Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- I’d like to call some attention to a new production blog by Tim Rauch. He, together with brother Mike Rauch, created an animated short, Germans In The Woods. They started with a piece of pre-edited sound cut from a 40 minute interview in which a World War II veteran recalls his “saddest memory”.

As Tim says, “This piece had aired on NPR and was included in the recent StoryCorps book. . . There was incredibly strong emotion in the voice and yet we knew there had to be something we could add with animation.”

The blog gives some stills and clips from the film. I’ve been hearing from Tim for a while now and have seen several developing versions of the film. I’m quite impressed with the level of the animation and the graphics employed. I hope the film will be a success for them and encourage you to look into this blog.
You can see a teaser for the film here.

Some images from Germans In The Woods off Tim Rauch’s blog.

The brothers also have an artists’ demo site which includes information about other films they’ve done. These guys are artists in the making, and you should be aware of them.

- Michael Barrier‘s site has a letter from Borge Ring which details the LEICA reel experience, as it properly should be understood. Naturally enough, it involves the inestimable Hans Perk who comments on the experience. By the way, continuing the 101 Dalmatians study (started by Hans on his site, elaborated on by Mark Maryerson on his site, and with some small additions on this site) Hans is posting Bill Peet‘s original script for the feature.

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- Mike Lynch has a great post about Bobby London‘s short stint writing and drawing the Popeye comic strip. There was a controversy in the last weeks of Londond’s tenure in doing the strip. Mike Lynch posts these strips and makes you long to see more of London’s work. There is a collection of his strips, Mondo Popeye, from St. Martin’s Press; it’s out of print and a bit pricey on the market.

Take a look at Mike Lynch‘s post.

- Tonight Ralph Bakshi will be at the Anthology Film Archives where two of his features will be screened. Heavy Traffic, which made it to many of the year’s top ten lists will show at 7pm and Coonskin,
which you can’t even find on NetFlix, will follow at 9pm.

Bakshi will be there to sign copies of his book, Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi.

7:00pm – Heavy Traffic
9:00pm – Coonskin

Tickets are $8, good for one or both features

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. (corner of 2nd Ave.& 2nd St.)
NYC

Here are some frame grabs from the “Hey, Maybelline” segment of Heavy Traffic by Mark Kausler. Sorry the quality stinks, but the dvd is a dreadful transfer.

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- Mike Lynch has a valuable post which features a book of gags written by Roy Williams, the excellent Disney storyman who appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club as “Roy.” The cartoons have a lot of style and feel a bit like VIP’s (Virgil Partch) cartoons of the same period and a bit like Ward Kimball’s cartoon sketches. The gags are definitely Roy’s.

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___________front cover______________________________dedication

John Hubley once told me a story about Roy that’s probably been told a million times over. On Roy’s first day to present a storyboard to Walt, Harry Reeves, the supervisor, suggested that Roy might want to take something to resolve his nervousness. He recommended a quart of sauerkraut juice. (Do they bottle such a thing?) Roy ran to a store, bought some and swallowed the entire bottle, as prescribed. During the presentation, Roy suddenly had to excuse himself, and he raced out of the room, running down the hall to the Men’s room. Harry Reeves had expected such a thing and locked the bathroom on poor Roy. Disaster!

Now Harry had just bought himself a brand new white car with an all white interior. One day when he left work as he got in and sat behind the wheel, he noticed something on the back seat. It was a wash basin filled with water mixed with black ink. The black liquid filled the basin to the rim. Of course, it was easy for Roy to fill the tub, but it was hard to remove the liquid without destroying the white interior.

Jeff Pepper had a nice post about Roy and the Mickey Mouse Club on his site, 2719 Hyperion Avenue

There’s more on the Original Mickey Mouse Club site. (That’s where the caricature atop this post came from.).

- I’ve treasured all the recent memorials for Ollie Johnston on the various blogs. A number of them stand out for me, and it’s been interesting to read them. They certainly
inform more about the man than the official obituaries in newspapers, such as the NYTimes, have done. For the most part the papers have relied on an impersonal obit from the Associated Press to cover them. Even Bob Thomas‘ obituary was printed iin the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post, was enhanced with material from the AP. Variety‘s obit is their own, but feels like the AP piece. Charles Solomon‘s obit in the LA Times is certainly the exception in that it’s obviously informed and quite a bit more personal.

