Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Well, here we have an oddity to add to the Bill Peet playbook. Susie the Blue Coupe was a short written by Peet and animated as a Disney short released in 1951.

Obviously Peet had planned this as a children’s book. For quite some time he wanted to separate from Disney, and he saw children’s books as a way out. He writes about _______ Don’t you love the title Auto ___ Biography !
Lambert the Sheepish Lion
in his autobiography. Apparently, though, Susie was another attempt by him to move out.

Here’s the mock up for a book by Bill Peet. I don’t know if the book came before the board or the board before the book. Again, this comes from the collection of John Canemaker as does the storyboard from the film which I’ll post next week. Thank you, John, many times over.

Animators included Ollie Johnston, Cliff Nordberg, Hal King and Bob Carlson with backgrounds by Ralph Hulett. Clyde Geronomi directed it.

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(To be concluded tomorrow.)
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The video is available all over the internet. You can watch it currently on YouTube or buy the dvd at Amazon.

- Today is President’s Day.
Banks, Post Offices, Government workers all have the day off. I, on the other hand, have a lot of meetings today, and think I would prefer being at home sleeping. The three Presidential candidates have a busy day preparing for the big vote tomorrow in Wisconsin and Hawaii. Hillary cut her trip a day shorter to return to Texas, today, so it’s assumed that Wisconsin is closer to Obama’s hands. She seems to have consistently abandoned her workers in any state where she smells a loss. John McCain is out there being angry and arrogant somewhere.

That’s the Empire State Building to the left. It’s lit red, white and blue for the holiday weekend. My apartment is on 30th Street just east of the building. It was always pleasant that in walking the street you could get a nice slice of an image of the building at night. However, lately, all the construction in the neighborhood has made it a bit difficult. (Remember those photos of cranes I posted last year? Well, the cranes are gone, and buildings have arisen.) Many of these new, overly large buildings cut off the view. You really have to look to catch the Emp State Bldg. It’s too bad. I guess that’s part of the problem with “progress.

Once upon a time we celebrated two holidays in February: Lincoln’s Birthday on Feb. 12th and Washington’s Birthday on Feb. 22nd. In 1968, the holidays were combined it into the one date. Today, kids don’t remember who’s birthday it represents, and the media seems to be celebrating all presidents. Yesterday AOL had a poll to pick the 10 top Presidents. (Can you believe George W. Bush landed at spot #10? Even Woodrow Wilson had to have been more valuable. No?) We seem to be losing all sense of history. The kids on AOL probably just couldn’t name any more Presidents than the 10 they came up with.

- On Monday, March 3rd at 7 PM, at The Jewish Museum there will be a panel discussion entitled, Shrek: From Book to Film to Broadway.

Panelists will include:
____ Leonard Marcus, writer, historian and critic, who will discuss William Steig’s career
____ as a children’s book illustrator and author.
____ Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation, will discuss
____ bringing the character of Shrek to life on film.
____ Chris Miller, director of the Shrek the Third film, will offer a movie director’s take on
____ the character of Shrek.
____ Jason Moore, director of the forthcoming SHREK THE MUSICAL
____ David Lindsay-Abaire, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, who is writing the book and
____ lyrics for SHREK THE MUSICAL, will speak about the creative process that is driving
____ the musical stage production.

copyright ©1990 William Steig
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The program is being offered in conjunction with The Jewish Museum exhibition, From The New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig on view through March 16, 2008. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view over 190 original drawings, many of which have never before been on display. If you haven’t seen the show, I encourage you to go. It’s free on Saturdays.

I’ve written a couple of past posts about the exhibition. You can view them here, here, and here.

The Jewish Museum is located at: Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, NYC. For box office info call: (212) 423 3337.
Tickets are $15.

There are a number of interesting sidebars to the Jewish Museum‘s site for Steig fans. For example, you can hear Meryl Streep reading Spinky Sulks. Naturally, it’s as brilliant as anything this actress has done.

- Oscar season is winding down as we approach the event next Sunday. Magnolia Pictures is distributing the live action and animated shorts to theaters across the country. In New York, the program opened yesterday at the IFC theater. The reviews in the local papers have been glowing. Stephen Holden‘s NY Times review places particular focus on Madame Tutli-Putli, as well as My Love and Peter and the Wolf. They deserve the attention. I look forward to seeing which film will win.

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This past Wednesday, the Academy screened the four documentary short films nominated. They were an interesting and varied group and almost any of them might make for passable winners. I was taken, however, by one film called Sari’s Mother. It followed a mother living on a farm in Iraq trying to take care of a son who was infected with the AIDS virus. She had many other kids to attend to, and still had to follow through with all her attention given to Sari, trying desperately to get helpful medication that the boy wasn’t allergic to.

