Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Dumbo was on Toon Disney last night. Since there was little on TV other than the non-News about another terrorist attack, I chose to watch it (for about the 200th time) again.

What a little gem that film is. There will never be anything comparable in my lifetime. It’s so beautifully animated, designed and constructed.

The Tytla scene of Jumbo Jr. running about under his mother’s legs, after his bath, is far and away my favorite animated scene. So simple; so beautiful.
Oliver Wallace’s musical theme for the baby is introduced here; it’s perfect.

But then, they cut to commercials. Tarzan is on tonight. What a jolt to cut from Dumbo to the flatter animation in Tarzan. I enjoyed parts of that film, but the animation is too often jerking from extreme to extreme without really developing character. It didn’t hold up in the sudden comparison. How could it? But then, that was better than the flash animated series Toon Disney is also promoting.

Then there were ads for an insurance company! Over and Over and Over again. In the middle of the afternoon, cutting through Dumbo? That media buyer had better be looking for a new job.

I couldn’t watch anymore and had to leave the film. I’ll watch the dvd again soon. (The commentary track featuring John Canemaker – alone – has to be the best commentary track of any Disney film. A first rate job by John.)

Who Let The Dogs Out?
- As a post script to the note I had the other day about the MTV flash-animated show “Where My Dogs At?”, a response has come from MTV about the future of the show. Here’s the AP link. MTV is not supporting their show. No one there seemed to notice the sexist/racist overtones prior to the press’ comments, and now they’re distancing themselves from the blame.

Jim Hill Media has given a lot of space to a three part article on The Ant Bully. Somehow I haven’t had the patience to get into this film. It was done by the Jimmy Neutron/Olive the Reideer people, DNA Productions.

The pluses for this show come with Tom Hanks, the producer. He has a good nose for a script and probably pulled the most from the material. The cast includes Meryl Streep, whose voice is probably the only element that would get me to watch.

The minuses are in the graphics. Everything I’ve seen of this film is ugly. The design is just not good. These look like ants out of ANTZ, and they didn’t look like ants. I’ve also not seen anything by DNA Productions that’s gotten me to sit through an entire film. Their art direction usually seems so flat to me.

I know; I’m unfair. I should be forced to at least see it before I judge. I think the problem is that I don’t have the patience for these talk down to/soup up the kids films anymore. Shouldn’t there be some room for something other than Monster Houses, and Ant Bullies? I just saw an ad for Barnyard – another one. They’re all looking alike to me: little rubbery dolls that float around little rubbery settings. Cars had great graphics, but the script was a retread, and the soundtrack was screaming LOUD.

Where is the gentle side? The one we saw in Dumbo and Pinocchio and Lady & The Tramp. Iron Giant had it; so did Toy Story. The first half of The Incredibles did, too.

You know, I’m even starting to bore myself; ignore this post and come back tomorrow.

- Today’s NYTimes includes an extensive article about Tom Hanks and his production company, Playtone.

- The National Film Board of Canada has put 50 of their films online for free viewing. These are some of the greatest shorts out there, and I commend everyone to check it out.
Caroline Leaf’s three films are must viewing. As are Sheldon Cohen’s The Sweater, Richard Condie’s The Big Snit . . . As a matter of fact, try to watch them all. They’re fabulous films.

Go here for a full listing.

- The Ottawa Animation Festival has listed their accepted entries for the 2006 competition. For a complete list of films go: here. (I had intended to list those accepted from NY, but I wasn’t able to ascertain all of the New Yorkers included – so I went National.) This is a list of those films made in the USofA:

Independent Short Animation Competition
Narrative Short Animation under 35 minutes

A Painful Glimpse Into My Writing Process (In Less Than 60 Seconds) (2005) Chel White
The Doctor (El Doctor) / Suzan Pitt
It Pains Me to Say This (2006) George Griffin

Experimental / Abstract Animation under 35 minutes

Backyard Shadow (2006) Karl Staven
Copenhagen Cycles (2006) Eric Dyer
Game Over (2006) PES

Student Animation Competition
High School Animation

Goin’ Hotdoggin’ (2005) Anabel Rodriguez
Kaz Lichtenstein (2005) Kultur Woolf
Liam (2005) California State Summer School for the Arts
The Mind of the Animator (2005) George Ilavsky
Mr. Smith (2005) Carolyn Chrisman

Undergraduate Animation

By Volume (2006) Philip Woods
Morning, Day, Evening, Night and Morning Again (2006) Lev Polakov
Songs From the Haven of Despair / Jazzmen Lee-Johnson
The Possum (2005) Chris Choy

