Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- The 1933 version of Alice In Wonderland, directed by Norman McLeod, is an interesting live action approach to an adaptation of Carroll’s classic. Something rarely discussed in animation circles is the Harman & Ising insert in the film, an animated version of the Walrus and the Carpenter. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum narrate the poem, and there’s constant cutting back and forth of the live storytellers and the animated story.

The animation is right out of the Warner Bros H-I style. Not very advanced, though it’s certainly serviceable (especially given some of the second-rate costumes in this film.) This was done, I would guess, right after Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising had left WB, and were out on their own – just prior to doing the Cubby cartoons for Van Buren and certainly prior to MGM. Alice In Wonderland is a Paramount release.

Here are some frame grabs – mostly of the animation. I’ve given a couple of shots of the Tweedles to give you the idea.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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The sun was shining on the sea, shining with all his might;
He did his very best to make the billows smooth and bright -

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And this was very odd, because it was the middle of the night.

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The Walrus and the Carpenter were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to to see such quantities of sand.

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“O Oysters come and walk with us!” The walrus did beseech.
“A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk, along the briny beach.”

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“We cannot do with more than four, to give a hand to each.”

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The eldest Oyster looked at him, but never a word he said;
The eldest Oyster winked his eye, and shook his heavy head -

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Meaning to say he did not choose to leave the oyster-bed.

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But other Oysters hurried up, all eager for the treat.
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat -
And this was odd because, you know, they hadn’t any feet.

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Four other Oysters followed them; and yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,

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And more, and more, and more -
All hopping through the frothy waves, and scrambling to the shore.

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“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things;
Of shoes – and ships – and sealing wax – of cabbages – and kings -
And why the seas is boiling hot – and whether pigs have wings.”

“A loaf of bread,” the Walrus said, is what we chiefly need;
Pepper and vinegar besides are very good, indeed.”

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Now if you’re ready, Oysters dear, we can begin to feed.”

“But not on us! the Oysters cried, turning a little blue.
After such kindness that would be a dismal thing to do.”

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“It seems a shame,” the Walrus said, “To play them such a trick.

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“After we’ve brought them out so far and made them trot so quick.”

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The Carpenter said nothing but, “The butter’s spread too thick!”

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“I weep for you,” the Walrus said. “I deeply sympathize.”
With sobs and tears e sorted out those of the largest siize.

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“O Oysters,” said the Carpenter, “You’ve had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?”

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But answer there was none – And this was scarcely odd, because
They’d eaten every one.

- Bill Littlejohn, to me, was one of THE GREAT animators. It took years of my working on his animation for John Hubley before I finally met him. We’d spoken often enough on the phone since I was the production manager, Assistant, Animator and Layout guy for Hubley for about 6 years. I did any assisting needed on Bill’s work – and there was rarely much to do. He and his wife, Fini, were so amiable, affectionate and cordial in person; exactly the people I expected after all the phone conversations.

His animation seemed to be done in a straight-ahead style, and he did everything needed for the scene.

As promised I found a scene animated by him from Hubley’s Everybody Rides the Carousel. It’s not the best scene, but it showcases the almost calligraphic style Bill used for Hubley. The animation drawings just flowed out of his pencil (though he usually animated in pen for Hubley.) The only assisting I did on the following drawings were some of the outer balloons for the characters.

The scene represents the animal figures that constantly fight in the heads of the characters. For this stage there was a snake and a phoenix; one representing positive, the other representing negative.

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The following QT movie represents the drawings above
from Bill Littlejohn.
I don’t have the X-Sheets, so I exposed on two’s
except where there were gaps in the numbers.
There I treated part of it as a cycle – which is what it was.

I suspect the scene actually was exposed to last longer
using three’s and a couple of very short holds.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- Recently, Tissa David gave me a bunch of posters that she’d stored for many years. I’ll post them all, but it takes forever to scan them and reconstruct them in photoshop. So they’ll probably come one at a time.

Here’s one Grim Natwick gave her. She was the 3rd that Grim signed it to.

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

- I’d posted a large scene from Everybody Rides the Carousel which was animated by Art Babbitt. The scene was the first one handed out when the film was scheduled to air as 3 half hour shows on consecutive nights. Babbitt did a stunning job, and John Hubley loved it. (He’d pulled me into the editing room to show it to me. “I want you to see the greatest piece of animation ever done,” were the words he greeted me with.

Hubley did some changes after the film was extended to a 90 minute TV special. It meant we needed an additional 10 mins of animation done within the same 6 month schedule. Hubley extended Babbitt’s scene putting it on four frame dissolves. Babbitt quit the project.

At the very end of production, John Hubley sent the rest of the mime to the brilliant animator, Barrie Nelson. The voice had changed, and the schedule offered little time to do the work. Barrie followed the voice rather than Art Babbitt’s mime. It came back a different character. True to Hubley’s style, schedule and budget, it was used regardless.

Here’s one of those Barrie Nelson scenes. I don’t have the exposure sheets, so I guessed at it.

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______________________

The following QT movie represents the drawings above
from Barrie Nelson.
I don’t have the X-Sheets, so I exposed straight ahead on two’s.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- Before his summer trip to Caltabellotta, Sicily, my friend Steve Fisher took a short visit to Alaska. His photos are pretty amazing, and I thought I’d post a few here, today.

