Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Back during the black out of Hurricane Sandy (when we had no electricity or heat), John Canemaker invited us up to his apartment to use his computer so that we could check email etc. I spent a nice couple of hours with John that day, and one of the things he pulled out was the DVD of the Mickey Mouse Club. (One of those expensive, tin boxes I didn’t own.) On the extras of the program was a colored version of the animated opening to the show. The original Mickey Mouse Club aired in B&W, which is how I remember it. It was fun sitting through that piece of animation, and I was charmed by a somewhat abstract section, a musical interlude that was rarely shown in the B&W version. It reminds me of Toot Whistle Plunk & Boom in its styling.

I recently bought a copy of that DVD and went directly to that extra. I’ve pulled some frame grabs of the center sequence and will post those here. But then I couldn’t stop there. I went back and did the entire piece. The abstract sequence stands away from the poorly designed Mickey, Donald & Goofy. Those thick outer lines against the thin inner lines reminds me of the bad imitation UPA art that was going on at the time. It was their idea of “modern art,” I guess.

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Pluto’s drums burst in a B&W flash.

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To the stylized abstract.

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Mickey comes back in with an awkward optical.

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. . . and the song continues.

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I wonder if Ward Kimball had anything to do with this.
Ken O’Connor was the Art Director for Kimball including:
Mars and Beyond, Man in Space and Man and the Moon

Victor Haboush was the Asst. Art Director, and he had an important role
in the Mr. Magoo TV show as well as the Dick Tracy show back in 60s.
He was also the Art Director on Gay Purr-ee.

- Over the years I’ve found that a number of animation personnel saved their copies of Top Cel, the u-nion newspaper. However, we’re not talking every copy of Top Cel, we’re focused on the Ed Smith years. Ed was the editor for a number of years, and his issues were filled with great graphics done by local members.

I have a complete collection from the late forties up to the final years. That collection has been in storage for the entire run of this Splog, or I would have been posting these sooner. However, there among the Vince Cafarelli collection was a couple of the Ed Smith years’ papers. Starting with July 1960 and running through May 1968, there are a lot of papers. I hope to post the graphics from these and wil pick out particular stories or images within to give an idea of what was happening in the business. I don’t want to post the entire thing, since many of the articles pertain specifically to u-nion business, and it seems pointless in its outdated nature.

We’ll start with the first 10 issues:

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July 1960
Artwork by Mordi Gerstein

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(Click any of these frames to enlarge to a more legible size.)

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August 1960
This issue, like many others, has to be turned clockwise to properly read.
For the sake of these covers, I am turning the image 90° c/w
for you to read and will do this for all subsequent covers.
Artwork by Ed Friedman

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Sept 1960
This cover was also turned 90° c/w.
Artwork by Spipol (? I have difficulty reading the name ?)

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This cartoon, by Ed Smith, makes fun of the fact that the fashionably popular
HuckleberrynHound and Yogi Bear were being advertised as “Adult” cartoons.

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Within this larger issue, there were two pages of photos taken at
the Annecy Animation Festival to which a number of members went.
The left page is posted above, the right page is posted below.

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Reports about the Festival by two members, Dick Rauh and Hal Silvermintz.

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October 1960
The front cover of this issue.
Artwork by Karl Fischer

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The back cover

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Nov 1960
Artwork by Mordi Gerstein

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Jan 1961
Artwork by Len Glasser

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This back page had the contacts of all contracted studios in NY.
I love that P.Kim & L.Gifford have
different contact info from Gifford-Kim.

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February 1961
Turned 90° c/w.
Art by Edwin R. Smith J.R. (Ed’s son?)

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March 1961
Turned 90° c/w.
Art by Hal Silvermintz

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April 1961

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May 1961
I think the artwork is by Arnie Levin
Front cover

Back cover is an extension of the front.

Attached they look like this.

Inside is a 2-page promotion for the Hubley show at the
Beekman Theater. This was the premiere of their feature, Of Stars & Men.

This was the 2nd page of the promo.

There also must have been a middle page of text which is lost from this copy of the issue.

Attached the program looked like this.

This was my first viewing of the Hubley works. I had never seen a Hubley short
prior to this program. I was a Sophomore High School student at the time.
I went back a couple more times, and my world was changed forever.

To see some copies of Top Cel which were issued in 1945 and 1946, Richard O’Connor and his company’s blog Ace and Son has ostd quite a few of these issues. By going here, you’ll find 8 or 10 documents.

