Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Darkhorse Comics announces Will Vinton‘s first graphic novel in a recent press release.

Jack Hightower is an action adventure story created by Vinton and his writing partner, Andrew Weise and features the art of Fabio Laguna. It sells for $10.17 on Amazon.

My hope is that this book will be able to jumpstart some life into Vinton’s animation career. I don’t miss the California Raisins, but I do miss the strong, Independent vision of Vinton. He formed Freewill Entertainment after being ousted at his own company, Will Vinton Productions and they bacame Laika.

I encourage you to check out the link above to Freewill to see what animation work Vinton has been up to. There’s also Will Vinton‘s personal site, worth a visit.

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- The screening of the animated shorts on Tuesday at Kodak was fun. Three of those shortlisted for the animated short Oscar were there, and they were all on pins and needles.

Chris Wedge and a couple of others from Blue Sky were there representing Bunny which was screened in 35mm. He’d, of course, won the Oscar for that short, but Blue Sky is up for No Time for Nuts which was directed by Chris Renaud and Mike Thurmeier. Chris is an Executive Producer of the short. We had a nice conversation about the Oscars and Motion Capture.

Alex Weil from Charlex was the most buzzed about his chances at a nomination for One Rat Short. This is the cgi film he wrote and directed.

It’s a very sensitive film with a quiet persistence. The photo-realistic style took me a while to accept, but Alex did it well with a floating wrapper that the lead rat follows into adventure and love.

Bill Plympton has gotten to be an old hand at it, and he was more concerned with how his new short went. He’d previewed the new film, Shut Eye Hotel, and he was trying to read the reaction of the crowd and get some feedback. I won’t say much more than that it’s different, slicker than past films and includes some use of 3D animated Bg’s.

It was a good turnout for a NY screening; kudos to Kodak’s Anne Hubbell and Signe Bauman who did the work.

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– Today’s NYTimes review by Neil Ganzlinger of Arthur and the Invincibles includes the following paragraph:

The press packet for “Arthur,” a children’s film directed by Luc Besson, includes lots of tidbits on the magic that enabled the merging of live actors and a computer-generated world, but who can really keep track of this technogoo anymore, or get excited about it? The real question isn’t how these hybrid movies are made, but why. In this case, it’s a tad unclear.

Jack Matthews in the NYDaily News‘ ** in a review headlined Fairy Confusing said about Luc Besson:

Luc Besson, a sort of French version of Steven Spielberg without the intuition, has tried a lot of genres in his young career and has had his greatest success with slick action films like “The Fifth Element” and “La Femme Nikita.”

Animated movies for kids he should stay away from.

In an NPR interview Besson talked about doing a sequel.
Read the Times if you’re looking for a bit more of a laugh.

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Clean your palate after thinking about that film. Journey to Part II of the the program from the Bill Tytla show that John Canemaker organized. This is on the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive. Go here for Part I.

- There was a good screening Tuesday night at the Kodak theater midtown, and a great overspilling audience. A number of Independent animators got to display their wares on 35mm.
. Seeing Chris Wedge’s Bunny next to Alex Weil’s One Rat Short next to Jimmy Picker’s Jimmy the C was quite interesting. Nina Paley offered another Sita tale and Patrick Smith Puppet.
. I hadn’t seen The Dentist from Signe Bauman who did a fine job of hosting the program. Bill Plympton not only screened Guide Dog but unveiled a rough cut of his latest short, Shut Eye Hotel. Kodak offered drinks and hor d’oeurves afterward and allowed us to comingle for a bit.
. Thanks to all those with kind words for my short The Man Who Walked Between The Towers.

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When you work in animation, you’re doomed to be graced with Disneyana-gifts through your life. When you’re a puppet fanatic, you’re doubly doomed.

The wonderful part of it all is that as time goes on the Disneyana gets better every year so that you not only don’t mind the infrequent Mickey dolls, but you actually want them.

Thus these two dolls were among my Christmas gifts/treasures.
I particularly like the Steamboat Willie doll. It’s my favorite Mickey, and it’s a good likeness and it looks great among the other gimcracks on my shelves.

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– If you’d like to hear the children’s record of Ted Geisel’s Gerald McBoing Boing you can get the MP3 here.
It’s read by The Great Gildersleeve with music by the great Billy May.

