Oct 8, 2025
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Cohen’s Cartoon Corner July ‘25
by Karl Cohen
Lampooning Lump is a full time job. illo: Greg PerryPLEASE support our GoFundMe campaign to cover research expenses for our articles and rebuilding the cineSOURCE site.
This Cartoon Corner has sections written by Leonel Cortes and Nancy Denney-Phelps.
Trump’s Hollywood Tariffs Blocked
An appeals court blocked Trump’s tariffs that are the key to his supposedly making “Making Hollywood Great Again,” but a day later he got a ruling that his tariffs can go into effect while they wind their way to the Supreme Court. Trump has claimed he wants to make the Hollywood features great again, but can he? He received a major blow when a U.S. Trade Court ruled on May 28th that he “exceed any authority granted to the president.” The ruling by a three-judge panel with the New York-based court of international trade, came after several lawsuits argued Trump had exceeded his authority.
Then on May 29th, the Trump administration filed for “emergency relief” from the ruling “to avoid the irreparable national-security and economic harms at stake”. That request was granted, leaving US trade policy “dependent on his whims and unleashing economic chaos around the world.”
White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the judges had “brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump.” She called banning Trump’s wishes as part of “a pattern of judicial overreach “ and “ultimately the supreme court must put an end to this.”
Her comments were made as judge Rudolph Contreras from the district court in Washington DC, called the tariffs “unlawful.” He ordered a preliminary injunction against the tariffs on behalf of a pair of Illinois toy importers. This ongoing legal fight is important to animation as so much of what is seen in the U.S. is animated abroad.
Scene from Genndy Tartakovsky’s 'Fixed' about Bull, an average 'good dog,' . illo: G. Tartakovsky’The Annecy Festival
Tartakovsky’s “Fixed”, which premiered at the recent Annecy, tries hard to be outrageous and it succeeds. Director Genndy Tartakovsky’s R-rated, adult “romantic” comedy is about Bull, an average, all-around “good dog” who discovers one day that he's going to be neutered in the morning! As the gravity of this life-altering event sets in, Bull realizes he needs one last adventure with his pack of best friends and his balls, of which these are the last 24 hours! What could go wrong...? Produced by Sony Pictures Animation but handed over to Netflix to distribute, probably because it was too crude, it will premiere August 13, 2025.
Variety Loves Annecy
‘Variety’ got very excited about several shorts for grownups shown at Annecy. In an article by Jamie Lang that talks about “10 Shorts Not to Miss at Annecy 2025”, he discusses serious works not made for juvenal audiences. “Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s ‘The Girl Who Cried Pearls’ is a haunting fable that delves into sorrow, love and the corrupting power of greed,” he wrote. “Premiering as one of the opening-night shorts at this year’s festival, this Canadian title showcases the duo’s signature handcrafted puppetry and surreal storytelling. With a poignant score by Patrick Watson, the film immerses viewers in a melancholic tale where a girl’s tears transform into pearls, leading to unforeseen consequences. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, this short is one in a long line of standout titles that benefit from one of the world’s most prolific and supportive public filmmaking programs.”
“Life With an Idiot” by Theodore Ushev (France) was inspired by Victor Erofeyev’s novella of the same name, and is a tour de force of political expression and raw emotion. Theodore Ushev, whose 2019 short “The Physics of Sorrow” made our must watch list at Annecy 2020, adapts the story into a stark, expressionistic film filled with jagged edits and visceral brushstrokes. In the film, a protagonist accused of not working hard enough is forced to live with an idiot as punishment. Pulled from an asylum, the nearly deaf roommate can only utter a single syllable: “Ech.” Domestic chaos leads to societal critique backed by an aggressive sound design and stark aesthetic. Ushev’s latest, produced by French powerhouse Miyu Productions, demands attention and leaves a mark.
In “Atomik Tour”, Bruno Collet (Czech Republic and France) merges social media documentary realism with surreal stop-motion as a Cold War tour guide leads us through an abandoned nuclear site via a video streaming app. With dark humor and eerie nostalgia, Collet critiques both the absurdity and the tragedy of nuclear history while occasionally shocking the audience with psychological thrills. His miniature sets brim with unsettling detail, and the uncanny monotone characters deliver deadpan lines that hit with precision. It’s a timely and quietly powerful film that exposes how we commemorate, or forget, collective trauma.
“Star Wars: Visions – Black”, Shinya Ohira (Japan) is one of the most experimental entries in the Star Wars: Visions anthology, Black by Shinya Ohira reimagines the galaxy through a gritty, impressionistic lens. Known for his frenetic animation and abstract storytelling, Ohira delivers a visually explosive meditation on conflict and identity. Far from traditional fan service, this short dives into the psychological toll of warfare and the ambiguity of heroism. It’s Star Wars stripped to its philosophical bones, raw, kinetic and unforgettable. An upbeat and frenzied jazz soundtrack fuels the most visually stunning interpretation of the Death Star’s destruction that we’ve ever seen.
To read the rest of this great article, go here.
The top Annecy Cristal award for best feature went to “Arco”, the debut feature of French director (and popular comics creator) Ugo Bienvenu. The film is about a rainbow-hued boy from the far future who finds himself trapped in the near future of 2075 after a flight goes wrong. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month (Last year Flow was the winner at Annecy.) For a full list of winners, go here.
Scene from 'Life with an Idiot' by Thomas Ushev. illo: T. Ushev’Ushev Gets Political
Theodore Ushev won the short film grand prize at Annecy in 2020 for “The Physics of Sorrow” and was nominated for an Oscar in 2017 for “Blind Vaysha”. This year, his film “Life with an Idiot”, was shown on opening night at Annecy. When he was invited onstage to talk about his film, at one point Ushev told the audience, “Fuck Putin, fuck Trump, and fuck Netanyahu, fuck the fascists.” The packed house of 925 people from every corner of the animation world was soon “erupting into applause.” He later added, “If you follow an imbecile, the chance you’ll become an imbecile is very high; if you admire an idiot, your risk of becoming an idiot is very high.” Other speakers also expressed their opinions of current events.
AI Both Protested and Shown at Annecy
There were 18,200 badge holders from 118 countries at Annecy making it the major annual event for animation and the forum for all things animation
Indeed, protesters at Annecy decried the use of AI in animation. Cartoon Brew, the animation watchdog, reports that an alliance of international animation unions, federations and organizations called for action over the usage of artificial intelligence, citing its destructive impact on the craft and business of animation, as well as on industry workers. One slogan at the protest was “Generative Al Does Not Support Artists, It Destroys Them.”
Over two dozen organizations issued a statement that calls on regulators and lawmakers to enact legislation that protects workers and their rights. They are also asking producers, executives and others to protect the creative culture of animation created by humans. The signers include ABRACA (animation workers union, Belgium), AWI (animation workers union, Ireland), CVVI (video game union, Spain), La Guilde francaise des senaristes (writers union, France), SNTPCT (animation/vfx workers union, France), FIMF (International Federation of Musicians), The Animation Guild (animation workers union, U.S.), SPIAC-CGT (animation workers union, France), and Kunstenbond (illustration, comic, and animation workers union, Netherlands).
Nevertheless, an animated feature made with AI was shown at Annecy. It was made in the Dominican Republic, which jumped into the animation world with its first animated feature, “Capitan Avispa” (2024), released in 33 countries. Alas, ‘Olivia & The Clouds,’ called “Wildly creative” by Cartoon Brew, seems from its trailer suggests to be a confusing, experimental independent film (more on that here).
Very Short Short Charms Annecy
The delightful 20 second short that opened Annecy was made by the Hungarian artists Fruzsina Gaal and Marcell Laszlo. Annecy present a tribute to Hungarians, see it here.
Incredibles 3 Announced
‘Incredibles 3’ is coming Pixar Animation Studios revealed during Annecy Festival. It will be directed by Oscar-nominated Peter Sohn (“Elemental”, “The Good Dinosaur”). Sohn takes over the superhero franchise’s mantel from Brad Bird, who wrote and directed the first two films and will return as screenwriter for the new sequel. Bird will also serve as co-producer.
Scene from of Pixar's 'Gatto'. illo: Pixar’Glimpse of Pixar's Gatto
“Gatto”, slated for the summer of 2027, is set in Venice and will be directed by Enrico Casarosa for Pixar. His “Luca”, 2021, was shown on Disney+.
Capobianco Animation
The “Hugh and Fred Bird”, an animation by Jim Capobianco, is a great parody of Disney’s World, based on Wally Wood’s artwork, see it here.
Paul's alive in animation. illo: P. McCarthy’Paul McCarthy Animation Announced
A feature based on Paul McCarthy’s book will include the voices of McCartney, Ringo Starr, Lionel Richie, Céline Dion and others. The music will be by McCartney. The story published in 2005 is about “a young squirrel named Wirral (voiced by Himesh Patel) who embarks on a journey to bring back his mother’s voice (Sugartail, played by Céline Dion) after it was stolen by a despot diva named Gretsch (Hannah Waddingham), who has banned all music and all freedom of expression.”
Disney Attacks Artists
In the early 1970s, Air Pirate Comics did parodies that offended the Disney Corporation. They took the fun-loving artists to court. Is Dan O’Neill, their leader, going to be in serious trouble again? Disney’s lawyers took the Air Pirates case all the way up to the Supreme Court. To find out about the new adventures of Dan and the documentary about the Air Pirates see Jed Riffe’s new 5-minute Kickstarter promo “MOUSETRAP: The Air Pirates War Against Disney”. It is part animated, delightful and informative. The animator is even a well-known former Pixar artist, support their Kickstarter.
Use this image to oppose AI in animation. illo: D. BlairDisney Sues AI Company
Disney and Universal filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Midjourney accusing the company of copyright infringement. The 110-page complaint says Midjourney, which was founded in 2022, “helped itself” to copyrighted material to train its software, calling the company “a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” While authors, artists, record labels and news organizations have all sued AI companies to protect their work, the new lawsuit marks a first for major Hollywood movie companies, who have, until now, kept their grievances out of court.
