Category ArchiveFrame Grabs
Fleischer &Frame Grabs 10 Apr 2009 08:04 am
Poopdeck Pappy Breakdown
- Following up yesterday’s post, here’s a scene breakdown of the Popeye film With Poopdeck Pappy. This short’s a delight. Done in 1940, it has that textural beauty the Fleischer shorts seemed to inhabit during this short period from about 1937 – 1942.
Bill Nolan was the key animator (animation director) of the short with Winfield Hoskins (I’m not sure who he was) receiving the only other credit. Nolan was known for his incredible speed, so it’s quite possible he animated the lion’s share of this short.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
Pan from left to right.
Pappy walks up in perspective then across the screen
from left to right until he reaches the club.
Animation &Fleischer &Frame Grabs &walk cycle 09 Apr 2009 08:00 am
Poopdeck Pappy’s walk
I received this delightful note from Borge Ring:
dear michael ♫♫
You sometimes bring stuff on Popeye
There is a Popeye I like very much. It was animated by Bill Nolan in 1940 and the title is Poopdeck Pappy.
I stumbled on this short on internet and realised why Preston Blair had such a high opinion of Nolan.
Blair is quoted by – if I remember right – Charles Solomon in his book.
writes
Børge
So I ran back to the film (which I know very well.) I’ve made a lot of frame grabs and was going to do a sort of mosaic (without the information that a draft might give me), but it’s taking a lot of time.
Consequently, let me make a post of this brilliant walk. There are many of them in this film and lots of hilarious dances. It’s all so balletic and rhythmic. I urge you to listen to Børge, watch the film again. It’s an absolute beauty; this is my favorite period of Fleischer’s work.
Here’s Poopdeck Pappy’s jaunty walk:
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10 10
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18 18
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21 22
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24
On ones at 24FPS
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.
Animation Artifacts &Frame Grabs 27 Mar 2009 08:05 am
MGM Hounds
- Cable TV has changed and not for the better, just toward the more corporate. In the old days you could turn on the Disney channel and catch some Disney animated shorts – the classic kind, not the Flash kind. You could see some of the 60s Paramount cartoons on Nickelodeon. You could tune into TNT and see early MGM cartoons. Today, if you’re lucky, you might see one of the more popular Harman-Ising shorts sandwiched in between two late-Droopy cartoons on Boomerang’s MGM show.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
I was a big fan of those Harman-Ising MGM cartoons. The sheer opulence of the productions was staggering to watch. For over a year, I taped an early morning program on TNT trying to grab all of the Harman-Ising shorts they aired. I was able to capture about 90% of them. It’s unfortunate that no DVD has been released of these gems so that collectors like me can feel satisfied. The Turner transfers were pretty good, and a simple DVD release of these would be worth a lot to me.
Not too long ago, I was able to buy a couple of drawings on ebay from the Harman-Ising shorts. There wasn’t much competition for them, and I was able to afford them.
One drawing is from the odd series featuring the “two curious pups.” I had an old Blackhawk 8mm copy of this short (in an edited version) and would run it back and forth still frame. I’ve captured some stills of this very scene to give you an idea of what’s happening.
The Pups’ Picnic (1936)
I don’t know who animated this scene,
but the drawing is a beauty, as far as I’m concerned.
The paper siize is 9¾ x 12 w/two round holes.
Commentary &Frame Grabs &Hubley 19 Feb 2009 09:01 am
Windy Day 2
- Here we continue with some frame grabs from the brilliant Hubley short, Windy Day.
I wish there were a good copy of the film available. As a matter of fact, ALL of the Hubley films are in bad versions on the dvds available. They all look soft and dark, they weave and show added scratches. It’s too bad since so many of these films are gems. Wouldn’t it be great to have an extras track or three? Emily and Ray Hubley know everything about these films and could tell us so much. As a matter of fact, Ray helped supervise production of the 35mm print of The Cosmic Eye, and that was a stunningly beautiful print. Yet, the dvd image of it is a paltry and distant relation.
I want to start out here by noting that this film’s technique features bottom lit art (done like a pencil test). The grain of the paper can be seen and was somewhat controlled by the type of paper used for the coloring. It’s architect’s vellum. The paper’s thinner, more transparent and allows some slight watercolor without buckling. Several points in this second half are done with top light and mattes or double expposures. I’ll point those out.
