Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Sempé is one of the great living cartoonist/designers. Tissa David recently gave me this poster-sized collection of original drawings that he did for her when designing a commercial which she animated. She kept the piece of artwork over her drawing board until the spot was finished; then she rolled it up and put it away in her closet. It’s my good fortune that she cleaned out that closet.

The spot was done for R.O.Blechman‘s THE INK TANK in New York, when they were still in business.

Here’s the full poster of models:

The inks have faded a bit, and I’ve tried to make up for
that in photoshop without damaging the delicacy of his lines.

Here are some reconstructions of some of the models so you can have a closer look:

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The Charlie Chaplin character – used as the mascot for the commercial series.

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The animated Pitchman.

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Here are two QT ads done at the studio in Sempe’s style during this
time (1986-87) sent to me courtesy of J.J. Sedelmeir. Many thanks.

TIGHTROPE

MARTIN MARIETTA

- Here’s a piece of animation (ruffs) from Izzy Klein for the Disney Silly Symphony, The Moth and the Flame. It obviously was eliminated from the film. There are three dances the girl does in the film, and this is not one of them – it’s a bit low key for the other dances.

Thanks to 2 comments from Mark Mayerson and Peter Hale, we can see that this animation is from Woodland Cafe, not the Moth and the Flame (as Izzy Klein had told me.) It still is a piece of animation that was eliminated from the short.

Here are a couple of images from that film:

There are about a hundred drawings so I’m breaking it into a couple of parts.

This first part is a cycle that Izzy calls for. I don’t have the sheets but I cycled it three times.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Click left side of the bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- There’s a breaking story on Cartoon Brew about Brenda Chapman and her short tenure at Pixar as director of The Brave (recently retitled from The Bear and the Bow.)

It’s obvious to me the once John Lasseter was put in charge of both Disney and Pixar studios, his head turned inside out. The first thing to happen was that directors were fired from Bolt (American Dog), Tangled (Rapunzel) and he had strong influence over Stephen J. Anderson on Meet the Robinsons, changing much of what had already been done (possibly for the better.)

Now the sword is attacking at Pixar and the victim is a woman, Brenda Chapman, who has already put together an amazing career and certainly deserves to be a director in the industry. There’s unrest in the Magic Kingdom, and we’ll have to watch Lasseter’s moves closely since it’s obvious that he’s getting heat. His recent history would show that he doesn’t seem to be taking it too well. Or at least his slate of directors isn’t receiving it well.

Even more alarming are the anti-woman comments left on Cartoon Brew. When one blogger writes, “…And I’ll be honest with one exception, Julie Taymor, I haven’t been blown away by most films directed by women and honestly neither has most of America …” You can see the level of negativity women have to take to get ahead in the business or, at the least, be treated equally with men. It’s no wonder they were relegated to the Ink & Paint department; many of these bloggers seem to agree with that. I felt embarrassment in reading many of the heartless comments.

Did we forget already that the Oscar last year was won by a woman, Katheryn Bigelow? And her film was chosen as the year’s best movie! The Oscars are not my code for judging the best films, but it certainly qualifies as, at least, a small statement about female artists.

- The NY Times had an interesting article about the Quay Brothers in a recent edition of their paper.

The article is about a short film the brothers are making which will be screened at a retrospective to appear in symposia at the Mütter Museum, a 19th-century repository of curiosa at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and following that at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the LA Museum of Jurassic Technology.

- Get Animated! is a Canada-wide series of free screenings, master classes and activities marking International Animation Day.

Watch the Natinal Film Board’s latest animated films on the big screen for free and attend special presentations with acclaimed directors from your area.

This year’s program:
Animation Screenings: NFB New Releases
Family Program Screenings: Fairy Tales for All

And meet the directors…
Come see Andrea Dorfman (Flawed) in Halifax, Chris Lavis with Maciek Szczerbowski (Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life) and Theodore Ushev with Chris Robinson (Lipsett Diaries) in Montreal, Anita Lebeau (Louise, Big Drive) in Winnipeg, Cam Christiansen (The Real Place) in Calgary and Matthew Talbot-Kelly (The Trembling Veil of Bones) in Vancouver. Plus, view the Hothouse 6 series in 3D in Toronto!