Commissioned Animation Competition
Promotional Animation

Ad Council ‘Give Blood’ (2006) JJ Sedelmaier
Comedy Central ‘Robogirl vs. Spankbot’ (2005) Michael Uman & Luis Blanco
Dodge ‘Focus Group’ (2006) Brian Beletic
Dodge ‘Hemi the Engine’ (2006) JJ Sedelmaier
FedEx ‘Stick’ (2006) Traktor
Fellowship Bible Church ‘Go Out To The Lobby’ (2006) JJ Sedelmaier
Oxigen ‘Oh Style!’ (2006) Beatriz Ramos
United Airlines ‘Dragon’ (2006) Jamie Calire
United Airlines ‘Mr. Pants’ (2005) Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby
Washington Dept. of Health ‘Rec Room’ (2005) Chel White

Music Video

Jason Forrest ‘War Photographer’ (2005) Joel Trussell

Television Animation for Adults

The Brothers Pistov (2005) / Dan Sousa & Lincoln Pierce
Harvey Birdman, ‘Sebben & Sebben Employee Orientation’ (2005) Rich Ferguson-Hull
Journey to the Disney Vault (2006) R. Marianetti, D.Wachtenheim & G. Steinmacher

New Media Competition
Animation Short Made for the Internet

2-0-5 (2005) Greg Spiridellis & Evan Spiridellis
A Good Joke (2005) Nick-Fox Gieg
It’s JerryTime! ‘Jailtime For Jerry’ (2005) Orrin Zucker
It’s JerryTime! ‘The Brute’ (2006) Orrin Zucker
ePrey (2005) Tom Kyzivat

Animation Made for Children
Short Animation Made for Children

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (2006) Michael Sporn
Pass the Pinha! (2005) Elanna Allen

Television Animation for Children

Camp Lazlo ‘Tree Hugger’ (2006) Mike Roth
Codename: Kids Next Door ‘Operation: L.I.C.O.R.I.C.E.’ (2006) Mr. Warburton

-Tonight on PBS there will be a documentary on Tin Tin creator, Herge. The show has gotten some attention. This is today’s NYTimes review.

– Currently I’ve been reading Didier Ghez‘ three volume set of books Walt’s People: Talking Disney with the Animators Who Knew Him. There’s a lot of good information in these interviews. There are inaccuracies galore in the animators’ memories – as is expected from all interviews -, but the editors correct the information at the end of each interview. Presently, I’ve been reading Ward Kimball’s comments about the Disney strike. He seems very defensive as if he wants to make sure he’s on both sides of the fence.

One bit he said was that John Hubley and John McLeish were making a documentary about the strike and were disappointed to have not been able to screen it. As Kimball says, “. . .they agreed we shouldn’t open old wounds.” This could have been possible. I knew, while I was working for him, that Hubley had a lot of 16mm footage of the strike, and I saw a lot of still photos. I hadn’t heard, till reading this book, that they were trying to make a professional documentary. Still, given the many inaccuracies in Kimball’s comments, I’m not sure that it was real.

Art Babbitt’s view of the strike is much more engaging. There is no doubt that a reality is behind his memories. They’re all so exact and detailed. It makes for a captivating read.

I’m looking forward to Tom Sito‘s book, Drawing the Line. This is an informed history of the unionization of the artists in animation. I’d read parts of this in an advance manuscript Tom had shown me and found a lot of new material. I suspect I’ll find a lot more in the final book when it hits the market in October. An excellent piece of history from a dedicated historian.

- Last night Pee Wee’s Playhouse invaded Adult Swim/Cartoon Network. It’ll air Mon-Thurs at 11pm. I love this show; I love Pee Wee Herman; I love that it was done in NYC (the first and best season). I doubt I’ll watch the reruns.

I could complain about live action on the
C – A – R – T – O – O – N NETWORK , but the whole notion of such a complaint seems tiresome at this point.
(And I did that already.)

At least Pee Wee’s Playhouse had some funny animation wrapped into each show and it was done (in NY) by Broadcast Arts, a good animation studio that ultimately became Curious Pictures.

And it’s not Saved By The Bell.

– I’m going to continue to defend Richard Linklater’s film A Scanner Darkly (at least until I see it next week.)

The director made one of my two favorite films of the last couple of years with Before Sunset. The rotoscoping technique will not make or break this film.

Like cgi or 2D animation, it’s just a technique. If it’s used to good effect, it’ll help the film; if it’s used to bad effect, it’ll hurt.

I read a letter on Animation Nation yesterday in which the writer was crazed over the idea of seeing a film in which they copy live-action. I wonder if he had the same problem with King Kong where a live action actor did all the principal motion for the gorilla. Motion Capture, to me, veers too far from animation to make it interesting solely as a technique. When the movie studio is trying to get an Oscar nomination for the live actor, I have to wonder if I should even call that technique animation. Yet, if it’s used in as good a way as those GEICO ads, where incredibly subtle motion just about makes the spots brilliant, then the technique is excellent.

