Animation &Animation Artifacts &Hubley &Tissa David 14 Sep 2011 06:51 am
Carousel’s Lovers – recap
This is one of my favorite sequences in the Hubley canon. Animated by Tissa David.
It’s worth a repost: the original appeared here in June, 2009.
- Let’s take a look at the scene in Hubley’s Everybody Rides the Carouselwherein the young lovers have had a spat and try to have a romantic scene despite the fact that neither of them wants to do that.
They’ve argued over the girl having cut her hair without telling the boy. He’s annoyed and she laughs at him. They push on to a frothy conversation. Both put on masks to continue the conversation while the inner characters
are annoyed and have an inner monologue. They get to the point where they can’t take the masks off and end pulling away from each other.
I’ve gathered John Hubley‘s layouts for this sequence. Tissa David animated them. You’ll note that the pencil numbers are a scene breakdown done in Tissa’s handwriting. The very loose drawings were done with a sharpie or pencil. The pencils would have been done while in handing it to Tissa during the conversation. They’re to delineate some point in greater detail for her.
I’ve also pulled some frame grabs so you can see how it was finally rendered. The coloring was done on vellum and shot bottom light. No more than 3 levels were used (including the background.) Tissa, aside from concerning herself with the dramatics of the scene, had to watch that the characters didn’t overlap. More complication for her.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
By the way, this was Meryl Streep’s first screen performance.
Charles Levin, another NY character actor, played the boy.
25a-b
25c-d
25e-f
26a
26b-c
26d
27a-v
27c-28
29-30a
30b-c
30d-31
Here’s the park bench.
A quick rough copy by me to Tissa of John’s Bg LO.
John’s model of the boy’s head for Tissa.
John Hubley’s models of the Girl’s heads for Tissa.
a rough drawing of the girl by Tissa.
on 14 Sep 2011 at 7:52 am 1.Brett McCoy said …
I remember seeing this show on TV when I was a kid, it kinda creeped me out (in a good way), especially the chilling segment where Death appears. I love the Hubley’s animation style, too!
on 14 Sep 2011 at 10:10 am 2.Michael said …
Brett, if you don’t know the film’s composer’s work you should look into it. William Russo was a new type of jazz composer. He aimed to bring classical and jazz together into the concert hall and succeeded very well. You might listen to his STREET MUSIC on YouTube.
on 14 Sep 2011 at 11:47 am 3.bridget thorne said …
The lack of the lovers’ physical overlap beautifully describes the lovers’ emotional tension. What a great film!
on 14 Sep 2011 at 3:32 pm 4.Eimhin said …
Beautiful post and wonderfully expressive drawings. I find myself checking your site hoping for more Tissa David and Hubley goodness every time I see an update!