Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- I have a few models by Rowland Wilson that I haven’t yet posted. I’m ganging them up, even though they come from several different projects. All of these come courtesy the collection of Bill Peckmann. Many thanks to Bill.

This first series comes from a spot Rowland designed for Phil Kimmelman & Associates. It featured a mountie and his trusty sidekick.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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The following two layouts came from the 2nd TV spot Rowland did for ‘Utica Club Beer’, featuring a Knight and a fiery Dragon.

This is a rough that RBW did for a dog food animatic. It was a take off of Bogart’s ‘Casablanca’, hence the ‘play it again Sam’ scene with Bogie Basset.

This is a LO rough for what’s probably a TV Guide illustration:

This is a painting by Rowland Wilson for
The Hunchback of Notre Dame “All Fools Day”.

Here is the same thing broken in two for better viewing.

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Here’s a group of Christmas Cards Rowland did. This is the note that Bill Peckmann included with the cards: “Years ago Rowland had an old school friend (‘Pete the Greek’, I’ve forgotten his last name) in Dallas (their home town) who owned the ‘Drawing Board’ greeting card company. Rowland did these professional (dentists, doctors, cpa’s etc.) Christmas cards for Pete. He loved doing them because Pete let him run with the ball, none of the usual looking over your shoulder advertising art direction.”

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And here are two cards that were sent out by Rowland and Suzanne.

Here’s a caricature Rowland did of Grim Natwick and himself:

Finally, here’s a cartoon Bill Peckmann did of the staff at Focus, a company in NY just prior to Phil Kimmelman’s forming PK&A. Here’s a note Bill included with the drawing: “This was done by me when we were working on RBW’s second animated spot which was Vote Toothpaste’s “Combs & Plotzen.” His first was a Flying “A” gasoline spot animated by Lu Guarnier. Both circa ’68-’70. Of cours this pre-dated the Utica Club “Mountie”strong> caricatures.”

The caricatures pictured above are from left to right:
asst animator Victor Barbetta, designer Bill Peckmann, animator Jack Schnerk, owner Phil Kimmelman, designer Agnes Cannata.

- Two weeks ago I posted the other side of this flipbook. In 1949, the Walter Lantz studio had a promotion going where they gave a number of flipbooks free to consumers of Grape Nuts Flakes.

The pages were double-sided. This side features Andy Panda taming a lion. Andy is in full color, whereas the flip side – Oswald – was just line work, so you know which one was still a “star” in 1949. See the Oswald book here.

The registration wasn’t very good on the printed page, and I had to adjust a bit to make it work. The paper it was printed on is newsprint and the color registration is also off. The images in the thumbnail are about twice the size of the original.

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The drawings of the following QT movie were exposed
on threes to best make the action work.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- Good news for Segar lovers! Variety reports that Popeye is going cgi and Sony is about to make the film. Naturally, it’ll be in 3D so that when Bluto gets smashed out of the audience he can fly over our heads. The film will be directed by a relative neophyte, Mike Jones. He’d written a film called Eventland and another The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break which is now in production.

He doesn’t quite have the experience of theatrical director Des McAnuf who did The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle or Peter Hewitt (Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey) who did Garfield, but he brings plenty of enthusiasm. It should be fun, but I’m not sure if it’ll be better than Bob Altman’s Popeye. Then again, it will be 3D.

The good news is that the great compilation DVDs of the Fleischer years is still available from Amazon. Even after you’ve seen the cgi 3D Popeye you can come home to clear your palate with these first class copies of the original shorts.

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- Then again, the other animated feature announced this past week sounds heavenly. According to the March 18th Nikki Finke article, Tim Burton‘s going to do a 3D puppet animated version of The Addams Family with Chris Meladandri producing. Sounds like an ideal marriage. However, the next day, according to Screen Rant, the Burton people adamantly denied the project had anything to do with the director. Let’s hope that Nikki Finke is correct – as she often is.

Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter would make an original Morticia and Gomez.

