Happy New Year!
(November, 2014) Feb, 2015
Happy New Year!
[Holiday Card Courtesy of Cartoon Saloon]
Forgive the few months of silence but Cartoon Saloon has had a few very busy months, which took us right through the holiday season.
Director Tomm Moore & Producer Paul Young (THE SECRET OF KELLS, SONG OF THE SEA) came to LA for a variety of events including LA’s premiere of SONG.
November began with Animation Magazine’s Animation Summit where Paul joined this year’s prestigious Oscar panel.
[From L to R: (Moderator) Ramin Zahed, (HTTYD2) Dean DeBlois, (BOXTROLLS) Graham Annabel & Tony Stacchi, (THE BOOK OF LIFE) Jorge Gutierrez, (SONG OF THE SEA) Paul Young.]
GKIDS’ Head of Distribution, Dave Jesteadt, came in from NY to join a formidable panel on independent film distribution.
[From L to R: (Moderator) yours truly, (GKIDS) Dave Jesteadt, (Shout! Factory) Melissa Boag, (SC Films International) Simon Crowe.]
Tomm flew in the following day to attend The Hollywood Reporter Animation Roundtable.
Other panelists included, Bonnie Arnold (HTTYD2), Travis Knight (BOXTROLLS), Don Hall (Big Hero 6), Dan Lin (THE LEGO MOVIE) and Jorge Gutierrez (THE BOOK OF LIFE).
[The Hollywood Reporter Roundtable]
Tomm and Paul then attended AMPAS’ Governors Awards which presented Maureen O’Hara, Jean-Claude Carriere and the legendary Hayao Miyazaki with an honorary Oscar® “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”
[Paul, Tomm, John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki]
On Feb 9th, SONG OF THE SEA premiered at the iconic Egyptian Theatre (& Feb 12th at Mann’s Chinese 3) to an absolutely packed audience where, afterwards, Tomm & Paul entertained the crowd with a Q&A.
[AFI SONG premiere + Q&A at the historic Egyptian with Tomm & Paul]
Red Carpet photo courtesy of the AFI: L to R – Michael Sinterniklaas, Chris O Dowd, Dave Jesteadt, Paul Young, Tomm Moore and yours truly.
[AFI post screening celebration with Irish Animation Rock-stars.]
Paul had to head back home and Tomm & I then began to expand the West coast tour where, in addition to screening SONG, we brought along Alan Holly’s beautiful short film, CODA.
[CODA, one of the 10 shortlisted films of 2014-15, by And Maps And Plans – Alan Holly & Ciaran Deeney.)
CODA is not a Cartoon Saloon-affiliated film but it is an Irish Film Board Short, was one of the 10 shortlisted films, and Alan Holly is a friend of The Saloon (having worked as an animator on both THE SECRET OF KELLS and Cartoon Saloon’s poem ON LOVE for Roger Aller’s film, THE PROPHET). We were happy to bring this beautiful short along with us to screen as a double [Irish] billing.
February 13th, first on our tour, was the incredibly talented and receptive crew of PDI.
As of this post, we are all heartbroken to hear of the news of the closing of PDI and the layoffs at DW. We know how gifted the entire crew is and our best wishes (and hearts) go out to them.
[PDI.]
The following day, we headed to Pixar where we had an amazing screening and truly wonderful day, thrilled to be amongst old and new friends.
[Pixar]
On the 15th, we only had a half day before we had to leave for the airport…
We had to practically RUN through the Walt Disney Family Museum (where, among a plethora of interesting things, we discovered Walt Disney’s ancestry traces back to – of all places, Kilkenny!). We also ran over to the Cartoon Art Museum.
Holy Moly, those two places are San Francisco GOLD!
[Walt Disney Family Museum]
[Cartoon Art Museum, Photo courtesy of McCalls]
We are thrilled to be exhibiting works from both KELLS and SONG late February at The Cartoon Art Museum (more info TBA) and it was wonderful having a chance to meet with the museum’s curator to work out the logistics of the exhibit.
If you’re in the vicinity of the Bay Area from the end of Feb thru June (or so), please come by. We will update with finalized details coming soon, check out the Cartoon Saloon website and also Cartoon Art Museum’s.
On Monday the 17th, SONG screened for Paramount’s animation department — which started another packed week…
Tuesday, we headed to Nickelodeon for another screening and Q&A and that evening a screening (and Q&A) at the NoHo 7 for our friends at ASIFA-Hollywood.
[ASIFA-Hollywood NoHo Screening & Q+A]
Sony Pictures Imageworks hosted us on the Wednesday and Tomm got a chance to chat with his Samurai Jack hero, Genndy Tartakovsky.
[Tomm & Genndy]
We also had a lovely tour of Sony’s autograph walls (amazing!), where Tomm had signed for KELLS & years later, Benjamin Renner signed for ERNEST & CELESTINE…
[Our friend, Uli’s…]
[And, Otomo’s!]
On Thursday, we screened at both Disney Toons and Disney Feature and in the audience were fellow contenders (and as of this posting, fellow nominees & friends of The Saloon – Directors of BH6), Chris & Don.
[BH6 Directors, Chris Williams & Don Hall]
We also got an amazing in-depth studio lot tour by friend, Disney Legend (& fellow 2D Animation Vet), Tony Anselmo.
[Tony]
Our friends Stephanie and Michael of NYAV Post also recorded extra commentary for SONG while Tomm was in town. Thanks for squeezing us in, guys!
[Tomm recording for the DVD extras…]
We then joined our friend Stuart Ng at CTN for a book signing of DESIGNING THE SECRET OF KELLS…
[Book Signing]
We then had a packed screening of SONG (which, rumor has it, may have been the most well-attended event of the expo!).
[Panoramic, CTN SONG screening]
We also attended a panel on THE PROPHET with (our friend & colleague) Writer & Director, Roger Allers. Cartoon Saloon’s poem, ON LOVE was shown and Tomm, along with other colleagues who participated in the film, joined Roger on stage to discuss next year’s film (to be distributed by GKIDS).
[The Prophet panel]
[The Prophet Crew]
On Monday, we received a wonderful screening reception from our very dear friends at DreamWorks and were invited to a lovely luncheon afterwards…
Again, we were heartbroken by the news of the closures and layoffs and our heartfelt best wishes go out to our friends & colleagues at DW & PDI.
Their artists cross-over talent in both 2D & 3D is exemplary– and their appreciation and genuine support for independent filmmaking is heartfelt.
[DW]
As were then headed to Portland, our Danish producer, Claus, shared the film at Titmouse…
Before Tomm & I flew to Portland, we were treated to a very special evening at the Disney Musical Hall: A David Oreilly Retrospective at the REDCAT.
[REDCAT]
On Tuesday, Nov 25th we arrived in beautiful Portland and screened for LAIKA.
As always, we had a lovely visit and then in the evening we had an ASIFA-Portland screening at Cinema 21.
[ASIFA-Portland]
We then went out with some friends before we called it a night.
Thank you, Portland.
[L to R: Evgeni Tomov, Chris Butler, Joan Gratz, Tomm Moore & yours truly]
And that concludes November…
Stay tuned for my December post and our amazing NY Premier…
Thx!!
jkb | Cartoon Saloon-US
[Didier Brunner on the red carpet.]
[The Salooners on the red carpet…]
