Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Animators don’t always get the proper attention. Take these two examples I found this week:

Me

I found this article in Variety, this week; Tues. Sept. 2nd.

‘Man on Wire’ adds related short
Jake Gyllenhaal narrates animated ‘Towers’
By BRIAN COCHRANE

“Man on Wire” is throwing out another line.
Beginning Friday, select screenings in L.A. and Gotham will be followed by animated short “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers,” based on Mordicai Gerstein’s Caldecott Award-winning children’s book.

The 2005 short is narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal and, like “Man on Wire,” centers on Philippe Petit’s 1974 wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

“The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” will screen after showings of “Man on Wire” at the Landmark Theater in Los Angeles and Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema in New York City.

Magnolia Pictures, distrib of “Man on Wire,” hopes the short will broaden the doc’s appeal to family auds. “Man on Wire” just topped $1.5 million at the box office, making it one of the top-grossing docs of the year to date.

It would have been nice for Weston Woods, who is distributing the film, to have told me about this. I’m pleased, obviously, that the films have been paired, but by being left in the dark I’m not very happy. Note that my name doesn’t appear in the article despite the fact that I made the film.center>

Bill Plympton

I found this picture in the Oscars magazine, Academy Report. The picture was taken for the Monday Nights with Oscar series they held back in June. John Canemaker hosted an event of WB cartoons.

Unfortunately, they cut Joe Kennedy (John’s companion) out of the picture
and mislabelled Bill Plympton as Joe.
They also make no attempt to say which one is which name.

_____Ponyo’s Success

- Monday’s Variety reported that Miyazaki‘s Ponyo on the Cliff has surpassed $93.2 million in its first 31 days. This makes it the second highest/fastest earning film in Japan. Spirited Away surpassed this mark after 25 days.

The film will also show at the Venice Film Festival which begins on August 27th. Myazaki will be in attendance.

A good source for some information about this film is Daniel Thomas MacInnes‘ Conversations about Ghibli. There you’ll be directed to many other sites and receive plenty of material including a couple of trailers and vids.

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Rauch Brothers Talk

- Tim Rauch writes to tell me about an engagement he and brother, Mike, will be conducting when they join DoubleTriple to speak to the AfterEffects NY group: “. . . basically sharing our process, showing films, doing a Q&A. It’s a group very much interested in the nuts and bolts of motion graphics/animation work, and the events are good “mixers” for industry types.”

It will take place on Thursday, August 28th, (tomorrrow) 6:45-9 pm.

AfterEffects NY
@ P.S. 41
116 West 11th St., NYC
(corner of 11th Street and 6th Ave.)

And, my friends, if you rush home, after the event, you’ll be able to catch Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic covention at 10PM.

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Searle

- I thought I might take some space to remind you that there’s plenty of inspiration available at Matt Jones‘ fine Ronald Searle Tribute Site. Searle, of course, is a god among illustrators, and his work cannot be praised too highly. Jones seeks out this work and displays it wonderfully with cross-references among all of the pieces. it’s an excellent site.

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- Ovation TV (ch.83 NYC) has been running their roster of animated features lately. These include: Spirited Away, Triplettes of Belleville, Tokyo Story, Chuck Amuck, The Hand Behind the Mouse, Tex Avery:King of Cartoons, and Dante’s Inferno. Upcoming shows include these:

August 28th
09:00 pm Dante’s Inferno
12:00 am Dante’s Inferno
03:00 am Tex Avery: King of
_________________ Cartoons

August 29th___________________September 6th
08:00 pm Spirited Away__________ 08:00 pm Tokyo Story
11:00 pm Spirited Away__________ 11:00 pm Tokyo Story
02:00 am Dante’s Inferno

- I was pleased and surprised that a couple of reviews for my latest dvds were so enormously positive. I guess I’m like most people, I want people to like my films, but I never quite expect them to get the reception they do.