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- Years ago children’s television wasn’t quite the slick wonderland that it is now. It was less of a babysitter, but on a local level tv stations tried a lot harder often depending on flamboyant actors to develop characters. These were usually voice over announcers who put on costumes and let ‘er rip.

In New York, you had the Sunday shows that included Wonderama on ch. 5 – before it had anything to do with Fox – and you had the Chuck McCann show on ch. 11 – before it had anything to do with the WB (or whatever they call themselves today.) McCann was a crazy kinda guy who read the comic strips in funny voices and wigs and entertained us all silly.

During the week, there were Johnny Jellybean, starring Joe Bova. He shared his lunch with us during the day and starred in Once Upon a Mattress on Broadway at night. The morning shows were mostly B&W cartoons with hosts like Cap’n Allan Swift – replaced by Cap’n Jack McCarthy – introducing Popeye and Officer Joe Bolton who gave us the Three Stooges.

The ch. 11 roundup: Chuck McCann (with Laurel & Hardy puppets),
Captain Jack McCarthy, Gloria Okon, Bill BOZO Britten, and
Officer Joe Bolton.

The mornings belonged to Sandy Becker. He was a manic kinda guy who seemed to be talking to kids but really playing for the grown ups using kids toys and games. I remember well how he did his best to destroy a Mr. Machine robot as he demonstrated the host, Mattel’s product. The robot kept walking off the desk. I remember another show where Sandy didn’t show up at the beginning of the program and they kept running B&W WB cartoons. Mid show he appeared somewhat breathless, and advised us kiddies that if we happened to see a red Volkswagen with such and such a license plate, could we call the police because his car had disappeared that morning.

You can see some of the nastier bits here.

I guess he had a one hour special in those years: Sandy Becker’s Christmas Carol. It featured a lot of the puppets and characters that appeared on his show. I’d received an email from Craig Marin of Flexitoons who is trying to “reimagine” the show for DVD. Here’s how they state it in their press release:

The program starred Sandy’s entire ensemble of puppets – most memorably Geeba Geeba as Scrooge, Sir Clive as Bob Cratchit, and Marvin Mouse as Tiny Tim.

For Millions of Baby Boomers, who grew up with Sandy as a vital member of their “TV-family”, it was their first introduction to Charles Dickens ghostly tale of greed and redemption. To this day, Sandy’s production lives warmly in their hearts and fondly in their memories. Unfortunately, as was the case with many live programs of the time, the tapes – to the best of anyone’s knowledge – were destroyed or erased or taped-over. 
 


In the 1990‘s Sandy and Flexitoon partner Craig Marin – who as a child was greatly influenced by Sandy and later became his friend as an adult – often talked about and planned to remake his Christmas Carol. But sadly, when Sandy passed away those plans were put on hold.

Now, through the power of Kickstarter, the Holiday special is back on track. FLEXITOON, one of America’s premier puppet production companies on television, film and stage is ready to produce a re-imagining of Sandy Becker’s Christmas Carol, using all the original puppets he bequeathed to them upon his passing.

You can see a video presentation here.
You can go to their Facebook page here.

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- I’ve waited patiently for Mike Barrier to give his thoughts on the passing of Fess Parker. He didn’t disappoint with the excellent piece and companion interview that appears today on his blog. Mike showed us the man, Fess Parker, as opposed to the memorabilia which appeared in many other obituaries. (Come to think of it, Mike did the same for Walt Disney with his book, The Animated Man.) If you have any interest in the star of a Disney series that rocked the world for 15 minutes in the 1950′s, then head on over to his site.

- It’s nice to know that there’s some playing at the top.
In designing an Underoos commercial for Phil Kimmelman and Associates, Alex Toth sent funny cards to Bill Peckmann, he responded with paintings of his own. Thanks to Bill, I have some of that material, and will post it here.