Go here to see clips of some of the films to be screened.

- To celebrate Interanational Animation Day, the NY chapter of ASIFA, ASIFAEast, will have a screening of films on Oct 26th.
Admission: FREE!

Details of the films that’ll be screened will be coming soon.

SVA
School Of Visual Arts
209 East 23rd Street
(Bet. 2nd & 3rd Ave)
3rd Fl, Amphitheater
NYC

Following part 1 of last week, I continue with the autobiographical strip of Santiago Cohen as he tells the story of his arrival in America. It’s an epic work of art.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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My friend, Steve Fisher is back in New York, and his photos are back into the New York groove. Halloween is on the horizon and the photos prepare us for the Hallow-day in the City. Autumn’s in the air and a lot of crazy weather wehad this past week. (A two-day Nor’Easter, hail, drenching rains.)

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Rockaway Beach in the Autumn.

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The boardwalk

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Bird meets statue.

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Letting sleeping dogs lie.

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Getting ready for Halloween in Howard Beach.

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Getting ready for Halloween in Maspeth, Queens.

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View of Manhattan from Maspeth
Federal Savings Bank parking lot, Maspeth.

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The foreboding Halloween.

- I’ve been watching some older animated features lately. Plague Dogs, I thought, deserved another chance, so I rented the DVD. I was right. The film is a very odd one.

Surprisingly, despite the depressing subject, I found myself unattached to the story’s emotions. I would guess it has to do with the direction of he work.

The film starts with one of our two lead characters
in deep trouble in the laboratory.

The story is essentially the story of two dogs who escape a laboratory that experiments on animals, and they make their way across the British countryside while teams of people search for them. One of the dogs has been inflicted with a plague bacteria and could spread the disease outside of the lab.

The story is told through a sort-of narration done in a very clever way. Disconnected human voices talking about the situation are used as voice over. We don’t often see who’s talking but we hear their voices. There are times where the voices start and we join the speakers in their conversations. The two dogs communicate with each other and a fox, who helps them in their escape.

The dogs escape and travel the back roads in the mountains.

The animation throughout is just about serivceable. No scenes really shine even though there are a couple of standout names in the credits – including Brad Bird, Tony Guy and Retta Scott – as animators.

The film was a follow-up project for producer/director, Martin Rosen. He was the original producer of Watership Down, and his ego allowed him to think he could direct that film better than John Hubley, who was fired within the first sixth months.

There’s the constant play between the travelling dogs
and the humans who talk about them roaming the countryside.

It’s no surprise that Plague Dogs includes no poetic scenes such as the introduction and the “Bright Eyes” sequences of Watership Down. It’s all down and heavy, done with a lack of grace. Yet, despite this there are several very clever devices for keeping the story moving forward. It would have been nice to see what better animation and a better director might have brought to it.

However, the film’s tough subject matter was sure to bring back poor business, and there’s no surprise in its low grosses at the box office. However, as I’ve said, the film deserves another look.

The film gasps for air with the heavy approach, though it deserves
praise for trying to be different and take animation seriously.

- Here is the final post of the Ferdinand Horvath catalogue of drawings. From 1934-1937, Horvath worked at the Disney Studios painting backgrounds, creating layouts, constructing three dimensional models, and designing characters and gags for over fifty Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse shorts.

He was one of those European illustrators, including Albert Hurter or Gustaf Tenggren and himself that Disney found in Europe and brought to America to inspire his staff artists.

Horvath also worked at Paul Terry’s studio on the “Aesop’s Fables” series. Leaving Disney, he designed models and layouts for Columbia/Screen Gems’ shorts. In 1940, he sculpted puppets for George Pal’s Puppetoons.