Consequently, I can’t help but share the following one with you from an on-line magazine called: Digigods

Abel’s Island and The Marzipan Pig are the latest in FRF’s ongoing releases of the films of Michael Sporn. Sporn, for those not in the know, is a wonderful animator, a man of delicate and painterly inclinations whose work almost seems more like storybooks brought to life than conventional
animation. These two stories, based on popular children’s books, are both excellent and delightful to watch. Forget about the junk you see on store shelves in the annoying white plastic cases — this is what you ought to plop your kids in front of… and then stick around to enjoy with them. “The Marzipan Pig” is a particular delight, wonderfully narrated by Tim Curry and also featuring the Ruby Dee-narrated “Jazztime Tale,” a story of two girls, one white and the other black, who form a friendship in 1919 Harlem. Curry also does voice work on “Abel’s Island,” which features “The Story of the Dancing Frog” as well. Priceless and wonderful. Avail yourselves of these lovely efforts by Sporn… and then go get the rest of the Sporn titles.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I’m proud to have someone who doesn’t know me from Adam and gives such a comment. Oddly enough, that’s not the only one.

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Jeff Scher has a new animated piece on the New York Times, and you should take a look. Dog Days animates a host of panting dogs witnessing the last days of Summer.

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Bob Cowan has been posting some of the great photos and excellent material from the Ingeborg Willy Scrapbook. So far three pages have been posted:
______Pg. 1, Pg. 2, Pg. 3 ________________
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- Apparently, Aaron Sorkin revealed at the San Diego SorCon that he will be unveiling an animated version of The West Wing this coming season.

According to Sorkin, “The costs of live-action production restricted me to a set only slightly larger than the actual White House and an ensemble cast of under 15 actors. But animation technology will enable us to provide fans with extended 40-minute walk-and-talks, digitally compressed dialogue for faster delivery, and a cast of over 70 main characters. My vision will finally be presented in its truest, most uncompromised form.”

You can see the rest of the story in this week’s copy of The Onion.

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- I’ve recently bought a new camera and have been trying to figure it out. Sometimes too much contrast, sometimes too much grain. However, I’ve been shooting a lot to try to get it down. Here are a coupla studio photos among the bunch.

This is what you first see as you enter the stairwell.
You have to walk to the rear of the corridor.

Lola, our current cat, might be looking down on you. She jumps up
on the right wall and cavorts up there with the orange cat that lives there.

Here she is moving from the back to the front.

This is the view from the door as you enter.

(L) Christine’s desk, once you enter and look left.
(R) The table to the kitchen, just behind her desk.

This is the other side of that main room, look back to the editor’s station.

This is my spot. The animation desk came from UPA, the moviola from a Paramount editor.

Two of the walls in my room are covered with books and tapes and dvds.
If Lola weren’t outside, she’d be in on those shelves, too.

- Following up the Rico LeBrun post from yesterday, here are some stills from an exhibition at the natural history museum in Basel, Switzerland. It imagines what the bone structure of some cartoon characters may look like.

The show is called Animatus. South Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee uses the techniques of paleontologists to create the skeletons of familiar comic figures such.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Bugs Bunny in all three above images.

Drawings of Bugs and Felix

Two views of Felix

Road runner and Wil E. Coyote

Donald Duck

Huey, Dewey & Louie and Donald Duck

The sculptures are constructed of resin, aluminum sticks, stainless steel wires,
springs, brass bean and oil paint. They’re on wooden pedestals.

Tom & Jerry

A drawing of Mickey.

Hyungkoo Lee and other sculptors at work on the skeletons.

I’d formerly featured this sculptor’s work when the show opened in a Korean art gallery.

You should also take a look at Michael Paulus’ work, which I’ve featured several times. He has done this very thing years ago, and his work is quite humorous.

Paulus’ drawing of Linus.

In the past two days I found myself the subject of a couple of animation sites. This is, no doubt, due to my two new dvd releases. Both have received a lot of attention on review sites and have been favorably reviewed, but these animation sites deserve to be mentioned.