The Great Gildersleeve was originally a radio show; a very successful radio show that moved to television in the 50′s. The original Gildersleeve was Harold Peary, but he was replaced in 1950 by Willard Waterman. Peary did some bits in WB cartoons as Gildersleeve.

After listening to the record, you get to realize how good the tracks were on some of those UPA shorts.

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Luc Besson appeared on NPR Jan 9th to talk about his film, Arthur and the Invisibles. Besson is the fourth live-action director to have an animated feature this past year. George Miller directed Happy Feet, Steve Oedekerk directed Barnyard and Christopher Reeve was credited as directing Everyone’s Hero. Does anyone remember how many live-action directors worked in animation prior to the development of MoCap ?
Maybe Peter Jackson would have the answer.

If you want to hear the Luc Besson interview, click here.

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Thanks to Mark Mayerson for the info on the death of Steve Krantz. He was the producer of the Fritz the Cat directed by Bakshi and The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat directed by Bob Taylor. He also produced Bakshi’s greatest critical success, Heavy Traffic. Krantz was married to the novelist, Judith Krantz, and had produced a number of television shows after separating from animation. The Variety obit.

Carlo Ponti and Yvonne de Carlo have also died. Jaime Weinman has an excellent commentary on Yvonne de Carlo and here.

- I’m a fan of Terrytoon cartoons. Yes, it’s a guilty pleasure. I don’t like them just for the Jim Tyer animation – but, of course, I do love the Jim Tyer animation.

I recognize how poor they are, compared to the other films being produced at the time (but they’re arguably better than most animation being produced today.) But there’s something about that Phil Schieb music that gets me. Or to hear some of those sound effects; the ploppy splashes of water on the sound effects brings it all back.

What a pleasure, then, to see the recent posts on the Hollywood Animation Archive Blog. There are the model sheets posted now. They’re attached to an appreciation of the film, The Tempermental Lion, which is also posted.

(Click either image to enlarge.)

The same site features the Nat Falk book, How To Make Animated Cartoons post #1 and post #2. This is a Terry-centric book written in 1941 with a foreward by Paul Terry.

I have another Nat Falk book in my collection which is, unfortunately, currently in storage. Eventually, I’ll post it when I can get it out.
In the meantime, posted are a Mighty Mouse and a Tom Terrific model sheet, neither of which appeared on their site.

There was a time in my childhood when I was addicted to Mighty Mouse. I drew the character everywhere, all the time. All of my schoolbooks became flipbooks of Mighty Mouse. It was obsessive for a while – though I don’t think anyone noticed but me.

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The NYTimes, today, has an article about James Cameron‘s next film. It’s expensive, of course, and will use cgi characters as no one has done in the past. Apparently, MoCap actors will be combined with real actors, and it seems they’ll be shot at the same time.

“For its aliens, “Avatar” will present characters designed on the computer, but played by human actors. Their bodies will be filmed using the latest evolution of motion-capture technology — markers placed on the actor and tracked by a camera — while the facial expressions will be tracked by tiny cameras on headsets that will record their performances to insert them into a virtual world.”

“The most important innovation thus far has been a camera, designed by Mr. Cameron and his computer experts, that allows the director to observe the performances of the actors-as-aliens, in the film’s virtual environment, as it happens.”

Now MoCap will not only replace animators but live actors as well. Good luck.

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The NYTimes today also has a review by Dave Kehr of the 4 additions to the Disney Treasures series of DVD’s. All praise Leonard Maltin.

“The Complete Pluto, Volume Two” takes Mickey’s oddly disadvantaged animal companion (why is Pluto the only resident of Disneyland who isn’t able to speak?) from 1947 to 1951, and represents Disney product at its least distinguished, most industrial level.

Far more intriguing are “Your Host, Walt Disney” — five episodes from Disney’s weekly television show, all with Uncle Walt — and, supremely, “More Silly Symphonies, Volume Two,” a gathering of work from 1929 to 1938, most of it very seldom seen.

The NYTimes on Saturday had an interesting article by A.O. Scott about how the moviegoing experience is affecting children. He compares the age groups:
whereas older viewers prefer theater going, younger people accept film in any form – from ipod to imax. They’re going without an obvious preference. This, Scott feels, is affecting the attitude these children are bringing to the future of exhibition, and he’s taking active steps to educate his kids in seeing older films in theaters.