Cartoon Brew has been the key source for some fine writing. Brad Bird‘s comments on that site are exceptional, so too John Canemaker‘s.

Jenny Lerew‘s Blackwing Diaries was one of the first blogs to attend to Ollie’s passing, and she wrote some appropriate and fine comments.
A couple of other, personal posts, on their own sites, are excellent. I think particularly of Floyd Norman‘s, Michael Barrier‘s, and Pete Emslie‘s posts. Brian Sibley also wrote a nice piece, and Jaime Weidman offered an article about Johnston from 1956. Hans Perk‘s approach is to share some amazing photographs with us, and Didier Ghez offers some sound clips and other links.

Mark Mayerson took a very different tact on his site. His initial post was to give notice and direct us to other writings. Then, like the excellent historian he is, Mark took notice of the fact that Ollie was the last of the “Nine Old Men” than he discussed the fact that Disney tried to undercut the “individual” abilities of his animators by pegging them as one.

I’ve even had several people, obviously without their own blogs, write me to share their thoughts. Jonathan Annand‘s email was touching.

It’s so obvious that, for some reason, this master animator and his work touched many people who want to come together as a community to mourn his death and celebrate his life. It’s an occasion I certainly appreciate highly and share in enormously.

- Tom Sito’s new series, As the Wrench Turns, the animated version of Tom and Ray Magliozzi’s NPR radio show, “Car Talk,” got a bit of attention from the NYTimes yesterday. Apppropriately, it was found in the Automobile section “Wheels” on line.

The show debuts Wednesday, July 9th at 8:00PM on your local PBS station. Finally, an animated tv show worth looking out for. It sounds like it may be animated.

______“Click and Clack” with Tom & Pat

__________Here’s PBS‘ press release.
__________The Car Talk site has a lot of stills you can click through.

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- Finally, Karl Cohen led me to this article in Millimeter‘s current issue.

It details information about the live action eyes in Madame Tutli Putli and how they were achieved. This is a must read for all those effects fans out there and for all those who love this short film.

- John Canemaker let me know last night about the death of Ollie Johnston, and it saddened me to hear the news. I met him a number of times in the 70′s and 80′s. I remember visiting the South Street Seaport and noticing that he and Frank Thomas were at a small gallery, there, signing books. It was a surprise to me, so I went in to say hello. The bigger surprise came when they remembered who I was and gave me a big greeting. Very few people were there, and we got to talk for a longer than usual amount of time. The moment stands out for me.

It’s been years since I’ve seen him, but I will remember him and cherish him through his animation. It’s nice to see him all over the blogs today.

Ralph Bakshi will be making a number of personal appearances signing his book, Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi , for those interested. His schedule includes the following:

Animazing Gallery – April 17, Thurs 6pm
461 Broom St (Between Greene and Mercer)

School of Visual Arts – April 18, Fri 3pm
209 East 23rd Street
(Bet. 2nd & 3rd Ave)
3rd Floor Amphitheater

Jacob K. Javits Conv Center – April 18 , Fri 6:30pm
IGN Theater
655 West 34th St

Anthology Film Archives – Apr 19, Sat 7pm
32 Second Avenue

Bakshi, of course, is a seminal figure in the history of modern feature film animation. His animated writing and directing credits include: American Pop,
Coonskin, J.R.R. Tolkien’s: The Lord of the Rings, Wizards, Fritz the
Cat, Spicy City, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, and many more.

He will be signing his new book UNFILTERED: THE COMPLETE RALPH BAKSHI.
The book will be available for purchase at a discount.

- In case you’re wondering what direction Disney will be turning in their next big Broadway musical, perhaps there’s a good hint in what opened this past week on a Disney cruise ship out of Orlando.

Toy Story the Musical opened to a positive review in the Orlando Sentinal. You can watch a short video blurb here.