Disney Gets Anime-Inspire Miraculous
Disney acquires the anime-inspired “Miraculous Stellar Force”. A special will appear later this year and the new series will premiere in 2027 on Disney Channel and Disney+.
Matel Joins with Open AI
Will your child soon be able to have conversations with their favorite doll? Well, guess what: The toy company Matel is developing a partnership with Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Mattel says using the technology “will bring the magic of AI to age-appropriate play experiences with an emphasis on innovation, privacy, and safety.”(How will the porno industry use AI?)
Video Games in Trouble?
Is the video game business in trouble? Many people in the gaming industry expected it to bounce back quickly after 2022’s post-pandemic decline, but it hasn’t. Instead more than 10,000 developers lost their jobs in 2023. Wired Magazine published an article that claimed that “the bottom fell out of the game industry” in 2024. Wired quoted one expert as saying the job loss was 40% higher!
Electronic Arts is an international game developer company with corporate headquarters in the Bay Area, is undergoing dramatic strategy shifts. They recently canceled work on Black Panther, a major cliffhanger project for Disney and Marvel. EA has already announced three layoffs this year with the biggest being about 300 staffers in March according to Variety.
In May, 2025 Variety reported that the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 was planed for this fall, but the publisher, Rockstat, has moved the date to May 26, 2026. They also noted that President Trump’s unpredictable tariff policies have already had a demonstrable impact on the release of a new game new console. The asking price has risen. They speculated that overall hardware sales will struggle this year.
A scene from 'How to Train Your Dragon', a combo live action and animated movie. illo: Universal PicturesFuture for Animation’s Live Action Sequels
Will live-action sequels of animated features be profitable for Hollywood studios in the coming years? Are they an important new format that Hollywood producers can use to make money, or is the public growing tired of them?
Disney acts like their audience may be coming tired of them. Disney can count on almost all their animated blockbusters and sequels as being quite successful, but they announced they were halting production of live-action remakes after the recent failure of the “Snow White” remake. It had a $250 million budget and it only made $205 million globally. They halted work on their live-action remake of “The Sword in the Stone” (1963), but their “Moana” remake, which is almost finished, will open July 10, 2026. I suspect all the controversal press about “Snow White” while it was being made soured the publics desire to see it.
Since then “Lilo and Stitch” has come out and it turned out to be a smash hit. It is now the 3rd highest grossing film of the year (about $869 million worldwide as of June 20). While it didn’t get exceptiomal ratings (only 72% from critics at Rotten Tomatoes, fans gave it a 92%), that didn’t seem to reduce the number of people anxious to see it. On Memorial Day it broke record for the highest grossing box office on that holiday. One person who saw it told me, “I should have stayed home, it wasn’t that great.” Lukewarm press didn’t seem to hurt it.
I suspect Disney will change its mind about making live action, part animated sequels, and make more of them in the coming years. They are less expensive to make and there are lots of good candidates for this kind of film from the Disney and Pixar’s libraries.
Universal Pictures “How to Train Your Dragon”, a live action and part animated feature, is also well on its way to becoming a success. It had an impressive $198 million global opening and it scored 98% from Rotten Tomatoes. Hollywood Reporter says it sticks close to the original film. “It honors the charm of the original. It’s not an essential remake, but at least it’s not an offensive one.” It is Universal’s first remake of an animated feature and there will probably be a lot more in the future. On June 24 it sailed past $350 at the global box office.
The stars of the new hit film, 'Flow'. illo: Latvian artistsFlow Film Busts Box Office
Latvian Oscar-winning animated feature “Flow” continues to add to its impressive box office success, officially passing the €50 million ($57 million) mark at the global box office. That makes it one of the most commercially successful independent animated Oscar nominees in recent years. The film was made on a modest €3.5 million ($3.7 million) budget.
Marvel’s New Thunderbolts Loses
If “Thunderbolts” lost millions of dollars despite great reviews, where does Marvel go next? Variety reports that after 6 weeks in theaters the film had only grossed $371 million globally. Bob Iger had called the comic book adventure when it was released the “first and best” example of Marvel’s new movie strategy.
Marvel had been Hollywood’s most consistent hit maker. It is still the highest-grossing film franchise in history ($31 billion from 36 films), but bad reviews in recent years of “Captain America: Brave New World” (2025), “The Marvels” (2023) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023) have hurt the franchise’s reputation. Now, despite good reviews and good word of mouth, the box office isn’t impressive.
From the cool new kids series 'Mr. Crocodile'. illo: N/ANickelodeon Gets Mr. Crocodile
The new animated kids series “Mr. Crocodile” is based on the beloved French children’s book “Monsieur Crocodile a Beaucoup Faim” (Mister Crocodile Is Very Hungry) by author Joann Sfar. It follows “the toothy, loveable Mr. Crocodile” and his best friend, the human girl Daisy, “as he cheerfully navigates life with boundless enthusiasm and comical misunderstandings due to his instinctive crocodile logic. They turn everyday activities into zany adventures as they share an unconditional acceptance of each other’s approach to life.”
Sony Gives Free Animation Classes
“This Is Animation” is a new free online course designed to introduce learners of all ages to the art and industry of animation. It was created by Sony Animation in conjunction with educational platform Yellowbrick. “Animation is one of the most collaborative of all storytelling mediums. This course is about pulling back the curtain, showing the magic behind the process, and inviting new voices to explore careers--both artistic and non-artistic--in this incredible industry,” see here.
Jurassic World Returns
Universal’s ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ opened on July 2nd and “'roars to the top of the box office,” according to CNN. Universal expected it to gross about $120 million over the five-day holiday period.
China’s Drone Show Sets Record
China’s latest drone light show set a world record using 11,787 drones. To see images from other record breakers search for “world record drome display.”
The cover of the art magazine, dummy. illo: dummydummy Explores Art
Welcome to dummy, a new publication that explores art. Published by the writer John Kelly and The Dummy Corporation. Each issue of dummy looks at a different topic with the intent of conducting a deep examination of historical material and presenting rarely seen images, especially when it comes to creative process. Subscribers to dummy received extra bonus items and discounted shipping. Kelly has written extensively for The Comics Journal and other publications for more than 30 years and has a wide range of interests. This is the online store for The Dummy Corporation.
dummy’s premier issue features “The Art of Pee Wee’s Playhouse” as the cover story. See it here.
Mickey and Minnie Are Legal
Not well-known trivia: Mickey and Minnie Mouse are legally married, at least their voices. Their current voice actors, longtime Mickey and Minnie Mouse voice actors Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, tied the knot to each other. Their work friendship blossomed into genuine affection after each obtained a divorce, and they were married in Hawaii in 1991. The couple refuses to talk publicly about their romance.
Betty Boop on Broadway
Three Tony nominations but no wins for “Boop! the Musical”. It was nominated for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design for a Musical and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. The show received both mixed and positive reviews. It opened in April and will close July 13. Find out more about "BOOP! The Musical" here. Cartoon Brew ran a group of fun clips from Betty’s shorts.
On the other hand, “I saw it, and it’s incredibly excellent,” animation historian Jerry Beck wrote me, Everyone who sees it loves it - I did. Hopefully it will tour the country - and if so, I urge you to see it. Incredibly entertaining - and its nods to the original Fleischer cartoons couldn't be better.” See some of Betty Boop's greatest moments here.
Pixar’s Sweet, Safe Elio
Pixar’s sweet, safe space adventure “Elio”, about a kid who gets his wish of being abducted by aliens, isn’t exactly out of this world. Indeed, Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter writes, “Cute but inessential… ‘Elio’ is a perfectly nice kiddie sci-fi adventure that does everything a movie with that description is supposed to do, but much like Elio, I frequently found myself longing for the more transportive experience, of the sort that Pixar used to make a house specialty." Its opening weekend box office was just $35 million worldwide for a film that cost about $150 million before marketing, etc. A new low for a Pixar release.
New Heart of Darkness “Heart of Darkness” is being being produced by BreakThru Films, the Polish studio behind the acclaimed oil-painting feature “Loving Vincent” directed by Gerald Conn. The work-in-progress is an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness,” which also gave us “Apocalypse Now”.
AI Panic at Cannes
The Hollywood Reporter says, “At Cannes Lions, as ad-world elites sipped rosé and eyed yachts, one question kept surfacing: Are we being replaced? ‘A lot of what the agencies have done can be replicated pretty well by AI,’ confides one advertising ex-CEO.” The full article is titled "Madison Avenue Braces for the AI Apocalypse".
New MeTV Toons Network
MeTV Toons network was launched on June 30th by Weigel Broadcasting Co. and DirecTV. A few days before, they announced a multi-year carriage agreement for Weigel’s classic animation channel MeTV Toons, which joined DirecTV’s streaming and satellite homes on Monday, June 30. MeTV Toons will soon be found on channel 295 for Choice and above customers, as well as inside DirecTV’s new genre packs. The network launched in June 2024.
Join a Saturday morning cartoons. illo: Minnesota StreetSaturday Morning Cartoons at Minnesota Street Project
It is delighted to announce the start of its Saturday Morning Cartoons series, which kicked off June 28th, 11-12:30 pm at 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco. Get cozy in our Media Gallery with delicious coffee and pastries from our neighbors at Piccino as we watch vintage cartoons and discuss the history of animation. The Casemore Gallery's current exhibition is “You, the performer.” Contact them to find out when their July event will happen at http://www.minnesotastreetproject.org
Two Bay Area Festivals Call for Animation Entries
The 2025 Studio 8 Film Festival is making an open call for San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) alumni, faculty and staff to submit to their “celebration of bold, original, and experimental filmmaking connected to the legacy of the San Francisco Art Institute. We welcome submissions in animation and lyrical/poetic forms in honor of Lawrence Jordan and Gunvor Nelson.”
Length less than 10 minutes and submission fee, $20, although if that presents a problem, let them know. For questions email here.
The Screening will be September 20, 2025 at The Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St, San Francisco, and selected by Christopher Coppola, Deborah Fort and Toney W. Merritt, with the deadline end of day July 28, 2025.
