Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Given the article that appeared in yesterday’s NYTimes re Disney’s nature films, including and highlighting Bambi, I have to say that it’s the naturalistic sections of that film that I most love. Of course, it’s not because of the “nature” part but because of the poetic approach that was designed and overseen by Tyrus Wong.

- On Monday, I posted some color sketches from Disney’s Bambi by Ty Wong, and I’d like to continue with some attractive sketches that appear in the Bambi Sketchbook and/or Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston’s Bambi: The Story and the Film.

These sketches are very informative. How wide the gulf between storyboard and animator. I find Bambi a somewhat schizophric film. It has the absolute finest Disney has to offer, and it also has some of the most obvious and cloying work. I find most of the owl sequences fall into the latter category.

The owl is quite nice at the film’s start, but once we get to the “twitterpatin’” sequence things turn dreadfully cute and, for me, it’s a real let down. Preston Blair’s animation is good of a sort, but I think it belongs in another film. I can’t say I’ve ever spoken about this, so I don’t know if anyone else feels the same or is now convinced that I’m an idiot.

Here are some owl design sketches; they are beautiful. It’s a shame the underlying beauty of these drawings didn’t make it to the screen, just the surfaces.

(Click any image to enlarge.)_______________________

And here’s the board for the owl’s “twitterpatin’” sequence. It leads out of and into two of the great sequences of this film – the death of Bambi’s mother, and the battle of the stags.

- I’d like to call some attention to a new production blog by Tim Rauch. He, together with brother Mike Rauch, created an animated short, Germans In The Woods. They started with a piece of pre-edited sound cut from a 40 minute interview in which a World War II veteran recalls his “saddest memory”.

As Tim says, “This piece had aired on NPR and was included in the recent StoryCorps book. . . There was incredibly strong emotion in the voice and yet we knew there had to be something we could add with animation.”

The blog gives some stills and clips from the film. I’ve been hearing from Tim for a while now and have seen several developing versions of the film. I’m quite impressed with the level of the animation and the graphics employed. I hope the film will be a success for them and encourage you to look into this blog.
You can see a teaser for the film here.

Some images from Germans In The Woods off Tim Rauch’s blog.

The brothers also have an artists’ demo site which includes information about other films they’ve done. These guys are artists in the making, and you should be aware of them.

- Michael Barrier‘s site has a letter from Borge Ring which details the LEICA reel experience, as it properly should be understood. Naturally enough, it involves the inestimable Hans Perk who comments on the experience. By the way, continuing the 101 Dalmatians study (started by Hans on his site, elaborated on by Mark Maryerson on his site, and with some small additions on this site) Hans is posting Bill Peet‘s original script for the feature.

Today’s Wall Street Journal includes an excellent piece by John Canemaker about Ollie Johnston.

- I’ve been enjoying analyzing the walk cycles in 101 Dalmatians. I particularly liked the last one I posted “girl with french poodle.”
Here’s the young child with her puppy. She not only walks, but she licks her lollipop. The pup is just an absolute innocent. It’s another great walk by Blaine Gibson.

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The piece, in the film, includes a zoom into the cycle. I’ve tried to adjust for it but don’t think I was wholly successful. There’s a marginal enlargement of the drawings as it goes on – noticeable only in motion. It’s actually interesting in the walk.

- Bambi has to be one of the most stunning of all animated films, nevermind Disney films, and the preliminary artwork that went into it is probably even greater than what made it to the screen. The Bambi Sketchbook series book and the Ollie Johnston/Frank Thomas‘ Bambi book supports this with lots of beautiful artwork.

I can’t resist posting some of these images, so decided to go for it. It’s inspiration for me and may be for some of you as well.

From the Sketchbook, these are sketches by Tyrus Wong. His artwork really shaped this movie and give it the amazing integrity it has.

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Howard Beckerman sent me this great photo and a short letter attached to it. I can’t help but post both:

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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.

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?

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- Mike Lynch has a great post about Bobby London‘s short stint writing and drawing the Popeye comic strip. There was a controversy in the last weeks of Londond’s tenure in doing the strip. Mike Lynch posts these strips and makes you long to see more of London’s work. There is a collection of his strips, Mondo Popeye, from St. Martin’s Press; it’s out of print and a bit pricey on the market.

Take a look at Mike Lynch‘s post.

- Tonight Ralph Bakshi will be at the Anthology Film Archives where two of his features will be screened. Heavy Traffic, which made it to many of the year’s top ten lists will show at 7pm and Coonskin,
which you can’t even find on NetFlix, will follow at 9pm.

Bakshi will be there to sign copies of his book, Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi.