- Originally, after Vince Cafarelli had died, I was shown the boxes and portfolios full of artwork that Vince had very briefly and casually discussed with me for years. What I thought were a couple of drawings, ended up being a lot of brilliant work beautifully contained by Vinnie and his partner Candy Kugel, over the many ears they had their studio. It was work – meaning drawings, sketches, layouts and animation – that Vinnie had held on to and in some cases preserved because he knew it was valuable (not financially, but historically).

In the not-too-distant past (6/27/12 and 10/24/12), I posted material about an Emily Tipp commercial for Tip Top Bread. This spot, like all of those of the series, was well designed and animated and stood out among other spots on TV. It was commercial cartoon animation at its best during the 60s. Margaret Hamilton, memorably, the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, provided the voice for Emily!

The problem for me was the disorganization. So little of it was labelled or attached to any others that were gathered in those boxes. So I started digging in and organizing while at the same time pulling art for display on this blog. What happened was pretty much what I expected. Some things got mislabeled and other items were separated from art which they should have been attached to. Here we have a prime example. Emily Tipp.

Gathered in one group/box were some of the layouts for this typical TipTop Bread spot. We’d already assembled some of the drawings that belonged together despite the fact that the were found in separate boxes representing different studios. It turns out that some work that was credited to Kim-Gifford Studio (the laouts below) actually were done by Elliot-Graham-Goulding.

So here, we have some story boards to connect with some layouts. Compare and contrast and enjoy.

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To see some of the Emily Tipp spots go here
at the Buzzco website.

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- When you run a studio in New York, and you’re an animator, there’s a good likelihood that at the quiet moments when work is slow, you’ll be working on your own bit of animation. Whether it’s a short film or a test of something you’ve always imagined animating, it’s hard not to keep pencil to paper (or stylus from the Cintiq.) Vinnie Cafarelli was just such a creature. After seeing a show of Picasso’s works he took the flier and started animating the image Picasso had done. It never got to completion; those were the days of the expensive cameraman and laborious cel process. But I can take Vinnie’s work and finish it in AfterEffects and Photoshop. Here’s my exosure of his basic animation. No X-Sheets were left behind. Here’s the art; here’s the QT movie.

This is the original flyer that got Vinnie going.
He built all his animation up from this printed piece.

The Background

The “character” drawings follow:

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The following QT movie was made of the
drawings above. Since there were no X-Sheets
For better or worse, I came up with the timing, myself.

- I received a number of wonderful gifts this Christmas. Among them, from Heidi, came the two – count them, two – J.B.Kaufman books: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney’s Classic Animated Film and The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . Receiving one of these two books, both of which are expensive, is a luxury and a great gift to be treasured, but to receive both is above and beyond the treasure category. This is beyond the hoped for. And of course if you were asked to give the “list” of hoped for books, you feel guilty just requesting them. One of these books is expensive; the other is VERY expensive. Together, it’s outrageous. Unless, of course, you’re Mitt Romney’s child.

So I received both. I It was like having the Squid AND the Whale in my house, and I spent the day, in between Christmas outings, fingering both books delicately. I’d seen the less expensive book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney’s Classic Animated Film, on a couple of different occasions. It’s beautiful.

The other book, the one that costs almost twice the price of the first, I’d seen that book on a table – away. No copies. That made me want it all the more. It’s the book that has more of the writing in it. And that’s what I want – the words, the history. Those images are glorious, but the thoughts and ideas of Kaufman and others he’s investigating are the stuff I search for today.

I started digging into and reading this second book: The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , and there were no disappointments here – not yet. As a matter of fact, it’s to the contrary.

In the rear of the book, “Section Four: Production Notes,” Kaufman breaks the film drafts down verbally. Scene to scene, cut to cut we read who the directors are, who the animators were as well as their key Assistants. And the Effx Animators as well as the Asst Directors.
Funny how I thought, just now, how these last 3 names are less important than others. I don’t know why or if I really believe that. The information is there to disprove it one way or the other. This is a fine little section of the book. It gives real homage to the people behind the glorious animation of this film. Maybe someday we’ll be able to figure out who did which background. Take a look at that scene of the Queen sitting on her throne. Why is there no record of who was involved in painting that amazing backdrop? I seem to remember Maurice Noble talking about the scene, but I don’t have the verification to back up such a claim. I’m not a historian; I just have a faulty memory. All we have is whatever information the Disney archives can tell us. If they were able to tell us anything, Mr. Kaufman most certainly would have taken the information to print.

