Toon-In Talk

Craig’s grandfather was Chuck Jones ,one of Bugs Bunny’s fathers, and a significant creator in the Warner Brothers cartoons. He works in the family business of preserving Chuck’s legacy via his namesake galleries and the Chuck Jones Experience.

Whitney shares her experience at a Chuck Jones Gallery and together they express their appreciation of Bill Plympton.

Craig explains how Warner Brothers animators made cartoons for themselves and hoped the audiences would enjoy their humor.

Craig shares one of the questions he asks perspective employees and asks it of Whitney.

Chuck’s animation legacy left a huge impact on today’s animation industry, including on Pixar’s John Lasseter and Japan’s Osamu Tezuka.

Chuck was adamant that you learned the rules so you could then break them and he was always learning art technique.

Chuck Jones related companies started when he and his daughter, Linda Jones Clough, started an art company to present animation production material showcase artists, and more.

When Linda contacted Warner Brothers about Chuck’s production material, she learned the studio burned them.

Since then the Chuck Jones companies have preserved animation and art history, while nurturing new talent.

A new opportunity Craig is exploring is how to inspire creativity in people, businesses, and communities called the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity.

The Center is also associated with the Smithsonian, Museum of the Moving Image, and the Academy of Motion Pictures on a traveling exhibit called "What’s Up Doc?: The Animation Art of Chuck Jones."

Hello and welcome to eighteenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Every year Whitney attends several of the biggest conventions in the US and one of her favorites is Dragon-Con held in Atlanta, GA. Dragon-Con is a big convention with an intimate feeling, because it allows you to have up and close interactions with the guests and it never feels too over crowded. The Dragon-Con staff are super organized and they are dedicated to ensuring fans have the best experience. Whitney also loves Dragon-Con for its diverse programming, especially the puppetry and anime/manga tracks. She was privileged to chat with puppetry track coordinator Beau Brown and anime/manga track coordinator Jake Trabox about the special events for Dragon-Con 2015.

Hello and welcome to seventeenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. What happens when an animation fan, an animator, and his crazy co-workers decide to have some fun during a podcast interview? This is what happened during the seventeenth episode. Whitney chats with Adam Toews, an illustrator on the hit series Archer. Adam works at Floyd County Productions, an Atlanta-based animation studio. They discuss Adam’s career, his work on Archer, and how Atlanta is becoming a bigger animation venue.

Show Notes

Adam’s last name is pronounced “taves,” although it’s spelled like “toes.” He will answer to both.

Adam works at Floyd County Productions on Archer and he was the art director on He started in animation for Cartoon Network’s Squidbillies, Aquateen Hunger Force, and even Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law.

Whitney and Adam talk about how animators are versatile artists.

Atlanta is a hub for animators and is becoming one of the new centers for animation in the US.

Adult Swim is probably one of the reasons why Atlanta is becoming an animation hotspot.

Adam got into animation through an internship he had at Turner Broadcasting (Cartoon Network). He was impressed by the casual dress code and they played good music. He also got really great animation experience.

His first job was at Radical Axis, an Atlanta-based animation studio, where he worked on Squidbillies and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Adam recommends brand new animators start out at a smaller studio, because you get work on all tasks on the pipeline.

The wonderful story about how Adam got to work on Archer is explained.

Archer is described as if James Bond met Arrested Development, the classic office comedy that just happens to be an international spy ring.

Whitney disliked the first two episodes of Archer, but after the third she was hooked. It was due to the character’s complexities and their bizarre approach to a the usually serious spy drama.

Adam and Whitney praise the animation style and how it so different from its contemporary mature cartoons, i.e. The Simpsons, American Dad, and Family Guy.

Each person in Archer’s animation staff has an important function and Adam explain each role in detail, including his own as an illustrator.

All of Archer’s key animation is done using Adobe Illustrator.

The show’s writer Adam Reed is like a unicorn in the mists, he appears one day with scripts and then disappears again.

This was recorded on a Friday night, so a few of Adam’s co-workers came to visit, Kim Feigenbaum and Adam Forbes. But due to craziness and recording difficulties, their pieces had to be edited out.

Adam does share that the Atlanta, Georgia animation community is like a family and how during the deadlines you can learn more about yourself and make some really strong friendships.

Also he declares that dance parties are fun.

