Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Last week I posted the first part of the storyboard to the Disney short, Melody: Adventures in Music. This is another gem loaned to me by John Canemaker. It’s the first board to this short and has only some resemblance to the actual film.

Next week, I’ll post a second board for the same film, one that looks very different and more like the final cartoon.

I’ve also posted some of the artist sketches for the film and will have more of those later this week.

Here are the last two storyboard panels in full size:

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Here are the rows of this board broken into halves so that I can get you the largest possible images:

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31b

32a

32b

33a

33b

41a

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You can find frame grabs from this short on Ward Jenkins‘ site, The Ward-O-Matic.
MELODY is included in the Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities dvd set and it is also found in the bonus features of the Fantasia 2000 dvd.

- When posting the storyboards from Melody: Adventures In Music, that were loaned me by John Canemaker, last Monday I mentioned that John had also offered some artwork from the film – color keys and story sketches. I’ll post these in two parts: the first here, the second next week after completing the board.

Unfortunately, I don’t know who the artists were that painted these.
Eyvind Earle is credited as Color Stylist; Ken O’Connor and Victor Haboush were credited for Art Direction.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

To be concluded next week.
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You can find frame grabs from this short on Ward Jenkins‘ site, The Ward-O-Matic.
MELODY is included in the Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities dvd set and it is also found in the bonus features of the Fantasia 2000 dvd.

The film is also on YouTube (at the moment) in not the best condition.

- John Canemaker has loaned me two storyboards for the Disney film, Melody: Adventures in Music. The second is a very different version of the first. I don’t know who did the drawings for this board, but the images are very finished looking. There’s also not much to hint that this version was to be done in 3D.

John also gave me a lot of color sketches and models from this board. Some of those will follow later this week.

As in the past, I’ve posted these by showing the full board, then by breaking it up into columns. This allows me to show off the boards at the largest I can get it. So here are the first two of four boards from the first version of the storyboard:

And here are these two boards broken down:

11a

11b

12a

12b

13a

13b

14a

14b

21a

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The remainder of the storyboards for this short will be posted next Monday.
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- Today’s the 36th anniversary of Max Fleischer‘s death. i couldn’t pass the moment without displaying his Obituary from the NYTimes.

Following that I’m posting the 9-page piece from the Film Dope magazine issue #16/Feb. 1979. I wanted to give the full filmography of Fleischer’s work.

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With the Republican convention finishing up yesterday, it seems appropriate to post a few of the politically related cartoons which Irv Spector did. These were sent courtesy of Irv’s son, Paul. The comments from here on are Paul’s:

All but one — the McCay, natch’ — were done during my father’s time at MGM Tower 12 (The Jones era), and I would imagine — and I assume they were working on the The Pogo Special Birthday Special, and a “real” election year was also forthcoming. I tossed in the McCay which my dad seems to have had! (the answer is: I don’t know, but I do.) The others obviously pale in comparison.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

A Winsor McCay political cartoon.

This is the only Pogo I’m sending you, as it has a bit of “truth” to it,
and the others are kind of stock, although nice drawings.

(MS note: After I just about begged for more, Paul sent these three
drawings from the Pogo period. It’s likely they were drawn by Irv Spector.)

These last 3 are kind of my favorite sort of thing, where
the cartoonists were kind of doing them to amuse themselves
or each other. This is my father’s, although I guess I don’t
have to point out his style by this point.

I’m pretty sure this is my dad’s, but not 100%. Not sure if
you are up on the old California political 60′s, but the Brown is
Gov. Pat Brown (actually quite good, as politician’s go) who was
Jerry’s father, and of course Reagan was governor soon after.

This was done by Nick Gibson, if you can make out my father’s
presence of mind to write that credit halfway between the character
and the right border. Seems my father wasn’t above pontificating a bit
himself. Looks nothing like him, but any profundity is in the text.

The following is a continuation of the piece that was posted last Friday. This is the remainder of Irv Spector‘s storyboard for the Paramount short, Galaxia. Paul Spector, Irv’s son, is the author of this piece. Paul’s notes, comments and more docs follow the storyboard.

Notes from Paul Spector:

Following are a few more Paramount/Famous items that of possible interest that my father boarded and sometimes animated as well. Some might make good accompanying pieces, or good for comparison, if you own the Harveytoons DVD, as that lacks any substantial info/extras. In a couple of these I’ve exposed my father’s ledger from this era (remember, he was freelancing) for the voyeur in you…and me.

What was the pay? The item on top named “Boris” is Galaxia, before it had a permanent title. The two Cats beneath it are different cartoons _________(Click to read full page)
using a repeating character during the same period.

L’Amour the Merrier (1957, Noveltoon). My father wasn’t above recycling his own themes. Preceding Galaxia by several years, in this, the matchmaker introduces himself as Louis Jacques Honore Napoleon Renoir. Hector the Garbage Collector wants to marry the kingdom’s princess. Renoir ends up with the princess, Hector with Renoir’s sister.

(click any image to enlarge.)

Le Petite Parade (1959, Modern Madcap). The title of this cartoon is the answer to one of the more frequently encountered questions on cartoon websites: “Does anyone know the name of the cartoon where a weekly parade goes by a house, and the sanitation truck that follows hits a bump and always leaves a pile of trash at the front door?” Yet again, the homeowner is a matchmaker, although that has little to do with the plot.

Sir Irving and Sir Jeames (1956, Noveltoon). Servant and master role reversal after protracted period of mistreatment.

