Rocket-Bye Baby (1956, WB, dir. Chuck Jones)
Edit: For some reason the video doesn’t want to embed, so just go to http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7sIbx6hrF7 if you want to watch it.
This is one of my all-time favourite animated shorts. It’s one of Chuck Jones’s latter-day efforts at WB. Granted, it’s no Duck Amuck or One Froggy Evening, but the concept is solid and the 50s modern style is a look I really dig.
I first saw this short on the late-lamented What’s Up Doc, Channel 9’s weekday afternoon Warner Bros program. We kids of the 90s were really spoiled when it came to animation. We were exposed to all the classics through syndication and cable, and then we got all the fresh new stuff coming out of the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon stables. You really have to feel sorry for today’s kids, with all the shit they’re getting.
Anyway, enjoy the short.
“What the heck is copyright?”
A video explaining salient aspects of copyright law using clips from Disney movies. Genius.
It takes a while to get into the choppy rhythm of the bricolage, but it’s fairly easy to keep up once you do. Love the gorilla from Tarzan.
Iwao Takamoto, 1925-2007
I was planning to write a tongue-in-cheek obituary for the creator of instant noodles, but today I learned that someone I actually deeply care about passed away, and I lost the black humour.
Iwao Takamoto, animation legend, has died. Anyone who’s ever been a kid will probably be familiar with his work. He contributed so much to the design of so many great Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Chances are you’ll remember his name, too, if you’re a credits-watcher like me. Before I really knew much about the industry, and was just a kid enjoying the ‘toons, I always used to look for Iwao in the credits, just cos his name was different to the usual ‘Bob Smiths’ and ‘Chuck Brubakers’.
I don’t really know what to say, but Mark Evanier always does a bang-up job eulogising industry greats. It’s just a shame we’ve lost so many recently that Mr Evanier’s been working overtime on obituaries. Check out what he has to say about Iwao Takamoto here, and go watch some Scooby Doo or Jetsons or something.