Hello and welcome to sixteenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Have you ever wondered what happened to kid voice actors when they grow up? Whitney Grace has! After watching Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book, Whitney wondered what happened to Mowgli. It turns out that Mowgli is Bruce Reitherman, son of Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, one Disney’s Nine Old Men! Bruce was more than happy to discuss his experiences voicing Mowgli and growing up at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in the 1960s.

Show Notes

Bruce voiced Mowgli in The Jungle Book and he is also the son of Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men.

Growing up in the Disney Studios was like being alive during the Renaissance.

Some of his earliest memories include that it was a very family oriented place and some of the people he ran into.

Whitney praises the Ink and Paint Club.

Bruce delves into the creativity he witnessed at the studio, including how individuals added to the big picture.

Woolie took over the art department after Walt Disney passed away. He was always eager to go to work everyday, was a great father, intelligent, and talented.

Bruce stresses that all animators had the same attributes as his father and this made them great animators able to capture the illusion of life.

Woolie was in charge of the Xerox age of Disney animation.

Whitney loves this era, because you can see the original pencil sketches and the animation process. Bruce gives a history of the Xerox process, why Disney implemented it, and what he enjoys about this animation process.

Bruce talks about his experience voicing Mowgli in The Jungle Book and the fun he had.

Whitney wonders how The Jungle Book changed from the original concept and Bruce explains how Disney was interested in making an enjoyable character film and take it in a new direction from the original story.

When Bruce got the Mowgli role, he wasn’t a child actor. His dad needed a regular voice from a regular kid and Bruce was in the right place: living under the same roof as Woolie Reitherman.

Bruce shares his views on Mowgli’s different relationships with the animals.

Whitney wanted Mowgli to go back to the jungle and live, while Bruce likes the ending where Mowgli goes back to the man village.

He likes this ending, because it shows that Mowgli accepts growing up.

Bruce “wants to be like you!” and he has never seen The Jungle Book 2.

Hello and welcome to fifteenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. During research for her book on Lotte Reiniger, Whitney was using the British Film Institute’s website for information. She came across some great animation information, not just about Reiniger, but also about British animation. Jez Stewart in the BFI’s Animation Animation Curator and during this interview he discusses British animation history, the BFI’s animation holdings, and other fun facts about working in a renowned film archive.

Show Notes

Jez Stewart is the Animation Curator at the British Film Institute (BFI) and he has worked there for fourteen years.

He started as an acquisitions assistant and slowly his worked his way up to his current position. Jez describes his work at a mixture of “spreadsheets and boxes of delights.”

He works with all the old goodies, including some of the earliest animated films ever made.

Jez explains the decomposition of old film stock and how they must store some films at very cold temperatures.

The BFI is the UK’s lead body of film, created in 1933, and its purpose is to ensure that all moving images are preserved, shared with people, and exhibit British culture.

The BFI’s collection scope if very large. They have work from studios that closed down, wanted to clean out their closets, and more. A large portion of the work is commercial, but they also include material from feature films and other entertainment venues.

Housed in the archive is Bob Godfrey’s work, WWI films that make fun of the Kaiser, public information films, the Halas and Batchelor films (they made Animal Farm).

Jez explains some of the ways the BFI preserves the films and how the BFI decides to share the material. One of the worst roadblocks is copyright.

British animation has gone up and down in the amount of popularity. It was very big in the 1950s when TV was new, then the funding dried up. Channel 4 money helped animation flourish again in the 1980s-1990s, but then it dried up again.

Aardman Studios, which made the Wallace and Gromit series and Shaun the Sheep, is the most well-known British animator.

Jez is also a fan of Michael Please, Harry Harlow, and others.

A lot of British animation exported to the US are children’s shows.

Whitney and Jez discuss how foreign feature films are viewed in the US and the UK. They also discuss how sometimes restoration can ruin a film’s integrity and how sometimes there is no school like the old school.

The BFI is trying to put more content on the Internet and share more animation film packages to share with audiences, and Jez wants to write a history of British animation.

Whitney and Jez both want to see more animation from British animators, especially a feature film.

Hello and welcome to fourteenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney is joined by animator, director, writer, and producer Jai Husband. Jai comes from a great animation legacy, his father is famous Walt Disney animator Ron Husband. Growing up in the animation industry inspired Jai to pursue animation as his own career. Jai has been successful so far with is own projects inspired by African-American culture. He directed Kasha and the Zulu King, but even more exciting is that he is working on an African princess trilogy with his dad!