- Last week, I’d received an email from Mike Barrier with a letter he’d received from “anonymous.” The letter was a not-very-positive comment about Mike’s positive reviews of my film, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. So I wrote a slightly annoyed response which Mike posted. I think if “anonymous” had had the courage to stand behind the letter by using his(her) name, I would have been more patient with it. Just the same, it all makes for a peculiar read. I can’t say I mind it, in the end. Take a look, here. ____________________ An image drawn by me that duplicates one in the book.

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– Mike Dobbs, the estimable animation historian and former editor of Animato and Animation Planet, has posted an interview with me on his site, Animation Review.

By the way, Mike Dobbs has two other sites:
_____ Made of Pen & Ink is his book on the Fleischer
_______studios which is posted on line as he writes it.
_____ Out of the Inkwell is Mike’s general blog.

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- Finally, David Nethery has posted a recommendation for my two new dvd’s on his site, Academy of Art Animation. Thank you, David. It’s much appreciated.

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- And now for something completely different – let’s go back to Sleeping Beauty and Eyvind Earle. Bob Cowan responded to my posts of the art direction for that film by sending me some beautiful color pieces Earle did for the film. He’s given me permission to post them here. They’ve all been posted on Mr. Cowan’s site. There’s a lot of amazing artwork there – if you haven’t been following it, go. These five paintings are beauties.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

– John DIlworth wrote from Spain that his film, Life in Transition, will be playing this month at the Museum of Modern Art. The film will be on the same bill as Federico Fellini’s The White Shiek.

The description, according to MOMA’s catalogue states that, “Dilworth explores metamorphosis, a main concept in Surrealism, in Life in Transition, unquestionably an homage to Dalí.”

The first screening will be this coming Wednesday, August 13, at 7:30 p.m.
It’ll repeat on Saturday, August 23, at 5:30 p.m.

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- It’s nice to have been ever-so-slightly ahead of the curve.

Recently, I had a post about bicycle stands around the city and the various shapes they take. What I didn’t realize was that David Byrne has been obsessed with all things bicycle, and he has designed a number of bike racks around the midtown area. There’s an article in today’s NYTimes about his recent artwork/sculptures for the bicycle. It’s worth a look.

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Now, back to John Dilworth:
John also sent the following interview that was conducted by Lindsey Hawkins, they’re all questions from fans about Courage the Cowardly Dog:

1. You have indeed met Simon Prebble, how did he like his role?

Simon enjoyed his role very much. He had a natural rapport with the personality of the Computer. However, Simon is an English gentleman who liked to laugh, where the Computer is a clever, but remote cynic, not concerned with human pathos. I had wanted a symbolic object to represent contemporary obedience to technology as “master” for Courage to confide in. The “home” computer was the logical “paternal” replacement.
I’m a bit of a fan of his other work in other things so I’d like to know.

2. Is there any hope of continuing Courage?

Well, humans have a tremendous capacity to “hope”. I have written so often on this. There is no corporate economic rational to make any new episodes. I’ve read that there have been petitions signed by many many fans that never even got to Cartoon Network. Maybe a campaign of a substantial nature of this kind, that actually got to an exec, would be a provocation. However, the lack of courage by the merchandisers still remains. “Pink” or “fuchsia” dogs will not sell in a boy dominated market place. This is rather complex, but the undercurrent of conservatism in America is strong and easy to intolerance.

3. What was your inspiration when you created the various villains?

Well, the villains were archetypes of human qualities or beliefs. Greed was a big character quality. Many of the villains were needy or hungry for something more; power, possession or privilege. Yet, I wanted to show a
“human” frailty in these villains, that they were vulnerable. Courage often was able to soften the villainous acts of these characters by being a “therapist”. For me, contemporary society is unable or unwilling to listen anymore. Maybe this is a product of conditioning over a long period of technological change that doesn’t promote much more than insecurity. The further humans retreat into the virtual, the more it appears the qualities that make humans “human” are endangered, qualities like tolerance, attention, inquiry…