The Queen at the magic mirror. Note the astrological
signs surrounded the mirror from the very beginning
- see above preliminary drawings.

I’m not going to review the two books here; I haven’t really read them and can’t do that. I do know that they’re great books; you can sense it, see it, feel it, smell it. Snow White’s a seminal film for me. I get a thrill whenever I see some of the scenes from this movie, and I’m always hooked on it. The two books will keep me busy and help to let me feel the reason I love animation.

Truth be told, I can’t imagine anyone giving me more information than Mike Barrier did in his book, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Or again he did it in The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. The writing in those books is brilliant, but so, too, is it great reading in Kaufman’s books. The story by Barrier is complete, and I’ve already read both of his books half a dozen times, each. These two Kaufman books will keep me busy, and I’m happy for that. I’m sure the story will be more than complete here, too. I don’t know if there’s any more to learn, but I somehow suspect we will have a new view. At least I have good reason to believe so; I know I’m in the hands of a good historian, and I don’t expect to put these books down.

The Queen on her throne -
ah, there’s a background!

But I’ll save that for the real review.

By the way, don’t ask me why I called this post the heading I chose. Guernica Eyes. It seemed to fit, especially with that last Joe Grant drawing I’ve displayed. An amazing talent in a studio filled with amazing talent. When you see some of the art he did for Snow White, you can have no doubt of that. (As if you would after reading John Canemaker‘s Two Guys Named Joe.

- Len Glasser had designed a number of pieces for Perpetual Motion Pictures. I wrote last week about two pieces that were designed and work was done on a job for CBS and their weather division. Ed Smith animated the originals which were killed and never aired. At some point a couple of years back, Vince Cafarelli built a miini-film out of what they had done. He animated anything they needed to complete this one flm. It’s built on a snowman that comes to life; the film was taken to its conclusion, but nothing was done with it beyond that. (I’ve suggested that they make an animated Christmas card out of it and send it out to everyone. It’s certainly entertaining enough.)

I’ll post every other one of the animated drawings here so you can see the animation and accompany them with the final QT movie of the piece. It should make a nice little post.

Here are the drawings predominantly animated by Ed Smith directly in pen onto paper. The drawings were xeroxed and/or inked onto cel, colored and shot traditionally. Here are the paper drawings with one or two odd comments added. Rick Broas helped Vince complete it.

The Background to scene 1

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This is part of a cycle of the snowman banging
on the door of the house. (see the QT movie)

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This is the best look we get (on this animation level)
of the character the Snowman terrorizes.

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Wth this drawing the kicked guy moves
to another level as he fles into the distance.

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Background 2

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This even-numbered drawing is where the second scene,
the interior, begins. So I included it to the group.

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I like how the snowman, having fallen in front of
the fireplace begins to melt on the floor.

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He falls back, naturally, and then comes up toward us as he
starts to melt. This little accent by Vince, in animating him . . .

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. . . seems to signal that, for the first time, the snowman
has found a release and can now be happy.

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The End

_________________________

The final mini-movie
(I looped it. It could have used a hold at the end before starting over.)

- In 1976 at Perpetual Motion Pictures, Len Glasser designed a series of spots for CBS and their weather service. Models and animation was done (Ed Smith did the original animation.) These short spots were obviously funny, but they were killed, just the same. Never completed and never aired. Two segments of these have remained. One, the “Snowman” spot was picked up by Vince Cafarelli a couple of years back and, reworked with Rick Broas assisting him. They extended the piece a bit and made a short short film. The film was colored on cels and a quick soundtrack was put together. There was also another film which didn’t make it quite as far; it dealt with rain. I’ve finished up the art that exists for that one as best I could and have run it through the AfterEffects mill.

This week features that second spot, the one I’ve been calling “Rainman” – really it’s just a short gag that was never completed. Most of it is on cel, though I had to force a Bg out of a layout that I discovered, and I colored it. I’m sure this is not how Mr. Glasser would have seen the color, but I just wanted to highlight the limited bit of animation that is there. The same is true of the rain which he probably would have left black line with black, inked drops. I put some white into the rain to give a bit less of a focus on it.

Two of the animation cels weren’t painted, so I took the drawings that were there, they look like Ed Smith’s drawings, done in ink on animation bond. I painted them for the final QT I produced. As I say this is just an animation fragment with barely a beginning and no end. It’s all middle. However, I thought it interesting.

