Jun 20, 2025
Please contact us
with corrections
or breaking news
Please contact us
with corrections
or breaking news
Cohen’s Cartoon Corner May ‘25
by Karl Cohen
Scene from another crazy comedy from Sylvian Chomet 'The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol' (2025). photo: S. ChometPLEASE support our GoFundMe campaign to cover research expenses for our articles and rebuilding the cineSOURCE site.
Magnificent Life Goes to Cannes
Sylvain Chomet’s animated “A Magnificent Life”, distributed by Sony Pictures, will show at Cannes. After directing one of the craziest screwball comedies of this century, the animated “The Triplets of Belleville” (2002), Chomet’s new film, “The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol”, honors one of France's greatest 20th-century creative artists (1895-1974).
Pagnol excelled as a novelist, playwright and then filmmaker after he saw an early talkie in 1929, which excited his imagination enough for him to contact Paramount Pictures about turning his hit play, “Marius”, into a talkie. That film’s impressive success resulted in his founding his own studio in 1932 and, in 1946, he was the first filmmaker elected to the Academie Francaise.
The Cannes Film Festival, considered the most influential and prestigious in the world, runs May 14-24. In June, “Magnificent Life” will be shown at the Annecy International, the most important animation festival in the world which has been held in Annecy, near Switzerland, since 1960, because of governmental support for its animation industry.
The nasty looking Nezha, star of China's new big hit. photo: unknown Massive Chinese Hit Has Ugly Star
This nasty looking creature is the star of a massive animation hit from China, already grossing $2.116 billion according to Variety (April 20th issue). You can see an action-packed clip here or the entire film for free on a hard to watch bootleg copy here. If they bootleg us, I guess we can bootleg them, although what I saw wasn’t at all interesting! Has the film really made over 2 billion, or is that fake news?
Disney to Debut New Films at Annecy Fest
Disney will show lots of upcoming releases at the prestigious Annecy Festival including a a sneak peek at “Zootopia 2”, Pixar's “Elio” and Marvel Animation’s “Eyes of Wakanda”. They will also screen footage from Pixar’s upcoming 2026 releases “Hoppers” and “Toy Story 5”. Lucasfilm will premiere “Black”, a new Star Wars: Visions short, and “Devotion”, an episode from the “Star Wars: Tales of the Empire”.
Moona, the Hawaiian star of Disney's biggest streaming film. photo: DisneyDisney’s Moana Breaks Streaming Records
“Moana” has been the most streamed movie in the U.S. in each of the past two years, according to Nielsen’s figures. It might have some competition this year, albeit from its sequel “Moana 2”, which had its streaming premiere March 12th on Disney+. It shot to the top of the streaming rankings for the week of March 10-16 and it has the highest single-week total for any feature film on a streaming platform so far in 2025.
The 'Mind Craft Movie' has big stars which paid off with the biggest box office this year. photo: Mindcraft MoveMindcraft Movie Fun for Kids
The Mindcraft movie, made from a game and called “A Minecraft Movie”, was directed by Jared Hess, stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black and Danielle Brooks, and is 2025's highest grossing domestic film thus far! From the trailer, it looks like it combines elements from past box office hits, from the “The Lego Movie” (2014) and low budget version of a Lucas films.
CAAM Fest Returns to Bay Area
The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), which had its festival May 8-11, showed “Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama”, a 70-minute documentary on the Japanese photographer. It includes several animated sequences. They are also showing two animated shorts, “Splash Back” and “Grandma”.
Game Release Cancelled
Electronic Arts, headquartered in Redwood City, California, cancelled its next ‘Titanfall’ game as it lays off more than 300 employees.
Disney’s New ‘Snow White’ Waiting for Her Prince
The Hollywood Reporter says the live action “Snow White”, which cost around $270 million to produce and $100 million to market, is slow to catch on. It projects that the film will need to earn about $500 to million to safely recoup its costs, which looks like will take a while, although the Mouse generally triumphs in the end.
Plympton: 'Will draw for food.' photo: B. Plympton Did Plympton Forget His Cheerios?
In a recent email I received from Bill Plympton, he invited fans to “Get a custom caricature by me of yourself, a loved one, or your pet for just $150! If it's specifically for your mom, we'll knock it down to $80 just for the up-coming Mother's Day! We created a Google Form to make the ordering process even easier.”
