Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- I continue to weave through the boxes that make up the collection of animation art assembled by Vincent Cafarelli. This week I have anothe rmix of artwork; these pieces were all xerox copies (sometimes copies of copies.) I’ve tried to make them all presentable having to photoshop out some of the schmutz that came with old copiers. Since these are all models and pieces from the 30′s, I thought it worth the trouble.

Let’s start with the mix of models:

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Gandy Goose a Terrytoon character. Not the best quality copy.

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Cubby Bear, an early Van Buren character

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Parrotville, another Van Buren product from their last years

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Another Parrotville model sheet

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I have no idea where this character was created,
though I’d bet on Van Buren.

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A Fleischer character to play off Pudgy

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Another kind of Fleischer dog.

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A Fleischer chicken

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A typically racist character from Fleischer’s ethnic types.

Here’s a copy of the program from the Paramount theater in New York on their premiere of Gulliver’s Travels.

First the outside pages (folded in the center)

Then the inside pages.

To add to the post, I thought I’d throw a random group of photos taken over the years with Vince and Candy at Perpetual Motion/Perpetual Animation or Buzzco.

Nick Tafuri’s party for animators
(LtoR) Jan Svochak, Candy Kugel, Vinnie Cafarelli,
And u-nion rep Gerard de Salvio.

Candy Kugel and Johnny Gentilella and Mrs. Tafuri

(LtoR) Howard and Iris Beckerman, Doug Crane, Candy Kugel and Ed Smith

Perpetual Motion Pictures:
(LtoR) Animators Vinnie Cafarelli, Jack Dazzo and Vinnie Bell

Buzzco: (LtoR) Candy Kugel, Lu Guarnier, Vinnie Cafarelli

Buzzco: (LtoR standing) Vince Cafarelli, Jack Dazzo, Vinnie Bell,
Jan Svochak, Arnie Levin, John Lopez, Max Seligman
(seated) Lu Guarnier, Bryon Moore

Some NY animation Academy members:
Vince Cafarelli, Candy Kugel, Jimmy Picker,
Frank Mouris, me and John Dilworth

- Today we have a mix of odds and ends from Vince Cafarelli’s collection of animation artwork. We start with some artwork from the commercial studio in NY in the 1950s-60s.

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This is a model sheet for something done
at Film Graphics. No doubt it’s not a commercial
but probably some kind of Educational film.

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This is a model sheet for the opening titles to
the “I Love Lucy” show. My guess is that
this also comes from Film Graphics.

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The Buffalo Bee model sheet for the Nabisco
Wheat Honeys commercials. Mae Questel was the voice.
This was probably done for the Gifford Studio.

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A model for a little angel. I assume this is for a
paper product commercial. Again, I think it’s the Gifford Studio

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A turn-around model for a Mutual of Omaha commercial.
Again, since it’s with other Gifford Studio material I’d guess the same.

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Here are two bear drawings from some commercial.
It looks like Dick Williams’ Cresta Bear (only this was
done years before that.)

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The three round peg holes is certainly unique.
Fleischer used a similar system for a wile as did
Krantz Studio on Fritz the Cat.
I don’t know where these are from.

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I’m sure this comes from the Gifford Studio.

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An interesting design. I assume it’s from a spot.
Peg holes look like the Gifford Studio.

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A storyboard drawing for a Pepto Bismol commercial.
UPA had this account for a long time.

The following three drawings are two animator’s drawings (#106 & 108) and one Inbetween (#107). I believe the animator is Frank Endres; the inbetweener is Vince Cafarelli. For some reason I think this is from a Little Lulu cartoon directed by Bill Tytla, but I can’t vouch for that. I’m sure one of you visitors will let me know how wrong I am, and I welcome it.

Drawing # 106 – animator’s drawing
I’m surprised at how small the paper is; not quite 8½ x 11.

Drawing # 107 – inbetweener’s drawing

Drawing # 108 – animator’s drawing
The peg holes are Signal Corps.

- Several years ago, I’d posted Bill Peckmann‘s xeroxed copy of Rowland B. Wilson‘s 1962 book, Whites of Their Eyes.

Bill has now sent me new scans from the book, itself, and they’re worth posting in this better state. I hope you enjoy the diversity of Rowland’s style in the wide range of cartoons he’d done by 1962.

