Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Today’s guest writer is Grim Natwick. This is a short-lived column Grim Natwick wrote for Cartoonist Profiles magazine.
This particular one was printed June 1980. It’s an article about cartoon voices.

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Here are a couple of interesting links:

- Thanks to Drawn, here’s a link to a collection of Bill Mauldincartoons.

- There’s a entertaining video of a “Rube Goldberg” machine made of sticks, stones and leaves at Make:Blog

– No, these aren’t drawings from a Heckle & Jeckel cartoon; it’s a Marty Taras scene from Fritz The Cat. I thought I’d post some more bits from one of the scenes I have. It’ll give you an idea of the clean/roughs that Marty drew.
His work was always drawn this way, very clean leaving easy work for the assistant. A number of animators I worked with had a similar drawing style. Johnny Gentitlella and Earl James both had drawings very much like this. Nick Tafuri‘s style was broader, but most of the drawings had the same look. This was the look of the Terrytoons/Paramount material. If an animator drew too rough, then the assistants had to work harder, and it ended up costing the producers more money. The animators adapted.

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– In response to Hans Perk‘s comment on my post yesterday, I posted a reply. After writing it, I thought I should bring greater attention to this NY Daily News article which points out that despite the $62 million opening of Cars, Disney analysts were disappointed. They expected $70 million. The shares for Disney stock went down yesterday in reaction. This came as a surprise to me but shoudn’t have.

I haven’t seen the film and don’t know whether I’ll think it a good film. However, I was pleased with what I thought was its successful opening. PIXAR is the premiere company making animated films today, and I want them to do well – if only for the sake of the industry. But it’s obvious that too much money will never be enough.

Fantasy fans are in mourning today with the news of the death of Tim Hildebrandt. He was, of course, one the famous Hildebrandt Brothers whose artwork was at the peak of fantasy illustrators.

Here is his official obit:

From the Hildebrandt Family – June 11th, 2006

Tim Hildebrandt has passed away. And, with him, so has an era.

Tim, 67, died today from complications due to diabetes. He is survived by his mother Germaine, twin brother Greg, sister Janie, wife Rita, son Charles, nieces Mary and Laura, and nephew Gregory.

Tim was an otherworldly artist. For 47 years, his captivating work fostered the dreams and fantasies of millions of fans, young and old.

Best known as part of the Brothers Hildebrandt team, Tim’s career transported him to—and through—many worlds. Technically speaking, Tim and Greg worked side by side. But their work together on such masterpieces as the original Star Wars poster and 70’s J.R.R. Tolkien calendars proved that their individual talents could coalesce seamlessly into one.

Tim was a wonderful man with a great sense of humor. While he loved and appreciated all forms of art, he had a particular passion for animation and illustration.

While he will be greatly missed by all of us who love him, we take comfort knowing that he will live on in the art that he created.

Anyone wishing to express condolences to Greg Hildebrandt can send them to:

The Spiderwebart Gallery,
5 Waterloo Rd.
Hopatcong, NJ 07843

- On my birthday, back in April, my friend Adrian Urquidez (he, who wonderfully constructed this site and connected blog) gave me a copy of this graphic novel, Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang. I’m not a big fan of graphic novels, so it sat on my desk for months. But I did read it yesterday and found it more than compelling. The book is worth searching out.

It’s the story of an American cartoonist working in France who accepts a job in North Korea, Pyongang to be exact, working as a supervisor for a French animation company.

Through his eyes we see what it’s like for a foreigner living in North Korea, and we see what it’s like as an animation supervisor in such a distant/different country. It’s a very interesting read; you’re somehow sure it’s all fact not fiction.
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Guy Delisle has another book in print, Shenzhen. I’m certain to read that one next.
Here are three samples from this book that have to do with animation:

- Hans Perk is back from Annecy with a few photos of sunny Annecy as well as a small glimpse into the jury’s confused state. This is always the case, in my eye, at this festival. Note that I’ve posted the award winners a couple of days ago.

