A 'Speedy Gonzales' Movie is in the Works at Warner Bros.

Deadline reports that an animated feature film based on the Looney Tunes character Speedy Gonzales is currently being developed at Warner Bros., with Eugenio Derbez as the voice of the Mexican mouse.

UPDATED: Watch: Hong Kong Phooey and Marvin the Martian Live-Action/CG Hybrid Test Footage

The latest in the stream of awful CG/live-action mashup movies - following in the critically derided but financially successful spirit of The Smurfs and Yogi Bear - are Hong Kong Phooey and Looney Tunes' Marvin the Martian.

Director Alex Zamm (Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2) posted test-footage from the Hong Kong Phooey film, complete with Eddie Murphy soundalike, out of place animation and toilet jokes! Zamm also posted a 3D test short (Yule Be Sorry) for a, subsequently cancelled, Marvin the Martian film.

The Hong Kong Phooey footage is pretty terrible: Penry/Hong Kong Phooey looks like the CG Scooby Doo from 10 years ago and the humour's severely off-kilter. The shame is that the Marvin footage (testicle jokes and product placement aside) was a lot better - funnier, more cartoony and closer to the original character - and that's been cancelled! That said, the fact that Zamm's posted the Hong Kong Phooey test too may indicate that that's also been shelved.

Check both tests out above, thanks to Bleeding Cool. UPDATE: 1/1/2013, 03:10 (GMT) - Ah, it seems Bleeding Cool's video has been removed, so check out the two clips, via Alex Zamm's Vimeo channel, here and here. Oh yeah, and Happy New Year, guys! All the best for 2013!

Via Cartoon Brew.

Classic Cartoons #12 - King-Size Canary

Today's Classic Cartoon is a classic of one of the all-time great American animators, Fred "Tex" Avery. Avery, best known as the genius behind Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, also later developed Chilly Willy for the Walter Lantz studio. Some of Tex's best work, though, was for MGM's cartoon studio. At MGM, Avery created Droopy, as well as a stream of hilarious short films, including this one, King-Size Canary.

Cat and mouse, cat and bird, and cat and dog pairings are pretty common in animation, but this is something pretty special. The hilarious animation lends the short a sense of freedom that we rarely see in modern animation.

Avery's legacy is his zany, larger-than-life animation - animation we may be seeing a resurgence of, in CG; just look at Hotel Transylvania - and that animation is on full display in this critically acclaimed short from 1947.

Watch: Cartoon Network 20th Birthday - Music Video

The 1st October was the 20th Birthday of Cartoon Network. The home of some of my most loved show as a kid: Dexter's Lab, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Kids Next Door, this was the channel for any cartoon loving kid - or teenager, or grown-up...

Check out this great music video made for the occasion (above) showering us with character after character. Say what you may about the channel's current output, but there are very few characters in this video that I don't love.

Chuck Jones' 100th Birthday!

We're a day late, but the sentiment remains just as strong.

Yesterday would've marked the 100th birthday of the animation legend, Chuck Jones. The revered Looney Tunes director, though, tragically passed away just over a decade ago at the ripe old age of 89. The world lost an animation legend that day; Chuck Jones was, and still is, one of the most respected men in animation.

Bitesized Biographies #4 - William Hanna

Hanna (left) with Barbera (right) with two of their creations, Tom and Jerry.

A few weeks ago we ran a poll on our Facebook page asking you who you wanted our next Bitesized Biography to be about, the results were a 50/50 split between the two halves of Hanna-Barbera: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Hanna-Barbera, not that I need explain as I'm pretty sure everyone has seen some of their shows at some point in their lives - or you've led a deprived childhood - was the animation studio that created some of the most famed and beloved cartoon series of all time. The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat and Wacky Races are just some of the huge shows that Hanna-Barbera churned out during their over 30 year history, as well as later helping create shows like Dexter's Laboratory for Cartoon Network.

So to follow the order that the studio's name suggests, we're starting our poll influenced Bitesized Biographies with William Hanna.

"10 Things Looney Tunes Characters Would Tweet"

Just briefly, social networks have really taken over the Internet in the last half-decade, changing the way we think about things and the way we carry out our business on the Internet, its influence is all reaching. This post comes off the back of that and of this blog's new focus on cartoons as well as feature animation.

