Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

The critics are starting to hand out their awards now. Animated Feature has gone in two different directions. As of today:

- Persepolis was named Best Animated Feature yesterday by the NY Film Critics Circle.
- Ratatouille was named Best Animated Feature by the D.C. Film Critics and by the
__National Board of Review.
__The Boston Film Critics don’t have an award for animation (they will next year) but __gave a Best Screenplay award to Brad Bird for the animated feature.
- The LA Film Critics Assn. couldn’t make up their mind. They gave a tie to both films.

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Sunday was one of those nightmare days for travelling the subway system in New York. One panhandler was followed by another with nary a break in between. Give me money because I’m sick; give me money to help the poor; give me money to buy my expensive M&Ms. The saxophone guy was followed by the drummer was followed by the gymnasts who smashed into everyone.

On the way home, the train took more than 20 minutes to get into Grand Central Station. For the entire time, the Chinese guy played his one-stringed instrument with depressing, atonal, Asian-sounding music. All the while an older woman sobbed loudly and unremittingly into a stanchion. Numbers of people kept approaching her to see if they could help, but she continuously turned them away. When the train arrived she sat down, continued to cry for half a stop, then perked up. I guess she just had to escape the Asian music and get a seat.

Fortunately, the rest of that rainy evening was better for me. A party for The Kite Runner brought out a lot of the news stars in NY: Pete Hamill, Carl Bernstein et al. It was fun for a short bit. I took a taxi home to avoid public transportation this time.

The Rockefeller Center Tree helped perk up the night;
this was our view from the Kite Runner party.

John Alden Carpenter ‘s symphony, Adventures in a Perambulator, was to be part of Fantasia II when that film was on the boards. This was just prior to the original Fantasia‘s theatrical release when they were planning number two and were getting set to go. Apparently the Carpenter piece was to have depicted a baby’s eye view of the world from his carriage. There were other sequences in the planning as well, including the Clair de lune sequence which ultimately became the “Blue Bayou” sequence when it was reworked for Make Mine Music.

Carpenter was an extremely popular American composer in his time. Many of the leading conductors and orchestras performed his music, and the choice by Disney to animate this symphony shows just how popular he was.

Now, thanks again to John Canemaker, I can post this rare piece of documentation. These are watercolors which were done by the British artist, Sylvia Moberly Holland for this segment. She was closely involved with the Nutcracker segment of Fantasia as well as segments of Bambi and Make Mine Music. (For more information about her work, see Canemaker’s book Before the Animation Begins.)

Here are two photographs of two boards. I’ve broken each up into three parts so that I could download them at a very high resoluton, for you to better see them (when enlarged.)

1a
(Click any image to enlarge.)

1b

1c

2a

2b

2c

You can view a production background from the deleted “Blue Bayou” sequence on Didier Ghez’ Disney History site.

- It’s already history, but my friend animation director, Ray Kosarin, was there with his camera. I asked if his pictures could go up on my blog. Here are some of them.

The first few photos are from the Saturday-before party held in my studio.
Of course, as usual, click any photo to enlarge.

Here’s Giuliana Nicodemi, me (getting fatter by the second) and Signe Bauman in the foreground. In the background: Jason McDonald and the back of Jimmy Picker’s head.

Here’s David Levy and his companion, Debbie.

George Griffin and John Canemaker chat and eat in the back of the studio.

Ken Brown stands to the left of Cathy and John Celestri.

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Jimmy Picker stood still for this nice snap.

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The remaining pictures were shot at MOMA’s auditorium after the completion of the event.
I look relieved; others are looking forward to the cocktails held in the museum restaurant next door, where the remainder of the pictures were taken.

Note: these pictures don’t wholly present these beautiful people in the best light. It was dark, and the flash made the backdrops even darker. But I still think it’s a good record of people having a good night.

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_The pic on the left shows me in the back of the auditorium standing in front of the
_projection booth. On the right, Heidi Stallings (l) and Giuliana Nicodemi (r) flank me
_and keep me laughing.