Two other sites that recently featured articulate pieces on this film include Ian Lumsden’s Animation Blog and Richard O’Connor’s Asterisk Pictures blog. Richard gives a lot of deserved attention to Sarah Calogero who did some beautiful rendering on the short. I’d like to give attention to Nina di Gangi who did I&P work for the Hubleys on a number of their key shorts.
Continued from yesterday’s post.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
Note that John isn’t afraid to use the bot lit technique despite
the black wheel seen behind and through the character.
This image starts a scene which isn’t bottom lit.
The newspaper/dead rabbit is matted into the picture then . . .
. . . becomes a double exposure as it floats over the pan.
. . . and goes into the grave.
Dissolve on the top lit silhouetted people.
Back to the bottom lit knight riding across the pan.
This is a complicated bottom lit scene.
At the top of the pan, the knight is lit in yellow.
He goes through a portal, and the light moves to the
bottom of the pan as the knight enters a level down.
It took some careful thought and a creative cameraman to pull it off.
A bottom-lit dragon moves across the pan.
This bot-lit BG looks to have stepped out of Adventures of an *.
The effect on the water is matted into a bot-lit BG.
The effect, itself, is top-lit.
The subject of the film slides quickly between marriage, and birth . . .
.. to death and murder.
Yet, the conversatioin is done gently and quietly
without the obvious self-imortance it could have had.
This is one of the more beautiful scenes in the film.
Very complex animation and layout, yet done so simply.
A beautiful N>S then S>N pan while the art animates in and out.
Both sides of the pans N&S&N and both sides of
the zoom in & out ease at perfect speeds.
This is something that could be tested easily on a computer, but in the days before computer you could only film the piece in a Pencil Test.
However, the Hubleys couldn’t afford a PT. They just did it.
A beautiful, bot lit, multiple run pan. This is experimentation at the service of Art.
I can’t think of many such scenes in all the features or shorts I see today.
Again, death enters the picture.
The kids are talking about Life & birth.
These two scenes, to me, are the heart of the film.
Beautiful animation, beautiful rendering, beautiful soundtrack.
A windy day.
top lit
An absolute gem.
Articles on Animation &Chuck Jones &Frame Grabs 11 Feb 2009 09:00 am
Wackiki Art
- John McGrew is a principal designer in the history of animation who quite radically changed things for us all. He led the way out of the 19th Century and, with Chuck Jones’ blessing, pulled the art of animation into the 20th. Others followed or were running alongside him, but he left the first mark.
Mike Barrier interviewed McGrew in his studio in France in 1995, (photo right by Phyllis Barrier from Mike’s site) published the interview in Funnyworld Magazine and has it now posted permanently on his website. If you have any interest in design in animation, you should have already read it. I just reread it for about the 15th time, and am amazed at how much history is packed in there. Go here.
McGrew, with his work on The Dover Boys and dozens of other brilliant cartoons, took animation into abstraction and back. His work, I think, is comparable to Scott Bradley’s music at the MGM cartoons. Bradley was the very first film music (live action or animated) to incorporate Schoenberg’s 12 tone serial music. McGrew didn’t imitate Picasso or Steinberg, he created modern art in animation.
McGrew did his layouts in color showing the background artists what he wanted. He worked with strong designers, in their own right, painting backgrounds:Paul Julian, at first, and 
Gene Fleury after 1941. When he left the unit, during the War, Bernyce Fleury took his place working with her husband, Gene, on Jones’ films.
Wackiki Wabbit is one of the most interesting of Chuck Jones cartoons.
Precisely because of the layouts and backgrounds. They’re done in an abstraction that almost dominates the film, but actually serves to represent a world of foliage. The style uses cutouts and a wide range of techniques. Mcgrew probably did not work on this film; it came exactly at time of 
change when Bernyce Fleury entered the picture. McGrew, in the Barrier interview, says that he had never worked with her on a film. Her style seems evident throughout. Cut-outs mixed with the wallpaper-like patterns.
The film gives no credit to Layouts or Backgrounds.
I’ve made some frame grabs of the backgrounds (eliminating most of the characters – unless they were stationary) and
___ (Click any image to enlarge.)__________am posting them below.
The film opens with tones of blue against a pink sky.