Even more interesting and very much more complete, is the “Snowman” spot which I will feature next week.

Here are the “Rainman” cels & drawings:

Early model sheet by Len Glasser

Background sketch

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____________________

The following QT movie was made reworking the art a bit,
coloring some of the artwork that wasn’t completed and
exposing it as I saw fit. There was nothing to go by.

This is just a fragment of a scene.
The rain colors and the BG colors are my choices.
I can’t say Len Glasser would approve. My only
concern was getting all the animation to read – rain & guy.

Next week’s spot is better. It has a laugh to it.

- On Dec 16 in Amsterdam there will be a major exhibition of the work of Oskar Fischinger, a pioneer of animation film and abstract cinema. This opening will be an exhibition featuring various items including the films, the animation drawings, process material, the documents, correspondence, clippings, color charts, sketches, diagrams, patent drawings, and some of the sketches done (but not used) for Fantasia. Also exhibited will be notated graphic scores, material from the making of An Optical Poem, unshot animation drawings, and various other materials.

John Canemaker wrote about Fishinger for the New York Times, “Decades before computer graphics, before music videos, even before Fantasia (the 1940 version), there were the abstract animated films of Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967), master of “absolute” or nonobjective filmmaking. He was cinema’s Kandinsky, an animator who, beginning in the 1920′s in Germany, created exquisite “visual music” using geometric patterns and shapes choreographed tightly to classical music and jazz.’

Oskar Fishinger in his Hollywood studio with panels from “Motion Painting”.

This coming week, Wednesday Dec. 12th, Christopher Sullivan’s independent, animated feature will make its New York premiere with a week-long run at the Film Forum.

Described in the Film Forum’s press material: “The animation took 15 years of work… The characters were hand-drawn onto layers of glass which were then moved with needles and pins. The film seamlessly combines cutout animation, pencil drawing, collage, and stop-motion animation to create the haunting atmosphere of a self-contained world… (most of whose) characters walk shakily between self-medication and a bad trip… ugly characters (who) make up the most beautiful spectacle you’ve ever seen.”

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this film for quite some time. Finally, I’ve been able to confirm arrangements to see it, and I will review it. I’m ready, given all the mediocre work I’ve seen lately.

Meet the film maker

Christopher Sullivan will be there IN PERSON! at the following screenings:
December 14 | 6:30pm
December 15 | 6:30pm

This week, upcoming, the Museum of Modern Art will present a program of older European animation, and quite a few great classics will be screened in one very powerful program that will be shown three times. Trust me, if you don’t know these shorts, they are brilliant – all of them – and there is not one you should miss. Here’s a list of the films in the program:

Animation Abroad, 1946–59

Arie Prerie (Song of the Prairie)
1948. Czechoslovakia. Directed by Jiri Trnka. 21 min.

A Litte Phantasy on a 19th Century Painting
1946. Canada. Directed by Norman McLaren. 3 min.

Fiddle-de-dee
1947. Canada. Directed by Norman McLaren. 4 min.

Charley’s March of Time
1948. Great Britain. 1948. Directed by John Halas and Joy Batchelor. 9 min.

A Phantasy
1952. Canada. Directed by Norman McLaren. 8 min.

Blinkity Blank
1955. Canada. Directed by Norman McLaren. 5 min.

Thumbelina
1955. Great Britain. Directed by Lotte Reiniger. 11 min.

Concerto for a Submachine Gun
1958. Yugoslavia. Directed by Dusan Vukotic. 13 min.

Les Astronautes
1959. France. Directed by Walerian Borowczyk with Chris Marker. 13 min.

Program 87 min.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 1:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Thursday, December 13, 2012, 1:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Friday, December 14, 2012, 1:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Nest week, and I’ll post the list next Saturday, there will be a number of Hollywood Cartoons that will be screened. Chuck Jones, Robert McKimson, Hanna & Barbera, Jack Hannah and Ward Kimball. They’re all represented.

– As of yesterday, Friday, the Pups of Liberty became available for sale to teachers as well as the public, If you go to izzit.org or Amazon.com, you’ll see the assets that are available; indeed, they both link to an educational video, entitled The Pups of Liberty.