After my session, I must have felt above it all when chatting with Maxine Fisher (l) and
Lisa Crafts (r) in the auditorium.

Here’s Debbie Solomon questioning me about something in the music for the titles of
Garbo Talks which was screened in a very rough state.

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__Candy Kugel chats on the left, and Bridget Thorne moves out into the cold to get
__to MOMA’s restaurant, next door.

We tried to coax Giuliana into coming to the restaurant next door to continue the chat,
but she had to leave.

Adrian Urquidez (l) and Dave Levy (r) have a cocktail as Matt Clinton (center) arrives
at the restaurant.

Heidi gets into a spirited conversation with Jason McDonald (l) and Matt Clinton (r).

Chris Boyce (far right) was also part of their chat.

Here I’m chatting with Tom Hachtman about “Pabs First Burger.” It’s the short I did
adapting Tom’s comic strip, Gerturde’s Follies, and this was the first time it was
screened locally on a big screen. Joey Epstein stands to the left.

In the eeriest light possible, Candy Kugel (l) chats with Bridget Thorne (r) and Steve MacQuignon (cent).

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__Jason and Heidi continue talking on the left, and John Canemaker looks a bit evil
__as he talks with Mike Barrier, just off camera.

Editor, Paul Carrillo, and animator, Matthew Clinton, enjoy the refreshments.

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__Matthew Clinton caught alone in the left; Steve MacQuignon solo on the right.

Thanks again to Ray Kosarin for sharing the photos with us.

– Last week, I posted a piece about the “Map they could all understand” from Lewis Carroll’s poem, The Hunting of the Snark. It prompted a number of interesting comments. One in particular from Doug H. in Australia was followed by a delightful email full of other wonderful illustration of the same part of the poem.

“Other maps are such shapes,
______ with their islands and capes!
But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank:
(So the crew would protest)
______ “that he’s bought us the best–
A perfect and absolute blank!”

I’d like to post some of these illustrations here, for your amusement, and with many thanks to Doug, I do so here. With respect to all of the illustrators, about half of whom
are unfamiliar names to me. They merit a good look,________me discussing the animation
especially for Snark lovers. _____________________________ process for How Magazine.

___ Just scroll down. Click any image to enlarge a bit.)
1 2
______1. Frank Hinder (1989)_______________________2. Harold Jones (1975)
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______3. Michael Capozzola (2005)_________________4. Kelly Oechsli (1966)

5.
5. John Lord (2006)

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6._________________________________7.

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______6. Max Ernst ((1950) _______________________7. Jonathan Dixon (1992)

8.
8. Helen Oxenbury (1970)

- Congratulations to my good friend, John Canemaker, on being awarded the WINSOR McCAY AWARD for career contributions to the art of animation.

How more perfect to give this award to the guy who wrote the first and foremost biography of Winsor McCay. The Annie committee definitely got one right this year.

Congrats, also, to all the other nominees viewable here.

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– I love reading magazine articles from the past about animation. That means mostly Disney. There’s a lovely piece from the December 27, 1937 issue of Time Magazine about Disney and his “folly,” Snow White which has been posted by Joe Campana on his excellent site, Animation Who and Where.

The attractive image to the left was on that magazine’s cover. So much of the PR work on Snow White really gets me. I have this wonderful old 16mm copy of a trailer for the film. There was obviously no animated footage prepared for the trailer, so they used short live action clips of people dressed up like the seven dwarfs walking around a little house they’d built. Perhaps it was the one at the Carthay Circle Theater.

If you don’t know Joe Campana’s site and do go to check out the magazine I urge you take a good look at other posts there. My favorite is still one posted last June on the “Ghosts” of the Mintz Studio. It’s a great piece of detective work that absolutely amused me.

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Modern Mechanix has posted a number of past articles about animation. Here are two short articles about new machinery for animation.
You can check out the original articles on the actual site.
- article 1
- article 2

__(Click any image to enlarge and/or read the article.)
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The first article is about a Fleischer invention in the 20′s that never made it. It’s a new machine to project animated drawings on a large drum.