Show Notes

Jai is a second-generation animator; his father was Walt Disney animator Ron husband. Since Jai grew up in the animation industry it feels very normal to him, while someone, like Whitney, geeks out when he describes his childhood.

Jai’s dad gave him advice, but didn’t hinder his individual creativity. Jai’s first animation job was in Disney’s CAPS department and he wanted to stay on at Disney, but his mom asked him to return to college.

Straight out of college, Jai was hired by Turner Broadcasting and he now has his own company where he produces his own and other people’s projects.

While Jai was at Turner, his show The Fabulous Ambitions of Vaughn Chocolat Éclair, starring RuPaul, got picked up by a new channel called Super Deluxe. However, Turner pulled the plug.

Jai left Turner, so he could have more creative control over his ideas and BET also wanted him to make a show.

Going out on his own wasn’t an easy decision for Jai, but wanted to try, even if he failed. He succeeded, however, and won a NAACP award.

Jai wrote his Academy Award speech when he was twelve-years old and he plans to still use it someday.

He formed his own studio in Atlanta, because he went to college in the city, had a job at Turner, he wanted to step away from his father’s legacy, and he wanted to live in an area with stronger African-American ties.

Kasha and the Zulu King is a South African take on The Prince and the Pauper. Jai wanted to make a movie with characters that have very colorful skin tones, ranging from light to dark.

Whitney and Jai want to see more animated characters from diverse ethnicities. They go into details about beauty aesthetics from different cultures.

Jai and Ron are working on an animated trilogy, starring African princesses. They are researching individual African cultures for inspiration.

Whitney recommends Jai watch Michael Ocelot’s Kirikou and the Sorceress, another animated film inspired by Africa.

The African princess trilogy will have a Disney look, because Ron worked at the Walt Disney Company for years, but it will also contain influences from some of his favorite styles.

Jai discusses his own individual style and how he pulls from other sources.

He hopes to release the films sometime in 2017 or 2018.

Hello and welcome to thirteenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. If you are listening to this podcast, you’ve probably considered becoming an animator at some point. The traditional method is to attend a university animation program, but higher education isn’t necessarily the correct route for everyone. There are dozens of online programs dedicated to teaching 3D animation, but there is only one that focuses on the

traditional, hand drawn method. Rick Pickens discusses his animation career and his new animation program: “Animation in 12 BLANK Lessons.”

Show Notes

Rick worked in animation in 1987 at the same company as Doug TenNapel when digital animation started to gain traction.

He’s worked away from the animation industry for some years, but he continues to be involved with teaching, puppetry, training courses, and his own projects.

Whitney and Rick both agree that we are now on the edge of a new animation boom and it’s fantastic and exciting!

Joe Murray was the animator who branched out and tried to form his own content platform. It was called KaboingTV.

The cartoons today are radically different from anything ever created before and people want to see new and different things.

One of the reasons Rick created his program is that he wants to see more cartoons and he wants to give people the opportunity to make them.

Rick explains that it’s better to start the process now then waiting.

He’s helping potential animation students get their feet wet by creating an online course through Udemy called “Animation in 12 BLANK Steps” and he also has a free online course.

Rick based his program’s name on Bob Heath’s book, Animation in Twelve Hard Steps.

What makes his program different from other animation programs is that it takes a student through the entire animation pipeline, ending with a finished project they can share.

“Animation in 12 BLANK Steps” is designed for fans of traditional, 2D animation. You need to bring a desire to create something with old-fashioned drawing tools or a drawing program on your tablet.

The program isn’t a deep dive into technique, but rather to carry through your idea and finish a project.

Whitney has psychic powers, not really. When she looks at people’s artwork, she can tell who has influenced them.

If you want to be animator or a comic book artist/writer, the way to do it these days is to get in it now!

Rick declares, “Let’s go make some funny cartoons!”

Hello and welcome to twelfth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney has a treat for all listeners today! Not only does she interview the fantastic voice actress Veronica Taylor, famous for her role as Ash Ketchum on Pokemon, Astroblast, Welcome to the Wayne!, and Mofy, but she speaks with Raina Taylor. Raina is Veronica’s uber cool daughter, so this episode is a first for the show: a mother-daughter interview. Veronica discusses her career and Raina shares her input on having a voice actress mom.

Show Notes

For the first time ever on the podcast, Whitney interviews a mother-daughter duo!

Veronica has always been an actress and went to college for acting.

Raina was never starstruck having her mom being a recognized voice actress. It was very normal for her, although they do funny voices around the house all the time.

