Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

I can’t believe all this nonsense I’ve been reading about what Joanna Quinn might have said about this Disney film or that. She’s right and anyone who argues with her has to be a real dullard and a total fake. If she says it’s easy or hard to animate women, take her word for it. (Not just because she knows how to animate women better than anyone on the planet, these days, but because what she’s saying is common sense.

Women are people, too, not just insipid cartoon characters the way the Disney people draw them. If a male is easy to animate, it’s because they’ve figured out how to design them as the cartoons they’re making. If women are hard to animate, it’s because the lead character in FROZEN looks like every other generic female these guys can draw. Give it up. Hire a few good women who can animate, and we’ll see what we see. (I expect nothing different unless the woman drawing the figure is a good animator (not just great, like Joanna Quinn) and knows how to draw well (not even great, as JQ can do). But the character they’re animating is well designed (unlike the lead in FROZEN).

It reminds me of the in-house joke around the film METAMORPHOSIS. The principals didn’t have names, and the model sheets read: “Lead Boy” and “Lead Girl”. The animators usually read their names as “Led Boy” and “Led Girl” because they looked generic and they could only make them move like “lead.”

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As long as we’re talking about drawing and designing and animating women let me repeat a segment of an older post. It includes storyboard from Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Of course, the original of this was The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

My reason for repeating it has more than a touch upon Joanna Quinn’s fine comments. I received a letter from the great Borge Ring who pointed out who the artist was of this storyboard. An excerpt from his letter:

hi Michael

Re Give me a Drawing
Daan Jippes who worked on The Prince and the Pauper saw the storyboard of “The Wind in the Willows” and said:
“The story sketches of that opening sequence look exactly like the finished scene. How can they give an animator credit for something that has already been done ?”
The draft said the scenes were animated by Frank Thomas, and I asked Thomas:
“Frank,who drew the storyboard of the sequence?”

“I did – I am not sure I did much else”

greetings
from
Borge 92

PS
You mention Oscar Wilde
He is supposed to have said:
“Sexual gratification is so useful to us humans. Because it enables us to think
of other things too”

So here, then, is a bit of that storyboard – more from the end rather than the beginning.
Talented those men were (they could even draw men, a toad and a horse, dressed as women pretending to be women – with very little success.

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– Probably my favorite children’s book is The Wind In The Willows. There have been many animated adaptations of this book since it became a public domain item, but for years there was only one version, Disney’s Mr Toad half of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The loudest most raucous parts of Kenneth Grahame’s delicate novel, blared their way onto this animated compilation feature.

We all know that the book was planned as a feature way back when Disney, in the late 30s, was buying up titles of famous children’s books to prevent other competing studios from turning them into animated features. Work began on adapting the book. They never quite broke it as they hoped, and it ultimately became a featurette with its primary focus on the loose cannon, Mr. Toad.
. . . .The film, as it exists now, has some positive elements and some fun animation, but the story was always a bit too quiet and British to successfully survive a proper adaptation in the Disney canon.

When John Canemaker loaned me his copy of the Pinocchio boards, he also brought The Wind In The Willows (not titled Mr. Toad). There are few captions here, but this obviously is designed for a full-out feature not an abbreviated featurette. The images on his original stats are small, so I’ve blown them up a bit and tried to marginally clean them up.

As suggested by Michael Barrier, this board was probably assembled to produce a preliminary Leika reel. The giveaway is the lack of dialogue and commentary underneath the drawings. The assembly was made to be photographed.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Disney’s Mr. Toad first aired on the Disneyland television program on February 2, 1955. You can buy the dvd of Ichabod and Mr. Toad on Amazon among other places.

If you’re interested you can read the entire book of Kenneth Grahame’s work (minus the beautiful Shepherd illustrations) here.

You can buy the book here.

Dave Unwin‘s version is my favorite adaptation in that it retains some of the flavor of the original book and isn’t afraid of being quiet at times.

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Noble Book

In case you didn’t notice in yesterday’s post, I started to write about the work of designers (particularly designers who worked outside of the Disney studios, or respond in their work – post Disney.) I had written quite a bit about Maurice Noble in sort-of-but-not-really reviewing Ted Polson‘s book on the designer. Let me say a few more words and finish the job.

I felt that Maurice Noble was a very talented artist who often worked at the top of his game and really gave us some beautifully imaginative film work. What’s Opera Doc, Duck Amuck, Robin Hood Daffy, Duck Dodgers in the 241/2 Century are among the greatest animated films of all time, and that is in large part because of Mr. Noble’s work. There are others that include work equally as great, and it’s worth while studying each and every one of his animated shorts. The man was a strong talent within the industry.

