Thanksgiving may be over, but you can still join The Beverly Hillbillies for Turkey Day (1963) and (the controversial) Calvin and the Colonel for Thanksgiving Dinner (1961). Both episodes are available on Archive.org, along with another 50 or so episodes of the 274 Beverly Hillbillies episodes, and three more episodes from the 26 episodes of Calvin and the Colonel. Bonus bits: Jerky Turkey [YT] (1945, directed by Tex Avery), and Tom Turkey and His Harmonica Humdingers (1940).
posted by filthy light thief on Nov 27, 2009 - 9 comments

Vulgar Army: Octoprop to Octopop is "an informal study into the representation of the Octopus in propaganda and political cartoons, and influence on, or co-option of, popular culture." [more inside]
posted by ollyollyoxenfree on Oct 10, 2009 - 10 comments

Saturday morning cartoons were once a staple of American television, but by the year 2000 they had all but disappeared. Of course, the Internet never forgets. Case in point: Cartoon Network Video -- a free, searchable, ad-supported service that provides hundreds of full-length episodes of classic shows like Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and The Powerpuff Girls, as well as current offerings and scads of shorter material. Too recent for you? Then give Kids WB Video a whirl -- it does the same thing with the same interface, but for older programs like Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, Thundercats, and the original Space Ghost. If you're in the mood to learn (and don't mind some live-action), PBS Kids Video has educational fare such as Arthur, Wishbone, and Zoom. And don't forget about Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, The Magic Schoolbus and Schoolhouse Rock! Now if only we had some Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs...
posted by Rhaomi on Sep 22, 2009 - 160 comments

How about some saturday morning cartoons, compliments of The Animation Show's Blog? [more inside]
posted by mrzarquon on Sep 12, 2009 - 2 comments

STEVIE WASHINGTON- THE ANGRY YOUTH! [more inside]
posted by Dr-Baa on Aug 20, 2009 - 7 comments

The complete and until today unaired pilot of South Park for Comedy Central, with an additional creator's commentary track. About 90% was recut into the first episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe," but with a few slightly altered scenes and characters. After gaining underground popularity with two shorts that you've all probably seen already at this point, Trey Parker and Matt Stone were contracted by Comedy Central to produce a full pilot episode for a potential show based on the shorts. This pilot episode is what would ultimately lead to a series that is now 12 years old, spans over 180 episodes, and is one of the most successful shows in the history of cable television both in ratings and revenue. The pilot is also the only episode in the series that, like the original shorts, uses stop-motion animation of paper cutouts instead of computer software.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Aug 14, 2009 - 24 comments

Bolek i Lolek and Reksio are both Polish cartoons with little dialogue and similiar animation style. Both cartoons originated in the 60s (during the Communist era in Poland), and were extremely popular for decades. Due to their general lack of vocalization (except for Bolek i Lolek's later seasons), both cartoons were easy to bring to other markets. Famously, Bolek i Lolek was one of the cartoons broadcast on Iranian television after the 1979 revolution. [more inside]
posted by Askiba on Aug 2, 2009 - 11 comments

Recombinant Records cartoons by Stuart McMillen, e.g. Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell. (via)
posted by kliuless on Jul 24, 2009 - 17 comments

"Nisan didn’t mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes... 'I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,' Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. 'She has really changed my life.' Nemutan doesn’t really have a leg. She’s a stuffed pillowcase — a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo." The New York Times' Lisa Katayama on "2-D lovers" in Japan, the latest outgrowth of otaku subculture.
posted by digaman on Jul 23, 2009 - 166 comments

"That Was Way Too Close!" Wonderfully absurd escapes from mortal danger in the original G.I. Joe cartoon.
posted by nooneyouknow on Jul 7, 2009 - 36 comments

And now presenting the 10 Best Uses Of Classical Music In Classic Cartoons!
posted by litterateur on Jul 2, 2009 - 33 comments

Since the mid 1990s, Don Hertzfeldt has been making animated shorts by hand. To date, his 8 primary films have an apprioximate runtime of 75 minutes, and in total have won 117 awards, all shot on 16 or 35 milimeter film. (There is another 8 minutes or so that was part of the Animation Show (previously).) His recent films have been shot on the same camera rig that recorded It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966), as he noted in a 2007 interview (part of a Scene Unseen Podcast (direct link to the MP3)). Hertzfeltd is currently two thirds of the way through his most ambitious project to date, a trilogy of films which have been called "the closest thing on film yet to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey." (Video links inside) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on May 15, 2009 - 31 comments

Like iScribble and Oekaki before it, DoInk.com is a place for people to create collaborative artwork online. The difference? It's for animation. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Apr 20, 2009 - 2 comments

With threats of strikes and an emergency budget due you might assume the Irish government would be more concerned with economics than artwork. You’d be wrong. After discovering the two “uncomissioned” portraits of Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen the gardaí (Irish police) have gotten involved. [more inside]
posted by Fence on Mar 26, 2009 - 14 comments