4. What was the original intent of the show when you created it?

Science fiction is a genre that appeals to me so I may disguise my “rescue fantasy” complex. I wanted to “help” people, “save” someone, do something romantic and noble as “sacrifice” my safety for the safety of others. Courage was capable of doing this in the unreality of the animation landscape. Animation are dreams visualized. Visualized dreams are human desires calling out for an audience. Let’s not omit the common desire to make audiences laugh. In many ways, producing Courage enabled me to explore my sub-conscious and reveal some of my demons like abandonment of devotion, loss of honor, lack of self-expression. I was able to find mediums to best portray emotional landscapes like clay, CGI or cutouts. Any long term commitment develops as nature develops, things grow where non did before and as an artist/custodian I decide what to nurture and what to reverse. Then, like in nature, some things develop on it’s own while others don’t make it at all.

5. Where did you get that guitar sound from the beginning of the ‘Heads Of Beef’ episode?

Jody Gray and Andy Ezrin are exception musical talents who enjoyed to work intuitively and spontaneously. Although I cannot recall any specific guitar experience, often we would sit around experimenting with what sounds come out of objects and instruments. Other times I would bring in ideas I heard outside the studio that would inform a new sound. I recall one inspirational moment was on an episode when Nowhere was underwater from the construction of a dam. Jody and Andy found an abandoned grand piano and opened it up. They began plucking, hitting and scratching the guts of the thing and recorded it. These sounds were used as the aquatic ambiance for the show.

6. Where did you get your inspiration for Courage, Eustace, and Muriel?

Three is a cultural number representing both the secular and the divine, the single child of working class families and a geometry, the pyramid. I have always been intuitively attracted to this number. Curiously, I was reminded of the my mythological trilogy of personae in a recent text. My films have exhibited this contradiction to “three’s a crowd” from the beginning of my life as an artist. When Lilly Laney Moved In, Smart Talk with Raisin, the Noodles & Nedd films and Angry Cabaret featured “three’s”. But it is in Raisin that the closest ancestors to Courage can be found. The dog star of the short was named Hamilton, and resembled Courage physically and even emotionally. Raisin’s brother, Malcolm is the Farmer as a boy. I recently gave a talk at a museum in Barcelona on how animation liberates the human spirit. I analyzed the mythological motifs of several of my films as a demonstration of auto-discovery through animation. It is apparent to me that the archetypes of the emotionally sensitive deliverer, the remote and rancorous brute and the nurturing “maternal” figure recur often in my work. Inspiration is also a matter of subconscious processes made conscious through will.

7. Why did you add words with sound like ‘smack, bang, bonk’ when a character screams or gets hit?

Originally I aspired to be a cartoonist and studied under Will Eisner at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, a very print dominated facility. Print cartoons are merely the beginning stage of the next, movement. Visual sound effects are a part of my vocabulary of animation as the grin or irrational reaction. I am also aware of how elements from different studies can compliment one another and add a bit of variety to a visual language.

8. Chris Gammon would like to know when you can get in touch with him again.
Chris is a good soul. Thank you for the message. I shall send him a Dilly greeting.

9. Where you got the ideas for The Queen Of The Black Puddle and Fred? Particularly if you got the inspiration for The Queen from mythology.

The Queen from the Black Puddle is a parody of the sci-fi film Creature from the Black Lagoon. Many of the Courage episodes were parodies of my favorite horror/sci-fi/supernatural films. Queen/Creature had an implicit sexual message. The object of desire was to be “taken” at any cost. The irony in Courage is that who would imagine the Farmer as being the object of anyone/anything’s desire?

10. Why did you make it the middle of nowhere? If you use Google Earth you can find that there is indeed a real Nowhere, Kansas! Did you get the idea for it from that town?

I had no idea that a town with the same name existed. I wanted to portray a pseudo-village, a reverie and melancholia of places in America that proved no longer an economic imperative. To me, when a national chain or an international company decides to shut it’s doors the town that was dependent on that industry becomes enchanted, as if put under a sleeping spell, went from somewhere to nowhere.

