Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Not too long ago, Cartoon Brew had an article about Gene Deitch and the short he directed, Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat. Apparently, the film was held back by Bob Smith and was never officially released.

An issue of Collier’s Magazine was mentioned which had printed an article about this UPA short. I recently picked up a copy of the magazine and am posting the two-page article. Interesting that the author of the article says that the short animates cut-outs rather than the “usual, costly multiple-drawing system.” It doesn’t look like cut-outs, but you can’t properly tell from the stills. They also state that the film had a budget of $15,000.

Hopefully, the short will someday show up on our radar, and Gene Deitch will have the pleasure of seeing his first bit of direction again. Until then, we can be grateful that Collier’s did a colorful article on the cartoon.

Here’s the full two page spread.”

a
Here are the two separate pages larger.

Here are all of the pictures separated and enlarged.

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-Don’t forget that tonight there’ll be a show of some of the all-time finest UPA cartoons. This will take place at the Lighthouse, 111 East 59th Street, between Park and Lexington avenues. $5.00 admission ($3.00 for members).

The films include:
GERALD MCBOING BOING, MISTER MAGOO’S PUDDLE JUMPER
ROOTY TOOT TOOT, MADELINE, THE TELL-TALE HEART
THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN, FUDGET’S BUDGET and
GEORGIE AND THE DRAGON

(Personally, I think ROOTY TOOT TOOT is one of the greatest short films ever created and deserves all the attention it can get.)

Pristine 35mm prints will be screened. Not an everyday occurrence.

- Last Tuesday, ASIFA East celebrated the work of one of New York’s finest, John Dilworth. It was a treat to be asked to speak for John about his earliest days. Since I was there, I took as many pics as possible. However, the place was pretty dark, so it took four times as many pics as I’d planned to get some that weren’t totally blurred out.

Here are a few which give an account of the show.

On entering, I was directed to a front/left row seat. Not the best
place to watch the show, but handy in making it to the podium.
As people assembled, up front, Elliot Cowan and Linda Beck covered a
table that was selling ASIFA-East calendars and Dilworth merchandise.
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John D. checked out things at the podium before it started. You can
see that ASIFA operates out of a classroom at the School of Visual Arts.

ASIFA-East President Dave Levy started things off by making some
preliminary comments and introducing the first speaker . . .

It wasn’t Linda Simensky, who couldn’t make it. Elliot Cowan read a
letter she’d sent. Dave stood in the back trying to wrest our attention.

John stood off to the side grimacing at
every compliment or bad joke Linda offered.

Finally, the star of the hour came forward to make
his opening comments and introduce his first guest.

Howard Beckerman was one of John’s earliest teachers and
he’s now one of John’s best friends.

Howard introduced John’s Thesis short. After the short’s opening,
I was surprised at how great the timing was on this student film.
That’s usually something that takes a lot of time to get.
(Remember, also, this was in the pre-computer days.)

This was the view from my seat of part of the audience.
I was the next speaker (and there are no pics) and spoke about
John’s early days animating for me on Lyle Lyle Crocodile.

From the podium, you looked out into blackness.
You weren’t able to see any faces.

Fred Seibert followed me with a reminiscence of John’s pitch
for THE CHICKEN FROM OUTER SPACE.

That short became the series COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG
after it got an Oscar nomination for John.

Jody Gray and Andy Ezrin came up to play the music live
for NOODLES AND NED (1997). However, the task couldn’t be
pulled off and they just played some themes before showing the film.

John brought on a live band to play a song written
in homage to his latest film, RINKY DINK.

They’d also come on at the night’s end to play another 15-20 mins.

While the audience watched THE CHICKEN FROM OUTER SPACE,
John changed into his signature space suit.

The idea, he told us, is to have a
blast while you’re making the films.

While John spoke, Courage the Cowardly Dog snuck into the room.

John had paid to ship the Cartoon Network costume to NY
so that his elusive character could be properly celebrated.

After the show, a bunch of us went out for beer and hamburgers.
The evening had been a lot of fun, and John Dilworth had pulled it
all together. A different kind of ASIFA-East event to end out 2009.

