Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- A week or so ago, there was a gentle knock on my door. It was a messenger coming from Richard O’Connor, one of the proprietors of Asterisk Animation. He had sent me a gift of a little treasure book; one printed in Japan which contained dozens of cartoon caricatures of Yurij Norshtein and his staff. The cartons are done by Tanya Usvayskaya. Let me post her own introduction. I’ll follow that with two of the chapters from the book. The text is a bit hard to follow, so I’ll retype it below each cartoon to make it more legible.

Honourable friends!

Hello!

My name is Tanya Usvayskaya. I’m working and studying at the Studio of Yuri Borisovich Norshtein – one of the most eminent animation directors. In this book you can see my small sketches ‘from nature’ depicting our studio life and different reactions to our events.
You can meet all members of our small team, as same as our friends, guests and close relatives.

All these small memos have been drawn with the intention to brighten and cheer up each of us, but in the book they’ll help you to imagine that ‘concentrated solution’ where the cristals of our collective creative work are growing up.

Wishing a lot of joy to you I recall the words of little Yanochka to her grandfather Yuri Borisovich: ‘Grandad, I want so much everyone to be delighted’

Sincerely Yours, Tanya Usvayskaya

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“Gather around, all of you!”
Members of the studio prepare for
photography. Photgrapher id Jukovski.

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Norshtein is working and rinsing a bad tooth.
Zoia Trofimova, his student, is preparing her specialty, chicken broth. Zoia Trofimova is director of “PIPSQUEAK PRINCE.”

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“What is so funny?”
It happened on her first day in the studio for Natasha Baskakova.
It was very hot and Norshtein came to the studio with his shirt
tucked into his knee trousers.

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We have pressed the director’s shirt,
and slipped this paper into his pocket.
“The customer is King!”

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5a – His words while talking with Petrushevskaya, a writer on the phone.
In Russian “snimati” stands for either “shooting film” or “taking off clothes.”
Petrushevskaya wrote the scenario of “The Tale of
Tales” and “The Overcoat” together with Norshtein.

5b – “Every time I put it on or take off.
I do not know what I am taking off.”

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Director’s weekdays.
Early in the afternoon. He is meditating. It is a director’s job.

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A giant and a banana.
Norstein, a person with a large body frame,
is eating a small banana.

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8 – “Er, uhm, you know . . .”
Norstein said to us apologetically, scratching his head.
It is a signal he sends when he wants to have a cup of tea.

9 – “Like a sucking pig.”
Norshtein is talking on the telepone and scratching his nose.
Then he put his fingers into his nostrils.

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“Let’s dance, learn to tap, with your hands
and legs, and One, Two, Three.”
Sending fax to NATASHA GUTMAN in Spain.
“You are a true native of Barcelona!”

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“I love Russian Sugar!”
The director shot a CM for “Russian Sugar”.
He himself drinks crunching cube sugar.

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“Today is May 9th, Victory Day.”
During the World War II 27 million Soviet people were killed.
“A old soldier goes to the War” is a film about a fighter pilot in the war.
The pilot annihilated Fascism, and thanks to the Peace;
we will annihilate Blinui baked by Katya Sokolova, a student of Noshtein.

Blinui is made from milk, eggs and flour and baked with oil.
The traditional dish which sandwiches cavier, etc.

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“Say cheese!”
Meeting with a director, Alexander Sokurov, and a translator, Hiroku-san.
The photographer is Mr. Kosei Miya.

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“Where have you been?”
An essayist, Mr Kosei Miya, appeared suddenly.
Norshtein wrote an introduction for a photo album
published in Italy by Mr. Kosei Miya, a bohemian.

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“Congratulations!”
In FIFA World Cup 2002 Japan beat Russia one – nil.
Norshtein called Hiroko-san and sent this fax.

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“See you again, my friend.”
Those seeing them off are Pirat (the dog),
Tanya, Norshtein, Francheska and Marfa.

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“A Happpy Birthday!”
14th November 1999. A fax to Natasha Gutman.

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Ha-ha-ha
Hee-hee.

Yurij Borisovich said something offensive to Tanya and smiled with extreme satisfaction while Tanya took vengeance upon him by drawing this picture.
No one remembers what it was about,
and this picture remains.

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Yuri Borisovich went into a pond in November. those on the shore are
Pirat, Tanya, and Natasha Baskakova who is accusing him severely.
Then he says:
“Nonsense! Kolika would have praised this.”
(Kolika is Natasha’s husband.)

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20-1 Norshtein filled his mouth with a handful of raisins.
20-2 He chewed them toroughly and thoughtfully.
20-3 . . . I – i – i
20-4 Director sneezed. Everybody laughed

21 We all sat and were drinking tea.
Norshtein covered his nose with a handkerchief and said,
“Why? Simply, raisins are sweet.”