- Also back writing on his site is Michael Barrier. He gives us a bit of a tease review of CARS. However, I think he leaves no doubt as to which way down his thumb is pointing. I’m looking forward to his review.

My interest has been strong enough to read about two dozen reviews of this film. I’m looking for one to tell me why I should want to see it other than to see what the best cgi studio work looks like and an obligation to a life in animation. From trailers and clips I see everything I expect: something loud and too-fast-for-its-own-story. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but that’s the film they’re selling. I’ll see the movie this coming Saturday (at an Academy screening).

- If anyone has a particularly useful review to point me to, please do.

- The only really interesting one I’ve found so far is this: ‘tooned out By Christopher Kelly of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He uses this film as a jumping off point to talk about the difficult task cgi animation has in telling a story. Very insightful, I think – worth reading.

- The new New Yorker magazine comes with a good (though not positive) review by Anthony Lane of Cars. It expresses many of the expectations I had on the subject and handling of the film. Again, I’ll have to see it for myself.

There is also a very good article about Gregg Toland that is not available on line. It doesn’t mention Song of the South.

There’s also a good article by Oliver Sacks about stereo vision. Also not available on line. This is a good issue.

– Finishing off my short series on sheet music, for now, I have a non-Disney cover. It’s the sheet music for the 2nd feature film from the Fleischer’s, Mr. Bug Goes To Town.

This was a feature that really got me going when I was young. I think it was the first original story done in animation; not an adapted fairy tale or novel. The story still works for me, though it comes off as a bit episodic. (Actually, I think most animated features are too episodic.) They’ve created a complete world for these insects, and it works.

Technically the film is a bit limited. The opening title shot is a stunning shot panning down the Empire State Building and across NYC ending on the vacant lot where the bugs live. The animation is adequate for the period; it has a charm that I find delightful and sometimes exciting. The voices are good, and the music is excellent.
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This was the hit song, written by the brilliant Hoagy Carmichael (who wrote Stardust, Heart and Soul, and Skylark) and the just-as-brilliant Frank Loesser (who wrote Guys and Dolls, Hans Christian Andersen, and How To Succeed In Business). The score for the film was co-written by Leigh Harline (who scored Pinocchio, a lot of Disney shorts, and The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, among others).
As we’ve seen with the last two postings, most sheet music was printed with one or two colors )red for Der Fuehrer’s Face, brown & green for Song of the South) as opposed to full color. However, this Fleischer song has a full color cover (although they use one color on the rear cover). It shows that Paramount felt they had a hit song here, and they did have a modest hit. Glenn Miller’s recording of it didn’t hurt.

The rear cover is little more than an ad for other Paramount songs. However, in among the group is Gulliver’s Travels. I’m posting just this small section of the back cover, printed in blue.

Regina Pessoa‘s Tragic Story with Happy Ending and Joanna Quinn‘s Dreams and Desires – Family Ties seem to be the big award winners at the Annecy Animation Festival.

These are all of the awards given last night in Annecy:

Short films
Histoire tragique avec fin heureuse (The Annecy Cristal) France
Rabbit (Special distinction) United Kingdom
One D (Jr Jury Award for a short film) Canada
Dreams and Desires – Family Ties (Audience award) United Kingdom
Dreams and Desires – Family Ties (FIPRESCI award) United Kingdom
Delivery (Xiberras award for a first film) Germany
Dreams and Desires – Family Ties (Jury’s special award) United Kingdom
Histoire tragique avec fin heureuse (TPS Cinceculte Award for short film) France
Cherno na byalo (Unicef award) Bulgaria

Feature films
Renaissance (The Cristal for best feature) France

TV series
Pocoyo “A Little Something Between Friends” (The Cristal Best TV production) Spain
Zombie Hotel “First Day” (Special award for a TV series) France