Live-In Nanny, a help site for nannies and raising your children, (somewhat of an unlikely source) has produced this very clever and witty article: "10 Things Looney Tunes Characters Would Tweet". It compiles a list of ten fictional Looney Tunes Tweets, asking what use the famous ensemble of cartoon characters would make of Twitter. It's doubly clever as it also acts as somewhat of a history of the famed shorts.

For more like this:

"“*Holds up sign* Ouch. #AcmeFail” – The taciturn Wile E. Coyote seldom speaks, instead preferring to communicate via sign. A loyal Acme customer, many of the Rube Goldberg-esque devices he creates in an (unsuccessful) attempt to capture the Road Runner backfire, causing him injury."

Head on over here.

Classic Cartoons #1 - What's Opera Doc?

To coincide with our first 'Bitesized Biography', dedicated to Looney Tunes legend, Chuck Jones, it seemed only fitting for the first 'Classic Cartoon' to be one of his. So, to launch our second new feature, I give you What's Opera Doc?. Arguably one of the greatest cartoons, possibly the best Looney Tunes cartoon, and definitely Bugs Bunny's finest, the devilishly clever, zany and witty What's Opera Doc? - a fantastic take on opera and of the normal Looney Tunes formula - was the first cartoon short to be inducted, in 1992, into the National Film Registry, proving that both Jones, and his work are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Bitesized Biographies #1 - Chuck Jones

"If Walt Disney was the first animator who taught me how to fly in my dreams, Chuck Jones was the first animator who made me laugh at them."

—Steven Spielberg on Chuck Jones, in Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist

To kick off the new A113Animation focus on cartoons and on the lasting legacy and influence of old, classic short films; there seemed no better way and no more fitting figure to base the first 'Bitesized Biography' on, than the legendary Looney Tunes director, Chuck Jones.

New Year Changes

I've been running A113Animation for just over a year now, and it's been better than I could have imagined. In my time running the blog, my interest in animation has developed and blossomed into an obsession and thereafter into a way of life. It's allowed me to talk to a co-founder of Pixar, famed animation directors and figures, to interview esteemed authors and to live as much of my dream as I ever conceived I could. Time was where I only really took much of an interest, animation wise, in Pixar and Dinsey, then it grew into a love and appreciation of all animated films, but more recently, my interests have grown again, and manifested into something that shall have a direct effect on this blog - as it's only now that I believe I can firmly say I have a full appreciation of the artform that is animation in its entirety.

Over time, I've added more and more features to the blog - reviews, editorials, second perspectives and more - yet, in the last few months, I've conceived more and more. Now, let me tell you somewhat of a story: growing up, long before I ran this blog, long before I even deeply cared about animated films - as a child - I still obsessed over animation, in the form of cartoons. Many of my early childhood memories are of sitting in front of a television, watching cartoons like Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and The Simpsons, day and night. These cartoons are so deeply profound in ways they don't always get the credit for; they may be caricatured, they may be whacky, but the characters are as real and as beloved as any in all of film and indeed of literature. So, it's these cartoons that inspire me to write this today , as they have moved me and they have driven my life in as great a way and in as clear a direction as my love of Disney and Pixar have, and indeed in the same vein as pretty much everything else important. Yet, it's only very recently that I've realised that, the work of Hanna-Barbera, Matt Groening, Chuck Jones and animation pioneers like them, is akin to that, in the effect on my life and on animation, of Walt Disney or John Lasseter.

My epiphany came around Christmastime (as all the best epiphanies come then) when I received a Looney Tunes boxset from a friend - obviously bearing in mind my adulation of animation. It was this point, and the subsequent watching of them, that I remembered how much I loved watching the series as a child - and indeed now - this greatly reminded me of the brilliant effect of cartoons, how wonderful they are and how great those shows once were in my mind - and now are again.

So, this blog, which was hitherto solely feature animation based, will now have some overlay into the realm of TV animation - although don't go looking for news on every cartoon show about. This will be apparent through two new features on the blog, that will start up very soon: Bitesized Biographies and Classic Cartoons.

• Bitesized Biographies - these will be reasonably concise and short, yet detailed and retrospective, looks at the lives and influence of key animators and prolific and prominent figures in the field of animation and cartoons. This won't be solely limited to cartoons, there will be Biographies of Walt Disney, John Lasseter and more, although most of them will be of key figures in cartoon history, such as Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Mel Blanc, Walter Lantz and more.
• Classic Cartoons - these will be vintage video clips, from YouTube or other sites, of old, brilliant animated shorts and TV cartoons. These will include, amongst others, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Pixar and Disney short films as well as old Simpsons shorts and original Family Guy shorts.

