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Happy 20th Euro CARTOON
February 21st, 2008

Twenty years ago, in a land far away...from LA, anyway........ A organization was formed in Brussels to advance and encourage European animated filmmaking. They called it CARTOON.

I was invited by my friends Jacques Muller and Shelley Page to one of the first events at the Gobelins Center in Paris in 1988. Back then Ed Jones and I were asked about a little film we had just finished called WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?. We had a press conference in a little cafe with Jacques Chirac having lunch in the next room. He wasn't French President yet, but was the Mayor of Paris. I was on my best behavior to use the silverware in the right order ( from the outside in). Then the journalist on my right from the magazine LePointe bobbled her fork and splashed us with gravy. Sito au jus! Later I got to tour the Ecole Grande Gobelins animation school and was asked by a Danish journalist if this new LITTLE MERMAID movie Disney was doing would be any good.



Since then CARTOON has held numerous events and symposia around Europe. In that time I've been invited back to be a keynote speaker at events held in Anghouleme France and Erfurt Germany.



It was a wonderful opportunity to meet a lot of animation artists from around the world and gain an understanding of the contemporary European animation scene. It makes you aware just what an international artform cartooning and animation is, and how much we cartoonists are all of the same crazy tribe. My thanks to Corrine Jeanart, Monsieur deBrocart, Tim LeBourgne and the late, great Pierre Aymar for all their great work on behalf of the organization.

BON ANNIVERSAIRE EURO/CARTOON!!

To read more about CARTOON visit their site- http://www.cartoon-media.be/


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