First this short note from Bill about what follows:

“. . . about 30 years ago PK&A was lucky enough to do a TV “Under-Roos” spot with Alex Toth (since I was and am a HUGH Toth fan, I probably badgered Phil and the Ad agency into using Alex to do the super hero character designs and LO’s of the spot) and with that, I also became the lucky recipient Alex’s many missives. These came in the form of letters and postcards, which were wonderfully illustrated with doodles and sketches. One doodle that he used quite a bit was his cigarette smoking, signature alter ego “Grumpy Duck” (see attached).

And with that, I did some riffs on his Duck character showing the history of aviation (we were both airplane buffs) and photography (we both appreciated good photos). These were done with xerox and cel paint. Happy to say, Alex seemed to get a kick out of these.”

An example of one of Alex Toth’s mailings to Bill.

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Here’s the series of ducks that Bill painted for Alex.

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(Click any image you’d like to enlarge.)

“Here are some setups that Alex Toth did for the ‘Underoos’ spot for us. Since Superman and Spiderman came from rival companies, very seldom or never did they appear together. You might have a Toth fan or two in your audience, mebbe we’ll make you one. At end of s’heros is a doodle, one of his many.”

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A sample of one of Alex Toth’s many doodles.

Finally, a thank you note (the original was in color) that Alex did for Rowland Wilson, they were big mutual fans. The two were friends:

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Enlarge to read the panel bottom center.

- Here’s a scene all of 29 drawings in length, but if you check it out in the film it’s enormous. Everything’s moving – the wago they’re standing in, the pots & pans, things on the table and most definitely Stromboli who in one enormous drawing changes the scene, Pinocchio’s world and the mood in the audience. “Quiet!” is all the dialogue shouted in the scene. It”s frightening.

(Make sure you click to enlarge every drawing here.)

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Closed position starting to open his body – legs first.

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Pulling it all into a ball,
he shouts, “QUIET” – the dialogue for the scene

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Couldn’t open up more than this.
Just look at the distortion in this drawing. Magnificent.
Open, loud, ready to burst. One frame only.

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Next frame he’s landed and gathered himself.
Only the secondary action – vest, pants, beard –
echo the outburst.

Quickly he starts to turn.

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His clothes lag behind in pulling themselves together.

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He’s set to give the demand and end the scene.

The following QT movie represents the entire scene from Pinocchio.

Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

Here are frames from the actual scene:

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What a difference the shake of the coach and the
bounce of the hanging utensils make to the scene.

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There’s danger everywhere, here.
It’s scary.

Many thanks to my friend, Lou Scarborough, for the loan of this scene.

- In case you were wondering what happens to old animation studios, I thought I’d post this flyer I received in the mail yesterday. It arrived just in time for the release this week of the Astroboy DVD.

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Not a pretty site. All those cubicles (on pg. 3) were once filled with people manipulating images of Astroboy and Ninja Turtles. Now they’re just piles of objects to be sold. Perhaps another adventurous producer will buy it all to start a new production.

But then, I was searching to see if there was a tilted desktop pictured in the whole. Of course not. Lots of G5s though. Wonder if they have any software on them.

Oh wait. Not that one.

That one.

At least, it’ll live on in DVD.

- I’ve posted two pieces by illustrator, Vernon Grant, the designer of Snap, Crackle and Pop. Here’s a booklet out of the hands of the late Rowland B. Wilson. I start with a short note sent to Bill Peckmann (who graciously loaned the material for display. Many thanks.)

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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The other three Vernon Grant posts can be found here:
Snap Crackle Pop
Vernon Grant’s Nursery
Vernon Grant’s Santa Claus

Here’s another survey of the year in animation for the March/April issue of Print Magazine circa 1976. Leonard Maltin did the surveying. Interesting that you don’t see many of this type article anymore.

An Animation
Overview

by Leonard Maltin

British animator Bob Godfrey has said, “Animation is a medium that deserves masters worthy of it. I’d like to see animation Picassos or Matisses, and we haven’t had any so far.”

Of course, Matisse never had to raise two million dollars in order to create one of his paintings, and Picasso didn’t have to oversee a staff of inkers and painters to make sure his newest canvas would turn out right.