The musical features Randy Newman’s Oscar-nominated song, “You’ve Got a Friend,” which was heard in the film, as well as seven new songs penned by GrooveLily’s Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn. Little Women’s Mindi Dickstein penned the book.

The production utilizes “larger-than-life props [that] help transform the 977-seat Walt Disney Theatre into a toy-sized world of fun and adventure. A rear projection screen aids the transformation between human-sized and toy-sized scenes and takes the show from the comfort of Andy’s room — to the frenzied world of Pizza Planet — to the frightening room of Andy’s neighbor, Sid.”

In a statement Anne Hamburger, executive vice president of Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, said, “When we first thought of bringing ‘Toy Story’ to the stage, there was a great deal of excitement about the project. Everyone on our team could immediately see how the heart and comedy of these characters could come alive in a memorable way that is unique to musical theatre.”

- Go immediately to Floyd Norman‘s blog and read his Friday rant.

__________No kidding, Floyd, Barack Obama is our only hope now.

- Congratulations to Bill Plympton and Nina Paley for getting their features in the Tribeca Film Festival.

Plympton’s Idiots and Angels and Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues will be playing in New York a number of times, and we have to make sure that the animation community supports these two films.
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The schedules for the two films are as follows:

Bill Plympton’s Idiots and Angels

Saturday, April 26, 5:30 pm, AMC 19th Street East
Sunday, April 27, 9:30 pm, Village East Cinemas
Wednesday, April 30, 11:00 pm, AMC Village VII
Saturday, May 3, 8:00 pm, Village East Cinemas

Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues

Friday, April 25, 8:15 pm, AMC Village VII
Sunday, April 27, 3:45 pm, AMC 19th Street East
Monday, April 28, 10:45 pm, AMC Village VII
Thursday, May 1, 1:45 pm, Village East Cinemas
Friday, May 2, 3:00 pm, AMC 19th Street East

AMC Village VII______________AMC 19th Street East__________Village East Cinemas
66 Third Ave (11th St)______.__890 Broadway (19th St)________181 Second Ave (12th St)

Go here to buy tickets in advance.

These two films are also in competition at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival. Congratulations to both. Job well done!

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Daniel Thomas MacInnes is posting some of the great experimental animated shorts via YouTube and his site.

Stan Vanderbeek, Oskar Fishchinger, and plenty of John & James Whitney films (scroll down) appear on this excellent site which is devoted to Ghibli films. While there, if you have the time, take a look at some of the Ghibli rarities.

On March 6th, I posted a piece on the UPA short, The King and Joe. This film was done for television as part of the Gerald McBoing Boing show. I wrote a very brief piece about it and conjectured that the art was inspired by Paul Klee. (I had – and still have – a specific painting in mind which almost exactly matches a pan from the film. However, I haven’t been able to find a copy of that painting.) Boy, was I wrong.

I received this note from Shirley Silvey, one of the designers of the film, and I’d like to post it. I hope that meets her approval.

A color still from Amid Amidi’s great book, Cartoon Modern.
He credits director: unknown. Now, we know the director’s name.

My name is Shirley Silvey and I worked on “The King and Joe”. In 1956, near the end of the Gerald McBoing Boing Show, UPA hired Ed Levitt, a well known director/storyboard/layout and design artist to do some shorts. Ed wanted me to work with him, so I was hired as well. While Ed was a veteran in animation, I was a novice. With the two of us and two animators together in the same room, we started on the first short entitled “The King and Joe”.

Regards,
Shirley Silvey

(I’d also written a snide comment in my original post saying that the film has haunted me for years and hoped writing extensively about it would “exorcize the film from my brain.” That’s her reference, and I deserved it.) The film was more than a “little cartoon” but still survives and compares well to most of the mediocre material done today.

There’s an excellent interview with Shirley Silvey at the Toonarific Cartoons. The focus of the interview seems to be her work at Jay Ward’s studio, Bullwinkle and Hoppity Hooper, but there’s quite a bit more about work with Abe Levitow and UPA.

