Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

As the disk jockey on the radio called it, “the absolutely horrendous weather,” continues.

Rain. Will it get heavy enough to flood again? (I doubt it) Will the Yankees be rained out? (they’re playing some great, entertaining games against Boston) Will I get past this annoyance?(probably)

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- I love the artwork of Patrick McDonell. His Mutts comic strip is oftentimes as good as many of the brilliant strips of the past. Just look at this watercolor comic on-line, and see how well it compares to any of those beautiful Polly and Her Pals strips I’ve posted in the past. HERE or HERE

There’s a joy in the drawing of McConnell’s strip that just comes across on the printed page. On his site he features Watercolor Sundays on which he posts actual watercolors rather than the airbrushed/Photoshop look most of the published colored strips feature. Somehow the watercolor look is especially becoming in this style.

- Patrick also has a new book available. Art was released this year and is a beauty. Take a look at it next time you’re near the children’s book section of your favorite book store, or else just buy it on Amazon.

The selling point the marketers are using is to compare it to Crockett Johnson‘s Harold and The Purple Crayon. The art of this book is much more lively and free than Johnson’s quiet, tight style. Both are distinctive yet wildly different. Thematically, I suppose they’re similar, but Patrick McDonnell’s “Art” is significantly more vibrant.

- Hansel and Gretel was an animated feature produced in 1954 by Michael Myerberg a showman of a producer who made elaborate claims for his sets and puppets and pushed the publicity to feature many innovations that didn’t exist.

I can remember CBS covering the film’s premiere. They had the upper half of the puppet of Rosina Rubylips in a glass box – it looked not unlike the gypsy fortuneteller in the movie BIG. Supposedly the puppets were controlled by electronics. Singer Anna Russell, at the premiere, was prompted to turn dials, and the puppet moved in a robotic movement. The film employed animation. There were no electronics operating the puppets; there were wires.

(producer Michael Myerberg)

As a child, I was intrigued with this puppet feature – a rarity in those days – and searched for any information about the production. A magazine I have, Closeup #2 (1976) offered a lot of photos of this film, and I thought I’d post some of them.

The feature was done out of a brownstone on East 2nd Street in Greenwich Village, and non-animators were hired to animate the puppets. Some of them were master puppeteers (e.g. Don Sahlin had already designed and built all the marionettes on Howdy Doody, Kermit Love went on to do some masterful work with Jim Hensen.) The camerman was the extra- ordinary still-photographer, Martin Munkasci.
Of course, all of these people had to learn how to do animation on-the-job.
Don Sahlin and Joe Horstman animating Hansel & Gretel in the woods.

This photo gives a good indication of the scale of the production.

Hansel and Gretel dance inside their cottage waiting for their parents to return.

Aside from it being a first feature for Myerberg, it was also the first time opera was the basis for an animated film. All of the dialogue is sung in an English translation of the Humperdink opera. They utilized some great opera stars such as Anna Russell for the voices. That, in itself, gives the animated feature a peculiar feel.

The puppet & production sketch of the evil witch, Rosina Rubylips. The character is voiced by opera star, Anna Russell.

Scenic Designer, Evalds Dajevskis in front of one of his many sets.

Animating the descent of the angels from their fairy kingdom. Pictured are (counterclockwise): Danny Diamond, Kermit Love, Joe Horstman, Sky Highchief, Teddy Shepard and, outside of the circle (with arms crossed) Roger Caras.

It looks to be a relatively large group of animators gathered in and around the very detailed, gingerbread set.

You can see how large the sets and puppets are in this photograph. The animators used electromagnets in the feet of the puppets to keep them anchored to the table. By turning off the switches they were able to move the puppets from the spot where they stood.

The elaborate puppets were created by Jim Summers. He designed armatures for the puppets which had a number of little switches. By pressing on the switch for the leg, for example, you would release the leg and could then move it. By releasing the pressure on the switch, the leg would lock in position.

The director of the film, John Paul, was a British actor directing his first and last animated film.