The artist who chooses animation as his medium must endure certain realities: that films cost money, that extensive filmmaking becomes expensive filmmaking, and that except for the most monastic souls filmmaking is a collaborative process. This is not to eliminate the possibility of individual artistic expression in animation, but there are simpler ways known to man.

Once the artist has made his film, another set of realities comes to the fore: trying to find a distributor, or at least an audience, and with any luck, establishing a way of recouping the monetary investment of making the film. Since individual backing is hard to come by, to examine “the state of the art” of animation is to examine “the state of the industry” at the same time; it’s nearly impossible to separate the two.

In this country—as around the world— animation means so many different things that even the most cursory observations can expand to extreme lengths. “Animation” covers a lot of ground, from high-school kids filming paper cutouts with a Super 8mm camera to major Hollywood factories turning out Saturday morning drivel by the carload, but there are some significant outposts along the way.

“Robin Hood” full length feature produced by Walt Disney Prods.
Producer/Director Wolfgang Reitherman.

Rumors of the Walt Disney Studio’s abandonment of cartoons are greatly premature. There was a time several years ago when the future of animation at the studio was in doubt, but the whopping worldwide success of the animated Robin Hood is just one reason that animated features are an ongoing project in Burbank.

The studio’s current endeavor is The Rescuers, which concerns two detective mice who head a society of do-gooders. Like other recent Disney features, it will comprise some four years of work— anywhere from three to four times as much as most competitors spend on similar projects. Rescuers is being aimed for Christmas of 1977, but there’s no guarantee that it will be completed on time. No one rushes this group of craftsmen.

The two main objectives in any Disney feature are a strong story line, the backbone of the film, and equally strong personality development, which gives the film its heart. Unfortunately, the approaches to these objectives have become increasingly routine in the 1960s and 70s at Disney, with much of the personality emanating from big-name stars doing character voices, and not so much from the animator’s pencil, although character animation is still superbly handled.

Practically everyone working on The Rescuers in a major capacity has been at the studio for 30 to 40 years, and Frank Thomas, a senior member of the team, admitted to John Canemaker, “We are less experimental. [With Walt] every picture was completely different. We were always pushed into things that were exceedingly difficult to do. He was always asking us to rise above ourselves. Well, when he left it up to us, we quit that. We got old. We decided we were going to do the things that were fun to do.”

The quality is still there, and the years of care and precision that go into a Disney feature show up on the screen. But somehow, the magic is missing, and that has nothing to do with time or money.

“Raggedy Ann & Andy” upcoming feqture based on Johnny Gruelle’s characters.
Production company: Lester Osterman Prods. Supervisor/director: Richard Williams.

Into the breach steps a young man who has been hailed as “the new Disney,” Richard Williams. Canadian-born, British-based, he has impressed the animation world with his main titles for feature films (Charge of the Light Brigade, Return of the Pink Panther), theatrical shorts (“Love Me, Love Me, Love Me”), television specials (A Christmas Carol), and commercials.

The comparison with Disney is apt, because Williams has devoted himself tirelessly to the improvement of his work. Several years ago he began recruiting veteran Hollywood animators to come to London and work with his staff, as artists-in-residence, teachers, and colleagues. These men, in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, have all contributed to Williams’ pet project, an animated feature entitled The Cobbler and the Thief, which has been in progress for the better part of a decade. Williams and his people work on this when there is time, between commercial assignments. Among the distinguished Disney, Fleischer, and
Warner veterans who have pitched in are Art Babbitt, Shamus Culhane, Grim Nat-wick, and Ken Harris. It’s a two-way love affair, a happy collaboration between men of age and experience and younger animators with fresh ideas and outlooks.

Now Williams is hard at work on an ambitious American project, a musical feature version of Raggedy Ann and Andy set for release at Christmastime this year. He has gathered a hand-picked staff in New York and supplemented it with freelancers from places as far off as Arizona.

