Maytime Linkage

As the weekend rolls over us, we give you various news you can chew (mentally).

Cal Arts put on its annual producers showcase, where the best and the brightest project their student films and animation divisions for many of the major movie and t.v. producers herd prime student-candidates onto buses and haul them off to L.A. production facilities.

... CalArts put on their annual Producers Show, showcasing some of the best work created by the school’s character animation students. CalArts has cultivated the premier program in animation and to watch this show is to glimpse the future of the field. Little wonder industry types and students alike packed the expansive Leonard H. Goldenson hall to catch the 24 shorts included on the bill. ...

(I went to some of these in the nineties. Back then, they were like frenetic bidding auctions for the services of different up-and-coming artists.) ...

The voice cast of Shrek waxes nostalgic as the franchise (maybe) wraps up:

Q. How does it feel for you that the “Shrek” series is coming to an end?

Mike Myers: I think it’s very elegant. They only made a few “Fawlty Towers,” and I love that they did that. I think that they’ve managed to keep the integrity of the series. It’s all about that one line: “But you are beautiful to me,” from the first movie. By the ogre falling in love with the ogre girl, he is saying: “I too am beautiful. And you too you are also beautiful.” ...

(And we'll see if this is really and truly the last one ...)

SPA goes long and uncorks a high arching pass downfield.

Sony Pictures Animation has pre-emptively picked up rights to the Atari video game "Rollercoaster Tycoon," and is developing the project as a live-action/CGI hybrid.

The "Tycoon" franchise, created by Chris Sawyer, is a popular series of computer games that simulate a combination of designing roller coasters and amusement park management. ...

Leonard Maltin overviews the long cinematic history of Robin Hood (including two Disney versions).

... [I]f I were to pick the Robin most deserving of rediscovery it would be Richard Todd in Walt Disney’s 1952 British-made adventure The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men. Disney’s own animated movie, made some twenty years later, put this live-action film further in the shade, a fate it doesn’t deserve.

Having enjoyed great success with his live-action Treasure Island in 1950, Walt Disney continued producing films in England, largely because the British government wouldn’t allow him or other Hollywood producers to take the pounds their films had earned out of the country. So Walt hired a first-rate team of British filmmakers to create a series of costume pictures under the supervision of Walt’s man from Hollywood, a creative producer named Perce Pearce. ...

Mr. Pearce worked for Disney from the mid 1930s until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1955.

Since you were no doubt aching to know which ones they were, Josh Jackson names "The Forty Best Cartoon Characters of All Time." (Of course this covers all past and future characters.)

38. Sylvester J. Pussycat & Tweety

Created: 1945. Creator: Friz Freleng. Voice: Mel Blanc

Mel Blanc kept the different speech impediments straight while voicing both cat and bird for Looney Tunes ....

(Funny, I would have had tweety Bird pegged as 33rd greatest, or maybe 32nd. Shows what I know.)

Lastly, Movies.ie features Japanese posters of Disney and Pixar animated films.

Have a splendid weekend. Your TAG leadership will be spending it in a big hotel meeting room, attending an IA District Two convention. What fun!