Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- I received emails from both John Canemaker and Roberta Levitow about Corny Cole‘s home burning down in the recent fires in California. He says that 90% of his artwork saved from over his many years has all been destroyed. Even worse is the loss of his numerous pets – cats and dogs – that all died in the fire.

I understand that a fund raiser is being formed to help Corny out. When I hear anything more, I’ll pass it on.

The FOX report reads:

The Marek Fire destroyed more than three dozen homes in a Lake View Terrace mobile home park. One man, a noted animator, lost not only his home, but his life’s work to the fire.

You can check out a Fox video here.

The piece, naturally enough, appeared soon after I learned about it on Cartoon Brew. (They’re always ahead of the curve.) I don’t mind repeating the info in case anyone’s missed it.

For those who don’t know who Corny is, let me repost this piece I did back in 2006:

- I have quite a bit of artwork from the film, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, the 1976 feature film by Dick Williams. Hence, it’s always an easy decision to post some of it. Unfortunately, every animation drawing is so large, it takes a lot of time to scan and put it together.

____________(Click any image to enlarge.)

I think in many ways, the unsung hero of Raggedy Ann was Corny Cole. He was there from day one working with Dick Williams and Tissa David – once the one minute pilot had secured the job for Dick. Corny was brought in as the key designer, and Gerry Potterton came on as Dick’s Associate Director.

I was hired soon thereafter, even though I had no idea what I’d be doing. For the first couple of weeks, while they were recording, I just moved furniture and read the script and whiled away the time by drawing Johnny Gruelle‘s characters.

I helped Dick and Gerry add spot coloring to the storyboard as the animatic was being shot. We spent a long Saturday coloring like mad with colored pencils. We worked on the last section of the animatic to be shot. I’d say 90% of the board was done by Corny. Dick and Gerry added spot drawings as needed, while we built the animatic.

Corny then did lots and lots and lots of drawings to give to animators.
Some of those drawings are posted herein for a scene at the beginning of the “taffy pit” sequence. These drawings were also used in the animatic.

After Corny finished feeding the animators, he started animating, himself. He took on a sequence that filled the screen with a pirate ship full of dolls floating around some rough waters. The large sheets of paper were filled with Corny’s black bic pen lines. Doug Compton eventually worked with Corny to finish this overworked sequence.

- John Celestri sent me a clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer re the kidnapping of Ann & Andy. Hence, I am prompted to post the following layouts and storyboard drawings by Corny Cole.

This first Layout marks the introduction of Raggedy Andy. He’s under the box. This drawing gives you a good idea of the detail Corny put into every drawing.

The following images come from the first shots of the Pirate Captain. He espys the new doll, Babette, and falls madly in love.

The first four stills are 8.5×14 copies of the storyboard; the remainder come from the director’s workbook. They’re all sequential.

I think the parrot, which was added in pencil, is the work of Asst. Director, Cosmo Anzilotti. The bird just shows up later, so Cosmo probably tried to give him some business.

It’s here that the Pirate goes into his song (everybody sings in this film) and concocts his plot to kidnap the French doll.

- Last Saturday night, in Ottawa, Richard Williams responded to John Canemaker ‘s questions about his career with enthusiasm and a pleasant grace. He knows how to tell a story and makes it good listening. On Saturday, he had an audience of animation people, and it helped to shorten some of his comments; no additional explanation was needed. The program went a bit long and had to be cut in the middle to give ample time for Dick to showcase his dvd
series – the Animation Survival Kit.

Last night, the show shifted to the Museum of Modern Art. More clips were added. (There was no Raggedy Ann on Saturday – at MOMA Emery Hawkins’ Greedy was screened. There also was no scene from The Christmas Carol – at MOMA the flying over London sequence was shown.) The show was more relaxed and time stood still for a while. The crowd was a good one, and the ticket was hard to come by.

My favorite moment was at the start. I sat alongside Tissa David, who’s 86 now;
Dick, going down the aisle, stopped to say a very personal hi to her before getting on stage. He also came immediately to her after the show. Tissa hadn’t seen him since her work on The Thief ended years ago. She’d told me the night before that she was going to the program because it might be the last time in her life that she’d have the chance to see Dick. She was tired immediately after and left once the program ended, not staying for a private MOMA dinner. _____________________Doug Crane (in blue) and Irra Verbitsky (to his rt).

The show had a lot more material in it and had a different feel than the Toronto program. Again, Dick and John sat knee-to-knee on stage, and Dick answered questions. However, there were fewer opportunities for Dick to elaborate with lengthy side stories. John pushed him always back on topic and shot a straight arrow to get all of Dick’s career in.