Oher animated features are also on the way. It took Fritz the Cat to convince distributors and theater-owners that animated films shouldn’t be regarded as kiddie-show fodder and nothing more. Now John Hubley is directing a cartoon version of the bestseller Watership Down, while Fritz’s director, Ralph Bakshi, is working on his fourth feature film (the third, Hey, Good Lookin’, is about to be released). Producer Lee Men-dohlson and director Bill Melendez are working on a third Peanuts feature in California, while a New York operation has completed a feature-length remake of Tubby the Tuba. Other features are in production and planned for the near future.

But feature films tell only part of the story. Many filmmakers, amateur and professional, work in the realm of short subjects, and bringing these to the attention of an audience, not to mention a distributor, can be a long and wearisome process. One splendid showcase is the annual awards competition sponsored by the New York branch of ASIFA, the international animation society. Their recent screenings of this year’s winners revealed much about trends, goals, and styles in current films.
In the Student Film Category were three astoundingly professional products: Eduardo Damino’s “Hello,” a slick, imaginative treatise on the history and impact of telephones, using colorful cutout animation and an abstract soundtrack; Stephen Ciodo’s “Cricket,” a finely crafted stop-motion film for children about a cricket who is ostracized by his peers because he’s unable to jump; and Linda Heller’s “Album,” a most intriguing series of vignettes based on flashbacks and flash-forwards in a photo album of a woman’s life.

“A Dog’s Life” Due to soaring food prices, a family eats less while their dogs eat more.
Production company: Perpetual Motion Pictures | Producer: Marshall Patinkin
Director/designer: Hal Silvermintz | Animator: Vince Cafarelli
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A vital category for prizes at ASIFA East is the Non-Sponsored Professional Film. Chapter president Dick Rauh explains that this category is intended to encourage members to take the time to make personal films, apart from their daily assignments; indeed, the five winners showed a wide range of highly individual styles and goals.

Mary Beams’ “Going Home Sketchbook” has an interesting visual concept, combining sketches, line animation, and what seems to be a rotoscope technique to create an impressionistic view of a trip home; unfortunately, there is no development within the film to give it any real interest beyond that technique. “Deep Sleep” is a feminist-oriented film by Peggy Tonkonogy that details a woman’s long, weird symbolic dream; again, an aimless-ness is somewhat compensated for by excellent visual effects. Both of these films received Honorable Mention.

George Griffin’s “L’Age Door” is an irresistible film that perfectly meshes form and content as a man is confounded and swallowed up by an endless succession of doors. Short, sweet, and quite funny. Griffin’s film won Third Prize in this category.

“Quasi at the Quackadero,” Second Prize-winner, is one of the most bizarre animated films I’ve ever seen. Sally Cruickshank’s visual extravaganza bears repeated viewings, just to absorb everything that’s happening on-screen; the style might be described as freaked-out George Herriman. Significantly, Cruickshank labels her film “a cartoon,” showing strikingly-designed characters attending a futuristic amusement park where the games and rides are based on time- and life-warps.

First Prize was awarded to Kathy Rose for her quiet and enjoyable film “The Doodlers,” the basic premise of which is that drawings beget drawings.

In the general categories, awards were divided according to soundtrack, technique, script/concept, humor, design, animation, and direction. Most of these were commercial and/or sponsored films, including several delightful commercials from Phil Kimmelman and Associates, a funny NBC “Weekend” gag-film by Ovation Films, some dazzling 7-Up graphic spots by Goldsholl Associates, and two fine shorts by the Wantu Studio headed by the talented James Simon.

“Whazzat” Clay figure animation based on blind man and the elephant
Sponsor: Encyclopedia Britannica |Production company: Crocus Pictures
Producer: Tel C. Determan | Director: Art Pierson.
Awards for Best Animation and Best Direction went to Arthur Pierson and his associates Ron Lasner and Alan Baker for a disarming stop-motion clay film called “Whazzat?” (which had already won Spe-cialJury Prize for Best Film at the New York Animation Festival). The premise of “Whazzat?” has six clay objects assuming vivid personalities, although they have no faces or identifying features; together, they travel and enjoy each other’s companionship, until they come upon a strange being unknown to them. Through sophisticated and knowing animation, camera placement, and ingenious use of soundtrack, “Whazzat?” makes something special out of something elegantly simple.

