A Sad Watchcat Wednesday

Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of Spongebob Squarepants died on Monday after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 57. 

Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in 1984 with a degree that emphasized marine resources, and taught he marine biology at the Orange Country Marine Institute in Dana Point, now known as the Ocean Institute. 

While working there, he created colorful teaching tools that showed off his love of all things oceanic, writing and illustrating stories that birthed the future residents of Bikini Bottom. He soon found himself pursuing a degree in experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, earning an MFA in 1992.

Hillenburg worked on Nickelodeon's "Rocko's Modern Life" as a writer and director before moving he pitched, produced and directed the animated series that would become "SpongeBob SquarePants." 

Hillenburg was honored at last year's 45th annual Annie Awards with the Windsor McCay award for his career contributions of the art of animation by long time friend and the voice of SpongeBob, Tom Keeny. 

Hillenburg helped opened doors to unknown animation artists and creators, showing that you didn't have to be a Wheeler Dealer type to make an animation series. You only needed a little oddball idea with a lot of heart and humor to make something bigger for everyone to enjoy. 

Stephen Hillenburg was someone we never met up close, but on that night, we saw him receive his award and we stood to honored him as an audience.

Watchcat Birthday!

This Watchcat Wednesday lands on Gregory J. Bradley's Birthday, Co-Creator of Watchcat!

WCHD_Greg from Toondini on Vimeo.

Last weekend was the 10th annual CTNX Animation Expo and even though we didn't have a table this year, we handed out lots of Watchcat post cards in hopes of gaining more viewers.

We hope you are enjoying this blog and are amazed we have had 46,222 views and are up to 182 subscribers to our Watchcat Films channel on Youtube. 

A new Christmas short is in the works and will premiere sometime before the holiday season begins. More details to come. We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and are thankful for your viewership!

Interested in animated interviews, check out my new YouTube channel, Animateducated and subscribe.

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Top Cats

On this Watchcat Wednesday you can hear some interesting stories  from the "3 Tooners", aka Tony 
Benedict, Jerry Eisenberg and Willie Ito. Three of the last remaining Animation artists from Hanna Barbera era.

Each one has his own story to tell and they have all have remained friends after all these years. 

Listen to the Ambassador Goodtime Ear Tango Radio hour to hear some great stories about working at Disney, Master Animator Iwao Takamoto, an Errand boy who became a famous actor, Drawing with both hands at the same time and many more...

Part 1 of the show will play from Tuesday, Nov 13th until Monday, Nov 19th. Part 2 begins on Tuesday, Nov 20th until Monday, Nov 26th. Tune in at 4pm or 10pm to WU Radio.

Its CTNX's 10th anniversary and you can visit it this weekend starting on Friday, Nov 15th! Here's how to attend.


And sadly, we say goodbye to Stan Lee who passed away at 95 on Monday.

Watchcat Wednesday Upcoming Interviews

Well we hope you exercised your right to vote as a part of your privilege of being an American citizen yesterday.

I got a chance to spend some time interviewing "the 3 Tooners", also known as Tony Benedict, Jerry Eisenberg and Willie Ito. 
These three gentlemen were involved with the creation of many animated series including "The Flintstones", "The Jetson", "The Yogi Bear show", "Top Cat" and "Johnny Quest" just to name a few.

They are the last remaining artists from Hanna Barbera Productions and you can hear their animated stories in the first of two interviews beginning next Tuesday night Nov 13th at 10pm pst on the Ambassador Goodtime Ear Tango Radio hour. Here's a link to how to listen to it.

Until then, you can still listen to the Casey Robin interview playing all this week at 10pm on WU Radio. Check out this link to learn more about Casey and her interview.

November is here and its hard to believe that next week, begins CTNX and its 10th year anniversary as an animation expo. We will be attending again this year wearing our Watchcat T-Shirts, handing out more Watchcat postcards and looking for future guest for the Ear Tango show.

Stay Tuned...

Watchcat Wednesday Halloween episode

Its the Halloween Episode and you can listen to the music version beginning Tuesday Oct 30th on Woodbury University WU Radio. The show will play for a week every day from 4pm -5pm pdt and 10pm to 11pm pdt.

Below are the interviews from the show, including Preston Meyers's Kilpetto's Evil Toy Shop, Mike Wellins with his Freakybuttrue Peculiarium and Museum in Portland, OR and an interview with the makers of "Noir".

Jeremy Foley Ear Tango Interview

Listen to an interview with Jeremy Foley online at WU Radio starting Tuesday 10/23 to Monday 10/30, every night at 10pm PDT on the Ambassador Goodtime Ear Tango Radio Hour. 

Jeremy Foley began his career in front of the camera as a young actor. His first big film was "Dante's Peak" which lead to other films and TV series. He learned a lot while on set and eventually started to work on his own projects creating behind the camera.

"Mobsters" was a web series he helped produce and direct, here's a link to it from his website.   

Eventually, he began directing his own short films, beginning with a script his soon to be wife Sarah wrote called "Fated". Its a very interesting story set in a world where people are watched over and helped out to achieve their full potential. But there are some people who will never be able to do this even with extra encouragement. My explanation only tells a little bit about the story, but see the film on iTunes and watch the trailer below. 

Fated - Official Trailer from jeremy foley on Vimeo.

After "Fated", Jeremy found his next film idea in a short story that his father wrote years earlier. "The Faceless Man" is a surreal story about a man who wakes up with a mirror for a face and has to deal with his new situation. Check out the entire film below.

Tune into: 
The Halloween Episode
Tuesday 10/30 - 11/5

https://woodbury.edu/academics/resources/wu-radio/

Listen in and get into the Halloween spirit with songs, stories and an interview with the creators of "NOIR", an upcoming feature about real monsters in Hollywood.

The "Ambassador Goodtime EarTango Radio hour" plays music and interviews based on a theme. New shows can be heard every Tuesday night and repeated every night at 10pm pdt thru WU Radio. 


All interviews will be posted to the new Animateducated 
YouTube channel for all to hear at a later date. Subscribe now and listen!

The Ear Tango show is on at 10pm pdt.

The "Ambassador Goodtime EarTango Radio hour" plays music and interviews based on a theme. New shows can be heard every Tuesday night and repeated every night at 10pm pdt thru WU Radio. All interviews will be posted to the new Animateducated YouTube channel for all to hear at a later date. Subscribe now and listen!

This week's interview is about David Dodd Hand, who was Walt Disney's right hand man. He later created his own animation studio in England and here's one about a cat.

There's a new YouTube channel Animateducated features an interview with Mindy Johnson about her new book, Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney's Animation.

Also listen to Animator and Producer, Jane Baer tell how she first got into Disney and started working on Sleeping Beauty.

Check out the video podcast below...

If you enjoyed this, subscribe to animateducated to see more when they are posted.

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