Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

With Sinbad, I was surprised at how little I remembered of that film.

I remembered almost nothing about the pirates. I didn’t forget
Sinbad in the crow’s nest with his parrot espying on the other ship.
I particularly remembered the big bird at the end of the film.

The shortened version did not include this anti-gay joke in it.
Watching it for the first time, I wondered how many other such
jokes were in the films. There were plenty of racist jokes
(including the one I eliminated at the very end of this film.)

It’s amazing how much those early short films stayed with me over the years,
however this one has just left an impression without my remembering much of
the details of the story.

After all, I studied every frame of these films. I’d figured out how to
jerry-rig my 8mm projector to allow me to do that. I could watch each
film one frame at a time.

I remember when I first met Grim Natwick that I told him his was the
first animation I ever studied. “Jack & The Beanstalk” left an impression.
Grim wasn’t impressed when I told him.

The most I could learn about the crew of this film is that Grim Natwick
(who probably directed) animated along with Stephen Bosustow.
I believe Pete Burness was also with the studio at this time. Berny Wolf
was there at this time and may have animated on Sinbad.

I soon had bought a complete library of animated shorts.
Both “Jack & The Beanstalk” and Woody Woodpecker in
“Ace In The Hole” were favorites of mine back then.
Grim Natwick and Alex Lovy.

I also bought a couple of WB shorts. I particularly liked the
Chuck Jones directed films. I’d seen “Hair Raising Hare” and
“Rabbit Punch” so many times in the 8mm versions that
it’s almost hard to watch them again.

The WB cartoons handled the titles well. They did them
as subtitles, and I liked buying these films for this reason.
Of course, it was a plus that they were such good films.

I’m surprised that the Iwerks staff took no attempt to adapt the actual story
of Sinbad from the Arabian Nights, but instead they completely created their own.

Ted Sears and Otto Englander, were both doing story work for Iwerks,
so they probably had a hand in shaping this film. Eventually, both men
would move on to Disney’s studio where they did exceptional work.

By the time this film was made, Iwerks, himself, had lost interest
in the actual production of the shorts, and he’d tried to get Grim Natwick
to take a piece of the studio to run the production.

Natwick had refused knowing full well how difficult it was to
manage a studio and try to stay afloat. Especially knowing,
as I’m sure he did, that the studio was in trouble.
He rejected the offer.

In fact, within a year Natwick, Shamus Culhane and others had
migrated to the Disney studio. Culhane had a side-step going back
to NY to work under Bert Gillette for Van Buren. When that ended
badly, Culhane went to Disney to work for less than he made in NY.

Berny Wolf, Al Eugster and Steve Bosustow also moved to Disney’s.

The bowling pin joke has got to be one of the older jokes used in animated films.
I’m sure the addition of sound helped sell the gag during the early sound years.

Others at the studio such as Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin
as well as Bugs Hardaway and composer, Carl Stalling,
moved over to Schlesinger’s studio at Warner Brothers.

“Sinbad” was part of a trilogy of films Iwerks made from the
Arabian Nights. There was also “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba.”

All three were really just titles to hang a cartoon on.
These were part of the attempt to try to gain a bit of success
after Willie Whopper and Flip the Frog had both failed as series.

There’s no doubt that Grim Natwick did these dancing girls.
It was his signature style at the time.

Iwerks was moving his studio to the edge of the precipice.

Iwerks introduced his version of the multiplane camera about
this time, trying to offer something new to the medium.

The Headless Horseman and The Valiant Tailor both showcased
the multiplane camera in its production. Neither took off.

It wasn’t much longer before the Iwerks studio
floundered and ultimately died off.