Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Felix the Cat was a remarkable series in the era of the silent cartoon.

Other than Felix, there were few interesting film series.

Among the best were the Dinky Doodle films of Bray/Walter Lantz and the odd, rotoscoped Koko films of the Fleischer brothers.

Most of the films in theaters were horrible: the tedious Col. Heeza Liar films of J.R.Bray, the tiresome, repetitive and endless Aesop Fables of Paul Terry, the Hearst recycled comic strips, and the Disney Alice films which stole from the worst of them (the Terry cartoons.) Disney improved substantially with some of the Oswald films.

In this lot, the Felix films were enormously creative and entertaining.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

Pat Sullivan still gets credit for the character, but it is well known that Otto Messmer was responsible for putting him on the screen. Messmer and his animators imaginatively used the medium with graphic nuance and ingenious wit.

Don’t get me wrong; these films are still bordering on the unwatchable today. But back in the early Twenties, they had to have stood out from the pack. Felix would remove his tail to use for some other need. He’d take type out of the screen balloons to use for graphic gags. It often was quite clever how they manipulated the visuals for Felix to find his anmated deus ex machina.

Of course, the book to read all about Sullivan, Messmer and Felix is John Canemaker’s Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World’s Most Famous Cat.

Unfortunately, the comic strips – which were often done by Otto Messmer as well – didn’t exploit this graphic sensibility well. Poring over a number of strips to find something to illustrate my point, I didn’t have the easiest of time locating the imaginative graphics that the animation always exploited.

Here, I give you two Sunday pages which do take advantage of the visuals around him.

– The Museum of Modern Art will be celebrating the pioneering work of Norman McLaren by screening some newly stuck 35mm prints of some of his key works.

This also celebrates the recent issuing of a new DVD set of McLaren’s complete works by the National Film Board of Canada.

Norman McLaren: Master’s Edition

MoMA will present this eleven-film program on Nov.29th and 30th, which demonstrates the imagination, vitality, and versatility of the artist’s animation.

The program includes Opening Speech, Stars and Stripes, Hen Hop, Begone Dull Care, A Chairy Tale, Lines Horizontal, Blinkity Blank, La Merle, and Neighbors.

I urge you to attend since there aren’t often screenings of these films in 35mm. Maybe it’s just me, but somehow, it doesn’t feel the same in dvd or ipod.

We’re living in a world where everything has to be handed to us. When an artist, such as McLaren, comes along with films that are slightly abstract and force us to use our imaginations, films that have a strong intellectual content, we have to bask in the glow and absorb the inspiration.
(Images enlarge by clicking them.)

Wednesday, November 29, 6:00;
Thursday, November 30, 8:30.
The Celeste Bartos Theater

– To move to an artist of a different sort, I received a comment on my Splog (original post here) from Thaddeus Seymour who is the son-in-law of TV art instructor, Jon Gnagy. I’d written a post about Gnagy and talked about the impression that his art instruction made on a young me.

Thaddeus wanted to announce that he and wife, Polly, have put together a new site memorializing Gnagy which includes ten episodes of his show in YouTube format. Manna from heaven.

This may serve as a trip down memory lane for many; it may serve as art instruction for others. Either way it’s entertaining and informative about a television program that was big in the 40′s & 50′s.
Go here for the site.
Go here to order a Jon Gnagy kit.
Thank you Thaddeus and Polly Seymour.

– The current issue of The New Yorker, the Cartoon Issue (Nov. 27) features four different covers by Chris Ware. See the covers here.

Each image depicts a Thanksgiving scene, two of them are set in 1942 and two in 2006. The stories in these images become intertwined in a comic strip that appears on the magazine’s Web site.

It is the first time The New Yorker has published four covers at once on the newsstand. Mr. Ware is a graphic novelist whose “Acme Novelty Library” series and “Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth,” display a wry sense of humor and fine draftsmanship.

He had a solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago this past summer.

You’ll remember that for Sept 11th edition, The New Yorker published an issue with two versions of the same cover.

You can also listen to illustrator, Chris Ware, discuss the covers here.

- Also in the magazine and on-line is Seymour Hersh‘s article on the Bush administration’s next moves. The Next Act. (Iran, anyone?) Worth reading. The administration is already denying the contents of this article, so you know it’s true.

