Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

My buddy, my poor sweet darling Ruby died today.
A small slice of the studio’s heart has been cut out.

The Museum of Modern Art is honoring the work of CalArts with their upcoming film exhibition, TOMORROWLAND: CalArts in Moving Pictures May 25–August 13, 2006

- The list of graduates from the school is impressive. They’ve been a real force in the worlds of animation, both traditional and experimental.

The extensive number of films to be screened include experimental films by: Stephen Hillenburg, Stephen Hillenburg, Larry Cuba, Gary Imhoff, Dennis Pies, Kathy Rose, & Joyce Borenstein.

Traditional 2D films by: Mark Kirkland, Henry Selick, Nancy Beiman, & JJ Villard

3D Entertainment films by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Pete Doctor, Brenda Chapman, Mark Andrews, Doug Sweetland, Andrew Stanton, Ken Bruce, & Ralph Eggleston.

There are also quite a few live action films by graduates such as James Mangold who will have his own evening in which he’ll appear. Tuesday, May 23, 7:00 p.m

One curious title listed is: How to Read Macho Mouse. 1991 by Rubén Ortiz Torres, Aaron Anish. It’s described as a deconstruction of Speedy Gonzales, the Looney Tunes caricature of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.

There’s an extensive article in Sunday’s NYTimes about this program of films.

- The PIXAR marketing pool is going strong. This article appears in Sunday’s NY Times about CARS. It’s in the Auto section.

– There was a show on WOR-TV 9 in NYC when I was a kid.

Claude Kirchner acted as ringmaster/host of the show. Kirchner was an off-screen announcer converted to on-screen host of the show. Originally it was called “Super Circus,” but when Kelloggs left as the show’s sponsor it changed its name to “Big Top Circus.” At other times the show was known as “Terrytoon Circus.”

Kirchner hosted the cartoon show with his papier-mâché sidekick puppet, “Clowny,” (you guessed it, he was a clown) a handpuppet with a non-changing face and a high-pitched, falsetto male voice. (I spent a lot of time waiting to see both Kirchner and “Clowny” on screen at the same time since I was sure he was doing the voice.) The only other people on the show weren’t on camera; they were the technical folk: cameramen, makeup, etc. You could hear them sometimes laugh off camera when there were big flubs by Kirchner, who always seemed to be shot in med CU. The show ended at 6:30pm each night with Kirchner saying “And now it’s time for all good little boys and girls to go to bed.”

The attraction of the show for me was that they aired B&W cartoons that were not the typical WB cartoons over on WNEW, local ch 5 or the Popeye cartoons on WPIX, ch 11. These cartoons originally were silent Aesop Fables from Terry; eventually they became the B&W sound Terry cartoons of the 30′s. Gandy Goose, Farmer Alfalfa and Barker Bill.

But for a short while, between the Aesop Fables and the sound Terrytoons, the show aired gems from Russia.

The original version of The Snow Queen before it was released as a feature from Universal in 1960, with songs and a new dubbing supervised by Dave Fleischer with the voices of Sandra Dee and Tommy Kirk. It was serialized, as was an Indian tale called The Golden Antelope. Both of these films were directed at Soyuzmultfilm by Lev Atamanov, and they both featured beautiful, rotoscoped-based animation.

These beautifully crafted films were a real treat, and, as a kid, I grew to love some of these films with their majestic, long-maned horses.

After getting into animation as a career, once I started collecting books and films, I sought out anything about these Russian cartoons.

These stills from The Golden Antelope are from a book entitled: Masters of Soviet Animation. It’s a small, Russian paperback published in 1971 and predates anything by Norstein. (click images to enlarge.)

We’re back! Finally, after being informed yesterday morning that I had a “Kernel Panic” (I swear that was my first. It felt more like “Kernel Anger”), my server returns 24 hours later.

– Had you read what I posted yesterday, you would have learned that I was promoting, yet again, the program which opened yesterday at the Film Forum. Cartoons: No Laughing Matter is a program of adult animation. (By “Adult” animation I don’t mean “Slutty” animation, or “Adolescent” animation; I mean animation designed to be viewed by “adults” who understand intelligent, sophisticated, mature themes. It felt good to not have to lower my sightline for animation.)

My three favorites on the program were Lisa Craft’s sophisticated work, The Flooded Playground, Suzan Pitt’s El Doctor, and George Griffin’s It Pains Me To Say This. All three explore dark material in a sophisticated, complex way. However, each and every film on the program inspired me to get off my butt and do something good.

