Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- This scene is a continuation of animation from All the Cats Join In from Make Mine Music. It’s another scene by Fred Moore and is, to me, one of the highlights of the film. The girl keeps jitterbugging even though she’s rapt in conversation on the phone.

The problem I had with this artwork was that the xerox copies offered no registration marks, and there were no visible numbers on most of the drawings. Consequently, I did the best I could to register them.
As in the past we start with the last drawing from the last post.

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The following QT movie represents all the drawings in the scene.
Since I had no numbers to go by, I exposed all drawings on twos.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- This scene is a continuation of animation from All the Cats Join In. It’s another scene by Fred Moore and is, to me, one of the highlights of the film. The girl keeps jitterbugging even though shes rapt in conversation on the phone.

The problem I had was twofold. The xerox copies offered no registration and there were no visible numbers on most of the drawings. Hence, I did the best I could to register them, even though I couldn’t use the ever-moving feet as an achor.

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I’ll post the remainder of this scene next week.

The following QT movie represents all the drawings in the scene.
Since I had no numbers to go by, I exposed all drawings on twos.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

Many thanks for the loan of this scene by Lou Scarborough.

- When I was young I read the Carl Barks’ Donald Duck comics and the Uncle Scrooge comics and anything else the man turned out. I was religious about it and had to combat a parent who didn’t understand the importance of comic books in a young person’s life. To which end, I was on the receiving end of many a punishment when a rare Donald Duck or somesuch other comic would be found.

Oddly enough, this didn’t transfer to my adulthood where I find myself not at all interested in the oil paintings Barks did of Donald and the gang. Bill Peckmann sent me a few of these paintings, and immediately upon seeing them again, I turned my nose away but knew, just the same, that I’d be posting them. There are too many people that love these things.

So for you, the folk who love Carl Barks’ lame attempt at “art”, I surrender this post. I thank Bill Peckmann and hope you enjoy the four following paintings.

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(Click any image you’d like to enlarge.)

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- Here’s a Milt Kahl scene of Anita from 101 Dalmatians. These are the extremes without inbetweens. In the scene, Anita is humming along with the tune Roger is playing, then says “What clever . . .” She finishes with, “. . . lyrics,” in the next scene.

The image at the left comes from Mark Mayerson‘s excellent breakdown Mosaic of this film.

This is another scene graciously on loan to me from Lou Scarborough, and I couldn’t be more appreciative and thankful.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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The following QT represents the drawings above. Each
extreme was held for the appropriate number of frames requested.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- I have a few models by Rowland Wilson that I haven’t yet posted. I’m ganging them up, even though they come from several different projects. All of these come courtesy the collection of Bill Peckmann. Many thanks to Bill.

This first series comes from a spot Rowland designed for Phil Kimmelman & Associates. It featured a mountie and his trusty sidekick.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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The following two layouts came from the 2nd TV spot Rowland did for ‘Utica Club Beer’, featuring a Knight and a fiery Dragon.

This is a rough that RBW did for a dog food animatic. It was a take off of Bogart’s ‘Casablanca’, hence the ‘play it again Sam’ scene with Bogie Basset.

This is a LO rough for what’s probably a TV Guide illustration:

This is a painting by Rowland Wilson for
The Hunchback of Notre Dame “All Fools Day”.

Here is the same thing broken in two for better viewing.

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Right

Here’s a group of Christmas Cards Rowland did. This is the note that Bill Peckmann included with the cards: “Years ago Rowland had an old school friend (‘Pete the Greek’, I’ve forgotten his last name) in Dallas (their home town) who owned the ‘Drawing Board’ greeting card company. Rowland did these professional (dentists, doctors, cpa’s etc.) Christmas cards for Pete. He loved doing them because Pete let him run with the ball, none of the usual looking over your shoulder advertising art direction.”

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And here are two cards that were sent out by Rowland and Suzanne.

Here’s a caricature Rowland did of Grim Natwick and himself:

Finally, here’s a cartoon Bill Peckmann did of the staff at Focus, a company in NY just prior to Phil Kimmelman’s forming PK&A. Here’s a note Bill included with the drawing: “This was done by me when we were working on RBW’s second animated spot which was Vote Toothpaste’s “Combs & Plotzen.” His first was a Flying “A” gasoline spot animated by Lu Guarnier. Both circa ’68-’70. Of cours this pre-dated the Utica Club “Mountie”strong> caricatures.”

- It’s nice to know that there’s some playing at the top.
In designing an Underoos commercial for Phil Kimmelman and Associates, Alex Toth sent funny cards to Bill Peckmann, he responded with paintings of his own. Thanks to Bill, I have some of that material, and will post it here.

First this short note from Bill about what follows:

“. . . about 30 years ago PK&A was lucky enough to do a TV “Under-Roos” spot with Alex Toth (since I was and am a HUGH Toth fan, I probably badgered Phil and the Ad agency into using Alex to do the super hero character designs and LO’s of the spot) and with that, I also became the lucky recipient Alex’s many missives. These came in the form of letters and postcards, which were wonderfully illustrated with doodles and sketches. One doodle that he used quite a bit was his cigarette smoking, signature alter ego “Grumpy Duck” (see attached).

