacs Marathon on Christmas Eve -- on the Hub

Daily broadcasts of Animaniacs return to your TV starting in late December 2012/early January 2013 on The Hub.    Gooooooooo, the Hub!

As a sneak peak, the Hub is running a four-hour Christmas Eve Animaniacs marathon of holiday themed episodes.  Here's the press release:


As the perfect Christmas gift, Animaniacs will join The Hub on Monday, December 24 with a marathon from 4-8 p.m. (ET).

Here are some of the episodes airing:

• “Twas the Day Before Christmas; Jingle Boo; The Holiday Concert”  – Slappy Squirrel reads a classic Christmas poem to nephew Skippy in “Twas the Day Before Christmas.” Chicken Boo dresses up as Santa Claus in “Jingle Boo.” Wakko performs “The Great Wakkorotti: The Holiday Concert,” and the Warners make mischief in “Toy Shop Terror."”
•  “A Christmas Plotz; Little Drummer Warners”  – On Christmas Eve, the Warner siblings subject Warner Bros. chief, Thaddeus Plotz, to a Dickensian nightmare in “A Christmas Plotz.” Later, the three Warners star in “Little Drummer Warners,” a musical version of the nativity.
• “My Mother the Squirrel; Oh Say Can You See; 12 Days of Christmas”  – In “My Mother the Squirrel,” the Bluebird thinks Slappy is his mother. The Flame helps Francis Scott Key write our nation’s anthem in “Oh! Say Can You See,” and the Bluebird returns to sing his version of a holiday song in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
• “Cutie and the Beast; Boo Happens; Noel”  – The Tazmanian Devil plays the Beast and Dot is Cutie in “Cutie and the Beast.” In “Boo Happens,” Chicken Boo relives the life of “Forrest Gump.” Then, the Warners have fun with puns in a Randy Rogel musical number sung to the tune of classic Christmas carol, “Noel.”
• “The Christmas Tree; Chicken Part 1; Prom Night; Chicken Part 2”  – Slappy Squirrel awakens to find her house is now “The Christmas Tree” at “Rockyfellow” Center, Katie Ka-Boom tries to negotiate a mutually acceptable curfew for “Prom Night” with her dad, and the entire cast appears on the TV news program “Punchline.”

Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- 1969

Directly below is my first illustration for the Metuchen High School newspaper, The Bulldog's Bark.  This cartoon was published the week before the big Thanksgiving Day football game against arch rival Highland Park.

We lost the game.

The following month, my first cartoon on the editorial page referenced the holiday season, the ongoing war in Viet Nam and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon earlier in the year.

Editorial Cartoons From "The Dartmouth" --1975

In both high school and college, I drew editorial cartoons for the school newspapers.   Here are two from "The Dartmouth," the oldest college newspaper in America.  The first one was an illustration for a fourth of July 1975 editorial.  The second one, from January 1975, accompanied an editorial questioning the college's purchase of Honeywell computer equipment when Honeywell was expanding its defense industry contracts. 

Animaniacs DVD Volume 4!!! At Last! February 5, 2013

Animaniacs Volume 4 DVDs!

The show's run will be finished on home video at last. Those are the facts.

by David Lambert10/16/2012

Animanical Fun for Everyone! The Fourth and Final Volume of Emmy Award Winning Series! Reunite with your favorite cast of characters: Yakko, Wakko, and Dot from the Warner Movie Lot in their fourth and final volume of the outrageously zany Animaniacs adventures! Anytime this rowdy bunch of misfits comes together, whether they are putting a twisted spin on a classic tale or charting insane new territory, hilarious hijinks are sure to follow. So catch up with the whole gang including Slappy the Squirel, Goodfeathers, and Dr. Otto Scratchansniff as they set out to conquer the world, seek answers to life's biggest questions, and skewer entertainment's most treasured icons along the way. This gut busting 3-DVD set saves the best laughs for last!

Sit back and relax, because on February 5th, it's time for Animaniacs - Volume 4 on DVD! This final volume brings the remaining episodes to home video for the first time, with a 3-disc set priced at $29.99 SRP. You'll get all the rest of the third-season episodes, plus the entire run of the fourth and fifth seasons in this package. The only Animaniacs installment not on DVD now is the direct-to-VHS 199 release called Wakko's Wish; hopefully Warner can put that together for us in the not-too-distant future.