Abner the Baseball (1961, two-reeler). Abner is an anthropomorphized baseball who narrates about getting banged around in a game, climatically about a long home run by Mickey Mantle. This was written and narrated onscreen by Eddie Lawrence, a popular comedian of that era who also usedthe bit in his act. Actually shy of a full two reel by a few minutes, I believe this was Paramount’s animated-short entry for an Oscar. Here is the beginning of the script accompanied and my dad’s ledger.

(Click to read.)

Chew Chew Baby (1958, Noveltoon). Yanked from airing on television due to the cannibalistic theme. Likely for the same reason it is not on the Complete Harveytoons DVD. That’s a shame because it moves along better than most, mainly the result of Sparber’s direction pushing it along – he didn’t get to direct too many — and the spot-on obsequious and condescending voice work of the American toward the pygmy. This rough model of the pygmy is not exactly as he appears in the cartoon, but it’s all I have.

- Here is another gem from Paul Spector re the animation work of his talented father,
Irv Spector. It’s a pleasure to present it.

If there were a spot to post my father’s pre-WWII work, confirmed credits, and interesting studio stories, this would be the place.

Sorry to say, I don’t really have very much in the way of those to offer. My father was one of those unmarried animators, too busy running from the west coast to the east, to hold onto much until after WWII. However, he did seemingly come away with Willard Bowsky’s animation stopwatch.

Born in Oakland, CA in 1914 but growing up in Los Angeles, he was suspended from high school in 1930 for arguing with his art teacher about the correct way to draw a hand holding a gun pointed straight at you. The next day he was at Disney Studios asking for a job, and was actually let in to see Walt himself (helps here to imagine that at 16 my father was about 5’6”, 130lbs). Walt told him to go back and finish school, and then there would always be job after that at Disney. Instead, he went over to the Mintz Studio and was given employment as a fledgling animator (slight chance this might have been with Lantz at Universal, but he was with Mintz quickly).

Irv Spector at the Mintz Studio.

There he stayed for several years before moving over to Leon Schlesinger Studios, depicted on their on their Xmas card from the mid 1930s. schlesinger_xmas.jpg , and eventually moved on to Fleischer, starting there not too long before their move to Miami.

(Scan taken from Leslie Cabarga’s The Fleischer Story.)

From there, it was WWII and the Signal Corps, the subject of a recent post on the Splog.

Since my father had an industry name – and would not likely be the subject of an animation post unless his kid was writing it — most corners of the internet and many books about animation lead the casual observer to believe that from after WWII through the early 1960s he was strictly a Paramount-Famous guy. However, there is a very large body of non-Famous work during this stretch of his career, 95% of that either projected on a screen, aired, or published, could easily fill several posts of their own.

Yet it’s best to get started with something more cohesive. The following is the first of two parts of a complete storyboard, Galaxia, created for Paramount-Famous and released theatrically in 1961. I decided to post it for a few reasons. I don’t really see any complete Famous boards out there, I happen to have it, and I think it is a decent enough example of the difference between how a work is conceived and the way it ends up. It’s available in finished form on the Complete Harveytoons DVD.

Although far from any Famous production that would likely be discussed on an animation blog, I would like to think that this complete storyboard at least has some charm and zippy movement to it — but being so close to it for such a protracted period I’m no longer a good barometer; I can still remember it in total, pinned to the wall of my father’s basement studio. So imagine my surprise when I finally saw the finished product just two years ago! In truth, to me, the DVD Galaxia plays like a bit of a slow bore.

Certainly, it is a long way from the better Famous output many years prior, and most readers here will know the reasons why. Often, when I think about the talent pool that Famous had working for them, many being the same cartoonists whose work for other studios is often revered, I tend to squint a bit and imagine what might have been.

The Storyboard – pt.1

(Click any image on this post to enlarge.)

(Note there dosen’t seem to be a drawing #16.)

To be concluded on Monday.

Model Sheets

Model sheet #1

Model sheet #2

Model sheet #3

- Following yesterday’s display of a couple of drawings by Bill Tytla, I thought I’d post a couple of other xeroxed animation drawings I have from his work.

I wish I owned the exposure sheets. Drawings #67½, 68½, 69½, and 70½ all follow drawing #70 in its path of action. These are possibly an add on to the turn. They also may be part of a stutter he’s set up: #67½ follows 67, 68½ follows 68, 69½ follows 69, and 70½ follow 70. This would give a peculair effect, and I don’t think that’s it. (Grim Natwick taught me that if you want that stutter effect do the full move, numbering the drawings sequenctially. Then you can throw them out of order on the X-sheets.)

I don’t know, I’ve been trying to find the move in the final film.

Here’s Grumpy turning.

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6566

6768

6970

7166½

67½69½

70½

Grumpy turns.

This is an actual animation drawing by Tytla that I own.
It’s obviously from another scene. The size is a small 10×12.
If you click on the drawing it should enlarge to actual size.

Bill Tytla was an amazing character in animation history. I think, far and away, he was onto something that few other animators ever tried to face. He used the drawing, including all aspects: volume, dynamic tension, weight and graphic distortion, at the service of the character’s acting.

I intend, in another post, to draw a comparison with him to Jim Tyer and Rod Scribner.

For the moment, let me show off these great drawings lifted from John Canemaker‘s wonderful book, The Treasures of Disney Animation Art.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Look at the distortion in these two drawings – 2 & 3
Talk about breaking of joints, talk about stretch and squash,
talk about every possible animation rule and see those rules
stretched to the brink in these great drawings.

This guy was the master of all masters.
Tytla not only knew the rules but used them to create an acting style
that was on a par with the best of the Method actors of his day.
His kind was never equalled, and I don’t expect to see
anything comparable in cgi. I suppose I can hope.

What a treasure.

Of course, this is Stromboli’s wagon interior. It’s a beauty.
What a magnificent film!

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