I, personally, feel that there’s a larger, more subjective problem, and I’m sure I wrote about it before (and will do again.) No room is being left to the imagination – for children or adults – on most of the films being made today. Every minor plot point is being detailed to the fullest. Nothing is left to audiences to get for themselves. Meticulous detail is often repeated endlessly to make sure we get it. In doing this, all the grace and wonder is taken out of most films, and children are being taught to not think for themselves.

On the simplest level, last year’s film Barnyard had those udders on the males because it was afraid that children wouldn’t understand that they were still “cows.” I have no doubt that the director wasn’t expecting people to laugh at this, he just didn’t trust his audience to understand that a “bull” is also a “cow”. (Surely, Chuck Jones used this very notion – the difference between a bull and a cow – for a few jokes along the way.)

I think this simplification and overt dumbing down applies to most of last year’s animated features. Yet, there have been a few good ones in the recent past.

Miyazaki, of course, is a genius. He empowers you to develop the characters and the story along with him. The use of spirituality gives the films a depth lacking in most other films. (I’m not just talking animation here.) Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke take two very different paths, yet both instill a dignity in the characters and the society in which they live.

It’s really what separated The Incredibles and Iron Giant from the rest of the pack, and we can only hope Brad Bird will do the same on Ratatouille. It’s what made Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit fine.

Just the backgrounds for The Triplettes de Belleville allowed us to roam through the inner lives of the characters. The soundtrack, the lack of endless dialogue, the entire presentation was the plus for that film.

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Eastman Kodak is hosting a selection of animated shorts – all projected in 35mm – on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm.

The films include:
Bunny – Chris Wedge
The Dentist – Signe Bauman
Guide Dog - Bill Plympton
Jimmy The “C” – Jimmy Picker
The Man Who Walked Between The Towers – Michael Sporn
One Rat Short – Alex Wail (Charlex)
Puppet – Pat Smith
Sita - Nina Paley

Oscar winners, contenders, and some on this year’s shortlist. It’ll be a good screeing with all filmmakers in attendance to answer questions.
Of course I’m promoting my picture.
Eastman Kodak Company
360 W. 31st Street (between 8th & 9th)
Use 9th Avenue Elevators
RSVP: By calling 1.800.863.5787

It’s suggested you RSVP ASAP since the seats are limited. There will also be refreshments.

Yesterday, the Producer’s Guild of America named these films as the nominees for their Producer’s Guild Award as Best Produced Animated Feature:
CARS, FLUSHED AWAY, HAPPY FEET, ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN, MONSTER HOUSE.

Nominees for Best Produced Films include:
BABEL, THE DEPARTED, DREAMGIRLS, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, THE QUEEN.

There’s a good chance that these will be the Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature and Best Film of the year, respectively.

Today, in New York, we have the short list screening of Live Action shorts to select the nominees for this category. This is one of my favorite events of the year. Generally, I find a lot of the Live Action shorts more creative than the animated shorts, and this screening always gets me excited.

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There is no screening in New York of the shortlisted animated shorts. We saw all the original qualified entries and helped pick the list of those on the current list. To allow us to do that, the Academy made a deal, so that they wouldn’t send the films a second time to NY, wherein only those at the original screening are eligible to vote for the nominees.

It’s not ideal, and I wish they would spend the money to give us a second look. But such is the way it is.

As reported on Cartoon Brew, the shortlisted animated short films are:

The Danish Poet by Torill Kove (NFB)
Everything Will Be OK by Don Hertzfeldt
Family Ties: Dreams & Desires by Joanna Quinn
Guide Dog by Bill Plympton
Lifted by Gary Rydstrom (Pixar)
Little Match Girl by Roger Allers (Disney)
Maestro directed by Géza M Toth
No Time for Nuts directed by Chris Renaud & Mike Thurmeier (Blue Sky)
Tragic Story with Happy Ending by Regina Pessoa
One Rat Short by Alex Weil

Congrats to Bill Plympton, Chris Renaud & Mike Thurmeier the New Yorkers on the list.

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For those of you who live in New York and want to know about a trio of great live action shorts look to the Film Forum up till Tuesday, January 9th.

Ellen Bruno is an Independent filmmaker living in San Francisco who makes extraordinarily powerful and difficult films.

The subjects are difficult but the films have a poetry and a wisdom beyond the screen. SACRIFICE examines the selling of Burmese girls (some as young as 12) into prostitution in Thailand; LEPER travels to Nepal to meet a society of lepers in a remote village; SKY BURIAL records a Tibetan monastery ritual in which corpses are consumed by huge vultures, allowing spirits of the deceased merge with the sky.