Tod Polson‘s book is every bit as good an animation book as Mr. Noble’s work is an animated wonder. I strongly suggest you get and read this book. READ this book; there is a lot to say about animation within it.

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The Poe Show

Last week I went to the Morgan library to see the exhibit they put together on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. The show is remarkably small and within it there are very few strong pieces.

They have only a couple examples of Poe’s writing. Given all the original letters and correspondence I’ve seen of his and have read much of what I’ve seen, I found this disturbing. They have several long original stories and poems (hand-printed rather small on long, narrow sheets of paper.) Perhaps he was trying to keep exact to the size of the would-be printed article.

They also displayed correspondence by other authors such as J. D. Salinger, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This all precedes an upcoming chat with Lou Reed who will talk about the upcoming biography, Terror of the Soul.

The cost of the one small room exhibit is pricey. I suggest you go for free on Friday evenings.

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The Wind Rises Soon

I have watched the above trailer about two dozen times , now, and I can’t wait to see more. I’m scheduled with the Academy to see a screening this coming Thursday, and I’ve bee drooling all over my video screen. I also have my Droid set to play it on YouTube whenever I’m down.

It looks like the kind of animated feature that I am completely in love with. I see a “young love” story about something. On the surface, the story is obviously the bio of the architect of one of Japan’s famous airplanes. However, it’s obviously about the story of the troubles Japan witnesses with hurricanes, tremors, Tsunami and other natural disasters. While we focus on the nonsense going on in our Congress, Japan watches a nuclear holocaust in slow motion. It’s almost no wonder that Miyazaki wants to leave animation; there’s too much horror to avoid in real life.

This film is what Art is about, and it’s about real life. The film has a heavy story to tell, and it looks as beautiful as all of Miyazaki’s films. I don’t care about The Croods, Monster University or Despicable him, too. They are a waste of my time, especially when you compare it to such a film as this. And I haven’t seen it yet. But, do I have to?

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Of Stars and Men

The MoMA will have a special screening of 3 Hubley films, including the Hubley’s first feature film, Of Stars and Men including a newly preserved and beautiul print. The program is listed as follows:

7:00 PM
Of Stars and Men
1964. USA. John Hubley. 53 min.

Urbanissimo
1967. USA. John Hubley. 6 min.

Eggs
1970. USA. John Hubley. 10 min.

Introduced by Emily Hubley, John Canemaker

In his book, When Magoo Flew, The Rise and Fall of an Animation Studio – UPA,writer, Adam Abraham details the story of a group of artists working together a new series of films. John Hubley wasn’t always happy though he was undoubtedly one of the leaders of the artists who came together from different sources. Many from Disney, some from the US Army Signal Corps, others from Chouinard Art Institute -a school supported by Walt Disney in his attempts to gain artists for the films he made in LA.

The stories behind the films were done wholly to advance the new art forms being discovered in Los Angeles. It was their notion that by breaking the rules of 19th Century Art animation could begin to come truly alive as an original.

Two of the artists were truly original in the approach, and when they started working together a curtain unveiled something new.

John Hubley was one of the bosses and one of of those who brought strength to the films he created. In the beginning he worked with the animator, However, he was bothereed by some of the color choices made others, particularly by BG artist artist Herb Klynn. Hubley was incensed at the ugly yellow/green that Mr. Klynn would incessantly choose. For this reason (among others) he brought in the gifted master painter Paul Julian to do the the background coloring. Hubley, himself, was a strong designer and a master painter. Who could question what he wanted to do with the department.

Once past a couple of near-sighted Fox and Crow films; Hubley wanted to do films about humans, not animals, and he eventually got his series featuring the near-sighted Mr. MaGoo. In the big picture, though, they were forced to follow many artistic constraints. Despite this, they two did a number of very successful shorts in changing the look and feel of animation globally.

The films done by both Hubley and Julia
Continue Reading »

Today, Oct. 16th marks the birthday of Oscar Wilde.

To celebrate, Tom (Mickey) Hachtman has done a new variation on his “Double Take” series. So, here it is in all its glory. Happy Birthday, Oscar.

… and here’s another one in sepia. A little younger.

Hap B’day Oscar.

We left off with a few beautiful stills from Ralph Steadman‘s land of Alice. We return with some more beauty pics all from the pen of this master artist, designer.