• Disc 1:
  1. Gimme the Works / Buttons in Ows / Hercules Unwound
  2. This Pun for Hire / Star Truck / Go Fish / Multiplication Song
  3. The Sound of Warners / Yabba Dabba Boo
  4. My Mother the Squirrel / The Party / Oh! Say Can You See / The Twelve Days of Christmas Song
  5. Dot's Entertainment / The Girl with the Googily Goop / Gunga Dot
  6. Soccer Coach Slappy / Belly Button Blues / Our Final Space Cartoon, We Promise / Valuable Lesson
  7. Wakko's 2-Note Song / Panama Canal / Hello Nurse / The Ballad of Magellan / The Return of the Great Wakkorotti / The Big Wrap Party Tonight
  8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock

Disc 2:

9. Cutie and the Beast / Boo Happens / Noel
10. Jokahontas / Boids on the Hood / Mighty Wakko at the Bat
11. A Very Very Very Very Special Show / Night of the Living Buttons / Soda Jerk
12. From Burbank with Love / Anchors A-Warners / When You're Traveling from Nantucket
13. Papers for Pappa / Amazing Gladiators / Pinky and the Ralph
14. Ten Short Films About Wakko Warner / No Time for Love / The Boo Network
15. Pitter Patter of Little Feet / Mindy in Wonderland / Ralph's Wedding
16. Moosage in a Bottle/Back in Style / Bones in the Body

Disc 3:

17. It / Dot- The Macadamia Nut / Bully for Skippy
18. Cute First (Ask Questions Later) / Acquaintances / Here Comes Attila / Boo Wonder
19. Magic Time / The Brain's Apprentice
20. Hooray for North Hollywood (Part I)
21. Hooray for North Hollywood (Part II)
22. The Carpool / The Sunshine Squirrels
23. The Christmas Tree / Punchline (Part I) / Prom Night / Punchline (Part II)
24. Birds on a Wire / The Scoring Session / The Animaniacs Suite

Taken from: http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Animaniacs-Volume-4/17619#ixzz29VKLuG2u

Politics Are Faboo!

"Tiny Toon Adventures" Volume 3 on DVD: January 8, 2013

At last...some forward progress on the release of more Tiny Toons to DVD, including Baby Plucky's premiere in "The Potty Years."   Coming January 8, 2013, volume 3:  

"The Jetsons" 50th Anniversary -- "His Boy Elroy" Cel

Happy 50th Anniversary to "The Jetsons," Hanna-Barbera's futuristic answer to the prehistoric Flintstones.   The show premiered on ABC at 7:30 PM on Sunday September 23, 1962.  

Here's my one cell from "The Jetsons" -- and it's from the Main Title as George drops off Elroy at school.   I bought this one at a little art store on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City back in the 80's.   I had Bill and Joe sign it for me a few years back.  

                                                              Meet George Jetson.
                                                                 His Boy Elroy.

And below is an image for a proposed series of Warner Bros./Hanna-Barbera mash-ups called "Mixed Nutz," where the Jetsons meet Marvin the Martian.  

Of course, Elroy was voiced by the one and only Daws Butler.

The Space Shuttle Endeavor at Disney in Burbank, CA

The Space Shuttle Endeavor arrived in Los Angeles today, and during its approach it flew over different parts of town, including the Disney animation offices near the Burbank airport.   Here, some of the members of "The 7D" crew watched Endeavor from the roof of the 3355 North Empire building.   From left to right, that's Frank Montagna, me, Sherri Stoner, Dan McHugh, Tina Kugler and Alfred Gimeno.  Thanks to Alfred for capturing this magic moment.

Bogart Addresses FDR's Empty Chair -- 1944

In 1944, at the height of World War II, both the Republican and Democratic Parties held their national conventions in Chicago.    It was at the Republican convention on June 29th that an inebriated Humphrey Bogart took to the stage and told off-color jokes about Wallace Beery, Joan Crawford, Peter Lorre and Ingrid Bergman.   He directed his punchlines at the empty wheelchair of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom Bogart insisted was sitting there but preferred to remain invisible since Nazi spies were lurking everywhere.   In fact, FDR would not arrive in Chicago for the Democratic convention until late the next month.   

This was a strange and unexpected performance, especially since Bogart had been and would continue to be a lifelong Democrat. 

So, as they say, there's nothing new in Hollywood, except the same old stuff.  

ANIMANIACS: "Smell Ya Later" with Jonathan Winters

Here's one of my favorite Slappy Squirrel cartoons, directed by Rich Arons and Lenord Robinson, written by Earl Kress and yours truly, and starring Sherri Stoner as Slappy, Nate Ruegger as Skippy, and guest starring Luke Ruegger as Bumpo Basset and the one-and-only comedy genius Jonathan Winters as Stinkbomb D. Basset.  

