Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Eddie Fitzgerald gives us two fabulous posts in the last two days.

Today he comments on acting by giving us a couple of videos. One in particular is dynamite, Stanislavsky dominating an interview and talking a bit about his craft – something anyone in animation should be interested in. Hell, it’s interesting just seeing what the guy looks like.

It’s odd though that Stanislavsky died in 1938 and the guy in this video is wearing what looks like a 1980′s coat. But he’s kinda funny.

Yesterday he gave us a Ratatouille review which touches on points I hadn’t seen elsewhere. When a professional gives professional criticism, I listen. Eddie Fitzgerald is a consummate professional; he knows his business, and he shares some purely professional comments after a screening of Ratatouille.

To illustrate his points, he doesn’t solely compare Ratatouille to other animated films, he compares it to other films. To talk about set pieces, Eddie doesn’t mention anything from Peter Pan or Pinocchio, he talks about the Marx Brothers. To talk about sophisticated dialogue, he makes his points with dialogue from Casablanca or Silence of the Lambs. This seems to be totally appropriate to this film which comes close to being more than an animated film.

It’s a good review that goes to the heart of it. I enjoyed reading it, and I encourage you to check it out. However, like most good internet postings, the comments are not up to the original. Somehow, those who comment don’t seem able to discuss the meat that’s been revealed on the blog.

- Speaking of interesting Ratatouille posts, Michael Gagne has a post about the “Visualization of Taste” sequence from the film. He posts some interesting 2D graphics and writes about the sequence. Here’s hoping we get to see more behind-the-scenes postings by those who worked on the film.

Here, also, is an interview with Michel on the same sequence.

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- Speaking of comments that further the conversation, check out the excellent conversation begun with Mark Mayerson‘s current post. He discusses the desire/need/excitement and the difficulty/complications and depression over doing an animated short. All that work. All that lack of respect. All that glory. The comment are of the highest level and further the conversation. The post is such a rich comment to start things rolling, that it’s hard to imagine things not progressing as such.

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David Nethery has been collecting photos of animators at work taken off the internet. He’s gathered them together in one place.

A large assortment of photos can be seen including: Ken Harris (pictured to the left), Art Babbitt, Glen Keane, Tissa David, Eric Goldberg, John Pomeroy, Frank Thomas, Retta Scott, Fred Moore, Ward Kimball and Ollie Johnston.
(Actually, I can probably lead David to quite a few more photos.}

It’s a good idea and an interesting reference point, if like me, you enjoy seeing images of animators working.

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– One of my favorite posts most of you have probably already seen is on the Animation Who & Where site by Joe Campana.

He looks back at the building and staff of the Charles Mintz studio. What we see is a specific point on the old building, as it still stands, with photos of the staff superimposed over the exact spot where they were standing in days gone by. You really get a sense of the place and the building as much as you do of the people. It’s a truly original posting of something so interesting that it becomes exciting for me.

The posting is a great piece of detective work revealed.

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– I’m not sure I should be thankful of reading the news report (vian Animated News) that The Christmas Carol will be “animated” via motion capture and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Even more stomach churning is the news that Jim Carrey will be one of the stars of it – playing Scrooge. Bob Hoskins will be Fezziwig.

Why not do a new version of Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol starring Leslie Nielsen – oh, wait. He’s Mr. Yesterday. How about Steve Martin, is he “With it” enough?

I recently watched Cast Away for the hundredth time. This film is my favorite of Zemeckis’ films, and I’m upset that he spends so much time flailing away at animated imitations rather than at making more good movies. I guess now that he has that good deal with Disney, he wants to compete with Pixar (without doing the work.)

- It’s Independence Day, and what better image to feature.

These two flags fly on Fifth Avenue, and I caught them on a weekday about a month ago. I like the Empire State Building situated in the background.

I like to remind myself of my own personal Independence on July Fourth. My studio operates to make animation, and even when I’m forced to accept some mediocre job to pay the rent, it’s always something that I approve and accept. It’s always my choice. It’s one great part of the position.

The only other really import-ant one is that I get to choose who I want to work with (when I can afford to hire others.) For the past year or so, we’ve been relatively quiet here, and only the stable few have worked here.

I’m looking forward to a larger upcoming project that’ll require me to bring on more people. There are some friends I’d like to get back in here. Not to mention the fact that I really want to make the film we’re planning. It wouldn’t be possible without the “Independence” we have.
What a great life I lead.

Have a happy holiday, everyone.