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“Yes, it is my grandchild!”
Yuri Borisovich came to the studio in the morning and said,
“Imagine, I have just met my Granddaughter, Yanochika, in the subway!”

What a gem of a present. Thank you, Richard.

- This is my mid-November reminder that Dec. 1st The Paley Center will will host a screening of Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. After the screening there will be a panel discussion which includes the following guests:
- Darrell Van Citters, Animator and Author of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making ____of the First Animated Christmas Special,
- Judy Levitow, Daughter of Magoo Director Abe Levitow
- Marie Matthews, Voice of “Young Scrooge”
- Moderator: Jack Doulin, of the New York Theatre Workshop.

The program starts at 6pm and general admission is $20. All guests will receive a complimentary DVD of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol. It’s a good antidote for the Robert Zemeckis version of Dickens’ story.

May I also recommend, again, Darrel van Citters’ excellent book, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special. I’ve long been a fan of the show (I collected reviews, promos anything prior to its initial airing) it was a treasure found when I got this excellent book. The head-to-head production, also directed by Abe Levitow, of Gay Purr-ee was strong material to read about. It’s a page turner of a book and filled with gorgeous illustrations.

- As long as we’re promoting Christmas Carols, Richard Williams’ tightly strung version of the story is still available in old vhs copies. You can also find the entire film (in four parts) on The Thief Archives on YouTube.

I remember Dick having a conversation with me about the brilliant animation Abe Levitow did on this film, and, indeed, I agree. In a film filled with stunningly beautiful animated illustrations, the only real character animation I found belonged to Levitow. The sequence wherein the ghost of Christmas Past opens his robe to reveal “ignorance” and “want” is the capper of the show.

I find the show a little too rushed to properly tell the story emotionally, and it’s an emotional story. But what’s there is as brillinat as anything Dick had done. In some ways, the artwork reminds me of the cross-hatched animation his Soho Square studio did for The Charge of the Light Brigade. (In fact, when I first saw the show in 1971, I wondered whether some of the birds in Christmas Carol were reused from Charge. I never learned the answer.)

The songs from Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol are principal in the success of that show.

When you’re alone, alone in the world
When you’re alone in the world
Blown-away leaves get blown in the world
Swirled-away leaves get swirled

And hand in each hand was made for the world
Where is the hand to reach for mine back
Where are the shoes that click to my clack
I’m all alone in the world

Millions of grains of sand in the world
Why such a lonely beach?

A hand for each hand was planned for the world
Why don’t my fingers reach?
Millions of grains of sand in the world
Why’s mine a lonely beach?

Where are the heels to click to my clack?
Where is the voice to answer mine back?
I’m all alone in the WOOOOORLD!!!

- Here are the illustrations for Tooooot! which is a book illustrated by Paul Julian in 1958 to a text by Betty lou LaWell.

It’s a two color book (black and blue) as were many books of the period. I’m always amazed at how much illustrators of the time got out of the limited color printing. So many big books (by the likes of Dr. Seuss, Bernard Waber, Maurice Sendak among others) were published at the time with more imagination than many of the current books with full color.

The artwork, unlike his other book Piccoli, is composed of graceful and delicate line drawings with the simple, flat color. The work looks very much a part of the brilliant illustrations and art coming out of the 50s, influenced by Ben Shahn and Gregorio Prestopino.

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- I enjoy thumbing through the Art Director’s Annuals. There’s a lot of amazing illustration to view with plenty of ideas and sharp graphics on display. I have, as a good example of these hard-covered catalogues, the 1957 issue. 90% of the book is composed of illustration in the different advertising fields. A small section is devoted to TV spots and illustration. Naturally, I have a strong interest in this section.

Editorial Art, Advertising Art and Television Art all get their chapters.
Here is a pictoral list of the winners in animation for the TV commercials awards in 1957. A number of these spots have remained familiar (at least as images in old animation books – like Halas’ Technique of Film Animation.)

The biggest prize went to John Hubley’s Maypo commercial.