Crockett Johnson, whose most famous books are the Harold and The Purple Crayon series, drew a comic strip from 1942 through 1952 called Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley.

Barnaby was a child, who looked very similar both to Harold and to the child in Johnson’s other hit book, Carrot Seed. Mr. O’Malley was a cigar-smoking guardian angel who often brought more trouble for Barnaby than help.

Barnaby’s parents refused to accept Mr. O’Malley’s presence even when he stood in front of them. It took Barnaby’s growing up to bring an end to O’Malley. After age 6, Barnaby wasn’t allowed to see his friend anymore, thus ending the relationship and the strip.

Crockett Johnson tried updating and revising the stories in the 60′s, but the once successful comic strip wouldn’t ignite again.

This is not a strip for everyone. It’s wordy and seemingly “old fashioned.” There’s a calm to Johnson’s style and a wry sense of humor that I love. I’ve done an animated version of Carrot Seed for HBO and did a small bit of “consulting” work on their series of Harold & The Purple Crayon produced in LA at SONY. There’s a lot of room in his style for adaptation to animation, and I could easily imagine an animated version of this strip.

Here are the first few pages of it.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

- On Wednesday, June 7, 6:30; repeated Saturday, June 24, 2:00 the Museum of Modern Art is presenting a program of student films by the PIXAR artists who went to CalArts.

As part of its program celebrating the works of CalArts, MOMA has com-
piled this program of early works by the likes of John Lasseter, Joe Ranft et. al.

(faked degree for John Lasseter)

School of Pixar

This program features rarely screened CalArts student films by a veritable who’s who of Pixar talent. Program includes:

Winter. 1988. Pete Doctor. 2 min.
Next Door. Pete Doctor. 1990. 3 min.
A Birthday. Brenda Chapman. 1987. 3 min.
A Jim Reardon Film. Jim Reardon. 1986. 4 min.
Tarzan. Mark Andrews. 1993. 3 min.
A Date with Suzie. Max Brace. 1995. 2 min.
Solitaire’s Sanctuary. Karen Kiser. 1985. 6 min.
Nitemare. John Lasseter. 1979. 4 min.
The Lady and the Lamp. John Lasseter. 1979. 4 min.
Good Humor. Joe Ranft. 1979. 3 min.
Man, Monkey, Marshmallow. Matt Majers and Jon Fancher. 1999. 2 min.
smoke…. Bobby Podesta. 1997. 4 min.
Blind Spot. Doug Sweetland. 1993. 3 min.
Legend of Shaolin. Mike Wu. 1994. 2 min.
Train Crazy. Daniel Holland. 2003. 3 min.
Extra Crispy. Mark Walsh. 1997. 4 min.
A Story. Andrew Stanton. 1987. 4 min.
Sis. Ken Bruce. 1986. 5 min.
For the Birds. Ralph Eggleston. 2000. 3 min.

Program 63 min., plus one five-minute intermission.

- All the sandbags in front of our studio weren’t enough to hold back the torrential rains that came yesterday afternoon. Manhattan was hit with 3″ of rain in under an hour. Most of it came into my studio, apparently. Because we’ve gone through this before, all the necessary precautions were taken so that nothing would get ruined. The mess is finally cleared, but the sore body parts remain.

– Those in New York this Sunday can attend a world premiere. Xeth Feinberg‘s QUEER DUCK: THE MOVIE will be released as a DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in July.

However, there’s a theatrical screening this coming Sunday, June 4th at the AMC Loew’s 34th Street as part of the 18th New York LGBT Film Festival. The film will show at 5:30 PM. Writer Mike Reiss will be there for a brief intro and Q & A.

The feature includes cameos by Tim Curry, Conan O’Brien, David Duchovny, Bruce Vilanch and Andy Dick and includes more than a dozen musical numbers. It was directed and animated by Xeth Feinberg.

There is an extensive interview with Xeth at Cold Hard Flash.
You can pre-purchase the DVD at Amazon in advance of its July release.