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- I thought I’d bring your attention to my website which has a couple of pages that might not have been noticed before.

I’ve had a slowly developing feature which is just about to take off. A page on my site is dedicated to that film’s production and preparation.

This we call the POE page, POE being the film’s title.
There’s a production blog there, called POE Updates. I’ve written, maybe monthly more or less, about the film.

The film’s about to get a real start with the recording of three celebrities in the next month, and I realized that I haven’t called much attention to this part of my site. Presumably, as we get further along, the log notes will be more frequent.

- Fred Cline has an interesting and informative reminiscence of Mary Blair on his blog. This entry is a letter Fred wrote to John Canemaker who was researching his book on Mary Blair. The letter talks about Fred’s first meeting with the Blairs and continues on through to her death and funeral.

John’s book The Art and Flair of Mary Blair is the last word on this brilliant artist. (The photo to the left comes from the book. It shows Ms. Blair painting in South America in 1941.)

Fred World is developing into an excellent blog, so I’d suggest you keep atuned to it.
(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Ratatouille had a successful opening in the US. Just not as successful as Disney/Pixar might have hoped for. It opened on Friday with a $16.6 million opening to lead the box office (including the new Bruce Willis Die Hard movie). The important first weekend comes in at $47.2 million. That’s a bit lower than analysts had predicted. Unfortunately, this doesn’t equal the opening weekend of ANY other PIXAR film, and it’s likely to end up being one of their lowest grossing films. Thus it stands up to last week’s commentary from Jim Hill and Michael Barrier (see Two Days Away). the PixaRatatouille takes Manhattan.

Jim Hillcontinues the conversation today about the prospects
for the box office suggesting it’s still too soon to write things off. Indeed.

Personally, I think to some extent all this is irrelevant. Brad Bird has pulled off an amazing feat. Technically this is the greatest achievement of
the Pixar films. The animation is the finest, the technology is top notch, the design is excellent. I encourage you to see it as long as you don’t squirm at the sight of dozens of rats running around kitchens. Brad Bird deserves all the congratulations he’s been garnering regardless of the grosses (which are still high and make the film a financial success). It’s an enormous achievement he’s pulled off.

By the way you can follow a complete week by week comparative breakdown of Ratatouille against all of the other Pixar films here.

I very much like that this film has generated such positive commentary about animation from within and outside the community. Reviewers nhave written some of their best on this animated film. A.O. Scott‘s review in last Friday’s NYTimes is a good example. (The Times also has an audio slide show with an interview with Brad Bird.) Many of the blogs are lighting up with positive comments. Michael Barrier led the way after he’d seen a preview. He also continues with additional comments. Jenny Lerew at Blackwing Diaries writes an excellent piece giving us a nice view of LA studios. There are many others from Cartoon Brew to Will Finn.

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On a completely different note, Larry T. on his blog, Random Semiconscious Musings, has a great post on Mother Goose Goes Hollywood wherein he identifies all of the caricatures with matching photographs. It’s great to see the likes of Ned Sparks (pictured), George Arliss and Joe Penner.

Thanks, Larry.

– New Yorker and Playboy cartoonist, J.B. “Bud” Handelsman, died on Wednesday evening.

He had contributed cartoons to the Observer, New Statesman, Punch (including covers and the popular “Freaky Fables” series), New Yorker, Saturday Review, Saturday Evening Post, Look, Esquire and Playboy. He’d created a 10 min animated film called “In The Beginning”. He’d also illustrated a number of books including Who’s That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?.

After studying at the Art Student’s League, he went to NYU for Electrical Engineering but switched to commercial art after graduating in 1946. At first he sold cartoons as a sideline but became a full time free lance cartoonist in 1960. He was one of the first cartoonists working for Playboy.

His covers for the New Yorker magazine were identifiable to all readers of the magazine and were usually signed JBH.

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CanMag has posted a number of concept art pieces from Pixar on the upcoming film Ratatouille (Rat-a-too-ee.) These are visible (in a flash version) on the official site.

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On his excellent site, Kevin Langley is giving attention to some of the background artists at Paramount. He’s merely offering screen grabs – many of them – but the effect is effective. It gives some real focus to the fine backgrounds done for that studio.
It’s interesting that he chooses to start with the work of Tom Ford who seems to have been at the studio for only a few years, from about 1947-1952.

Personally, I enjoy watching how Robert Little‘s work changed, grew and developed over the many years he worked at Paramount and Fleischer’s. From Gulliver to Casper to Modern Madcaps.