Brainwash Movie Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk-In Festival Calls for Entries
A unique even that has screened the weird, unusual and significantly great (but, probably, unheralded) movies of the world for the past 30 years. Every season, the Brainwash Festival screens your movies, gives awards and now going online, too! Join us! Submit your movie and/or come on out for the shows, or stay home and see how it all looks on the home movie screen. Nothin’ like it! So enter and help yourself and the movie arts at Brainwash!
You can enter your movie by clicking here, or email festival director .
Welcome To In The Loop By Leo (Leonel Cortes)
WB Splits in Two to Save Money To save the sinking financial ship of Warner Brother’s Discovery, the company has decided to split into two publicly traded companies. By mid-2026 WB is expected to become WB Streaming & Studios (S&S) and WB Global Networks (GN). S&S is dedicated to streaming while GN is meant to handle traditional television. At the same time Global Networks is expected to burden the bulk of WB’s current $38 billion debt. Cartoon Network and Adult Swim will be controlled by GN while animation studios like WB Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hannah-Barbera Studios will be under S&S.
Currently it appears that this split won't affect their animation studios, but it is still too early to tell. This is an attempt to cut costs and with one new company holding the bag, there is a possible chance that Cartoon Network and Adult Swim will end up seeing a reduction in future productions.
LEO Speaks Out About One Problem With AI AI is already ruining YouTube. More and more creators are losing viewership because AI videos play into Youtube's algorithm, which focuses on consistent output. The recommendation section of YouTube is slowly being filled with AI channels that have zero substance. Although you can also argue that the general public are the reason for this. They are the consumers after all.
The Annecy panel celebrating the Cartoon Network. illo: AnnecyTalking Toons with Cartoon Network Animators At the Annecy Animation Festival, Cartoon Network held a panel celebrating its 25th anniversary. The panel varied from nostalgic stories of first working with the network to discussions about the current state of animation. Some of the discussion focused on young animators taking on show runner roles, an experience that wasn’t familiar to the industry until Cartoon Network appeared. There was also a focus on streaming and producing new shows.
Some animators pointed out that networks are only focused on existing properties and that getting in a new idea was getting difficult unless it was already a success online. While there was some pessimism, the current state of animation from their perspective was still hopeful as they mention that they get to mentor new animators and see a hopeful future in them.
Rather than recapping the recaps you can read what was discussed at the panel in Variety’s and Animation Magazine’s articles.
Adult Swim Makes Us Smile with a Show’s Renewal Adult Swim announced at Annecy that the hit series “Smiling Friends” has been renewed for a fourth and fifth season. Creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel held a panel for the third season of the show at the festival and discussed their creative process, go here.
The duo talked about how they don’t have a writing team and it’s just the two of them writing episodes. This creates points where some episodes cause trouble due to meeting deadlines. These “stress episodes” have the pair of writers scrambling to write an entire script in a day, with it ultimately working out as they find something silly to tie the episode together. Despite the stress, they enjoy the ability to have hands-on control over their show, and it allows them to explore the world they created and the characters that inhabit it. While the series is renewed to season 5, Cusack and Hadel have discussed that the series will eventually end rather than going on forever. Season 3 of Smiling Friends will premiere in the fall.
Scene from 'Laika'. illo: unknownLaika Has Us Speak to the Dead Again This Halloween Following the financial success of “Coraline”’s 2024 re-release, award winning stop-motion studio, Laika is planning to re-release "ParaNorman" in theaters this Halloween. This re-release has Norman and friends remastered for 3D and 2D formats. The film will be accompanied by a new CG short film ParaNorman: The Thrifting. Those who missed the original release of this film or just want a reason to go to the theater, this re-release will start October 25th and last for one week only.
Pixar Shoots for the Stars but Falls ShortDisney-Pixar's newest film Elio was released in June with disappointing numbers. Making only $21 million on its opening weekend, this makes Pixar’s biggest box office bomb and the first bomb this summer. With a budget of $150 million and other blockbusters coming out, it’s unlikely that this film will recoup its budget by the end of its box office run. Elio has an interesting production history with its original director being replaced by two other directors. Comparing the original trailer for the movie and the current trailer, there appears to be a shift in tone from a reluctant hero forced into his situation to a film about a kid having a safe space adventure.
Multiple reviews for this film lament that current Pixar stories focus on children as main characters and stories that clearly are catered to kids instead of all ages.
Scene from 'KPop: Demon Hunter'. illo: NetflixSony Battles Demons with Netflix Original Animated by Sony Animation, “KPop: Demon Hunter”s, follows a K-pop group that come from a long line of demon hunters. Their goal is to seal the demon realm off for good while maintaining their pop-star status. The only issue they face is a new boy band consisting of demons getting in their way. This Netflix original film provides amazing visuals that Sony Animation has been improving upon over the years. The cartoony facial expressions show that CG animation has evolved so much that we’re getting close to what could be achieved with 2D animation. Those who are fans of the K-pop genre will the musical sequences as it captures the visuals of live action K-pop music videos. The only disappointing thing about the film is its action sequences and the lack of character development for the side characters. Regardless, this is still a visually great film worth watching.
Kojima Productions is Delivering an Adult Animated Feature Video game series Death Stranding is getting an animated feature. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States after the “Death Stranding” event, creatures that hunt and consume humans roam the planet while the last remaining humans hide in colonies. Currently the film is being scripted by Aaron Guzikowski and is animated by Line Media. The series is also getting a live action adaptation produced by A24. These announcements come after the announcement of the game’s sequel Death Stranding 2: On the Beach which released on June 26th exclusively for the PlayStation 5.
Fists Fly in Invincible Fighting Game Amazon’s hit animated show Invincible is getting a 3v3 fighting game. Invincible VS is slated to come out in 2026. Fans of the show and the comics will have plenty of characters to choose from. See the trailer for the game.
Legal Troubles Continue with South Park The creators of South Park are entering a new legal battle against Paramount. The claim is that Jeff Shell, soon to be new president of Paramount, interfered with contract negotiations between the creators and potential buyers of South Park. Evidence shows that Shell tried to change contracts that Netflix and WB-Discovery would sign in order to benefit Paramount. These changes include the length of contracts lasting from 10 years to 5 years and giving Paramount+ a 12-month exclusive extension of ownership over streaming rights. This lawsuit does not appear to pause any current deals involving the show, so expect to see the new season on July 9th.
Social Outcasts Find a Home Titmouse and cartoonist KC Green are working together to develop an animated version of his webcomic, The Anime Club. The story follows four outcast anime fans who are a bit too obsessive about their hobbies. The series has been in development since the start of the pandemic, according to Green. In a world where anime’s popularity has grown since the original webcomic came out, will our heroes change for the better? Probably not. You can find the original comic here.
Nickelodeon Breaks Millions of Tiny Hearts Emmy award winning show “Tiny Chef” has been cancelled by their home network Nickelodeon. Having lasted for 3 seasons and won 2 Emmys, the animators announced the cancellation of the show through social media. The heartbreaking minute clip shows the Tiny Chef hearing about the news and ending with him sobbing on his bed. The animators followed that clip with another one a few days later with the chef playing a banjo cover of Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones. These clips aren’t just the animating team venting their frustrations but are also a call for help. Currently the team is attempting to crowdfund Tiny Chef through their website. So far fans have donated over of $100,000.
Scene from German filmmaker Heinrich Sabl's first animated feature, 'Memory Hotel'. illo: H. SablThe Nancy Denney-Phelps Section
International TrickFilm Festival The first signs of spring for me are the flowers in my garden and the International Trick Film Festival in Stuttgart. The two new festival heads, Annagret Richter, Artistic Director, and Heike Mozer, Financial Director, are a dynamic team, and this is their second year.
The positive changes were very obvious right away. First of all, the entire staff was much more relaxed than I have ever seen them. Annagret and Heike were everywhere, talking not just with the animators that they already knew but also introducing themselves to first-time festival guests, making them feel welcome.
The Awards Ceremony and party have been moved from Sunday to Saturday evening so everyone can go to the Sunday bar-b-que and have a relaxing day before heading home on Monday. The programming was very strong with an emphasis on stop motion. There was also an Animation Nightmare Special and a focus on Swiss animation, as well as numerous workshops, masterclasses, and talks. So many interesting things were happening that it was impossible to see and do everything. Another big change this year was the delicious lunch that was provided to every participant. This may seem like a small detail but to animators, especially the students, who are on a budget, it is a big deal.
I had the honor of being a member of the Feature Film Selection Committee. My three fellow committee members and I are quite proud of the films that we selected. In years past the Feature Films catered heavily to family-friendly films. This year they were mostly more adult-oriented.
Heinrich Sabl’s “Memory Hotel” In 1999 German filmmaker Heinrich Sabl, known for his pre-2000 stop-motion animation, began work on his first animated feature, “Memory Hotel”. After over twenty years of work on his film it was finally screened in the Stuttgart Feature Film Competition. The film opens in May 1945 when five-year-old Sophie flees from the Russian front with her parents to a small Polish village. They have tickets for a ship bound for America. On the way to the harbor, they stop at a hotel where, to their surprise, they find a Nazi officer, Scharf, and Hitler Youth Beckman.
Sophie’s parents are killed during a fight with Scharf and a Soviet soldier named Vasily and the child loses all of her memories. As Sophie grows up, she is forced to prepare food for her captors and the hotel guests. Beckman has been hiding in an alcove by the elevator shaft ever since Sophie’s parents were killed.
Time passes and Sophie is forced to marry Vasily. She also forms a friendship with Beckman. Memory Hotel has many twists and turns in its 100-minute running time. Henrich Sal has created an exciting, disturbing film incorporating dialogue that is a realistic portrait of the German/Soviet history of guilt and their attempts to cope with it.
During selection, I watched “Memory Hotel” with an eye for how it would fit into the festival and for the overall quality of the film. I was so intrigued with it that I immediately watched it again paying close attention to the story and dialogue. I find the film fascinating.
