Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Last week I introduced you to the late Vince Cafarelli‘s collection of animation artwork. This is a collection of artwork he had saved from the different studios he worked at. A solid part of the collection is this storyboard from the 1949 Popeye cartoon, “Barking Dogs Don’t Fite.”

The story and storyboard was done by Jack Mercer and Carl Meyer. I’m sure you recognize Jack Mercer’s name as the voice of Popeye, but he was also the voice of Swat the Fly in Hoppity Goes To Town. Carl Meyer voiced his partner, Smack the Mosquito. I love the drawing style of one of them (I don’t know who did which); it’s reminiscent of some early twenties comic strip art. The two artists draw Olive very differently. One draws a circle for a head; the other gives her a bubble cheek, and this is the one I favor. I also love his Popeye. It’s too bad the film looks so mediocre in its final incarnation. For some reason, they’ve given Popeye a powder blue uniform. I don’t think the Navy actually had such a uniform.

There are a lot of drawings to this, so I’m forced to break it into three parts.
I’ve also posted the YouTube version of the short at the end of this post.

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I love this drawing!

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Olive gets breasts, at least, for one drawing.

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There is no number 18. 17 dissolves to 19.

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What an hilarious Popeye!
Right out of the Toonerville Trolley.

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.- John Halas was certainly a great promoter of animation. And while doing this he also promoted himself. A very prolific writer in a time when animation was rarely mentoned, even in film magazines.

Chris Rushworth, whose site built around his collection of art from the Halas & Batchelor feature, Animal Farm, has sent me this article from Films In Review, 1969. (I used to buy this magazine, loyally, as a child for the reviews and articles about soundtrack music.)

Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to post the old article (which is obviously, pre-computer. As a matter of fact, pre video.)

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Magazine Index

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- Before we get to the subject at hand, I just wanted to place a reminder that we’re racing toward raising money for my animated feature, POE, which has been in preproduction for some time. Now with the help of INDIEGOGO, and your contributions, we’re looking to complete a film of completed animated footage which will properly showcase our film. You can find out more about it at Indiegogo or at Poestory.net or the Poe Project Facebook page. Whether you can contribute funds or not, I thank you, i advance, for any support you can give. Even telling a friend of a friend about it may help.
Thank you.

- Lately we’ve been looking at models and preproduction drawings. Here are more of the sketches done for Lady and the Tramp found on the DVD extras gallery (in a somewhat tiny screen size). These are preproduction pieces by a number of different artists over a number of different years. They all exhibit a life of their own that’s pleasant to visit. Very cartoon compared to the film they made.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

- The last few times I’d met with Vince Cafarelli, before he died, he’d told me that he had some things he wanted to have me put on my blog. Candy Kugel has, recently, shown me the material he’d been offering. There’s a treasure of artifacts there, and it’s going to take a lot of time to display them all.

It turns out that when Vince started as a runner at Famous Studios in 1948, at one point, he found that the studio was dumping a lot of old material, and rather than let it be discarded, he took what he wanted. Fabulous gems. There’s an almost complete storyboard for a 1949 Popeye cartoon by Jack Mercer and Carl Meyer, and there are a lot of model sheets. There’s plenty of beautiful and rare work to post in the coming weeks.

I’ve decided to devote Wednesdays to the Vince Cafarelli Collection, and will start this week with all the models that came from Gulliver’s Travels.

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Several of the models, including this one, are the actual thing.
Pencil drawn originals including even the signatures approving the model.

Models approved by: Seymour Kneitel, Eddie “Hurray” Seward,
Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer, Dan Gordon, Willard Bowsky and
Frank Kelling.

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Most of them, including this one, are lithos done for the animators.

Model sheet approved by: Dave Fleischer, Max Fleischer, Frank Kelling,
Grim Natwick, Willard Bowsky, Dan Gordon, (Eddie) Seward, and
Seymour Kneitel

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An original pencil drawn model.

Approved by: Dave, Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel,
Max Fleischer, and Dan Gordon

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Approved by: Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer,
Seymour Kneitel, Dan Gordon, and Doc Crandall

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Approved by: Dave Fleischer, Dan Girdon, Seymour Kneitel,
Frank Kelling, Eddie Seward, Willard Bowsky and Max Fleischer

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Approved by: Dave Fleischer, Max Fleischer,
Eddie Seward, and Hig. E. Gibson

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Approved by: Max Fleischer, William Hoskins, Dan Gordon,
Willard Bowsky and Grim Natwick

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Approved by: Max Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel, Dan Gordon,
Grim Natwick, Eddie Seward, and Graham Place.