An example of Ford’s work can be seen above from “Audrey The Rainmaker.” This is one of the many samples from Kevin’s site.

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Check out Thad Komorowski‘s site. He’s giving us a treat with some of Floyd Gottfredson‘s dailies of the Mickey Mouse comic strip. It starts with 1936 and continues through other posts, ongoing.

– The ASIFA East show, this past Wednesday, that centered on my two newly released dvds was thoroughly enjoyable (for me.) A nice crowd of animators and students and friends turned out to see clips from the four half-hour films featured. In between the clips I brought up four of the people who worked on staff for me, Jason McDonald, Stephen MacQuignon, Masako Kanayama and Ray Kosarin. In the audience were two animators who each worked on at least two of the films, Mark Mayerson and John Dilworth.
(Me, babbling in the front of the room.)

The evening was filled with interesting questions that compared working on film to working digitally, that discussed the method of control I exercised (or didn’t) while directing, the stylization of the films, and the wild differences all the films had in their construction. There were also the questions about schedule and budget (basically the same question) and production methods.

It was one of those evenings where no one left and it was hard to get people out of there an hour after the program had ended. I want to thank Dave Levy and all who helped put this program together. I enjoyed it immensely.
A B
Jason, Stephen, Ray and Masako ——————-Dave Levy watches a intently.

A couple of other reports on this event were nicely posted by Jeaux Janovsky on the Frederator Blog and by Mark Mayerson on his blog.

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Buy tickets here.

- An article in Variety gives us the news that the French animator, Michel Ocelot, is turning his Kirikou character into a theatrical musical show.

The $6 million production, is due to begin rehearsals next month. It is being produced by theater impresario Victor Bosch and Didier Brunner, the producer of the two “Kirikou” films. The show is scheduled to open on October 3rd.

Ocelot wrote the script (libretto) and the lyrics to the songs. The music for the songs, as was the music for the films, is written by the likes of Youssou N’Dour and Malian songstress Rokia Traoure. The musical is choreographed and directed by Wayne McGregor.

The show will try out in the French city of Lyon before moving to Paris where it’s big competition will be The Lion King, about to open there shortly. Apparently Paris will soon be besieged by African theatrical reproductions.

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Tee Bosustow, who is currently putting together an all-encompassing documentary on the history and art of UPA, has produced a book of rare photos that Amid Amidi helped edit. The book’s sale will help Tee raise money to complete the documentary.

He sent me an email about it, and I thought I’d post it to share the good news. Here’s what he had to say:

Announcing a limited edition book of rare UPA photographs
Published in a numbered edition of 1000, this hardbound book is a photographic celebration of one of animation history’s most innovative and experimental animation studios, UPA Pictures.

The volume contains dozens of rare and unpublished photographs, most of which have never been seen outside of the personal scrapbooks of UPA artists.

The book is designed and written by historian Amid Amidi, whose recent Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation won the prestigious Theatre Library Association Award for best film or television book of 2006.

Mr. Amidi has personally selected the photos from the collections of UPA artists including Robert Cannon, Stephen Bosustow, Howard Beckerman, Fred Crippen, Sam Clayberger and Joe Messerli.

The book will debut at the Ottawa International Animation Festivalin September. But, you can reserve your advanced book(s) now…

Pre-sale orders are now open for the thousand copies printed.
50 copies, signed by UPA veterans, are available at $150
Numbered, but unsigned, editions will be sold at a special pre-order price of $35 (valid through Sept. 15)
After September 15 (according to post-mark on envelope), the price for unsigned editions will increase to $45
(All proceeds will go to the production of the feature documentary, UPA: Magoo, McBoing Boing & Modern Art.)

Send a check or money order, made out to: “Artist in Me L.L.C.”
Artist in Me
UPA Photo Book
6311 Van Nuys Blvd., #406
Van Nuys, CA, 91401

Include your Name, Address, Email and/or phone
Include S&H (shipping & handling) in total price
S&H for Single (or first) Book via Priority Mail – $10
S&H for each additional Book via Priority Mail – $4 S
&H for Single (or first) Book via Express Mail – $20
S&H for each additional Book via Express Mail – $9

– This past Monday, CBS premiered Aardman Animation‘s Americanized version of Creature Comforts. Interesting that I didn’t see much on the animation sites about its premiere. The show will air at 8pm until CBS starts playing with their schedule. (Isn’t this what always happens these days?)