At Stuttgart, Henrich Sabl gave a presentation titled “Memory Hotel – A Quarter of a Lifetime for a Film”. During it, he showed a video about the making of the puppets and another one related to his work process. He talked about how he balanced working on a film for so long with the demands of daily life. He also revealed that he is not done with the film and that there will be a slightly different version at Annecy in a few weeks. He revealed that one of the reasons, aside from financial constraints, that the film took so long was that after 9/11 he made major changes in the film and more changes were made after Russia invaded the Ukraine.
Illicit Love from South Korea Another feature film that touched me was “The Square” by South Korean animator Bo-sol Kim. The film is a romantic drama set in North Korea. Although it is beautifully animated with soft colors and lovely backgrounds, the 73-minute film portrays the harsh realities of life in present day North Korea. The story is about Isak Borg, the First Secretary of the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Bok-joo, a local traffic officer. Borg is secretly dating Bok-joo and wants to marry her. This is not possible because his tour of duty is almost up and he cannot stay in the country and under North Korean law she cannot leave the country.
One day after Borg sees a suspiciously acting man at the couple’s secret meeting place, Bok-joo disappears. With his departure date nearing, he begins a frantic search for her and starts to suspect that his interpreter Lee Myeong-jun has been spying on him and has discovered his secret meetings with Bok-joo.
Best Feature Film Award The jury gave The Best Feature Film award to Laszio Csaki from Hungary for Pelican Blue, a film that I like a great deal. I have written about it extensively in previous articles so I won’t go into detail here except to say that the film is about a little-known piece of history, Hungarians stepping out from behind the Iron Curtain, freedom to travel, and three young men who create the opportunity to experience the outside world for a whole generation. If you have the opportunity to see this charming “gangster comedy/animated documentary” don’t miss it.
Best Short Film AwardI was extremely happy that the short film jury selected Florence Miailhe’s “Butterfly” (Papillon) for its top award for short film. All of Florence’s films are beautifully animated, visually stunning, and touching. “Butterfly” is the especially poignant true story of champion French swimmer Alfred Nakache. Born into a Jewish family in North Africa, he overcame his fear of water as a child and went on to break the world’s butterfly stroke record in 1941.
He, along with his wife and young daughter, were deported to Auschwitz, He survived the ordeal, but his family didn’t. He returned to the water for the 1948 London Olympics. At the end of his life, on his final swim, his memories flash before his eyes.
Italian Directo Matteo Burani I first met Matteo Burani in 2018 at Animarkt in Lodz, Poland, where I was the young Italian director’s pitching coach. I found his project, “Playing God”, intriguing and since then, I have followed the progress of his film. The success of the 2021 Kickstarter campaign and finally to Stuttgart, where I got to see the film on the big screen. It looks beautiful and the story is engaging. The 9-minute stop-motion film is set in an artist’s atelier where a mysterious blind sculptor has spent much of his life trying to create a masterpiece. He is surrounded by deformed figures that he considers inferior, the result of years trying to find perfection. Playing God is the story of a clay sculpture’s relationship to his creator and the elusive quest for perfection.
The stop motion film pays homage to such Eastern European stop motion masters as Jan Svankmajer, the Polish sculptors Stanislav and Szukalski, and the Italian sculptor Alberto Giancometti. Two hundred individual deformed clay puppets were made by animator and art director Arianna Gheller for the film. “Playing God” is so richly dense that you need to watch it at least twice, once to concentrate on the story and then again to focus on all of the beautifully sculpted figures.
Czechs Living Large I am fond of “Living Large”. The 88-minute Czech, French, and Slovenian film by Kristina Dufkova is based on a book by Mikael Ollivier. It is the story of 12-year-old Ben. He loves music but he loves food even more. He is constantly plagued by his school’s three bullies. His divorced parents don’t know what to do about him, and even the school nurse is concerned about his weight. Despite his love of food and his talent as a chief, Ben decides to go on a diet to rid himself of the bullies who love to torment him.
Even more important, he has met Klara, the girl of his dreams, and has fallen in love. In the end Ben learns that what truly matters isn’t how you look, it’s how you feel about yourself.
With everyone, especially young people, being constantly confronted with images in magazines, advertisements, and on television of “the perfect body”, we have become a society compulsively obsessed with obtaining the unachievable “perfect body”. Living Large is a movie with a message. not just for young people but the entire family, learn to accept and appreciate yourself.
The film was presented at 10 in the morning to a theatre full of 10 to14-year-old school children as part of the Tricks For Kids screenings. Since no one from the film’s creative team was at the festival, I was asked to talk about “Living Large” with the students after the screening.
Katharina Vogt, Program Manager for Tricks For Kids, introduced me to the audience and acted as my translator. She had come armed with a stack of questions to ask me, but after she asked me the first question hands went up all over the theatre. For the entire half hour, the students asked me all sorts of questions about my life as an animation journalist. One young boy asked me how much money I made as an animation journalist. Another young lady who wanted a photograph with me, asked when I was going to retire because she wanted my job. It was a lovely experience to be so warmly received by the students. I had a wonderful time even if we never did discuss “Living Large”.
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My Book, On The Animation Trail My husband Nik and I gave a presentation of my book “On The Animation Trail: 20 Years of Animation Festival History”. We were interviewed by the festival’s Yannik Tessenow. We also showed a short video by Joanna Quinn about the making of the book’s covers, a short teaser for a film that German animated documentary maker Katrin Rothe is making about Nik and me, and my 2 minute 59-second film Nancy’s Spectacle(s).
Future Festivals The 2026 edition of the festival will be held from 5 to 10 May 2026. You can learn more about this year’s festival, how to submit your film for the next edition, or volunteer at their site.
Summer Reading by Nancy Denney-Phelps
My picks cover a wide spectrum—from sex in animation to the art of digital filmmaking, a practical guide to Premiere Pro for filmmakers, and expert insights for scriptwriters. No matter your passion, there’s something here for everyone.
Cover of the new book about sexy animation, 'Intimate Animation'. illo: CRC Press”Intimate Animation” by Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley, from CRC Press , 232 Pages, $52.72 Ben Mitchell, the editor of the United Kingdom’s Skwigly Online Animation Magazine and author of Independent Animation, and Laura-Beth Cowley, an animator and feature writer, have based their book on conversations with animators on their conversations with animations on their Intimate Animation Podcasts from 2016 to 2022. The initial podcast discussion was with the incredibly talented Czech animator Michaela Pavlatova, director of such films as the Oscar-nominated Reci, Reci, Reci (Words, Words, Words). Her erotically delightful film, Tram, won the Annecy Short Film Cristal in 2012.
To immediately set the record straight, right in the book’s prologue, the authors state that this is not a book about Hentai, a Japanese term referring to a subgenre of manga, anime, or other media that contains explicit sexual content. What it is, is an exploration of the changing trends in the animation industry since the early 2010’s. As the authors note “There has been a surge in animation projects that have pushed boundaries, broken taboos, prompted discussions, and wow festival and online audiences alike through compelling storytelling and unmatched artistry.
The book’s introduction gives a short history of erotic animation. Starting with hand-cranked mutoscopes, on to the1928 Eveready Harton in “Buried Treasure which was created by a group of animator pals for Winsor McCay’s stag birthday party, we are introduced to some early examples of 1970s, ’80s, and ‘90s films that were the forerunners to today’s trend toward honesty and openness in animated films that are aimed at an adult audience.
The opening chapter of the book examines the use of animated films for sex education and hygiene-oriented films which dates back to the 1940’s. Chapter two is all about self-discovery, beginning with a discussion of Andreas Hykade’s films. “Ring of Fire” (2000) and “Altotting” (2020), like many of his films, draw upon incidents from his childhood and youth.
Woman animators like Signe Baumane, Michaela Pavlatova, and Joanna Quinn are ground breakers in portraying women’s erotic inner thoughts, often with magnificent touches of humor, who continue to blaze a trail for the next generation of young animators.
The next chapter, “The Body”, introduces the classic femme fatal, Betty Boop who debuted in the 1930s in her low-cut dress and short skirt. Bill Plympton, the king of independent animators, is also a master of surreal situations and sight gags as in his 1995 “How to Make Love to a Woman” in which the woman exists in the film as a literal sex object.
No book on sex in animation would be complete without a chapter on lust. It can take many forms as in Shoko Hara’s 2020 film “Just A Guy”. Her stop-motion animated documentary examines why some women are so attracted to convicted death row inmates, even going so far as to marry them. Hara’s film zeroes in on Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, who murdered at least 13 people in California in 1984-85. While awaiting execution on San Quinton Prison’s death row numerous women wrote love letters to him and one woman went so far as to marry him in prison.
Finally, in chapter five Mitchell and Cowley get around to the subject of love. From a couple whose relationship is metaphorically adrift at sea in Levi Stoops's 2023 Drift to Chintis Lundgren and Drasko Ivezic’s films such as Manivald, which examines a uniquely complicated relationship, this chapter his chapter explores love in many different forms.
Intimate Animation is a must-read for anyone who wants to delve into the complex subject of sex, love, and relations. The book is well-written, insightful, and a great, fun read. If your appetite is wetted for more after you finish reading the book, The Appendix has a complete list of all of the Skiwigly Podcasts with the name of the animator, the title of the film that they discuss, and the date the broadcast aired.
There is also a QR Code that gives you access to a comprehensive list of animated projects that deal with the themes of love, relationships, and sexuality. Along with a suggested reading list on the topic, there is exclusive Skwigly Online Animation Magazine site content and an excellent table of contents, which make it easy to cross-reference people and films.
“I Got You Covered: The Premier and Fun Guide to Script Coverage, Notes, and Story Analysis”, by Beverly Neufeld, Foreng Films Publishing, 2022, $12.99 The book is an easy-to-understand guide to script notes, critiques, and writing for screenplays, teleplays, short films, and series. It takes you step by step through the entire process of how to give notes in a tasteful, motivating, and inspiring manner. It also stresses how to remain objective rather than subjective.
There is a section detailing what competitions, executives, agents, and networks are looking for in a script. In this day and age, when Netflix and other pay for view television networks are optioning animation projects, this is an invaluable chapter. If you are interested in getting a job as a script reader, a separate chapter gives you the nuts and bolts of how to get your foot in the door and land your first job.