Bumpo and Stinkbomb D. Basset planning an attack on Slappy and Skippy Squirrel in "Smell Ya Later" from Animaniacs

 Watch "Smell Ya Later" here.

A major highlight of my career in cartoons was getting to work with Jonathan Winters -- and one of the highlights of being a dad was being able to introduce my sons to one of the greatest comedians of all time.   I am still thrilled that they had the chance to work alongside Sherri Stoner and Jonathan Winters in the same cartoon.  "Smell Ya Later" is one of my all-time favorite segments from Animaniacs. 

Steven Spielberg Bop Bag by Bruce Timm

Here's a caricature of Steven Spielberg as drawn with markers by Bruce Timm on the back of a Yogi Bear Bop Bag.  Circa 1992, back in the Tiny Toons/Batman era.   

The inflated version...it has been inflated since '92!

And below, the deflated version. 

 ....and signed by Bruce Timm. 

 

Cartoonatics' 2nd Anniversary: July 9, 2010-July 9, 2012

Thanks for stopping by over the past two years.  

Gnu with the Gnews.

Platypus Duck, checkerboard, incoming.

Red Zebra in shades.

Rex at dinnertime.

The Alps.

The Crocodile from Peter Pan -- October Sunset, Monte Nido CA

One Friday evening last October, I was driving home along Las Virgenes Road in Monte Nido, CA, and I glanced toward the sunset.  What I saw prompted me to pull my car over and take a few pictures with my iPhone.  I'm not much of a photographer, and I'm not really a cloud aficionado, but this particular sunset sky seemed unique.  To me, the clouds looked a lot like the tick-tocking crocodile from Disney's "Peter Pan."  Or a fire-breathing dragon version of that character.   Anyway, here's the photographic proof that, every now and then, we get some spectacular sunsets here in Southern California. 

 

Happy 4th of July from Skippy and Slappy Squirrel

"In the land of the free, now that's com-e-dy!"

Cel set-up from the final scene of the Animaniacs episode entitled "Woodstock Slappy," directed by Audu Paden, written by John P. McCann and me, and featuring the "Who's on Stage?" sketch performed by Slappy (Sherri Stoner) and Skippy (Nathan Ruegger).  

Early Wakko

From the Animaniacs Development File:  a pose of Wakko Warner, pre-whiskers, circa 1992, drawn by Dan Haskett.  

Animaniacs Pose Sheet by Dan Haskett

Here's an Animaniacs pose sheet of Wakko and Dot by Dan Haskett, one of the great animation artists who worked on the series. 

This batch of drawings comes from 1992, a year before the series aired, when Wakko did not yet have the whiskers added to his cheeks.  Dan joined other huge talents like Rich Arons, Ken Boyer, Lynn Naylor, Barry Caldwell, Alfred Gimeno and many others to bring life to the early inspirational drawings of Yakko, Wakko and Dot and the other Animaniacs cast members.

Hello Nurse and Dr. Scratchansniff

As they appear in the Animaniacs full-color main model line-up, circa 1993:  Hello Nurse and Dr. Otto Scratchansniff.  

A Cartoonatics Milestone

The Weird Fade-Out Gags of Laurel and Hardy

From 1927 to 1950, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made over 100 films together as a comedy team.  They starred in 23 feature films, 40 short sound films and 32 short silent films.  They also appeared as guest stars in 12 other films.    They remain one of the funniest, most beloved and critically acclaimed comedy duos in the history of cinema.  I have been a huge fan of their work my entire life.  

Many of their movies were domestic comedies -- sit-coms -- in which Stan and Ollie had trouble coping with their wives and their married lives.  They also made a number of brilliant workplace movies, in which the pair managed to wreck everything in sight.  Then there were classic period pieces and costume comedies in which Stan and Ollie went out west, played gypsies, lived in Toyland, joined the foreign legion, went to war, and basically found locations and plots that best suited their unique brand of comedy. 

In most of these films, the slapstick endings seem to be logical conclusions to the plotlines.  But there are a handful of Laurel and Hardy films that have bizarre, unexpected and even macabre endings.  

A mild example of this is the final gag in the short “Below Zero” (1930).   Hiding in a barrel of water, Stan has managed to survive by apparently drinking the contents of the barrel.  The last shot of the film shows a frantic Stan running around with an impossibly distended belly. 

 

Okay, it’s a goofy visual gag.  But it foreshadows darker gags to come at the end of subsequent Laurel and Hardy movies. 