Storyboard Inc. – producer
John Hubley – Director & Art Director
Emery Hawkins – animator

Ford commercial
Playhouse Pictures – producer
Bill Melendez – director
Sterling Sturtevant – Art Director
Bill Littlejohn – animator

Jello
Ray Patin Productions – producer
Sonia Linker – Art Director
Maurice Sendak – artist

Maxwell House
Audio Productions Inc. – producer
Jerome Kuhl – artist

Piels Brothers Beer
UPA – producer
Jack Sidebotham – art director
Chris Ishii – designer

5 Day Deoderant
Storyboard Inc – producer
John Hubley – art director
Art Babbitt – animator

Jello Baby
Ray Patin Productions – producer
Ruchard Vab Benthem – artist
Ken Champin – photographer

Lorna Doone
Bill Sturm Studio
Frank Broadhurst – art director

The Lion and the Mouse – Prudential
Storyboard Inc. – producer
John Hubley – director
Art Babbitt & Emery Hawkins – animation

Coors Beer
UPA – producer
Jules Engel – director
Fred Crippen – art director

Scott Paper Co.
UPA – producer
Jack Goodford – art director
Grim Natwick, Sam Wiggenhorn – animators

Donahue Sales Corp.
UPA – producer
Jack Goodford, Chris Ishii – art directors
Cliff Roberts – animator

- I’ve been a fan of the panel cartoonist, Lou Myers, for ever. His work makes me laugh. His drawing style looks like art to me, and that makes me laugh, too. He has a numbner of books on the market that collect his cartoons.

His book, Absent & Accounted For, is a good sampling of his work. I pulled it off my shelf last week and it got me laughing. So I thought I’d give you a few of the cartoons in the book. It’s a gem, published in 1980. Lots of therapists and sex jokes. Here are some of the therapy gags.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Some of Lou Myers other books include:
When Life Falls It Falls Upside Down, Christmas Favorites, Ha Ha Ha Hyenas, and Tutti Frutti.

- On Tuesday, Dec 1 The Paley Center in New York will host a screening of Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. After the screening there will be a panel discussion which includes the following guests:
- Darrell Van Citters, Animator and Author of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making ____of the First Animated Christmas Special,
- Judy Levitow, Daughter of Magoo Director Abe Levitow
- Marie Matthews, Voice of “Young Scrooge”
- Moderator: Jack Doulin, of the New York Theatre Workshop.

The program starts at 6pm and general admission is $20. All guests will receive a complimentary DVD of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol.

I’ll post this again as we get closer to the date, but you might want to buy tickets in advance for this special program. Hopefully you’ll have the dvd at hand to wash out the taste of the all-Jim Carrey version coming to a theater near you.

- This announcement gives me the opportunity of recommending, again, Darrel van Citters’ excellent book, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special. Reading this attractive book gave me new insights into the program as well as the production of animation in the relatively early era of tv production. There’s a wealth of behind-the-scenes material about the production from concept to completion.

Some bits:

As a fan of Jule Styne‘s work, I find it remarkable the amount of information given about this composer as well as his score for this show. Styne and Bob Merrill were writing FUNNY GIRL for Broadway at the same time, and found themselves bogged down with producton delays. They took the UPA cartoon because they thought it’d be fun and they’d be able to squeeze it in before their Broadway show got up and running again. They also thought they could make a quick buck. Of course, the music gives the show the weight it needs with solid, strong tunes. (There were also a few others asked before Styne was selected.)

Abe Levitow was directing Gay Purr-ee at the exact same time he was doing Magoo’s Christmas Carol. This presented logistic problems which are detailed here in an entertaining read.


Gerard Baldwin had only two weeks to animate the “Despicables” song.
He completed the sequence, which was one of the highlights of the show, on time.

Shirley Silvey had a limited amount of time away from her work on The Bullwinkle Show. She used it to design the story board for Magoo and help in the early stages of the show’s Layouts.

A Shirley Silvey storyboard drawing alongside a matching Layout by Sam Weiss.

It’s a good read with lots of the business side mixed in with the artistry. Darrell Van Citters is a Producer/Director/Animator by day. Consequently, the informed animation reader feels in safe hands throughout the book. He knows what rocks to turn over, and his curiosities in this film are ours. He talks about the things you want to know, and he opens up avenues you didn’t expect to see explored. Van Citters financed this book, himself; he believes in it, and you feel that from the first page. It’s a fine book.

- In the past I’ve posted the series of booklets that Disney released via the Art Corner at Disneyland. How To Draw Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto have been posted. The only one left is How To Draw Chip & Dale. Thanks to Bill Peckmann, I can post this last booklet.

The past booklets I posted were actually rereleased publications that were stapled together and handed out at the Lincoln Center celebration for all things Disney back in 1973.
This Chip & Dale book, however, is the real thing. It was an original published in 1955.

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This is the inner cover which iss a thin cardboard.
as opposed to the yellow pages of paper.

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The directions tell you to flip the pages to see the movement.

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However this page is printed on the back of page 15,
and it’s impossible to flip. It doesn’t matter since the two drawings
aren’t registered to each other and flipping doesn’t work.