Best Film in ASIFA’s competition was another repeater from the New York Festival, Stan Phillips’ “Water Follies,” produced as a soft-sell promotional film for the Denver Water Commission. An entertaining series of blackout gags on uses and abuses of water, this straightforward film quietly goes about its business and scores a bull’s-eye with its entertaining point of view and uncluttered animation style.

One may be hesitant to accept the idea of slick, professionally sponsored films competing with more personal, individual works. But the ASIFA screening brings out something very important about animated films. They come from individuals and they come from large companies; they range from utter simplicity to overstuffed detail, from quietude to clutter. But each film stands on its own, with its own set of goals to be met, and if it fails, all other considerations become worthless.

Not every professional film is better than an amateur effort. There are films made by eight- or nine-year-olds which burst with imagination and daring visual ideas; they put some professional filmmakers to shame. Likewise, some one-minute TV commercials are so outstanding in every respect (animation, design, humor) that they overpower more “serious” artistic works shown alongside them.

But does the film succed on its own terms? Be it Disney, Bakshi, commercial or collegiate, that’s the only question that really counts.

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1.”Teeth Care” Sesame Street – Prod/Dir: James Simon Animator: Jack Schnerk
2. “The Strike” Morris Funk Foundation Prod/Dir: James Simon
Animators: Cosmo Anzilotti, Lu Guarnier, Ed Smith, Sal Faillace
3. “I Want My Avis” Prod Co: PK&A | Prod: Hal Hoffer
Designer: Mordi Gersteion | Animator: Jack Dazzo

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4. “Water Follies” Sponsor: Denver Water Dept | Prod/Designer: Stan Phillips
5. “Ou Hound” CTW | Prod/Dir/Anim: John Strawbridge
6. “French T-Shirts” Bloomingdales | John Gati Film Effects

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7. “Carton Graphics” 7-up | Goldscholl Associates
Designer: Morton Goldscholl Dick Greenberg
8. “No More Puckers” Yoplait Yogurt | PK&A producer: Sid Horn
Director: Phil Kimmelman | Designer: Bill Peckmann | Animator: Lu Guarnier

Leonard Maltin teaches the history of animation at the New School for Social Research, New York City, and is author of The Disney Films, among other movie books. He is currently guest programmer for the Museum of Modem Art’s “Salute to Film Comedy.”

- Waking Sleeping Beauty is a tightly edited documentary detailing the years between 1984 and 1994 at the Disney Animation Studio. From The Black Cauldron through The Lion King. There’s ample footage of the artists in meetings – particularly story meetings, goofing around and walking the halls of the old Animation building on the Disney lot.

Yet the story being told – without an iota of fat – is the story of the above-the-line players and how they felt about each other. The machinations and power plays they work on each other to wrest control and credit for the studio’s success is the primary interest of this film, not the attitudes and thoughts of the animation people.

Only a couple of times do we really get to imagine how the artists felt about what was going on. There’s a meeting called by Katzenberg to talk about how the people felt about the period. They explained that they weren’t able to spend appropriate time with their families because of all the excess overtime that was demanded of them. Katzenberg tears up and promises that things will get better. They don’t; things get worse.

Throughout the film is colored with home movie footage taken by Randy Cartwright of a lot of the animators and artists mugging for the camera. The only shot that gives an inkling that something serious is going on is a shot where Tim Burton is caught at his drawing board, and he literally doesn’t know what to do. Frustration, irritation and annoyance beams off his face. It was one of the biggest laughs for the audience surrounding me. There are ample and tight closeups of many of these people: Tom Sito, Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg, Joe Ranft, Roger Allers, Mike Gabriel and many more. Yet, none of them – NONE – are labelled and identified.

Joe Ranft and Tim Burton still don’t recieve identification in this film.
Yet their images are known by many outside the industry. .
Yet, every executive gets clear identification. Even the full list of end credits runs alongside running footage of people/artists in the studio saying hello and playing for the camera. Yet, none of these people are identified. I’m not even sure their names appeared in the credits since it was hard to watch the running type while trying to see the archival footage.