John Dilworth

- Tuesday night, ASIFA-East hosted a spectacular evening devoted to John R. Dilworth and his work. It was a lot of fun thanks to the crazy combinations John pulled out of his bag o’ tricks. Lots of surprises and laughs.

I took a bunch of pictures and will post some of them Sunday, if I can find any that are in focus. The live intros and music were a wonderful dressing for the carefully chosen body of films. It was a well orchestrated program. Congrats to John.

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Prep & Landing Landed

- Disney’s Prep and Landing landed on ABC on Tuesday night. If like me, you were unable to catch it on it’s scheduled broadcast, you can watch it on HULU complete with commercial interruptions (though probably fewer than ABC aired.) My thoughts? It was ok, not worth all the puffery that came in advance of the show. All this cgi stuff to me is getting to look alike. Lots of running in place and shouting with nicely modeled everything to get that little doll look. I also think the current crop of stories going into our features and specials is lacking charm and movie magic. This filled that bill.

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A Bob Dylan Christmas vid

The NYTimes posted the latest Bob Dylan christmas song video – The Little Drummer Boy. Surprise, it’s an animated video done by my friend, Jeff Scher. The visuals are inventive, as expected, but I miss the Shay Lynch score.

Jeff wrote this little note in an email he sent me:
“I made a music video for Bob Dylan’s Christmas Album: “The Little Drummer Boy”.
It went up yesterday on Amazon… All profits from the album go to charity.

It was neat, the only direction I got was “do what you do”.
So this is what I did.”

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UPA

Here’s another reminder to those in New York that there will be a glorious celebration of UPA’s short films at the Academy of MP Arts & Sciences next Monday, Dec. 14th.

John Canemaker will host the event which will feature eight rarely seen films to be screened in 35mm. Many of them new prints.

The titles will include:
_____GERALD MCBOING BOING
_____MISTER MAGOO’S PUDDLE JUMPER
_____ROOTY TOOT TOOT
_____MADELINE
_____THE TELL-TALE HEART
_____THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN
_____FUDGET’S BUDGET
_____GEORGIE AND THE DRAGON

There are lots of Oscar winners and nominees among them. This show will be a treat.

At 7PM December 14, 2009 at the Lighthouse, 111 East 59th Street, between Park and Lexington avenues
$5.00 admission ($3.00 for members)

Tonight, ASIFA-East is presenting an evening with John R. Dilworth. This means that John will be there with a number of surprise guests from his past and present, including Howard Beckerman, who taught him; me, who hired him; and Courage the Cowardly Dog, who was drawn by him. Given John’s affinity for the unexpected, it’s doubtful that it’ll be the typical Q&A.

Some of his shorts will be shown as well as several of his films. I could tell you which ones they are, but that would spoil the surprise.

The festivities begin at 7pm at the School of Visual Arts, 209 East 23rd St, 3rd floor amphitheatre. The admission price is free and worth every bit of it.

Of course, if you insist on buying some things, ASIFA calanders will be sold as will John Dilworth goodies.

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- Once again, let me promote The Fantastic Mr. Fox, an animated feature that I just love. There was a good interview with director, Wes Anderson, on Charlie Rose 11/30/09. There’s no direct link from here, but you can see this clip by going to Charlie Rose ‘s website, then typing in Wes Anderson on the search box. You can see the whole interview (about 30 mins) there._______________
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- Now for something different. Just for the opportunity of showing off some beautiful blue-pencilled ruffs by Frank Thomas, loaned to me by John Canemaker, I’m going to post them here. They’re from Sleeping Beauty, of course.
1

2

3

4
This last one is from Ichabod and Mr. Toad –
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod and Katrina.
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- The most peculiar news story of the week was the headline at the top of Sunday’s NYTimes. It talked about a Taiwanese company that was creating their own videos of the news using cgi animation. The Times reports that the “. . . Taiwanese newspaper, Apple Daily, has dozens of programmers, designers, animators, even actors on its staff . . . responsible for scripting the videos.” We were shown a poorly created video of Tiger Woods (they admit that it didn’t really look like him, but they were happy over the color of his skin and his hair.) Maybe Robert Zemeckis could help out.

