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If you receive Turner Classic Movies, remember that this Sunday, October 21, they will be screening an evening of animation co-hosted by Jerry Beck of Cartoon Brew .  Films include the two Fleischer features Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes to Town ; a selection of UPA Jolly Frolic cartoons; a selection of silent animation provided by historian Tom Stathes; and The Adventures of Prince Achmed , which is the oldest surviving animated feature as well as the first animated feature directed by a woman, Lotte Reineger .  You can find the complete schedule here and Beck has posted artwork associated with Gulliver and Mr. Bug on his site. If you are interested in hearing about how Beck connected up with TCM and learning more about the early days of film collecting, you can hear him on a podcast called The Commentary Track .

The only way this book could be better is if the artists who worked at UPA were all still alive to be interviewed. Thankfully, many were interviewed before their deaths by animation historians such as John Canemaker, Michael Barrier, Leonard Maltin and Karl Cohen and author Adam Abraham has accessed this information as well as trade publications, studio records, letters, etc. to write the most detailed history of UPA to date. What struck me most while reading this book was how continually precarious UPA's existence was. There were, of course, the early days when finding any work was a life or death situation for the company. However, even when they got a contract to do theatrical shorts for Columbia, the first two contracts were only for two cartoons apiece. Other threats to the studio's existence had to do with the various partners. While some studios were owned by individuals, such as Leon Schesinger, or partnerships such as the Disney brothers or Harman and Ising, UPA s...

The DVD collection of UPA Jolly Frolics is now available for pre-order through both the TCM website as well as Movies Unlimited . The pre-release price is $34.99 U.S. For those of you ordering in Canada, Movies Unlimited offers the better deal in that they're charging $8 for postage, where TCM wants $20. The importance of these cartoons has probably been dulled by time, but when they were released, they shook the foundations of American animation and were widely influential around the world. Prior to UPA, the bulk of American animation was built on the Disney design model, where characters were drawn to be dimensional. While American animation had progressed beyond the circle and hosepipe design approach, it was still based on rounded forms that could be turned in space and that had definite volume. There was also a discontinuity between characters who were painted in flat colours and backgrounds that were rendered to give the impression of light hitting rounded forms. Each ...

Top: Gerald McBoing Boing. Bottom: Dick Tracy. Darrell Van Citters has completed a four part look at UPA's collapse, filled with details I was unaware of. UPA was the studio that broke with Disney-style graphics in the late '40s and early '50s and became a critical darling with films like Gerald McBoing Boing , Rooty Toot Toot , Unicorn in the Garden and the Mr. Magoo series. UPA's inability to control its costs is well-known but it was also the victim of the collapse of the theatrical shorts market and a large-scale exodus of talent to work on the first version of the Alvin and the Chipmunks TV series. The sale of the company to new owners was the final nail in the coffin, as they lacked any of the artistic ambition of the company's founders. It's a cautionary tale that could apply to any animation studio, especially now that we're reaching the end of the TV era. Part 1 , Part2 , Part3 and Part4 .

This Tuesday, March 24, Turner Classic Movies will be running four and a half hours saluting the work of animation director Chuck Jones. The complete schedule is here . Highlights include the TV premiere of the documentary Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood , as well as such noted cartoons as What's Opera Doc? , Duck Amuck , One Froggy Evening. The evening will also include early works, such as Jones directorial debut The Night Watchman , as well as Prest-O Change-O and Elmer's Candid Camera , two early steps in the evolution of Bugs Bunny. TCM will also screen The Phantom Tollbooth , Jones' feature, based on the book by Norton Juster, made for MGM. The entire program will be repeated twice during the evening, followed by 1001 Arabian Nights , a UPA feature starring Mr. Magoo and directed by veteran Disney director Jack Kinney.