Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Lullaby Land was a Disney Silly Symphony made in 1933. It was an early color short directed by the inestimable Wilfred Jackson. The short was an adaptation of the poems by Eugene Field, Love Songs of Childhood published in 1894. John Canemaker had this Italian edition of the film published by Mondadori in 1948.

It took them some 15 years, till they were able to get rid of Mussolini, to catch up, I guess. It’s interesting that the social realists, such as Rosselini, De Sica and Fellini, were taking over the Italian film industry when this book was released. The world was in a very different place from the time that the short had originally been produced. I wonder how well this book was received.

Here are the illustrations from John’s copy of the book:

(Click any image to enlarge.)

The book’s inner cover spread.

The title page and the first illustration.

- I’ve posted the first two installments of Rico LeBrun’s guide to drawing the deer. This will complete the booklet that was prepared exclusively for the Disney artists working on Bambi where LeBrun taught classes in animal anatomy.

Sky David was kind enough to have copied these for me and I certainly couldn’t resist sharing this book with you.

Here’s part I.
Here’s part II.
Rico LeBrun in class teaching the anatomy of a horse.
_

34
(Click any image to enlarge.)

3536

37

3839

4041

42

4344

4546

4748

49

Thanks again to Sky David for the access to this great document.

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.

– 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.

- 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.

- 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.)

- Having posted, yesterday, John Canemaker‘s copy of the book version of The Robber Kitten, a 1935 Disney Silly Symphony, I thought it’d be entertaining to go back to the film to take a look. Here are frame grabs from the film. It’s not the greatest of the Silly Symphonies, but it certainly came at the height of that series and is filled with enormous charm, technique and excellent animation. The staff was doing films like this better than ever before. It’s a solid little movie. (Too bad the copy on dvd is made from a print with a yellow haze running down the right side of the print.)
You can see this film on line here.

The book Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies by Russell Merritt and J.B.Kaufman givews the credits:
Directed by David Hand
Script by Bill Cottrell
Music by Frank Churchill
Voices: Billy Bletcher (Dirty Bill) & Clarence Nash (horse whinny, Tarzan yell)
Animation:
Bob Wickersham (Ambrose, from opening through sneaking downstairs)
Marvin Woodward (Ambrose’s mother; Ambrose running back home)
Hardie Gramatky (Ambrose steals cookies and runs away from home; Ambrose flees from Dirty Bill)
Ham Luske (Ambrose and Dirty Bill before flashback)
Bill Roberts (Ambrose’s story: Ambrose, stagecoach, horses; Ambrose and Dirty Bill after flashback)

Here are a couple of production drawings I found for sale on line:

- In John Canemaker‘s collection is a children’s book I lust after. It’s a 1935 publication of the Silly Symphony. The illustrations are out of this world. John’s loaned it to me to post the images. Every other page is filled with the type of the story, and the remaining pages are illustrations – most in B&W with tone. The book was published by Whitman Publishing.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

These two full pages drawings grace the covers’ interiors – front and back.

- Last week we left off Part I of this storyboard sequence 19 with Phillip cutting his way through the forest of thorns trying to make his way into the castle. Maleficent watches from a distance and is getting more and more angry.

This is Ken Anderson’s storyboard presentation. The photographs of the board were loaned to me by John Canemaker, and I am indebted to him for it.

This is this photo of the board as is:

(Click any image to enlarge.)____________

Here are the rows of the board broken into two so that I can post them a bit larger.

1a

1b

2a

2b

3a

3b

4a

4b

5a

5b

The conclusion of this sequence remains.

If only he knew what he’s to face next.

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

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.

- Continuing the post of last Monday, here’s the storyboard to seq 19 of Sleeping Beauty. It’s the beginning of the dragon fight, the climax of the film. It’s on loan from John Canemaker‘s collection, many thanks to John for sharing.

Here’s the full page as is:

(Click any image on the page to enlarge.)

Here’s the board broken up into segments, half a row at a time.

More of this sequence next Monday.____

– John Canemaker has loaned me a couple of books to be scanned for posting. These are all storybooks for young children, and they’re all adaptations of Silly Symphonies.

These books are some of the first bits of merchandising to piggy back some of the more popular short films. Aside from the “Mickey” craze, there was a demand for Silly Symphony merchandise. The biggest book featured the original Three Little Pigs, which I posted back in Feb. 2007.

There’s no doubt that The Country Cousin was one of their more popular shorts. It’s been called one of the great advances in character animation – specifically the drinking scene animated by Art Babbitt. This all led up to the film’s Oscar win.
_______(Click any image to enlarge.)
___________________________________________I’m amazed that this book has such
thick paper with very crisp colors. It’s held up well all these years later. The book is slightly larger than posted; I cut some of the extra white space around the images.

These are the two inner cover pages. (The pages are much larger,
but I just took the drawings.)
_______

The title page
_______

- This will be the last Sleeping Beauty post of the week. (Having lately seen a number of negative posts about this film, I’m sure some of you will be glad about that.) I promised to post a couple of drawings I have for the “Skumps” sequence once Hans Perk had completed posting the drafts for this sequence so that I could I.D. the animators. (I have to say I guessed correctly in three out of four shots, so I’m pleased with myself.)

I’m posting closeups of the drawings. By clicking on any of them you’ll see the full sized animation paper. I’m also posting frame grabs beneath the drawings so you can see how they looked in the film.

This is a Milt Kahl scene, seq 13 sc 8. This drawing is undoubtedly a clean up,
so it’s not one of Kahl’s drawings – just his pose. It’s an extreme.

It is interesting that Kahl animated both characters.

This is a John Sibley ruff. Seq 13 sc 17.

It’s a very odd, uncoordinated dance number by the drunk lackey.

This is my favorite of these four. It’s a John Lounsbery ruff of King Stefan.
Another extreme from seq 13 sc 26.

I like this character.

This is also another beautiful ruff by John Lounsbery. It’s King Hubert in the
very last scene of seq 13, sc 57.

it comes just prior to Hubert’s turning and sitting on the palace steps.
___________________

And now for something completely different:

Bruce Knapp, who has worked with many of us in the New York industry, has a film competing in WNET/ch 13′s On Air competition. Every Saturday night they air two features and a short film. However, the public selects the short films from three on line contestants.

Bruce’s film Keep This Coupon, which won an ASIFA East award last year, is in the running for an airing this coming Saturday. Can I urge you all to go on line and vote for his film (prior to Thursday at 5pm)? Let’s get an animated film in the mix. Go here to vote, and/or see the films and VOTE.
Thanks to Masako Kanayama for letting me know about this.