- At yesterday’s 8pm screening, six of the film makers were there, in person for a Q&A. Lisa Crafts, George Griffin, Andy & Carolyn London, Suzan Pitt and Debra Solomon were recorded by the Film Forum and will be placed on their website as a podcast. Go here for that link.

- There is a review of this show at the Village Voice.

- Mark Mayerson’s new blog, Mayerson On Animation, as expected, is developing in to one of my favorites. It’s one of the first stops I make each morning and it’ll continue to be. Try it. you’ll like it.

- Thanks to the site Drawn, I’ve been drawn to Bibi’s Box, a wonderful site full of links and attachments and information.

- As a lover of Futurism, the art and art movement of the early 20th century (how could you not love a movement of artists so drawn to the violent world that they all joined the military in WWI and were mostly killed off – thus virtually ending their movement) it delights me to visit the British site Futurism and The Futurists. Lots of fabulous images and enormous dedication to the movement that deserves it.

– Last night the Tribeca Film Festival had a filmmaker party at the Apple Store in NYC. The Apple Store is a two story affair that has a lot of hardware on display to play with and a lot of lucite and hip lighting.

It was the kind of party where a lots of young people, dressed in T-shirts and jeans mixed with well dressed older types. No one seemed to know anyone else, and a lot of elbow rubbing took place trying to avoid knocking over anyone’s drink.

The store is expansive enough that there were large areas which no one occupied and other large areas that were overcrowded.
(The Apple Store during work hours.)

Last year’s event (this is my 2nd time in two years to have a film being screened) had more star power. This year just felt “in” and pleasant.

On arrival, we met up with Patrick Smith, Nina Paley and Biljana Lubovic who all have films out of competition as part of the Animated NY group. We parted ways when Heidi and I went to look for the wine table and to scout out the rest of the party; we didn’t meet up again.

The Bacon Brothers were scheduled to perform, and I looked forward to saying hi to Michael Bacon who scored my film, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers.
At 11:30 the excellent DJs were still making the music, and there was no sign of the Bacon Brothers. I had to leave, so I missed them.

All in all, it was fun. A nice opening to the festival for me. I haven’t been able to participate in any of the events till now, but I look forward to seeing my film in a movie theater tomorrow morning.

- The Onion has an entertaining interview with Matt Groening. They also have a list of quotes made famous from The Simpsons.

As you might expect, there’s a bit of talk about the Simpson’s feature, Futurama, Life In Hell and Tracey Ullman. The on line interview is more extensive than the one published in the paper.

-The Tribeca Film Festival opens in NYC today. An enormous number of films is scheduled to appear at the festival, and I’ve tried to locate as much animation as I could.
It isn’t always easy to find out where and when things are to be screened.

– Emily Hubley has a new short in competition:

“In Black and White and Living Color”
Octave
Directed By: Emily Hubley
Schedule:
Sun, Apr 30 / Noon
Tue, May 2 / 2:30 pm
Wed, May 3 / 9:00 pm
Museum of Jewish Heritage

In the same program is an abstract short:
Errata
Directed By: Alexander Stewart

There’s a program of shorts by New Yorkers: Animated New York
Puppet
Directed By Patrick Smith
Sita
Directed By Nina Paley
Bathtime at Clerkenwell
Directed By Alex Budovsky
Roof Sex
Directed By PES
Underbelly: Coffee
Directed By Rohitash Rao
She She She She’s A Bombshell
Directed By Ben Levin
Bar Fight
Directed By Christy Karacas
The Backbrace Directed By Andy and Carolyn London
Sex Life of Robots- The Teaser Directed By Mike Sullivan
Soccer Time Directed By Edmond Hawkins
Santa Goes South Directed By Peter Wallach
Dentist Directed By Signe Baumane
Guide Dog Directed By Bill Plympton
Life in Transition Directed By John Dilworth

Schedule:
Mon, May 1 / 9:00 pm Museum of Jewish Heritage
Wed, May 3 / 12:30 pm AMC Loews Village VII 3
Thu, May 4 / 1:00 pm AMC Loews 34th Street 9
Sun, May 7 / 10:15 am AMC Loews Lincoln Sq 6

Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus
This is a documentary by ecologist-turned-filmmaker Dr. Randy Olson. It includes a number of animated sequences by the LA studio, Gang of 7.
Schedule is as follows:
Sun, Apr 30 / 8:30 pm AMC Loews Village VII 3
Mon, May 1 / 3:00 pm AMC Loews 34th Street 9
Fri, May 5 / 6:00 pm AMC Loews Lincoln Sq 1
Sun, May 7 / 4:00 pm AMC Loews Village VII 1

Of course, there’s my recent film: Reading To Your Bunny. It’s part of a program of shorts for children. The program is as follows:

Tribeca Family Festival – Shorts
Reading to Your Bunny
Directed by Michael Sporn
Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story From China
Directed by Kris Tercek
Emily’s First 100 Days of School
Directed by Gene Deitch
Cinderella
Directed by Virginia Wilkos

Several of the following screenings are free.
Sat, Apr 29 / 10:45 am AMC Loews 34th Street 10
Sun, Apr 30 / 10:00 am AMC Loews Lincoln Sq 5
Sat, May 6 / 10:30 am // 1:45 pm // 5:00 pm Tribeca Film Center
Sun, May 7 / 11:15 am AMC Loews 34th Street 13

- Well, following in the footsteps of Time Warner, Disney is now using Toon Disney to air their second rate live-action product.
Flubber aired late, this afternoon (it wasn’t even the original, Absent Minded Professor).

Goodbye “Toon” anything.

Looking at a number of sites out there, I found a couple of postings I thought worth sharing.

- Who is the boy that is filled with pep and joy?
He’s Rootie Kazootie.
Who is the lad who’ll make you feel so glad?
He’s Rootie Kazootie.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive gives us a complete look at the Little Golden Book, Rootie Kazootie Joins The Circus.

For those of you who don’t know, or remember, Rootie Kazootie was a puppet who, with his sister Polka Dottie worked to foil the evil plots of Poison Zoomac on early 1950′s television. The puppet show was a craze that took hold of the entire country for a few years. Other similar shows included Bob Clampett’s Time for Beany, and Burr Tillstrom’s Kukla, Fran and Ollie. There was also the original superstar puppet show: Howdy Doody.

So devoted were many of the Baby Boomer fans, that all of these shows still have active websites. It’s hard to think of them as cancelled. (Personally I think these shows were a diversion; a way of avoiding the ills foisted on the unsuspecting Americans fighting off the dull McCarthy-HUAC hearings. Oh, and fighting communists, too.)

How the dim, gray, constricted show, Rootie Kazootie, was able to inspire this brilliantly colored gem of a book is something only Mel Crawford can tell us. He was the illustrator of the book who now works out of New England. An ex-Disney artist, Mr. Crawford has a number of other successful books to his credit including Gerald McBoing Boing.

- Emru Townsend at FPS has an insightful commentary on the presentation and marketing of animated features in our dull, gray, constricted world.

- There’s a short interview with the Quay Brothers at AWN.com which I found interesting.

- The publicity machine’s in play. Yet another article about the Robert Smigel‘s animated pieces for Saturday Night Live. This one appeared in yesterday’s NYTimes. At least the two studios that do the work got mentioned: J.J. Sedelmaier and Wachtenheim/Marianetti.

- At Jim Hill Media, we learn why Gnomeo & Juliet has moved off the defunkt list of Disney animated features (canned by John Lasseter and other incoming execs) and onto the Miramax release plans. Move over Hoodwinked II & III.

Jim Hill also lets us in on a plan expected for the distribution of Song of the South to computer/download fodder in a couple of years. Of course, we’d heard not-too-long-ago that this feature would be revived for dvd release, that is until Robert Iger came into power and canned it. The poor little feature-that-could has been the story of many soap-opera endings over a short time. Too bad I didn’t buy a vhs copy when it was in release years ago. (Though there are enough sites on google that’ll lead you to relatively inexpensive, illegal dvd’s.)

- A reminder to NY audiences that the Film Forum will be hosting a series entitled: Cartoons: No Laughing Matter from May 10 – May 23.

The program includes New York premieres of films by:

Lisa Crafts (The Flooded Playground)
George Griffin (It Pains Me to Say This)
Andy & Carolyn London (The Back Brace)
Suzan Pitt (El Doctor )
Chris Shepherd & David Shrigley (Who I Am and What I Want)
Debra Solomon (Everybody’s Pregnant)
Suzie Templeton (Dog)
JJ Villard (Son of Satan).

On the opening night, at the 8pm showing, there will be a Q&A with some of the film makers.