Tony Benedict's "The Last Cartoonery"

If you grew up loving Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, or The Pink Panther, you may find this new documentary very interesting.  Legendary animation writer Tony Benedict has a pet project about his days with Hanna-Barbera and DePatie Freling, called The Last Cartoonery. He is going the Kickstarter route for funding, and talked to FLIP about the project and the good old days.

Joe Barbera and Tony Benedict with Yogi Bear storyboard.
Photo from Benedict's The Last Cartoonery site.

FLIP:  The Last Cartoonery - Who is doing this?

Tony: The Last Cartoonery is being done by me as producer, writer, animator and director. Music by Alan Bernhoft.

FLIP: Is there much film footage from your Hanna Barbera days?  Are you looking for material (film, photos, artwork, stories) for the film?

Tony: In the glory days of early Hanna–Barbera, fellow cartoon guy Jerry Eisenberg and I shot a lot of film and still photos around the studio. We also drew lots of gags and caricatures. Lots of photo and film restoration. We have designed caricatures of Bill and Joe to animate along with caricatures of other studio folk. We are animating gags created nearly sixty years ago. It's a labor of love. No one will get rich off this film but among animation fans I feel it will be well received.

My World and Welcome to It

Actor William Windom died Thursday at the age of 88.  He appeared in a mountain of work in features and television. Depending on your fan allegiances, you may best remember him from The Twilight Zone, or The Farmer's Daughter, Star Trek, or Murder, She Wrote.  But for me, it's My World and Welcome To It.

I was seven years old when it premiered in the fall of 1969, and even though it ran only one season, it really stuck with me. Based on the humor of The New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber, the show had segments combining live action and animation with a Thurber-esque design produced by DePatie-Freling.

Through the magic of the internet, clips from the show were easy to find.  It's a bit mind-blowing to see it again after 42 years, and to see that indeed it had some influence on a my young, future animator self.

-Steve