Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Last night, I saw the Dreamworks/Seinfeld concoction of an animated feature. Bee movie. The title is meant as a pun on “B” movie; unfortunately, that’s what this really is – a second rate film.

I should keep my opinion to myself, but I can’t. I have no intention of putting down any of the excellent artists, designers, or animators that worked on this film. They did what they could given the circumstances.
Let’s talk about what I see as “the circumstances” given the fact that I know NOTHING about the making of this film other than what Jerry Seinfeld said on Charlie Rose or that I was able to guess from the movie, itself.

The story is pathetic. If it had been just a mass of uproarious, funny jokes, I’d have been happy. In fact, I didn’t hear too much laughter in the theater, and I wasn’t brought to smile even once. It wasn’t funny. In fact, about midway through the film, I felt that I was watching some kind of bastardized Industrial or Educational film about bee pollination. The only problem was that the information was so simple that I knew that wasn’t the case. Jerry Seinfeld should be ashamed of his role in this product, and I believe that was probably the problem.

Now, the problem with the “craft” of the film. It was all at the top.

For some reason, the actors were directed to push their performances way – I mean WAY over the top. Renee Zellwegger has given many fine performances during her career – including King of the Hill and Shark Tale. Her acting in Miss Potter was extraordinarily subtle and nuanced. However in Bee Movie, she shouts her lines, overperforms every word and telegraphs every simple sentence. Yet, alongside John Goodman, she’s the maestro. His performance as a prosecuting attorney allows him to don a Southern accent and pretend he’s doing Inherit The Wind in some regional dinner theater where he’s trying to shout over the clinking tableware and devour all of the scenery. It’s an embarrassing performance. Even Patrick Warburton, not the greatest actor is fine in many other animated films including The Emperor’s New Groove, yet here he’s required to scream his every line. I don’t get it; it’s as if they were all forced to give heightened performances to try to make the poor writing funnier. It didn’t work.

The poor animators, saddled with these readings, animated what they got. Hence, the shouted lines were overanimated – that’s the only way they could work – with an aggression that I haven’t seen in quite some time.

The film was dreadful. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to offend anyone out there who’s worked on it, but I did not enjoy the experience. Of course, it’s only my take on the thing, and my opinion is just that.

By the way, why is it that these animated features consistently rob the insects of two of their appendages? Bug’s Life and Bee Movie choose to illustrate bugs as having two arms and two legs, unlike real insects which have six. At one time, the Jerry Seinfeld character comments on the eight legs of spiders, making us even more aware of the shortchanged bees in this movie. For Pete’s sake, even the ugly Nasonex bee has six legs, though for some reason he has an hispanic accent. Who’s making these choices?

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- Now let’s talk about ART in animation.
The ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archives is currently displaying an exhibit of early Grim Natwick art. There are photos of the exhibit at their site and a couple of excellent scans of Grim’s early animation drawings. If you haven’t seen these, you ought to visit their site – or the archive, itself.

GRIM NATWICK’S SCRAPBOOK
An Exhibit Presented By The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
2114 W Burbank Blvd
Burbank, CA 91506
Tuesday through Friday 1pm to 9pm

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- This month, Jeff Scher reworks a 1945 musical film, Yours, for the NYTimes. Kudos to Jeff for another fine piece. One a month for The NY Times. Would that other newspapers would take it on to support a bit of animated art. Support it by adding your hit to their post.

Today’s NYTimes also includes a review of a number of animated DVDs including: “Ratatouille,” “Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1,” “Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5,” “Chuck Jones Collection,” and “Fantastic Planet.”

If they’re animated, they must be connected.

- I promised to post all the Grim Natwick drawings of Betty Boop I have in my collection. A number of them aren’t specifically Bettys, but they’re pretty interesting just the same. Here’s a rough drawing of a jockey jumping done in 1931, signed by Grim. You can tell it was done in 1931 because he’s printed the date on the back (and you can see it bleeding through the paper on the lower left.)

Can anyone identify this cartoon?