“We have a limited amount of original drawings left from ‘Your Face’ and ‘Simpsons’ couch gags for $300 a piece, and art from ‘How to Kiss’ and ‘25 Ways to Quit Smoking’ for $200 each. All other pieces from Plympton's films are just $100 each. We'll send you scans or you can send us screenshots of your favorite scenes and we can try to match them. Or get a ‘Director's Pick’ at random! To order, please e-mail us .
An interesting but failed 'Strawberry Fields' project photo: unknown See Some of Strawberry Fields
See scenes from “Strawberry Fields”, an unfinished feature from 1989 that was supposed to be the sequel to “Yellow Submarine” (1968), by that film’s producer Al Brodax. Even though he used famous musicians to do covers of Beatle’s songs: Michael Jackson did “Come Together,” Cyndi Lauper sang “Across the Universe,” Crosby, Stills & Nash did “Blackbird”, and Cheap Trick performed “Magical Mystery Tour”, he abandoned it when he couldn’t get the rights to the Beatles performances and Paul, Ringo and George refused to allow the film to depict their likenesses.
Unfortunately, the script Brodax wrote wasn’t that funny or impressive, especially when compared to the script and animation of “Yellow Submarine”, by TVC Studio in London. Although both Brodax and TVC had produced the awful looking “The Beatles Cartoon”, which ran from 1965 to ’67 on both sides of the pond, TVC wanted to be known for doing original, creative work and saw “Yellow Submarine” as possibly their only chance to do that. Hence, they spent a lot more time and money on the production than Brodax was willing to pay for but, although they went over budget and lost money, they did establish the reputation they were hoping to get.
For “Strawberry Fields” 20 years later, Brodax was in again control but not driven to create an original masterpiece so it was abandoned. It was being created in 2D by another company in London, not TVC, and the 3-D CGI by the Computer Graphics Laboratory of the New York Institute of Technology. See it here.
Years ago, I spent several days at an animation festival in Tel Aviv with two people from TVC who worked on “Yellow Submarine” and, wow, did they have war stories. Read The Beatles' Yellow Submarine Turns 30: John Coates and Norman Kauffman Look Back | Animation World Network. See it here.
Queer astronaut makes strong comedic debut. photo: E. H. Hobbs & L. Varghese Lesbian Astronaut Film Surprise Hit
At its world premiere in Berlin, “Lesbian Space Princess”, the first feature by Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese from Australia, won the Teddy Prize and landed a major distribution contract which includes the US. A very biased person connected with its distribution called the film, “Bold, bonkers and bursting with heart. It’s a deliriously funny sci-fi adventure packed with razor-sharp satire, outrageous invention, and a proud, unapologetic spirit.”
While I don’t normally kowtow to what distributors say, the same day I read the above in Variety, Nancy Phelps wrote me, “I am a reviewer for Kaboom’s selection process and so I watched the film in my living room. I couldn’t stop laughing… It may not be high art but it is laugh-out-loud funny, sweet, and extremely colorful fun.” Nancy’s Kaboom review will appear in my June newsletter.
Czech animator Paul Fierlinger. photo: P. Fierlinger Great Animator Fierlinger Passes
The wonderful, sometimes outspoken independent animator, Paul Fierlinger, dies at 89. He danced to a different tune and was unafraid to make films about controversial subjects, from alcoholism, “And Then I’ll Stop”, to “The Story of Joshua Slocum”, the first man ever to circumnavigate the world alone in a sailboat, or “Me... Jane” (2014) about Jane Goodall.
He also created a wonderful feature “My Dog Tulip”, “A Room Nearby”, a film about loneliness for PBS, and a fascinating autobiography, “Born from Memory”, which includes his unusual childhood. He was born in Japan, lived in the US during WWII, but his father was a Czech diplomat so he had to grow up behind the Iron Curtain, although he did rebel after being sent to a Czech Communist school.
A reliable producer of many TV commercials and industrial, notably for big pharma, he created political commercials for Hubert Humphrey, the very popular “Teeny Little Super Guys” segments for “Sesame Street”, and the Oscar nominated animated short “It’s So Nice to Have a Wolf Around the House”. Paul was also involved with the development of the computer program TV Paint. See a feature length interview with him on line: "The Art and Life of Paul Fierlinge".
