Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- This week we’ve seen the first draft of a storyboard for the Disney short, Toot Whistle Plunk & Boom. I’ll follow it up with the second version of the board (next Monday), however that doesn’t reveal the film that finally ends up on the screen.

These are some story sketches that were done for the final version of the film. I have enough of them that it’ll make at least two – possibly three – posts to get them all in. I’m also attaching some frame grabs designed specifically to show how some of the art ended up as it appears in the film.

This material is on loan from John Canemaker‘s collection, and I couldn’t be more grateful, certainly in light of the interest I have in this 1953 film.

Needless to say, the film was directed by Ward Kimball.
I’m not sure who did these drawings, but the Art Director was Ken O’Connor, Assistant Art Director was Victor Haroush, the Character Styling was by Tom Oreb, and the Color Styling was by Eyvind Earle.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

The board art calls for a number of different shots/cuts;

whereas the film has few cuts within this sequence.

Obviously this was done because of Cinemascope. Kimball understood
that overactive cutting in Scope created a different effect than desired.

This drawing and the one below were combined into one scene.

however, the payoff for the gag was different as . . .

. . . the Pharoah bops the caveman’s head with the Egyptian horn.

“Bach” and “Bop” are labeled in the story sketches.

The film just plays their scenes.

Cinemascope allowed Kimball to combine scenes that would have
been separate had they been in a traditional film.

I’m not sure if the art was placed in any particular order.
The order has no relation to where it actually ended up in the film.

And yet the film feels so finely tuned and well constructed.

The Scope format allowed for a lot of play in composition,
and Kimball took advantage of it.

Needless to say, there’s more to come.

- Here is the second installment of the first, preliminary storyboard for what would become Toot Whistle Plunk & Boom. You can see how little of the magic was in this board, yet it obviously inspired others to keep it alive and make it work. Ward Kimball has to get most of the credit, though designs by Tom Oreb, Ken O’Connor, Eyvind Earle and Victor Haboush sure brought it to life.

John Canemaker deserves all the kudos he gets for lending this material to me as well as plenty more.

Here are the three remaining boards as they appeared on the stats:

3
(Click any image to enlarge.)

4

5

Now here’s the breakdown of the boards. Each row of images is split in two and labelled accordingly. #31a means Board 3 row 1 part a.

31a

31b

32a

32b

33a

33b

34a

34b

35a
Finally, something familiar.

35b

I’ll have a later, more relevant board up next week. As well as plenty of color artwork later this week.

Ward Jenkins has posted some beautiful frame grabs from the completed film. Go here.

See this short on YouTube here.

- Our Adventures in Music continue with the preliminary storyboard for what would ultimately become Toot Whistle Plunk & Boom. This is another board on loan from the archives of John Canemaker, and you can see the outgrowth from the prior film, Melody: Adventures in Music.

This material I’m posting here is on large photostat copies. The problem is that the images are a bit fuzzy, and the text beneath the boards is illegible. In some cases, the appropriate text has been hand written on the copies themselves.

This board is the first of two that I have, and it is five pages in size. Here are two.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

These are breakdowns of each row of the two boards so that the images can be made as large as possible.

11a

11b

12a

12b

13a

13b

14a

14b

15a

15b

21a

21b

22a

22b

23a

23b

24a

24b

25a

25b

I’ll have the remainder of the board up tomorrow.
.
Ward Jenkins has posted some beautiful frame grabs from the completed film. Go here.

Here’s the final part of the revised storyboard for the Disney short, Melody: Adventures In Music. This version of the board was done in April ’52 and is closer to the final film (which was done in 3D.) See Part 1 here.

You’ll remember that I posted the first version of the board for this film in two parts here: Part 1 and Part 2. Many thanks to John Canemaker for the loan of all this material.

Here’s the whole board:

You’ll note that this board is configured oddly. You’ll also note that on each of the two photos there is a “THE END” card. I can only assume these are alternate endings.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Now, here is my breakdown of the board, trying to keep the size as large as possible so that you can read it.

31a
You’ll notice as you look through this part of the board that a lot of the
artwork sketches I posted in the past two weeks are displayed here.
Art part 1 and Art part 2

31b

32a

32b

32c

33a

34a

34b

34c

35a

35b

35c

41a

41b

42a

42b

43a

43b

44a

44b

45a

45b

Next week, TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK & BOOM

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- Last week, I concluded with the original storyboard for Melody: Adventures In Music.
Now, I’d like to present the new and improved, revised version which was done in April ’52. This one is closer to the final film (which was done in 3D.)

As with all the other posted Diseny boards, a large bow of thanks is owed to John Canemaker for lending me this material from his collection.

Here, as usual, I offer the original boards as photographed:

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Now, here are the rows of the board broken so as to post them as large as possible.

11a

11b

12a

12b

13a

13b

14a

14b

15a

15b

16a

16b

21a

21b

22a

22b

23a

23b

24a

24b

25a

25b

26a

26b

The remainder of this board will be posted next Monday.

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- Having completed posting the first storyboard to the Disney short, Melody: Adventures In Music I’d like to complete my posting of the preliminary art and boards for this film. I’d displayed the first half of this artwork last week.