In "Dirty Work," a short from 1933, Stan and Ollie get involved with a mad scientist whose final experiment in the film transforms Ollie into a chimp (that's wearing Ollie’s hat).  Here’s another nice mess Stan has gotten him into.    

In the short “Going Bye Bye”(1934),  a thug’s threat is carried out in the final scene... 

...where we find Stan and Ollie each tied in a knot, with their legs tied tightly around their necks.   

It’s a startling-if-not-funny visual gag but, in real life, no one could survive being twisted into such a body-pretzel.  

At the end of the otherwise-humorous  short “Thicker Than Water “(1935) , a blood transfusion between the two pals switches their personalities and their voices…and even Ollie’s moustache.  Will this change wear off in time?   No hint is given.    

When I saw these Laurel and Hardy shorts as a kid, I always felt a little bad for Stan and Ollie, and wished that the endings weren’t quite so brutal for the pair.  

But in some of the duo’s feature films, the endings were even more distressing – they were sad, bleak even. 

In the feature costume comedy “The Bohemian Girl” (1936),  Stan and Ollie are loyal and true guardians who make many sacrifices over many years to help the title character, only to wind up being sent to the torture chamber,  from which they emerge at the fade out.  Stan has been crushed to the height of a lawn jockey,  while Ollie has been stretched on the rack to a new height of about 12 feet.

   

This freakish ending always disturbed me as a kid.  And it still does.  This has to be one of the most unjustifiable endings  for the heroes of a comedy --  and for a comedy team -- in movie history. 

Three years after “The Bohemian Girl,” the climax of “Flying Deuces” (1939) has Stan and Ollie in an airplane crash.   Stan survives, but Ollie does not.  Ollie’s spirit, with angel wings, rises to heaven.   In the final scene, we see Stan as a tramp walking along a road and he comes upon a horse that calls out to him.  The horse has Ollie’s moustache and hat, and speaks with Ollie’s voice.  The horse tells Stand: “Here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.”

I’ve always found this particular finale to be a creepy and sad way to end a comedy.

And here’s the last weird-not-funny ending to a Laurel and Hardy movie that I can recall.  It’s from their feature film “The Bullfighters” (1945).  

The best of the Laurel and Hardy films were made from 1927 to 1940.  After that date, producer Hal Roach and the team parted ways, and Laurel and Hardy started making movies for 20th Century Fox and MGM.  These later films are not considered  to be among the team’s best.  “The Bullfighters” is one of these.  

In the course of “The Bullfighters” story, an adversary demands that Stan and Ollie must do what he says and, if the two fail, the adversary vows to “skin them alive.”   In the end of this “comedy,” guess what?  Stan and Ollie are shown to be skinned alive.  Their heads and hats and ties remain, perched atop skeletons that walk around.   Ollie tells Stan, “Here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into,” and Stan weeps.

This ending is even more freakish and bizarre and morbid than the ending  to “The Bohemian Girl.”

I’m not sure why these otherwise great comedians decided to tack on these weird endings to a handful of their otherwise enjoyable and humorous films.  It’s well-known that Stan was the comedy leader of the team and was deeply involved in the stories and comic routines for each film, so I suspect he had a hand in these fade-out gags.  If these comic bits are any indication, Stan clearly had a dark side.  And yet,  maybe he just wanted to end these particular films with something no one else had tried before. 

If that was Stan’s goal, he succeeded.   No one has tried using these end gags before -- or since!    

Tiny Toon Adventures on DVD: How I Spent My Vacation

Coming August 14, 2012, on DVD:  Tiny Toon Adventures' How I Spent My Vacation. 

Above:  On the left, the new artwork for the 2012 DVD cover.  To the right, the artwork on the VHS cover, when "How I Spent My Vacation" was first released in 1992 as the first direct-to-video original animated feature.  

Back then, the folks at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment were dedicated to the notion that short movie titles were the only way to go, so they insisted that we change our original title, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," to the insignificantly shorter title that omitted the word "summer."   

These are the same marketing geniuses who demanded that we change the title of the Animaniacs direct-to-video feature from "It's a Wakko Wakko Wakko Wakko Wish" to "Wakko's  Wish."  

I much prefer our original titles on both.  

As for the cover art, new and old, above  --  what can I say?   It's like the current regime at Warner Bros. isn't even trying.    

Animaniacs Probed by "Mental Floss!"

Check out this nifty Animaniacs article at Mental Floss written by Rob Lammle.