Drop Your Shorts Short Film Screening
Ken Pontac presents “Drop Your Shorts!”, a fabulous night of fun where your short films are projected on a big screen at Cinelounge. There will be a submission fee of $20. The screening dates are April 17, May 15 and June 19, 2025, from 6:30 to 8pm. the Nancy Phelps film will be shown at their May event. For more info, go here.
Tony White and one of his characters teach animation. illo: T. WhiteTony White’s New Film
Tony White is excited about presenting his new animation course: "Walking the Walk", He wrote me that, “It is hosted by Adam's Animation Academy in the UK and I believe it is one of the best courses for animators that I've offered so far. The animated walk is a big challenge for so many people - beginners and professionals alike—so I'm offering this course to help them learn all the critical walking actions that every animator should know.”
“It is based on a lifetime of my perfecting walks of all kinds, having been taught about them when I was apprenticed by some of the late, great legends of the past—namely Richard Williams, Ken Harris and Art Babbit—in my youth. Plus, I simply love teaching good animation anyway—it keeps me young and relevant!”
Tony added: “The course is hosted in the UK, it can be studied worldwide at any time and at any pace. This is because—apart from a few live mentoring sessions I'm doing with signed-up students along the way—all 10 of the actual classes will be recorded, so students can access them anytime they like and study at their own pace.” Contact Tony .
ASIFA-SF Needs Help with Its Site
HELP!!! ASIFA-SF needs a person to help restore our crashed website. Can somebody get it up and running again? We need to either fix or kill it. We also need a new webmaster. Email or call 415 386-1006
The Looney Tunes sign off guaranteed to depress kids. illo: L. TunesIn The Loop With Leo by Leonel Cortes
Have The Tunes Left the Building? Looney Tunes has been going through a series of events these past several months to the point that rumors of Warner Brothers selling the IP rights to the series were floating around. During this period of confusion, Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav ordered the destruction of a building tied to their legacy.
Building 131 was the last home of the original WB’s animation studio from the 1950s until late 1960s. Building 131 gave birth to many Looney Tunes theatrical shorts like “Robin Hood Daffy” and “What’s Opera Doc?” The building has not seen much use in the previous decades but still holds historical significance to the world of animation. The reason behind the destruction of this building is to make more room for base camps for HBO shows. The order to destroy this building caused outrage over the internet, along with some individuals placing posters on the building in protest.
At the same time Ketchup Entertainment purchased the rights to “Coyote Vs Acme” for $50 million. This film was shelved as a tax write-off but several streaming sites showed interest in purchasing the film. After two years of failed deals, Ketchup Entertainment has saved the film, and it is expected to be released sometime in 2026.
While the internet continued to speculate on the WB leadership, Warner Brothers announced a surprising twist. They have recently ordered the production of 3 animated films. These films come from the Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Flintstones franchise.
Fox's top animation stars a go for next season. illo: various Four for Four at Fox Fox has recently announced the renewal of four of its mainline “Animation Domination” shows. “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, “Bob’s Burgers”, and its soon-to-be returning “American Dad” are confirmed to get four new seasons each. While good news for all 4 long running series, these seasons will be shorter as the order has reduced them to 15-episode seasons instead of the typical 22. According to Deadline this is to help with other Animation Domination shows fit within the block’s scheduling.
China Puts a Limit on US Films With the ongoing tariffs the US is placing, China has decided to retaliate by limiting the amount of US films entering the country. This could impact the potential international box office growth of certain films, but experts say otherwise. Most of these experts have pointed out that China has seen a reduction in viewership for Hollywood films. Ultimately China’s decision has limited impact on Hollywood blockbusters.
30 Years on the Road Disney’s celebrating the 30th anniversary of “A Goofy Movie” with a documentary and video with the voices of Max and Goofy. Not Just Another Goof released on April 7th. Bill Farmer and Jason Marsden’s "On the Road Again", follow the duo interviewing each other while driving in an AMC Pacer, the car that the animated main characters drive in the film, see it here.
Man Made Horrors are Already in Reach Researchers working with the computer chip maker, Nvidia, trained an AI system to analyze 81 “Tom & Jerry” shorts. The goal was to see if the AI would be able to create long form videos without having to struggle with current limitations. While the video themselves do not look amazing, the focus of this project is to make the characters appear more like their short counterparts, while also maintaining continuity between scenes.