Fox also premiered the third-season of reality show Hell’s Kitchen at the same time. With plenty of promotion, this was the top-rated show Monday night among adults 18 to 49 with a 3.6 rating in the preliminary Nielsen ratings.

Creature Comforts had a modest 1.8 premiere in its 8 p.m. time period. That made it 2nd in the time slot.

Richard Goleszowski acts as the show’s supervising director. He also supervised the UK version of the show. Like all other Aardman work, the timing is just about perfect, the humor is subtle, and the whole is enjoyable. The only problem I have with the show is that I get impatient with a half-hour of 1 or 2 minutes clips that are disconnected.

You can watch the entire first episode on line. here.

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- In case you haven’t yet read it, Wade Sampson has a good article on MousePlanet that fills in on a lot of the history of the Three Little Pigs. The article ends with a discussion of a four minute film done in 1962 by Bill Justice and Xavier Atencio for a Mexican feature as a way of raising money to help Mexican children get a free daily lunch in school. The article also leads to a YouTube link to see the animated segment they produced.

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Surf’s Up opened today to luke warm reviews in NYC. Here are bits from two of them.
Jack Matthews of the NYDaily News, who gave it 2½ stars, said:

Tired of penguins yet?

“Surf’s Up,” the latest computer-animated cartoon from Sony Pictures Animation, takes the form of a mock documentary covering a penguin-dominated surfing championship. The movie itself is trying to catch a wave; whether that wave is still cresting or about to collapse, we’ll soon find out.

Adult fans of “Happy Feet” will find “Surf’s Up” a middling trifle.

Jeanette Catsoulis of the NYTimes, in a very short, ho-hum review, wrote:

Ever since Luc Jacquet’s endearing documentary “March of the Penguins” persuaded Hollywood that penguins are the new Bambis, we have endured singing, wisecracking and even tap-dancing versions. Now, treading eagerly on the flippers of last year’s “Happy Feet,” comes “Surf’s Up,” a computer-animated comedy featuring birds on boards.

. . . a moratorium on penguins might be called for, despite the inevitable anthropomorphic void. Lord help us if “Ratatouille” is a hit.

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I’d like to highlight two working Independent animators in New York who have mastered Flash and have been doing unique, stylish films in the medium:

- Xeth Feinberg has created a character I’ve loved (it was probably the first Flash film I’d seen on-line). Certainly most of you have seen Bulbo in A Brief History of the Twentieth Century. This and a number of other Bulbo spots are still available for viewing at Xeths’ site. It’s worth revisiting to see how solid a video this is. Still thoroughly enjoyable.

Xeth has done a feature film with his more popular character, Queer Duck, but I still feel more of an affinity toward Bulbo. Perhaps he’ll make more of these entertaining short pieces.

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- And let’s not forget Nina Paley, as long as we’re talking productive, Flash designer/animators. Nina’s done quite a few animated shorts, with over 40 minutes of them making up parts of an animated feature she’s creating solo.

Most of her films are available for viewing on her site with Sita Sings the Blues (the feature) featured on its own page. There’s a real intelligence behind her films and a great sense of style behind the graphics. If you haven’t seen her work, go.

All of the current parts of the feature will be screened at the upcoming Platform Animation Festival.

There are a number of interesting posts I’d like to call to your attention:

- First and foremost, Joe Campana on his site, Who and Where, has a post about Fleischer animator Willard Bowsky who died in battle during World War II.

Bowsky was a big guy at the Fleischer studio, and he’s rarely reaped the praise deserved for his work there. He was one of those at Fleischer’s who moved into the position of animator when there was a virtual exodus for the West Coast by many of Fleischer’s animators. Losing Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus, George Stallings and George Ruffle left only Ted Sears and Grim Natwick as animators. Suddenly Al Eugster, Shamus Culhane, George Cannata, Seymour Kneitel, Bill Henning and Willard Bowsky all received promotions.

Over the years I’d asked quite a few of the Fleischer veterans, who I’d met, for some information about Bowsky, but rarely did I get more than an anecdote about him.

This is the sort of comment I heard. It comes from Shamus Culhane‘s book Talking Animals and Other People. (I’m not one to take Culhane’s usually biased comments verbatim, though undoubtedly there’s some truth in the statement.

Within a very short time some of the neophyte animators began to exhibit real talent as filmmakers. One was Willard Bowsky. He was about twenty-one at the time, a loudmouthed, opinionated fellow, who had a ready answer for every problem, political, artistic, or ethnic. He was probably the only person in the studio who was openly anti-Semitic. It didn’t seem to bother Max or Dave, even when people complained. While they admitted that it was probably true, they had none of the fierce defensiveness about Jewishness that developed later as a result of the rise of the Nazis.