Neufeld ends each chapter with exercises that build from chapter to chapter. If you do the exercises, when you have finished reading the book, you will be well on your way to starting a script of your own or having a portfolio to show a prospective employer.
Beverly Neufeld definitely knows what she is talking about and she is able to translate it to the written page. After obtaining her MFA in screenwriting at UCLA, she has been a script consultant at Slamdance Films as well as a freelance script doctor. She is a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in their writing division, teaching script coverage and screenwriting, as well as teaching online coverage classes.
As a seasoned journalist, I read “I Got You Covered” with great interest. The book made me think about my writing, and I learned some things along the way. Anyone who plans on writing a script will do well to read this book.
ASIFA-SF is Volunteer Run
The editor is Karl Cohen and contributors include Nancy Denney-Phelps, Jim Middleton, Leonel Cortes, and other friends of ASIFA, with proofing by Jim Middleton and Scott Kravitz. ASIFA-SF is a chapter of Association Internationale du Film d’Animation with over 40 chapters around the world.
Now that we are supposedly post-Covid, we hope to do live events once more, but that isn’t happening yet.
To keep our chapter alive, we need to find volunteers to develop live and/or online programs. Indeed, we are offering free memberships, free newsletter and tickets to whatever screenings we get invited to. Contact Karl .
Posted on Jul 14, 2025 - 11:35 PM
by Karl Cohen
Lampooning Lump is a full time job. illo: Greg PerryThis Cartoon Corner has sections written by Leonel Cortes and Nancy Denney-Phelps.
Trump’s Hollywood Tariffs Blocked
An appeals court blocked Trump’s tariffs that are the key to his supposedly making “Making Hollywood Great Again,” but a day later he got a ruling that his tariffs can go into effect while they wind their way to the Supreme Court. Trump has claimed he wants to make the Hollywood features great again, but can he? He received a major blow when a U.S. Trade Court ruled on May 28th that he “exceed any authority granted to the president.” The ruling by a three-judge panel with the New York-based court of international trade, came after several lawsuits argued Trump had exceeded his authority.
Then on May 29th, the Trump administration filed for “emergency relief” from the ruling “to avoid the irreparable national-security and economic harms at stake”. That request was granted, leaving US trade policy “dependent on his whims and unleashing economic chaos around the world.”
White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the judges had “brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump.” She called banning Trump’s wishes as part of “a pattern of judicial overreach “ and “ultimately the supreme court must put an end to this.”
Her comments were made as judge Rudolph Contreras from the district court in Washington DC, called the tariffs “unlawful.” He ordered a preliminary injunction against the tariffs on behalf of a pair of Illinois toy importers. This ongoing legal fight is important to animation as so much of what is seen in the U.S. is animated abroad.
Scene from Genndy Tartakovsky’s 'Fixed' about Bull, an average 'good dog,' . illo: G. Tartakovsky’Tartakovsky’s “Fixed”, which premiered at the recent Annecy, tries hard to be outrageous and it succeeds. Director Genndy Tartakovsky’s R-rated, adult “romantic” comedy is about Bull, an average, all-around “good dog” who discovers one day that he's going to be neutered in the morning! As the gravity of this life-altering event sets in, Bull realizes he needs one last adventure with his pack of best friends and his balls, of which these are the last 24 hours! What could go wrong...? Produced by Sony Pictures Animation but handed over to Netflix to distribute, probably because it was too crude, it will premiere August 13, 2025.
Variety Loves Annecy
‘Variety’ got very excited about several shorts for grownups shown at Annecy. In an article by Jamie Lang that talks about “10 Shorts Not to Miss at Annecy 2025”, he discusses serious works not made for juvenal audiences. “Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s ‘The Girl Who Cried Pearls’ is a haunting fable that delves into sorrow, love and the corrupting power of greed,” he wrote. “Premiering as one of the opening-night shorts at this year’s festival, this Canadian title showcases the duo’s signature handcrafted puppetry and surreal storytelling. With a poignant score by Patrick Watson, the film immerses viewers in a melancholic tale where a girl’s tears transform into pearls, leading to unforeseen consequences. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, this short is one in a long line of standout titles that benefit from one of the world’s most prolific and supportive public filmmaking programs.”
“Life With an Idiot” by Theodore Ushev (France) was inspired by Victor Erofeyev’s novella of the same name, and is a tour de force of political expression and raw emotion. Theodore Ushev, whose 2019 short “The Physics of Sorrow” made our must watch list at Annecy 2020, adapts the story into a stark, expressionistic film filled with jagged edits and visceral brushstrokes. In the film, a protagonist accused of not working hard enough is forced to live with an idiot as punishment. Pulled from an asylum, the nearly deaf roommate can only utter a single syllable: “Ech.” Domestic chaos leads to societal critique backed by an aggressive sound design and stark aesthetic. Ushev’s latest, produced by French powerhouse Miyu Productions, demands attention and leaves a mark.
In “Atomik Tour”, Bruno Collet (Czech Republic and France) merges social media documentary realism with surreal stop-motion as a Cold War tour guide leads us through an abandoned nuclear site via a video streaming app. With dark humor and eerie nostalgia, Collet critiques both the absurdity and the tragedy of nuclear history while occasionally shocking the audience with psychological thrills. His miniature sets brim with unsettling detail, and the uncanny monotone characters deliver deadpan lines that hit with precision. It’s a timely and quietly powerful film that exposes how we commemorate, or forget, collective trauma.
“Star Wars: Visions – Black”, Shinya Ohira (Japan) is one of the most experimental entries in the Star Wars: Visions anthology, Black by Shinya Ohira reimagines the galaxy through a gritty, impressionistic lens. Known for his frenetic animation and abstract storytelling, Ohira delivers a visually explosive meditation on conflict and identity. Far from traditional fan service, this short dives into the psychological toll of warfare and the ambiguity of heroism. It’s Star Wars stripped to its philosophical bones, raw, kinetic and unforgettable. An upbeat and frenzied jazz soundtrack fuels the most visually stunning interpretation of the Death Star’s destruction that we’ve ever seen.
To read the rest of this great article, go here.
The top Annecy Cristal award for best feature went to “Arco”, the debut feature of French director (and popular comics creator) Ugo Bienvenu. The film is about a rainbow-hued boy from the far future who finds himself trapped in the near future of 2075 after a flight goes wrong. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month (Last year Flow was the winner at Annecy.) For a full list of winners, go here.
Scene from 'Life with an Idiot' by Thomas Ushev. illo: T. Ushev’Theodore Ushev won the short film grand prize at Annecy in 2020 for “The Physics of Sorrow” and was nominated for an Oscar in 2017 for “Blind Vaysha”. This year, his film “Life with an Idiot”, was shown on opening night at Annecy. When he was invited onstage to talk about his film, at one point Ushev told the audience, “Fuck Putin, fuck Trump, and fuck Netanyahu, fuck the fascists.” The packed house of 925 people from every corner of the animation world was soon “erupting into applause.” He later added, “If you follow an imbecile, the chance you’ll become an imbecile is very high; if you admire an idiot, your risk of becoming an idiot is very high.” Other speakers also expressed their opinions of current events.
AI Both Protested and Shown at Annecy
There were 18,200 badge holders from 118 countries at Annecy making it the major annual event for animation and the forum for all things animation
Indeed, protesters at Annecy decried the use of AI in animation. Cartoon Brew, the animation watchdog, reports that an alliance of international animation unions, federations and organizations called for action over the usage of artificial intelligence, citing its destructive impact on the craft and business of animation, as well as on industry workers. One slogan at the protest was “Generative Al Does Not Support Artists, It Destroys Them.”
Over two dozen organizations issued a statement that calls on regulators and lawmakers to enact legislation that protects workers and their rights. They are also asking producers, executives and others to protect the creative culture of animation created by humans. The signers include ABRACA (animation workers union, Belgium), AWI (animation workers union, Ireland), CVVI (video game union, Spain), La Guilde francaise des senaristes (writers union, France), SNTPCT (animation/vfx workers union, France), FIMF (International Federation of Musicians), The Animation Guild (animation workers union, U.S.), SPIAC-CGT (animation workers union, France), and Kunstenbond (illustration, comic, and animation workers union, Netherlands).
Nevertheless, an animated feature made with AI was shown at Annecy. It was made in the Dominican Republic, which jumped into the animation world with its first animated feature, “Capitan Avispa” (2024), released in 33 countries. Alas, ‘Olivia & The Clouds,’ called “Wildly creative” by Cartoon Brew, seems from its trailer suggests to be a confusing, experimental independent film (more on that here).
Very Short Short Charms Annecy
The delightful 20 second short that opened Annecy was made by the Hungarian artists Fruzsina Gaal and Marcell Laszlo. Annecy present a tribute to Hungarians, see it here.
Incredibles 3 Announced
‘Incredibles 3’ is coming Pixar Animation Studios revealed during Annecy Festival. It will be directed by Oscar-nominated Peter Sohn (“Elemental”, “The Good Dinosaur”). Sohn takes over the superhero franchise’s mantel from Brad Bird, who wrote and directed the first two films and will return as screenwriter for the new sequel. Bird will also serve as co-producer.
Scene from of Pixar's 'Gatto'. illo: Pixar’“Gatto”, slated for the summer of 2027, is set in Venice and will be directed by Enrico Casarosa for Pixar. His “Luca”, 2021, was shown on Disney+.
Capobianco Animation
The “Hugh and Fred Bird”, an animation by Jim Capobianco, is a great parody of Disney’s World, based on Wally Wood’s artwork, see it here.
Paul's alive in animation. illo: P. McCarthy’A feature based on Paul McCarthy’s book will include the voices of McCartney, Ringo Starr, Lionel Richie, Céline Dion and others. The music will be by McCartney. The story published in 2005 is about “a young squirrel named Wirral (voiced by Himesh Patel) who embarks on a journey to bring back his mother’s voice (Sugartail, played by Céline Dion) after it was stolen by a despot diva named Gretsch (Hannah Waddingham), who has banned all music and all freedom of expression.”