Afterwards, there was a dinner for some who were connected to Dick and his wife, Mo Sutton.
Josh Siegel, MOMA Asst. Curator, Department of Film, had arranged a nice sit down. Of course, John Canemaker and Joe Kennedy were there as was Chris Wedge and his wife, Jeanne, as was Amid Amidi and friend, Celia Bullwinkle, as well several others. Heidi and I sat a distance from
___________Josh, Amid, me, Dick and John _______________ Dick – three tables were gathered together, though he came over to say hi, and we talked again after food.

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Sorry for the quality of some of the photos; it was the best I could do in the dark theater.

I received the following press release from MOMA re their program to be held next Monday. I’ve been told that this will be a different show from the one being conducted in Ottawa.

MASTER CLASS:
RICHARD WILLIAMS IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN CANEMAKER

Monday, September 22
7:00 p.m.
The Roy and Niuta Titus 2 Theater
Three-time Academy Award winner Richard Williams discusses his long and influential career in a conversation with animation filmmaker and historian (and fellow Oscar-winner) John Canemaker.

Williams, who was awarded Oscars for Special Achievement and for Visual Effects as the director of animation of the Walt Disney/Steven Spielberg blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and for his short film A Christmas Carol (1971), is one of the finest animation filmmakers of our time.

His stunningly crafted, award-winning films have featured the work of veteran animators from the Disney studio’s “Golden Age” and from Warner Bros. Cartoons, most notably Grim Natwick (Snow White), Art Babbitt (Fantasia), and Ken Harris (Bugs Bunny). Williams also learned from his friends Milt Kahl (Pinocchio, The Jungle Book), and Frank Thomas (Bambi, Cinderella).

A distillation of his acquired knowledge went into the exuberant animation he directed for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and, most recently, into an unparalleled and indispensable series of instructional DVD master classes based on his bestselling book The Animator’s Survival Kit.
Illustrated with clips from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Charge of the Light Brigade, A Christmas Carol, Raggedy Ann & Andy, the animated titles from The Return of the Pink Panther, award-winning commercials, segments from The Animator’s Survival Kit, and more.

Organized by Joshua Siegel, Asst. Curator, Department of Film, and John Canemaker.

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Then on Tuesday ASIFA East will hold this program:


ASIFA- East

A panel discussion on the state of NY Independent Animated Features.
Hosted by Cartoon Brew’s Amid Amidi and featuring paneiists:
Emily Hubley, Daniel Kanemoto, Bill Plympton, Michael Sporn, and Tatia Rosenthal.
Clips wif! be screened and a Q and A by the audience will conclude the event,

Tuesday, September 23
SVA, 209 E. 23rd St.
3rd floor Amphitheatre
7 PM, Admission: FREE

Check out our web site for the latest news at www.asifaeast.corn

- Last week I posted part of a book of notes Dick Williams took while attending a lecture series Art Babbitt gave in Dick’s studio in 1973. That was obviously a forerunner of Dick’s book, The Animator’s Survival Kit which led to his newer set of DVD’s – the Masterclass Series.

Dick’s site is interesting in that it gives a full preview of these dvd’s, so I heartily suggest you take a look. If nothing else, Dick inspires while informing.

In that last post, I talked about a second series of notes Dick had. These were more formal and swiped a lot of information from everywhere and everyone – Disney lecture notes, Preston Blair – and also notes from some of the other masters that Dick had visiting his studio.

So here are a few pages from that oversized book. No pictures – all writing. Old xeroxes.

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(Click any image to enlarge to a more legible size.)

2 3

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5 6

7 8

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Boy does this guy know the stuff of great animation.

- Thanks to The Thief blog, and further discussed by Mark Mayerson, information is out there about Richard Williams‘ new site for his Masterclass set of dvds.

Dick’s website is very informative and gives an extended promo tour of the dvd’s showing a longish segment. Take a visit even if you don’t plan on buying the instructional set which is currently selling for $999.

Of course, Dick’s companion book is still available. The Animator’s Survival Kit is for those who still can read and comprehend from the written word. The book also comes with pictures, but they don’t move like the dvd does. It’s only $20 in paperback, though.

Years ago – and I mean years ago – Dick brought gifted animation stars to his studio to lecture the British crew. He put together a set of notes for Art Babbitt’s lecture series that took place July 1973. When Raggedy Ann was in production, Dick had offered us all copies of his notes. It’s a big volume, and it involved extensive photocopying. I don’t think it took long for this book to make it all across the animation industry. Everybody seemed to have owned a copy. This was certainly Dick’s credo – to promote good animation.