There’s an on-line interview with Ellen here.

I met Ellen years ago at the Heartland Film Festival where SACRIFICE was being presented, and I spent the rest of the festival’s week with her after seeing how great a film she’d made. One always hopes a bit of the brilliance will rub off.

– Animation Magazine has an article and interview about the animation in the new film, Miss Potter. I enjoyed the film particularly the acting of Renee Zellweger and Emily Watson. There wasn’t a lot of animation, perhaps a minute or two done in snippets.

The animation was done at Passion Pictures by Alyson Hamilton. (Ms Hamilton also acts as Renee Zellweger’s hand double in the film.)

I thought the 2D animation captured the look of the Beatrix Potter drawings (though it was obviously colored digitally) but lacked in the actual movement. The animation, for my taste, was just too cute and exaggerated, Jemima Puddleduck in particular. As another animator at the screening suggested, Miss Potter might not have approved.

However, it’s nice to see the credits for the animation given at Animation Magazine. They weren’t elaborate on the film giving only a couple of overall credits.

There was once an article in Animation Magazine about this film to star Cate Blanchett with CG versions of the Beatrix Potter characters. We can only thank heaven better taste survived.

As Mark Mayerson points out, there’s little promotion built around animation; this film is a prime example. We have to search it out and celebrate it.

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FPS has 6 views of the Year In Review for animated features. These commentaries are worth a read. I especially liked those of Bob Miller and Emru Townsend. A positive look-back to 2006.

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My friend, Jason McDonald and his wife Dina Mermelstein had a baby boy on Jan. 3rd. Hugo McDonald. Jason has worked on many projects with us over many years. All the best wishes go out to all three of them.

As a result Jason will take a break from doing his weekly on-line comic strip, My Living Dead Girl. Jason also has a blog for the strip.

(Click on all images to enlarge.)

- After all the to-do about the dancing in Happy Feet **, I spent some time thinking about dance sequences in animated films. There are so many in 2D films that are so brilliantly done, it’s hard to pick a favorite. From Snow White to Sleeping Beauty, from Pinocchio to The Yellow Submarine, there have been memorable and brilliant dance sequences.

However, in cg films it’s hard to think of one. I’m not including Happy Feet with its Motion Capture method; I’m trying to think of films done using keyframe.

For the most part, Pixar has treated their song numbers as background music, and the characters don’t react to the music.

The nearest to a dance number I could think of was the closing credit sequence in Chicken Little. The principal characters dance and lip-sync to rock numbers. A lot of cuts are built into it, so the scenes aren’t long. However, it’s modern and smooth and obviously choreographed.

Are there other cgi dances that I don’t remember? I don’t mean the small moves to dance. Shrek, if I remember correctly, has a small dance but it’s not what I’m talking about. I’m looking for a sequence. If anyone out there can point to others, please let me know.

** re Happy Feet see:
- Mike Barrier‘s review
or
- Mark Mayerson‘s and/or - Keith Lango‘s reaction to the NYTimes article about Savion Glover‘s MoCap dance numbers.

or even
- my own recent posts.

The unfortunate part is that Happy Feet isn’t worth the brouhaha. I was entertained; I didn’t think it was great but had fun. Obviously, there are many out there who didn’t like it at all, but that’s irrelevant to my experience. (Maybe watching it on dvd was something that helped my enjoyment level.)

It wasn’t loud screaming noise like Monster House (which had a good performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal) or Barnyard with the udder problems and the loud screaming everything. Most of the animated films came at you gangbusters and had nothing to say. Cars was beautifully animated and thought out all the moves, but the violently loud soundtrack alone would keep me from watching it again. The story like all animated stories these days was trite and cliched. Happy Feet had the same story problems, but at least it had a responsible message (which none of the other family films offered). It was better than I expected – maybe that’s the problem.

I don’t expect much from animated films these days. I’m rarely disappointed.

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The Jim Hill media story on Pixar and specifically about Ratatouille is interesting. I suggest you read it.
Several things weren’t mentioned in the story about marketing Cars and Ratatouille:

. the title is confusing to most of the young audiences who would be targeted to see the film (especially if they have to spell it.)
. Cars did well in the US; it was the foreign recoupment that destroyed that film and ultimately brought it lower grosses than Ice Age 2: the Meltdown.
. The projection that Cars would do well since there are 75 million NASCAR viewers, doesn’t jive with history. People don’t go to racing movies. Anyone hear of Le Mans, Winning, or Grand Prix? Even The Dukes of Hazzard didn’t do very well.

