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Cohen’s Cartoon Corner Mar 2023
by Karl Cohen
'My Neighbor Totoro' (1988), the Japanese animated fantasy film written/directed by Hayao Miyazaki is certified as top 100 film. photo: courtesy Studio GhibliPLEASE support our GoFundMe campaign to cover research expenses for our articles and rebuilding the cineSOURCE site.
Animated Features included in Sight and Sound’s top 100 Films
The distinguished films are two by Hayao Miyazaki, “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988) is number 74 and “Spirited Away” is 75. This is an acknowledgment that animation is an important art. The poll has been conducted since 1952, once a decade by the British film magazine. Roger Ebert once described the survey as “by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies, the only one most serious movie people take seriously.”
An cell from Mark Fore's new animation . photo: courtesy M. ForeNew Mark Fore Animation Is Online
Mark is an animator who turns out weekly controversial cartoons that are socially responsible shorts. He has addressed the exploitation of railroad workers by corporations, corporations trying to pay zero taxes, there are ugly caricature of Trump and lot of other themes. See his site here
Why Glas Animation Festival Left Berkeley?
The Shattuck Theatres closed last year and now the Regal Theatres on Shattuck, the last commercial movie theatres in downtown Berkeley is closing. (The Regal has filed for Chapter 11 as rents were going up, attendance went down due to Covid, etc.). The only movie theatres left open in Berkeley are the Pacific Film Archive and the Elmwood—a truly astounding demise of theatrical cinema in our day.
A Na'vi (extraterrestrial humanoids living in the jungles of Pandora) teaches his son the way of the warrior. photo: courtesy J. CameronMaking Obscene Amounts of Money
James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” has become the third highest grossing films of all time. It is now number 3 in the top three greatest box office champions. In the number one and two spots are the first “Avatar” of course—it took in over $2.9 billion—and Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame”, a near second with almost $2.8 billion. Cameron’s “Titanic” meanwhile holds the fourth place, with a worldwide gross of $2.3 billion.
“Avatar: The Way of Water” has taken in almost $2.3 billion so far. The film’s budget was said to be over $400 million with another $200 million was spent on advertising and promotion. Rotten Tomatoes reports “Avatar: The Way of Water” only has a 77% rating from the critics based on 315 reviews, but fans gave it a 93% rating.
Trigger Warning: ‘Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey’
This isn’t a cute, animated feature about the beloved bear but, rather, a noisy, low-budget, live action; horror film full of screaming women. It opened on Valentine Day with lousy reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports only 5% of the reviews by critics were favorable and only 49% of the audience liked it. Apparently, it isn’t scary or funny—the title’s not bad, however.
'The Madelorian' poster for the new Star Wars movie. photo: courtesy LucasfilmPeople Still Love ‘Star Wars’ Brand
The trailer for the third season of Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian” drew a record 83.5 million views in its first 24 hours after premiering on January 16th, during the NFL wild card playoff game, no less.
A Disney Stockholder Is Trying to Fight the Man
Nelson Peltz, an activist investor, is waging a proxy battle against the Disney Company. He is seeking a seat on the board and a say in the company’s strategy. Disney responded by releasing a slideshow outlining its argument against Peltz. They say he “does not understand Disney’s businesses, and lacks the skills and experience to assist the board in delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem.”
Disney has acknowledged that some of the things Peltz is pushing for are taking place, including implementing a cost-reduction plan and “streamlining our organizational structure to enhance productivity.”
Peltz has a history of challenging the leaderships of companies that he has invested in and he is described as a Trump supporter. After January 6th, however, he apologized for having backed Trump.
CEO Leaves Disney Wealthy
Bob Chapek was fired as Disney’s CEO but left a very rich man, having earned $24.2 million in compensation for the last fiscal 2022 year he worked. (It ended Sept. 30, 2022.) In addition, Disney says his severance package is valued at $20.4 million.
Disney’s Slims Down
Disney is going on a diet and laying off a whopping 7,000 people, although that is only 3.6% of their global workforce. It will save them $5.5 billion. I guess they needed to keep up with the other top US corporations to maintain investor satisfaction. After all they only made 1.28 billion dollars in the last fiscal quarter and that was below the estimate of $1.43 billion analysts had expected to make.