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As animation left thee Thirties proudly moving into the Forties there was a lot to be proud of. In a short period, the animators had moved from stick figures to rubber hoses to fully rounded individuals acting through their pieces. The animation had gotten a bit sentimental (as were many live action pictures of the day), but they handled their tasks well.
The acting had grown full throated and offered more than just the surface performances.

The early version of Disney’s Ugly Duckling and the Later one.

Hans Bacher’s beautiful reconstruction of the BG from the latter film.

Looking at a film like The Old Mill we see rich scenics animated, a film that played against The characterizations of the The Ugly Duckling or Ferdinand the Bull. Warner Bros were starting to slip into their Looney Tunes period as their characters grew smart and zany. This movement was led by Bob Clampett with Tex Avery showing him how to deal out wild paced timing and surrealiztic movement to play for any joke they could get. Disney was straight as an arrow but went for the beauty thing and achieved it as peers competed with each other in the varied studios.

Even Terrytoons were stealing Hollywoods gaga and pulling them off in a somewhat retro manner.

After the Disney strike and the entrance into WWII design and stylization started to grow up. They saw what the Russians had been doing in their attempts to animated the state-run propaganda, ad the art left some inspired, though it was obvious that the animation was living up to their designs.

Some of the animators on the sidelines pushed themselves into the forefront of graphic evolution in animation. Leading the pack in America were the free lanced group working for UPA and the military. The use of strong graphics allowed the aniamtors to get awa with a bit less animation while keeping the films strong. People like Hilberman and Zach Schwartz may have been on the wrong side of Disney’s politics, but they pulled out the stops with their pen and inks.
Films like Hell Bent for Election or A Few Quick Facts About Fear gave the artists the right to move daringl forward with their very strong artwork.

These led Chuck Jones to follow his designers like John McGrew to change the face of the animation. With The Dover Boys of Piemento University all of animation took notice and immediately tried to replicate the work going more and more daring with each film.

Hell Bent for Election

The Dover Boys

Immediately after the War, these new graphics returned with the troops as Disney made strong colored works dominated by the likes of Mary Blair and the story structure of Bill Peet. Warner Bros., mostly under the guidance of Chuck Jones brought their abstract art to the BGs with similarly strong painters like Paul Julian leading the way. Under John Hubley at UPA he had not only designed and painted films but also co directed the Oscar nominee The Tell Tale Heart.

Poster and art for The Tell Tale Heart by Paul Julian at UPA.

Animation went such a distance in a short period of time. From the ball of uncontrolled mass called Oswald the Rabbit, to a rubber hose Mickey & Minnie Mouse to well defined circular characters. It led to more and more sophistication in the scripts and stories with the graphics trying to keep up.

This all ended in 1995 as Toy Story burst onto the screen. The cgi graphics took time to grow up to the sophistication we have today with the likes of Brave or Despicable Me. Seeing the incomparable work in the 2012 Oscar winner, the even more precocious The Life of Pi, gives us pause for thought. We have no idea where animation is going, but for the moment it is definitely not graphically forward. It is difficult to sit by and watch when I have only my meager tools to work with – a pad and pencil. But I continue forward and hope wheat I do will be accepted.

Give me a good drawing. That’s all I ask.

Back in the earliest days of animation, the animation workers were pleased just to have something move close to the way they imagined. If a four legged animal actually moved like a four legged animal, they felt thrilled to the nth degree and didn’t worry about much beyond that point; It was basic and fulfilling especially when those basics got them excited.

In the earliest days of the Thirties Walt Disney had approached and teamed up with the head of the Chouinard Art Institute in LA., and Disney’s ongoing conversations with art instructor, Don Graham, and his assistant, Phil Dike, al1 about the art form and where it might be heading created high expectations; those Action Analysis Classes, and they sought ways they could help each other. Within a short time Graham had set up a series of classes for extracurricular activities at the studio. The finest of their animators would offer Action Analysis classes were offered after work hours for free, and the studio personnel concentrated on their own improvement as artists. Likewise another set of classes were set up to study the background design and layout of the films. Out of this group came some of animations’ most important designers and stylization artists: Ken Andersen, Phil Dike, Tee Hee. The Disney studio hired a number of great European illustrators just to do inspirational work which would help hem build models for the early features (Snow White, Pinocchio) and some of the Silly Symphonies. People like Albert Hurter and Gustaf Tenggren (who continued to make a living in the States doing illustrations for Little Golden Books. Gaining fame for the The Poky Little Puppy, his largest creation.

