Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- I have to take note of the passing of Satoshi Kon. There’s a short piece via Charles Solomon, about him on Cartoon Brew, which I suggest you read. The links there brought me to this piece with more information. He died abruptly of pancreatic cancer. His diagnosis on May 18th was that he would have at most 6 months to live. He died August 24th at the age of 46.
There’s an excelelent obit in today’s NYTimes by A.O. Scott.

L to R: Me, the interpreter and Mr. Kon

I had the pleasure of interviewing him back in June, 2009. Unfortunately the recording of the interpreter, who spoke so softly, was not good, and I couldn’t get much of a transcript. He was polite, positive and a pleasure to meet, even though a great deal didn’t come of the conversation. His art around the room was stunning. I am decidedly a fan of his work. He died Tuesday, a terribly sad end.

You can see some of this art in the blog post I wrote that day. Go here.
Richard O’Connor also wrote a short, nice pieco on his blog, Asterisk Animation
You should also check out his films Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika.

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- Back in February 2007, Hans Perk offered the storyboard and some notes on the shelved Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Plight of the Bumblebee. This was on his site A FIlm LA. It was animated by Fred Moore, Hal King and Cliff Nordberg and was shelved partially because of length. Jack Kinney, the director, calls it the best Mickey film (though it’s definitely not despite the generally fluid yet unispired animation.)

This is important because Thad Komorowski offers the entire pencil test of the film on his site.

Hans suggests that Mr. Lasseter call down to order the film completed since it’s already so close. Nothing happening since that was written in 2007. I’d guess that Lasseter won’t take notice.

Anyway, this is great payoff. Thanks Hans and Thad.

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- John Canemaker‘s column about Charles Burchfield receives an excellent comment from Richard O’Connor on the Asterisk Animation blog. The connection is made to the new show of Burchfield’s work at the Whitney Museum of Art. Richard’s article is worth a read, and John’s article is, obviously, also worth reading.
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- I’d like to remind those in New York that there are three features on the horizon (or in one case, already here), about to play in theaters.

Paul and Sandra Fierlinger‘s film, My Dog Tulip, starts at the Film Forum next week, September 1st. For this film, we’ll feature three separate reviews by the animation staff (that includes me, of course, as well as Matt Clinton and Katrina Gregorius) here at the studio. We’ll probably post it on Tuesday, a day before the opening.

Bill Plympton has his feature, Idiots and Angels, opening at the IFC Center on Oct 6th. I intend to offer an interview with Bill before the film opens, so you can look forward to that. The film has played at many Festivals, so there’s been ample chance for enthusiastic animators to get a preview. If you haven’t seen it the chance will now be there.

Currently playing at the Angelicka is the feature Tales from Earthsea. This was directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Miyazaki. Goro was chosen as a potential way of handing down the father’s directoral mantle when Hayao was planning to retire. When Hayao saw the final of Tales from Earthsea, the father decided not to retire. Instead he made one of his best features with last year’s US release, Ponyo. He’s currently doing another two features. He and his son didn’t speak during the making of the film.

The best review I read of this film is, naturally, on The Ghibli Blog by Daniel Thomas MacInnes.
There’s also a good interview with the book’s author Ursula Le Guin.

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- A small footnote. Disney has decided to withdraw its animated product from the Annie Awards. That’s right Toy Story 3 and Day & Night will not be competing for Annie Awards this year.

The people at Disney/Pixar feel that anyone can join ASIFA and vote for the awards. They don’t say that they haven’t won against the Dreamworks product for the last few years. Rotten Tomatoes, indeed.

Here’s the Variety story, if you can’t get it without a subscription.

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Speaking of Day & Night, I received a copy of the book which sells for only $10 at Amazon.

The book is better than the short film – it takes less time to read. The graphics are better; it’s not a melange of hand drawn work and cgi inner-body motion. The cg is replaced with watercolors. The artwork by author/illustrator Teddy Newton is more constant than the film and decidedly better.

The story – it’s the same sophmoric tale. However, you don’t have to listen to the ending’s narrator telling us what we already know. I doubt I’d ever have bought this book, but thanks the excellent publisher, Chronicle Books, I now own it. This publisher always does a good job with their product.

-Ken Priebe writes to report that he and Steve Stanchfield will be interviewed in a live chat at AnimateClay.com this week on Marc Spess‘ Live Stop Motion Chat show.

The subject will be a new DVD, Stop Motion Marvels, from Thunderbean, Steve’s company.