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Approved by: Edmond Seward, Dave Fleischer, Frank Kelling,
Max Fleischer, Dan Gordon and Willard Bowsky

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An original pencil drawn model.

Approved by: Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer,
Dan Gordon and Seymour Kneitel

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Approved by: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky, Seymour Kneitel,
Shane Miller, Eddie Seward, Max Fleischer, Izzie Sparber, and
Frank Kelling

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This model is a smaller size in the collection.
No approval names listed.

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This is also a smaller sized model sheet.
No approval names listed.

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Approved by: Max Fleischer, Dan Gordon,
Eddie Seward, Willard Bowsky, and Seymour Kneitel

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Approved by: Dave Fleischer, Eddie Seward, Willard Bowsky,
Max Fleischer, Dan Gordon and Seymour Kneitel

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Approved by: Dan Gordon, Eddie Seward, “G”,
Seymour Kneitel, Willard Bowsky, Dan Gordon,
and Max Fleischer

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Approved by: Max Fleischer, Eddie Seward, Dan Gordon,
Willard Bowsky and Seymour Kneitel

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An original pencil drawn model.

Approved by” Dave Fleischer, Max Fleischer, Nic. E. Gibson,
Dan Gordon and Seymour Kneitel

- Bill Peckmann sent the following drawings, and I’ll leave them to him to explain them:

In the 1980′s, studio gags were a great way to chase away the daily dose of blues from working on a few of the more tedious TV spots that we did. Nobody had a better time of this, than assistant animator Mike Baez and myself at KCMP Studios. Not quite sure why I saved mine but I did and here they are. The gags of course have a “you had to be there” or an “in” feeling to them, so I’ll drop in a few captions to help.

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“The magic of animation even works when you’re shticking around.”

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“Congratulations on a commercial well done!”

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“Mike Baez was always one of the best… ”

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” …and the fastest… ”

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” …and went through 2 boxes of Blackwings in a day!”

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“Adv. clients always loved to add feature film effects to their commercials.”

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“M&M’s with one of their first shots at shading.”

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“Doing accurate cast shadows always meant twice the amount of work!”

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“Always there to help out in a pinch… ”

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” …and then some.”

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“What was a studio if it didn’t have a cookie jar on the receptionist’s desk.”

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“Or a candy jar on the front desk.”

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“Eating, one of any studios beloved pastime, especially the
annual Christmas party at our favorite Mexican restaurant.”

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“Who didn’t look forward to the client dropping off their
food product when we were working on their commercial.”

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“Those clients dropped off a lot of product, and when they did… ”

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” …we definitely had to look into a diet plan!”

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“Lunch hour reading.”

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“20 years before ‘Cars’”

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“Reflections.”

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“Those halcyon years at K.C.M.P. Studios, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”

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“All work and no play . . . ”

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“The day after watching your favorite TV series.”

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“With apologies to Arnold S. and Danny D . .”

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“Dreams of a back up, second career.”

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“To the one and only Mike Baez who made working fun!”

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Indiegogo

LAYOUT FROM SC. B45
Drawing by Tissa David

And now the promotion. The POE Project is up and running at INDIEGOGO, where there is a new page seeking contributions (however small) in support of a feature animated film I’m seeking to produce. The film has seen preproduction grow and the film start to blossom under the many thumbs of those who’ve worked on it. The script, the preparatory drawings, the storyboards and animatics (video story reels) and the great early voice over recordings all show us how promising a film this will be. We’re seeking some money to finalize a couple of minutes of the film to show investors what we’d like to see with the finished film.

Please visit our Indiegogo site.

- Last week, we offered some pages from the scrapbook of Rowland B. Wilson. This was graciously loaned to the Splog by Suzanne Wilson, and we have a treat this week. A second installment. these pages were a source of inspiration for Rowland, and the clippings, for us, are also a remarkable view of the animation and illustration product of the time.

Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for initiating this and to Suzanne for sending it.

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- Here’s the last of the scenes I have from 101 Dalmatians. Roger, singing the “Cruella de Vil” song, pulls Anita to the dance floor and does a quick step with her. She’s reluctant but moves along with him. It’s a complex scene full of character – actually, two characters, and Milt Kahl handles it brilliantly, as expected.

Here’s sequence 2, scene 91.

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From here on inbetweens are left for the Asst.

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The following QT includes all the drawings posted above.

There’s a bit of distortion in the Xerox copies
so the registration goes in and out.

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]

Click on the right side of the lower bar to watch it one frame at a time.