According to the standards of the studio, Willard drew very well and had a great appreciation for contemporary music, so he was given sound tracks like “Minnie the Moodier” and “Stick Out Your Can Here Comes the Garbage Man.” He would even go into ecstasies over Cab Calloway records.

With my background of classical music, I thought Calloway sounded like jibberish and avoided those assignments like a plague. While Bowsky really couldn’t draw well enough to compete with West Coast films, he did make some of the better jazz cartoons in the studio because he loved the music.

Willard lived at home with his parents and took no part in the usual Saturday night saturnalias. He was what one might call a pre-McCarthy, gung ho, ail-American Babbitt, an avid reader of the New York Mirror, with social convictions to match. He believed that all the unemployed were just being lazy, and intimated that anybody with ambition could succeed in this country, freely offering himself as a shining example.

Joe Campana really fills in a lot of gaps with his extraordinary post that details a lot of Bowsky’s life and final efforts during the war. Who and Where is becoming one of the better sites out there.

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- I’m pleased to see that Will Finn has entered the Blog-writing fray. I love a good, new articulate voice to attend to. Check out his site. I’ve attached his link to my regulars. Thanks to Cartoon Brew for alerting us.

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- Here’s an article from a 1936 issue of Popular Science showing how the 3D backgrounds were created for the Fleischer cartoons. The image to the left, obviously, comes from this article.

- Hans Perk posts on his blog A Film LA a 1936 Disney document about a “Gag File.” There’s always something new to dig up about the Golden Disney years. It’s a very interesting and provocative document.

Blue Sky reports that the Tinkerbell film is finally shaping up having been wholly reworked by John Lasseter. This means that the trio of “Fairy” films can move forward. A cgi Tink, voiced by Brittany Murphy, will be coming our way. Can’t wait.

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– Finally, I received an email from Howard Beckerman after meeting him at Amid Amidi‘s award ceremony. He said that he’d noticed my post which included the board by Gryphon Productions for Baldwin Pianos. (See the original post here.) Howard’s note reads:
. . . I checked out your informative Splog and noticed Gryphon’s
. . . storyboard for the Baldwin Piano spot. It was directed by
. . . Ed Seeman and animated by Dante Barbetta and…me.

You never know what bit of info is going to turn up. It’s a great world.

- Today, in New York, Amid Amidi will receive the Theatre Library Association Award for his book, Cartoon Modern.

Congratulations to him for the well deserved award.

John Canemaker will be presenting the award. I’ll be there to watch (and give some notes tomorrow.)

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- Last year the NY Times featured monthly reports by artist/illustrator Maira Kalman.
I waited monthly for those visual diaries. The art was stunning. But she left off doing it several months back.

Now, the NY Times has started an animated series on its website done by animator/artist, Jeff Scher. His first piece went up on the Times and is called The Animated Life:L’Eau Life. The piece is one of Jeff’s best works, beautifully scored by Shay Lynch. (note that it loads slowly.)

Unfortunately, you might have to be a subscriber of the TimesSelect to see the work.

However, I suggest you get in touch with someone you know who subscribes to the TimesSelect to see it.

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– Let me tell you about Paprika. A small group of us went last Saturday to see the film. The trailer seemed interesting and the reviews were over the top, so I was hell bent on checking it out. I’d also enjoyed Tokyo Godfather and Millenium Actress by the same director, Satoshi Kon.

Paprika more resembles Millenium Actress than any other. It’s a head trip of a film that intermixes the internet with movies with dreams. I’m sorry to say, I also didn’t think it worked very well.

Right at the start of the film, we’re ushered into a dream – this is the first and only time the same, repeating dream has a beginning. The dream is interrupted as we learn that a red-headed nymph of a character, Paprika, is sharing dreams with a hard-boiled detective who is trying to solve a murder mystery. His time is up, and Paprika runs off to the lab where she turns into a scientist, Chiba. The doppelganger Chiba cum Paprika doesn’t work at all, since we don’t really know who or why one is the other.

The dream machine is stolen by someone within the company – we’re never quite sure why though somehow he’ll control the world with it – and the remainder of the film is 90% dream repetition. You remain engrossed spending two hours trying to unravel the story, but in the end you’re not quite sure who is what and where you are or why?