The question is how long it’ll take for ALL newcasts to include animated stories because they’re too lazy to do the actual reporting. Get rid of newspapers and make up your own videos. Apparently, MSNBC’s Keith Olberman made some sly comments about it. When he needs to make up the stories, he uses his “finger puppet theater.” In Taiwan they use cgi.

The world’s gone berserk, but now there’s a whole new line of work for animators of the future.

Here’s the YouTube presentation of that newscast.

- Last night, the Paley Center (formerly known as the Museum of Broadcasting) hosted a program celebrating the first animated Christmas Special on TV, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. The program first aired in 1962 and was something of an instant success.

Present for the show were Judy and Roberta Levitow (the daughters of Abe Levitow, who directed the show), Darrell Van Citters (who’d written the recent, attractive book Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol: the Making of TV’s First Animated Special), and Marie Matthews (the voice of Young Scrooge) participated in a panel moderated by Jack Doulin (casting director – NY Theater Workshop).

The film looked glorous projected in High Def supplied by the DVD distributor, Classic Media. They also distributed free copies of the DVD to every member of the audience. What more could you ask for!

I was particularly taken with how beautiful some of the Backgrounds looked on the big screen; those in the last segment – ghost of the future, cemetary – were especially stunning. It was amazing to see the extraordinarily limited animation play so well with the brilliant soundtrack and the strong scenics. (It’s hard to believe the complete production for this show totaled just five months.)

The panel wasn’t particularly illuminating; I knew a good deal about the show having read Darrell Van Citters‘ amazingly informative book about the production. It seemed that was all the moderator really knew about the show; he’d read the book. Given the audience and the moderator’s theatrical background, there was a bit of a stronger focus on the Jule Styne and Bob Merrill songs, but, even there, the book offered so much more information. I wish Darrell had been the moderator. He’s so much more informed.

The program ended with Marie Matthews singing her song, “When You’re Alone in the World,” live to piano accompaniment. Nice.

Regardless, seeing the show projected and coming out into the lively Christmas world of Rockefeller Center left me in a good mood for the night. You should take another look at the show, even though on DVD.

There’s a screening upcoming in LA on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009 at 4:00pm. It’ll take place at the Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Avenue at 14th Street in Santa Monica. That screening will also be followed by a panel and book signing.

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Another stop motion feature opening in NY:
A TOWN CALLED PANIC will have a 2-week run in New York at the Film Forum. The animated stop-motion film will screen December 16-29.

This seems to be an absurdist piece of animation wherein some small toys – a cowboy, an Indian, a horse, a dinosaur are animated shuffling about to a somewhat insane script. You can see a sample of the film here and you can see a short with the same characters here.

The Film Forum is located at West Houston Street (W. of 6th Avenue), with screenings daily at 1:00, 2:40, 4:15, 6:00, 8:00, and 10:00.

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- Finally, since we’re talking about Christmas, let me promote some excellent merchandise provided by John Schnall. He’s created some hilarious e-mail cards that are personalized for you. They’re inexpensive and worth every dime he’s asking. You can see what he’s offering here, and you can see a sample done for me here.
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Emily Hubley‘s film, Toe Tactic, gets a solid and extended series of screenings at the Museum of Modern Art beginning this Wednesday, Jan. 28th and including several shows over this weekend.

The Toe Tactic. 2008. USA.
Directed by Emily Hubley. 85 min.
With the voices of Eli Wallach, Marian Seldes, Andrea Martin, David Cross, and Don Byron.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009,
___6:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 29, 2009,
___8:00 p.m.
Friday, January 30, 2009,
___4:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 31, 2009,
___2:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 1, 2009,
___3:00 p.m.
Monday, February 2, 2009,
___5:00 p.m.

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- Speaking of Emily Hubley, we were on a panel together this past Sunday at the Pelham Picture House in Pelham, NY (a half hour ride out of Grand Central). Other members of the panel included George Griffin, who moderated, Bob Blechman and Jeff Scher.