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For some reason, the Disney business card on Didier Ghez‘ site really started my New Year off on a good foot. Take a look.

- I can’t find a better thing to say than Oscar Grillo has posted on his site. A brilliant drawing set against a brilliant soundtrack, with words to match. Go.

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- Taking a quick tour of a lot of sites this morning, I found that the griping about promotion for animators is high on the list on a number of blogs. It all started with George Miller‘s insensitive comments in the New York Times about his animation staff. Miller got a bit of promotion in the Times article on dancer/choreographer, Savion Glover. He was trying to help Glover and a lot of animators got slapped as a result.

Mark Mayerson suggests that animators need more promotion for themselves to counteract some of this public image. Keith Lango follows this with other thoughtful comments agreeing with Mark. Of course, the problem starts entering when a number of the comments on these blogs react by swiping at Miller in an even less sensitive display. They respect him, even less that he respects animators.

I don’t think Miller, like any good director, thinks any less of his animation crew than he does his electrical crew. He believes that they are all in service to him. And they are. At least, this is true using Motion Capture.The “animators” are no longer the actors. They’re technical service personnel. Special Effects wizards with computers who transfer the dances of Savion Glover into penguins dancing. The delicate movements of the characters perfectly capture the motions of Glover so that it looks like Glover dancing.

(Actually, I’ve seen Glover on stage and in film so many times, that I’d probably prefer seeing him dancing rather than 100 versions of him as a penguin dancing.)

I enjoyed watching the film Happy Feet, but probably won’t see it again. Yet, I’ve watched Dumbo at least 100 times. Just yesterday I watched Ward Kimball‘s dance sequence from that film. I have no doubt it was choreographed, shot on film for him to study and, finally, animated by him. All those drawings cannot be captured by the MoCap technology. I think that’s the message we have to talk about in 2007.

Until we take back the creating part of these films, we can’t blame others for taking and handing out credit.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

– In 1994 John Canemaker organized an exhibit for the Katonah Museum of Art. It showcased in great detail the work of animation’s, Bill Tytla. The Hollywood Animation Archive Blog now posts the catalog for that show in the first of two parts.

I remember the show as quite remarkable. Any enormous respect I had had for Bill Tytla’s work was magnified exponetially.

Viewing the catalog again reminds me of the fabulous work that John Canemaker had done in organizing the show. Thanks, yet again, to the work of Stephen Worth in making this available at the site.
A Tytla drawing from my collection.
(click on image to enlarge.)

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- This list of the Best Children’s films of 2006 includes my film, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers, and the feature Monster House as the only two animated films on their list of “bests.”

To show how ridiculous this list from Scripps Howard News Service is, the new dvd of Dumbo is on their “worst” of 2006 list. They describe one of my favorite Disney features as, “a relic, with a number of racist and stereotyped characters and overwrought emotion.”

The scene Tytla animated of Dumbo playing in the legs of his mother is, in my opinion, one of the best scenes ever animated. Every child should be made to watch this scene and this film. John Canemaker’s commentary for the dvd is, as I’ve said several times on this blog, one of my favorites. It’s the premiere example, to me, of what all commentary tracks should be.

- For those who haven’t yet seen it, David Nethery has posted on his site a 1966 Christmas Bumper R.O. Blechman did for CBS. It’s a beautiful, music card of a piece that shows all the poetry Blechman got into his films. Ed Smith animated this rich, short film.

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- Finally, today, I’d like to quote a paragraph from Michael Musto‘s lookback-at-2006 column in today’s Village Voice. He reviews most of the animated features, and I thought it amusing:

We pause now for a brief rant: Much as I adore animated films, the plethora of them
that came out this year with inspiring messages about how critters (or vehicles) are
good and people are bad made me feel their ka-chinging creators should be forced
to live by their own patronizing idealism or die. Cars should have been dumped onto
DVD with no hoopla whatsoever (it’s more important to be a good soul than to
succeed, remember?); the Ant Bully people should find their houses infested with
bugs and then be made to join them to learn the importance of community; and the
Barnyard bunch, who preached that responsibility is superior to having a messy good time, should never be allowed to make another movie. Otherwise we’re destroying
our children with hypocrisy and lies!

