Art Art &Comic Art &Daily post 19 Jul 2007 07:57 am
Poe & Matt, Nancy & Piet
- I returned from London late last night after a very successful recording with actor, Hugh Dancy. His performance, as expected, was a fine one. I’m pleased, after all these years, to have finally recorded Edgar for my film, which moves foward in leaps and bounds.
On my production blog for this film, I’ll detail the recording in detail later today. Perhaps as soon as we get one of the poems edited down, I’ll put an MP.3 up on that site.
– The NYTimes Magazine, this coming Sunday will interview Matt Groening for his PR push on the Simpsons. (He’ll be on Conan O’Brien tonight, Thursday. It’ll be curious to see how O’Brien acts with his former boss.) The short Times interview by Deborah Solomon (the art critic not the animator) is, as I said, for the most part PR. However there are one or two questions I’d like to post. The responses have to do with animation.
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“The Simpsons Movie,†opening on Friday, reminds us of your substantial role in giving masterpiece status to cartoons and animation. Do you see yourself as an A-level artist?
No. Cartooning is for people who can’t quite draw and can’t quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career.
How much of the movie is hand-drawn?
We used a combination of cheap labor and computers.
What does that mean? You outsourced the film to animators in China?
No. When I say cheap, I mean there’s no amount of money that an animator can be paid — they deserve our eternal gratitude. I would give them back massages if they would take them.
There are also a couple of questions about politics I found cute:
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In your film, a character named President Arnold Schwarzenegger occupies the Oval Office. How did that happen?
We needed a president that would make people laugh. And Schwarzenegger was the obvious choice.
You’re known to be a fairly active Democrat.
I’ve rarely voted for a winner in my political life, with the exception of Al Gore.
Note that he didn’t find George Bush funny. Now that we’re a few weeks into the run, is Comedy Central going to wake up to the fact that Li’L Bush isn’t funny? Or maybe the 18-35 year old males are still coming back for more?
Hopefully, they’re watching for the same reason I used to read the Ernie Bushmiller Nancy comic strip in the daily papers. I knew SOMEDAY it was going to be funny, and I didn’t want to miss it.
Ultimately, looking at all those Nancy strips, I kinda became a fan. I have a book which collects Ernie Bushmiller’s strips, and I like Guy Gilchrist‘s take on the strip. There are a couple of good articles on the site, Interesting Ideas, about the strip and its history. I also found a crazy article on How to Read Nancy. Huh?
- The excellent site, Blather from Brooklyn has a wonderful post about Piet Mondrian and the influence NY had on him (and perhaps his influcence on the City.)
- Speaking of art, if anyone out there is interested in who was nominated for prime time animation emmies, here are the nominees:
Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)
Avatar: The Last Airbender • City Of Walls And Secrets
Nickelodeon • Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Robot Chicken • Lust For Puppets
Cartoon Network • ShadowMachine Films
South Park • Make Love, Not Warcraft
Comedy Central • Central Productions
SpongeBob SquarePants • Bummer Vacation / Wig Struck
Nickelodeon • Nickelodeon Animation Studio in ass’n with United Plankton Pictures, Inc.
The Simpsons • The Haw-Hawed Couple
Fox • Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox
Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More)
Good Wilt Hunting (Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends)
Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios
Hellboy Animated: Sword Of Storms • Starz
Starz Media in ass’n with Revolution Studios
Secrets Of The Deep • Discovery Channel
Impossible Pictures in ass’n with Discovery Channel
Where’s Lazlo? (Camp Lazlo)
Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios
on 19 Jul 2007 at 11:56 am 1.Anna said …
Thank you for your continuous updates!
on 19 Jul 2007 at 4:05 pm 2.billburg said …
I second Anna’s thanks for your continuous updates. You always seem to find the good stuff.
I became a “Nancy” fan in college after picking up some of the collections put together by Kitchen Sink Press (particularly “Nancy Eats Food”). I find it hilarious, although perhaps more for its strange surreality than for the obvious gags. Bushmiller’s art has an airless quality, as if the whole universe he creates exists in a vacuum. Every rock, tree, or person is delineated with the exact same precision, and every object (and person) seems to have no reason for existence except to support the gag. The strip is far stranger and richer than I ever noticed as a kid.
on 19 Jul 2007 at 8:41 pm 3.Bill said …
Uh, the DVD “Tom and Jerry Blast Off to Mars” from about three years ago actually ends with Arnold being president. Somebody at the Simpsons should’ve checked, but that would’ve involved slumming.
on 20 Jul 2007 at 9:40 pm 4.David said …
Nice how Matt Groening neatly sidestepped that question about offshoring of the animation for The Simpsons . That’s fine if Groening (multi-millionaire) wants to make cute cracks about “cheap labor” , but the interviewer asked a direct question about whether the animation was outsourced and he answered “No” and then says that animators deserve eternal gratitude , whatever that means … I think most would just like a steady job at a decent wage. I guess the interviewer did ask if the animation was outsourced to “China” , so technically Groenings answer of “No” isn’t exactly untrue … he just didn’t mention that it was outsourced to Korea . Well, the good news is that a lot of domestic animators were employed recently on The Simpsons Movie animating in L.A. , but much of the movie was sent out of the country where it would be cheaper to produce and of course the animation for the TV show has been offshored for years.
Of course , this is old news and that fight was lost a long time ago … I don’t know why I even point it out . I guess the “cheap labor” joke was just a little too callous . Rubbed me the wrong way.
on 21 Jul 2007 at 9:06 am 5.Michael said …
David, your reading of Groening’s interview question was exactly the reason I pulled those questions from an otherwise ordinary PR interview piece. Americans long ago gave up the tv animation when Hanna Barbera first started the practice. It is peculiar how Groening says he supports low-paid animators but allows his work to go to lower-paid animators.
on 10 Dec 2010 at 11:23 am 6.Nicky Espiridion said …
the above comments are ridiculous