Gosh, that made people unhappy?!? As if that were not enough, Iger reminded everybody but especially investors, they are producing more big cash cows, including sequels to “Toy Story”, “Frozen” and “Zootopia”. They are also streamlining operations to make their business more efficient.
Auction Houses Sell Millions in Animation Art
Auction houses grossed $22 Million in 2022 selling animation art, much of that total came from Heritage Auction in Texas. Their recent “The Art of All Things Disney Animation Art Signature® Auction” took in more than $3.4 million in a four-day sale. Most of the money was spent on buying works from the golden age by Mary Blair, Eyvind Earle, and Carl Barks. The works were put up for sale by collectors and studio archives. Only a small percentage of the pieces come from the artists who created the work.
An Edward Gorey illustration. courtesy: Cartoon Museum Cartoon Museum Features Edward Gorey
San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum hosts an Edward Gorey menagerie featuring original artwork, limited edition serigraphs, and other rarely-seen works created by celebrated author and artist Edward Gorey. Open from 11 am to 5 pm at 781 Beach St, San Francisco, it will be up until July 9, 2023.
M&M Candies Subjected to Right Wing Attacked
The much-beloved–by-all M&M “spokescandies,” the official mascot of the candy company, have been attacked by right-wing political and media spokespeople. Rightwing pundits have attacked the lovable different colored animated candies with stupid, twisted and devious comments.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson did his ridiculous best to carry on this bullcrap by claiming he's a champion of victims of cancel culture. Early in 2022 he started attacking the M&M spokescandies, perhaps to drive them off the air. Other commentators at Fox joined the attack and came up with more stupid comments, reflecting their racism and other negative thoughts about non-whites.
M&M's popular spokescandies. photo: courtesy M&MThe pundit Kat Timpf is reported to have called Ms Green “an opportunistic, evil bitch” and warned that people “run from women like the green M&M.” Fox’s Martha Mac Callum was reported in the Guardian to have said that the all-girl packaging that the candy company had released in honor of International Women’s Day was a distraction that left the US vulnerable to its communist enemies.
In late January 2023 the maker of M&M candies held a press conference and announced they decided to take “an indefinite pause from the spokes candies”. Had the Fox pundits won? A few days later the NY Times asked, “Was the recent decision to sideline its spokes candies a response to cultural backlash, or just an elaborate stunt leading up to the Super Bowl? Wired Magazine also suggests M&M’s marketing department is intentionally trolling Carlson and that the candies will make a triumphant appearance during the big game.
Both The NY Tines and The Guardian view the right-wing media attack on what should be irrelevant parts of our national culture, as an entertaining distraction to the real ills of our society, from schools and public libraries feeling in some states they have to censor what books are on their shelves to the rise of hatred of minorities and hate crimes. Indeed, mass murders are now commonplace. I find these pointless, silly attacks on those colored candies are indicative of the sad state of spiteful dumb political rhetoric by right wing media today. See more info here
Mindless AI Generates Animated Show
There is a mindless artificial so-called “intelligence” generating an animated show. “Nothing, Forever” is pathetic looking, I kid you not! The technology has a long way to go, although this is probably the extremely crude beginning of something. The program is “Seinfeld-like” and streams 24 hours a day, amazingly. It is written voiced and animated by robots! See it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6mD9YzVbZI
A cell from Max Fleischer's short 'Bimbo’s Initiation', 1931. photo: courtesy M. Fleischer The Delights of Bimbo, Fleischer’s Cartoon Star
You might enjoy rediscovering “Bimbo”, by Max Fleischer (1883-1972) an American animator, director and studio founder, who was born Jewish in Kraków, Poland. Although he developed Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman, Bimbo was his first sound cartoon star. If you have enjoyed seeing Disney’s earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons, you might also enjoy the Fleischer Studio’s Bimbo. His world was full of amazing surreal gags.
I am excited about Bimbo, since a friend just informed me that a rare Bimbo cartoon, “Ace of Spades”, 1931, is now online. Until recently, only a short fragment was available online. Seeing it made me realize that Fleischer’s Bimbo was put in a more complex situation than Mickey, and that Max’s stories were closer to real life then Walt’s plots, which were often set in imaginary, fairytale like worlds. While Mickey was a goody-two-shoes and Peg Leg Pete was a melodrama villain, Bimbo in “Ace of Spade” is a card shark who cheats at gambling but is also a lovable scoundrel.