_______(Click to enlarge.)

As I said in the past, I’m very impressed by the holes punched in the paper. Whereas every other studio at this time was using a 2-hole punch for their paper, Fleischer was using this more sophisticated peg system. I don’t think Disney switched over to their 5 hole paper until 1934, and I’ve seen WB art still on 2-hole paper from 1938.

The other interesting item, noted by David Nethery on my last posting, is that they were using 8½ x 11 paper. Disney’s paper on Plane Crazy, two years earlier, was 9½ x 12. It’s amusing to note that many studios are back to drawing on 8½ x 11 paper today(unless they’re doing feature work) that is, if they’re still using paper.

- The Bum Bandit was a FLeischer cartoon starring Bimbo produced in 1931. It marks the fourth appearance of Betty Boop – who doesn’t get billing in the credits. As a matter of fact, she introduces herself with a different name during her song in the film, “I’m Dangerous Nan, the sister of Dan McGrew.” She’s so tough she spits bullets through a cactus.

(Click image to enlarge.)

Grim Natwick did the drawing, posted here. It’s dated 1931, the year of the film. The drawn Betty looks better than the film’s Betty. A lot was lost in the inking – including her scarf and guns. (I wonder if it was cleaned up for our delicate times?)

I like seeing the peg holes which are certainly more sophisticated than the two round holes used in other studios at the time.

You can watch this film in an OK version on YouTube
(for however long they allow it to continue there.)

- Once again I have another Grim Natwick drawing of Betty Boop to showcase. As I indicated on past posts, Grim did a number of drawings of Betty in the early 70′s. These were given to people who met up with him and asked for a drawing. Done in advance, they were able to save Grim the chore of having to do a Betty on the spot.

More of them looked like this image than not. These were drawn by Grim in pencil and colored by him with markers and colored pencil. The animation paper has Oxberry holes. This would have to have been done in New York, since LA was working exclusively with Acme pegs in the 70′s. NY continued with Oxberry, some studios used Acme pegs and some others still used Signal Corps (which was a cross between the two.)

(Click image to enlarge to actual size 10.25 x 12.5)

- On a couple of the past recent Saturdays, I’ve posted some drawings that Grim Natwick did back in the early 70′s. Since he was often requested to draw Betty Boop, who was experiencing a renaissance of her own in the 70′s, he decided to do a number of drawings in advance. These were usually colored with markers or colored pencil.

Then he hired a local New York inker to make a couple of cels for him. Stephen Worth pointed out last week that Duane Crowther’s studio did some of the same for him in LA. All those in my collection were done by an inker I know who completed the cels and placed the construction paper behind them. Grim, then, signed these cels with a Sharpie.

Regardless, these were all handed out to press people interviewing him to save him the task of trying to make a good drawing on the spot. I have a bunch of them, and I’m posting them as they come.

Stephen Worth spoke of a naked Betty in the batch, so I’ll post that today. As a matter of fact, these are the only two cels I have. The rest are drawings on paper done in what is recognizably Grim’s hand.

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- The New York Times has taken their extra charges off their NYTimes Select pages so, readers no longer have to pay to read Frank Rich or Maureen Dowd or Tom Friedman on line.

This means that it’s also free to view the animated spots by
Jeff Scher.

If you haven’t been able to view these spots previously, go there now for your own mini film festival.
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- A couple of years ago, I walked past Muhammad Ali on 57th Street. As expected, there was a crowd approaching him asking for autographs. I noticed what Ali did. In his breast pocket, he had a number of business cards that he’d signed, and he passed these out. (I’m sorry now that I didn’t ask for one.)

As I noted back a week or so, I have some Grim Natwick drawn Betty Boop pictures. He did them in the early 70′s to pass onto interviewers, fans, others who asked for them. I suppose this was somewhat similar to Muhammad Ali’s prepared autographs. It saved Grim the task of drawing Betty on the spot.

(Click image to enlarge)

Here’s one of these cartoons he did for what is obviously the Bicentennial (which dates the cartoon from 1976.) I thought of posting this for Labor Day, but the two holidays didn’t really match. Happy Fourth of July !