He was a versatile artist whose work was an inspiration for many Disney artists. The following booklet was published by Graphis Gallery and put together by Bruce Hamilton. The opening material explains itself.

Bill Peckmann sent me the pages of this booklet, and I thank him for keeping Horvath alive.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- Bill Peckmann sent me the following strips from a rare book he has of Animated Features and Silly Symphony Comics. The copyright date is 1950. CinderellaSunday strips feature artwork by Manuel Gonzales, penciler and Dick Moores, inker. Moores, of course, took over the Gasoline Alley strip from Frank King. (These Gasoline Alley strips are so beautiful, I’ve posted some of them. I have a book somewhere, if I can find it I will put up more of them.)

Thanks to Bill Peckmann, for the Cinderella strips. Here are the first half of these strips. More will follow soon to conclude the story.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- Here’s something I found the other day. My soiled linen. I did this piece of animation some 49 years ago. I was 15 years old and was trying to do an adaptation of Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat”. I didn’t get too far; as a matter of fact, this is probably all that I did. There’s a painted BG and a storyboard somewhere, but it wasn’t with these drawings.

When I was a kid, I started filming my animation at age 13. By the time I was 17 and starting college, I had shot 2½ hours of 8mm animation. I don’t know what happened to all the other drawings I did, but this scene is all I have. I do have the snippets of 8mm film that I’ll someday transfer to DVD.

Note that I worked on three hole looseleaf for my registration. I don’t think I ever did the missing inbetweens for this scene; if I did, I don’t have them. I don’t ever think I pencil tested this before.

Here’s a smile, some children’s art.

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Here’s a QT movie of the piece.
Remember to take it with a pound of salt.
These are the scribbles of a 15 year old.

Click left side of the bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

I had some communication with Chris Rushworthy, an enormous fan of Halas and Batchelor’s Animal Farm. I had just watched the DVD again and wondered if Chris, who has an large collection of art from the film and has a website to showcase it – AnimalFarmWorld, had ever seen a set of drafts for the film. Which animator animated which scenes?

He didn’t have one, but that didn’t stop him from contacting Harold Whitaker, who was a key animator – not only on Animal Farm but for Halas & Batchelor – to ask if he had one. Whitaker responded with a signed card of people who had worked on the film. Interestingly enough, only three people who signed the card actually got screen credit, so I guess that many of the signers were from the Ink & Paint department. Whitaker is the only animator I recognize, to have signed the document.

Here’s the card, and alongside it I tried to identify the names – however, it isn’t easy reading all the signatures. Those that I’m sure I’ve got wrong, I’ve added question marks (????) to the names. If you’re confident of any of the names, please feel free to let me know.

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Bunnie Harvey
Wynn F. Stewart
Eve Lewis
P. Knowles
Jay Pope
M. O. Smith
Pat Neal
W. M. Smith
J.E.Grundy ???
Ty F. Young (Mrs. Muir)
Kay Coroline
Pat Williams
David A. Hancock
Mike Western
Helena F. Evans
Anthony M. Gray
B.D.Salway ???
Harold Whitaker - animator
D.F.Kniley ???
Sid Griffiths - camera
Mary G. Bennett
John M. Gurr – Camera
Doris Reis
Pam Shipway
Jay Graves
Jo May
Dorothy S. Jones
Hazel Box – (Mrs. Gray)
Beryl Wall
Elizabeth N. Syed
C. L. Newman
D. Coombes
J. Davis
Joan Rissik
Elizabeth Taylor
Mollie Shipway
Ceinwen Fowler

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The film’s credits don’t offer a hell of a lot more. The names are few and they’re written in script. No first names – just a letter. H. Whittaker – yes, two “t”s even though the card above has just the one “t”. IMDB offers a few additional credits.
One not on IMDB is Gerald Potterton; he told me it was his first position as an inbetweener.

Chris Rushworthy also gave me a preview of a beautiful new setup he recently bought to add to the collection. This is it.

Boxer, Benjamin and duckling

Check out his site to see plenty of other cel setups and drawings.