Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Dumbo was on Toon Disney last night. Since there was little on TV other than the non-News about another terrorist attack, I chose to watch it (for about the 200th time) again.

What a little gem that film is. There will never be anything comparable in my lifetime. It’s so beautifully animated, designed and constructed.

The Tytla scene of Jumbo Jr. running about under his mother’s legs, after his bath, is far and away my favorite animated scene. So simple; so beautiful.
Oliver Wallace’s musical theme for the baby is introduced here; it’s perfect.

But then, they cut to commercials. Tarzan is on tonight. What a jolt to cut from Dumbo to the flatter animation in Tarzan. I enjoyed parts of that film, but the animation is too often jerking from extreme to extreme without really developing character. It didn’t hold up in the sudden comparison. How could it? But then, that was better than the flash animated series Toon Disney is also promoting.

Then there were ads for an insurance company! Over and Over and Over again. In the middle of the afternoon, cutting through Dumbo? That media buyer had better be looking for a new job.

I couldn’t watch anymore and had to leave the film. I’ll watch the dvd again soon. (The commentary track featuring John Canemaker – alone – has to be the best commentary track of any Disney film. A first rate job by John.)

Who Let The Dogs Out?
- As a post script to the note I had the other day about the MTV flash-animated show “Where My Dogs At?”, a response has come from MTV about the future of the show. Here’s the AP link. MTV is not supporting their show. No one there seemed to notice the sexist/racist overtones prior to the press’ comments, and now they’re distancing themselves from the blame.

– Time to perk things up. Let’s draw faces!

These pages are taken from a book I have, published in 1940, called How To Make Faces. The author, Frank Webb, was a comic strip cartoonist who drew the cartoon panel ‘Kartoon Kollege’ from 1940-41. When this strip ended, he created the comic strip ‘Raising Kane’, which ran until 1944.

Other than that, I haven’t been able to learn much about him. I find it interesting that he signed each page of his book almost as if he expected it to run in a newspaper on a daily, one-page-at-a-time basis.

His approach was to use the alphabet and build up from there. When he runs out of the alphabet, he just turns to shapes then just asks you to copy his picture or finish the page.

Every other page is a blank “Practice Page.” A nice way to fill up a book.
(Click on any image to enlarge)

- Thanks to all my friends, old & new, for the support. Claude has at least another month of wearing down to go. It’s gonna take a lot of normalcy from us to support him, and your kind words help.

- Last night I saw World Trade Center, Oliver Stone’s film. It’s so serious of purpose and good intentioned that it doesn’t make for a good film. More like a TV movie with a lot of money to recreate the event via special effects. It’s so earnest.

The acting is brilliant but to no purpose. I was glad to be reminded in vivid detail of the event; it’s not a day I want to forget and doubt I could. However, you look for the tiniest details to be wrong to support your own memory of it. Those hundreds of “Missing” xeroxes pinned everywhere about the City weren’t sharp, focussed, color images of head shots. They were down and dirty xerox copies of fading wedding pictures and out of focus, random photographs. The grittiness of those xeroxes was so beyond words. I know, that’s the only detail I’m picking on, but there were others. This one was so poignant to all of us in NY.

I think we’re too close to it for anyone to give a hardened opinion of the facts. That’s the only thing that could make art out of this highly polished glue and sawdust movie.

Today I’m going to indulge myself. These are two photos of my boy, Claude, taken 18 years ago. The rascal has been a hunter all his life catching mice for sport, daring any pigeon to come near his window screen, and giving Heidi and me endless joy.

We found out yesterday that he now has Cancer in his liver which has metastasized to his right kidney. At 18 he’s too old to operate successfully without causing him pain for the rest of his life. Essentially, that means he has another month or so to go. It’s a blow. He’s still the kitten, to me, and he still acts it. It’s been a tough year.

- Didier Ghez has a new blog called Disney History. This excellent historian offers quite a bit of useful information about Disney and his work. Currently, there’s a lot of reference to books about the man and his studio. It looks to be a new spot for me to visit daily.

– BibliOdyssey is a weblog that features stunningly attractive illustration.

Hundreds of pictures are posted on this site, and you could spend hours appreciating the artwork. Everything from scientific illustration to Russian children’s books to Astronomy paintings from the 19th century can be found here. I got caught up in scanning through some images of frogs. They were painted in 1843 for Oken’s Natural History, but they could have been painted by Picasso.