To see how you feel about it, check them out here or here. For those interested in the details of the project they have a Github.
An incredible panorama from 'Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure'. illo: Warner Bros. The Race is On for Jojo Fans Warner Bros. announced that production for part 7 of the hit anime "Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure" is underway. Part 7, also named "Steel Ball Run", follows the series fan favorite Johnny Joestar, a paraplegic jockey, who enters a race across the American frontier. Warner Brothers has a website set up for those interested in tracking updates go here.
Reunion for Residents of Arlen, Texas The ATX TV Festival and Hulu have announced that the hit series King of the Hill is having a reunion event. The event will have the cast present a sneak preview of season 14 of the series. This event will be held from May 29 to June 1st in Austin, Texas. For fans of the series, Hulu has announced that season 14 will air on the streaming service sometime this summer.
Every Dog Has His Day Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated film “Fixed” has been acquired by Netflix. Originally co-produced by Warner Bros and Sony, the film was planned for a theatrical release, but WB pulled out after completion of the project. Sony, left holding the bag, shopped the film around until Netflix picked it up. The film is about a dog named Bull who discovers that he is to be neutered the following morning. Learning the gravity of the situation, Bull and his pack of friends have one last grand adventure. Netflix has set the movie’s release date for August 13th 2025.
A Lot of Shows Coming from a Galaxy Far, Far Away Disney has announced a collection of Star Wars shows during this year’s Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo. First up is “Maul-Shadow Lord” which focuses on former Sith Lord, Darth Maul. So far, the only information known about the show is that it will take place one year after the Clone Wars.
Second on the reveals is a sequel to Disney+’s “Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy”. Named “Lego Star Wars: Rebuild Galaxy-Pieces of the Past” (what a mouthful), which follows Sig Greebling and Darth Dev. The pair must use their Jedi and Sith powers to stop a new threat to the galaxy. Finally, Disney+ announced volume 3 of its anthology anime series, “Visions”. This volume will host 9 episodes with production done by well-known anime studios such as David Productions, Trigger, and Kamikaze Douga. Visionsis set to release on October 29th on Disney+.
8 Seasons Down, 92 to Go Adult Swim, earlier this month, teased season 8 of the hit series, "Rick and Morty", with an April Fool's joke stage play. An official trailer for the new season then dropped later this month. Season 8 is set to air on May 25th on Adult Swim. See Adult Swim’s April Fool’s or the Season 8 Trailer.
Poster for 'Common Side Effects'. illo: M. Judge Taking a Second Dose with Adult Swim Adult Swim recently revealed that "Common Side Effects" has been renewed for a second season. The hit series about a couple of 'shroom heads to take on Big Pharma and more was produced by Mike Judge. Having just ended its first season on March 30th, it is now available for streaming on Max.
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 May 05, 2025 - 06:44 PM
by Karl Cohen
Scene from another crazy comedy from Sylvian Chomet 'The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol' (2025). photo: S. ChometMagnificent Life Goes to Cannes
Sylvain Chomet’s animated “A Magnificent Life”, distributed by Sony Pictures, will show at Cannes. After directing one of the craziest screwball comedies of this century, the animated “The Triplets of Belleville” (2002), Chomet’s new film, “The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol”, honors one of France's greatest 20th-century creative artists (1895-1974).
Pagnol excelled as a novelist, playwright and then filmmaker after he saw an early talkie in 1929, which excited his imagination enough for him to contact Paramount Pictures about turning his hit play, “Marius”, into a talkie. That film’s impressive success resulted in his founding his own studio in 1932 and, in 1946, he was the first filmmaker elected to the Academie Francaise.
The Cannes Film Festival, considered the most influential and prestigious in the world, runs May 14-24. In June, “Magnificent Life” will be shown at the Annecy International, the most important animation festival in the world which has been held in Annecy, near Switzerland, since 1960, because of governmental support for its animation industry.
The nasty looking Nezha, star of China's new big hit. photo: unknownThis nasty looking creature is the star of a massive animation hit from China, already grossing $2.116 billion according to Variety (April 20th issue). You can see an action-packed clip here or the entire film for free on a hard to watch bootleg copy here. If they bootleg us, I guess we can bootleg them, although what I saw wasn’t at all interesting! Has the film really made over 2 billion, or is that fake news?
