Thinking back on Roger Rabbit turning 20 this year,it spawned a lot of new work and new movies. After Ralph Bakshi got the funding to make Cool World, he said to me and Dave Spafford - Thank God for that F**kin Rabbit!!


Jacques Muller scene

But what of the artists? I was reminded of what a great crew that was. And what happened to them?

Don Hahn, Andreas Deja, Nik Ranieri, Jacques Muller, Raul Garcia, Dorse Lanpher, Vera Lanpher and James Baxter returned to LA to work for Disney. Others went with Dick to work on the Thief, and many others were organized by Robert Watts and Steven Speilberg into Amblimation Studio. In 1995, Amblimation was brought to LA to become part of the nucleus of Dreamworks Animation.

James Baxter of course created the animation of Rafiki, Quasimodo and the animated parts of Enchanted and the Furious Five in Kung Fu Panda.

Simon Wells and Phil Nibbelink directed American Tale II Fieval Goes West. Simon went on to DreamWorks and co-directed Prince of Egypt and directed The Time Machine. Phil led the animation team on ILM's llive action Casper movie, and animated an entire film by himself- Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss.

Raul Garcia directed an award winning short The Telltale Heart, and is about to premiere his feature The Missing Lynx.

Roger Chiasson now is co owner with his brothers Claude and Pierre of the Canadian studio Yowza.

Uli Meyer and Chuck Gammage also head successful animation studios.

Dave Spafford and Dale Baer had successful studios for a time.

Mark Kausler animated for Disney and on the first season of Ren & Stimpy.

Max Howard organized Disney Orlando, Warner Bros Animation and produced Igor.

David Bowers co-directed Flushed Away, and is now directing Astro Boy.

Rob Stevenhagen is a co-director of Tales of Despereaux.

Steve Hickner worked at Disney, Amblimation, DW co-directed Prince of Egypt and Joseph.

Howie Parkins became an top director on the Simpsons.

Shelley Page did BGs for Amblimation, then to Dreamworks as a recruiter, and now she has a neat gig flying around the world doing recruiting for DW.

I noticed our Production Person, Patsy DeLord, credited on hit films like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.

Roy Naisbitt, who worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the Thief, is now retired, I believe.

Bridgette Hartley, John McCarthy, Joe Ranft and Stan Green have passed away.

Of course, there were many more people I didn't mention, but were there also. Joe Haidar, Pete Western, Roger Way, Pete Gambier, Irene Coulofilis, Elaine Koo, Hugh Workman, Cal Leduc, Rej Bourdage, Paul Steele, Sylvia Pompeii, Alain Costa, Mark Gordon Bates, Alan Simpson, Keith & Emma, Nik Fletcher, Chris Knott, Holly Haidar, Alvaro Gaivoto, Rob Newman, Gary Mudd and many, many more. Poor Roger, Jessica and Baby Herman never got their sequel, but we all got many chapters added to our careers. As they had told us, Your Futures are Assured!

Back at our Premiere at Radio City Music Hall, Robert Zemeckis marveled at the close-knit nature of the animation crews. It is one of the positives of our business. I recall fondly my Raggedy Crew, my Osmosis Crew, my Nelvana crew, my Beauty & Beast crew.

But I will always remember our Disney UK crew, the denizens of Camden Town. In spirit here's another Pint raised to you at the Edinburgh Castle, another burger at Ruby in the Dust, another Chef in the Box! Ppppuhhhlease!!

Raul Garcia Scene

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Question: In the 1930’s, most of the Hollywood studio moguls were Jewish. Only one was not. Who was it?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Did a Nazi ever head the United Nations?
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HISTORY FOR 12/3/2008
Birthdays: French King Charles VI the Well-Loved 1380, Gilbert Stuart, Sven Nykvist, Joseph Conrad real name Josef Korzeniowski, Jean Luc Godard is 78, Nino Rota- film composer, Jim Backus- voice of Mr Magoo, Maria Callas, Larry Parks, Charles Pillsbury, Mitsuo Fuchida the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, Darryl Hannah is 48, Katerina Witt, Brendan Fraser is 40, Julianne Moore is 48,Amanda Siebert is 23, Andrew Stanton is 43.

