Animation Artifacts 06 Feb 2008 09:06 am
Annies 2/08
- There’s no need to tell LA animation enthusiasts that this Friday the 35th annual Annie Awards will take place. I hope all who plan to attend will have a good time. The rest of us will check in tomorrow to find out who won.
I have this old poster from the 3rd Annie Award celebration. It took place back in 1974.
________________________________(Click any image that you’d like to enlarge.)
As you may have noticed it was signed by four animation stars. I presume there must have been a number of these posters signed, and I don’t know how many still have copies. Just the same it’s a fun piece to have.
Friz Freleng and Tex Avery signed the top of the poster.
Chuck Jones and Art Babbitt signed the bottom. (I’m not quite sure how Art Babbitt fit into this group, but it’s great to have his signature there.)
– I’d also like to congratulate my friend, John Canemaker on having won the Winsor McCay Award which has been presented annually since 1972. How appropriate that he’s written the definitive book on McCay and now he wins the award named for the father of animation. It’s a fitting tribute, indeed. Congratulations also to the other two Winsor McCay award winners, Glen Keane and John Kricfalusi.
Speaking of John Kricfalusi, his blog features the first of a number of articles Milt Gray will write with John about Bob Clampett. This should be an exciting series of posts worth looking out for. Milt worked for years with Michael Barrier conducting many of the interviews gathered for Mike’s book, The Hollywood Cartoon.
on 06 Feb 2008 at 1:28 pm 1.Stephen Worth said …
Here’s a photograph of the four Winsor McCay Award winners from the third Annie Awards with June Foray.
See ya
Steve
on 06 Feb 2008 at 3:05 pm 2.Thad Komorowski said …
Hi Michael-
Just a correction, the article by Milt Gray was written by he himself. John is posting it with his permission.
Myself, I found the essay to be too laudatory, dishonest (where Clampett’s weaker black-and-white cartoons are concerned), and narrow-minded to be taken very seriously.
The worst aspect of it was the chastising of Jones and Freleng for not being eccentric like Clampett. We might as well kvetch about Hitchcock not being funny like Hawks.
on 07 Feb 2008 at 5:27 pm 3.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
Thad: “Dishonest and narrow-minded?” Milt Gray!!???? He’s just the opposite, I would say. You really gave both barrels to Steve Worth too. Steve and Milt have both done a lot for this industry and deserve better treatment. Thad, you need to count to ten before you write..
on 07 Feb 2008 at 5:41 pm 4.Michael said …
Milt’s got my vote. He’s done too much for getting the history of animation CORRECT. I have my own opinion about Clampett, but I’ve gotta respect anything Milt has to say.
on 07 Feb 2008 at 10:35 pm 5.Thad Komorowski said …
Gee, I don’t know, Eddie, saying that Clampett’s black-and-white Looney Tunes “continue to break new ground” is a pretty dishonest assessment, at least to anyone who actually watches them chronologically. An honest assessment would be “look to break new ground, but hit a brick wall”.
The writing all leads up to being “Why Chuck Jones is an asshole for what he said about Clampett”, a very common subject in a lot of Milt’s writing, and one I think he places too much emphasis on.
But that’s my opinion.
on 07 Feb 2008 at 11:57 pm 6.Thad Komorowski said …
And BTW, I really don’t think I’m blasting Milt if I don’t like an editorial he wrote. (After all, I READ it). I have a lot of respect for Milt’s historian work, most particularly his battles with the Disney Studio to get Floyd Gottfredson’s name out to the public.
on 08 Feb 2008 at 11:11 pm 7.Thad Komorowski said …
BTW, Eddie, “count to ten before you write” is a great piece of advice. Seriously. I should try it more often.