Disney to Debut New Films at Annecy Fest
Disney will show lots of upcoming releases at the prestigious Annecy Festival including a a sneak peek at “Zootopia 2”, Pixar's “Elio” and Marvel Animation’s “Eyes of Wakanda”. They will also screen footage from Pixar’s upcoming 2026 releases “Hoppers” and “Toy Story 5”. Lucasfilm will premiere “Black”, a new Star Wars: Visions short, and “Devotion”, an episode from the “Star Wars: Tales of the Empire”.
Moona, the Hawaiian star of Disney's biggest streaming film. photo: Disney“Moana” has been the most streamed movie in the U.S. in each of the past two years, according to Nielsen’s figures. It might have some competition this year, albeit from its sequel “Moana 2”, which had its streaming premiere March 12th on Disney+. It shot to the top of the streaming rankings for the week of March 10-16 and it has the highest single-week total for any feature film on a streaming platform so far in 2025.
The 'Mind Craft Movie' has big stars which paid off with the biggest box office this year. photo: Mindcraft MoveThe Mindcraft movie, made from a game and called “A Minecraft Movie”, was directed by Jared Hess, stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black and Danielle Brooks, and is 2025's highest grossing domestic film thus far! From the trailer, it looks like it combines elements from past box office hits, from the “The Lego Movie” (2014) and low budget version of a Lucas films.
CAAM Fest Returns to Bay Area
The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), which had its festival May 8-11, showed “Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama”, a 70-minute documentary on the Japanese photographer. It includes several animated sequences. They are also showing two animated shorts, “Splash Back” and “Grandma”.
Game Release Cancelled
Electronic Arts, headquartered in Redwood City, California, cancelled its next ‘Titanfall’ game as it lays off more than 300 employees.
Disney’s New ‘Snow White’ Waiting for Her Prince
The Hollywood Reporter says the live action “Snow White”, which cost around $270 million to produce and $100 million to market, is slow to catch on. It projects that the film will need to earn about $500 to million to safely recoup its costs, which looks like will take a while, although the Mouse generally triumphs in the end.
Plympton: 'Will draw for food.' photo: B. PlymptonIn a recent email I received from Bill Plympton, he invited fans to “Get a custom caricature by me of yourself, a loved one, or your pet for just $150! If it's specifically for your mom, we'll knock it down to $80 just for the up-coming Mother's Day! We created a Google Form to make the ordering process even easier.”
“We have a limited amount of original drawings left from ‘Your Face’ and ‘Simpsons’ couch gags for $300 a piece, and art from ‘How to Kiss’ and ‘25 Ways to Quit Smoking’ for $200 each. All other pieces from Plympton's films are just $100 each. We'll send you scans or you can send us screenshots of your favorite scenes and we can try to match them. Or get a ‘Director's Pick’ at random! To order, please e-mail us .
An interesting but failed 'Strawberry Fields' project photo: unknownSee scenes from “Strawberry Fields”, an unfinished feature from 1989 that was supposed to be the sequel to “Yellow Submarine” (1968), by that film’s producer Al Brodax. Even though he used famous musicians to do covers of Beatle’s songs: Michael Jackson did “Come Together,” Cyndi Lauper sang “Across the Universe,” Crosby, Stills & Nash did “Blackbird”, and Cheap Trick performed “Magical Mystery Tour”, he abandoned it when he couldn’t get the rights to the Beatles performances and Paul, Ringo and George refused to allow the film to depict their likenesses.
Unfortunately, the script Brodax wrote wasn’t that funny or impressive, especially when compared to the script and animation of “Yellow Submarine”, by TVC Studio in London. Although both Brodax and TVC had produced the awful looking “The Beatles Cartoon”, which ran from 1965 to ’67 on both sides of the pond, TVC wanted to be known for doing original, creative work and saw “Yellow Submarine” as possibly their only chance to do that. Hence, they spent a lot more time and money on the production than Brodax was willing to pay for but, although they went over budget and lost money, they did establish the reputation they were hoping to get.