- This is the final photo/page of the Ken Anderson board for Sleeping Beauty. John Canemaker loaned me the series (which I’ve posted on the past few Mondays) that includes Sequences 18 & 19 of the film. They’re the climax of the film – Prince Phillip’s battle with the thorns and the dragon, ultimately killing off Maleficent.

This is the whole photo as is:

(Click any image to enlarge.

Here, I’ve broken the photo into rows cutting the rows in half. This way I can post them as large as possible for viewing.

1a

1b

2a

2b

3a

3b

4

These last are tiny thumbnails at the base of the photo.

These two basic setups are also pinned to the board.

- It’s time to plug a couple of new dvds I have in stores.

If you’d ask me which are the favorites of all the films I did, three of these four being released would be among my choices. Other than The Hunting of the Snark, I’d have to name The Marzipan Pig as a great film. I also love Abel’s Island and The Story of the Dancing Frog. The fourth film, Jazztime Tale was for me a daring experiment. I tried for a musical climax since the film was about Fats Waller. It’s a purposefully soft movie that comes together during a performance by Fats. It’s not my favorite film, but it’s one that sure has become popular and successful.

You can find these dvd’s on Amazon for $12.99.
They’re $9.72 direct from the distributor, First Run Features.

I found this good review here.
Mike Barrier had nice things to say here. I’m proud of his comments: “The Marzipan Pig is the kind of book that would scare the pants off most Hollywood animators, skating as it does along the very edge of preciosity—and Michael uses every word of the book—but the Sporn version is mysterious and touching, and often beautifully animated.”
I also love all 9 reviews that appear on Amazon for the vhs tape of The Marzipan Pig.

From my blog:
Here’s a piece on Bridget Thorne‘s great backgrounds for Abel’s Island.
Here’s a sample of some of the storyboards for The Marzipan Pig that appear on the dvd.

Here’s a character from The Marzipan Pig. Tissa David animated the entire film, herself, and did a caricature of herself with this woman whose purse is stolen by an owl.
Stephan MacQuignon colored the drawing and Robert Marianetti added shading. Christine O’Neill did the cut and paste on the drawing to cel operation.

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The followup to this pair of dvd’s will be a boxed set of six dvd’s to be released in October. You can see what all six dvd’s contain here.

The box set packaging appears below.

The boxed set will include these titles:
The Hunting of the Snark, The Marzipan Pig, Abel’s Island
Whitewash, Champagne, The Talking Eggs, The Red Shoes,
The Little Match Girl, The Story of the Dancing Frog,
Jazztime Tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Nightingale

- My friend, composer, historian, Ross Care, sent me some comments on his viewing the show at the Academy exhibit in LA. This is a large exhibit of work done in traditional methods of creating animated films.

Here’s Ross Care‘s report on the show:

At the July 18 AMPAS screening of the recent digital restoration of Disney’s SLEEPING BEAUTY I had another chance to take a look at the Academy’s excellent exhibit: “Ink & Paint: The Art of Hand-Drawn Animation.”

This unique exhibit focuses on the art which preceded the actual productions, i.e., the conceptional drawings and paintings which inspired and determined the total “look” and style of the final film.

These concepts often turned out to be sensitive and vivid works of art in their own right. The Disney studio, which took particular care (and time) in the production of its often long-in-progress early features, was well represented.

An entire section was devoted to the small, jewel-like paintings of color stylist Mary Blair who keyed the looks of Disney’s late-‘40s/ early ‘50s features. Most were from CINDERELLA and PETER PAN.

The Blair section also revealed that some of these pre-production works were also used in Disney’s prolific merchandizing of his films. Blair’s colorful painting of a stylized pirate ship can also be seen on the first page of one of the three Little Golden Books that were published at the time of PETER PAN’S release.

Eyvind Earle, whose controversial style keyed the look of the evening’s SLEEPING BEAUTY, was represented by several panoramic paintings for that epic film. There was also a small painting from the short TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM that the artist even had the nerve to sign.

