Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Did I ever mention that I was a model-sheet Junky? I love them, no matter where they come from or how big they are. I enjoy looking at notes on them, how they were constructed, and signatures. The whole package.

They come in so many sizes, forms and designs.

This is why I get off on a couple of sites that post some beauties. The ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive has done this frequently, e.g here, here and here.
The Disney Informer also offers quite a few models.

Here are a few from from my collection representing different studios. Of course, I’ll start with Disney, the classics:

The three models I have are matte photostats, though I believe the handouts were copied onto Disney’s large 5-hole animation paper. On one of these you can see traces of the pegholes.

I have a large cel of Gepetto from the pose on the left, hands akimbo. I’m not sure it was ever in the film.

What a beautiful Dumbo. I think I could look at these drawings all day. It’s one of my favorite films. No tricks, no pretensions. Just a great cartoon to make you cry. This is the top of their game.

Unfortunately, this one is a photograph I have of the model on a bulletin board. It’s not the best focus.

Terrytoons had a beautifully composed model sheet with some fine poses. I wonder how much this helped Jim Tyer. Another Terry model sheet, one of Mighty Mouse, follows. I suspect that Connie Rasinski drew both of them.

At Paramount, they were a little different. The stats they made, at least those I have, were high gloss. This one has some damage to it where it must’ve gotten wet.

I have a couple of the original models which were compiled on animation paper from cut-out drawings. The glue has had a hard time holding up. I gave examples of this last year with an Indian film. See here and here.
The animators received these glossy stats.

For this Campbell Soup commercial a lot of effort went into drawing the girl. No doubt they were out to please a client. This is the best this character has ever looked.

By the time we get to Fritz the Cat, the Xerox machine was in use to make hand-outs for the staff. They didn’t bother with photostats.

The drawings look like different artists were at work. No wonder the character shifts about on screen. I actually enjoy watching that shift. There’s something alive about it.

I keep thinking these last two are from The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, but I’m sure they came from the original film.

- May I suggest you go to a couple of other sites today, while they’re still fresh. Good work from both of these regular must-read writers.
- Floyd Norman‘s essay over at Jim Hill Media is as great a read to me as anything else he’s written, and I love reading all of his pieces.
- Mark Mayerson has a great piece on his site today whcih certainly got me weathered up. He definitely has some of the most thoughtful, provocative and interesting material on the web.

- One of my favorite Hubley shorts is a lesser known film, Zuckerkandl.

It is an animated version of the satirical lecture Robert M. Hutchins gives annually to discuss the life and philosophy of the fictitious Dr. Alexander Zuckerkandl and his philosophy that the goal of life is to get through it without feeling, in the belief that true happiness can be achieved only by becoming unconscious of our conscious.

The life and philosophy of Zuckerkandl is depicted and constructed.

I also have a couple of models of the speaker, Hutchins, done by John Hubley and I’m posting them here.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

The following are frame grabs (from not the best copy of the film.)

The film was also made into a book. It’s illustrated with images from the film that have been reshaped. Here are a couple of them. The colors in the book are probably closer to the actual film.

(Click any image to enlarge.)