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This second article is about an animation camera device at Terrytoons in 1940 that allowed you to rotoscope and combine live action with animation. This piece of equipment remained as an addition to the Oxberry Camera that could be added onto deluxe models.

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– In other news, John Dilworth reports that the first season of Courage the Cowardly Dog is finally out on dvd.

The only problem is that it’s only available in Australia. Perhaps Cartoon Network will get their act together and share this with US buyers! The show was one of their best, and the channel has done everything they can to bury it.

Out with the old – in with the new.

Oh, and the new isn’t even Aqua Teen Hunger Force!
(By the way, there are already five editions of dvd’s for this pathetic program. That’s not counting the feature that no one saw, also available on dvd.)

There are many other, more recent programs whose titles are less memorable. I’m sure their new live-action programming will be more effective for them.

- One of my favorites of my films is The Hunting of the Snark. I adapted this from Lewis Carroll’s poem. It was an enigma to the audience when it was first published – Carroll refused to explain its meaning, and it’s an enigma now.

I remember screening it with an audience of fifth graders – about 200 of them along with a number of their parents. The program, in Chicago, was part of a retrospective of some of th echildren’s films I’d done at the time. I made the decision to show the Snark, even though I wasn’t sure the audience would sit still for it.

The response was amazing. The adults, during the Q&A period, had a lot of questions. The kids had no problems. When, finally, one parent asked me what it was supposed to mean, I decided to turn it around. I asked if one of the kids could answer the question. A lot of kids raised their hands, and the first one gave me the appropriate answer.
A bunch of guys go hunting for a monster________This is how the map was illustrated by
that’ll make them disappear, and one of_________the original illustrator, Henry Holiday.
them catches it. For all intent and purposes
that IS what it’s about.

I love showing this film as part of my programs. It’s easy for me to discuss, and I’m proud of it. I don’t think most animators like it, but that doesn’t bother me.

During the story there’s one key part that all illustrators love to illustrate.

“Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank:
(So the crew would protest) “that he’s bought us the best–
A perfect and absolute blank!”

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A blank page! What could be easier to illustrate? A couple of illustrators have cheated such as this map found on line:

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Figure One: Bellman’s Blank Ocean Chart _
Barry Smith at the University of Buffalo dept of Philosophy uses this map – a blank slate – to treat it as a map of heaven. Carroll was an Evangelical minister, but I’m confident this is not what he had in mind when he conjured up the lines in the poem.
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Mehendra Singh has a website which is slowly illustrating the entire poem. His illustration for this passage appears to the right. This is part of his comment accompanying the illustration.

Yet another shameless Magritte pastiche, and not the last one to grace these pages, I’ll wager. Shameless — the 10th Muse of Protosurrealism!

Even more shameless — this insistence that the crew of the HMS Snark use the French language for navigational purposes when it is clearly evident to anyone who has ever been lost at sea that English is the natural language of confusion. This is easily verified. Stand on a streetcorner in any francophone city and ask a stranger: where am I? If necessary, pull at shirtsleeves and wave your arms, speak very slowly while pronouncing every phoneme at the utmost decibel level.

Singh has a curious and interesting site in its own right.
Let me encourage you to check it out for all the original illustration on it.
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This is how Quentin Blake chose to illustrate it in his version. Since he obviously was nervous about just showing the blank map, he illustrated the Bellman holding it.
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This is Ralph Steadman’s version. He went for the gold and just showed the map.
Yet, it’s still, obviously, a Steadman.______________
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This is how I chose to depict it in my film. Showing hands and table behind it,
gave me the opportunity of trucking in to white to transition to the next scene –
an image of the sea, itself.

– Today’s Walt Disney‘s birthday. It’s also the second anniversary of this blog. I thought I should post something appropriate for the Disney celebration, and decided to look back some fifty-odd years.