The two solidly drawn cartoon characters float in a sea of color.
This is about as green as the Island will ever get.
On the island, Bugs Bunny lives in a world of abstract foliage.
The colors are skewed – not verdant but warm.
Large masses of solid colors sit against brush drawn lines.
A limited number of colors allows the scenes to cut
without following through with any other consistency.
However, if you remove the characters, you’re missing the center.
As it should be.
There are numerous large and fast pans,
this one a diagonal from right to left.
Some areas like the blue, above left, or the red, above right, animate.
The solid colors help them all to combine seamlessly.
Bugs dances on the right, a pan
to the left reveals the two humans.
Cut from the pot to a quick pan high up in the trees.
This serves as a sunset with our two humans
chasing each other into the distance and the film’s end.
Animation &Disney &Frame Grabs 30 Jan 2009 08:51 am
Sw in St – Squirrels 4
- Here’s the fourth part of five breaking down the squirrel sequence from Disney’s Sword In The Stone. Thanks to Hans Perk for posting the drafts to this film enabling me to ID the scenes.
This is Frank Thomas land. “Zimpleton” comments on Hans’ blog that “Thomas did 489 feet and 7 frames of animation only interrupted by a 2 foot scene by John Lounsbery and he does an additional 63 feet and 7 frames at the end of the sequence.” Quite extraordinary.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
Seq. 006 sc. 67: Animator: Frank Thomas
The above two images are one pan broken in two.
Seq. 006 sc. 68: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 69: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 70: Animator: Frank Thomas
These scenes wherein the squirrels scamper around the moving branches is an
absolute pleasure for me. They really captured the essence of trees with some
of these scenes. I can’t think of any other animated film that does the same.
Seq. 006 sc. 71: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 72: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 73: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 73 (cont): Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 74: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 75: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 76: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 77: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 78: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 79: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 80: Animator: Frank Thomas
I think Frank may have been caricaturing himself in some of these
Merlin/squirrel scenes. Certainly I think of him with the character.
Seq. 006 sc. 81: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 82: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 83: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 84: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 85: Animator: Frank Thomas
Take a closer look at the image in the upper right. They double exposed
a second head at about a 60% exposure to create a beautiful blur.
In computer land this probably would be a real blur.
Seq. 006 sc. 85 (cont): Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 86: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 87: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 88: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 89: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 90: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 91: Animator: Frank Thomas
One final post to come.
Animation &Disney &Frame Grabs 29 Jan 2009 08:58 am
Sw in St – Squirrels 3
- Back to the break down of the squirrel sequence from Disney’s Sword In The Stone. This is the third of five segments – it’s longer than I remembered.
Going through the material like this, one becomes accutely aware of how many scenes Frank Thomas handled. Quite a lot of footage. (Only one scene here belongs to John Lounsbery.) I think he may have wanted to own such a sequence, and he went for it. It’s also interesting to see how many long pans are among his scenes. In the old days, the animators generally had enormous help from scene planners on the mechanics of the pans and trucks. I’d be curious to know how much Frank took on himself. Obviously, he had a character having to delicately touch many of the curving and moving branches. This is something he’d have to work out. I tried, in a rough way, to reassemble those pan backgrounds.
Thanks to Hans Perk for posting the drafts to this film enabling me to ID the scenes.
Seq. 006 sc. 49: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 49.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 50: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 51: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 52: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 53: Animator: Frank Thomas (first half of pan)
Seq. 006 sc. 53: Animator: Frank Thomas (last half of pan)
Seq. 006 sc. 54: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 54.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 54.1 (cont): Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 55: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 56: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 56.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 57: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 58: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 59: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 59.1: Animator: John Lounsbery
Seq. 006 sc. 60: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 61: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 62: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 63: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 64: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 64 (cont): Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 65: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 66: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 67: Animator: Frank Thomas
Two more posts to finish the sequence.
Animation &Disney &Frame Grabs 23 Jan 2009 09:14 am
Sw in St – Squirrels 2
- I continue here with the squirrel sequence from Disney’s Sword In The Stone. My doing thi s breakdown is precipitated bt Hans Perk‘s posting of the film’s drafts. I’ve loved the sequence since I first saw it in 1963; breaking it down forces me into a proper study of it.
