Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Dredging Up More Memories:

When I was young, of course, I was under the Disney influence. I can remember with absolute clarity the day I went to see Lady And The Tramp for the first time at my local theater. 1955; I was nine years old. My parents allowed me to go alone, but I had to take and supervise my younger brothers and our cousins. It was another era.
The year that film was completed was also the year Halas and Batchelor‘s Animal Farm was released.
I don’t remember it being released theatrically in the US, but it took another four years for that British film to make it to our local tv programming where I first saw it. I hadn’t read the book, so I was completely unaware of the story. The film was overwhelming, and I was completely taken with Boxer, the horse that represented the strength and will of the farm.

This was different for me – grown-up animation. There was no looking back.
1959 was the same year I found Halas’ Technique of Film Animation in my local library. Now I could read about the making of this unique movie.

It only took another two years for me to be completely dedicated to the films of the Hubleys and another 11 years for me to be working for them. Just before John was to leave for England to direct Watership Down we had a short conversation. I’d brought up Animal Farm as a serious attempt to make an adult film and told him I was looking forward to seeing his work on this film. He then told me that he thought that the bungled job Halas & Batchelor had done on the film was a great regret to him. “What a film that could have made,” were his exact words.

Pretty funny that it was that same year Hubley’s assistant gave me a gift of the Halas book.

I thought of all this yesterday after visiting Cartoon Modern and seeing the new links that Amid had put up on his site. He has a great resource there, and I look forward daily to what new items he’ll send our way.
An illustration from Ralph Steadman’s book, “Animal Farm.”

Charles Solomon has a couple of interesting articles in the New York Times today. One is on Miyazaki‘s son who is preparing an animated feature. The second is about the success of non-computer animated features in the race for the Oscars.

“God bless us every one!” said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

This is a drawing I own from Disney’s THE THREE LITTLE PIGS. It’s from the period I like best in Disney animation, when they were young, exuberant and incredibly creative.
It’s also a mocks my incessant fear that the wolf sits at my door. A fear all you who have small businesses can relate to. As Rosanne Rosanna D’Ana used to say, “If it aint one thing, it’s another!” Today’s one of those days for me.