Perhaps you’ll remember the posts I published a while back on this short film produced by Bert and Jennifer Klein. I put those several articles together into one here to best showcase the story of this video. With the help of an all-star animation team (artists including: James Lopez (Hercules, Emperor’s New Groove, Flushed Away and Princess and the Frog), Eric Goldberg (Aladdin, Fantasia 2000, and Princess and the Frog), Barry Atkinson (Prince of Egypt, American Tail and The Lion King), and Mark Henn (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Muland and Princess and the Frog) Jennifer and Bert created this Revolutionary War-based film. It offered history as entertainment and allowed audiences to learn from a very entertaining series.

Now, the Kleins are not only making the video available for sale but have a new activities website which expands on that video.

This is a smart idea as Bert and Jennifer Klein seek to develop a new market and a new way to sell a creative product. If you’d like to learn more, take a look at these few clips of the animation. Here or here or here.

The schedule continues with our watching a lot of films on the run up to the Oscar nominations. By “us” I mean the people of the Academy, those who elect to see the films on a big screen before they vote. I’m sure a lot of members take the easy way out and watch DVDs of the current movies. I won’t hear this way out. As a matter of fact, they’ve asked us to accept the films via download. We’d watch the movies – the movies we’re voting for as Oscar contenders – via download over the internet. Sort of like NETFLIX. I still want to think of them as “movies”, I want the burden of going to a theater to watch them in a public place with other differing viewers, all inconvenienced at the same time. That is part of the experience, isn’t it?

So, anyway, this week started off with Zero Dark Thirty. (I guess that’s supposed to mean 12:30 am – or half past midnight, in the dark.) On Tuesday the movie got the NYFilm Critic’s award for Best Film of the Year. I was hot to see the movie.

Turns out, to me, it was just one step above a TV movie version of the raid on Osama Bin Laden campsite to capture the guy. This film had no poetry in it and wasn’t about much other than the raid we watched. I didn’t like it. Dull. I did like Kateryn Bigelow’s last film, The Hurt Locker. But this film wasn’t that. I thought Jessica Chastain was miscast even though I am a big fan of hers. In fact there’s a Thursday luncheon where I’ll meet Ms. Bigelow and Ms. Chastain. I’m looking forward to that but have to lie if they ask what I thought of the film.

top – Dustin Hoffman, Bill Connolly
bot – Maggie Smith, Tom Courtney

On Wednesday, there was the fllm directed by Dustin Hoffman, The Quartet. This one was great. No miscasting here. Maggie Smith and Tom Courtney were brilliant. Billy Connolly couldn’t have been better, and it was easy to love Pauline Collins. She’s always great. The script by Ron Harwood from his own play was sparkling and always alive. The film was funny, warm, about people and always alive. Just great and human. Top drawer work. After the screening there was a penthouse cocktail party with a nice view, good free vodka or wine, and a chance to tell Dustin Hoffman and Billy Connolly about how good they were. Heidi told Mr. connolly how much she hliked his voice work in Brave, I just told him he was great, great, great. If I didn’t realize how stupid I sounded, I probably would have said a couple more “greats”. See this film for all the brilliant talent on display and the fun you’ll have watching it.

– Thursday night, I skipped the screening of Hyde Park to attend the lecture across town. Adam Abraham was speaking on the back of his book, When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA . The book was remarkable to me, and I was looking forward to meeting the author. At first there were very few people in attendance, but it soon filled up. I was happy to see friends, John Canemaker and Amid Amidi there.

Adam’s talk was well done and ended with the screening of five films: Gerald McBoing Boing, Magoo Express, The Tell Tale Heart, Rooty Toot Toot and a rarely seen live action promotion for Magoo’s 1001 Arabian Nights, called: A Princess for Magoo.

I enjoyed the program and was pleased to meet Adam after the talk. Amid Amidi and I walked the few blocks to the subway and went home. A nice evening.

– On Friday, I attended a luncheon for the film Argo. Ben Affleck, and several key people from the film attended and answered our questions about the movie while we ate at the Four Seasons Restaurant.

The movie is promoted as some kind of recreation of actual events, and I’m sure it is. However, the film we see on the screen works just too well as a typical action-adventure sort of film, that it’s hard to accept its believability, regardless of how much is true. The climactic scene as the hostages are flying away from the Iranian police is just too Hollywood to be a reality, and Mr. Affleck admitted as much, making a joke of the idea. As an action film it works, but I wished for it to dig a little deeper.

A quick steak lunch and a return home. There was a screening of a documentary called West of Memphis which I was scheduled to attend last night, but I just didn’t feel up to it. So I stayed home. Enough movies for one week.