Aside from the many Disney and Warner Bros. works, art from lesser-know films is also represented. I was especially struck by several pieces from SHINBONE ALLEY, an obscure 1971 animated feature which I have not seen since I saw it at a Saturday afternoon kiddie matinee back in Lancaster, Pa. many years ago.

SHINBONE is based on the archy and mehitabel stories of Don Marquis (and a Broadway musical based thereon). Maltin calls it “genuinely odd” and “not really for kids,” and I have never forgotten having seen it. A character study of the blond cat, mehitable, by Alvaro Arce, brought the experience vividly back.

UPA’s GAY PURR-EE was represented by an amazing Paul Klee-like painting of the money cat sequence by Corny Cole, some vivid backgrounds by Gloria Wood, and character studies – the especially droll money cats – by Abe Levitow.

As the Academy flyer notes: “The magic of animated film depends on the ability to being to life not only animated characters, but the worlds they inhabit.”

“Ink & Paint” provides fascinating, witty, and often breathtakingly beautiful glimpses into the process of the creation these worlds.

The exhibit continues through August 24 at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA.

Ross Care‘s website is here.
Ross Care‘s Blog is here.

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- For those of you who are fans of Kung Fu Panda, you may enjoy the “Animated comic books” for viewing on Yahoo. These are basically Flash animatics featuring some very dynamic graphics. It’s worth a look to see what’s out there.

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- An interesting website for those of you into cartography, is the Strange Maps site. This site features a variety of interesting and curious maps all with their own explanations.

The map above, for example, details where
occurrences of cannibalism took place.

See other many, varied maps on this site. They come complete with extensive explanations – making for excellent reading.

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Finally, here’s the new kitten living in our studio, Lola. (Whatever she wants, she gets.) She’s found the top of my 10 foot bookshelves; it’s where she sleeps during the day.

- Tom Sito‘s been working for the last year and a half on a tv series for PBS. We knew it was an animated version of the delightful Car Talk radio program on NPR, but we weren’t sure how it was going to evolve. Years ago I’d read a blurb saying that the show was going to animate segments of the radio program.

Tonight, the show arrives on PBS. There’s plenty of on line representation, so you can get a good idea of the show even before it airs Wednesday night. The schedule is a little goofy, as it usually is with PBS shows. Tom Sito’s site gives us this info:

In the two largest media outlets, WNET New York and KCET Los Angeles, CLick & Clack will premiere this weds July 9th at 10:00PM, right behind a Science documentary on Iraqi bacteria. WGBH Boston at 8:00PM, WETA Washington on the Friday the 11th at 10:30PM. All these channels do reruns during the week as well.

In other words, check your local listings, but watch it. The show needs support. This is the first time PBS has a Prime Time animated series, and we want it to succeed.

- The official site is called Car Talk: As the Wrench Turns. There, you can find actual episodes of the show.
- Then, there’s the PBS version of the website called simply, PBS: As the Wrench Turns. There, you’ll __________Producer, Bill Kroyer and director, Tom Sito
find more videos as well as ___________________at the show’s wrap party at MIT.
games, episode guides and character ID’s.____________________(From Tom’s site.)
- At the band’s website: Brave.com, you’ll find
LOTS of music cues done for the show.

The show uses Flash gracefully with lots of residual action and follow through. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen Flash used almost like a real animation program. I assume that by using Flash, they were able to do all six episodes in LA without having to outsource the animation.

Kelli O’Hara, the darling of Broadway, currently appearing in the famous revival of South Pacific, acts as the voice of Click and Clack’s recording manager. In an interview posted this June on Talkin’ Broadway‘s site, Kelli had this to say about her work in the show:

BH: I read that you’re in an upcoming animated series on television.

KO: I am. I did a full season of a show called “Car Talk.” It’s on PBS, and I think it will premiere in June. I think they changed the name to “Click n’ Clack.” It’s very funny, actually. It’s based on the PBS radio show featuring two guys who take calls about car work. They’re very funny, they’re brothers. So they made this whole cartoon series about it. I play their producer in the record studio, their kind of neurotic little Harvard grad producer. It’s a lot of fun.