8pm Central on Wed Aug 11th. (9pm EST, 6pm PST)

You should also note that Ken Priebe‘s new book The Advanced Art of Stop Motion Animation is on the bookshelves. When I get to see a copy I’ll review it. Given the knowledge Ken has of that medium, I’m sure the book is rich and extensive. It has to be a good companion piece to his earlier book The Art of Stop Motion Animation.

I urge you to take a look at both of them if you have any interests in the medium.

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Nancy Bieman also has a new book ready to go to market. It will be available on September 15th. Once I get a copy, I’ll post a review.

Animated Performance Bringing Imaginary Animal, Human and Fantasy Characters to Life concentrates on how weight and design affect the overall movement of the characters you’re animating.

Nancy, as you all know, is a top-notch animator who’s worked everywhere from Disney to Sheridan College, where she’s currently a Professor of Advanced Animation.

It’s available from AVA Academia
AVA Academia books are distributed by
Ingram Publisher Services Inc.
One Ingram Boulevard
La Vergne, TN37086
USA
(866) 400 5351
customer.service@ingrampublisherservices.com

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The Rauch Brothers, Tim & Mike, have something to crow about today. Not only have their animated shorts done with Storycorps been picked up by POV on PBS, but they made it into the NYTimes today.

They did this all without stooping to the level of Cartoon Network’s loud, crassness. Their films are cut from life.

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Bas Waijers, an excellent and original designer who works in and out of animation, sent me his latest., It’s the new map for the largest marine mammal park in Europe. The Dolfinarium in Holland. It’s the equivalent of Sea World. Check out Bas’ site for other views from the Dolfinarium.

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Hans Perk on his blog A Film LA has posted the original script, as drawn by Ub Iwerks, for Plane Crazy, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. This gives me the opportunity of posting an original drawing I own from this film. Below is the nearest storyboard drawing to the scene of my drawing followed by the animation drawing, itself.

Hans also points to Mark Sonntag ‘s posting of the drawings two years ago as well as another posting at Neatstuff, a collectibles site.

Look for Hans to post the drafts for The Rescuers soon.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- I’ve always had a lot of respect for Gordo, the comic strip by Gus Arriola. The artwork was always crisp and well drawn, and the strip had its own strong audience. However, I never quite sought it out;no doubt my loss.

It was with interest that I received this note from Bill Peckmann:

In keeping with the original comic strip theme I am sending this original Gordo Sunday page. This is from the days when you could send a fan letter to one of your favorite cartoonists and they were kind enough to send you an original in return. It has some nice “animated” panels in it. I have RC Harvey’s Gus Arriola book somewhere, but it’s hiding on me right now. To me his style always had a nice California/Disney/Kelly feel about it.

I can’t argue with that, and I’m always excited to post original strip art. This is a large one, so I post it as is and offer a couple of tighter shots for more clarification.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- The totally-lacking-courage, Cartoon Network is finally realeasing the official DVD of the first season (mind you it’s only the first season) of John R. Dilworth‘s masterful series Courage the Cowardly Dog.

The DVD hits the stores on January 20, 2010 some 11 years after it was first aired. How embarrassing for a network that claims it has to move into live action to finally get strong. If they had taken advantage of the brilliant properties in their hands – all those under the original creative team – they might have been a bit more original, successful, and useful. Now it’s just a network without a real name.

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The Sundance Channel has released ANIMATION BIZARRO 2 – a collection of seven animated shorts made by some of the most provocative and unique Canadian animators/artists:

The press release states:

Each film was chosen for its diversity, quality and individuality. The episodes provide a range of color and bizarre visions of the world as depicted through a variety of animation styles including: cel, paper cut outs, stop motion and CGI. The films touch on a variety of moods (funny, touching and sardonic).

The series features the work of established veterans like Mad Magazine legends Al Jaffee and Sergio Aragones, and emerging animators like Brandon Blommaert and Sean Stoops. Their work, juxtaposed with our other featured artists like Robbie Conal, Steve Brodner and the emerging new stars of the Hot House program, really tells a bigger story of the progression of modern humor, cartooning, political satire and comedy in art. We think this will be
both fascinating and thoroughly entertaining for the diehard fans and
general audiences as well.

Following the launch, Sundance will add new videos, images and interviews to the Animation Bizarro site on each remaining Monday throughout the month, so please keep checking the site for additional content.