The film was different from the others screened in that it told its story without a narrator. There was little dialogue throughout the film, yet a complex story was told. Everything from the army of US soldiers everywhere in sight, including loud, roaring helicopters overhead, to many children playing. We were left to figure out the story for ourselves. There was never even a statement that the film took place in Iraq. (For a while, I actually thought it might have been Afghanistan.) I liked being given credit for using my own intelligence with the movie.

After the event, Shiela Nevins and HBO sponsored a post-screening dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel. All of the key documentarians in the City usually attend, and it’s a wonderful event that I look forward to annually. It always sort of marks the end of the Oscar run, for me. I was pleased to sit with John Canemaker and Joe Kennedy. I was able to pump John to tell me about the Annie Award ceremony and his trip to LA.

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- Premier NY artist Meryl Rosner has done an interesting exercise and posted it on her blog Zoopolis, Film Noir, Fractured Fairy Tales. She’s taken a sequence from The Big Sleep and has storyboarded it. What a great idea, not only as a way of studying a film, but as a way of learning how to storyboard. Taking an excellent film, as Meryl has done, gives you the chance to see and to try to understand why the cuts and transitions, the camera placement and the compositions are done as they are.

To boot, Meryl’s done a good job of it. Scrolling down through all these storyoard drawings is exciting in itself. If you visit, take a look at some of her other pieces as well.

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- The NY Times, this week, has posted Jeff Scher‘s latest video for them on their editorial page. The Animated Life is a series he has been creating. Once a month a new film piece is place on the on-line editorial page.

Tulips is an animated study of kissing.

Take a look.

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Michael Barrier has written a couple of times about this theatrical muscal. I saw a short review in the SF Weekly. The review’s almost too short to quote, so I include it all.

Disney & Deutschland
By Molly Rhodes

Imagining the details of a historically documented 1935 meeting between Walt Disney and Adolf Hitler is a great spark for a play, but playwright and director John J. Powers’ production never ignites. The 20-minute history lesson that starts the 90-minute play fails to build up the excitement before the big get-together. Once Disney and Hitler are in the same room, along with Hitler’s right-hand man, Joseph Goebbels; and his personal filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl; there is hardly any dramatic action to push the play along. There are occasionally tense moments, such as when Hitler wonders how much of a Jew-hater Disney really can be if he works in Hollywood. But most of the hour is spent sitting around a big oak table, drinking sherry, and swapping tales of German efficiency and American pluck. Powers teases us with some provocative themes, such as the true roots of Disney’s fantasy playland for children, but the tease never pays off.

Details:
Through Feb. 24 at the Garage, 975 Howard (at Fifth St.), S.F. Tickets are $10-$20; call 829-2301 or visit www.975howard.com.

- I had a recent complaint that I’d actually already thought about, so it was one I took seriously. There was a question as to why I feel compelled to post daily, thus rushing away from some of the more important pieces I post. As an example, I give the numerous Bill Peet storyboards that have been loaned to me by John Canemaker. They’re so rich, shouldn’t I keep them up longer? Let me tell you, I’ve considered it.

I guess my feeling is that the nature of the “Blog” is that it works more like a diary rather than a website. I do have a site for my own studio’s artwork, and the art stays fairly permanent there.

The more important pieces I’ve generally split into parts so that it continues for several days so that one is always reminded that it’s there. Of course, there is the “Search” just to the right, so that if you type in “Bill Peet”‘s name, for example, all of those storyboards will pop up.
__________________________________________A drawing from Of Stars and Men
In response to this, I’ve decided, also, to bring
back some of the posts from the past. On Fridays, I’ll pull a rerun to remind you that some gem was posted a year or two ago, and I like it enough to showcase it again.

I hope you don’t mind (let me know if you have any thoughts about this via the comment column). Here, then, is my first repeat. Some drawings – treasures – I love and cherish.

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– Moonbird is one of the seminal films of 20th Century animation.

After John Hubley left UPA, where he helped explore the use of 20th Century graphics in animation, he formed a commercial animation company in Los Angeles. Apparently, with this new entity, John did less drawing and more producing. Trying to correct this problem, he closed the LA office and set up in NYC with Faith.

The studio in New York did commercials on a smaller scale. With a Guggenheim Fellowship of $8000, the couple produced a short film, Adventures of an * in 1957 and committed to doing one film a year for themselves. With this film, Hubley picked up where he’d left off at UPA. Exploration of modern art now took on the wildly successful Abstract Expressionists and told a non-verbal story using expressionist art.

The film Tender Game, done in 1958, told another non-verbal story using the song “Tenderly” to illustrate a romance, again, in expressionist art. This film, in some ways, feels like an outgrowth of Hubley’s work on the feature, Finian’s Rainbow.