Veronica’s first go into voice over dubbing for anime. Her first big role was Amelia from Slayers, then she became the voice of the kid who has to be the very best: Ash Ketchum from Pokemon.

Veronica loves acting, no matter if she’s dubbing or voice over in English. She wants to make the character come to life.

Raina thinks her mom does an awesome job every time and Veronica likes having Raina help her practice.

She got the role of Ash, because the same production company that distributed Slayers in the US also had the license for Pokemon. All she knew about the series is that one episode gave kids seizures in Japan.

Raina is very down to Earth when it comes to being the daughter of an iconic character. It’s also great to make her laugh.

Whitney thinks Ash’s Pokemon trainer skills are lacking, but Veronica begs to differ as he follows his heart.

The differences for voicing Ash in a movie and in an episode is that for the first few movies it was in an actual movie studio and the sessions were bigger, but later they were similar for recording episodes.

Veronica and Raina both voiced the Pokemon Sentret, while Veronica also did Diglett and a few others.

Raina and Veronica were both in the movie The Boy Who Wanted to be a Bear. She remembers her mother read the lines for her when they were in the studio. This happened when she was a very young, so spends a lot more time reading than behind the mic now.

Raina is a John Green fan!

Raina’s favorite Pokemon is Charmander and Evee, while Veronica likes Pikachu, Lapras, and Treecko. While they think Jigglypuff and Mr. Mime are weird.

She was the voice of Ash for eight years before Pokemon USA replaced the cast with new people.

Veronica’s favorite memories associated with Pokemon is that she was pregnant with her daughter during the first season and she so happy to play such a positive character.

It’s not hard for her to transition between characters as long as she has a solid hook in the character.

Raina loves that her mom plays a cute little bunny character.

Raina doesn’t want to be a voice actress, but she wants to do something related to the arts or an accountant.

Veronica is evading her taxes! No, they both declare peace and to eat healthy!

Hello and welcome to eleventh episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney had the pleasure of interviewing a legendary actor of screen and stage, the incomparable Ed Asner. Asher is famous for not only playing Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but he has lent his voice to many animated shows and movies. You might recognize him as Hudson on Gargoyles, Granny Good from the DC Animated Universe, and as Carl Fredricksen from Up. He even tells Whitney he hates her spunk to her delight!

Show Notes

Ed Asner has a prolific career ranging over fifty years, including Broadway, TV, movies, and more.

He was the voice of Carl Fredicksen on Up, he was also on Freakazoid!, Captain Planet, Gargoyles, Spider-Man, and Batman: The Animated Series.

The villain on Batman scared Whitney as a child.

He started out as a radio actor and when he switched over to visual performances, Ed had to retrain himself on using his voice.

They talk about the weather, the various places where Ed has lived, and how he dislikes New York.

On Gargoyles, Ed was intimidated by his fellow voice actors because of their talent. The show had a great staff and he especially notes Greg Weisman as a writer.

Ed sings the Jeopardy theme as Whitney searches for a number.

He loved playing Granny Good from the DC Animated Universe.

When he plays a villain, Ed draws influences from the characters in the Dick Tracy comics.

Carl Fredricksen wasn’t specifically made for Ed, he had to audition like everyone else.

Ed says that avuncular is the best way to describe old grumps.

The entire recording session for Up lasted about six to eight sessions totaling about four-six hours each.

Ed took a big spill in the Pixar recording room, but he went back to work without a problem.

Actors are regular people who love to play certain parts and indulge in certain character traits, but they especially love to keep people surprised.

Ed thinks of Up as a double love story, the first is with Ellie and the other is when Russell.

He wishes that dogs and cats could communicate with humans like Dug in the movie.

They talk about Up’s emotional impact on people and on Ed himself.

Ed says that he is most like Carl Fredricksen out of all the characters he has voiced.

We end the interview with a drug PSA.

Hello and welcome to tenth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. At the mention of the name Rankin-Bass, it probably stirs up nostalgic Christmas memories of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, A Year Without a Santa Claus, and other holiday specials using stop-motion puppetry. While Rankin-Bass might be best known for its Christmas specials, it was actually a major animation and film studio that produced many popular animated series and movies. The problem is that Rankin-Bass’ story is waiting to be told. Documentary maker John Brickley and Rankin-Bass historian Rich Goldschmidt have combined their forces to make The Enchanted World of Rankin-Bass documentary, chronicling the studio’s story from beginning to end.