Disney Attacks Artists
In the early 1970s, Air Pirate Comics did parodies that offended the Disney Corporation. They took the fun-loving artists to court. Is Dan O’Neill, their leader, going to be in serious trouble again? Disney’s lawyers took the Air Pirates case all the way up to the Supreme Court. To find out about the new adventures of Dan and the documentary about the Air Pirates see Jed Riffe’s new 5-minute Kickstarter promo “MOUSETRAP: The Air Pirates War Against Disney”. It is part animated, delightful and informative. The animator is even a well-known former Pixar artist, support their Kickstarter.
Use this image to oppose AI in animation. illo: D. BlairDisney and Universal filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Midjourney accusing the company of copyright infringement. The 110-page complaint says Midjourney, which was founded in 2022, “helped itself” to copyrighted material to train its software, calling the company “a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” While authors, artists, record labels and news organizations have all sued AI companies to protect their work, the new lawsuit marks a first for major Hollywood movie companies, who have, until now, kept their grievances out of court.
Disney Gets Anime-Inspire Miraculous
Disney acquires the anime-inspired “Miraculous Stellar Force”. A special will appear later this year and the new series will premiere in 2027 on Disney Channel and Disney+.
Matel Joins with Open AI
Will your child soon be able to have conversations with their favorite doll? Well, guess what: The toy company Matel is developing a partnership with Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Mattel says using the technology “will bring the magic of AI to age-appropriate play experiences with an emphasis on innovation, privacy, and safety.”(How will the porno industry use AI?)
Video Games in Trouble?
Is the video game business in trouble? Many people in the gaming industry expected it to bounce back quickly after 2022’s post-pandemic decline, but it hasn’t. Instead more than 10,000 developers lost their jobs in 2023. Wired Magazine published an article that claimed that “the bottom fell out of the game industry” in 2024. Wired quoted one expert as saying the job loss was 40% higher!
Electronic Arts is an international game developer company with corporate headquarters in the Bay Area, is undergoing dramatic strategy shifts. They recently canceled work on Black Panther, a major cliffhanger project for Disney and Marvel. EA has already announced three layoffs this year with the biggest being about 300 staffers in March according to Variety.
In May, 2025 Variety reported that the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 was planed for this fall, but the publisher, Rockstat, has moved the date to May 26, 2026. They also noted that President Trump’s unpredictable tariff policies have already had a demonstrable impact on the release of a new game new console. The asking price has risen. They speculated that overall hardware sales will struggle this year.
A scene from 'How to Train Your Dragon', a combo live action and animated movie. illo: Universal PicturesWill live-action sequels of animated features be profitable for Hollywood studios in the coming years? Are they an important new format that Hollywood producers can use to make money, or is the public growing tired of them?
Disney acts like their audience may be coming tired of them. Disney can count on almost all their animated blockbusters and sequels as being quite successful, but they announced they were halting production of live-action remakes after the recent failure of the “Snow White” remake. It had a $250 million budget and it only made $205 million globally. They halted work on their live-action remake of “The Sword in the Stone” (1963), but their “Moana” remake, which is almost finished, will open July 10, 2026. I suspect all the controversal press about “Snow White” while it was being made soured the publics desire to see it.
Since then “Lilo and Stitch” has come out and it turned out to be a smash hit. It is now the 3rd highest grossing film of the year (about $869 million worldwide as of June 20). While it didn’t get exceptiomal ratings (only 72% from critics at Rotten Tomatoes, fans gave it a 92%), that didn’t seem to reduce the number of people anxious to see it. On Memorial Day it broke record for the highest grossing box office on that holiday. One person who saw it told me, “I should have stayed home, it wasn’t that great.” Lukewarm press didn’t seem to hurt it.
I suspect Disney will change its mind about making live action, part animated sequels, and make more of them in the coming years. They are less expensive to make and there are lots of good candidates for this kind of film from the Disney and Pixar’s libraries.
Universal Pictures “How to Train Your Dragon”, a live action and part animated feature, is also well on its way to becoming a success. It had an impressive $198 million global opening and it scored 98% from Rotten Tomatoes. Hollywood Reporter says it sticks close to the original film. “It honors the charm of the original. It’s not an essential remake, but at least it’s not an offensive one.” It is Universal’s first remake of an animated feature and there will probably be a lot more in the future. On June 24 it sailed past $350 at the global box office.
The stars of the new hit film, 'Flow'. illo: Latvian artistsLatvian Oscar-winning animated feature “Flow” continues to add to its impressive box office success, officially passing the €50 million ($57 million) mark at the global box office. That makes it one of the most commercially successful independent animated Oscar nominees in recent years. The film was made on a modest €3.5 million ($3.7 million) budget.
Marvel’s New Thunderbolts Loses
If “Thunderbolts” lost millions of dollars despite great reviews, where does Marvel go next? Variety reports that after 6 weeks in theaters the film had only grossed $371 million globally. Bob Iger had called the comic book adventure when it was released the “first and best” example of Marvel’s new movie strategy.
Marvel had been Hollywood’s most consistent hit maker. It is still the highest-grossing film franchise in history ($31 billion from 36 films), but bad reviews in recent years of “Captain America: Brave New World” (2025), “The Marvels” (2023) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023) have hurt the franchise’s reputation. Now, despite good reviews and good word of mouth, the box office isn’t impressive.
From the cool new kids series 'Mr. Crocodile'. illo: N/AThe new animated kids series “Mr. Crocodile” is based on the beloved French children’s book “Monsieur Crocodile a Beaucoup Faim” (Mister Crocodile Is Very Hungry) by author Joann Sfar. It follows “the toothy, loveable Mr. Crocodile” and his best friend, the human girl Daisy, “as he cheerfully navigates life with boundless enthusiasm and comical misunderstandings due to his instinctive crocodile logic. They turn everyday activities into zany adventures as they share an unconditional acceptance of each other’s approach to life.”
Sony Gives Free Animation Classes
“This Is Animation” is a new free online course designed to introduce learners of all ages to the art and industry of animation. It was created by Sony Animation in conjunction with educational platform Yellowbrick. “Animation is one of the most collaborative of all storytelling mediums. This course is about pulling back the curtain, showing the magic behind the process, and inviting new voices to explore careers--both artistic and non-artistic--in this incredible industry,” see here.
Jurassic World Returns
Universal’s ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ opened on July 2nd and “'roars to the top of the box office,” according to CNN. Universal expected it to gross about $120 million over the five-day holiday period.
China’s Drone Show Sets Record
China’s latest drone light show set a world record using 11,787 drones. To see images from other record breakers search for “world record drome display.”
The cover of the art magazine, dummy. illo: dummyWelcome to dummy, a new publication that explores art. Published by the writer John Kelly and The Dummy Corporation. Each issue of dummy looks at a different topic with the intent of conducting a deep examination of historical material and presenting rarely seen images, especially when it comes to creative process. Subscribers to dummy received extra bonus items and discounted shipping. Kelly has written extensively for The Comics Journal and other publications for more than 30 years and has a wide range of interests. This is the online store for The Dummy Corporation.
dummy’s premier issue features “The Art of Pee Wee’s Playhouse” as the cover story. See it here.
Mickey and Minnie Are Legal
Not well-known trivia: Mickey and Minnie Mouse are legally married, at least their voices. Their current voice actors, longtime Mickey and Minnie Mouse voice actors Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, tied the knot to each other. Their work friendship blossomed into genuine affection after each obtained a divorce, and they were married in Hawaii in 1991. The couple refuses to talk publicly about their romance.
Betty Boop on Broadway
Three Tony nominations but no wins for “Boop! the Musical”. It was nominated for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design for a Musical and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. The show received both mixed and positive reviews. It opened in April and will close July 13. Find out more about "BOOP! The Musical" here. Cartoon Brew ran a group of fun clips from Betty’s shorts.
On the other hand, “I saw it, and it’s incredibly excellent,” animation historian Jerry Beck wrote me, Everyone who sees it loves it - I did. Hopefully it will tour the country - and if so, I urge you to see it. Incredibly entertaining - and its nods to the original Fleischer cartoons couldn't be better.” See some of Betty Boop's greatest moments here.
Pixar’s Sweet, Safe Elio
Pixar’s sweet, safe space adventure “Elio”, about a kid who gets his wish of being abducted by aliens, isn’t exactly out of this world. Indeed, Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter writes, “Cute but inessential… ‘Elio’ is a perfectly nice kiddie sci-fi adventure that does everything a movie with that description is supposed to do, but much like Elio, I frequently found myself longing for the more transportive experience, of the sort that Pixar used to make a house specialty." Its opening weekend box office was just $35 million worldwide for a film that cost about $150 million before marketing, etc. A new low for a Pixar release.
New Heart of Darkness “Heart of Darkness” is being being produced by BreakThru Films, the Polish studio behind the acclaimed oil-painting feature “Loving Vincent” directed by Gerald Conn. The work-in-progress is an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness,” which also gave us “Apocalypse Now”.
AI Panic at Cannes
The Hollywood Reporter says, “At Cannes Lions, as ad-world elites sipped rosé and eyed yachts, one question kept surfacing: Are we being replaced? ‘A lot of what the agencies have done can be replicated pretty well by AI,’ confides one advertising ex-CEO.” The full article is titled "Madison Avenue Braces for the AI Apocalypse".
New MeTV Toons Network
MeTV Toons network was launched on June 30th by Weigel Broadcasting Co. and DirecTV. A few days before, they announced a multi-year carriage agreement for Weigel’s classic animation channel MeTV Toons, which joined DirecTV’s streaming and satellite homes on Monday, June 30. MeTV Toons will soon be found on channel 295 for Choice and above customers, as well as inside DirecTV’s new genre packs. The network launched in June 2024.