Kate Beaton, Historical Cartoonist
posted by flatluigi on Mar 13, 2009 - 70 comments

An editorial cartoon in the New York Post gets reactions from around the world about its possible racial depictions. [more inside]
posted by happyroach on Feb 19, 2009 - 301 comments

The Console War Is Officially Over (Via)
posted by Del Far on Feb 18, 2009 - 53 comments

The Visual Telling of Stories
A lyrical encyclopedia of visual propositions;
a visually orientated taxonomy of the ways in which pictures are used to tell stories. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Feb 18, 2009 - 5 comments

Invasion of the Big Robots! Say what you will about the decline of Garfield, but he had his brighter moments, like the time he woke up in the wrong cartoon and had to fight the big robots. Garfield and Friends writer Mark Evanier tells the story behind this budget-busting episode. [Previously] [more inside]
posted by Servo5678 on Jan 29, 2009 - 3 comments

Mentioned here earlier in its beta form, Canada's National Film Board has released the bulk of its films online, for free, in the NFB Screening Room. With hundreds of films from the 1920s onwards, including groundbreaking work by animator Norman McLaren, documentaries, dramas, bizarre anti-smoking (or pro-smoking?) screeds and much, much more, it's a breathtaking trove of amazing film to be discovered from north of the 49th. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd on Jan 22, 2009 - 53 comments

If Global Warming Is Real, Then Why Is It Cold?
posted by flatluigi on Jan 16, 2009 - 140 comments

While Adult Swim is generally regarded as the pioneer of irreverent short-form animation -- especially for 'toons that reimagine past hits -- it wasn't always the king. In fact, the late-night programming block arguably found its birth in a series of short toons and interstitials that ran in the heyday of its daytime alter ego, the venerable Cartoon Network. The brainchild of C.N. Creative Director Michael Ouweleen and Hanna-Barbera chief Fred Seibert, these cartoons reinterpreted the network's properties through stock footage, indie music, and original animation in a wide variety of styles, as well as introducing prototypes of characters that would become some of the most famous in the history of American animation. (warning: monster post inside) [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Dec 30, 2008 - 80 comments

A retro set of cocktail napkins showing Eisenhower-era damsels and drunkards, with captions by The Bard. via
posted by Rumple on Dec 29, 2008 - 19 comments

Yes, 'tis the season once again, and back in the day that meant the reappearance of the beloved Christmas carol in the comic pages, more specifically in the late, lamented Pogo. [more inside]
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit on Dec 11, 2008 - 24 comments

Relive some of your favorite Seinfeld moments in animated form through Seinimation! Animated by Eric Yahnker, Seinimation is a series of 11 short animated films based on some of Seinfeld's most memorable scenes. My personal favorites are The Big Race, Seinfeld-noir and George & The Whale. The rest of them are inside... [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 on Dec 10, 2008 - 12 comments

Toons at War [more inside]
posted by anastasiav on Dec 9, 2008 - 5 comments

Some forty-three classic Warner Brothers cartoons. (Sorry, no index page.)
posted by cthuljew on Nov 27, 2008 - 18 comments

The entirety of the Fleischer/Famous Studios Superman Film Series. In the early 1940s, this series raised the bar for theatrical shorts with its fluid animation and action-packed storylines. It remains a classic series thanks to its high production values and historical significance not only as the first comic-to-film adaptation, but also as an occasional vehicle for American propaganda during the war.
posted by cthuljew on Nov 25, 2008 - 21 comments

Christians AGAINST Cartoons!
posted by defenestration on Nov 23, 2008 - 93 comments

YouTubing this clip of Smedley serving Chilly Willy a tall stack of pancakes [More butter? More butter! More syrup? More syrup! Nice? Very nice!] led me to Chilly's Video Den at Chilly Willy's Sub-Arctic World. [Warning: Comic Sans font and a whole cold-butt-load of .wmv's] [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Nov 7, 2008 - 12 comments

Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier, Bill Mauldin, David Low, Theodor Geisel, Herblock, and good grief, more Herblock! In honor of some sort of election that's apparently coming up, Comics Should Be Good! will be featuring one ink-stained satirist every day this October! Visit the Stars of Political Cartooning Month Archive for daily updates.
posted by Alvy Ampersand on Oct 7, 2008 - 12 comments

Public television viewers from the seventies may remember being hectored and freaked out by anti-pollution animations. Three of the more catchy and memorable Willie Wimple cartoons (don't kill trees, don't litter, don't pollute the water, lyrics) that scared us away from a lifetime of casual littering were actually directed by Academy Award winning animator Abe Levitow -- also co-director of The Phantom Tollbooth (intro, time song) and director of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (full movie, songs: we're despicable, all alone in the world) -- as one of his final projects.
posted by jessamyn on Oct 6, 2008 - 22 comments