A new blog hits the streets this morning. David Levy, the President of ASIFA-East and the author of Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive has started a blog called Animondays. This will be a weekly blog, an addition to the ASIFA-East website.
It’ll be good to have a refreshing new voice coming from New York, the original home of US animation. Welcome, David.

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– On her site, Miscellainey, Lainey Schallock posts some of Mary Blair‘s Cinderella art from the newly published book. The book includes new text written by Newberry Medal winner, Cynthia Rylant.

Lainey, on her post, writes an extensive and informed review of the book. She is a big fan of Mary Blair’s work, and has focused much of the blog’s attention on art of the period. Take the time to look back at some of the other, older posts if you’re not familiar with it. It’s quite a nice site.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- Cartoonist/illustrator, Ed Sorel, wrote a beautiful piece about George Herriman and Krazy Kat for American Heritage Magazine back in 1982. You can read it on-line at their website, and, if you love Krazy Kat and have five minutes it’s worth the read.

And if you’re really a Herriman fan, Alan Holtz, on his site Stripper’s Guide, has been posting Herriman’s non-Krazy Political cartoons. They were published in the LA Examiner in the early 1900′s. Every Saturday, you can sign in for another great cartoon or three. Check it out, and thank you, Alan Holtz.

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- Rachelle Bowden posts some beautifully artful photos of Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs baseball game on Labor Day. That’s the game where Carlos Zambrano attacked the fans verbally for booing him as he left the pitcher’s mound losing the game.

If you go to Rachelle’s site, check out the photo of her Birthday Flowers on Sept 7th. She’s a first rate photographer.

I love her annual post of the flowers she receives from her parents on her birthday. It makes for a great series; I’ve followed and enjoyed this string for years.

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- Yet again, let me point you in the direction of Hans Bacher‘s excellent site, Animation Treasures 2. This site is a must see daily for all the stunning artwork Hans is posting from the backgrounds he’s reconstructing for us.
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His recent posts of the artwork from Snow White is just glorious. Such masterful watercolors. What an excellent film. I think I’ve gone back to his site half a dozen times, just to look. As a matter of fact I hope to make time to look at the film again, today.
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- Finally, may I suggest you visit Bruce Watkinson‘s site, Understanding Animation. There he has an extensive and elaborate commentary on the life and work of disney legend, Ub Iwerks.

When I was a kid, my hero was Iwerks – (am I repeating myself?) The first short I bought to watch in my 8mm projector was Sinbad the Sailor. I studied that film frame by frame, backwards and forwards. I got the chance to talk with Grim Natwick when I learned that he probably had more to do with the film than Iwerks, himself.

I’m always excited by anything written about the man. His bio, The Hand Behind the Mouse, by John Kenworthy is one I’m pleased to own (though I wish there were another voice or two on the subject). Anything, on the subject is valuable to me. Hence, I was pleased to see and read Bruce’s piece, this morning. Check it out.

- I have a few Betty Boop drawings Grim Natwick had done in the mid Seventies. When he achieved a small bit of fame for animating this character, he was besieged with requests for drawings. He did a number of drawings to give to interviewers. These included some cels that he actually had inked and painted. Not all of these drawings and cels were handed out. Not all of them were good.

Until I run out of these drawings, I thought I’d post some of them, one a week. Maybe soon they’ll do a Betty dvd comparable to what they’ve done with Popeye and keeping her front and center might encourage someone. Here’s the earliest of the drawings I have, and I think it’s a good one.

(Click image to enlarge.)

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James Stevenson has another of his wonderful op-ed commentaries in the NYTimes today. Take a look; this guy is one of my favorite writers/cartoonists/artists around. I love his work.

- Aside from the usual models that came my way on Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure, I was privy to a lot of private notes, cartoons and comments by some of the upper echelon, and I have all the production charts and drafts (which I’ll spare you) so that I can verify any info I’m sharing. I’ve chosen a couple of items to post today just as curiosity pieces.

Part of my job on the film was overseeing special effects (shadows, stars, etc.).
Dick gave an improvised storyboard, during one of our meetings, in which he detailed
all the combination live action/animation shots. Listed to receive this item are Al Rezek,
our camera supervisor, and Cosmo Anzilotti, the Asst. Director of the film.