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In 1981, nestled in their idyllic abode in the cartoonist’s and
illustrator’s haven of Westport, CT., Rowland and Suzanne Wilson
had their own British invasion…

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…It was colleagues and friends of Rowland’s that he had
worked with previously at Richard Williams Studios in London.

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Following the visit to Rowland’s house, everybody dropped by
to see Row in his room at the PK&A Studios that he shared
with Bill Frake (Standing far left) and myself. Mark Mayerson (standing far right)

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The following pencil sketches are by RBW, from about the same
time period as the visit. They were done for ‘Tang’ commercials,
Rowland designed the characters and did the BG’s.

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- Out of the Vincent Cafarelli collection, we’ve found another burst of UPA drawings. We know they’re UPA because there are models and animation drawings from a Mr. magoo short: “People to People.” The accompanying drawings from commercial spots and segments of the Gerald McBoing Boing Show all come on the same paper stock. The peg system is Acme not Signal Corps (which leads me to believe that some of those I called UPA in a past post are really from the Gifford Studio.)

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This model and the other Magoo pieces here are from
the short “People to People” which features a gorilla.

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Per Mark Mayerson, in the comments section, the film was retitled
Terror Faces Magoo and was directed by Chris Ishii and Jack Goodford.

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See the film here.

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This model comes with the names “Lu” and “Vinny” indicated.
Obviously Vinny Cafarelli was Lu Guarnier’s assistant.

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The following three drawings are key animation poses of the Gorilla.

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An ad for Gold Bond powder

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This is obviously a drawing of the Tworlinger Twins, a
series done for the McBoing Boing show. The NY office
seems to have done a number of pieces for the show.

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These guys look similar to the three who open
the McBoing Boing Show carrying their logo.

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A vertical pan for a Savarin Coffee spot. A sign painter
pastes a placard of the product on a billboard.

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Part of another vertical pan for the Savarin spot.

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With all the reworked versions of Snow White in Live Action that are currently bombing at the box office, Disney cancelled another one that was in production. The Order Of The Seven had Soairse Ronan cast as the Snow White-like character. The story took place in Asia and had samurais.It’s not happening anymore. This is a good time to take a look at a great sequence from the wonderful original version. I originally posted this in January, 2009.

- It’s not always easy to kill a witch. This sequence from Snow White couldn’t be designed better. It’s short, it’s tense, it’s a tight sequence that handily does its job. The witch is killed in record time. Today, the sequence would be dragged out for half the length of the film.

Some of these drawings are great.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Hans Bacher continues with his beautiful background recreations, posting a number of clean backgrounds from Snow White, yesterday, on his blog. These are gorgeous and deserve your attention.

- From Vince Caferelli‘s collection, this week we jump to his years at Perpetual Motion Pictures. The first Berenstain Bears Special, Berenstain Bear’s Christmas Tree, was done for NBC in 1979 and was followed by another four. This was a very successful half hour made from the comic strip which was created by Stan and Jan Berenstain. They wrote the original TV special which was directed by Mordecai Gerstein, Animated by Vinnie Bell, Vincent Cafarelli, Jack Dazzo, Lu Guarnier, Jan Svochak and Fred Mogubgub.
The Asst. Director was Candy Kugel, and the Bgs were done by Linda Daurio and Cotty Kilbanks.

Here are the model sheets which were drawn by director, Mordi Gerstein, and animator, Jan Svochak, from original drawings by Stan Berenstain. These, for the most part, are original pencil drawings of those models.

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This ic a copy of a model digned by the Berenstains.

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This is the half-hour Special as it appears on YouTube.

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The next four models come from a later show, “The Berenstain Bears’ Littlest Leaguer.”
All are original models signed by the Berenstains.

- Last week I posted a number of drawings from spots which Vince Cafarelli had worked on and saved as a sample of his different projects over the years. Unfortunately, there’s no guide to tell us what studio they were done in or who the sponsor was. I’ve assumed (maybe mistakenly) that the spots using the Signal Corps pegs came from UPA. Those done with Acme pegs (1,2,3,5) may have come from Gifford Animation or TV Cartoons.

I have a large number of other such drawings and will continue the post of these, despite the lack of information behind their history. If anyone can identify any of these, please tell us in the comments section, and I’ll add it to the post.

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Some of these drawings & designs are undeniably brilliant.

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This is just an absolutely great drawing.

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This drawing, #6, and the following seven layouts are from the same spot.
Interesting characters, but I have no idea what they’re selling.