For “Strawberry Fields” 20 years later, Brodax was in again control but not driven to create an original masterpiece so it was abandoned. It was being created in 2D by another company in London, not TVC, and the 3-D CGI by the Computer Graphics Laboratory of the New York Institute of Technology. See it here.
Years ago, I spent several days at an animation festival in Tel Aviv with two people from TVC who worked on “Yellow Submarine” and, wow, did they have war stories. Read The Beatles' Yellow Submarine Turns 30: John Coates and Norman Kauffman Look Back | Animation World Network. See it here.
Queer astronaut makes strong comedic debut. photo: E. H. Hobbs & L. VargheseAt its world premiere in Berlin, “Lesbian Space Princess”, the first feature by Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese from Australia, won the Teddy Prize and landed a major distribution contract which includes the US. A very biased person connected with its distribution called the film, “Bold, bonkers and bursting with heart. It’s a deliriously funny sci-fi adventure packed with razor-sharp satire, outrageous invention, and a proud, unapologetic spirit.”
While I don’t normally kowtow to what distributors say, the same day I read the above in Variety, Nancy Phelps wrote me, “I am a reviewer for Kaboom’s selection process and so I watched the film in my living room. I couldn’t stop laughing… It may not be high art but it is laugh-out-loud funny, sweet, and extremely colorful fun.” Nancy’s Kaboom review will appear in my June newsletter.
Czech animator Paul Fierlinger. photo: P. FierlingerThe wonderful, sometimes outspoken independent animator, Paul Fierlinger, dies at 89. He danced to a different tune and was unafraid to make films about controversial subjects, from alcoholism, “And Then I’ll Stop”, to “The Story of Joshua Slocum”, the first man ever to circumnavigate the world alone in a sailboat, or “Me... Jane” (2014) about Jane Goodall.
He also created a wonderful feature “My Dog Tulip”, “A Room Nearby”, a film about loneliness for PBS, and a fascinating autobiography, “Born from Memory”, which includes his unusual childhood. He was born in Japan, lived in the US during WWII, but his father was a Czech diplomat so he had to grow up behind the Iron Curtain, although he did rebel after being sent to a Czech Communist school.
A reliable producer of many TV commercials and industrial, notably for big pharma, he created political commercials for Hubert Humphrey, the very popular “Teeny Little Super Guys” segments for “Sesame Street”, and the Oscar nominated animated short “It’s So Nice to Have a Wolf Around the House”. Paul was also involved with the development of the computer program TV Paint. See a feature length interview with him on line: "The Art and Life of Paul Fierlinge".
Drop Your Shorts Short Film Screening
Ken Pontac presents “Drop Your Shorts!”, a fabulous night of fun where your short films are projected on a big screen at Cinelounge. There will be a submission fee of $20. The screening dates are April 17, May 15 and June 19, 2025, from 6:30 to 8pm. the Nancy Phelps film will be shown at their May event. For more info, go here.
Tony White and one of his characters teach animation. illo: T. WhiteTony White is excited about presenting his new animation course: "Walking the Walk", He wrote me that, “It is hosted by Adam's Animation Academy in the UK and I believe it is one of the best courses for animators that I've offered so far. The animated walk is a big challenge for so many people - beginners and professionals alike—so I'm offering this course to help them learn all the critical walking actions that every animator should know.”
“It is based on a lifetime of my perfecting walks of all kinds, having been taught about them when I was apprenticed by some of the late, great legends of the past—namely Richard Williams, Ken Harris and Art Babbit—in my youth. Plus, I simply love teaching good animation anyway—it keeps me young and relevant!”
Tony added: “The course is hosted in the UK, it can be studied worldwide at any time and at any pace. This is because—apart from a few live mentoring sessions I'm doing with signed-up students along the way—all 10 of the actual classes will be recorded, so students can access them anytime they like and study at their own pace.” Contact Tony .
ASIFA-SF Needs Help with Its Site
HELP!!! ASIFA-SF needs a person to help restore our crashed website. Can somebody get it up and running again? We need to either fix or kill it. We also need a new webmaster. Email or call 415 386-1006
The Looney Tunes sign off guaranteed to depress kids. illo: L. TunesHave The Tunes Left the Building? Looney Tunes has been going through a series of events these past several months to the point that rumors of Warner Brothers selling the IP rights to the series were floating around. During this period of confusion, Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav ordered the destruction of a building tied to their legacy.