Several of her BG layouts appear on the new Abe Levitow site. One of these appears to the right.
See Magoo’s Christmas Carol and 1001 Arabian Nights.
__________________________________BG Layout – Shirley Silvey / Painting – Bob Inman.

- I’ve taken the dvd and made a high def high res QT and put it through AfterEffects. I was able to pull every frame. The 3:2 pull down gave every fifth frame as a dupe of frame 5. This allowed the piece to expand to 30fps.

Here then is what the cycle should look like:

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

910

1112

1314

1516

1718

1920

- The thing about the internet is that more and more and more sites keep coming. Many of them are routine, but some are special. The problem is that you have to pass through the ordinary to find the special, and usually a site/blog is special because the person who put it together is special.

There are three new-ish sites that I’d like to comment on. The first two are artist sites; the third is more commercial._________________________________________

- Veronika Soul is a brilliant artist who has had quite a career in animation. Her films have been screened at MoMA, Lincoln Center, the Film Forum, Pacific Film Archive, and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. She has also been a graphic designer for print and broadcast media.

I first saw Veronika’s work at Ottawa’s Animation Festival in 1980. She had codirected a short, Interview, with Caroline Leaf. This was quite an unexpected and daring film, at the time, and it involved resetting our gears. (It’s well worth viewing if you can.) The film followed the festival circuit back then, and I got to see it another half dozen or so times. It kept opening larger and larger the more I’d seen it. ___________________ A still from Interview

I next met up with Veronika when she moved to New York. For a while she worked with R.O.Blechman‘s Ink Tank, and I was surprised to see how well she thrived in the commercial environment. I was impressed. Veronika eventually left the City for a few years, but now she’s returned and has trumpeted her arrival with this brand new site.

Go to Veronika Soul Design to visit. I ended up spending quite a bit of time perusing when I first toured it.

- For some time, I would rush to Jim Hill Media every Tuesday to see if there was a new article by Floyd Norman. Stories about Sword In The Stone, Sleeping Beauty or The Parent Trap mixed with more current films Mulan or Toy Story 2.

Now Floyd has taken to his own blog, Mr. Fun, and the joy is that new commentaries are posted daily. Hopefully, this will continue, because I can’t get enough, and I suspect the same will be true for you.

The reason to go to Floyd Norman‘s site is obvious. He was one of the fine artists who grew in the Disney system through the last half of the 20th Century. He contributed animation, assisting, story development and much art
(as well as sweat) to many feature films. He was a participant in the end of the last great
generation of artists who worked there – working with the so-called “nine old men.” He also bridged to the last big spurt of energy that produced many a fine 2D film under Eisner’s realm. Floyd has been deservedly named one of the Disney “Legends.”

Stories out of the mouths of the people who lived it are the most precious, and Floyd has many great stories that give a real indication of how the studio worked during its heyday. He also knows how to write well so the stories are told clearly and succinctly. ___________This cartoon comes from Floyd’s book,
This is a good blog.___________________________“Son of Faster Cheaper.”
___________________________He has several great gag books that can be bought here.

- I’m not sure if I’m the last one to the party, but I just located two AWN sites. AWN TV offers a number of QT animated movies. Lots of shorts are featured. I didn’t have the time to spend there, but when I do, I’ll watch a couple of the films.

Of more interest to me is the Animation Blogspot. It took a while for me to initially load it, but I was surprised to see all the writing/posting on view. A free blogging service, it offers lots of blogs for viewing. Some I did read include:
____The Animation Pimp, Chris Robinson‘s blog
____My Animation Journal, Maureen Furniss‘ blog
____Larry’s Toon Institute, Larry Lauria‘s blog.
There are many more.

I spent some time with Chris Robinson, the “Animation Pimp” as he harshly reviewed the Oscartoons and gave some thoughts on NFB today and “Madame Tutli Putli.” Chris has a very opinionated style, and I don’t always agree with him. However, I sure want to hear what he has to say. I pretty concur that the year’s best film was missing from the Oscar nominees. Koji Yamamura’s “Kafka’s a Country Doctor” is as brilliant as “Mt. Head.”