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The pilot was physically cut out and moved.
Easy in photoshop not so easy in the real world.

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A torn ending to a short story.

This character is really every thing you need to know about Fleischer animation. Animated by Tom Johnson the guy’s alive, and he’s nothing more than a wacky cartoon character. He couldn’t be anywhere else. Where’s the cgi equivalent? Oh that’s right; it couldn’t exist.

Time to post it anew.

- Wiffle Piffle was a character that the Fleischer studio tried to develop out of the Betty Boop series. The first appearance was in a Screen Song: I Feel Like A Feather In The Breeze released in 1936. He appears as a waiter in the opening. The animation of the character was by Tom Johnson (as was this model sheet.)

Two follow-up films were made with this side character in Betty Boop shorts.
The first, released in February 1937, was Whoops! I’m A Cowboy, and the second, in March 1937, The Hot Air Salesman. The opening scene features an expensive multiplane shot behind him.

He seems to have been an Egghead type character whose sole character trait was a silly walk. Needless to say, they couldn’t find a job for him.

The model sheet for the character was an 18 drawing walk cycle with a bit of a turnaround. Cross-hairs keep the character in registration; only a couple of the pages were punched.

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Wiffle Piffle walk cycle
On ones at 24FPS
Click left side of black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- I have always been a sucker for Hoppity Goes to Town. For some reason, from my first viewing in the early 60s, to tofsy, I have loved this film and everything about it. The score is magnificent, with those great Hoagy Carmichael / Frank Loesser songs, and the score by Leigh Harline is quite sophisticated; the character styling is absolutely the height of charm for Fleischer – so beautifully round -, and the animation is just bright enough to pull off the original Fleischer story. It also takes place in a recognizable New York City – something that will always win me over.

At one time I’d posted a copy of a children’s book I’d found which bounced off the film.

These are the model sheets the late Vince Cafarelli had in his collection. I would have liked seeing a Mr. Beetle or two and possibly a work sheet for how they were going to treat the rotoscoped humans. (The handling of the rotoscoped animation goes far beyond what they did in Gulliver’s Travels. There’s a nice little frame grab post featuring one of these scenes at Classic Cartoon Reviews. ) But I’m pleased to have what model sheets I do have to post. Here they are.

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Hoppity

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Honey Bee

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Mr. Bumble

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(I found this model of Mr. Bumble on line and thought it worth including.)

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Swat the Fly

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Smack the Mosquito – 1

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Smack the Mosquito – 2

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Miscellaneous Characters – 1

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Miscellaneous Characters – 2

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Incidental Characters

- Continuing with artifacts from the late Vince Cafarelli‘s collection, here are a bunch of model sheets from a number of different Fleischer Studio productions. I’ve mixed some from the Raggedy Ann shorts, the Stone Age films, the Superman films and one ersatz model from a solo cartoon.

We begin with The Stone Age films. Long before the Fllintstones, there were these inventive shorts about the very same subject, a caveman family living
as though it were the modern day world though they’re still in caveman attire. (Not too different from the Jack Benny caveman in Chuck Jones’ Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur.)

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(Actually, with this model I’m guessing it’s from a Stone Age cartoon.
For all I know, the Fleischers may have tried their hand at Dr. Suess.

There are a couple of models from the Raggedy Ann films. Quite different from the Dick Williams version.

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The Superman cartoons are key to the world of the Fleischer studio and their ultimate attempt at a high quality.

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But of course, it wouldn’t be Fleischer without a hint of racism . . .

. . . or more than a hint. They should have tried Dick Tracy.

Finally, for today, there’s this left over baby. It isn’t labelled, but it looks to be the baby from the “Gabby” cartoon, All’s Well. If anyone out there knows otherwise, please don’t hesitate to leave a note in the comments section. This model sheet is dated 1942, and the cartoon has a 1941 copyright date on it.

There’s an excellent article in AWN about Charles Thorson who designed the characters for the Raggedy Ann cartoon as well as the Stone Age films. He most probably did the model charts. He’d worked at every known studio in the late thirties, early forties and had settled in to Fleischer’s Florida location whn=enthe brothers were let go, and Paramount took over. It was at this point that Thorson decided to move on to comic book illustration.

The article is by Gene Walz who also wrote a biography of Thorson which was publlished as: Cartoon Charlie: The Life and Art of Animation Pioneer Charles Thorson.