Seeing the newly posted cartoon led me to watch Bimbo in “Barnacle Bill”, 1930. Bill is a horny sailor who jumps ship, rushes to see his girlfriend (or possibly a wife) and “gets it on” with her. Satisfied, he dumps her and goes back to the ship. The film implies he has a girlfriend or wife in every port.
Bimbo’s first cartoon, “Hot Dog”, 1930, is even more blatant. He is cruising a city street that has a series of women standing by the curb. He tips his hat at each one. Was he looking for a hooker? He picks up the wrong woman and a cop arrests him.
In the most famous Bimbo show, “Bimbo’s Initiation”, 1931, Fleischer achieves full surrealism as Bimbo falls down an open manhole and lands in a bizarre world run by a secret society. But each time a hooded character asks him, “Do you want to be a member,” he says, “No.” That results in a series of outrages and possibly life-threatening things happening to him. Finally, discovering that the hooded character is a sexy, early version of Betty Boop, Bimbo grins and says, “Yes.”
Indeed, “Bimbo’s Initiation” was voted #37 in the book “50 Greatest Cartoons” (1994), by Jerry Beck, who polled a thousand members of the animation industry.
Bimbo’s stellar career was cut tragically short in 1934 when mandatory censorship was imposed on the film industry. They objected to Betty Boop having a dog for a boyfriend. Oh no, that implies bestiality!
All these pre-code shorts are online. Also check out “Swing You Sinners!” 1930. It takes place in a graveyard. Another gem is “Up to Mars”, 1930. It is a delightful, bizarre space adventure.
In 1931 as Betty Boop was becoming more popular Bimbo and Koko become secondary characters. Among her greatest hits are “Minnie the Moocher”, 1932; Betty as “Snow White”, 1933; “Is My Palm Read”, 1933 and “Chess Nuts”, 1933.
Scene from Canadian Alison Snowden and David Fine’s 'Animal Behaviour'. photo: courtesy M. Fleischer Delightful Oscar-Nominated Animal Behaviour Deserves Applause
Alison Snowden and David Fine’s short. “Animal Behaviour”, which was produced by the National Film Board of Canada received an Academy-Award nomination in 2018. About a group psychotherapy session, it is full of amusing surprises. See it here.
Enjoy Historic Bay Area Footage
If you enjoy seeing incredible historic film footage of the Bay Area? SF State has a large archive that preserves 6000 hours of TV news film, documentaries and other footage produced in the Bay Area and Northern California in the from the Twentieth Century. Lots of it can be seen free here.
Karl F. Cohen—who added his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached . Posted on Mar 14, 2023 - 04:32 PM
by Karl Cohen
'My Neighbor Totoro' (1988), the Japanese animated fantasy film written/directed by Hayao Miyazaki is certified as top 100 film. photo: courtesy Studio GhibliAnimated Features included in Sight and Sound’s top 100 Films
The distinguished films are two by Hayao Miyazaki, “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988) is number 74 and “Spirited Away” is 75. This is an acknowledgment that animation is an important art. The poll has been conducted since 1952, once a decade by the British film magazine. Roger Ebert once described the survey as “by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies, the only one most serious movie people take seriously.”
An cell from Mark Fore's new animation . photo: courtesy M. ForeMark is an animator who turns out weekly controversial cartoons that are socially responsible shorts. He has addressed the exploitation of railroad workers by corporations, corporations trying to pay zero taxes, there are ugly caricature of Trump and lot of other themes. See his site here
Why Glas Animation Festival Left Berkeley?
The Shattuck Theatres closed last year and now the Regal Theatres on Shattuck, the last commercial movie theatres in downtown Berkeley is closing. (The Regal has filed for Chapter 11 as rents were going up, attendance went down due to Covid, etc.). The only movie theatres left open in Berkeley are the Pacific Film Archive and the Elmwood—a truly astounding demise of theatrical cinema in our day.
A Na'vi (extraterrestrial humanoids living in the jungles of Pandora) teaches his son the way of the warrior. photo: courtesy J. CameronJames Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” has become the third highest grossing films of all time. It is now number 3 in the top three greatest box office champions. In the number one and two spots are the first “Avatar” of course—it took in over $2.9 billion—and Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame”, a near second with almost $2.8 billion. Cameron’s “Titanic” meanwhile holds the fourth place, with a worldwide gross of $2.3 billion.