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- Bill Benzon continues his study of Nina Paley’s feature length film, Sita Sings the Blues. In his current essay on the blog New Savannah, he writes about Ritual in Sita Sings the Blues, Part 1.

It’s nice to see Nina’s film taken so seriously. It should outlive its shelf life.

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- Tom Hachtman’s Gertrude’s Follies got a nice writeup in The Comics Journal. That strip deserves all the attention it can muster. In my opinion, Tom’s the equivalent of a modern day Milt Gross, only he has received enough praise.

– Jaime Weinman has an excellent post on his blog. He posts the donkey-change scene from Pinocchio with the music only. It accents the terror in the sequence and shows off the brilliance of the Leigh Harline score.

Something else worth watching during the sequence is the brilliant use of direction. The camera moves brilliantly from left to right, never crossing up or confusing where any of the characters are. The necessity of this is magnified when we pick up Jiminy running to and into the saloon. No one ever crosses the 180, yet the violence of the sequence is always growing. And this is all with only a music track. It’s great film making.

This reminds me that I recently watched a bit of Martin Scorcese‘s The Last Tempatation of Christ. There was a scene where Christ, Willem DeFoe sat at the edge of a hillside talking with a follower. The camera followed the 180 strictly. Then Christ makes a wild gesture with his hands, and the camera swirls with it. From then on the image has crossed the 180, and we’re looking at a wholly different setup.

It was one small setup in a larger film reminding me that Scorcese, one of our elder statesmen now, still directing vibrantly, is more alive and challenging than ever. He uses all the extensive knowledge he has to break all the rules. Rent this movie or get another lesser known Scorcese film, and see what I’m talking about.
His work is an inspiration.

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Amid Amidi has posted a wonderful piece on the passing of Betty Kimball. The photos and drawings of her by her late husband, Ward, are priceless. You’ve probably all seen it at Cartoon Brew, but if you haven’t, go there.

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- Brian Sibley has had a great blog since 2006. Called the blog. This has been a daily stop for me ever since I found it. Brian, who writes plays, scripts and books, uses this blog to discuss many cultural events and thoughts that pass by his life. This includes interesting and fine comments about many movies and plays that have opened. There’s a lot there in an entertaining and informative style.

Well, perhaps you may have missed that he’s just begun a new blog called decidedly disney. This one has as its focus, obvously, Disney and Brian has a lot to say about them. Take a look.

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- Bill Benzon wrote a recent, thoughtful piece on the blog, On The Human. Here, he espouses the premise that “nothing in human psyche and society makes sense except in the light of cultural evolution.” He posits thoughts about Nina Paley’s feature, Sita Sings the Blues as support for this idea. If you find it too heady for you, at least scroll down to the midway point to read his comments of Sita.

Benzon is one of the finest intellectuals interested in animation and this article explains why.

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- If you haven’t read the couple of posts Mark Mayerson has written about character and story structure particularly concerning Toy Story 3, I suggest you take a look.

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“Do what we can, summer will have its flies: if we walk in
the woods, we must feed mosquitoes: if we go a-fishing,
we must expect a wet coat.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

- Jeff Scher‘s latest Op Ed opus appears in today’s NYTimes. Summer Hours is the perfect thing for the torrid summer day (like we’re experiencing in NY today.) A cool drink of iced tea. The perfect music is, once again, by Shay Lynch.

Jeff Scher‘s website.
Shay Lynch‘s YouTube page.

Quay Brothers Commissioned to Create Film about Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum

Stephen ’69 (Film) and Timothy ’69 (Illustration) Quay – the internationally recognized Quay Brothers - have been commissioned by Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum to create a film about its collection of anatomical and pathological specimens, medical instruments and apparatus, and memorabilia of famous scientists and physicians.

Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery Exhibition coordinator Edward Waisnis, through his Pro Bono Films production company, will produce the film. University Liberal Arts Master Lecturer David Spolum is co-writing the script and conducting related research. Filming begins this summer and the premiere is slated for next spring.

Project funding has been provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts, administered through the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Thanks for the tip to Tom Hachtman

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Stephen Hartley Blog

- A new blog hit the jet stream today. The very young, Stephen Hartley has fashioned a new blog so he can comment on animation history. Called blabbing on arts and culture, (a big title) it begins today with some thoughts on Tom and Jerry. Worth seeing what comes of it given some of the comments Stephen has made on my site as well as others like Mark Mayerson’s and Hans Perk’s.