Building 131 was the last home of the original WB’s animation studio from the 1950s until late 1960s. Building 131 gave birth to many Looney Tunes theatrical shorts like “Robin Hood Daffy” and “What’s Opera Doc?” The building has not seen much use in the previous decades but still holds historical significance to the world of animation. The reason behind the destruction of this building is to make more room for base camps for HBO shows. The order to destroy this building caused outrage over the internet, along with some individuals placing posters on the building in protest.
At the same time Ketchup Entertainment purchased the rights to “Coyote Vs Acme” for $50 million. This film was shelved as a tax write-off but several streaming sites showed interest in purchasing the film. After two years of failed deals, Ketchup Entertainment has saved the film, and it is expected to be released sometime in 2026.
While the internet continued to speculate on the WB leadership, Warner Brothers announced a surprising twist. They have recently ordered the production of 3 animated films. These films come from the Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Flintstones franchise.
Fox's top animation stars a go for next season. illo: variousChina Puts a Limit on US Films With the ongoing tariffs the US is placing, China has decided to retaliate by limiting the amount of US films entering the country. This could impact the potential international box office growth of certain films, but experts say otherwise. Most of these experts have pointed out that China has seen a reduction in viewership for Hollywood films. Ultimately China’s decision has limited impact on Hollywood blockbusters.
30 Years on the Road Disney’s celebrating the 30th anniversary of “A Goofy Movie” with a documentary and video with the voices of Max and Goofy. Not Just Another Goof released on April 7th. Bill Farmer and Jason Marsden’s "On the Road Again", follow the duo interviewing each other while driving in an AMC Pacer, the car that the animated main characters drive in the film, see it here.
Man Made Horrors are Already in Reach Researchers working with the computer chip maker, Nvidia, trained an AI system to analyze 81 “Tom & Jerry” shorts. The goal was to see if the AI would be able to create long form videos without having to struggle with current limitations. While the video themselves do not look amazing, the focus of this project is to make the characters appear more like their short counterparts, while also maintaining continuity between scenes.
To see how you feel about it, check them out here or here. For those interested in the details of the project they have a Github.
An incredible panorama from 'Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure'. illo: Warner Bros.Reunion for Residents of Arlen, Texas The ATX TV Festival and Hulu have announced that the hit series King of the Hill is having a reunion event. The event will have the cast present a sneak preview of season 14 of the series. This event will be held from May 29 to June 1st in Austin, Texas. For fans of the series, Hulu has announced that season 14 will air on the streaming service sometime this summer.
Every Dog Has His Day Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated film “Fixed” has been acquired by Netflix. Originally co-produced by Warner Bros and Sony, the film was planned for a theatrical release, but WB pulled out after completion of the project. Sony, left holding the bag, shopped the film around until Netflix picked it up. The film is about a dog named Bull who discovers that he is to be neutered the following morning. Learning the gravity of the situation, Bull and his pack of friends have one last grand adventure. Netflix has set the movie’s release date for August 13th 2025.
A Lot of Shows Coming from a Galaxy Far, Far Away Disney has announced a collection of Star Wars shows during this year’s Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo. First up is “Maul-Shadow Lord” which focuses on former Sith Lord, Darth Maul. So far, the only information known about the show is that it will take place one year after the Clone Wars.
Second on the reveals is a sequel to Disney+’s “Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy”. Named “Lego Star Wars: Rebuild Galaxy-Pieces of the Past” (what a mouthful), which follows Sig Greebling and Darth Dev. The pair must use their Jedi and Sith powers to stop a new threat to the galaxy. Finally, Disney+ announced volume 3 of its anthology anime series, “Visions”. This volume will host 9 episodes with production done by well-known anime studios such as David Productions, Trigger, and Kamikaze Douga. Visionsis set to release on October 29th on Disney+.
8 Seasons Down, 92 to Go Adult Swim, earlier this month, teased season 8 of the hit series, "Rick and Morty", with an April Fool's joke stage play. An official trailer for the new season then dropped later this month. Season 8 is set to air on May 25th on Adult Swim. See Adult Swim’s April Fool’s or the Season 8 Trailer.
Poster for 'Common Side Effects'. illo: M. JudgeASIFA-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 May 05, 2025 - 06:44 PM