Back in the earliest days of animation, the animation workers were pleased just to have something move close to the way they imagined. If a four legged animal actually moved like a four legged animal, they felt thrilled to the nth degree and didn’t worry about much beyond that point; It was basic and fulfilling especially when those basics got them excited.

In the earliest days of the Thirties Walt Disney had approached and teamed up with the head of the Chouinard Art Institute in LA., and Disney’s ongoing conversations with art instructor, Don Graham, and his assistant, Phil Dike, al1 about the art form and where it might be heading created high expectations; those Action Analysis Classes, and they sought ways they could help each other. Within a short time Graham had set up a series of classes for extracurricular activities at the studio. The finest of their animators would offer Action Analysis classes were offered after work hours for free, and the studio personnel concentrated on their own improvement as artists. Likewise another set of classes were set up to study the background design and layout of the films. Out of this group came some of animations’ most important designers and stylization artists: Ken Andersen, Phil Dike, Tee Hee. The Disney studio hired a number of great European illustrators just to do inspirational work which would help hem build models for the early features (Snow White, Pinocchio) and some of the Silly Symphonies. People like Albert Hurter and Gustaf Tenggren (who continued to make a living in the States doing illustrations for Little Golden Books. Gaining fame for the The Poky Little Puppy, his largest creation.

I want to write a couple of pieces about design and stylization in animation. This will start us off.

As animation left the Thirties, proudly moving into the Forties there was a lot to be proud of. In a short period, the animators had moved from stick figures to rubber hoses to fully rounded individuals acting through their pieces. The animation had gotten a bit sentimental (as were many live action pictures of the day), but they handled their tasks well.
The acting had grown full throated and offered more than just the surface performances.

The early version of Disney’s Ugly Duckling and the Later one.

Hans Bacher’s beautiful reconstruction of the BG from the latter film.

Looking at a film like The Old Mill we see rich scenics animated, a film that played against The characterizations of the The Ugly Duckling or Ferdinand the Bull. Warner Bros were starting to slip into their Looney Tunes period as their characters grew smart and zany. This movement was led by Bob Clampett with Tex Avery showing him how to deal out wild paced timing and surrealistic movement to play for any joke they could get. Disney was straight as an arrow but went for the beauty thing and achieved it as peers competed with each other in the varied studios.

Even Terrytoons were stealing Hollywood’s gags and pulling them off in a somewhat retro manner.

After the Disney strike and the entrance into WWII design and stylization started to grow up. They saw what the Russians had been doing in their attempts to animated the state-run propaganda, ad the art left some inspired, though it was obvious that the animation was living up to their designs.

Some of the animators on the sidelines pushed themselves into the forefront of graphic evolution in animation. Leading the pack in America were the free lanced group working for UPA and the military. The use of strong graphics allowed the animators to get awa with a bit less animation while keeping the films strong. People like Hilberman and Zach Schwartz may have been on the wrong side of Disney’s politics, but they pulled out the stops with their pen and inks.
Films like Hell Bent for Election or A Few Quick Facts About Fear gave the artists the right to move daringly forward with their very strong artwork.

These led Chuck Jones to follow his designers like John McGrew to change the face of the animation. With The Dover Boys of Piemento University all of animation took notice and immediately tried to replicate the work going more and more daring with each film.

Hell Bent for Election

The Dover Boys

Immediately after the War, these new graphics returned with the troops as Disney made strong colored works dominated by the likes of Mary Blair and the story structure of Bill Peet. Warner Bros., mostly under the guidance of Chuck Jones brought their abstract art to the BGs with similarly strong painters like Paul Julian leading the way. Under John Hubley at UPA he had not only designed and painted films but also co directed the Oscar nominee The Tell Tale Heart.

Poster and art for The Tell Tale Heart by Paul Julian at UPA.

Animation went such a distance in a short period of time. From the ball of uncontrolled mass called Oswald the Rabbit, to a rubber hose Mickey & Minnie Mouse to well defined circular characters. It led to more and more sophistication in the scripts and stories with the graphics trying to keep up.

This all ended in 1995 as Toy Story burst onto the screen. The cgi graphics took time to grow up to the sophistication we have today with the likes of Brave or Despicable Me. Seeing the incomparable work in the 2012 Oscar winner, the even more precocious The Life of Pi, gives us pause for thought. We have no idea where animation is going, but for the moment it is definitely not graphically forward. It is difficult to sit by and watch when I have only my meager tools to work with – a pad and pencil. But I continue forward and hope what I do will be accepted.