- Way back when, I did a couple of photo posts where I snapped some pictures of things that floated around me in my studio. Things I loved because they were around me, or maybe things that were around me because I loved them. I’m not sure which was which – the chicken or the egg. (See here and here.)

Well, as I once wrote, I’m currently working out of my home for the moment with my studio space in storage. Now, I’ve got a whole bunch of different things around me. These aren’t so obviously animation inclined, but I still love them. So let me give a show-and-tell around this room in the apartment.

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This is an etching that Heidi bought me for a birthday or some
other gift-giving-event. It’s a tiny picture of a bull which is
framed and positioned over Heidi’s computer in the living room.

I like this little guy.

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Heidi found this framed and dusty collection of buttons framed and
sitting inside the window of some garment-district store. I guess the
idea was supposed to be the display of the plastic buttons. It sits
hidden in the corner of the living room. I like it a l lot.

When we mixed our three cats together, Robbie, Alexander and Lola, it was
inevitable that they, all three, wouldn’t get along together. Robbie and Alex
are fighting friends (boys); Alex and Lola get along (boy and girl) ; but all 3
together don’t make it. Lola’s claimed the bedroom for herself, and if Robbie
even tries, horrendous cat cawls emerge from the bedroom. Of course, all
Robbie wants to do is get into that bedroom and start the wail we hear.

So a rope ties the bedroom door to a hall closet keeping the entrance impossible
for Robbie. The rope started out as a bathrobe belt, got some silk ribbons added
when that broke; and finally some twine extended it to the second door.
Whatever, it works.

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Ah, for the good old days of baby Claudie. I loved that guy.
He died in my arms on a final visit to the vet. He knew how
to do things, that boy. I loved him for 20 years.
His picture is over the piano in the living room.

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I’m sure you’ll remember that I’m a puppet guy.
This Indonesian rod puppet sits atop the no-longer-in-use
record changer. Both like to gather dust, and Heidi attacks
the dust weekly week or there abouts depending on the weather.

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This trick bank is no doubt an iron reproduction, but
it’s still great just as it is. Put 5 cents in the dog’s
mouth, and he jumps through the clown’s hoop to
deposit the nickel into the barrel.

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This replacement board came from the Winter Garden Theater.
When an actor doesn’t make it for a show, the board announces
the names of any replacements that’ll be going on. Heidi’s name
appeared here many times as she sat out the end of Cats.
When Cats closed and Mama Mia opened they got new boards backstage.

Lots of junk – such as 3D glasses – have replaced the sliding names
(which Heidi also has in the back. They don’t make the item any more
exciting.)

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Pinocchio is something of an antique. The puppet sold in 1939
when the Disney film was released. It’s made of a wooden mulch.
Sort of a mix of sawdust combined with glue; he looks just like
the real thing. Behind Pinocchio is a picture drawn by a childhood
friend of Heidi’s.

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Finally there’s the metal kitchen cabinets. Magnets hold a lot of
pictures in place. God help us if there’s to be an East Coast
earthquake. Lots of magnets mixed with images would wind up
in the sink.

- Last Wednesday, I posted a number of models and LOs from this small commercial studio, the Robert Lawrence Studio. The art is quite extraordinary and, in my opinion, is stronger than the work I’d seen from UPA-NY. i’ve been told that George Cannata was the principal designer/layout artist for the studio. Hence, I believe that many of these, certainly the more daring, are his work.

Bill Peckmann told a story of having him as an instructor. One week he took them on a class trip to the Robert Lawrence Studio. This was the first time Bill said he was able to see the inside of an animation studio a life-changing event for a number of them. Wane Becker also talked of this trip. Bill said that George was on a trip to be an artist, and he worked in animation to make a living. Animation profited – commercial animation. It seemed the entire family were artists George Cannata Sr. & Jr. as well as Dolores Cannata.

I’m just going to pick up where I left off last time with more models and pre-production sketches for many commercial spots.

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Jell-o is served, Madame.

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This is my favorite of all the pieces collected here.

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Another variation of these guys first seen in part 1 of this post.

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Same interviewer, different interviewee.

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Here are three models for this Mars Bar spot.

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And here are a couple of layouts.

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Obviously another child.

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Two layouts for a character that could only
have escaped from the 60s.

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Zagreb grew out of UPA.
Styles grew out of Zagreb in the 60s.

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A left over clown.

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Three mothers with a lot of style.

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Here are another group of interesting layouts with style to spare.

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