- Back in October, I posted a lecture by Phil Dike on my site. Two of the pages were damaged.

Now, Hans Perk on his site A Film LA has posted those two pages corrected. What a resource Hans offers us!
Thank you, Hans. For the first time I can read the entire lecture.

- A note of thanks to Jake Friedman, who chose to interview me for the current ASIFA-East bulletin (found on-line here or here). Jake did a good last-minute job of editing a very long, rambling interview into something readable.

And then having finished the interview, he continues to promote it here. Thanks, Jake.

Jake also has a lot of other interviews & articles available on his site. While there, check out his film work.

– In a bit of self-promotion, let me point out another award won by my film, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. Best 2D film at the 2D or Not 2D Festival run by animator, Tony White. This was the first version of this festival, and I’m pleased about taking home the first “Golden Pencil” award. (Or at least Tony promised to send it on to me.) I’ll display it proudly.

- Believe it or not, I’ve just received my first invitation to a Christmas Party.

Since the season has obviously just kicked in, I thought I’d post these pictures from a great party we had in my old studio (at 632 Broadway in the Village – NoHo to be exact). I think it was back in 1996 or ’97.

We gave a lot of parties at that studio, but this was definitely one of the best.

Most of the photos here were taken later in the party; a lot of the guests had gone home. Just as things started rocking. Literally.
(Click any image to enlarge.)

We generally moved back the animation desks and gave plenty of room for people to move about. For this party, a friend, Larry White, brought his band and they played in the center of the studio. We’d really moved the desks out so that there was lots of room to dance.

This is the crew just after the Secret Santa and just before the party.
Back L to R: Ed Askinazi – editor, Liz Seidman – prod coord, Matthew Sheridan – asst, Stephen MacQuignon (hidden) – colorist, Denise Gonzalez (in yellow) – publicity/asst, Sue Perotto (in red) – animator, Jason McDonald’s head – colorist, Masako Kanayama – production supervisor, Rodolfo Damaggio – animator, Marilyn Rosado – office manager.

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3. Jennifer Oxley and Mo Willems
4. John Dilworth and Heidi Stallings

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5. me and John Dilworth, goofing around
6. Masako Kanayama thinks it’s funny
7. Russ Adams conducts the band

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8. A conga line has formed to the . . .
9. . . . rock stylings of Larry White.

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10.Larry White (R) sings to Jason McDonald
11. Wuh !?!

b
a. Denise Gonzalez lets her freak flag fly. Masako Kanayamo, left, tries to ignore her.
b. Ed Askinazi

c
c. Heidi and I dancin’
Ray Kosarin is in the bg left. Rodolfo Damaggio & Marilyn Rosado are to the Right.

- I have a couple of articles that were printed in 1973 for the first release of the Disney “Classic”, Robin Hood.

At least, Disney calls it a classic; I’ve always had some trouble staying awake through it. The repetitive use of the xeroxed cycles gets dull, and the story is not developed dramatically enough for my taste. It doesn’t take itself seriously enough. (Disney released a much better non-animated Robin Hood in 1952 starring Richard Todd.)

There are moments of good animation, particularly Ollie Johnston’s dialogue between Sir Hiss & Prince John.

The decline had started on The Jungle Book and The Aristocats, but by and large, to me, this film proved once and for all that Disney was dead. All that was left were glimmers of interesting animation. The Rescuers made a valiant attempt to come back, but The Black Cauldron is unwatchable. (Of course, this is just my opinion.)

The first of the two articles below, is taken from a Local 831′s union paper. It was written by Ken Anderson, which is the prime reason for posting it.

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(Click any image to enlarge)

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The pictures in the first article are not the best quality, hence I post this second piece, which even on newsprint, gets the photos to look better.

Obviously both used the Disney marketing package to pull photos for illustration. In this second article, I’ve flopped a couple of pictures. It didn’t matter to the publication that the writing in the photos (on model charts etc.) was illegible.

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- In the last week, Jerry Beck on Cartoon Brew posted a note about the recent editions of the comic strip, Gasoline Alley.

This has long been one of my favorite comic strips. When Dick Moores (original assistant to Chester Gould on Dick Tracy) took over the strip, I thought the artwork, specifically the compositon, kept getting better and better. Very clean and open and sharp.