TV specials
Petit Wang (TV special award) France

Educational, scientific or industrial films
The Birds & The Bees – A Secret You Shouldn’t Keep (Educational film award) Korea

Advertising films
Médecins sans frontières “Human Ball” (Advertising film award) Belgium

Music video
Thomas Fersen “Hyacinthe” (Award for best music video) France

Graduation films
Abigail (Special distinction) United Kingdom
Ego (Jr Jury Award for a graduation film) France
Astronauts (Best school or graduation film) United Kingdom
Walking in the Rainy Day (Jury award for a graduation film) Korea

- To continue with the graphics on sheet music, the music for Song of The South, in the 1940′s wasn’t quite as dynamic as the one I posted yesterday, Der Fuehrer’s Face.

This cover tries to capture the lyrical, romantic feel of the film. Here surrounding the live-action plantation, with all the different songtitles available from the film in the sky, is a border consisting of the animated characters from the film. The colors are limited to the green-etched homestead and the brown-linear characters.

The back cover of the sheet music contains a shot of the live-action characters, James Baskett, Bobby Driscoll, and Luana Patten. All are colored in the same brown ink as the cover’s line art.

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That year “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah“, also from this film, won the Oscar, while the music, itself, was nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.

This film made quite an impression on me when I was a kid. And this song was one of the two I played over and over from the record. I also loved “Laughing Place”. It’s something of a shame that the film has been kept out of circulation in the US. I can’t imagine that the film affected me as a child in any negative way. Uncle Remus was clearly the hero of the film and the only truly positive adult character in the film.

The last time I saw the film projected was back in the 70′s when Disney set themselves up at Lincoln Center to show a complete retrospective of ALL their films. At the library auditorium behind Lincoln Center there were a number of seminars in which Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Ken Andersen and Woolie Reitherman talked about their work.

I remember Frank Thomas talking about this feature, saying that Disney only did the best for the film hiring the greatest cinemaphotographer, Gregg Toland, to shoot it. He’d shot everything from Citizen Kane to The Grapes of Wrath. (Both are unbelievably stunning works of cinematographic art.) What Thomas didn’t say, or didn’t realize, was that this was Toland’s first COLOR feature. And it showed. Garish, cartoon colors flooded the screen, with actors wearing much too much makeup. A big step for Toland but not the best photography.

Still, I remember those colors vividly, and I would love to see it again – on screen. A dvd would do.

– I’ve long been a fan of old sheet music and have a tiny collection of songs from animated pictures. I’m going to post a couple of them in the next week.

This is a song by Oliver Wallace in the Donald Duck cartoon, Der Fuerher’s Face. The sheet music is a bit rare in that it has the original title of the Donald film, Donald Duck In Nutzi Land.

They soon changed the title on the sheet music, especially after the music became a #1 hit in a version by Spike Jones & His City Slickers.

You can see the film on the Walt Disney Treasure DVD – On The Front Lines: Disney Goes To War.

The film deservedly won the Oscar for Best Short Subject in 1942. Its opposition were all propaganda war films.
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- Here’s the back page for those who want to see the Disney logo for sheet music back then.

- Continuing the musical thread, I love these musical objects found on Fwak Grab Bag (an entertaining site.)

- For those searching for CARS reviews by non-animation reviewers here are three from NYC: one glowing (NYDaily News), one mixed/negative (Village Voice), one negative (NYTimes).

Thomas Rowlandson – “The Ugly Club”

For those who aren’t aware of this site, Coconino-Classics.com is an excellent French website which features galleries of early comic strips and illustrations. There are lots of Herriman (early Krazy Kat strips and lots of them), Cliff Sterrett, Rube Goldberg, George McManus. And lots more.

It’s a good place to spend and hour or two and comeback for more.

I was particularly entertained by William Glackens‘ panel strip, Rabbi Fleizer’s Xmas. It’s certainly an oddity and interesting. There’s something curious to me about seeing the print work of some notable artists like Glackens or Feininger or Kley or Cruikshank.