About six months into animation, crisis mode started to set into the production. It was w a y behind schedule, and they were constantly searching for ways to move things along. At one point it was decided that more clarification was essential so that everyone would share in the same knowledge. Dick Williams prepared the following document to define what the animators would be doing for the remainder of the project.

Needless to say things changed from this plan.

The animators listed in order are:
Tissa David, Art Babbitt, Spencer Peel, Hal Ambro, Charlie Downs, Gerry Chiniquy, John Kimball, Warren Batchelder, Tom Roth, Dick Williams, Emery Hawkins, John Bruno, Gerry Potterton, Crystal Russell, George Bakes, Willis Pyle, Doug Crane, Jack Schnerk, Corny Cole, Grim Natwick, Cosmo Anzilotti, and Art Vitello.

To my knowledge, Jerry Hathcock, Jan Svochak, Bill Hudson, Jack Stokes, Terry Harrison, and Michael Lah didn’t work on the film even though they were all approached.

Not listed here is Irv Spence who did quite a bit of animation.

Grim Natwick wrote a note to Dick a couple of months after the start of animation commenting on some of the animation problems he saw. It was done very large on
16 fld animation paper. (Grim always seemed to write LARGE.)

Grim’s note ends with a personal comment to Tissa David. A note from mentor to student.
It just goes to show you can always get animation lessons no matter how old or important you are.
Stay humble.

Happy Birthday, George Herriman

– Tom Sito‘s blog, yesterday, reminded me that it was the 30th anniversary of the release of Raggedy Ann & Andy:A Musical Adventure .

To quote Tom’s blog:
___ASIFA/Hollywood is planning
___to have a reunion of the crew of
___Raggedy Ann to celebrate the
___anniversary. It will be at the
___American Film Institute in
___Hollywood on November 17th.
___A simultaneous reunion will
___happen in New York City. A lot of wonderful people worked on this film, many getting
___their first start.

This gives me a good reason to post some artwork from this film in the next few months. So, excuse me if you find it annoying to see artwork from a second rate feature. However, this was a seminal film for a lot of talented people who got a chance to work along some of the masters.
Just check out this list of animators on the film:
_____Hal Ambro, Art Babbitt, George Bakes, John Bruno, Gerry Chiniquy,
_____Tissa David, Emery Hawkins, John Kimball, Chrystal (Russell) Klabunde,
_____Charlie Downs, Grim Natwick, Spencer Peel, Willis Pyle, Jack Schnerk,
_____Art Vitello, Carl Bell and Fred Hellmich left mid-production.

_____Gerry Potterton was the consulting Director.
_____Cosmo Anzilotti was the Asst. Director.
_____Corny Cole was the designer of the film.

These were some of the younger upstarts inbetweening and assisting:
_____Bill Frake, Jeffrey Gatrall, John Gaug, Eric Goldberg, Dan Haskett, Helen Komar,
_____Judy Levitow, Jim Logan, Carol Millican, Lester Pegues Jr, Louis Scarborough Jr,
_____Tom Sito, Sheldon Cohen and Jack Mongovan.

_____I supervised assistants and inbetweeners in NY,
_____Marlene Robinson did that job in LA.

If you don’t know who these people are, trust me they were the backbone of the business for many, many years prior to 1976.

In some ways I think this along with some of the Bakshi and Bluth films led directly toward the rebirth of animated features. There was a long dark period before it.

So to start with the artwork.

This is a scene which immediately follows the Pirate kidnapping Babette.

Here’s the storyboard for the two scenes. It’s a copy of
Corny Cole’s drawing from the director’s workbook.

This is Corny Cole’s layout for Sc. 1A.

Here we have Dick Williams’ reworking of the same pose.
Fred Hellmich originally animated this, but Dick Williams redid the entire sequence, and
Fred left the film.

Dick’s LO for Sc. 1B.

Cut back to Andy (as drawn by Dick Williams) for Sc. 2.

How small it all gets on a pan and scan video.