Comments on: Galaxia - Pt.2

by: Robert Schaad

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:51:50 +0000

Thanks so much for this post. As many have pointed out, the Harveytoons dvd set is kinda loosely organized…and requires careful attention (i.e. what specifictoons on what # episode). But there is so much on there, that it remains a bargain. Always great to see Renoir the Matchmaker!!

by: Frank M. Young

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Thanks for posting this material! I am very fond of Irv Spector’s work on the Famous “moderne” style cartoons of the 1950s.

CHEW CHEW BABY is an amazing cartoon. Disturbing and unusual…wonderful stuff!

by: Michael

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:40:39 +0000

Mike Q, thanks for the kind words. Re Madame Mim’s cottage, another commentor had already added that remark, and I purposely left my original text. Thanks, though, for finding the gaffe and the comment.

by: Will Finn

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:50:42 +0000

i meant to say “this more stylized stuff” in the first line of the next to last paragraph.

i can’t seem to write a single line without making a mistaek.

by: Will Finn

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:45:39 +0000

Michael–these are highly sweet to look at. thanks a million.

i can’t recall GLAXIA but i remember the PETIT PARADE vividly, including every word of the star’s complaint in song, although I haven’t seen it in roughly 35 years.

My memory of these cartoons is that most the animators and assistants in this pool seemed entirely at sea when translating this more stuff. An ex-east-coast animation friend (who was a contemporary of some of them) has backed me up on this. even the name MODERN MADCAP stuck me as an anomaly as a small kid: “MADCAP” was a word maybe my grandparents used. There was nothing “Modern” about it.

But these storyboards and models are spectacular. What a hoot it would be to animate characters like these!

by: Mike Q

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:13:06 +0000

I LOVE your blog, I can’t believe how amazing it is, and this isn’t meant for this article, but I’m posting it here so you see it. For The Sword in the Stone, you said you thought a concept of a house on a body of water (reminding you of The Rescuers) might have been for Merlin’s home. But a sign right near it says “Mim”. It’s for Madam Mim’s home!

by: Bill Perkins

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:26:49 +0000

I wanted to jump back in with an afterthought. Years ago I saw boards like this at the Cartoon Network studios in Burbank. They had an original “Yogi Bear” storyboard by, I believe, Warren Foster. Like these it was a joy to look at. All the information required for the followup functions was there and as well it was panel after panel of strong expressive drawings that in addition to being funny were inspirational. During the last eight years or so there has been a practice / cost cutting measure, in television animation, to foist the jobs of background layout, incidental prop and character design, character layout/posing on the shoulders of the storyboard artist in addition to what he is already responsible for. Aside from the time, pressure and budget constraints one person now does the job of what use to be several. More importantly however it, I believe, this way of working sucks the life out of a board by taking the board artist away from what he does best - telling the story in a simple, clear fashion that allows other persons with there own areas of expertise to follow up. We’ve had background layout artists, prop and character designers as well as character layout persons for a good reason, no one, or a very few persons can do it all themselves. The beauty of the animation production paradigm is it brings together diverse talents in many areas in order to achieve a common goal by the synergy created - the completion of the project at hand. The jumping off point of the project being of course the script and the storyboard. The best boards in my opinion are those that serve to inspire, as these do.
Thanks for posting fine examples of a wonderful but so it seems, and it deeply saddens me to think this, soon to be lost art form.

by: S. Scott

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:31:12 +0000

I actually saw that pygmy cartoon back in the 70s I think on TV. It was weird, kind of like Trilogy of Terror and The Night Gallery episode, The Doll. It should have been on the DVD, just to show something out of the ordinary in the cartoon world. Thanks for posting the boards and info from Spector’s career.

by: John

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:19:12 +0000

Thanks for posting this, Paul. As I said in the other thread (and on a few other sites), the one-shot Paramount Noveltoons/Modern Madcaps of the late 50s are really underrated because they’re just lumped in with all the formula stuff the studio was (in)famous for. Separate the one-shots out from the run of Caspers, Hueys, Audreys and Herman and Katnip shorts, and the studio’s creativity is a lot more impressive than what Paramount’s given credit for, especially working with sharply declining animation budgets.

Outside of some of the one-shots Chuck Jones was doing over at Warner Bros. your dad’s scripts are the least-targeted towards kids and more towards adults of any of the theatricals from that period (Irv also had story credit on “Taxy-Turvy”, which is my favorite 1950s Popeye cartoon and one of the few Popeyes from the 50s with an original story line that you could see being done at the Fleischer Studio 15-20 years earlier).

by: Bill Perkins

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:53:46 +0000

Thanks for the post, this is great FUN stuff and its obvious your father was enjoying himself. Really terrific.