Animation Artifacts &Articles on Animation &Commentary &Disney &Fleischer &Photos 20 Apr 2008 08:28 am
Howard Frank & Ollie and Creating Betty
Howard Beckerman sent me this great photo and a short letter attached to it. I can’t help but post both:
___________________________________________(Click any image to enlarge.)
Hi Michael,
Someone suggested that I send you this photo of Ollie signing my review copy of Disney Animation The Illusion of Life. It was taken in 1982 at the publisher’s office. Frank and Ollie were there with their wives. I was doing an interview to accompany a review of the book.
I brought my camera and the book, which in it’s large cardboard box stuck jauntily out of my shoulder bag. After the interview I more or less removed my interviewer’s hat and donned my Frank & Ollie fan hat and asked if they would sign the book. A publicity guy, standing in earshot, responded immediately saying, “Oh, you need a book? I’ll get you one.” I looked around and saw a pile of books about 5 1/2 feet high. “I brought my own I said,” assuming my best George Washington and the cherry tree stance. Ever since, then, I’ve thought that if I had left mine at home I could have had a second copy of this now valuable first edition.
I had met Frank Thomas before, but he introduced me to Ollie Johnston at the initial presentation of their book at the library at Lincoln Center. Ollie’s first statement to me after saying hello was, “Do you want to see my train?” He then pulled a picture of his backyard, full-size railroad rig from his wallet like a doting grandparent with a child’s snapshot.
Howard
- Mike Dobbs has a blog called Made of Pen & Ink. He was once the editor of Animato! 
and Animation Planet, two fanzines for animation fans.
This blog is designed for Mike to post chapters of a book he’s writing about the Fleischer brothers entitled: Made of Pen and Ink: The Fleischer Studio and Cartoons.
It’s been a long time between chapters, and he’s just posted the third on this blog. It’s about Betty Boop and her history at the studio. If you haven’t kept up with it, this is a chance to read some heavy duty writing about Max & Dave.
____________An illustration by Michael Paulus.
Mike also has an animation blog wherein he reviews animated films and dvds. This, too, is worth checking out. Animation Review.
With all the nopstalgia in this post, I probably shouldn’t be adding a comment here, but it’s 
on my mind. I saw a few minutes of Johnny Bravo last night on cable tv. I never did warm up to this show, though I have to admit that watching it last night it looked a bit more golden.
Compared to all the monstrously poor animation seen in the Flash shows, Johnny Bravo, as limited as it was, seemed richer and fuller. When a head turned it didn’t just pop from one side to another, it turned. When an arm had to move up, it didn’t just pop, it animated.
Have we reached the point where I miss even limited animation?
on 22 Apr 2008 at 12:04 pm 1.Eric Noble said …
There’s a new book about the Fleischers being written? That is AWESOME! Is Mr. Dobbs going to include artwork from their cartoons like model sheets and such?
Also, it is a sad state of affairs when we start missing limited animation. Like everything else in our culture, we have reached a low point. Hopefully there will be another resurgence of great animation.
on 23 Apr 2008 at 10:40 am 2.Michael Polvani said …
First of all I’d like to compliment you on a wonderful blog that is both inspiring AND informative. What more can one ask for??
When you posed the question about getting to the point where we even miss limited (planned) animation, I HAD to chime in!
Things HAVE to change for the better. They will. Believe me. I can’t just sit by and watch things continue to deteriorate for “profit only”. I’ve spent my entire adult life working in animation and so have many others out there. I just don’t see that it will get worse. Infact, I see a very nice future for art in animation! Sorry for the soap box speech. I have always loved the medium and always will. I’m not implying that you were being “doom and gloom” about it. It’s just that it’s a passionate subject for me and I got a little fired up! HAH!
Thanks again for all your hard work, thoughts, opinions and efforts on this blog. It is GREATLY appreciated and has already started an UPWARD spiral!!
on 23 Apr 2008 at 12:38 pm 3.Michael said …
Watching a Flash animated head turn, where the character’s head pops to the reversed postion of the ame drawing, indicates that we’re in trouble. “Animators” can’t draw anymore or else they’re too lazy to, and Flash inspires this laziness. It’s hard to find fewer drawings in a short than Huckleberry Hound offered, yet even there 5 drawings would be necessary for the proper turn. And these days the Flash version seems to be preferred. It’s hard not to be cynical especially when you love the medium.
Road to Eldorado was on one of those HBO channels the other night at 2AM. It’s a bad movie, but it’s glorious to watch these days. Such technical brilliance, such painted, brilliant artwork. It was hard to go to sleep. And it was all so damned depressing.
The brilliant animator Jack Schnerk once told me that he had to walk out of Disney’s Alice In Wonderland. “All that work for nothing,” was his comment. I’m beginning to understand what he meant.
on 25 Apr 2008 at 12:59 pm 4.Michael Polvani said …
“All that work for nothing”
I uttered the exact same words as I exited a theater after seeing Sleeping Beauty for the first time ever.