Animals

In its season’s first family concert presentation — French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ celebrated “Carnival of the Animals” at the Alex Theatre in Glendale — the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra proved that not only can music soothe the savage beast, it can engage a youngster’s enthusiasm so completely, you wonder why public schools leave it off the curriculum menu in the first place. Part of the orchestra’s regular season, three family concerts are presented each year in an effort, spokeswoman Nicolette Atkins said, to “make music as accessible as possible to children.

Glendale residents and Disney studio animators Jennifer and Bert Klein have not just paid tribute to their founding father with the release of their own new animated short film, “Pups of Liberty.” The strength of their artistic vision was validated earlier this week when they received an Annie Award nomination for Best Animated Short Subject. Annies are equivalent to Oscars for the animated cognoscenti. When Walt Disney released “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937, he defied critics who labeled the effort “Disney’s Folly,” and garnered the first Academy Award for an animated movie that is still ranked 49th on the American Film Institute’s list of “100 Best Films of All Time,” and launched a studio dynasty that defined the art of animation.

BURBANK — Hundreds waited for hours at the most crowded dog vaccination clinic in the Burbank Animal Shelter’s history Saturday, with many hoping to take advantage of low fees, they said. Animal control officers had to order more vaccines to keep up with the high demand for shots during the two-hour clinic, which ran long after the planned 11 a.m. ending time as pet owners, their dogs in tow, continued to join the line at the headquarters of the Burbank Police and Fire departments.

There is no doubt that Burbank has staked its claim as the entertainment capital of the world. Since the 1920s, some of the most classic films and iconic television shows ever projected or broadcast have been produced within the city’s borders. From “Casablanca,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Mary Poppins” to “The Mickey Mouse Club,” and the Johnny Carson and Jay Leno-hosted versions of “The Tonight Show,” Burbank has served as fertile ground for the imagination, creativity and technology that through the camera’s lens has made the world think, learn, laugh and cry. While a list of all the films and shows produced in Burbank would fill this entire paper, there is one production that has been more closely associated with the city than any other — “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

BURBANK ? The first Creative Talent Network Animation Expo kicked off Friday at the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Burbank, drawing hundreds of students and professionals for an exhibition in a region that is widely acknowledged as the animation capital of the world. The event featured seminars from innovators like ?Hellboy? comic book creator Mike Mignola and entrepreneurial animator Don Bluth, who split off from major studios to create ?The Secret of NIMH.? The event was an opportunity for animators to learn from industry pioneers, while also promoting their own work, said Tina Price, who founded the Creative Talent Network.

SARA AND HARLEY Sara, 12, is a spayed female yellow Labrador retriever. Harley, 10, is a spayed female Dalmatian. They grew up together and were recently relinquished by their owner. They are both friendly and still quite active. Harley loves Sara but does not like other animals. Harley is also deaf. If you are interested in meeting them, contact the Burbank Animal Shelter and inquire about ID No. A006561 & A006556. The animal shelter is at 1150 N. Victory Place, Burbank.

BURBANK — As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other toxic chemicals, stories of ill health from the plaintiffs are beginning to emerge. In the latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Sacramento-based firm Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP on behalf of 16 people with strong ties to the Rancho District, the plaintiffs claim Disney dumped wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the so-called Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel near the studio’s Imagineering facilities.

Textbooks aren?t supposed to have personality. They aren?t supposed to be casual or friendly, welcoming a reader to investigate an unfamiliar subject. Textbooks are supposed to be rigid and factual. The late Walt Stanchfield didn?t seem to adhere to the usual textbook rules, though. During his 60-year career in animation, Stanchfield developed a penchant for thinking ? and drawing ? outside the box. While working for Disney in the 1970s and ?80s, he successfully established weekly drawing classes for young animators and other interested artists to learn from his experience.

PASADENA — A Nickelodeon Studios animator was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for committing lewd acts on a 14-year-old boy and showing him pornography. Judge Lisa Lench ordered Ezel Channel, 36, of Tarzana, to serve 16 months in prison for the molestation and for violating a previous conviction of lewd acts with a child under 14. He was sentenced to six years in prison for that conviction. Channel, already a convicted registered sex offender, was found guilty of one misdemeanor count of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old boy and one felony count of offering to show pornography to the boy earlier this year after he was arrested Dec. 15, 2005.