Dick also had another notebook that was larger. 11 x 14 copies were even harder to photocopy, but this book seemed clearer and more planned. It was also not distributed as widely. It was obvious that Dick was looking to write a book, and this was its predecessor.

I have copies of both, and they’re very different. I thought I’d celebrate the promotion of Dick’s new dvd’s by posting one of the chapters from the Art Babbit Lecture series. It’s a bit hard to follow, but if you make the effort, you’ll find a lot to learn. These WERE essentially Dick’s notes on Art’s lectures; they weren’t designed to teach.

- I have quite a bit of artwork from the film, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, the 1976 feature film by Dick Williams. Hence, it’s always an easy decision to post some of it. Unfortunately, every animation drawing is so large, it takes a lot of time to scan and put it together.

Here are two pieces that were I first posted in October 2006 with a healthy focus on one indomitable artist:

____________(Click any image to enlarge.)

I think in many ways, the unsung hero of Raggedy Ann was Corny Cole. He was there from day one working with Dick Williams and Tissa David – once the one minute pilot had secured the job for Dick. Corny was brought in as the key designer, and Gerry Potterton came on as Dick’s Associate Director.

I was hired soon thereafter, even though I had no idea what I’d be doing. For the first couple of weeks, while they were recording, I just moved furniture and read the script and whiled away the time by drawing Johnny Gruelle‘s characters.

I helped Dick and Gerry add spot coloring to the storyboard as the animatic was being shot. We spent a long Saturday coloring like mad with colored pencils. We worked on the last section of the animatic to be shot. I’d say 90% of the board was done by Corny. Dick and Gerry added spot drawings as needed, while we built the animatic.

Corny then did lots and lots and lots of drawings to give to animators.
Some of those drawings are posted herein for a scene at the beginning of the “taffy pit” sequence. These drawings were also used in the animatic.

After Corny finished feeding the animators, he started animating, himself. He took on a sequence that filled the screen with a pirate ship full of dolls floating around some rough waters. The large sheets of paper were filled with Corny’s black bic pen lines. Doug Compton eventually worked with Corny to finish this overworked sequence.

- John Celestri sent me a clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer re the kidnapping of Ann & Andy. Hence, I am prompted to post the following layouts and storyboard drawings by Corny Cole.

This first Layout marks the introduction of Raggedy Andy. He’s under the box. This drawing gives you a good idea of the detail Corny put into every drawing.

The following images come from the first shots of the Pirate Captain. He espys the new doll, Babette, and falls madly in love.

The first four stills are 8.5×14 copies of the storyboard; the remainder come from the director’s workbook. They’re all sequential.

I think the parrot, which was added in pencil, is the work of Asst. Director, Cosmo Anzilotti. The bird just shows up later, so Cosmo probably tried to give him some business.

It’s here that the Pirate goes into his song (everybody sings in this film) and concocts his plot to kidnap the French doll.

- Casino Royale (the 1967 original) was the fourth credit sequence animated by Richard Williams‘ Soho Square studio. Prior to this he’d directed What’s New Pussycat (1965), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1966).

Continuing the presentation I’ve done of other title sequences by Williams, here’s Casino Royale. The other Williams credit sequences of the period are generally rambunctious items with almost too much happening on screen. It often gets hard to read the credits – in a theater, never mind trying to do it on TV. (God bless imdb.)

They’re all frame grabs off a TV airing. My apologies for the horrendous quality. It aired on one of those cable channels that adds plenty of promos at the bottom of the screen (which I cleaned out of these images) overlapping many of the cards. They might have taken a bit more care to try to eliminate some distortion on the screen. The image skews, and the type gets distorted. I did my best with what I had. If I ever get my hands on a good dvd of the show, I’ll correct these images.

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________________________ (Click any image to enlarge.)

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____Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, and Richard Talmadge also directed but I
____eliminated their screen cards as repetitious.

I posted this cel two years ago. It was from a scene Richard Williams animated for his Christmas Carol. The drawing was done on cel not on paper with a mars omnichrome pencil. Hence, the inking is Dick’s, as well.

David Nethery has posted a cel from Abe Levitow’s sequence – probably my favorite scene in the film comes from this sequence. The scene where Christmas Present moves back his robe to reveal the two children – “ignorance” and “want”. I think I disappointed Dick when I told him this years ago and hadn’t named one of his scenes. Given the way Dick worked on Raggedy Ann, I’d guess he did the cleanup on these scenes as well.

- While working on Raggedy Ann and being somewhat close with Richard Williams when he was in town, I was amused by something that happened early on.

