Hello group, I'm grateful to the readers who still follow this blog. Health and work issues have kept me away again, but I felt this article deserved some attention. The course of the old Time-Warner corporation has always has always held my interest, mainly due to its animation history. And the old WB was me bread 'n' butter back in the 1990's.

But now, Bugs Bunny, Batman and the whole Warner media empire will go to work for the Discovery Channel. This group includes the Food Network, Animal Planet and TLC. Do they know they will be inheriting skeletons in the closet like Pepe Le Pew? Will they actually see the real ingredients of a Scooby-Snack? Maybe Superman will show how he bakes one of his giant super cakes?

I'm just bellyachin' here folks, bear with me.

(original copyright Warner Brothers)

At first, I was surprised that AT&T would sell off a library like Warner's when they still have all these digital arteries to fill. But now I'm wondering if the ol' "Ma Bell" isn't doing well with streaming. It looks like they have some big bills to pay off. And it's not like Discovery is a young, agile, cutting-edge new media entity like Amazon or Netflix either. This purchase looks more like another incident of buying up competitors, selling off the new surplus resources, and cutting jobs.

Meanwhile, the remnants of the old Hollywood studios only seem to be flashy accessories that get passed around, like old antiques.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/discovery-warnermedia-merger-close-warner-bros-discovery-1235200983/?fbclid=IwAR1e3zcxH9IizjuSMSb9MNMs82yKCRYSb0Tz4w4A_YoAloP4q3IvfJw28uw

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/discovery-warnermedia-merger-shareholders-approve-1235097326/

Well, time takes it's toll. Again.

(photo copyright Anime' News Network)

Sorry to report on geeky stuff, but Ohio native Fred Ladd - American producer of the classic, foundational anime' Astro Boy, has passed away August 3rd. at 94.

I was able to see Ladd speak at an ASIFA-Hollywood presentation years ago in Burbank. While he was known for bringing Astro Boy to the states, here's another show he brought to the U.S. When the other networks saw what a hit NBC had with Astroboy, they tried to make another one with "Space Ace". (Not the video game.) For the U.S., I think they called him "Ringo" at the ASIFA screening. Ironically, it never took off. I guess one Astro Boy is enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgNPPHlcLcc

But here's to the pure enjoyment, and the pathways laid down for practically all the anime' that followed Fred Ladd's lead into the North American TV market. Astro Boy wrote the book on how to present great storytelling, and beloved characters. Developed from manga (comics) the animation was done on a dime, but Osamu Tezuka's classic designs and screen direction still kept us captivated, even with black and white TV.

Thank you Mr. Ladd!

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-08-10/american-anime-pioneer-astro-boy-anime-producer-fred-ladd-passes-away-at-94/.176123

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2021/08/10-1/astro-boy-american-anime-producer-fred-ladd-passes-away-at-94

Late to the party again, I finally borrowed the The Peanuts Movie screener DVD from work. After virtually growing up with all the original Bill Melendez animated TV specials from the 60's, I was hesitant to face a possible "South Park" kind of treatment of my childhood heroes.

But this film wasn't bad. As a family film, The Peanuts Movie is a nostalgic romp going through the key story points of the entire Charlie Brown saga: the childhood torments of grade school, his love of baseball and his longing for the distant, seemingly unattainable attention of the Little Red-Headed Girl. And of course, Snoopy relives his never ending aerial battles with the mysterious and relentless Red Baron. And then there is the actual design of the movie itself, and how the director Steve Martino and crew strove to stay faithful to style and charm of Charles Schulz' original comic strip.

Looking back on my last entry, I'm beginning to notice how studios having been making big strides in creating 3D polygon models to resemble flat, cartoon shapes. As with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Blue Sky Studios worked overtime to take Charles M. Schulz' beloved Peanuts comic strip into the CG world, and then make it "flat" again. I used to think that the studios are using 3D animation in ways that it was "not meant to be used", in as far as the usual process of modeling, rigging and animating CG characters.