Needless to say, John Canemaker has to be thanked many times over for lending me this rare material from his collection.

When the images have pegs on them (the black ones), I’ve given a complete scan in the enlarged version.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Let me also repeat the following information. You can find frame grabs from this short on Ward Jenkins‘ site, The Ward-O-Matic.
MELODY is included in the Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities dvd set and it is also found in the bonus features of the Fantasia 2000 dvd.

The film is also on YouTube (at the moment) in not the best condition.

- Last week I posted the first part of the storyboard to the Disney short, Melody: Adventures in Music. This is another gem loaned to me by John Canemaker. It’s the first board to this short and has only some resemblance to the actual film.

Next week, I’ll post a second board for the same film, one that looks very different and more like the final cartoon.

I’ve also posted some of the artist sketches for the film and will have more of those later this week.

Here are the last two storyboard panels in full size:

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Here are the rows of this board broken into halves so that I can get you the largest possible images:

31a

31b

32a

32b

33a

33b

41a

41b

42a

42b

43a

43b

44a

44b

You can find frame grabs from this short on Ward Jenkins‘ site, The Ward-O-Matic.
MELODY is included in the Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities dvd set and it is also found in the bonus features of the Fantasia 2000 dvd.

- When posting the storyboards from Melody: Adventures In Music, that were loaned me by John Canemaker, last Monday I mentioned that John had also offered some artwork from the film – color keys and story sketches. I’ll post these in two parts: the first here, the second next week after completing the board.

Unfortunately, I don’t know who the artists were that painted these.
Eyvind Earle is credited as Color Stylist; Ken O’Connor and Victor Haboush were credited for Art Direction.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

To be concluded next week.
.
You can find frame grabs from this short on Ward Jenkins‘ site, The Ward-O-Matic.
MELODY is included in the Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities dvd set and it is also found in the bonus features of the Fantasia 2000 dvd.

The film is also on YouTube (at the moment) in not the best condition.

- John Canemaker has loaned me two storyboards for the Disney film, Melody: Adventures in Music. The second is a very different version of the first. I don’t know who did the drawings for this board, but the images are very finished looking. There’s also not much to hint that this version was to be done in 3D.

John also gave me a lot of color sketches and models from this board. Some of those will follow later this week.

As in the past, I’ve posted these by showing the full board, then by breaking it up into columns. This allows me to show off the boards at the largest I can get it. So here are the first two of four boards from the first version of the storyboard:

And here are these two boards broken down:

11a

11b

12a

12b

13a

13b

14a

14b

21a

21b

22a

22b

23a

23b

24a

24b

The remainder of the storyboards for this short will be posted next Monday.
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The following is a continuation of the piece that was posted last Friday. This is the remainder of Irv Spector‘s storyboard for the Paramount short, Galaxia. Paul Spector, Irv’s son, is the author of this piece. Paul’s notes, comments and more docs follow the storyboard.

Notes from Paul Spector:

Following are a few more Paramount/Famous items that of possible interest that my father boarded and sometimes animated as well. Some might make good accompanying pieces, or good for comparison, if you own the Harveytoons DVD, as that lacks any substantial info/extras. In a couple of these I’ve exposed my father’s ledger from this era (remember, he was freelancing) for the voyeur in you…and me.

What was the pay? The item on top named “Boris” is Galaxia, before it had a permanent title. The two Cats beneath it are different cartoons _________(Click to read full page)
using a repeating character during the same period.

L’Amour the Merrier (1957, Noveltoon). My father wasn’t above recycling his own themes. Preceding Galaxia by several years, in this, the matchmaker introduces himself as Louis Jacques Honore Napoleon Renoir. Hector the Garbage Collector wants to marry the kingdom’s princess. Renoir ends up with the princess, Hector with Renoir’s sister.

(click any image to enlarge.)

Le Petite Parade (1959, Modern Madcap). The title of this cartoon is the answer to one of the more frequently encountered questions on cartoon websites: “Does anyone know the name of the cartoon where a weekly parade goes by a house, and the sanitation truck that follows hits a bump and always leaves a pile of trash at the front door?” Yet again, the homeowner is a matchmaker, although that has little to do with the plot.

Sir Irving and Sir Jeames (1956, Noveltoon). Servant and master role reversal after protracted period of mistreatment.

Abner the Baseball (1961, two-reeler). Abner is an anthropomorphized baseball who narrates about getting banged around in a game, climatically about a long home run by Mickey Mantle. This was written and narrated onscreen by Eddie Lawrence, a popular comedian of that era who also usedthe bit in his act. Actually shy of a full two reel by a few minutes, I believe this was Paramount’s animated-short entry for an Oscar. Here is the beginning of the script accompanied and my dad’s ledger.

(Click to read.)

Chew Chew Baby (1958, Noveltoon). Yanked from airing on television due to the cannibalistic theme. Likely for the same reason it is not on the Complete Harveytoons DVD. That’s a shame because it moves along better than most, mainly the result of Sparber’s direction pushing it along – he didn’t get to direct too many — and the spot-on obsequious and condescending voice work of the American toward the pygmy. This rough model of the pygmy is not exactly as he appears in the cartoon, but it’s all I have.