Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- G. Michael Dobbs has just posted the second chapter of his book on The Fleischer studio. It can be read on his site Made of Pen and Ink.

For those unfamiliar with this site, Dobbs has been writing this bio/animation history book for the last forever. He’s writing and posting it on the site one chapter at a time. Thus far we’ve had the prologue and chapters 1 & 2, and it’s already hot.

- In New York, there’s a lot of aniticipation for the Popeye dvd that’s scheduled to come out later this year. This is the one to be released by Warner Home Video/King Features and Hearst Entertainment. A lot of the animation community in New York were interviewed for an accompanying documentary for the disk. The doc is being directed by historian/film maker, Greg Ford, and should be pretty exciting.
(Click images to enlarge.)

Until then, there’s the Popeye’s Original Classics dvd which was released last year from Steve Stanchfield‘s Thunderbean Animation. As an added plus, if you buy this dvd you can hear the child version of me (1978) interviewing Jack Mercer about his Popeye Voice Overs. You can probably also use it to blackmail me.

This was originally a record that came with an issue of Mike Barrier‘s Funnyworld Magazine. it was supposed to be an incentive to buy the magazine, but I’m not so sure it worked. Regardless, I had a lot of fun doing it. I purposely chose Hal Seeger‘s studio, Channel Sound, to record the disk. That’s where they’d recorded a lot of the later Popeyes, and there were photos everywhere. Jackson Beck (Bluto) often stopped by to say hello. It’s also where I started out as a messenger going on asst. film editor.

– Yesterday the news was all over the blogs about Peter Ellenshaw‘s death. Ellenshaw did all those wonderful glass matte shots in the Disney canon of live action films. The ships in Treasure Island wouldn’t have looked quite so beautiful if the surroundings weren’t Ellenshaw’s invention, and the rooftops of London – including that beautiful church steeple in the “Feed The Birds” sequence – of Mary Poppins wouldn’t have been so noble without his help. Nor the glens of Rob Roy, the town in Thomasina (my favorite Disney live action film), or the New England of Pollyana.

In 1979, the Museum of Modern Art had a show of Ellenshaw’s work with a lot of his matte paintings displayed, and he talked around a screening of shots he worked on from many of the films. I was struck with how impressionist the paintings were up close, yet on screen they looked so absolutely real. I asked about this, and he said that he found that the paintings had to feel a bit out of focus to achieve the effect of reality. When he painted in a very realistic mode, the paintings didn’t work.

The man knew what he was doing and was a master craftsman. Too bad that part of the film business seems to have died off. All effects now are “computer,” and I’m always so damned wistful for the past as I type this on my computer.

I’m sad to know he’s gone.

All this sniping going on between John Kricfalusi, Mike Barrier and Stephen Worth. Can’t we all just get along? It makes for entertaining reading, but it’s just getting too catty. Apparently the personalities don’t mix; I’m glad I’m not really involved. I notice the chat roooms are blistering with comments, but none of the sites seem to be discussing it.

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