“Avatar: The Way of Water” has taken in almost $2.3 billion so far. The film’s budget was said to be over $400 million with another $200 million was spent on advertising and promotion. Rotten Tomatoes reports “Avatar: The Way of Water” only has a 77% rating from the critics based on 315 reviews, but fans gave it a 93% rating.
Trigger Warning: ‘Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey’
This isn’t a cute, animated feature about the beloved bear but, rather, a noisy, low-budget, live action; horror film full of screaming women. It opened on Valentine Day with lousy reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports only 5% of the reviews by critics were favorable and only 49% of the audience liked it. Apparently, it isn’t scary or funny—the title’s not bad, however.
'The Madelorian' poster for the new Star Wars movie. photo: courtesy LucasfilmThe trailer for the third season of Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian” drew a record 83.5 million views in its first 24 hours after premiering on January 16th, during the NFL wild card playoff game, no less.
A Disney Stockholder Is Trying to Fight the Man
Nelson Peltz, an activist investor, is waging a proxy battle against the Disney Company. He is seeking a seat on the board and a say in the company’s strategy. Disney responded by releasing a slideshow outlining its argument against Peltz. They say he “does not understand Disney’s businesses, and lacks the skills and experience to assist the board in delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem.”
Disney has acknowledged that some of the things Peltz is pushing for are taking place, including implementing a cost-reduction plan and “streamlining our organizational structure to enhance productivity.”
Peltz has a history of challenging the leaderships of companies that he has invested in and he is described as a Trump supporter. After January 6th, however, he apologized for having backed Trump.
CEO Leaves Disney Wealthy
Bob Chapek was fired as Disney’s CEO but left a very rich man, having earned $24.2 million in compensation for the last fiscal 2022 year he worked. (It ended Sept. 30, 2022.) In addition, Disney says his severance package is valued at $20.4 million.
Disney’s Slims Down
Disney is going on a diet and laying off a whopping 7,000 people, although that is only 3.6% of their global workforce. It will save them $5.5 billion. I guess they needed to keep up with the other top US corporations to maintain investor satisfaction. After all they only made 1.28 billion dollars in the last fiscal quarter and that was below the estimate of $1.43 billion analysts had expected to make.
Gosh, that made people unhappy?!? As if that were not enough, Iger reminded everybody but especially investors, they are producing more big cash cows, including sequels to “Toy Story”, “Frozen” and “Zootopia”. They are also streamlining operations to make their business more efficient.
Auction Houses Sell Millions in Animation Art
Auction houses grossed $22 Million in 2022 selling animation art, much of that total came from Heritage Auction in Texas. Their recent “The Art of All Things Disney Animation Art Signature® Auction” took in more than $3.4 million in a four-day sale. Most of the money was spent on buying works from the golden age by Mary Blair, Eyvind Earle, and Carl Barks. The works were put up for sale by collectors and studio archives. Only a small percentage of the pieces come from the artists who created the work.
An Edward Gorey illustration. courtesy: Cartoon MuseumSan Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum hosts an Edward Gorey menagerie featuring original artwork, limited edition serigraphs, and other rarely-seen works created by celebrated author and artist Edward Gorey. Open from 11 am to 5 pm at 781 Beach St, San Francisco, it will be up until July 9, 2023.
M&M Candies Subjected to Right Wing Attacked
The much-beloved–by-all M&M “spokescandies,” the official mascot of the candy company, have been attacked by right-wing political and media spokespeople. Rightwing pundits have attacked the lovable different colored animated candies with stupid, twisted and devious comments.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson did his ridiculous best to carry on this bullcrap by claiming he's a champion of victims of cancel culture. Early in 2022 he started attacking the M&M spokescandies, perhaps to drive them off the air. Other commentators at Fox joined the attack and came up with more stupid comments, reflecting their racism and other negative thoughts about non-whites.
M&M's popular spokescandies. photo: courtesy M&MIn late January 2023 the maker of M&M candies held a press conference and announced they decided to take “an indefinite pause from the spokes candies”. Had the Fox pundits won? A few days later the NY Times asked, “Was the recent decision to sideline its spokes candies a response to cultural backlash, or just an elaborate stunt leading up to the Super Bowl? Wired Magazine also suggests M&M’s marketing department is intentionally trolling Carlson and that the candies will make a triumphant appearance during the big game.