In 1959, Moonbird took a giant leap forward. The art style borrowed from the expressionists, but used a method of double exposures to layer the characters into the backgrounds. Each animation drawing was painted black outside the border of its lines. Moonbird, the character, was colored with clear wax crayon and painted with black ink. The black resisted where the wax stood and gave a loose scribbled coloring. All of these painted drawings were photographed as double exposures, shot at less than 100%, to combine characters with Bgs.

The soundtrack involved an improvised track of two children, Mark and Ray Hubley, playing. These were recorded in sessions within a recording studio and massively edited down to create the final tracks.

Bobe Cannon animated the film with Ed Smith assisting. Ed inbetweened Bobe’s scenes and animated many others.

A variation of this became the Hubley method. There was usually someone working in the studio who did all inbetweens and animated some lesser scenes. A great way to break into the medium in a big way.

Some extremes by Bobe Cannon are posted below.

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A link to a YouTube version of the movie is available. Not as good as film in a theater, but it’s a way to watch the film.

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- If you’re a fan of Lewis Carroll, the 19th Ankara International Film Festival has something for you. They’re putting on a tribute to Carroll by running a number of films that adapt his work and document his life. I have three films in their program: The Hunting of the Snark, Jabberwocky, and Glimmers of a Life (a biography of Carroll focusing on his nonsense poems.) These three films were released as one program on vhs. The dvd features only the Snark.

The complete Carroll retrospective includes:
__* Neco z Alenky, Jan Å vankmajer, Czech, 1988
__* Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta/Jabberwocky,
________Jan Å vankmajer, Czech, 1971
__* The Hunting of the Snark, Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Lewis Carroll’s Nonsense Poems: Glimmers of a Life,
________Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Jabberwocky, Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Sincerely yours, a Film about Lewis Carroll, Andy Malcolm&George Pastic, Can, 2004
__* Alisa v strane chudes / Alica in Wonderland, Yefrem Pruzhansky, USSR, 1981
__* Alisa v zazerkalye / Through The Looking Glass, Yefrem Pruzhansky, USSR, 1982
__* Alice in Wonderland, Lou Bunin, UK/France, 1949

Lou Bunin’s Alice in Wonderland which will screen at the 19th Ankara Film Festival in Turkey.

The print they’ll screen of Bunin’s Alice Personally, my favorite film about Lewis Carroll is Dreamchild starring Ian Holm; it features excellent puppetry by the Henson people. Perhaps the rights to that one weren’t quite as accessible.

The festival in Ankara, Turkey should attract an interesting following. It runs from March 13-23. Ezgi Yalinalp is the Coordinator of this event.

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Talking about Wonderland, Josh Siegel of the Museum of Modern Art was kind enough to send me a copy of the video shot during my chat last November. I’m beginning to understand why George Bush wants to suppress our civil rights. He just wants to get rid of all evidence of his life in Blunderland. I’m looking into suppressing this video – how embarrassing. Funny how positive my memories were until I saw what I looked like.

_____Here I’m trying to scare Josh Siegel and John Canemaker, but it doesn’t work.

_____Finally I do everything I can to bore them into submission. I think that worked.

But then I think back to how many people came out in support to watch the films that ran all weekend long or even just to hear me talk on that final Monday. Michael and Phyllis Barrier travelled from Arkansas to NY to attend. I couldn’t begin to tell you what that meant to me. The same is true of John and Cathy Celestri who came from Ohio. Their presence, and that of all those who came was a great treat that you just miss while watching this dvd. It’s wonderful to have as a memento, but my memories are even greater. I can’t thank Josh Siegel or John Canemaker enough for those memories.

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- Speaking of one who came out, Michael Barrier has a great post on his site today. It talks about the difficulties of a real animation historian. Watching Mike or John Canemaker travel endless miles for the necessary interviews or programs, just tires me. (They’re the two I’m closest to, so I see what goes into it.) I love animation history, but I just wouldn’t have the stamina to do the hard work that no one properly credits them for doing. I raise a glass of champagne to them all in toasting their work. I can’t get enough of good, solid, dependable animation history. The same for all the others who do that tough work.

Two excellent videos are posted on Willym Rome‘s site, Willy or Wont He. They’re film pieces by Emanuele Luzzati and Giulio Gianini. Both films are difficult to find available.

The Cat Duet is a work adapted from an operatic piece that uses much of Rossini’s music even though it’s not considered an opera by the composer. The background of the opera is hazy, but the animated film is a beauty.

Brancaleone alle Crociate (Brancaleone at the Crusades) is a title sequence for the film by Mario Monicelli. It stars Vittorio Gassman and is reminiscent of other pieces by Luzzati and Gianini. I’ve made some frame grabs and am posting them below to give a small taste of the work. Go to the site, and view both videos.