- On Saturday ABC will present a special program.

Per Leslie Iwerks: The recent project I wrote, directed and executive produced, Pixar’s 20th Anniversary Special, will be airing on the Wonderful World of Disney Saturday June 3rd from 8-11pm on ABC, along with the showing of Toy Story. It features John Ratzenberger as a traffic cop in hot pursuit of Lightning McQueen, the upcoming star of Pixar’s newest movie, CARS.
And please also keep an eye out for my upcoming Pixar feature documentary (The Pixar Story) that should be released before the end of the year.
(Click image to enlarge.)

- I’m sad to note that the brilliant film director Shohei Imamura has died. He was an inspiration to me for many years. I discovered his films at a retrospective at the Japan Society in NYC in 1979. Over the course of several weeks many double bills of his features were screened until they went through them all chronologically. It was one of the highlights of my filmgoing experiences.
Here is his NYTimes obituary. Black Rain, The Insect Woman and Vengeance Is Mine are singular masterpieces.

- Writer, J. Hoberman, in this week’s Village Voice has a short but good article about Richard Linklater’s thoughts in comparing his two current features, both of which premiered at Cannes. A Scanner Darkly, together with Fast Food Nation, represent a picture he has of today’s America.

In a separate mini-review, Hoberman wrote: “Richard Linklater took a hit for his insipid Fast Food Nation but recovered and then some with his animated A Scanner Darkly—not just the best Philip K. Dick adaptation since Total Recall but an adaptation that brings quite a bit to the original. This paranoid drug-opera will soon be coming to a theater near you, improving the summer movie season even more than it did Cannes’s American presence.”

The reception from other critics wasn’t as kind, often comparing it unfavorably to Waking Life. Perhaps Hoberman’s bent for more eccentric film making styles played more in tune with Linklater’s newer opus. I have to admit I’m curious to see whether the rotoscope style used in a more traditional, through story will help it.

- I love Lane Smith’s artwork. Consequently, I love Lane Smith‘s blog currently following the release of his newest book, John , Paul, George & Ben. Everything on it is done with a real sense of fun. Today’s post reprints negative reviews for his book, and his last post featured a mural drawn by him and Mo Willems. As a matter of fact, you can watch a short movie of them painting it.

There was a short time when Lane Smith was to direct an animated feature for Nickelodeon, and that project ultimately fell through. Too bad, it might’ve changed what we think about animated features. And like everything else he does it would have been family friendly, a lot of fun, and brilliantly daring. Not just Paramount’s loss, but ours as well.
(Images enlarge by clicking.)

- Here are some of the illustrations from Errol Le Cain‘s book 12 Dancing Princesses. The book is a small beauty which I’ve treasured since its publication in 1978.

The illustrations are beautiful watercolors very much in Le Cain’s style – full of style and character, rich in detail among the many characters depicted.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

– If Bruno Bozzeto has been called, the Disney of Italy, Guido Manuli is the Tex Avery. This, at least, has been the opinion of Giannalberto Bendazzi, Italy’s foremost animation historian.
Manuli has been a master animator and director in Italy whose solo work has rarely been very successful in the United States.

He collaborated with Bruno Bozzetto on the Mr. Rossi series and was one of the key animation directors on the brilliant feature, Allegro Non Troppo before establishing his own studio in 1979. His collaboration with Maurizio Nichetti produced the animated/live-action mixed feature Volere Volare (To Want To Fly) in 1991.
(Click on image to enlarge.)

In his own films, Manuli tends to replay scenes from varied angles to get every bit of juice out of a gag. He has had a wild streak in his work that he has turned into laughs; he has often played for the “cartoon” in any situation. There’s also a surreal bent in his work which provides for some outrageous ideas; it explains his enormous, deserved success in Europe. I’m curious as to why this doesn’t translate to Americans, or at least American buyers.

This is a cel-setup from one of Guido Manuli’s films, a randy take on Little Red Ridinghood. Even the cel set-ups are jokes.