I remember seeing a book on filmmaking where I first learned how NOT to cross the 180. This cross cutting information was illustrated with a 4 panel strip from Gasoline Alley. How perfect! The strip was always quite cinematic; excellently illustrating good film technique from panel to panel.

Gasoline Alley really started when playboy, Walt Skeezix found a baby on his doorstep Feb. 14, 1921. The boy was named Skeezix, and over the years Skeezix Wallet grew naturally, and an audience grew with him. It was played out like the first soap opera – and it probably was.

The strip was understandably enormously popular.
(Click any image to enlarge.)

In 1941, Whitman publishing followed several other books for “girls and boys” with a novel about Skeezix Wallet and Nina Clock which was written by Frank King. I haven’t yet read the book (even though I’ve had it for a while), but I love owning it.

The pages are printed on newsprint – designed for deterioration, I think. The illustrations by King were done specifically for his book.

The book’s first double page spread

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the endpage

– Since first seeing them in the 50′s, I’ve been a fan of the films from the Gene Deitch period at Terrytoons. You know, Clint Clobber, Sidney the Elephant, Gaston Le Crayon and Tom Terrific. Call this a guilty pleasure.

The animated logo included a linear face which had some scribbled hair that animated to read “Terrytoons” when a door closed on it.

(This is the logo used as a title card.
From ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive.)

I have copies of the drawings for the animation of the type. Here they are:

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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– A short note left on my blog shared the news that George Cannata is a teacher at the Art Students League.

Aside from the impressive animation biography, Mr. Cannata has a somewhat prestigious art training, himself. He began his art training at the Art Students League at the age of fourteen, studying with George Grosz. He graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and studied lithography with John Baldwin and drawing with Rico Lebrun at the Instituto Allende in Mexico.

The class description reads as follows: This class covers all aspects of drawing and composition,” he notes. “Both figurative and abstract approaches are explored in a variety of media. Students work from the model and from imagination. Individual and group critiques are frequent as I wish to produce a lively exchange of ideas. My desire is to open new avenues and to guide the students past any obstacles or inhibitions that may be preventing them from reaching their full creative potential. The class is open to beginners and advanced students.”

Classes are Monday-Friday 1:00 – 4:45pm and cost $185 per month. It’s a good way to develop the muscles while working with a great instructor.

- I’ve come to love the regular installments of Floyd Norman’s column on Jim Hill Media. Currently he writes about Retta Davidson. It’s nice to see a few articles appearing on-line about some of the females in animation history. Of course, Retta Scott‘s name sets off waves of curiosity. It’s interesting to hear about another Retta who thrived at the Disney studio without much fanfare. Thanks to Floyd for serving attention.

- For those who haven’t seen the latest John Kricfalusi animation music video for Jack Black‘s Tenacious D, go here.

It’s a bit hard core, but has some wonderful elements in it. Kricfalusi developed a wonderful, vibrant relationship between characters and backgrounds in Ren & Stimpy. In this music video, he takes it to new levels and does some smashing work. The “multiplane” levelling works in the many ways it’s used; I particularly like it when it’s done subtly and quietly. That works well against the raucus style of animation; nice dynamic tension in that.
It’s nice to see some life in the medium.

– For the past couple of days, Hans Bacher has been posting some great material on his site, It’s-a-wrap.

He’s been writing about the London Amblimation studio.
This, of course, was the studio that produced the interesting feature films for Steven Spielberg‘s company pre-Dreamworks.

(I think Balto is one of the real classics that got away. Just listen to the acting by Kevin Bacon in the title part, and see how well some of the animators were able to live up to that. By the way, I was surprised to find that there are fan sites devoted to this film. here and here)
(Hans’ “Brechtian” art for CATS. Click to enlarge)

Hans has posted a lot of stunning art, photos of the studio & staff, and given some background information on the studio and its employees. There’s even a photo of Spielberg talking to directors Simon Wells and Phil Nibbelink.