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This page appears in all of the booklets.

Here’s a QT of the walk cycle on pg 12.

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]

Chip cycle on threes.
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

Go here to see the lecture series posts:
Mickey / Donald / Goofy / Pluto
Here to see How To Draw Mickey.
Here to see How To Draw Donald.
Here to see How To Draw Pluto.
Here to see How To Draw Goofy (Jenny Lerew‘s Blackwing Diaries.)

I once pointed out that a good walk should be drawn
with the two feet a distance apart from each other.
This creates a sense of depth in that walk. You might look
for this when you see other walks on line. You’ll be
surprised at how many professionals do it and how many
beginners don’t. Lately the latter is beating the former.

- As posted yesterday, the illustrations of Vernon Grant gave us the cereal icons Snap, Crackle and Pop. After they helped make Rice Krispies an enormous success, Kelloggs employed Grant to illustrate Mother Goose nursery rhymes which graced the back of the packages.

Again, these pictures brought more success for the cereal company, and they ultimately brought them to a publisher to bind all of Grant’s illustrations in one book.

The result was the book that appears to the right. Vernon Grant’s Mother Goose is still available some 70 years later. He also had a second book, Vernon Grant’s Santa Claus.

Grant was a graduate of Chouinard Art Institute. While most of his classmates headed to Disney’s studio to break into animation, Grant went East to New York where he sought advertising work and illustration jobs. He had some modest success with his gnome characters which finally led to the Kellogg’s job where his life’s work was set.

The Mother Goose book contains 25 illustrated pages; each page contains an illustration accompanied by the Mother Goose rhyme. These are the illustrations below:

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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

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Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

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Tom Tom the Piper’s Son / Deedle Deedle Dumpling

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Little Jack Horner / Jack Sprat could eat no fat

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Old King Cole was a merry old soul . Sing a song of sixpence

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There was an old woman of Harrow

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Old woman in the shoe / A wise old owl lived in an oak

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Humpty Dumpty/ Peter Peter Pumpkin eater

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Jerry Hall / A crooked sixpence

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Rain Rain Go Away / Three men in a tub

(Note that the three men in the tub are Grant’s Snap Crackle and Pop.

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Nose Nose, Jolly red nose / Ladybug Ladybug

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Simple Simon and the Pieman

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Friday Night’s Dream / How many miles to Babylon

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Little Tee Wee

Thaks, again, go to Bill Peckmann for the introduction to Vernon Grant as well as the loan of the book.

The original Snap, Crackle and Pop

- Vernon Grant was the designer of the three elves who’ve appeared on the Rice Krispies package since 1928.

Snap, Crackle and Pop have gone through many incarnations since their debut. Their ears and noses have been reduced and softened, and their costumes have changed significantly.

Two other variations found on liine. The left animated at Playhouse Pictures in the Fifties.

A couple of commercials can be found on YouTube. Naturally enough, the quality degenerates chronologically.
#1, #2, #3, #4, #5

In 1939, Snap, Crackle and Pop starred in a short called Breakfast Pals. In the 1½ minute film, the three elves have to fight another three elves: Soggy, Mushy and Toughy. Ultimately, our heroes roll the bizzaro elves into a syrupy pancake and prepare Rice Krispie cereal for two boys sharing a sleep-over.

The film was made by Cartoon Films Ltd. This was the last incarnation of Ub Iweerks’ own studio. He was, at the time, making some short films for Columbia.

Soggy, Mushy and Toughy fight Snap Crackle & Pop

In 1939, the Kelloggs Corporation sent this letter which talks of other illustrations by Vernon Grant. Mother Goose rhymes were added to the package backs and became very popular. Kellogs sought to publish them.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

This is the subsequent book, which became
quite successful and is still available.

I’ll post the illustrations for the book tomorrow.
The letter and book are courtesy of Bill Peckmann to whom many thanks are offered.

- I continue, today, with my posting of the book published from the setups of the John & Faith Hubley film Zuckerkandl!. This book was released by Grove Press in1968. It’s an adaptation of the comic lecture by Robert Maynard Hutchins espousing the philosophies of one, Alexander Zuckerkandl, M.D., Ph. D.

The artwork for the film was done wholly with Sharpie markers and Design markers. All of them bled through the Bristol paper for the backgrounds and the animation paper (cut out and glued to cels). All backgrounds were done by John Hubley. The animation was done by Vinnie Bell, Shamus Culhane, Tissa David, and Bill Littlejohn. The inking was by Faith Hubley, and coloring was by Nina Di Gangi & Sara Calogero.

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Saints

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Sinners

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Audience

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Back Cover

I have some more artwork for this film which I hope to put up soon.