It was a very different kind of panel and I enjoyed participating in it. We were all New Yorkers (although Emily actually lives in New Jersey), all Independents and all concerned with the “art” and future of animation. From a long and well-established designer/producer to an experimental film maker who has learned how to make a living from his art fwe made a very diverse group. I was certainly honored to take part of it and thank J.J. Sedelmeir for getting me involved and the hard work of Andy Nichols and his team at the theater.

There were about fifty people spread out in the audience, and their questions and comments were quite knowledgeable. Only a small number seemed to have floated there from the city, but it was pleasing to note those who did. The day was cold and crisp, and the trip not a bad one – relatively short.

The program was part of the exhibit, It All Started Here! at the Westchester Arts Council Gallery in White Plains. This exhibit continues through February 28th.

There are also a number of other screenings and programs at the Jacob Burns Center Jan 27, Feb 5, and Feb 23. And a presentation on the History of NY Animation by J.J. Sedelmeir and Howard Beckerman at the NY ComiCon on Saturday Feb 7 at 4pm.

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- A lot of attention was given this past week to the nominees for the Academy Award but not much has been written on the blogs about the nominees for Best Short Animated Film in the BAFTAs. These are:

CODSWALLOP – Greg McLeod, Myles McLeod
VARMINTS – Sue Goffe, Marc Craste
WALLACE AND GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH – Steve Pegram, Nick Park, Bob Baker

Varmints was on the Oscar short list, but didn’t make it to the finals.
The Wallace and Gromit film wasn’t entered or probably might have won. I think it’s now ineligible having been shown on tv in England.
Codswallop is a film I haven’t seen to date. You can view a clip of it here.

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Speaking of symbiosis, I posted an article from 1932 on my site last Sunday and a day later a couple of beautiful photos appear on Mike Barrier ‘s site. Ted Eshbaugh‘s publicity photos live on some 3/4 of a century later. Now that’s a highlight – or maybe it’s just history.

- 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.

- Tuesday night, the Museum of Modern Art had an event to celebrate the Wednesday opening of a new exhibition devoted to Jazz film Scores. This is what the invitation looked like.

You can see from this that a main feature of the summer long exhibit of films will be Hubley shorts. The standout film is Adventures of an * in a brilliantly reconstructed print of the film. (I saw the film in 1963 in a theater, and I don’t remember the colors, even back then, looking as good as this print.)

With the film screenings is an exhibit of outstanding posters and a wall of artwork from Adventures of an *, including the start of the storyboard for the film.

The wall looks like this:

_____(Click any image to enlarge.)

I shot the image in parts and reconstructed it in photoshop. There’s some distortion due to the size and the fact that I was taking these pics on the sly; I don’t think photography is allowed.

Above this is the storyboard which feels somewhat like this (though I’m missing parts here.)

The board was near the ceiling so was hard to see, never mind photograph. Lots of light bouncing off it.

Here are some closer shots of the wall. Lighting was at its best, but it gives you an idea of what was there. The images here start to the left of the wall and move right.

A

B

C

D

E

Here are a couple of the images shot separately.

Quite a few of the backgrounds and setups from this film were framed and hung around the walls of the Hubley Studio, while I worked there. That alone made for glorious days just gawking at the stunning artwork.
Needless to say, I was a Hubley fanatic before starting work there. I remember vividly that first day of opening the elevator door to be face to face with the beautiful blue rocking chair from Moonbird framed there in all its glory. I think it took me about five minutes to finally ring the doorbell, I was so entranced with John’s painting.

Part of the exhibitiion in the lobby is artwork from John Canemaker‘s beautiful short film, Bridgehampton. A sequence of paintings, that look like they emerged from an Oskar Fischinger film, grace the wall across from the Hubley images.

There’s also a very large video screen playing clips of both films in a loop. The quality, naturally, isn’t as good as the film print. Here’s the wall of John’s artwork, as well as a closeup of one of the images and a photo of him with me against the wall.