Despite this complaint, the story told was engrossing. Since I can identify most of the people, I was also absorbing every frame of the home movies and the footage shot for PR sake that also filled the film.

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Howard Ashman and Alan Menken are given the due credit for both The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and, to some extent, Aladdin. Ashman, as we know, had a lot to do with the shaping of both films. I’d already given credit to him for much of the guidance of the two films, so it was good to see the filmmakers support this. In many ways, in my mind, a great deal of credit for this renaissance fell on his shoulders.

In fact, I’m surprised, given the enormous success the studio has had over the years with Alan Menken’s songs and music, that they didn’t bring him in for The Princess and the Frog. Menken brought good luck to so many of the animated features of this period that one wonders if it may have helped. Given his successful track record, there was more likelihood that he might have brought something to the film. They were trying to reboot their musical franchises, yet they turned to Randy Newman – who’d been hit and miss for them at Pixar. Perhaps the Pixar connection gave Newman the upper hand with John Lasseter, probably finalizing that decision.

The film includes newly recorded interviews with many of the higher salaried artists which overlapped some of the footage and helped to move the story. Eisner, Katzenberg or Roy Disney are also seen in detailed comments taken from press releases, all of which underlines the lust for power over the animation studio. The fever pitched competition between Disney and Katzenberg is certainly highlighted.

Don Hahn directs the film with assuredness, and he acts as the primary narrator – though, producer, Peter Schneider‘s high-pitched comments certainly color the film as well.

It’s a tense and serious attempt to record a POV of one very successful period at the Disney studio, and to a great extent they get it. However, since it is made by two people in a position of power, their interest is definitely focussed on the four people above them – Eisner, Disney, Katzenberg and Wells. To be honest, I’m not sure the drama would have held if you’d concentrated on the people below their level. However, I do think the artists deserve at least to have been identified.

It’s a very entertaining film for those interested in animation and Disney, in particular.

The film opens in four cities on March 26th: NY, LA, SF and Chi. You can see it at the Landmark Sunshine theater in NY.

Two years ago, I posted part of this piece which included the drawings. I’ve expanded it and added the QT so you could see how it moves.

– Back in 1973, the Hubleys produced Upkeep, a short film for IBM. It chronicled the history of the service repairman in a light hearted way. Actually an industrial, it was treated like a personal film. (There’s a thin line between some of their industrials and their personal films.) Of Men and Demons was done for IBM though they considered it a personal film; it instructed in the positive aspects of the binary code and was nominated for an Oscar.
___(John & Faith Hubley with
___composer, Benny Carter) ______Tissa David did the lion’s share of the animation for ______________________________Upkeep. Phil Duncan, Lu Guarnier and Jack Schnerk were the other key animators on it. Helen Komar and I assisted all of them, and I inked the whole film. Gen Hirsch and I colored it. John did all the Bg’s.

The initial animation on the service man was done by Phil Duncan. Tissa had to pick up the character, and she found the walk Phil had done so funny that she kept it throughout the film adding shades and tones to it as she thought appropriate.

The art was inked with a sharpie, bled with thinner, then colored with magic markers. Each drawing was then cut out and pasted to cels. Hubley’s Bg’s followed the same style: sharpie on board, washed & bled with thinner, added watercolor washes.

Posted below are the drawings for that 18 drawing walk cycle.

(Click any image to enlarge and view whole animation page.)

Below is a QT of this walk cycle xposed on two’s (as it was in the film).
Note: this meant that the BG was designed to pan on two’s as well.

To run QT click on the left side of the black bar below the image.
To run one frame at a time, click the right side of the bar.

Now, excuse my driving a point home for the fifth time. Please observe that the feet are on two different planes. The two feet do not hit the same horizon line; one is drawn behind the other, consequently it’s drawn slightly shorter.

Most students today (if they actually draw both legs animated instead of repeating 1/2 of the cycle over and over) have both feet touching the same line on the horizon.