One animation empire was built on a mouse, another was built on a rabbit. This one was built on the unlikely combination of a moose and squirrel. It began in the late 1940's, when Jay Ward and his lifetime friend, Alex Anderson, joined forces to create a cartoon series for the fledgling medium of television with a budget that would make "shoestring" look generous. The result was Crusader Rabbit, which debuted on a local NBC affiliate in Los Angeles in mid-summer of 1950. The cheaply produced and minimally animated series became the inauspicious and unlikely beginning of a TV animation powerhouse with a defiantly innovative-and influential-brand of humor that shaped animated comedy for decades. As the 1950's drew to a close, Ward, with now-former partner Anderson's blessing, took two characters from an unsold series they had developed together, teamed with writer Bill Scott and a couple of freelance UPA artists, and created a short pilot film starring a flying squirrel and a hapless but hilarious moose. That pilot, Rocky The Flying Squirrel, launched an animation studio that turned out the funniest, hippest and most satirical cartoons on television and creating a comic vocabulary for generations of children and their parents. The shows produced at Jay Ward Productions featured the wittiest writing in the medium, some of the best character voice work, and ... some of the worst animation. Assembling a staff of first rate writers and artists, Jay Ward was undermined by the cheapest budgets in what was already a low-budget medium. And it showed. In one of the earliest examples of runaway production, Ward was forced to send the animation out of the country. But what was happening with the art off the screen revealed a fascinating dichotomy of the brilliant draftsmanship on the drawing boards and the crude but effective work that was aired. This behind-the-scenes artwork was never meant to be seen by the general public but was merely a means to an end. Now, for the first time anywhere, we are provided an in-depth look at the comic artistry of a talented group of designers, storytellers and directors who created such fondly remembered shows as Rocky and His Friends, Fractured Fairy Tales, Peabody's Improbable History, Dudley Do-right, George of the Jungle and Super Chicken.

One animation empire was built on a mouse, another was built on a rabbit. This one was built on the unlikely combination of a moose and squirrel. It began in the late 1940's, when Jay Ward and his lifetime friend, Alex Anderson, joined forces to create a cartoon series for the fledgling medium of television with a budget that would make "shoestring" look generous. The result was Crusader Rabbit, which debuted on a local NBC affiliate in Los Angeles in mid-summer of 1950. The cheaply produced and minimally animated series became the inauspicious and unlikely beginning of a TV animation powerhouse with a defiantly innovative--and influential--brand of humor that shaped animated comedy for decades. The shows produced at Jay Ward Productions featured the wittiest writing in the medium, some of the best character voice work, and ... some of the worst animation. Assembling a staff of first rate writers and artists, Jay Ward was undermined by the cheapest budgets in what was already a low-budget medium. And it showed. But what was happening with the art off the screen revealed a fascinating dichotomy of the brilliant draftsmanship on the drawing boards and the crude but effective work that was aired. Because of the unpolished animation, people are unaware that Ward had some of the finest artists in the business working at his "Fun Factory." What was on the screen had been shaped by these artists but, due to the poor execution, was in no way indicative of their skills. Over the next half century, the artwork done for these shows would be lost, destroyed or remain hidden away in attics, closets and garages. Through persistent digging, many examples of the talents of these individuals have surfaced. Now, for the first time anywhere, we are provided an in-depth look at the comic artistry of a talented group of designers, storytellers and directors who created such fondly remembered shows as Rocky and His Friends, Fractured Fairy Tales, Dudley Do-right, George of the Jungle and Super Chicken.

For those of us who love The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, these names conjure up memories of some of the wittiest, most inspired, and relentlessly hilarious half-hours of animation ever produced. There was a kind of gleeful magic to the shows, a cumulative joy that transcended the crude animation and occasionally muddy sound, and it's this quality that was the essence of the legendary Jay Ward and Bill Scott. Jay Ward was the magnificent visionary, the outrageous showman who lobbied Washington for statehood for Moosylvania, and invited the press to a picnic on the floor of the Plaza Hotel's august Grand Ballroom. Bill Scott was the genial, brilliant head writer, coproducer, and all-purpose creative whirlwind, often described as the "soul" of the shows. In fact, Scott even provided the voices for most of the star characters, giving life to Bullwinkle J. Moose, Mr. Peabody, Dudley Do-Right, and George of the Jungle. From their tiny, oddball animation studio, Jay Ward Productions, they created some of the most memorable animation of all time, and gave birth to a family of characters whose undying popularity has cast them forever into the pop culture firmament. With their distinctively unorthodox, artist-friendly philosophy, Ward and Scott attracted some of the most talented writers and voice actors in the industry, and for a time, Jay Ward Productions was a kind of Camelot of cartoons. Now, through exclusive interviews with Bill Scott, Tiffany Ward, June Foray, and dozens of others intimately involved with the Ward epoch, as well as access to original scripts, artwork, story notes, letters, and memos, Keith Scott has created the definitive history of Jay Ward Productions, including episode guides and voice credits for all the Jay Ward cartoons. From the first "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat!" to the last "Watch out for that tree!", The Moose That Roared is not only the record of a legendary chapter in animation history, but also the story of a rare and magical relationship between two artists who were wildly, exuberantly ahead of their time, and the fascinating story of the struggle to bring their vision of bad puns and talking animals to unforgettable life.

Mr Peabody has invented the WABAC, a time-travelling machine that he and his adopted boy Sherman use to explore history. Examining the making of the DreamWorks comedy animation, this book goes behind the scenes in order to shed light on the creative process involved in bringing the film to fruition.

An updated & revised version of the previous edition on the making of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol featuring new information, over 130 new images and a soundtrack CD.

What do Franklin Roosevelt, Dr. Seuss, the U.S. Navy, and Mr. Magoo have in common? They are all part of the surprising story of the pioneering cartoon studio UPA (United Productions of America). Throughout the 1950s, a group of artists ran a business that broke all the rules, pushing animated films beyond the fluffy fantasy of the Walt Disney Studio and the crash-bang anarchy of Warner Bros. Instead, UPA’s films were innovative and graphically bold—the cartoon equivalent to modern art. When Magoo Flew is the first book-length study to chronicle the complete story of this unique American enterprise. The book features cameo appearances by Aldous Huxley, James Thurber, Orson Welles, Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Jim Backus, Eddie Albert, and Woody Allen, as well as a select filmography of the best of UPA. Ebook Edition Note: The ebook has three images redacted: figures 1, 2, and 51.

This is an exploration of the potent blend of Arthurian legend, cartoon animation, and cultural and artistic trends from 1933 to the present. In more than 170 theatrical and televised short cartoons, televised series and specials, and feature-length films from The Sword in the Stone to Shrek the Third--all covered in this book--animators have repeatedly brought the Round Table to life. Although these productions differ greatly in tone and intent--spanning spectra from comic to sober, fantastic to realistic, and entertaining to edifying--they share in the proof of Camelot's continuing relevance in the modern world.