The End of Week Linkfest

Animal Logic and Warner Bros. head to the home stretch with their new animated epic.

... The movie comes out Sept. 24 and the studio has already conducted some tinkering on the project, changing the title from “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” to the more friendly, if more generic, “Legend of the Guardians.” In March, it rushed out a teaser trailer that was a bit on the cheesy side; it didn’t indicate that Snyder, who made zombies and horror remakes respectable with “Dawn of the Dead” and comic book adaptations just plain cool with “300,” was behind the family adventure. ...

And now for something different: Let us sample a few internet sites of TAG members/merry-workers:

Peck n Paw And the Black Mirror (Disney Feature artists' book of personal art pieces -- paintings, comic, line-drawings, you name it -- all of the pieces good and all of the pieces available for viewing and/or purchase at ComicCon and on-line.)

Animation veteran Tom Ruegger has launched Cartoonatics, a blog of comics, paintings and prose you might find worth your while.

Ace animation artist Victoria Ying has a scintillating blog of artwork (a visual from same just above) and commentary.

The power of animation is such that cartoon features can now raise defunct movie companies from the dead.

MY DOG TULIP, an animated feature film based on the acclaimed best-selling memoir by author J.R. Ackerley, featuring the voices of Christopher Plummer, the late Lynn Redgrave, and Isabella Rossellini, is the first acquisition of the newly reopened New Yorker Films ....

A little over a year after New Yorker Films was forced to close its doors, the pioneering distributor of foreign language and independent films has reopened. New Yorker Films is committed to continue releasing quality art and independent films from around the world. ...

Fifty-five years young.

In 1956, when it was decided that live animals were too messy and unpredictable, the area was refurbished and the Rainbow Caverns Mine Train came into existence, complete with a colorful finale inside Rainbow Mountain (among the highlights was a spectacular fluorescent waterfall designed by Disney Legend Claude Coats). Rainbow Caverns was replaced by the Nature’s Wonderland train ride in 1960, which featured scenic vistas and an abundance of 204 lifelike inhabitants. Again, Walt Disney designed the layout of this attraction. ...

Disneyland’s original marquee was purchased by actor John Stamos for $30,700 in 2000 on eBay.

(We banged the same gong last year, when Disneyland was 54 years old. We are nothing if not redundant.)

It can now be (officially) revealed that Beavis and his close friend are returning to television.

The move to resurrect the hugely popular 1990s animated anti-heroes [Beavis and Butthead] has been rumored for several days. But yesterday, sources at MTV confirmed that a new batch of "Beavis and Butt-head" episodes are in the works.

The new series would keep Beavis and Butt-head in their perpetual high-school state, but it would be updated so that the pals -- who obsessively watch music videos on a battered TV set -- could lob their snarky comments at more current targets like Lady Gaga. ...

Our pal the Nikkster relates that Jeffrey Katzenberg wants to move onward and upward.

To overhear Jeffrey Katzenberg's private conversations these days, Comcast supposedly wants to buy DreamWorks Animation and make him head of NBC Universal. But at last week's Camp Allen -- Sun Valley's annual Alllen & Co investment conference attended by the Who's Who of tech, Internet, entertainment, and media industries -- Comcast's Brian Roberts and Steve Burke were telling a very different story. They mentioned to several power players that Katzenberg has been pursuing them to buy DreamWorks Animation and lobbying them to make him head of NBCU ...

(We've said for a few years that DreamWorks will ultimately be sold. Someday we might even be right.)

Have a fine weekend. Try and find a pool and cool off.