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See other posts I’ve done on Luzzati and Gianini. They’re all very musical, beautifully designed and cleverly animated films.

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- Craig Yoe posted a wonderful original Mutt & Jeff comic strip on the Arflovers Blog. The strip features cartoonist, Bud Fisher, trying to draw a politically correct strip in 1919. Take a look; it’s hilarious.

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- Speaking of politically correct strips, there’s a good post about blacks in the current comic strips at The Root. It’s enlightening to read about this stuff in the 21st Century when we’re considering a black man as President. (Go Obama!) Race still matters to some people, unfortunately..

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- And speaking about Obama if you haven’t watched the Will I Am song Yes We Can sung to Obama’s New Hampshire speech take the time to look at it. Over a billion people have watched it already. The last half is good. here
You should see it if only to appreciate the anti McCain parody
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- For something a little less controversial, check out the new post on the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive. It’s a beautiful book illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. Tenggren, of course, had a big hand in the design of Pinocchio. He was also the creator of The Poky Little Puppy._________________________

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- Yesterday, John Dilworth showed me the cover of the latest copy of ASIFA International’s magazine, Cartoons. He came across the magazine before I’d received my copy. I was surprised to see my work featured so prominently. That was a treat, I can assure you.

Thanks to the editors, Chris Robinson and John Libbey for the fine choice of cover and to Ray Kosarin for writing it in the first place.

It was even more interesting that Dilworth was the one who animated that cover scene from my film, Abel’s Island.

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- This completes my visual breakdown of the Mickey Mouse short, The Whoopee Party. I’ve taken the art off the dvd Mickey Mouse in B&W, and have interspersed matching frame grabs from the film, itself.

Having seen the film many times, it’s certainly interesting to go through the artwork. For some reason, this film, to me, is one of those that somehow supercedes its animation. What I mean by that, is that for some reason I’ve never looked at it as animation – the technical aspect. I’ve always been dragged into it as an audience member loving the anthropo-morphism and the musical dance the animators concocted. It was never about studying the frames or the artwork. Someday, I’ll have to talk more about this aspect of the work.

So it’s entertaining to look at it on this level, now.
THe Animation Art Gallery is selling a number of drawings from this film, and it’s worth taking a look.

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- WHoopee! Congratulations to the BAFTA Awardwinners, Ratatouille and director Brad Bird for Best Animated Feature. Congratulations also to Jo Allen & Luis Cook and Aardman for The Pearce Sisters. Both are well deserving winners. Unfortunately BBC America opted to cut out their awards from the program. We didn’t get to hear the speeches.

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- Before there was video tape (which means before there were dvds), there was only 16mm film that you could project in your own home. I had (and still have) a nice collection of decaying movies and used to show these often. One of the regulars to show and watch and laugh at was the great Mickey short, The Whoopee Party. Everyone loved this short, no matter how many times we watched it. It’s a great film!

This encouraged me to watch it again on the B&W Mickey dvd I have. So I couldn’t help but jump for joy over the story sketches they include in the extras. Why not post them? So here they are – sketches from the limited storyboard they produced. I’ve also interspersed frame grabs from the film so you can compare images.

I could only get through half the work today, so I’ll post the rest of the film art tomorrow.

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_______________________________The remainder of this post will finish up tomorrow.

- This past week, I featured a bunch of the Bill Peet drawings which are located on a dvd copy of The Sword and the Stone. There are also quite a few photos on the disc. Here are some I thought interesting. None of the people are identified in these photos, and I recognize too few of them.

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_________________Here’s Bill Peet at the storyboard he drew.

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______________Bill Peet (left) and Woolie Reitherman work with the actors.
______________Karl Swensen (Merlin) is far right next to Woolie. I think that’s
______________Barbara Wentworth (Mim) talking to Peet.

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_______A Bg LO artist (anyone recognize her? Sylvia Cobb, perhaps?) at work.

___________________________The final BG.

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(Amid Amidi posted this in the comments section:The left hand photo below the painted bg is in Blast 9. I don’t have a copy handy but the two guys sitting are Woolie Reitherman and John Sibley. I think the two guys on the left are Basil Davidovich and Don Griffith but I don’t remember. If anybody has the issue, perhaps they can post the correct idents.)

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______________The horizontal Multiplane camera and the final scene.

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___________Left: cameramen shoot at the Multiplane Camera.
_____________________Right: Jim MacDonald creates a sound effect.

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_______Xeroxing a drawing onto cel. This is not something often photographed.

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________A Painter and a Checker in action (Sorry, I don’t know their names.)