Join a Saturday morning cartoons. illo: Minnesota StreetIt is delighted to announce the start of its Saturday Morning Cartoons series, which kicked off June 28th, 11-12:30 pm at 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco. Get cozy in our Media Gallery with delicious coffee and pastries from our neighbors at Piccino as we watch vintage cartoons and discuss the history of animation. The Casemore Gallery's current exhibition is “You, the performer.” Contact them to find out when their July event will happen at http://www.minnesotastreetproject.org
Two Bay Area Festivals Call for Animation Entries
The 2025 Studio 8 Film Festival is making an open call for San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) alumni, faculty and staff to submit to their “celebration of bold, original, and experimental filmmaking connected to the legacy of the San Francisco Art Institute. We welcome submissions in animation and lyrical/poetic forms in honor of Lawrence Jordan and Gunvor Nelson.”
Length less than 10 minutes and submission fee, $20, although if that presents a problem, let them know. For questions email here.
The Screening will be September 20, 2025 at The Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St, San Francisco, and selected by Christopher Coppola, Deborah Fort and Toney W. Merritt, with the deadline end of day July 28, 2025.
Brainwash Movie Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk-In Festival Calls for Entries
A unique even that has screened the weird, unusual and significantly great (but, probably, unheralded) movies of the world for the past 30 years. Every season, the Brainwash Festival screens your movies, gives awards and now going online, too! Join us! Submit your movie and/or come on out for the shows, or stay home and see how it all looks on the home movie screen. Nothin’ like it! So enter and help yourself and the movie arts at Brainwash!
You can enter your movie by clicking here, or email festival director .
Welcome To In The Loop By Leo (Leonel Cortes)
WB Splits in Two to Save Money To save the sinking financial ship of Warner Brother’s Discovery, the company has decided to split into two publicly traded companies. By mid-2026 WB is expected to become WB Streaming & Studios (S&S) and WB Global Networks (GN). S&S is dedicated to streaming while GN is meant to handle traditional television. At the same time Global Networks is expected to burden the bulk of WB’s current $38 billion debt. Cartoon Network and Adult Swim will be controlled by GN while animation studios like WB Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hannah-Barbera Studios will be under S&S.
Currently it appears that this split won't affect their animation studios, but it is still too early to tell. This is an attempt to cut costs and with one new company holding the bag, there is a possible chance that Cartoon Network and Adult Swim will end up seeing a reduction in future productions.
LEO Speaks Out About One Problem With AI AI is already ruining YouTube. More and more creators are losing viewership because AI videos play into Youtube's algorithm, which focuses on consistent output. The recommendation section of YouTube is slowly being filled with AI channels that have zero substance. Although you can also argue that the general public are the reason for this. They are the consumers after all.
The Annecy panel celebrating the Cartoon Network. illo: AnnecySome animators pointed out that networks are only focused on existing properties and that getting in a new idea was getting difficult unless it was already a success online. While there was some pessimism, the current state of animation from their perspective was still hopeful as they mention that they get to mentor new animators and see a hopeful future in them.
Rather than recapping the recaps you can read what was discussed at the panel in Variety’s and Animation Magazine’s articles.
Adult Swim Makes Us Smile with a Show’s Renewal Adult Swim announced at Annecy that the hit series “Smiling Friends” has been renewed for a fourth and fifth season. Creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel held a panel for the third season of the show at the festival and discussed their creative process, go here.
The duo talked about how they don’t have a writing team and it’s just the two of them writing episodes. This creates points where some episodes cause trouble due to meeting deadlines. These “stress episodes” have the pair of writers scrambling to write an entire script in a day, with it ultimately working out as they find something silly to tie the episode together. Despite the stress, they enjoy the ability to have hands-on control over their show, and it allows them to explore the world they created and the characters that inhabit it. While the series is renewed to season 5, Cusack and Hadel have discussed that the series will eventually end rather than going on forever. Season 3 of Smiling Friends will premiere in the fall.
Scene from 'Laika'. illo: unknownPixar Shoots for the Stars but Falls ShortDisney-Pixar's newest film Elio was released in June with disappointing numbers. Making only $21 million on its opening weekend, this makes Pixar’s biggest box office bomb and the first bomb this summer. With a budget of $150 million and other blockbusters coming out, it’s unlikely that this film will recoup its budget by the end of its box office run. Elio has an interesting production history with its original director being replaced by two other directors. Comparing the original trailer for the movie and the current trailer, there appears to be a shift in tone from a reluctant hero forced into his situation to a film about a kid having a safe space adventure.
Multiple reviews for this film lament that current Pixar stories focus on children as main characters and stories that clearly are catered to kids instead of all ages.
Scene from 'KPop: Demon Hunter'. illo: NetflixKojima Productions is Delivering an Adult Animated Feature Video game series Death Stranding is getting an animated feature. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States after the “Death Stranding” event, creatures that hunt and consume humans roam the planet while the last remaining humans hide in colonies. Currently the film is being scripted by Aaron Guzikowski and is animated by Line Media. The series is also getting a live action adaptation produced by A24. These announcements come after the announcement of the game’s sequel Death Stranding 2: On the Beach which released on June 26th exclusively for the PlayStation 5.
Fists Fly in Invincible Fighting Game Amazon’s hit animated show Invincible is getting a 3v3 fighting game. Invincible VS is slated to come out in 2026. Fans of the show and the comics will have plenty of characters to choose from. See the trailer for the game.
Legal Troubles Continue with South Park The creators of South Park are entering a new legal battle against Paramount. The claim is that Jeff Shell, soon to be new president of Paramount, interfered with contract negotiations between the creators and potential buyers of South Park. Evidence shows that Shell tried to change contracts that Netflix and WB-Discovery would sign in order to benefit Paramount. These changes include the length of contracts lasting from 10 years to 5 years and giving Paramount+ a 12-month exclusive extension of ownership over streaming rights. This lawsuit does not appear to pause any current deals involving the show, so expect to see the new season on July 9th.
Social Outcasts Find a Home Titmouse and cartoonist KC Green are working together to develop an animated version of his webcomic, The Anime Club. The story follows four outcast anime fans who are a bit too obsessive about their hobbies. The series has been in development since the start of the pandemic, according to Green. In a world where anime’s popularity has grown since the original webcomic came out, will our heroes change for the better? Probably not. You can find the original comic here.
Nickelodeon Breaks Millions of Tiny Hearts Emmy award winning show “Tiny Chef” has been cancelled by their home network Nickelodeon. Having lasted for 3 seasons and won 2 Emmys, the animators announced the cancellation of the show through social media. The heartbreaking minute clip shows the Tiny Chef hearing about the news and ending with him sobbing on his bed. The animators followed that clip with another one a few days later with the chef playing a banjo cover of Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones. These clips aren’t just the animating team venting their frustrations but are also a call for help. Currently the team is attempting to crowdfund Tiny Chef through their website. So far fans have donated over of $100,000.
Scene from German filmmaker Heinrich Sabl's first animated feature, 'Memory Hotel'. illo: H. SablInternational TrickFilm Festival The first signs of spring for me are the flowers in my garden and the International Trick Film Festival in Stuttgart. The two new festival heads, Annagret Richter, Artistic Director, and Heike Mozer, Financial Director, are a dynamic team, and this is their second year.
The positive changes were very obvious right away. First of all, the entire staff was much more relaxed than I have ever seen them. Annagret and Heike were everywhere, talking not just with the animators that they already knew but also introducing themselves to first-time festival guests, making them feel welcome.
The Awards Ceremony and party have been moved from Sunday to Saturday evening so everyone can go to the Sunday bar-b-que and have a relaxing day before heading home on Monday. The programming was very strong with an emphasis on stop motion. There was also an Animation Nightmare Special and a focus on Swiss animation, as well as numerous workshops, masterclasses, and talks. So many interesting things were happening that it was impossible to see and do everything. Another big change this year was the delicious lunch that was provided to every participant. This may seem like a small detail but to animators, especially the students, who are on a budget, it is a big deal.
I had the honor of being a member of the Feature Film Selection Committee. My three fellow committee members and I are quite proud of the films that we selected. In years past the Feature Films catered heavily to family-friendly films. This year they were mostly more adult-oriented.
Heinrich Sabl’s “Memory Hotel” In 1999 German filmmaker Heinrich Sabl, known for his pre-2000 stop-motion animation, began work on his first animated feature, “Memory Hotel”. After over twenty years of work on his film it was finally screened in the Stuttgart Feature Film Competition. The film opens in May 1945 when five-year-old Sophie flees from the Russian front with her parents to a small Polish village. They have tickets for a ship bound for America. On the way to the harbor, they stop at a hotel where, to their surprise, they find a Nazi officer, Scharf, and Hitler Youth Beckman.
Sophie’s parents are killed during a fight with Scharf and a Soviet soldier named Vasily and the child loses all of her memories. As Sophie grows up, she is forced to prepare food for her captors and the hotel guests. Beckman has been hiding in an alcove by the elevator shaft ever since Sophie’s parents were killed.
Time passes and Sophie is forced to marry Vasily. She also forms a friendship with Beckman. Memory Hotel has many twists and turns in its 100-minute running time. Henrich Sal has created an exciting, disturbing film incorporating dialogue that is a realistic portrait of the German/Soviet history of guilt and their attempts to cope with it.
During selection, I watched “Memory Hotel” with an eye for how it would fit into the festival and for the overall quality of the film. I was so intrigued with it that I immediately watched it again paying close attention to the story and dialogue. I find the film fascinating.
At Stuttgart, Henrich Sabl gave a presentation titled “Memory Hotel – A Quarter of a Lifetime for a Film”. During it, he showed a video about the making of the puppets and another one related to his work process. He talked about how he balanced working on a film for so long with the demands of daily life. He also revealed that he is not done with the film and that there will be a slightly different version at Annecy in a few weeks. He revealed that one of the reasons, aside from financial constraints, that the film took so long was that after 9/11 he made major changes in the film and more changes were made after Russia invaded the Ukraine.
Illicit Love from South Korea Another feature film that touched me was “The Square” by South Korean animator Bo-sol Kim. The film is a romantic drama set in North Korea. Although it is beautifully animated with soft colors and lovely backgrounds, the 73-minute film portrays the harsh realities of life in present day North Korea. The story is about Isak Borg, the First Secretary of the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Bok-joo, a local traffic officer. Borg is secretly dating Bok-joo and wants to marry her. This is not possible because his tour of duty is almost up and he cannot stay in the country and under North Korean law she cannot leave the country.