And with that, I did some riffs on his Duck character showing the history of aviation (we were both airplane buffs) and photography (we both appreciated good photos). These were done with xerox and cel paint. Happy to say, Alex seemed to get a kick out of these.”

An example of one of Alex Toth’s mailings to Bill.

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Here’s the series of ducks that Bill painted for Alex.

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(Click any image you’d like to enlarge.)

“Here are some setups that Alex Toth did for the ‘Underoos’ spot for us. Since Superman and Spiderman came from rival companies, very seldom or never did they appear together. You might have a Toth fan or two in your audience, mebbe we’ll make you one. At end of s’heros is a doodle, one of his many.”

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A sample of one of Alex Toth’s many doodles.

Finally, a thank you note (the original was in color) that Alex did for Rowland Wilson, they were big mutual fans. The two were friends:

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Enlarge to read the panel bottom center.

- Here’s a scene all of 29 drawings in length, but if you check it out in the film it’s enormous. Everything’s moving – the wago they’re standing in, the pots & pans, things on the table and most definitely Stromboli who in one enormous drawing changes the scene, Pinocchio’s world and the mood in the audience. “Quiet!” is all the dialogue shouted in the scene. It”s frightening.

(Make sure you click to enlarge every drawing here.)

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Closed position starting to open his body – legs first.

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Pulling it all into a ball,
he shouts, “QUIET” – the dialogue for the scene

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Couldn’t open up more than this.
Just look at the distortion in this drawing. Magnificent.
Open, loud, ready to burst. One frame only.

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Next frame he’s landed and gathered himself.
Only the secondary action – vest, pants, beard –
echo the outburst.

Quickly he starts to turn.

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His clothes lag behind in pulling themselves together.

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He’s set to give the demand and end the scene.

The following QT movie represents the entire scene from Pinocchio.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

Here are frames from the actual scene:

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What a difference the shake of the coach and the
bounce of the hanging utensils make to the scene.

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There’s danger everywhere, here.
It’s scary.

Many thanks to my friend, Lou Scarborough, for the loan of this scene.

- What more can I say. It’s arguably the greatest Mickey scene ever animated. Frank Thomas did it, and this is part 3 of the displayed drawings and developing QT pencil test. In case you can’t guess, it’s from The Brave Little Tailor. Many thanks to Louis Scarborough Jr. for the loan of the scene to post it.

Here are: Part 1,
Part 2

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(Click any drawing to enlarge.)

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The following QT movie represents all 183 drawings of the first 3 posts.
As more of the film is posted, I’ll add more of the scene to the QTs.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

– Ferdinand the Bull was a precious little animated short. It originally started out as a “Silly Symphony”, but then they called it a “Special” film. It was adapted from a classic children’s book by Munro Leaf which was illustrated by his longtime collaborator, Robert Lawson. The book, published in 1936, created a bit of a stir in Europe where the Spanish saw it as a call for pacifism when they were involved in a violent civil war and were getting entrenched in what would become World War II.

In making the film, the animators who worked on it seem to have had a lot of fun. Ward Kimball led the way by caricaturing others (see below) as the bullfighters who parade into the arena. You can get a glimpse of this in the model sheets from the film. Disney, himself, was drawn as the matador leading the charge. (At least Walt thought it was a caricature of him; Kimball said no.)

In their book, Too Funny for Words, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston wrote, “The parade of participants for the great bullfight in Ferdinand the Bull (1938) was a series of caricatures of animators and directors, with the animator who conceived the whole idea bringing up the rear and leering knowingly at the camera. It was rumored that Walt thought the matador was a caricature of himself, but the animator quickly denied giving the character any resemblance to his boss.”

The animator, Ward Kimball, took credit for caricaturing the cast, but said that the Matador was not Disney.

The short won the Oscar in 1938 as Best Animated Short.
Again, many thanks to Bill Peckmann for the loan of these models to post.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Young Ferdinand

Mother

Bulls and scouts

The crowd in the arena.

Picadors and Banderilleros (obviously before Kimball got to them.)

Picador’s horse.

More Picadors and Banderilleros

I believe it’s Ham Luske leading, with Bill Tytla, Fred Moore and Art Babbitt following.
Michael Barrier corrected this (see comments) From left: Ham Luske, Jack Campbell, Fred Moore, and Art Babbitt

Jack Cambell leads these three, and I’m not sure of the others.
More from Mike Barrier’s comments: Tytla is the horseman at the middle. I believe the horseman to Tytla’s right is a caricature, too, but I can’t remember of whom.

Matador Walt Disney marches in front of Ward Kimball, bringing up the rear.

Ferdinand himself.

- I continue with this scene by Frank Thomas from the Mickey short, The Brave Little Tailor. A brilliant scene it goes on for about 250 drawings long, and it’ll take four or five posts. Many thanks to my friend, Lou Scarborough, for the generous loan of his xeroxed copies; it was a delight getting them back in registration.

I begin, as usual with the last drawing from Part 1.

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(Click any image you want to enlarge.)

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The following QT movie represents all of the drawings of the first 3 posts.
As more of the film is posted, I’ll add more of the scene to the QTs.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.