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George Griffin of View at Biennial

- George Griffin has been featured in the Santa Fe Eighth International Biennial Exhibition with a piece called Viewmaster. It can be viewed here.

Viewmaster was a film George made in 1978. It features a wild series of art/cartoon characters chasing each other as the camera pans slowly past them all. When it returns back to the first on screen runner, it cuts back to the full view of the “Viewmaster”-like mutoscope with all of the characters running around the border. It doesn’t sound it, but the film is powerful. I think this is George’s work at its peak. As a matter of fact, after seeing the film back in ’78, I bought a 16mm print from George. (This was before the VHS/DVD days.) I had to own a copy.

That same full screen “Viewmaster” is on display animated at the site of the Biennial exhibition. You can also view many other pieces by artists such as William Kentridge, Robert Breer, Cindy Sherman, and Dziga Vertov.
Congratulations to George for being in such esteemed company.

View it.

- This week Bill Peckmann forwarded this great series from Alex Toth. I have to share it. Enjoy.

From Bill:
Just found these silvertone prints of a story that Alex did for “Blazing Combat” magazine in the 1960′s. It’s in the great tradition of cartoonists Milton Caniff, Roy Crane, Noel Sickles and the movies “Wings” and “Dawn Patrol”, but it’s all Toth.

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Once again, many thanks to Bill Peckmann.

- I’ve been posting quite a few pieces about 3D stop motion animation. It’s always good to remember that the first real genius of this medium was Jiri Trnka. I previously posted this piece in 2007 which focuses on one of the few 2D animated films of Trnka.

– I’ve been a fan of Jirí Trnka‘s work since I first saw it back in the 60′s. I’ve bought every publication I’ve ever found which discusses or displays his films or illustration. These days I can also own a number of his films.

His puppet films were always the gold standard of that medium. However, since I’ve studied his illustrations for many years, I’m always interested in the 2D work he’s done.

The dvd titled The Puppet Films of Jirí Trnka includes one of these 2D films. It’s cut-out animation, so it really borders the world between 2D and 3D. Trnka exploits the shadows on his constructed cardboard backgrounds to great effect. The style purposefully hides the three dimensions of the constructions, but it uses it when it needs to. The film is a delicate piece which just shows a number of acts in a local circus setting.

It’s a sweet film with a quiet pace. I’m not sure it could be done in today’s world of snap and speed. No one seems to want to take time to enjoy quiet works of art.

I’m posting a number of frame grabs from this short so as to highlight the piece.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Note the real shadows on the background.
These were obviously animated on glass levels in a multiplane setup.

Again, note the excellent use of shadows. It’s very
effective in these long shots of the trapeze artists.

- Today’s William Shakespeare’s birthday. It’s an odd choice of date given that there’s so little information about the guy. But since today’s also my birthday, I’ll enjoy the association by accident.

I’ve decided to post something that’s been floating around my studio for the past couple of years. It’s one of those things that never got properly put away once we moved into the new digs. (New, that is, five years ago.) But since I like seeing it, I also like stumbling across it in the morass of paper in my office.

Tissa David did a birthday card for me for my 50th birthday. She recounted, in storyboard, our first meeting. I was on my second day working for the Hubleys – my first animation job.

It’s close to being accurate, but not as nasty as the version in my head. Here’s Tissa’s board.

Helen, is Helen Komar, a lifelong assistant working in NY first at Paramount then onto lots of other places. She managed the animation area for John and Faith for a couple of years. Another great person who slips through the history books.

I had inbetweened two of Tissa’s scenes on the first day of work. Tissa came in the next day while I was busy working on more. She went to Helen’s desk and the two of them talked for a short bit. Then I heard, “Who has made these HORRIBLE inbetweens?” spoken in the most definitive Hungarian accent you’ll ever hear.

When I sheepishly admitted to it – since only Helen or I could have done them, and there was no doubt Helen hadn’t – Tissa offered to give me some lessons in how to make a proper inbetween. Those lessons seem to have been ongoing most of my life. I’m not sure I can do one to this day.

- Good news for Segar lovers! Variety reports that Popeye is going cgi and Sony is about to make the film. Naturally, it’ll be in 3D so that when Bluto gets smashed out of the audience he can fly over our heads. The film will be directed by a relative neophyte, Mike Jones. He’d written a film called Eventland and another The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break which is now in production.