In 1969, Russian animation studio Soyuzmultfilm released Nu, Pogodi! (Well, Just You Wait!), a series that followed the multitalented and comical Wolf in his quest to capture the Hare. Having very little dialogue but considerable music, it was an international hit across eastern Europe. Most who followed the show will tell you that despite attempts to portray Wolf as anti-authoritarian and decadent, Wolf had a much greater fanbase. Why else would the Nu Pogodi game be based on him, and not Hare?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing on Sep 24, 2008 - 14 comments

The worst comic strip ever? Thrill to the stilted, unfunny adventures of Uncle Funny Bunny and Chumpy, brought to you by Jerry Beck, of Cartoon Research fame.
posted by The Card Cheat on Aug 30, 2008 - 98 comments

The Secret Room: EFF Designer's Cartoon on Illegal Spying. [Via] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Aug 23, 2008 - 11 comments

The political cartoons of Clifford K. Berryman lampooned American politics from the era of Grover Cleveland to the Truman administration. If he's known today it's mostly for having originated the teddy bear. While some of his cartoons have scant relevance today, many remain surprisingly relevant. Of the many historical events he drew there are women's suffrage, the 1948 election and the 1912 Republican primaries between Taft and Roosevelt.
posted by Kattullus on Aug 21, 2008 - 10 comments

The New Yorker interviews Josh Fruhlinger, a.k.a. The Comics Curmudgeon. [Previously.] Josh also writes a weekly political cartoon post for Wonkette, and recently appeared on Jeopardy!
posted by the littlest brussels sprout on Aug 14, 2008 - 24 comments

Battlemind: Armor for Your Mind is a U.S. Army website designed to help, in part, families deal with deployment, including a series of cartoons and videos intended for children whose parents may be sent to or be returning from warzones. Part of the Army's Behavioral Health program, these give intriguing insight into military culture. [more inside]
posted by Rumple on Jul 29, 2008 - 6 comments

The swingin' sounds of Spider-Man! After years of searching, Kliph Nesteroff found original reels of the incidental music to the classic Ralph Bakshi Spider-Man cartoon, and has included most of the masters in his podcast. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd on Jul 1, 2008 - 25 comments

FUBAR
posted by Mblue on Jun 28, 2008 - 16 comments

Branded in the 80's: Peel Here From the obvious to the obscure to the downright frightening, Peel Here documents the collectible stickers of the 80's and related ephemera.
posted by 1f2frfbf on Jun 26, 2008 - 42 comments

Best rectal thermometer ever? And yes, it does play the theme song while taking your temperature.
posted by jonson on May 14, 2008 - 74 comments

The Journal of Cartoon Over-analyzations. For all your cartoon-related, obsessive and critical-thinking needs. Recent over-analyzations include Bestial Sexuality in He-Man and She-Ra, Evil Mickey Mouse and A Freudian Analysis of Beavis and Butthead. For quick fixes, check out the Mini-Analyzations.[Via].
posted by amyms on May 9, 2008 - 25 comments

The 2008 Pulitzer Prize winners were recently announced. Some winners worth noting include the article in the Washington Post about violin virtuoso Joshua Bell busking in the Washington D.C. Metro station, which won the award for Feature Writing. The Washington Post also won the International Reporting award for a disturbing series about modern day mercenaries. This article about Blackwater operating beyond the reach of any law was part of the series. The Washington Post Pulitzer page has more information on their winners and finalists. [more inside]
posted by McGuillicuddy on Apr 18, 2008 - 15 comments

Enjoy 10 variously attributed^* vintage Monkey Cartoons and more courtesy STWALLSKULL and BOOM!
Also available for your viewing pleasure, an itemized list with embeddable links: [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Apr 12, 2008 - 3 comments

The Most Insane, Child-Warping Moments of '80s Cartoons [more inside]
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] on Mar 26, 2008 - 130 comments

Oh, mighty warrior 'twill be quite a task...Greg Allen reminds us what the mid-century phrase "kill the rabbit" is really all about.
posted by ericbop on Mar 18, 2008 - 14 comments

Cartoonist Steve Brodner sketches the American candidates for president as Odd Couples in a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Best. McCain. Evah.
posted by maryh on Feb 7, 2008 - 9 comments

I'm not a big fan of youtube posts. But without youtube, these two favorites of mine would be lost to obscurity. One from Seymour Kneitel, "La Petite Parade". The other is a Tex Avery, "Symphony in Slang". [more inside]
posted by ObscureReferenceMan on Feb 2, 2008 - 10 comments

Remember when TV raised us right? Time for Timer taught us about cheese, carrots, breakfast, and oral hygiene. The Abominable Snowman taught us about lunch, money, advertising, and the Food Group Disco! Woodsy Owl taught us to Give a Hoot! and keep America lookin' good! and Mr Yuk SCARED THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF US. [more inside]
posted by louche mustachio on Feb 1, 2008 - 28 comments