THIS WEEK: Comic-Con & Tr!ckster
I’ll be down in San Diego later this week, splitting my time six ways (and probably pulling my hair out) running all over Comic Con where I’ll be hanging at the ASIFA-Hollywood booth (#1534) when I’m not moderating a panel or a screening (see below), or taking meetings, looking for old comic books or crashing parties (I’ll happily accept any legitimate invites I can get – hint, hint). I’ll also be attending numerous panels – too numerous to list here – if I can get into them.
I’ll also be jumping across the street, to present films on behalf of Cartoon Brew at Tr!ckster, the alternative animation-artist con which we are co-sponsoring at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center (across the street in the Gaslamp District). They got a nice write-up in Sunday’s L.A. Times. Check it out if you are down there.
As I said, there are too many animation industry panels at Comic Con of interest for me to list. Every current primetime, cable and kids animated series, theatrical feature and direct-to-video movie in production has a panel devoted to it. I highly recommend you consult the daily schedules posted online. Here are the ones I’m doing, as well as some I may attend and a couple I want to plug because they feature friends as panelists:
Thursday
10:00 -11:00am Cartoon Brew’s Festival of Student Animation, a celebration of student animated short films, curated by yours truly and Amid Amidi of “the phenomenal animation website Cartoon Brew”. At Tr!ckster (200 Harbor Drive, suite 120)
3:00-4:00pm Classic Warner Bros./Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Going Blu-ray – Yours truly Jerry Beck and Warner Archives’ George Feltenstein lead a panel of renowned animation creators, including directors Spike Brandt (The Looney Tunes Show), Tony Cervone (Duck Dodgers), and Paul Dini (Batman the Animated Series), in presenting and discussing selected vintage cartoons from Warner Home Video’s fall 2011 Blu-ray release of the newly remastered Tom and Jerry Golden Collection and Looney Tunes Platinum Collections. Don’t miss this panel – secrets will be revealed! Room 32AB
6:00-9:00pm – 3rd Annual Comic-Con Beer Bust – ASIFA-Hollywood, One Plus Hub, Technicolor, and The Producer’s Guild of America invite you to the 3rd Annual Beer Bust. Meet, connect, hang out with members of animation community that will come together for this fantastic event. No need to RSVP. Just show up! The first 400 beers are FREE! At The Yard House Keg Room (1023 4th Ave.)
Friday
10:00-11:00am Cartoon Brew’s Festival of Student Animation is a second screening of the same program curated by me and Amid. At Tr!ckster (200 Harbor Drive, suite 120)
12:00-1:00pm ASIFA-Hollywood’s State of the Animation Industry What do pros think of the animation scene today? Will it all go 3D? Is 2D dead? When is a hybrid VFX flick an animated flick? How do I get my first job? Join Tom Sito (Lion King, Hop), Ken Duncan (Tarzan), Allen Battino (The Smurfs), Sean Petrilak (Kung Fu Panda TV show), Kevin Grow (Resistance: Fall of Man), and Brittany Biggs (KFP II) and get in on the discussion! Room 32AB
9:00-10:00pm Worst Cartoons Ever! – Once again I compile a new selection of the most terribly written, ugliest drawn, and unintentionally funniest animated films ever made. Cartoons this year include The Cautious Twins, Paddy Pelican and of course, a fresh episode of Mighty Mr. Titan! Room 6BCF
Saturday
12:15-1:00pm The Futurama Panel with creator/executive producer Matt Groening, executive producer David X. Cohen, and stars Billy West (Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg), Katey Sagal (Leela), John DiMaggio (Bender), and Maurice LaMarche (Kif Kroker, Calculon, Morbo). Get a sneak peek at never-before-seen footage of Futurama reincarnated as Japanese anime. Moderated by Bill Morrison. Ballroom 20
3:00-4:00pm Cartoon Network: Adventure Time See what’s in store for Finn, Jake, and all their friends from the mystical Land of Ooo with show creator Pendleton Ward, Jeremy Shada (Finn), Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum), Olivia Olson (Marceline the Vampire Queen), Kent Osborne (storyboard artist), and others. Room 6A
4:00-5:30pm Scott Shaw!’s Oddball Comics Scott brings back his ever-popular now-digital slide show featuring “the craziest comic books ever published!” Room 7AB
Sunday
11:00am-Noon IDW: Special Projects and Imprints Senior editor Scott Dunbier, designer Dean Mullaney (creative director of the Library of American Comics), comics historian Craig Yoe, and head of IDW’s prose line Jeff Conner present a revealing look at some of the upcoming additions to IDW’s superb archival comics collections. Room 24ABC
11:30am-12:45pm Cartoon Voices II – A panel full of those amazing folks who provide voices for animation. This one has Bill Farmer (Goofy), Laraine Newman (The Goode Family), Jason Marsden (The Fairly OddParents), Gregg Berger (The Garfield Show), Vanessa Marshall (The Avengers), and maybe a surprise or two. They’ll be questioned by moderators Mark Evanier (I recommend every panel moderated by Mark – these are the best at the convention) and Earl Kress. Room 6A
2:15-3:15 The Looney Tunes Show Screening and Q&A Following a special screening, supervising producers Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone, story editor Hugh Davidson, writer Rachel Ramras and other members of the creative team take the stage to answer your questions. Room 6A
3:45-4:45 The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Child, Animated by a Child Bill Plympton along with 11-year-old prodigy animator Perry Chen, his mother Dr. Zhu Shen (producer), Karina Bessoudo (Toon Boom Animation, vice president), and Kevin Sean Michaels (director) share insight and a sneak preview of the film Ingrid Pitt: Beyond The Forest and the cross-generational collaboration that was formed to create it. The short animated film illustrates the miraculous true story of the late actress Ingrid Pitt (Where Eagles Dare) who, in 1945, escaped at age 8 from a Nazi concentration camp in Poland to later become one of the UK’s biggest movie stars. Moderated by Pat Swinney Kaufman (executive director for the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture & Television Development) and Lloyd Kaufman (president/co-founder of Troma Entertainment). Room 5AB
Look forward to seeing you there – if you can find me!