There seems to be an enormous wealth of material on AWN, and you have to keep digging and digging to dredge up some of it. I have to admit, I haven’t gone too deep and maybe I should. Lotsa stuff; little time.___________________________________________

- I have to admit that I have almost zero interest in any animation that is made for television. It’s virtually all worthless as far as its technical content, so all you can really judge it on is the writing. There, again, virtually all of the programming is pointlessly dreadful and completely banal. There’s so little worth looking at that it makes it useless to even tune in.

The Simpsons has grown stale. Family Guy is good for one joke per show, but there’s not much else there, and it’s quite ugly to look at. If anything else is good, I haven’t found it, and I can assure you I’ve looked. Thank god for the MGM shorts that are shown on Boomerang or the occasional feature that pops up.

There’s only one program whose new season gets me charged. I won’t miss any of the new episodes of South Park as they show on Comedy Central. The latest season is certainly up to the level of writing they’ve given in the past. It’s not for the weak of heart, and it’s certainly not for children.

Last week’s show, Britney’s New Look, interrupted the democratic debate between Obama and Clinton to present Britney watch.

It turns out Britney Spears was caught peeing in the woods of South Park. The photographer was paid several thousand dollars, and the boys are determined to get their own photo to make some easy money.

When they finally do lure Britney into one of their homes, she’s devastated to learn that they just wanted her photo, and she tries to kill herself by shooting the top half of her head off.

At the hospital, it turns out she’s going to live without 2/3 of her head, and her
manager drags Britney into a recording studio – with her crazy new look – to record a new album. The boys try to save her, but the photographers are growing greater.

In the end, we learn that she can’t be saved because she is part of a ritual sacrifice, a necessary offering for the new harvest. Britney is photographed to her death, and the corn fields are ripe with product.

The program ends with the citizens eyeing Miley Cyrus on television – she’ll be next.

This show starts off by blowing the viewers’ heads off, then bringing it back to a responsible statement – we’re killing these celebrities, and we have no justification whatsoever. Stop it!

Or the week before that, which had one of its most outrageous shows, Tonsil Trouble:

Cartman gets his tonsils removed and accidentally get a transfusion that gives him tainted blood and the AIDS virus. This bit of irony causes Kyle to laugh incessantly. Angering Cartman who decides to get even.

He sneaks into Kyle’s bedroom late night and puts some of the infected blood into Kyle’s mouth. Kyle gets AIDS and automatically knows that Cartman gave it to him. He decides to break every one of Cartman’s toys and starts to do so. When he gets to the X Box, Cartman shouts for him to stop and says he knows how they can be cured.

The plan is to visit Magic Johnson, who obviously must have found the cure, since his HIV virus hasn’t gotten worse over these many years. They visit Johnson, who admittedly doesn’t know what has resolved the problem.

The answer ends up being cash. Cold hard cash. Johnson sleeps on it. They find that if they pulverize money into a serum and inject it into the body, AIDS is cured. The show ends with the announcement being made in Africa that they’ve found the cure; anyone with $180,000 can be cured.

Again a god awful shakeup for the viewer at the beginning of the show – AIDS for kids in South Park (played for laughs !) – followed by a reasonable statement – only money seems to be resolving the problem. Let’s talk about pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies.

Not all of the shows are good. There was a weak one this week. Kenny gets high on life – or is it cat urine? A weak show, but who cares; there are too many great ones. If this show continues forever, I’ll keep watching it.

Thanks to Animated News, I was drawn to the South Park official site. There you can watch all of the episodes in toto. (The new season currently airing on Comedy Central are being delayed several weeks but will be there soon.)

By the way, here’s the schedule for this week’s upcoming MGM program on Boomerang. (Note they don’t have a show scheduled for Tuesday.) If you want to find future show schedules go here (they only post one week at a time.) I list the directors of the shorts. Originally, they screened older films, but lately they try to show all Avery (meaning:funny) all the time. Personally, I seek out the Harman and Ising films.