Both The NY Tines and The Guardian view the right-wing media attack on what should be irrelevant parts of our national culture, as an entertaining distraction to the real ills of our society, from schools and public libraries feeling in some states they have to censor what books are on their shelves to the rise of hatred of minorities and hate crimes. Indeed, mass murders are now commonplace. I find these pointless, silly attacks on those colored candies are indicative of the sad state of spiteful dumb political rhetoric by right wing media today. See more info here
Mindless AI Generates Animated Show
There is a mindless artificial so-called “intelligence” generating an animated show. “Nothing, Forever” is pathetic looking, I kid you not! The technology has a long way to go, although this is probably the extremely crude beginning of something. The program is “Seinfeld-like” and streams 24 hours a day, amazingly. It is written voiced and animated by robots! See it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6mD9YzVbZI
A cell from Max Fleischer's short 'Bimbo’s Initiation', 1931. photo: courtesy M. FleischerYou might enjoy rediscovering “Bimbo”, by Max Fleischer (1883-1972) an American animator, director and studio founder, who was born Jewish in Kraków, Poland. Although he developed Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman, Bimbo was his first sound cartoon star. If you have enjoyed seeing Disney’s earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons, you might also enjoy the Fleischer Studio’s Bimbo. His world was full of amazing surreal gags.
I am excited about Bimbo, since a friend just informed me that a rare Bimbo cartoon, “Ace of Spades”, 1931, is now online. Until recently, only a short fragment was available online. Seeing it made me realize that Fleischer’s Bimbo was put in a more complex situation than Mickey, and that Max’s stories were closer to real life then Walt’s plots, which were often set in imaginary, fairytale like worlds. While Mickey was a goody-two-shoes and Peg Leg Pete was a melodrama villain, Bimbo in “Ace of Spade” is a card shark who cheats at gambling but is also a lovable scoundrel.
Seeing the newly posted cartoon led me to watch Bimbo in “Barnacle Bill”, 1930. Bill is a horny sailor who jumps ship, rushes to see his girlfriend (or possibly a wife) and “gets it on” with her. Satisfied, he dumps her and goes back to the ship. The film implies he has a girlfriend or wife in every port.
Bimbo’s first cartoon, “Hot Dog”, 1930, is even more blatant. He is cruising a city street that has a series of women standing by the curb. He tips his hat at each one. Was he looking for a hooker? He picks up the wrong woman and a cop arrests him.
In the most famous Bimbo show, “Bimbo’s Initiation”, 1931, Fleischer achieves full surrealism as Bimbo falls down an open manhole and lands in a bizarre world run by a secret society. But each time a hooded character asks him, “Do you want to be a member,” he says, “No.” That results in a series of outrages and possibly life-threatening things happening to him. Finally, discovering that the hooded character is a sexy, early version of Betty Boop, Bimbo grins and says, “Yes.”
Indeed, “Bimbo’s Initiation” was voted #37 in the book “50 Greatest Cartoons” (1994), by Jerry Beck, who polled a thousand members of the animation industry.
Bimbo’s stellar career was cut tragically short in 1934 when mandatory censorship was imposed on the film industry. They objected to Betty Boop having a dog for a boyfriend. Oh no, that implies bestiality!
All these pre-code shorts are online. Also check out “Swing You Sinners!” 1930. It takes place in a graveyard. Another gem is “Up to Mars”, 1930. It is a delightful, bizarre space adventure.
In 1931 as Betty Boop was becoming more popular Bimbo and Koko become secondary characters. Among her greatest hits are “Minnie the Moocher”, 1932; Betty as “Snow White”, 1933; “Is My Palm Read”, 1933 and “Chess Nuts”, 1933.
Scene from Canadian Alison Snowden and David Fine’s 'Animal Behaviour'. photo: courtesy M. FleischerAlison Snowden and David Fine’s short. “Animal Behaviour”, which was produced by the National Film Board of Canada received an Academy-Award nomination in 2018. About a group psychotherapy session, it is full of amusing surprises. See it here.
Enjoy Historic Bay Area Footage
If you enjoy seeing incredible historic film footage of the Bay Area? SF State has a large archive that preserves 6000 hours of TV news film, documentaries and other footage produced in the Bay Area and Northern California in the from the Twentieth Century. Lots of it can be seen free here.
Karl F. Cohen—who added his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached . Posted on Mar 14, 2023 - 04:32 PM