Yes, I had many more problems with King Kong than the Motion Capture. The technique didn’t help or hurt my feelings for the film. The length, the direction, the script: these made me not enjoy the movie.

The same is true for A Scanner Darkly. I was totally mesmerized with Waking Life and found myself watching it several times in its repeat showings on television. What’s the film saying and how is it doing that. This is all I really want to know.

- At the box office the film did respectably well with $7700 per theater at only 17 theaters. Pirates of the Caribbean made $7600 per theater at over 4000 theaters.

- I doubt there will be a large outcry for the posts that were lost in my site’s glitch (The Letterman comics, the pages from my John Gardner illustrations), so I probably won’t rush to put them back up. Maybe when things get quiet.

- As a Yankee fan, I kinda enjoyed the Red Sox fighting against Chicago’s White Sox for 19 exhausting innings yesterday. Too bad they get a four day break after that game.

– Grendel, the opera, directed and adapted by Julie Taymor from John Gardner‘s novel recently opened in San Francisco to good reviews. There’s an excellent review on the site The Lemmings Were Here, and there’s another by animation composer, Ross Care, at Music From The Movies. (You’ll remember Ross’ commentary on the Bambi dvd.)

The opera is set to open July 11th at Lincoln Center as part of its Lincoln Center Festival.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)

For those long-hearted animation afficionados, you’ll remember that there was an animated feature based on this same book. Grendel Grendel Grendel was an Australian film directed by Alexander Stitt. Stitt was a commercial director/producer down under. He put all his chips into this film and gave it a dynamic style. As a matter of fact, his house style seemed to be limited animation without outlines on his characters. Unfortunately, the script and the direction was bland, and the dynamic book died as a film. It also wasn’t distributed widely, nor was it marketed well.

At the bottom of this page, I’ve included a saved copy of the NYDaily News review, in case you’re interested.
I have some interest in this opera and animated film because of my connection to the book.

Back in 1976, when I’d first started working at Raggedy Ann & Andy, I was thoroughly grabbed by the book and felt that it would make a wonderful animated feature. I did the unconscionable move of the innocent; I wrote to the author, John Gardner, c/o his publisher. I told him that we could make a great film and would somehow raise the money. It wasn’t the greatest concern. (I said I was innocent.)

Believe it or not, John Garder wrote back and said he was interested. The fact that I’d worked on one of his favorite animated shorts, Cockaboody, gave him a bit more interest in me. We eventually hooked up, and he gave me a couple of stories to tell just with that first evening when we met at his home in Bennington, Vermont. It was a real trial of an evening which ended with an all night bout of martini drinking and conversation.

I ended up with the rights to the book, and John Gardner, himself, would write the screenplay. The problem was that I was that innocence I spoke of. A real neophyte, I didn’t raise the money, and the project stagnated in my hands.
I came close when an executive at United Artists was sold on it, and wanted to go. She was a real mover in the company and had clout. Unfortunately, UA collapsed in scandal, and MGM bought the company outright eliminating all execs, including my contact. I came close in selling it to Cinema V, who had just had a good hit in Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky.

I have no doubt that I would be able to sell it today if I went out with the materials I had in hand and that selling point, John Gardner’s name. I’d also found a couple of celebrities who were willing to connect to it – including Paul McCartney. But it wasn’t to happen.

Gardner had a hard divorce, came down with cancer (which he overcame), and owed a lot of back taxes. He had to sell the project to an Australian filmmaker who offered cash. My last ditch effort before he sold it was to call Roger Corman. Corman took my call (the magic of John Gardner’s name) and tried to think how we could raise, at least, the $25,000 to secure the rights. He asked me to give him a week. At the end of the week, Corman decided to let it go, and I had to surrender.

I did get invited to the Alexander Stitt film when it played in NYC. It only stayed at that one theater for a couple of weeks, then it too disappeared. But I got an interesting lesson in life. I also have some incredible memories of John Gardner; I illustrated a couple of his books.

I look forward to Julie Taymor’s opera.

A Scanner Darkly opens on July 11. This is the animated film adapted by Richard Linklater from the Philip K. Dick story. It’s done in the same rotoscoped style (or whatever computer folk call it) used in Waking Life.

There’s an unusual side story to the opening of this film. I caught this article in Saturday’s NY Times: A Strange Loss of Face, More Than Embarrassing.

The “Face” in the headline is really the head of a robot designed by “computer whiz, David Hanson”. This was an android version of the late author, P.K. Dick. The robot would sit and answer questions in a presumably lifelike manner.