The site offers excellent reference material, excellent artwork, and good taste. The only information I have about the editor of this site is the name posted, “Peacay at gmale”.

Take a look.

(Thanks to Boing Boing.)
(Click on image to enlarge.)

- From the sublime to the dregs – I mean, dogs:

- Stanley Crouch has an editorial in the NYDaily News, and the NY Post printed an article about the MTV animated program, Where My Dogs At? . The article reports that “episode 4″ shows black women being led about on all fours tethered to a leash. Sounds like a new high point for animation.

The show comes out of Los Angeles. Six Point Harness Studios seems to be producing all of the flash, animated artwork.

The series was created and written by Aaron Matthew Lee and comedian Jeffrey Ross. It’s directed by Greg Franklin. Naturally, the show – which seems to be designed to mock celebrities – has the same coarse sense of humor that Jeffrey Ross employs in his stand-up acts. Just a little more bad taste in the world airing for children to see it at 12:30 last Saturday.

To get an idea of what the flash animated show looks like go to YouTube for a Lindsay Lohan clip.

Happy Birthday MTV.

– Have You Seen My Sister? is another children’s book illustrated by Errol Le Cain and which I am sampling here today.

The book was written by Mathew Price and is the second collaboration the pair did together. (The Christmas Stockings was published in 1987.) This is the last of Le Cain’s published work; it was published in 1990 posthumously.

It’s not my favorite of his books. The watercolor illustrations are a bit too sweet for my taste and seem to rely on what he learned from the commercial world of animation. However, the genius is in the details. Each page is packed with things to look at and identify. There’s another whole story in the illustrations.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)

This is the cover as well as three interior pages. The entire book is done as double page spreads. Each page has a die-cut hole in it so you see through to the next (or past) page. For example, in the second page below, the stork is on the previous page and can be seen through the hole.

To review who Errol was and other books of his I’ve featured go:
here IV or
here III or
here II or
here I.

Mike Dobbs, the former editor of Animato and Animation Planet, has fashioned a new blog / site to give us a view into the book he’s writing on Max & Dave Fleischer.

It’s called Made of Pen and Ink. To quote him about the new site: It’s the first draft of my book on Max and Dave Fleischer, their cartoons and studio. It will be posted a chunk at a time without illustrations in the effort of pre-selling to an audience and attracting a publisher.

I’ve read Mike’s other site, Out of the Inkwell , regularly and appreciate his comments. I’m looking forward to his honest commentary and valuable information about the Fleischer history.

- Michael Barrier has an amusing take on the commentary tracks for animation DVD’s. He jumps off the letters and comments he’s received for the commentaries he’s done for the WB Golden Collection DVD’s.

One wonders how many people won’t really get this joke.

- Amid Amidi has posted an excellent look at fifties animation books on his Cartoon Modern site. He leads us to books and tapes available on the subject. The Art of the era.

– To get away from Art let’s talk about cleaning up the Barnyard.

Here are some of the local reviews for that Nickelodon film; they’re all negative. Too bad.
When you have a live-action auteur like Steve Oedekirk come in to write and direct an “animated feature,” surely you’re on the right track. Why should the director know anything about the craft?

The animals, for the most part, seem to be walking upright, on their hind legs. I guess it’d have been more difficult doing a four-legged animal with motion capture.

I’ve about had it (as Popeye said: Enough is too much!). I’d rather quote a few of the local critics than try to waste my time articulating what I think about it.

Mahola Dargis, NY Times: The udder looks a lot like the base of a plumber’s plunger and the teats look exceptionally friendly, like chubby little fingers waving toodle-oo. They’re so friendly that it’s hard not to stare at them and wonder what would happen if you milked Otis, which proves both distracting and something of a relief, since there isn’t all that much else in this film to think about.

Elizabeth Weitzman, NY Daily News (1 ½ stars): Nothing in this movie makes any sense, especially considering that it’s ultimately geared toward young children. The high-quality animation can’t distract from tragic funeral scenes and frightening fights, let alone racial stereotypes ranging from a feisty Mexican mouse to a sassy black Bessie. Too mature for little kids and much too corny for older siblings and chaperones, “Barnyard” probably should have been put out to pasture long before it made it to the multiplex.