He doesn’t quite have the experience of theatrical director Des McAnuf who did The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle or Peter Hewitt (Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey) who did Garfield, but he brings plenty of enthusiasm. It should be fun, but I’m not sure if it’ll be better than Bob Altman’s Popeye. Then again, it will be 3D.

The good news is that the great compilation DVDs of the Fleischer years is still available from Amazon. Even after you’ve seen the cgi 3D Popeye you can come home to clear your palate with these first class copies of the original shorts.

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- Then again, the other animated feature announced this past week sounds heavenly. According to the March 18th Nikki Finke article, Tim Burton‘s going to do a 3D puppet animated version of The Addams Family with Chris Meladandri producing. Sounds like an ideal marriage. However, the next day, according to Screen Rant, the Burton people adamantly denied the project had anything to do with the director. Let’s hope that Nikki Finke is correct – as she often is.

Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter would make an original Morticia and Gomez.

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- Years ago children’s television wasn’t quite the slick wonderland that it is now. It was less of a babysitter, but on a local level tv stations tried a lot harder often depending on flamboyant actors to develop characters. These were usually voice over announcers who put on costumes and let ‘er rip.

In New York, you had the Sunday shows that included Wonderama on ch. 5 – before it had anything to do with Fox – and you had the Chuck McCann show on ch. 11 – before it had anything to do with the WB (or whatever they call themselves today.) McCann was a crazy kinda guy who read the comic strips in funny voices and wigs and entertained us all silly.

During the week, there were Johnny Jellybean, starring Joe Bova. He shared his lunch with us during the day and starred in Once Upon a Mattress on Broadway at night. The morning shows were mostly B&W cartoons with hosts like Cap’n Allan Swift – replaced by Cap’n Jack McCarthy – introducing Popeye and Officer Joe Bolton who gave us the Three Stooges.

The ch. 11 roundup: Chuck McCann (with Laurel & Hardy puppets),
Captain Jack McCarthy, Gloria Okon, Bill BOZO Britten, and
Officer Joe Bolton.

The mornings belonged to Sandy Becker. He was a manic kinda guy who seemed to be talking to kids but really playing for the grown ups using kids toys and games. I remember well how he did his best to destroy a Mr. Machine robot as he demonstrated the host, Mattel’s product. The robot kept walking off the desk. I remember another show where Sandy didn’t show up at the beginning of the program and they kept running B&W WB cartoons. Mid show he appeared somewhat breathless, and advised us kiddies that if we happened to see a red Volkswagen with such and such a license plate, could we call the police because his car had disappeared that morning.

You can see some of the nastier bits here.

I guess he had a one hour special in those years: Sandy Becker’s Christmas Carol. It featured a lot of the puppets and characters that appeared on his show. I’d received an email from Craig Marin of Flexitoons who is trying to “reimagine” the show for DVD. Here’s how they state it in their press release:

The program starred Sandy’s entire ensemble of puppets – most memorably Geeba Geeba as Scrooge, Sir Clive as Bob Cratchit, and Marvin Mouse as Tiny Tim.

For Millions of Baby Boomers, who grew up with Sandy as a vital member of their “TV-family”, it was their first introduction to Charles Dickens ghostly tale of greed and redemption. To this day, Sandy’s production lives warmly in their hearts and fondly in their memories. Unfortunately, as was the case with many live programs of the time, the tapes – to the best of anyone’s knowledge – were destroyed or erased or taped-over. 
 


In the 1990‘s Sandy and Flexitoon partner Craig Marin – who as a child was greatly influenced by Sandy and later became his friend as an adult – often talked about and planned to remake his Christmas Carol. But sadly, when Sandy passed away those plans were put on hold.

Now, through the power of Kickstarter, the Holiday special is back on track. FLEXITOON, one of America’s premier puppet production companies on television, film and stage is ready to produce a re-imagining of Sandy Becker’s Christmas Carol, using all the original puppets he bequeathed to them upon his passing.

You can see a video presentation here.
You can go to their Facebook page here.

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- I’ve waited patiently for Mike Barrier to give his thoughts on the passing of Fess Parker. He didn’t disappoint with the excellent piece and companion interview that appears today on his blog. Mike showed us the man, Fess Parker, as opposed to the memorabilia which appeared in many other obituaries. (Come to think of it, Mike did the same for Walt Disney with his book, The Animated Man.) If you have any interest in the star of a Disney series that rocked the world for 15 minutes in the 1950′s, then head on over to his site.