Happy Ozzy Day! Ozzie Ozbourne is 60- ”I never set out to be a businessman. I just wanted to have fun, f—k chicks and do drugs.”

749AD- This is the Feast of Saint John Damascene. He’s the saint who’s called the Father of Christian Art, because he theologically argued a way for artists to avoid the “Graven Images “ hitch in the Ten Commandments and make paintings of Jesus and the Saints.

1919- Impressionist painter Pierre August Renoir died of old age. Suffering from arthritis that left him unable to paint with his hands, Renoir used a bit that held the brush in his teeth.

1925- GEORGE GERSHWIN PLAYS CARNEGIE HALL. Gershwin always wanted to be taken seriously as a composer and not just a Tin Pan Alley pop-song writer. While in Paris he met Maurice Ravel, but instead of giving him advice Ravel said: "You make HOW much from your songs? Maybe I should learn from you!" When he asked to be Arnold Schoenberg's pupil, Schoenburg told him :" Why do you want to be a bad Schoenburg when you're already such a good Gershwin?"

1931- Happy Birthday Alka Seltzer!

1934- Lee Blair, Disney artist and brother of Preston Blair, Disney artist, married Mary Browne Robinson, Disney artist. She became the most famous of them as Mary Blair.

1941- After clandestine diplomatic initiatives to raise the U.S. oil and steel embargoes fail, The Japanese High Command radios it's carrier fleet out in the Pacific: "Climb Mount Niitaka". This code meant go forward with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nagumo orders resumption of radio silence and turns his fleet South-SouthWest towards Hawaii.

1944- A Nazi newspaper published on this day features a photo of a young Austrian S.S. officer with his commander in Greece. After the war the commander was hanged as a war criminal. The young man became Secretary General of the United Nations, President of Austria, and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize- Kurt Waldheim.

1956- British and French forces evacuate Egypt, where they had been since 1799.

1967- Dr. Christiaan Barnard of Capetown performed the first heart transplant.

1968- Elvis Presley opened in Las Vegas to rave reviews and packed houses. It marks the beginning of his comeback and his transition from thin, black leather-jacketed youth to fat, rhinestone jumpsuit, half tinted sunglasses, karate-swinging middle age.

1974-A 40 foot long inflated pig broke away from its’ tether at a Pink Floyd photo shoot and became a hazard to civil aviation. The AeroPork was lost to radar at an altitude of 8,000 feet.

1984- An accident at a Union Carbide facility in Bhopal, India filled the air with poison methyl isocynate gasses that killed 10,000 people and blinds or otherwise injured a further 200,000. Saintly Mother Theresa shows a controversial side of her nature when she publicly encouraged Indians to accept the disaster as God’s Will. No one from Union Carbide was ever tried or convicted for the tragedy.

1991- Hulk Hogan defeated Undertaker to become WWF champ for the 4th time.

1997 – 56 year old Darlene Gillespie, an original member of the Mickey Mouse Club, was busted in LA for a securities fraud scheme. She later developed multiple schlerosis.

1997-Basketball star Latrell Sprewell lost his $32 million contract with the Golden State Warriors for trying to strangle his coach P.J. Carlesino. So he goes to the NY Knicks.

2004-The Ukranian Supreme Court ruled the recent presidential election invalid. Moscow and hardline Kiev Gov’t supported Victor Januscowicz followers committed widespread acts of voter fraud, then suppressed any news reports. The story was revealed to the world by a heroic sign language translator for the deaf. While the state approved news anchor reported the elections on the evening news the translator, Tania Dmitriovna, signed “EYERYTHING YOU HAVE JUST HEARD IS A LIE! YUSCHENKO IS OUR TRUE PRESIDENT! THIS IS PROBABLY THE LAST TIME YOU WILL EVER SEE ME..” The word spread spawned weeklong mass demonstrations and international pressure that compelled the government to redo the election.
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Yesterday’s Question: Did a Nazi ever head the United Nations?

Answer: Dr. Kurt Waldheim was Secretary General of the United Nations 1972-1981 and President of Austria 1986-1992. As a young man, he was an officer in the Wehrmacht (The Nazi Army) in occupied Greece and Yugoslavia. He insisted he was drafted and did nothing to be ashamed of. But his unit hanged resistance fighters and his commander was prosecuted as a war criminal. See above, 1944