Scott Tobias, The Onion: The truth about farm animals is that no matter how humane the farmer (or how lush the rolling meadows, or how slop-filled the pen), they’re all kept around to produce food products, and eventually, that means death by unnatural causes. Otherwise, it’s not really farming, is it?
An honest children’s tale at least acknowledges that fact, and the classic Charlotte’s Web turned it into a note of great poignancy, because even prize-winning pigs and their eight-legged friends have to come to terms with the inevitable. When a patriarchal cow dies in the hideous new animated film Barnyard, he’s actually buried six feet under with a ceremony and a tombstone—no steak, no rump roast, not even a pile of tripe. It may seem unfair to expect realism from a movie about anthropomorphic party-animals who walk around on their hind legs, but the film crosses the line. What makes them animals? What makes this a farm? What would George Orwell think?

Kyle Smith NY Post (1 ½ stars): ANIMATED FARM TALE UDDERLY UNREDEEMING If you want to punish your kids, send them to bed without dinner. If you want to disturb, frighten and depress them while making sure they fail biology, take them to the animated feature “Barnyard.”

My only real question is: why do all children’s films have to be so cynical and nasty?

- A site I’d like to draw to your attention is the Comic Art Collective. There, you’ll find the work of a number of comic artists with works for sale. A good way to view some beautiful pieces.

A couple of artists I’d like to single out: Kim Deitch, always brilliant (see the drawing to the right); Peter Bagge, cartoon distortion that makes a point; Tony Millionaire(The Maakies), hilarious work.

You know, all the folk at this site do fine work, and I shouldn’t single any of them out.

My only complaint is that the reproductions aren’t large enough to easily read.

- Digital Media Effx is a site that includes a number of interesting essays on some animation greats: Ward Kimball, Terry Giliam, John Hubley, and Bill Hanna.

- Daniel Thomas MacInnes on his site Conversations on Ghibli, gives a report on the opening of Goro Miyazaki‘s animated feature, Gedo Senki(Tales From The Earthsea). The son of Hayao Miyazaki makes his film debut with this one, and anticipation is high for how the son’s film will compare to the father’s body of work.

Daniel Thomas’ posting leads to a couple of the Japanese reviews. This is an adaptation of Ursula LeGuin’s novels about Earthsea. The book was adapted into a bad live action Sci-Fi series in 2004. Reviewed here.

- I’m looking forward to the retrospective of the works of Bruno Bozzetto coming to the Ottawa Animation Fest, this September. His site is a good way to aquaint yourself with this Animation Master of the medium. Take a look at Freedom, Life, or Neuro to see what simple and effective work can be done with Flash.

– Way back in 1973, Walt Disney Studios teamed up with Lincoln Center to present a complete retrospective of their work, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Disney.

This was a big deal for animation buffs in New York. Aside from presenting all the Disney features, live action as well as animation, they presented many of the shorts in special programs. (This was long before videos were available – even before Beta.) There were also a number of seminars with Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson, Woolie Reitherman, and Ken Anderson.

The tickets for the talks were sold in advance, but the seats weren’t reserved. We’d cue up outside the small, Lincoln Center Library theater hours in advance to get the better seats. This is where I first met a number of young students including: Tom Sito, Mark Mayerson, Lou Scarborough and Dan Haskett. Mind you, I wasn’t much older, but I was already working for the Hubleys, so I had some cache as a “professional.”

The talks were lively. I can remember the audience being critical of the “disco light” scene in The Aristocats, and Frank & Ollie pointing to Woolie saying it was his fault. None of them wanted it, but he thought they should stick it in “for the kids.” There were quite a few surprises, with plenty of clips and pencil tests. They were promoting Robin Hood, and the audience didn’t seem very enthusiastic – or maybe it was just me. If I remember right, I believe the film had already been released.

The Museum of Modern Art had some adjoining programs of shorts which I remember to this day. There was the program of silent shorts which ended with Steamboat Willie. Boy, did you get the effect of the first sound Mickey film. They presented the first color Disney short in the same way: a lot of B&W shorts followed by Flowers and Trees. Great programming.

It was a nice time to be in New York.

Here’s the schedule and an article by John Culhane from the program:

(click on any image to enlarge.)