However, I didn’t realize how long it was, and the break down will have to be broken up into a couple more posts.
Here, then, is where Frank Thomas takes over.
Seq. 006 sc. 24: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 25: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 26: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 27: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 28: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 29: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 30: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 31: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 32: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 33: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 34: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 34.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 34.2: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 34.3: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 35: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 36: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 37: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 38: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 39: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 40: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 41: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 42: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 43: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 44: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 45: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 46: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 48: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 49: Animator: Frank Thomas
To be continued.
Commentary &Frame Grabs 21 Jan 2009 08:46 am
“Dreamy” & “Jiminy”
- Back in 1959 Sleeping Beauty wasn’t the only animated feature to hit theaters. Universal had adapted The Snow Queen, a 1957 Soyuzmultfilm production, adding the voices of Tommy Kirk, Sandra Dee and Patty McCormick to the English language version. (Dave Fleischer got credit for “Technical Director” whatever that was.) A new score by the excellent composer Frank Skinner was added including a couple of key songs.
The original Russian film was directed by Lev Atamanov
a significant figure in the history of Russian animation. Several of his films
had been adapted and distributed to American television, including
The Golden Antelope which had received an award of merit at Cannes.
The odd bit about The Snow Queen is that it included an introduction
by a narrator which was voiced by Paul Frees in the English version.
This narrator, calld “Dreamy,” walks around a statue of Hans Christian Andersen
and is flanked by a number of books.
He tells of two umbrellas he used to give Andersen his tales via dreams.
If “Dreamy” waves a black umbrella, Andersen doesn’t dream; if he waves
a colorful umbrella, the dreams are big ones.
This leads us into the very big dream, “The Snow Queen.”
The overall feel of the lethargic and talky piece is that it is very similar
to Jiminy Cricket’s appearance in Pinocchio.
a href=”http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/wp-content/Q/26pan.jpg”>
The animation of “Dreamy” was very slow and, I guess, “dreamy.”
You can feel Paul Frees trying to mouth the character’s limited mouth actions
and get all the words into the time allotted. It couldn’t make for a good performance.
Comparing this to the excellent reading of Cliff Edwards, who mouthed Jiminy Cricket,
the acting in Pinocchio had to, and did, come off better.
Yet, in saying all this, I have to admit a fondness for “Dremy.” I think it
may be that the film hit me at a very susceptible period in my young life.
Animated features I saw in this period – I was 12ish – stuck with me.
Sleeping Beauty, 1001 Arabian Nights with Mr. Magoo, 101 Dalmatians. They all mean a lot to me and have deeply affected my tastes.
Somehow, even “Dreamy” comes off in a good light.
Perhaps he used the colorful umbrella on me.
Now let’s take a look at Jiminy’s entrance in Pinocchio.
The masters at Disney, by the time they’d made Pinocchio, knew what they had to do.
A beautiful song, a great voice with a perfect performance
even though he only had one umbrella.
A real character introduced up front in all his glory.
They knew how to keep things . . .
. . . short . . .
. . . sweet . . .
. . . “dreamy.”
Disney &Frame Grabs 14 Jan 2009 08:43 am
Sw in St – Sq.002 cont.
- Continuing with the follow-up to Hans Perk‘s generous posting of the draft to Sword In The Stone, we have Merlin’s song in the sequence wherein Merlin meets Wart, and we get to know them both.
Sq. 002 Sc 125 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 126 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 127 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 128 – Animator: Les Clark | Sq. 002 Sc 129 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 130 – Animator: Frank Thomas / Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 131 – Animator: Les Clark | Sq. 002 Sc 132 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 133 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 134 – Animator: Frank Thomas / Dan Macmanus
Sq. 002 Sc 135-6 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 137 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 138 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 139 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 140 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 141 – Animator: Frank Thomas / Dan Macmanus
Sq. 002 Sc 142 – Animator: Les Clark | Sq. 002 Sc 143 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 143.1 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 144 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 146 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 147 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 148 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 149 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 150 – Animator: Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 151 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 152 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 154.1 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 155 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 156 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 157 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 158 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 300 – Animator: John Lounsbery
The sequence continues, according to the drafts, but this is where my mosaic attempt and interest ends for now.