Hanson enroute to LA accidentally left the head on his plane in an American Tourister rollaway bag. When he called the airline, they’d located the head, put the bag in a box (so they said) and shipped it to the owner. Unfortunately, the head never arrived .

Gone was the interview between Letterman and the robot-P.K. Dick. Gone were the personal appearances. How did it affect the publicity plan for A Scanner Darkly? My favorite line in the article comes at the end. A studio exec said, “He was perfect for the film. Now he’s disappeared — and that’s perfect for the film too.”
(The robot-head.)

Real life.

- Mark Kennedy has been posting some beautiful thumbnails by Bill Peet on his blog, Temple of the Seven Golden Camels. These drawings from Sword In The Stone are an inspiration. By the way, if you don’t own Bill Peet’s autobiography, you’re missing out on one of the great books available.

– AWN has an interesting (though somewhat dated) article about a seminar held at School of Visual Arts to hear what came of some of its more luminous animation graduates.

(pictured) Tom Sito, John Dilworth, Yvette Kaplan, Chris Chris Prynoski and Alex Kupershmidt responded to questions which were compiled by AWN writer, Joe Strike.

The program was part of an exhibit of art by the ex-students of SVA. I reviewed the art and the opening here though I didn’t get to the seminar.

- I’d also recommend everyone go to Oscar Grillo‘s blog. He has some beautifully drawn images of his take on some classic comic strips. I’d love to see some animated film versions of the characters as they look here. This man is an artist.

- On my Lou Bunin posting, Mark Mayerson asked: “Somewhere I remember seeing a drawn walk cycle of a dodo bird that Art Babbitt did for Bunin’s feature.”
The answer came from Mark Harding: “The Babbit cycle is on page 189 of Shamus Culhane’s Animation, From Script to Screen.”

I thought I’d post these two pages from that book. There are two more of these studies for Bunin’s film, and the book includes an enormous wealth of other animation referential material. It’s a must-own for animation fans.

(Click either image to enlarge.)

- Following up on Saturday’s entry about Lou Bunin, I thought I’d bring a little note of attention to another master working in this medium, 3D animation, today.

Barry Purves has made a number of absolutely beautiful films and has created in his own studio some masterfully realized pieces. His work has a discriminating taste, graceful and controlled movement with superb acting, and an intelligence that is rarely found in animation today.

He was nominated for the Academy Award for his film Screenplay, a virtuoso work which follows the rules of Kabuki theater and presents a double-layered story of a man watching and revealing a story from his past which eventually rips through the past and tears at the present. It’s a work of animated puppetry, displayed as theater and a stunning film that should have won its Oscar.

Rigoletto presents the opera in a condensed version that has been reduced for television. It’s a packed half-hour which places you into the full opera and allows you to follow it without any confusion. It has a majesty in its sweeping and dynamic camera moves which whisk you along in the luscious music; they carry you along through the depths of the complex story. It’s a wonderful film that certainly grows richer with each viewing.

Other works he’s done include a wonderful film about Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models gives us the pair as seen through the eyes of D’Oyle Carte. A rich and entertaining diary into the making of this film can be found on AWN and a short clip of the film is available there as well.

As a matter of fact, I found his diary there so entertaining, I’ve also followed the diary he keeps on his own website.

You can get a small glimpse of Barry Purves‘ craft by viewing the clip reel at Acme Filmworks. But you’re left without the full heft of his work until you’ve seen the complete storytelling ability he presents in the whole films.

– Those in New York this Sunday can attend a world premiere. Xeth Feinberg‘s QUEER DUCK: THE MOVIE will be released as a DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in July.

However, there’s a theatrical screening this coming Sunday, June 4th at the AMC Loew’s 34th Street as part of the 18th New York LGBT Film Festival. The film will show at 5:30 PM. Writer Mike Reiss will be there for a brief intro and Q & A.

The feature includes cameos by Tim Curry, Conan O’Brien, David Duchovny, Bruce Vilanch and Andy Dick and includes more than a dozen musical numbers. It was directed and animated by Xeth Feinberg.

There is an extensive interview with Xeth at Cold Hard Flash.
You can pre-purchase the DVD at Amazon in advance of its July release.

- On Saturday ABC will present a special program.

Per Leslie Iwerks: The recent project I wrote, directed and executive produced, Pixar’s 20th Anniversary Special, will be airing on the Wonderful World of Disney Saturday June 3rd from 8-11pm on ABC, along with the showing of Toy Story. It features John Ratzenberger as a traffic cop in hot pursuit of Lightning McQueen, the upcoming star of Pixar’s newest movie, CARS.
And please also keep an eye out for my upcoming Pixar feature documentary (The Pixar Story) that should be released before the end of the year.
(Click image to enlarge.)