So, look forward to these features - a sidebar will be going up soon, also carrying links to reviews and our long running 'Aardman News' feature. I hope this will help to diversify the blog and, more than that, get over my dire love of animation to you, and get you to share your own.

The Future of Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is one of those shows that we all grew up watching, it's a staple of any childhood if you're old enough; the wacky, extremely violent and beloved shorts graced our screens for several decades and are still replayed today. However, in recent years, their popularity has somewhat diminished due to the fact that they haven't been putting out a lot of new stuff. There was a time that Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and the rest of the Looney Tunes characters were more popular and well known than even Walt Disney's best known creations and over the past few years, Warner Bros. have attempted a resurgence of that - to introduce Looney Tunes to a new generation.

Now, I've always been a fan of Looney Tunes - I grew up watching that, Tom and Jerry and Ed, Edd n Eddy more than any other shows - but I'd never obsessed over it in the same way that I have over Disney, Pixar and animated features, however, I've been infatuated with it since seeing Happy Feet Two. As I mentioned in my review of the dancing-penguin sequel, the film was preceded by an all new CGI Looney Tunes short film, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, starring Sylvester and Tweety.



The short (clip above) was absolutely fantastic and brilliantly encapsulated the genius of Looney Tunes in just a few short minutes. Using the archived song, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, recorded back in the 50s by the late, great voice of Looney Tunes, Mel Blanc, the short feels wonderfully familiar, quirky and nostalgic and is a very fitting tribute to the animation legend. The short also features Looney Tunes mainstay, June Foray, as the voice of Granny. The characters are far more lively than they could've conceivably been with new voices, and although the CGI animation, in place of the old fashioned traditional animation, took a while to get used to, the wonderful, familiar characters, the charming style, the ridiculously violent comedy, engaging story and Mel Blanc's talented voice work made it an absolute delight.



Puddy Tat was directed by Matthew O'Callaghan - who previously worked at Disney on films like The Great Mouse Detective, as well as directing the feature film adaptation of Curious George. O'Callaghan has been leading the Looney Tunes revival in recent years, after directing three brilliant Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts last year, including the Annie Award nominated Coyote Falls (above). He's also directed Daffy's Rhaspsody (another short, starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, featuring the voice of Mel Blanc - clip below) and another, as of yet untitled, Road Runner short, both of which will debut in 2012.



From what I've seen, so far, the future looks bright for Looney Tunes, as the beloved cartoons are being done proud by these all new, fun 3D shorts.

Ammended A113Animation Awards Nominations

I recently unveiled the nominations for the second annual A113Animation Awards. However, since then, I've watched Happy Feet Two, and while it wasn't good enough to have much of a drastic effect on my opinions of animated films in 2011, the music and animation were both fantastic, so it has been nominated for Best Song (for Bridge of Light) and the Best Animation, replacing Tangled and Kung Fu Panda 2's respective nominations in the category.

Moreover, I've added a new award: Best Animated Short Film, the nominations for which are:

• The Ballad of Nessie - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Hawaiian Vacation - Pixar Animation Studios
• I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat - Warner Bros. Animation

Head on over to the A113Animation Awards page to check out the updated nominations.

Happy Feet Two Review - An Amiable, Toe-Tapping, Song-Singing Sequel

The sequel to the 2006 Academy Award winning musical-penguin film, Happy Feet Two, still directed by George Miller, is an ambitious sequel. It takes the charming, touching, coming-of-age original and populates the world with more characters, more songs, dances and adventures. Yet, Happy Feet Two does it all less effectively than its predecessor; it is still charming and has a decent story, but mainly because at least half of the film feels copy and pasted from the first. This is a case of having to remind the film makers that less is more; adventure and enthralling peril cannot, and should not, be a substitute for story.

Best Animated Short Film Oscar Shortlist Surfaces

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.) have released the short list of animated short films for consideration for Best Animated Short Film at the 84th Academy Awards.

Amongst those on the list are Pixar's latest offering, La Luna (directed by Enrico Casarosa) - which is set to play in theatres alongside Brave next summer -, and I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, the latest Looney Tunes short film, which is playing with Happy Feet Two at the moment.

The final set of between 3 and 5 nominations will be announced in January, with the awards taking place on February 26.

The full list can be viewed here.