- Suzanne Wilson sent me some pages from the private scrapbook that Rowland B. Wilson kept for inspiration and reference. Seeing these pages, I was a bit surprised at what he collected. When I was a kid, I kept a scrapbook of everything – and I do mean everything – that was printed about animation. Remember, there were few books about animation back in the 60s; I had to hold onto everything available. I found looking at Rowland Wilson’s scrapbook not too different from my own, except that he kept material about the “Golden Years”. It gave me a smile.

Here are some of Suzanne’s comments:

Rowland B. Wilson, ever the contrarian, once said when speaking of deciding one’s future “Why should you expect an eight-year-old boy to decide what a grown man should do?” He may have been a bit older than that (dates of the periodicals suggest age 12 through 15) when he assembled scrapbooks of his favorite subjects and illustrations from Disney, Life, Collier’s and Look magazines and the Dallas newspapers, but one look shows the premonition of a later artistic sensibility. He zeroed in on what exactly appealed to him visually and subjectively and never deviated. The influences were taken to heart and incorporated into a personal recognizable style.

For example, “Speaking of Pictures”, a Disney spoof on the Old Masters (Image 15) clipped from Life Magazine in 1945 can be compared to The Sneezenfitz Gallery, drawn in 2005 for the cartoon novel “Cloak and Pistol”. One only has to look at “Casey at the Bat” (Image 16 to see a gestalt that was to emerge in the definitive baseball players in TV Guide. (See Rowland B. Wilson TV Guide Originals-1, posted February 16th.)

The clippings can also be seen as interesting ephemera. Those from wartime show aircraft insignia designed by Disney, aviation gremlins and advertising of the time.

Here are some comments from Bill Peckmann, who requested Suzanne send me the material:

I have to admit it’s been over 35 years since I last laid eyes on them when Rowland brought them in to PK&A for show and tell. He had just returned from a trip to his hometown of Dallas, Texas and couldn’t wait to show us what he brought back with him. This was just about the time in the 70′s when Disney was starting to come back into the good graces of the art world again. (Think Lincoln Center.) I remembered there was Disney and other great stuff in there, but couldn’t quite remember exactly what. Seeing the collection now after all these years, it feels like I’m looking at a precursor to the SPLOG. One can see now what a terrific eye and good taste Rowland had as a young teenager, and it’s also neat to see that animation was in his blood at such an early age, he just got a little sidetracked with very successful advertising, cartooning and illustrating careers before he went back to the first love of his life, animation. Lucky us!

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Suzanne Wilson is about to have a new book on the market: Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets: Notes for Cartooning and Animation.

It’s obvious that this book is directly related to this post. Rowland Wilson obviously kept journals in which he wrote about illustration and animation, and the information must certainly be very informative to students; some of these journals are published here. Presumably pages of the scrapbook may have made the book.

The book seems to offer quite a bit of attention to Mr. Wilson’s animation art, just as it does his brilliant illustration and cartooning. I look forward to getting my copy.

- We continue with 101 Dalmatians and Milt Kahl‘s artwork for Scene 88. This is Roger’s rendition of his song, “Cruella de Vil.” In the first half, we saw Roger flamboyantly thorw the arm of the sweater about his neck. Here, he leisurely, musically, moves down the stairs. The scene is a beauty. This second half makes the scene. We start with the final drawing from part one.

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The following QT includes all the drawings posted above.

There’s a bit of distortion in the Xerox copies
so the registration goes in and out.

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]

Click on the right side of the lower bar to watch it one frame at a time.

- The DVD of Lady and the Tramp includes some preliminary artwork for the film. I collected a bunch of it and am breaking it into a couple of posts. It’s easier to read off a blog than a tv screen, especially when the DVD tries hard to reduce them to the smallest size they can muster within an overworked border that is virtually pointless.

The illustrations – some are obviously BG layouts, others storyboard drawings – have a light and jaunty feel. They’re very cartoon in nature, and belie the actual feature they produced which, at times, is quite beautiful. Disney truly got the feel of “Main Street, USA” in this film.

I’m interested that most of the images don’t take in Cinemascope (since they were probably done before the decision to go Scope.) Most of them are also fast drawings that don’t feature the Tramp as we know him, and even Lady takes on a different form.

You get the feeling this film was pushed out relatively quickly. The results are excellent, regardless. Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee wrote an excellent pop-song score that doesn’t quite capture the turn-of-the-century, but it does capture the atmosphere of early 50s USA.

This drawing is in B&W on the DVD, but it appears in
Bob Thomas’ 1958 book, “The Art of Animation.”

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Bg for The Princess and the Frog.

This looks not too different from a shot in Hitchcock’s Psycho.

We seem to be in the Little Golden Book territory
with some of these images.

An earlier and different view.

Or did I mean the New Yorker circa 1948?

I love weather and would have applauded more of it in the film.

To be continued.