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Alaska from above.

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Landing.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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A mountain range.

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These mountains are covered with tundra.
Tundra stands on top of dead tundra on top of dead tundra.
It makes them exhausting to climb.
It’s like walking on sponges. You keep sinking in.

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Tundra up close.

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Even the trains mean business.

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Steve horsing around with two statues.

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The real thing.

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Whale watching.

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Eagles are everywhere in Alaska.

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When I was in Adak, Alaska there was an old
schoolbus that would take us the 3 miles to town.

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Once an eagle and a seagull played with the wind just
outside the schoolbus window as we rode the 3 miles.

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The eagle was about a foot higher than the seagull,
and they just sailed there together on the wind. I
could’ve touched them if I put my hand out the window.

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Needless to say, I didn’t have a camera.
Luckily Steve does.

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A great collection of photos.

- Heidi and I just came back from a short trip (4 days) to Martha’s Vineyard, where the weather was wonderful, the crowds were not bad – though they started to move in by Thursday for the weekend – the food was very good, and the escape from the world of animation was pleasant. The only film playing on the island that we hadn’t seen was The Switch, the Jennifer Aniston movie. We passed on it. Neither The Town (Ben Affleck) nor The American (George Clooney) were worth revisiting. So we didn’t even get to see a movie, never mind an animated movie.

I’ve come back to not much to report. Just as we were leaving, I learned that Bill Littlejohn had passed away. This brought me down a bit during the trip. I’d like to post a scene or two that he animated for the Hubleys. That might be the best homage I could offer for him. Look to Wednesday for the first of that.

It was exciting to receive a note from Jim Korkis telling me about his new book, The Vault of Walt. I had planned to write a bit about it, but nothing I could say could match Mark Mayerson‘s excellent column about it. I urge you to go read it. Then go to the Wade Sampson columns at the Mouse Planet. Read Wade Sampson’s Last Column.

Finally, buy the book. Anything Jim Korkis writes is a necessary addition to any animation library. When I’ve read it, I’ll write a review, but you already know that I’ll love it.

- Postcards . . . we’ve got postcards. Not trying to step on Ken Brown‘s toes, but Bill Peckmann sent me a few picture postcards that pull us back to another time and place. Here’s a sampling of those images. Interesting illustration.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- Last week I posted the first of the displays from this beautiful book, He Drew As He Pleased. This, of course, is the work of Albert Hurter who was a key designer for the Disney studio during the mid thirties, particularly in the making of Snow White.

Interesting that this film showed up with commercials on ABC Family Channel last Saturday evening. It was a happenstance that got me to watch the film again, and then I watched it uncut and uninterrupted the next day in my studio.

For all the shaking lines and animation problems the earliest feature had, it’s still a gorgeous testament to brilliant animation. There are no cliches floating in the eyes of the characters. No hard edges right out of Cartoon Network or CalArts. It has its cliches of the period – which existed in live action as well – but the acting is brilliant, particularly in the dwarfs. I was also very impressed, this time, with the old hag. The witch is overplayed by Norm Ferguson, yet it’s done with imagination and resourcefulness. She comes right out of an opera – or do I mean a melodrama – and she’s loveable in her grotesque way.

The film has an innocence we’ll never see again, and it’s too bad.
Hurter had his part in that innocence, and the drawings are a fine display of all that’s good in the film.

Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for scanning his copy of the book for me to post. This is the first time I get to see the entire thing.

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“Optics . . .”

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“. . . And More Optics.”

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“Preliminary Sketch of Snow White.”

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“The Prince.”

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“The Witch . . . Hansel and Gretel.”

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“A Page of Devils.”

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“And Some Demons in the Making.”

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“Tyll the Jester and . . . ”

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“And Other Clowns . . . ”

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“Toby Tortoise Wins the Race.”

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“Captain Noah.”

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“And Other Passengers.”

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some of the illustrations from a eautiful books sent me by Bill Peckmann. Gustaf Tenggren’s Story Book is a big book with lots of chapters that take short pieces from some of the world’s most famous stories. Robin Hood, Heidi, Gulliver’s Travels and many others are all represented. Of course, to me the illustrations are everything.

Animation students don’t need to know who Gustaf Tenggren is. He was a Swiss illustrator brought into Snow White and Pinocchio by Walt Disney. He went on to create the Poky Little Puppy and many of the most famous Little Golden Books.

Here, then, are some more of these illustrations from The Gustaf Tenggren Storybook.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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- On Thursday, September 23rd, John Dilworth will be speaking at the 92nd Street Y. It’ll include live music and special guests.

(Click image if you want to enlarge it.)

This is a pretty prestigious event for John, animation and the Y. It’d be great if there were a good showing of people to support it. That would mean the Y would offer more animation programs – something they haven’t often done.

Irrational Reactions: The Animated Worlds of John Dilworth
92nd St. Y – Tribeca
200 Hudson Street

Thurs. Sept 23rd, 8:00 PM
price $12.00

- Cartoonist, Eric Gurney, was a story man for the Disney studio for many years. He left in 1948 to move on to freelancing and made a success for himself. Bill Peckmann sent me the following article from Cartoonist Profiles written for the 1992 issue #95.

(Of course you’ll have to enlarge images to read the article.)

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Bill also sent me some images from this book by Gurney released in 1968 about birds.