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Here’s a photo of me up against the wall of Adventures of an *.

There’s also a reconstructed print of Tender Game whidch will play later in the summer. And, finally, below is the schedule for the animated shorts that will be playing through April and May.

The film exhibition runs through September, so you should keep up on the film programs.

I’ll try to update the schedule when I can.

Playing with the feature Dilemma is
Adventures of an *. 1957. USA. Directed and animated by John and Faith Hubley. Music by Benny Carter, with vibraphone solos by Lionel Hampton. 10 min.
____Friday, May 9, 2008, 8:15 p.m.
____Saturday, May 10, 2008, 3:00 p.m.
____Sunday, May 11, 2008, 2:30 p.m.
____Monday, May 12, 2008, 8:15 p.m.
____Wednesday, May 14, 2008, 8:15 p.m.
____Thursday, May 15, 2008, 6:15 p.m.

Playing with The Man With The Golden Arm is
The Three Little Bops. 1957. USA. Directed by Friz Freleng. Music by Shorty Rogers. A classic Looney Tunes cartoon. 8 min.
____Saturday, April 26, 2008, 2:30 p.m.
____Sunday, April 27, 2008, 4:45 p.m.

Playing with Odds Against Tomorrow is
Tal Farlow. 1950s/1980. New Zealand. Directed by Len Lye. Lye’s last cameraless scratch film, posthumously completed by Steven Jones, with a jazz guitar solo by Tal Farlow. 2 min.
____Sunday, April 20, 2008, 4:00 p.m.

Playing with Paris Blues is
Begone Dull Care. 1949. Canada. Directed by Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart. Award-winning abstract animation, with music by the Oscar Peterson Trio. 8 min.
____Saturday, April 19, 2008, 5:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
____Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 6:15 p.m

- Tonight is Oscar night. There seems to be less enthusiasm for this year’s award than has been in past years. Perhaps that has to do with the on-again off-again consequence of the WGA strike. Maybe it has to do with the films, though, personally, I love a couple of the films nominated.

Anyway, to celebrate the Oscars, I thought I’d show off a bit of personal memorabilia that hangs over my animation desk.

Back in 1985, when I was nominated for my short, Doctor DeSoto,
John Canemaker did a comic strip caricaturing different ways I could give my acceptance speech. I still think it’s hilarious. It’s a response to Jimmy Picker’s great acceptance speech in which he had a spinning bow tie. The clip is replayed in those reruns of the Oscar’s greatest moments.

This cartoon is self explanatory, so I offer it as is (fading colors and all).

____________(Click image to enlarge.)

If any of you get nominated, I hope you have as great and talented a friend to offer something as nice.

- On Monday, March 3rd at 7 PM, at The Jewish Museum there will be a panel discussion entitled, Shrek: From Book to Film to Broadway.

Panelists will include:
____ Leonard Marcus, writer, historian and critic, who will discuss William Steig’s career
____ as a children’s book illustrator and author.
____ Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation, will discuss
____ bringing the character of Shrek to life on film.
____ Chris Miller, director of the Shrek the Third film, will offer a movie director’s take on
____ the character of Shrek.
____ Jason Moore, director of the forthcoming SHREK THE MUSICAL
____ David Lindsay-Abaire, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, who is writing the book and
____ lyrics for SHREK THE MUSICAL, will speak about the creative process that is driving
____ the musical stage production.

copyright ©1990 William Steig
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The program is being offered in conjunction with The Jewish Museum exhibition, From The New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig on view through March 16, 2008. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view over 190 original drawings, many of which have never before been on display. If you haven’t seen the show, I encourage you to go. It’s free on Saturdays.

I’ve written a couple of past posts about the exhibition. You can view them here, here, and here.

The Jewish Museum is located at: Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, NYC. For box office info call: (212) 423 3337.
Tickets are $15.

There are a number of interesting sidebars to the Jewish Museum‘s site for Steig fans. For example, you can hear Meryl Streep reading Spinky Sulks. Naturally, it’s as brilliant as anything this actress has done.