Joanna Quinn named 2013 ASIFA Laureate Recipient

Congratulations to Joanna Quinn for being the 2013 ASIFA Laureate Recipient.

Nancy Denny-Phelps, Joanna Quinn
and Barry Purvis (r to l).

From the ASIFA International webpage:

"Each year ASIFA honours a person who has made a significant contribution to animation over an extended period of time."

According to ASIFA International President Ed Desroches, the award for the previous year is usually presented to the recipient at the Annecy Animation Festival in June, however, this year it was presented at the 2014 Bradford Animation Festival in the United Kingdom. Very appropriate as this particular year, one that saw the posthumous 100th birthday of the U.K.'s Joy Batchelor, the BAF had performed a short poll about the changing expectations on women in animation/gaming. You can see the results in the article "Who leads the way for the modern, adventurous and intelligent animated female characters?" on their website.

You can read more about Joanna's career and the award on the ASIFA International website in an article written by Nancy Denny-Phelps at the following link.

Joanna's website is located at Beryl Productions International Ltd and contains more about Joanna, her husband Les Mills, and their films. Worthy of note is the series of online interviews and articles about Joanna under the "Publications & Press" link. Great information for researchers! ;)

* photo from the ASIFA website.

Bee and Puppycat series premiere on November 6th

Only two more days until the series premiere of "Bee and Puppycat", created by Natasha Allegri. I'll admit, much like "Bravest Warriors", when I first watched the show, I didn't get it. Liked the wit and the character designs, but just didn't get it.

And then I heard Natasha talk about her show at the Toronto Animated Arts Festival International, what it was like to be a show creator, how the Kickstarter campaign surpassed all expectations, and now she's got a series... and I still didn't get it. Eh, had the same problem with "Bravest Warriors" when it came out. So I watched the pilot ten more times.

I still don't get the show, but it really grows on you and, much like the phrase "I am Catbug", I started hearing "you took too long, now your candy's gone... that's what happened" every time I'm standing in the checkout line at the supermarket. So now I'm looking forward to the "Bee and Puppycat" series premiere on Thursday, November 6th at Frederator Studios' Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel.

Now if I can only stop binge watching the previous seasons of "Bravest Warriors" looking for Catbug...

If you haven't seen the pilot yet, watch it below before Thursday!