One day after Borg sees a suspiciously acting man at the couple’s secret meeting place, Bok-joo disappears. With his departure date nearing, he begins a frantic search for her and starts to suspect that his interpreter Lee Myeong-jun has been spying on him and has discovered his secret meetings with Bok-joo.
Best Feature Film Award The jury gave The Best Feature Film award to Laszio Csaki from Hungary for Pelican Blue, a film that I like a great deal. I have written about it extensively in previous articles so I won’t go into detail here except to say that the film is about a little-known piece of history, Hungarians stepping out from behind the Iron Curtain, freedom to travel, and three young men who create the opportunity to experience the outside world for a whole generation. If you have the opportunity to see this charming “gangster comedy/animated documentary” don’t miss it.
Best Short Film AwardI was extremely happy that the short film jury selected Florence Miailhe’s “Butterfly” (Papillon) for its top award for short film. All of Florence’s films are beautifully animated, visually stunning, and touching. “Butterfly” is the especially poignant true story of champion French swimmer Alfred Nakache. Born into a Jewish family in North Africa, he overcame his fear of water as a child and went on to break the world’s butterfly stroke record in 1941.
He, along with his wife and young daughter, were deported to Auschwitz, He survived the ordeal, but his family didn’t. He returned to the water for the 1948 London Olympics. At the end of his life, on his final swim, his memories flash before his eyes.
Italian Directo Matteo Burani I first met Matteo Burani in 2018 at Animarkt in Lodz, Poland, where I was the young Italian director’s pitching coach. I found his project, “Playing God”, intriguing and since then, I have followed the progress of his film. The success of the 2021 Kickstarter campaign and finally to Stuttgart, where I got to see the film on the big screen. It looks beautiful and the story is engaging. The 9-minute stop-motion film is set in an artist’s atelier where a mysterious blind sculptor has spent much of his life trying to create a masterpiece. He is surrounded by deformed figures that he considers inferior, the result of years trying to find perfection. Playing God is the story of a clay sculpture’s relationship to his creator and the elusive quest for perfection.
The stop motion film pays homage to such Eastern European stop motion masters as Jan Svankmajer, the Polish sculptors Stanislav and Szukalski, and the Italian sculptor Alberto Giancometti. Two hundred individual deformed clay puppets were made by animator and art director Arianna Gheller for the film. “Playing God” is so richly dense that you need to watch it at least twice, once to concentrate on the story and then again to focus on all of the beautifully sculpted figures.
Czechs Living Large I am fond of “Living Large”. The 88-minute Czech, French, and Slovenian film by Kristina Dufkova is based on a book by Mikael Ollivier. It is the story of 12-year-old Ben. He loves music but he loves food even more. He is constantly plagued by his school’s three bullies. His divorced parents don’t know what to do about him, and even the school nurse is concerned about his weight. Despite his love of food and his talent as a chief, Ben decides to go on a diet to rid himself of the bullies who love to torment him.
Even more important, he has met Klara, the girl of his dreams, and has fallen in love. In the end Ben learns that what truly matters isn’t how you look, it’s how you feel about yourself.
With everyone, especially young people, being constantly confronted with images in magazines, advertisements, and on television of “the perfect body”, we have become a society compulsively obsessed with obtaining the unachievable “perfect body”. Living Large is a movie with a message. not just for young people but the entire family, learn to accept and appreciate yourself.
The film was presented at 10 in the morning to a theatre full of 10 to14-year-old school children as part of the Tricks For Kids screenings. Since no one from the film’s creative team was at the festival, I was asked to talk about “Living Large” with the students after the screening.
Katharina Vogt, Program Manager for Tricks For Kids, introduced me to the audience and acted as my translator. She had come armed with a stack of questions to ask me, but after she asked me the first question hands went up all over the theatre. For the entire half hour, the students asked me all sorts of questions about my life as an animation journalist. One young boy asked me how much money I made as an animation journalist. Another young lady who wanted a photograph with me, asked when I was going to retire because she wanted my job. It was a lovely experience to be so warmly received by the students. I had a wonderful time even if we never did discuss “Living Large”.
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My Book, On The Animation Trail My husband Nik and I gave a presentation of my book “On The Animation Trail: 20 Years of Animation Festival History”. We were interviewed by the festival’s Yannik Tessenow. We also showed a short video by Joanna Quinn about the making of the book’s covers, a short teaser for a film that German animated documentary maker Katrin Rothe is making about Nik and me, and my 2 minute 59-second film Nancy’s Spectacle(s).
Future Festivals The 2026 edition of the festival will be held from 5 to 10 May 2026. You can learn more about this year’s festival, how to submit your film for the next edition, or volunteer at their site.
Summer Reading by Nancy Denney-Phelps
My picks cover a wide spectrum—from sex in animation to the art of digital filmmaking, a practical guide to Premiere Pro for filmmakers, and expert insights for scriptwriters. No matter your passion, there’s something here for everyone.
Cover of the new book about sexy animation, 'Intimate Animation'. illo: CRC PressTo immediately set the record straight, right in the book’s prologue, the authors state that this is not a book about Hentai, a Japanese term referring to a subgenre of manga, anime, or other media that contains explicit sexual content. What it is, is an exploration of the changing trends in the animation industry since the early 2010’s. As the authors note “There has been a surge in animation projects that have pushed boundaries, broken taboos, prompted discussions, and wow festival and online audiences alike through compelling storytelling and unmatched artistry.
The book’s introduction gives a short history of erotic animation. Starting with hand-cranked mutoscopes, on to the1928 Eveready Harton in “Buried Treasure which was created by a group of animator pals for Winsor McCay’s stag birthday party, we are introduced to some early examples of 1970s, ’80s, and ‘90s films that were the forerunners to today’s trend toward honesty and openness in animated films that are aimed at an adult audience.
The opening chapter of the book examines the use of animated films for sex education and hygiene-oriented films which dates back to the 1940’s. Chapter two is all about self-discovery, beginning with a discussion of Andreas Hykade’s films. “Ring of Fire” (2000) and “Altotting” (2020), like many of his films, draw upon incidents from his childhood and youth.
Woman animators like Signe Baumane, Michaela Pavlatova, and Joanna Quinn are ground breakers in portraying women’s erotic inner thoughts, often with magnificent touches of humor, who continue to blaze a trail for the next generation of young animators.
The next chapter, “The Body”, introduces the classic femme fatal, Betty Boop who debuted in the 1930s in her low-cut dress and short skirt. Bill Plympton, the king of independent animators, is also a master of surreal situations and sight gags as in his 1995 “How to Make Love to a Woman” in which the woman exists in the film as a literal sex object.
No book on sex in animation would be complete without a chapter on lust. It can take many forms as in Shoko Hara’s 2020 film “Just A Guy”. Her stop-motion animated documentary examines why some women are so attracted to convicted death row inmates, even going so far as to marry them. Hara’s film zeroes in on Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, who murdered at least 13 people in California in 1984-85. While awaiting execution on San Quinton Prison’s death row numerous women wrote love letters to him and one woman went so far as to marry him in prison.
Finally, in chapter five Mitchell and Cowley get around to the subject of love. From a couple whose relationship is metaphorically adrift at sea in Levi Stoops's 2023 Drift to Chintis Lundgren and Drasko Ivezic’s films such as Manivald, which examines a uniquely complicated relationship, this chapter his chapter explores love in many different forms.
Intimate Animation is a must-read for anyone who wants to delve into the complex subject of sex, love, and relations. The book is well-written, insightful, and a great, fun read. If your appetite is wetted for more after you finish reading the book, The Appendix has a complete list of all of the Skiwigly Podcasts with the name of the animator, the title of the film that they discuss, and the date the broadcast aired.
There is also a QR Code that gives you access to a comprehensive list of animated projects that deal with the themes of love, relationships, and sexuality. Along with a suggested reading list on the topic, there is exclusive Skwigly Online Animation Magazine site content and an excellent table of contents, which make it easy to cross-reference people and films.
“I Got You Covered: The Premier and Fun Guide to Script Coverage, Notes, and Story Analysis”, by Beverly Neufeld, Foreng Films Publishing, 2022, $12.99 The book is an easy-to-understand guide to script notes, critiques, and writing for screenplays, teleplays, short films, and series. It takes you step by step through the entire process of how to give notes in a tasteful, motivating, and inspiring manner. It also stresses how to remain objective rather than subjective.
There is a section detailing what competitions, executives, agents, and networks are looking for in a script. In this day and age, when Netflix and other pay for view television networks are optioning animation projects, this is an invaluable chapter. If you are interested in getting a job as a script reader, a separate chapter gives you the nuts and bolts of how to get your foot in the door and land your first job.
Neufeld ends each chapter with exercises that build from chapter to chapter. If you do the exercises, when you have finished reading the book, you will be well on your way to starting a script of your own or having a portfolio to show a prospective employer.
Beverly Neufeld definitely knows what she is talking about and she is able to translate it to the written page. After obtaining her MFA in screenwriting at UCLA, she has been a script consultant at Slamdance Films as well as a freelance script doctor. She is a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in their writing division, teaching script coverage and screenwriting, as well as teaching online coverage classes.
As a seasoned journalist, I read “I Got You Covered” with great interest. The book made me think about my writing, and I learned some things along the way. Anyone who plans on writing a script will do well to read this book.
ASIFA-SF is Volunteer Run
The editor is Karl Cohen and contributors include Nancy Denney-Phelps, Jim Middleton, Leonel Cortes, and other friends of ASIFA, with proofing by Jim Middleton and Scott Kravitz. ASIFA-SF is a chapter of Association Internationale du Film d’Animation with over 40 chapters around the world.
Now that we are supposedly post-Covid, we hope to do live events once more, but that isn’t happening yet.
To keep our chapter alive, we need to find volunteers to develop live and/or online programs. Indeed, we are offering free memberships, free newsletter and tickets to whatever screenings we get invited to. Contact Karl .
Posted on Jul 14, 2025 - 11:35 PM