Dick was in and out often recording and editing the voice track. A lot of time was spent in the rehearsal studios in the Broadway/theatrical of town. (That was about three blocks away from the studio.) In an elevator ride up to the rehearsal space, Dick overheard a large black man in the elevator. I believe he was a delivery guy, maybe a messenger.

Dick popped up in a flash. He immediately asked the guy if he had ever done any acting. No? Well, Dick hired him on the spot to be the voice of the leader of the One Eyes. His voice was incredibly deep and dark.

Within the week, Dick had rerecorded the lines. (Another actor had done him in England, and Dick was looking for something better.) To be honest, I’m not sure if this was actually the final voice used in the film (it could be), but the story was so entertaining to some fly-on-the-wall like me, that I remember it well.

After recording the piece, Dick did a thank you drawing for the guy. I made a xerox. This is that copy done with drying magic markers.

___________(Click image to enlarge.)

Sites to point to:

- Hans Bacher has created a new addition to his Animation Treasures. We now have Animation Treasures III. Look forward to more of Hans’ beautiful background reconstructions taken from the films themselves. He’s opened a wonder in his displays. I still go back often to view the many of the backgrounds (specifically Mr. Bug) that he’s revealed to us.

- Once again, Rob Richards continues similar work on a variety of films on his site, Animation Backgrounds. The many Alice In Wonderland backgrounds are enormously attractive on their own.

- As if you haven’t already heard about it, let me point you in the direction of Bob Jaques‘ new site Popeye Animator ID. Bob is enlightening us on the world of a lot of unfamilair animators. We know their names from the many credits we’ve read, but Bob is analyzing and detailing scenes that these artists have created. Names like Frank Endres, George Germanetti and Lillian Friedman become real as Bob gives us a lot of information that doesn’t seem to be located anywhere else. I’m also looking forward to Bob’s writing about Johnny Gentilella. This was the first real animator I met in the business and someone who helped me along the way. I’m always ready to hear more about Johnny Gent.

For this post alone (take a real good look at the tree) I’m grateful to Bob and his new site.

– Bee Movie opened today, and received mixed reviews in New York. The reviews I’ve read paint a brash, colorful, jokey sort of film, which makes it sound not unlike many animated films we’ve seen in the recent past. Who would have expected otherwise? The film gets a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I guess I’d call that mixed reviews. The feature in this film, I guess, is Jerry Seinfeld’s sardonic sense of humor. Perfect for the child in all of us.

Jack Mathews of the NYDaily News said:

If the movie proves anything, it’s that computers have gone past the ability to simply reproduce hues and tints and can now give the entire spectrum previously unperceived depth.

Kids are going to adore looking at this movie, living in it, flying through and above its brilliant landscape. It’s an animated joyride over a relief map of Manhattan.

I just wish the script was as good as the paint.

A.O.Scott in the NY Times writes a generally positive review with these few lines I’d like to point out:

The DreamWorks Animation formula, exemplified in the mighty “Shrek” franchise (and imitated by would-be rivals at Sony and Fox), is to charm the children with cute creatures and slapstick action while jabbing at the grown-ups with soft, pseudosophisticated pop- cultural satire. “Bee Movie,” directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner and animated by several hundred industrious drones, pushes this strategy almost to the point of dispensing with the kid stuff altogether.

There are a few splendid cartoon set pieces … that show off the latest computer animation techniques. But most of the film’s creative energy is verbal rather than visual, and semimature rather than strictly juvenile.

There was an ASIFA East screening of this film on Tuesday. However, I chose to see another mediocre movie, American Gangster, on that date. I won’t get to see Bee Movie until next Tuesday, and maybe I’ll comment on it on Wednesday next.

- Tissa David did some of her most elaborate and fluid animation in Raggedy Ann and Andy. Her first scene to animate (after the pilot) was the introduction to her song number. This scene was a whopping long one and was particularly elaborate. It was also the first whole scene put into production.

The cameraman Al Rezek constructed a makeshift multiplane setup for it. This was a bit difficult to do in Panavision, but he did it. There had to be an ominous shadow of a bush overlapping the pair of dolls as they entered the deep dark woods. The scene must have been shot a dozen or more times until we were happy with it.

I have all the drawings to this scene, rough and clean up. There are a lot of them. I’ll post a couple of Tissa’s roughs here to give you an idea of the scene. Dick Williams cleaned it up, himself, and it took him a while. In a future posting, when I have more energy I’ll post more of the roughs against Dick’s clean ups.

I’m also posting some frame grabs from a bad pirated dvd version I have of the film.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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