A post devoted to some of the art from Cats that was good to see. I’d heard so much about this film, and I’ve read Tom Stoppard‘s script. (He is one of my favorite playwrights.) Andrew Lloyd Webber was quoted as saying, “As for Cats, you’ll have to ask Universal – we’re trying to get those rights back . . . Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay, and it has the cats absolutely nailed. . . I noticed various lines that popped up in his Shakespeare In Love. They were too good to waste.”

I’d like to have seen how the artists might have pulled it off with this script.

– Hans Perk has done it again.

He has post a copy of The Pointer – one of the finest Mickey Mouse cartoons – on his site and has overdubbed a click track to match the drafts he’d already posted.

Watching this and Thru The Mirror (previously posted on his site) with added click tracks is one of the best viewing experiences you can have if you’re interested in animation. Thanks Hans.

Go here to see The Pointer.
Go here to see Thru The Mirror.

- On Saturday, the NY chapter of the MPAcademy got to see the accepted submissions of the animated shorts. From the 32 shown, a shortlist of 5-10 films will be selected. At a January screening, these will be reduced to the nominees (3-5) which will be announced late January.

About a third of the films were screened at Ottawa, and some of them won awards there, hence I’ve seen a lot of them prior to this screening. A couple of films stood out for me, and I’d like to comment on them.

Sure shots:
Joanna Quinn‘s Dreams and Desires: Family Ties
This is the first time I’d seen the film, though I heard a lot about it. The short features beautiful drawing, delicate animation, a funny story. It’s won a number of big awards at festivals. This is a no-brainer. The film is going all the way.

Regina Pessoa’s Tragic Story With Happy Ending is an attractive 2D film with a great soundtrack.
The art is stunning; it looks like animated etchings. The story is a little murky, but that may be something some people will find in its favor. The film has won a lot of big awards at many festivals. It’ll definitely make the shortlist.

Others that I liked:
Andreas Hykade‘s The Runt was at Ottawa, and stood out at this screening. Bright styling with strong colors. It has a dark story that gets a bit difficult toward the end. A good film.

Don Hertzfeldt‘s latest film, Everything Will Be OK has a complex story that is definitely original for animation. It’s more like a short story with good animated stick-figure illustrations. He certainly pushes the limits of this style in the film. It’s an excellent work; intelligent and adult.

Adam Parrish King‘s The Wraith of Cobble Hill is a clay-animated, B&W student film that slowly tells an original story. There’s some good character development. It’s quite touching and the story forgives some of the basic animation techniques.

Torill Kove‘s The Danish Poet is all story, and it’s well told. There’s a bit of poetry blended in, appropriately given its subject.

Of the CG films, I really liked two:
Géza M Geza’s Maestro Is a beautifully told preparation for the actor about to go on. A clever film with a beautifully rendered style.

One Rat Short from Charlex had a touching story and told it with a lot of feeling. I found a couple of the transitions a bit confusing but was impressed with the work overall.

Other films:
I found the Dreamworks film, First Flight, quite touching. The character design isn’t totally original (the everpresent Tom Oreb lives in the bird.) It’s a bit sentimental and cute, but one of the best efforts from this studio.

Other 2D films:
Michael Dudok de Wit‘s The Aroma of Tea is a quite beautiful and delicate film. I’m not sure how this abstraction will go over with Academy voters, but I found it excellent.

As a matter of fact there were a couple of wholly abstract films, and I was pleased to see this. Not all of them were as successful as Michael Dudok de Wit‘s work, but he is undoubtedly a master.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention some others screened, but there was a bit of a glut – watching seven hours of animated films one-after-another -with many of them blending into each other.

I am somewhat disappointed that a couple of films weren’t among those screened. Run Wracke‘s Rabbit is brilliant, and i suspect would have done well among these contenders. (You can see a QT version of this here.)

Unfortunately, in all there were no surprises. My favorite was Joanna Quinn‘s extraordinary film, but that was hardly a surprise for me. Everything she does is extraordinary; she should have won an Oscar years ago.

In NY, we still don’t get to vote for the feature submissions. Hopefully, that will eventually change. Though watching all those bad features to vote for the few good ones is a daunting task. I suppose it’s no different than voting for the live action features. Their are few good ones for all the flack we watch.

Actually, I do love voting for the live-action shorts. Many of them are usually top-notch.

Thanks to the Academy’s Patrick Harrison for organizing such a well-run program and for making us all comfortable.