But The Peanuts Movie is a nice reminder of how CG can do virtually anything, and should not just be shoehorned into mimicking alternate concrete looking realities. Director Steve Martino described how their first attempts with traditional modeling and rigging just didn't cut it, and eventually switched to a stop motion style to maintain the illusion of Schulz' and Melendez' art and animation styles. On a smaller scale, shows like South Park and the Olive The Other Reindeer Holiday special may have solved similar issues in the past with these techniques.

To sum up, The Peanuts Movie is worth a look, and can be a warm, fuzzy torch to pass on to a new generation.

• https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/charlie-brown-and-snoopy-the-peanuts-movie-animation-cheats/
  https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/the-tech-of-the-art-of-the-peanuts-movie/

https://mashable.com/archive/making-the-peanuts-movie

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/movies/review-the-peanuts-movie-curses-the-red-baron-in-3-dimensions.html

c • C • ɔ

Time for sentimental, Holiday trivia again. And to offer some distraction from the pandemic. Only this time, on Black Friday, the networks slammed us with three classic Holiday specials at the same time: Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and of course, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Plus, the Minions brought some of their new samples of Holiday havoc after The Grinch.

Good Grief!

That reminds me, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" will not be broadcast over regular TV or cable this year. That may become another rant soon. As usual, the networks didn't waste any time trying to get viewers in a festive Holiday mood. I suppose it's good to introduce these shows to a new generation, especially with the strain and heartbreak of the lock-down. But for me, it was still too soon to watch these shows, with the obvious situation of the networks competing against each other for TV ratings and ad time. Looks like I'm in grumpy old man mode again.

Getting back to my rant, it struck me as I was flicking back 'n' forth between channels, I finally noticed there were two Rankin/Bass Christmas TV Specials up against each other; the stop motion "Santa" (1970) and traditional hand-drawn "Frosty" (1969). Even with the advantage of experience, I still fell under the rosy spell of the old Rankin/Bass universe. Charming, whimsical characters that bordered on the fantastic, even bizarre, especially the stop-mo Santa film. What was in their style that kept viewers glued to the screen after all these years?

Of course, the Secret Ingredient: artist Paul Coker, Jr.!

Coker was the artist and designer that gave the Rankin/Bass Specials that quirky, off balance, yet lovable look. According lambiek.net, Coker started out as an artist for the Hallmark greeting card company. He also found work cartooning for magazines such as Esquire and Good Housekeeping, and even Playboy. This work got him the notice of Mad Magazine where he developed his own characters and acidic movie parodies. From there, Coker was hired by Arthur Rankin Jr., which pretty much set the tone and style of their beloved Holiday specials through the 1970's.

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/coker_jr_paul.htm

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170082/

http://www.theculturecache.com/the-awkward-magic-of-rankin-bass-holiday-specials.html

Since their original broadcasts, the Rankin/Bass specials have become the targets of parodies both in tribute, and out of nastiness. The writer of the culturecache.com article completely overlooks Coker's influence when she mentions the designs and proportions of the Rankin/Bass characters. The nature of animation, plus the pressures of TV production do lead to artwork that looks off kilter, forgettable and many times, unappealing. Especially nowadays, the charm and daring of character designs like Coker's could be bulldozed under completely. Like many animation artists, Paul is modest, and works in relative obscurity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kvTGHZwv0g

But like benign ghosts from Christmases past, these old friends shake off the dust, and are brought down from the shelves. It's kind of the way distant relatives drop by, or the way old decorations are brought down from the attic. They may still bring us some magic, and maybe some comfort as we limp through probably one of the grimmest Holiday seasons since WWII. But when it comes to imagine and appeal, here's to Paul Coker, Jr.!

https://www.comicbooksdallas.com/paul-coker-jr-special-guest-artist-mad-magazine-rankinbass