Give me a good drawing. That’s all I ask.

Working with all this animation history, particularly the beautiful work that came out of the 30′s thru 50′s, I am so often in awe and deep in admiration for the work that was done. Even if it’s not the kind of art I love, it still overpowers me so often.

I mean let’s look at the amazing scene Alex Lovy did for the Woody Woodpecker cartoon, Ace In the Hole. Now Lovy was a good solid animator, not a Frank Thomas or a Bill Tytla. But he did good work, good solid animation.

There were so many like him, so many strong animators with great personalities to animate. And all of his work is worth studying. Now we’re onto the cg animators. And it’s virtually impossible to study their work. Maybe four or five people get credit for a scene. It’s impossible to discern who deserves the signature. We don’t know how many were involved, nevermind what work they actually did. And what if the opposite were true – only one of the animators was great and (s)he carried a number of mediocre talents? There’s a good liklihood that that does happen. How can we tell?

We know that when Frank Thomas animated one of those great scenes he did in the fifties (like Captain Hook sword-fighting while worrying about that ticking clock growling louder in the background), or the squirrel sequence he did in Sword in the Stone. We know he animated it and didn’t have help from another Master animator like John Lounsberry. No, the entire sequence was his, except for one or two scenes who can be easily tracked down and credited. We talked about this dilemma before.

Tom Sito just wrote a history of computer animation called Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation. I haven’t read it yet, though I look forward to doing so. Perhaps this is the first flicker of possibility that some animators out there will gain printed recognition for their work; it’s the first indication that maybe some of those artists will be heard from. I can only hope and I won’t qit until I do start getting that word back.

Anyone out there know of any specific scenes they want to call out, please do so. Use the comments page.

The Writer, the Man and Evermore; this is the subtitle given to Charles McGrath‘s recent article about the newly opened, exhibit celebrating the work of author Edgar Allan Poe. Having written a bit about this yesterday, I decided to go further. Of course I am excited by this news, having worked on Poe’s biography these past six years, with the purpose of creating a low budget animated feature. Poe led a very difficult life, completely impoverished, with almost all the women in his lifetime dying during on him – his wife, much younger than he, died of Tuberculosis. His mother also died of TB when Poe was just 3 yrs old. He was left an orphan of the State and was given to Thomas Allan and wife as surrogate parents. They abandoned Poe during his college years and he spent much of the rest of his life searching for funds to write. He lived with his aunt and married his cousin 27 years his younger. It was assumed they were more a brother-sister relationship rather than husband-wife. Since all three were inches away from pure penury, it made sense for them to live together with his acting as the family support. And, indeed, it was much of the writing that did give them financial aid. Several times he attempted to start a literary magazine, but was more often likely to be writing for one. Graham’s Reader was one such paper for which he wrote some strong material, including The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Presumably, according to Mr. McGrath a lot of manuscripts, letters, and the life are on display. Given the extensive work that several other organizations have done, it’s helpful to have this material preserved for public consumption. (I keep promising to get myself to the Poe House up in the Bronx but I’ve missed that train for too often to not feel the guilt of my actions.) We have in the script for the feature a short sequence wherein two well know ladies – friends of the Poes – visit. They play some sort of early football in the yard only to end when Edgar’s shoe completely dissolves after smashing the ball. Since he had no other shoes, the guests chipped in to buy him a new pair.

Please, don’t mind me. I’ve gotten so addicted to Edgar Allan Poe’s work that I have a hard time not talking about it. I thnk, in some ways, I see a lot of similarities in our lives. That money thing was always the patch blocking the middle of the road. I need a lot more than he did to get my “art” going, but in the end it ma as well be the same thing.

I also recognize that unwittingly I have the same sense of arrogance about mine own artform. I so fussy about wanting what I want that I can be hard to put up with after screenings. I’ll tell you after seeing “Tangled” I was hard to live with. I hated the film and was upset with all those who’d worked on it. It was stupid; I’d seen a lot worse and even enjoyed a lot worse. I just couldn’t deal with those lead characters and, though I liked the horse, I couldn’t help but see Prince Phillip’s horse (Milt Kahl’s character in Sleeping Beauty) in cg. It just never made the grade for me.

Boy, am I looking forward to the day when I can give my full support to that POE film. It really will be some kind of adult film, but today, I can only visit the art exhibit planted so nearby my own home. Even that’s a pricey affair, so getting in to see it will take some financial maneuvering. But I wouldn’t miss it.