Sat 8pm Goose Goes South by Hanna and Barbera
_______ Jerky Turkey by Tex Avery
_______ Wayward Pups by Rudy Ising
_______ Good Little Monkeys by Hugh Harman

Sun 8pm Busybody Bear by Dick Lundy
_______ Little Wise Quacker by Dick Lundy
_______ Doggone Tired by Tex Avery
_______ Barney Bear’s Victory Garden by Rudy Ising

Mon 8pm Lonesome Lenny
_______ Bottles by Hugh Harman
_______ One Droopy Knight by Michael Lah

Wed 8pm Little Johnny Jet by Tex Avery
_______ Blue Danube by Hugh Harman
_______ When the Cat’s Away by Harman-Ising

Thurs 8pm Gallopin’ Gals by Hanna & Barbera
_______ Daredevil Droopy by Tex Avery
_______ Slap-Happy Lion by Tex Avery
_______ Sleepy-Time Squirrel by Dick Lundy

- I’ve become intrigued with websites devoted wholly to one film or studio. I’m not talking about studio paid sites that are designed to promote a film such as the Pixar sites or the Persepolis site (By the way, whatever happened to the English language version of this film? They recorded Sean Penn and Gena Rowlands acting the parts? Will it only be released as a dvd?)

I’m talking more of the sites established by fans or past employees who write about their collections and/or experiences.

Richard Williams‘ film, The Thief and the Cobbler has The Thief. This is a blog by four former artists who have worked on the film. Holger Leihe,
Dietmar Kremer, Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, and Michael Schlingmann have all animated on the film, and they all have lots to tell. It’s also open to others who have stories to share. Guests such as Producer, Carl Gover or cameraman, Brian Riley have contributed strong posts.___This photo of Ken Harris, Grim Natwick,
____________________________________Art Babbitt, Richard Purdum and Dick Williams
_____________________________________________comes from The Thief.
The end result is an informative site full of
interesting stories and technical details about this very complex movie. All of the animation seems to have created problems for its artists, and the stories on this blog really show how things were accomplished. From bipacking to static electricity to rotoscoping; technical achievements and problems are all detailed in a clear and entertaining way. It’s not only informative; it’s attractive, and it’s filled with photos and artwork that can’t be found elsewhere.

- Garrett Gilchrist has also devoted a lot of work in recreating this film to something close to Dick Williams’ original version. He’s taken the best quality copies of the rough cuts that were assembled – before they were taken away from Dick’s hands.

He’s posted a number of versions of this on YouTube and has an ongoing forum about the film. He recently posted The Little Island, an impossible-to-see film, on YouTube.

Garrett’s extensive and admirable reconstruction work on Dick’s films was probably the original inspiration for The Thief. I’d like to see a site by Garrett about Dick’s films.

- Chris Rushworth‘s site focuses on another British film, Animal Farm. The site, Animalfarmworld, is designed solely to feature some of the interesting cels and art that Mr. Rushworth has collected, and there’s quite a bit of it.

Since March 25th, he’s added more than 100 drawings to the site including many of the handsome horse, Boxer.

Somehow the flavor of the pencil drawings, for the most part, seems to accurately depict the flavor of the film, itself. There’s something tentative about them. Even in the loosest of drawings the dynamism of some of the great Disney animators is missing. They are beautiful in their own right and feel as though they are from another time.

Daniel Thomas MacInnes is the proprietor of the excellent site, Conversations on Ghibli. This is a site, as its title would indicate, devoted to all things Ghibli, which of course is the studio that produces the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Daniel Thomas not only gives advance notices of the work in production, but he actually posts entire features done by Miyazaki. There are quite a few comments and discussions of lesser known films by this brilliant film maker.

The site is quite a resource for all of us who are looking for information about the artist and his work. One would like more frequent posts, but that seems to be a problem with many of the best sites – you always want more. _______A still from the soundtrack of
____________________________________________Ponyo on the Cliff, an upcoming
_____________________________________________________Miyazaki film.

- Finally, let me change the subject. I’m overwhelmed by today’s post on Michael Barrier‘s site. There’s no greater example of pure history in its discovery. Mike hones in on the hiring of Rudy Ising at Disney’s Kay Cee studios in Kansas City, 1922. This is the premiere site out there for me. History is written and unique photos back it up.