The film definitely needed less dream and more reality. I would have liked to have known more about the real characters and why they’re so intently pursuing this dream machine. I’m not sure I understand the value of sharing my dreams with anyone. (Copyright infringement?)

Not my kind of movie. Though, I have to say, it works only on an adult level (note I didn’t say adolescent), and that’s something that probably can’t be said about any other animated feature yet screened this year. (Only Persepolis holds out hope for adding to that roster.)

Ultimately, I can say that if you’re an Anime buff, go see Paprika; if you’re not go see The Golden Door, an excellent and beautiful French/Italian film about immigrants coming to America at the turn of the 20th Century.

– I was thumbing through an old issue of Art Direction Magazine (Feb, 1972 issue) when I came upon a breakdown for a Maypo commercial.

By the time of this piece, the Hubleys had stopped doing the commercials for the product. The original agency, W.B.Doner, no longer represented the cereal, and I wonder if that’s why the Hubleys were on the outs.

I know from later years that Faith adamantly fought to keep their names off commercial connections and production. John was a bit more open minded and used me to do his last couple of commercials – again for the same agency, W.B. Doner.

By the way I like the magazine’s cover illustration by Art Director, Frank Mell.

Here’s the revised and ugly Maypo:

(Click any image on the page to enlarge.)

The following was another commercial broken down in the same issue. I may as well put it up for lark’s sake. I don’t remember the spot, but I do remember the Ugly Maypo, above.

You can catch some of the good Hubley Maypo spots on YouTube.

– As I mentioned on Monday, Marjane Satrapi and co-director Vincent Paronnaud is to be congratulated for their film, Persepolis having won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. However, the film seems to be on a real hate list in Iran. An advisor to Iran’s President was furious over the prize saying that the movie promoted “Islamophobia.”

Mehdi Kalhor, a cultural adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, “Islamophobia in Western drama started in France and producing and highlighting the anti-Iranian film Persepolis in Cannes falls in line with this Islamophobia.”

Iranian authorities had already protested to France over the Cannes screening of the film co-directed by Satrapi, who insisted that her comic-memoir was about family and not politically oriented. Reacting to the complaint from Iran, France’s Foreign Ministry Tuesday defended the Cannes Film Festival’s decision to screen a movie that paints a bleak portrait of life after the Iranian revolution.

“Iranian authorities must understand that France is very attached to freedom of expression and freedom of creation,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said in Paris. “The festival chose the film … It was nothing to do with politics.”

Marjane Satrapi, on stage to receive her award, Sunday, said: “I’ll speak for both directors. We want to express our thanks Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux for having selected our film. We thank the Jury for having awarded the Prize to us. We thank the whole crew of ninety people who worked with us for two years. Personally, although this film is universal, I wish to dedicate the prize to all Iranians.”

The story made yesterday’s NYTimes and today’s Variety.

The film will open in the US this coming November.

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Boy, say one thing to criticise John Krisfalusi and you may as well have offended the Iranian government. I think Stephen Worth may have finished his doctoral thesis on my website for all the fury I aroused in him.

In defending, UPA on Saturday against the barbs of John Krisfalusi and his ignoble
stance against these masterful films, I began to wonder if appreciation of these films was purely generational.

Was the generation before me, who had made these films, and mine, who appreciate them, wrong?

Was my enjoyment of many of these shorts a sign of my growing obsolescence.

N a h !

I know better. Just because there are still a lot of Picasso-haters out there, modern art isn’t wrong. Those who dislike Picasso are wrong.

Of course, UPA, like Picasso, produced a lot of swill. It was expected that any studio that wants to keep rolling has to make a lot of commmercial trash, and I think somewhere around 1953 UPA lost it, and their cartoons became mawkish.

However, even the worst of these UPA films is still interesting to me, just as I still enjoy many Terrytoons or Paramount films. I’m not going to rant about either, though.
However I do recognize the classics, and I give them their due diligence.

The mass of vehement comments wasn’t completely surprising to me. I’d once stepped in the goo of John K. before and found my mailbox full. Thank goodness I don’t live in LA or I might have had death threats. (Just joking.)

Interesting that John, who I think is a very shy guy (I don’t know him), stays behind his theories at his blog. I’ll keep checking in there, but promise not to fill up his comment box with long winded rants. I’ll use my own blog for that.

By the way, John has a good report today on the interesting interviews conducted this past weekend in Chicago. John interviewed Bill Plympton one night and Bill interviewed John the next night. Amusing.