To a young, would-be animator, desperate to read ANYTHING about cartoons or Disney, the Saturday Evening Post offered a miraculous treat. Published in eight installments, Diane Disney Miller gave us a biography of her father. This was not something you saw elsewhere – let me tell you.

The library only offered a small handful of books on animation, and there were no biographies of ANY animator or animation producer/director. Here was the cr̬me de la cr̬me, a biography of the big guy. So I bought every one of those eight issues Рprobably using up my entire allowance for those weeks. (I was ten years old, at the time.) Then, after all eight articles were printed, the biography came out in book form. The perfect Christmas gift.

These days, publishing and marketing have gotten more sophisticated. A new animation book comes out every week, and a new film every other week. However, quantity does not mean quality, and Specials are no longer special. They were then. Things were innocent. A communist hid behind every telephone pole, and animation studios meant Disney.

So, for today, here’s that very first installment of Diane Disney Miller’s book. I’ve left it complete with ads, so you can take in the period as a whole. This book is still entertaining and worth reading, though I’d follow it up with Mike Barrier’s The Animated Man.
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______________(Click any image to enlarge.)

– Sue Coe is one of my favorite current artists. A wholly political artist, it seems to me that she is the extension of the German Expressionists, focusing on man’s inhumanity to man, or Goya‘s Caprichos or Ben Shahn‘s attention to political injustice. All of her work seems to fit into this form, and I am completely attracted to it.

She is represented by the Galerie St. Etienne, in New York. Years ago, I was there, arranged by HBO, to see some paintings by Grandma Moses. While they pulled out the paintings for me, I was able to see a stack of lithographs by Sue Coe, and it made for a memorable day for me.

I’ve posted a number of other pieces about her and will probably do it again. You can view a couple here and here.

About 15 years ago, The New Yorker magazine, printed a number of pictoral essays by her, and I’ve saved several of them. Here’s her study of “Nightcourt” in the Bronx. I believe these images were represented by Galerie St. Etienne.

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___(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- Thanks again to the enormous generosity of John Canemaker, I’m able to post this board of artwork from the Baia sequence of The Three Caballeros.

In this segment from the film, during a big dance number, Donald Duck falls in love with Aurora Miranda. The great Brazilian musicians dance and swing with the birds and other animals in this very colorful and evocative sequence.

(You can watch this number on YouTube today – it might be down tomorrow) in case you don’t know the film.

Here’s a beautiful production drawing with Donald and women from the film. This came from the Latin Baby blog (however it might have been cribbed from Blackwing Diaries.) It’s devoted entirely to the Latin films of Disney. Naturally, Three Caballeros is featured prominently.

The photographic boards come in a very long first page (which had to be broken into two photos) and a more controlled second page. To enable me to post it as large as possible, I broke that first, long board into four parts – each row of the board represents one part. Hence, 1A, B, C, and D are really just one very long board shifted around in photoshop.

Board #1 actually looks like this. However, due to space constraints I can’t post it at a high enough resolution to make it clearly visible. Consequently, I broke it into the four boards just below this.

1a
(Click any image to enlarge.)

1B

1C

1D

2

Hans Bacher ‘s site Animation Treasures (now defunct) included this beautiful reconstructed rendering of a Bg from the sequence – see board 1A.
Art such as this will be missed with the tear-down of Hans’ excellent sites, and I can only hope that he’ll be able to get some newer site – not blog – together for this great artwork.

- About an hour ago, it started snowing in Manhattan. We’re supposed to get about an inch of snow (in the City – more, in the outer suburbs) before it turns to sleet this afternoon and rain tonight. It was a bit of a surprise since I expected it to come later today. This is what I saw on the way to the studio this morning.
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______23rd Street looking west toward Sixth Avenue.
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______The steel trees in Madison Square Park.
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______These Christmas trees – to be decorated – were set up this past week.

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- Last Sunday’s post of signage photos brought out the best in some of friend, Steve Fisher’s pictures. He sent them, and I can’t help posting them. They’re funny.
Sometimes, home made ads aren’t much worse than store-bought ones.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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