But how dare anyone suggest that: Happy Feet ripped off March of the Penguins:
It ripped off Billy Elliot!

Happy Kwanzaa ______________________________

– On Google video you can see a seven part interview with Joe Barbera done in 1977 for the TV Academy.

Leonard Maltin starts the interview, parts 1-4.
Sunny Perish (?) concludes parts 5-7.

Part 1. Here
Part 2. Here
Part 3. Here
Part 4. Here
Part 5. Here
Part 6. Here
Part 7. Here

There’s an accurate commentary of Barbera’s career on Harry McCracken‘s site. This is followed by an even darker comment by Mark Mayerson and a defense of Barbera by Thad Komorowski.

I have to say that when Barbera died I had no feeling whatsoever. I still don’t. That last Tom & Jerry which has his name attached was as horrendous as anything he’s done since the second year of The Flintstones.

I saw few Tom & Jerry’s growing up in New York. In theaters, we were always treated to Terrytoon, Paramount and infrequent Disney shorts. I don’t think I saw a Tom & Jerry projected until I went to animation programs at MOMA. Finally, in my college years all those Tom & Jerry shorts were thrown into syndication, and they ran in NY on channel 11, a station once owned by The NY Daily News, at 5:30pm.

I had to rush home from school nightly to see these programs – 3 shorts each. After weeks of viewing, I was blown away. My initial reaction was that I had spent 17 years trying to see any and every piece of animation and had found this trove of fully animated shorts – lots of lives spent – on films that I hadn’t seen. If there were that many films that I hadn’t seen, what did that say about the work of so many other animators whose work lived in limbo?

My second reaction was horror. These films were violent to the point of horrific. The animation was superb, the music was brilliant, but the violence was upsetting. These are the only cartoons ever to have caused me to flinch. Seeing – I think it was – the Oscar winning, The Two Mouseketeers where Jerry runs the course of a table past a turkey that has a knife sticking out of its side – which lies just over his head. Tom pursues. He’s taller. The violence takes place off screen (as H&B did for years to save animation). Tom is cut and I flinched. I didn’t like that and still don’t. Another cartoon had an axe cut off Tom’s tail. It hurt. The characters I never cozied up to were being mangled by their creators. Not like the funny stuff that was going on at WB; it was different here. The directors hurt them, and then hurt them some more.

After MGM, H&B opened. Even before those Tom & Jerry shorts made it to TV, RUff & Reddy, Huck Hound, Yogi and The Flintstones brought new style to limited animation TV. I enjoyed it as a kid (in B&W), and I even felt I could guess-count the drawings in a scene. Timing was good and the design was excellent. The Hoyt Curtain music wasn’t my favorite – it seemed to be playing without regard to what was on screen, but still, I liked these shorts.

Then came the rest. With Johnny Quest I started not liking H&B. I didn’t like Scooby Doo or so many of the rest of the titles I couldn’t name for you. The mechanics were always showing, but now there was no string of good design, good timing, good anything to hold it together. Crap was what H&B produced. That crap provided a lot of jobs – even more to Asia, but it was not good film making.

Their first feature, “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear,” was ridiculous. I thought that I even saw the edge of a pan cel move through a scene. Colors popped, animation was mediocre at best, and the story was tedious. It didn’t get better with “Charlotte’s Web” or “Heidi.”

So now, Hanna and Barbera have died. Their studio died when Turner bought them out and Cartoon Network rolled over them. After MGM, they made some interesting shorts that was about quantity not quality. They were the type of animators more interested in the dollars they could bring home than the films they were making. I don’t blame them for it, but I can’t glorify their work either. They were who they were, and I give them credit for the long and elaborate careers they had.

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– Last Sunday, there was a NY Times review of Neal Gabler’s Disney book.

The review as well as Gabler’s book seems to have riled some people, and John Culhane responded with a letter that was printed in this past Sunday’s NY Times.
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- Chuck Oberleitner has a detailed commentary here on the ousting of Chris Sanders and his American Dog project from Disney’s animation department.
The article comes off as quite accurate without painting villains the way we animators are want to do. Of course, there’s no way any of us will really know what the truth is, and it almost doesn’t matter at this point. Animation history moves on. Maybe Chris Sanders will return to 2D animation; Lilo & Stitch was the last decent film from the Disney (non-Pixar) studio.