Weekend Links of Toonage

Another end-of-week cavalcade of links, starting with a well-reviewed video game that owes its origins and inspiration to Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese:

It's no surprise to see Warner Bros.' inhouse videogame unit tapping the studio's rich library of Looney Tunes characters for a pair of new games...

''Duck Amuck'' is based on the Looney Tunes short of the same name, a post-modern classic in which Daffy is tortured by an animator who constantly changes the short-tempered fowl’s appearance, location and even his voice. Translating the cartoon to the DS, with its touch-sensitive screen and microphone, is an inspired idea, since it lets players harass Daffy in the same way, becoming a virtual Chuck Jones...

No residuals or royalties for the Jones or Maltese estates, but certainly a new flow of cash into the cofferes of Time-Warner...

A dandy interview with Brad Bird from the U.K. hits the intertubes:

I think we, with ‘Ratatouille’, have been more than a victim of a lot of fuzzy animal films that came out before us that just have a bunch of jabbering, wise-cracking practically interchangeable animals. People will take one look at our talking rats and think: ‘Oh! It’s one of those.’...

And while we're on the subject of Pixar, there is this re upcoming projects:

The guys at Pixar have apparently made a trip to Edgar Rice Burroughs archives, doing research for a trilogy of John Carter of Mars films. That’s right, they are planning not one, but three films based on Burroughs work. In attendance for the trip: director Andrew Stanton, the director, Mark Andrews, screenwriter and producer of Wall-E / Pixar executive Jim Morris. So it appears that is the creative team on John Carter.

Michel Gondry, up 'til now a live-action director (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep) will now be diving into the animated realm:

“I am working on an animated film with my son,” Gondry revealed to MTV News. “It’s going to be quite amazing.” ...

The time was finally right, the director enthused, saying that the story will be quite personal.

An updated (and cgi-animated) Thundercats will soon roar into production:

Vidgame vet Jerry O'Flaherty will helm [Warner Bros]'s CG-animated "Thundercats" feature, based on the popular '80s cartoon series, comicbook and toy line.

The project marks the first feature directing gig for O'Flaherty, who served as an art director on such bestselling games as "Gears of War" and "Unreal Tournament 3" for Epic Games and the "Command and Conquer" series from Westwood Studios.

..."It feels like a natural thing for me to step into," he said. "Games have come so far now. The last four years of my life have been about bringing the energy of filmmaking into the videogame experience..."

Sony Pictures releases Creature Comforts America in handy DVD format:

...[I]t's hard not to love Creature Comforts, an unusual but highly entertaining short film and subsequent TV series created by W&G mastermind Nick Park. If you've never seen either incarnation, Creature Comforts proves to be unlike most anything else out there...animated or otherwise.

The original stop-motion short (1990) won an Oscar for its brilliant portrayal of animal life behind-the-scenes, created and produced while "A Grand Day Out" (Wallace and Gromit's debut adventure) neared completion. Presented in a mockumentary format, Creature Comforts showed us---and continues to show us---what goes on inside the minds of everyday people, channeled through curious critters...

Have a fulfilling weekend.