7:00pm – Heavy Traffic
9:00pm – Coonskin

Tickets are $8, good for one or both features

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. (corner of 2nd Ave.& 2nd St.)
NYC

Here are some frame grabs from the “Hey, Maybelline” segment of Heavy Traffic by Mark Kausler. Sorry the quality stinks, but the dvd is a dreadful transfer.

- Continuing with my exploration and breakdown of the walk cycles which appear at the start of Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, I have scene 21 “French girl walks French poodle” animated by Blaine Gibson. It employs the same BG as scene 14, the art student (posted Apr 3), but it extends, beyond what we’ve seen before, to include a telephone booth.

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This is a slightly faster walk than others, and I’ve been able to grab all of the drawings. It’s animated on “ones.”

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Once again, check out Hans Perk‘s excellent site A Film LA to get the drafts for this film to be able to identify who was behind what. Then go to see Mark Mayerson‘s arduously constructed and informative mosaics as well as his detailed commentary about the film and its animators.

Check out Floyd Norman‘s story about Blaine Gibson on Jim Hill Media.

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- Mike Lynch has a valuable post which features a book of gags written by Roy Williams, the excellent Disney storyman who appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club as “Roy.” The cartoons have a lot of style and feel a bit like VIP’s (Virgil Partch) cartoons of the same period and a bit like Ward Kimball’s cartoon sketches. The gags are definitely Roy’s.

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John Hubley once told me a story about Roy that’s probably been told a million times over. On Roy’s first day to present a storyboard to Walt, Harry Reeves, the supervisor, suggested that Roy might want to take something to resolve his nervousness. He recommended a quart of sauerkraut juice. (Do they bottle such a thing?) Roy ran to a store, bought some and swallowed the entire bottle, as prescribed. During the presentation, Roy suddenly had to excuse himself, and he raced out of the room, running down the hall to the Men’s room. Harry Reeves had expected such a thing and locked the bathroom on poor Roy. Disaster!

Now Harry had just bought himself a brand new white car with an all white interior. One day when he left work as he got in and sat behind the wheel, he noticed something on the back seat. It was a wash basin filled with water mixed with black ink. The black liquid filled the basin to the rim. Of course, it was easy for Roy to fill the tub, but it was hard to remove the liquid without destroying the white interior.

Jeff Pepper had a nice post about Roy and the Mickey Mouse Club on his site, 2719 Hyperion Avenue

There’s more on the Original Mickey Mouse Club site. (That’s where the caricature atop this post came from.).

- I’ve treasured all the recent memorials for Ollie Johnston on the various blogs. A number of them stand out for me, and it’s been interesting to read them. They certainly
inform more about the man than the official obituaries in newspapers, such as the NYTimes, have done. For the most part the papers have relied on an impersonal obit from the Associated Press to cover them. Even Bob Thomas‘ obituary was printed iin the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post, was enhanced with material from the AP. Variety‘s obit is their own, but feels like the AP piece. Charles Solomon‘s obit in the LA Times is certainly the exception in that it’s obviously informed and quite a bit more personal.

Cartoon Brew has been the key source for some fine writing. Brad Bird‘s comments on that site are exceptional, so too John Canemaker‘s.

Jenny Lerew‘s Blackwing Diaries was one of the first blogs to attend to Ollie’s passing, and she wrote some appropriate and fine comments.
A couple of other, personal posts, on their own sites, are excellent. I think particularly of Floyd Norman‘s, Michael Barrier‘s, and Pete Emslie‘s posts. Brian Sibley also wrote a nice piece, and Jaime Weidman offered an article about Johnston from 1956. Hans Perk‘s approach is to share some amazing photographs with us, and Didier Ghez offers some sound clips and other links.

Mark Mayerson took a very different tact on his site. His initial post was to give notice and direct us to other writings. Then, like the excellent historian he is, Mark took notice of the fact that Ollie was the last of the “Nine Old Men” than he discussed the fact that Disney tried to undercut the “individual” abilities of his animators by pegging them as one.

I’ve even had several people, obviously without their own blogs, write me to share their thoughts. Jonathan Annand‘s email was touching.

It’s so obvious that, for some reason, this master animator and his work touched many people who want to come together as a community to mourn his death and celebrate his life. It’s an occasion I certainly appreciate highly and share in enormously.

- Tom Sito’s new series, As the Wrench Turns, the animated version of Tom and Ray Magliozzi’s NPR radio show, “Car Talk,” got a bit of attention from the NYTimes yesterday. Apppropriately, it was found in the Automobile section “Wheels” on line.

The show debuts Wednesday, July 9th at 8:00PM on your local PBS station. Finally, an animated tv show worth looking out for. It sounds like it may be animated.

______“Click and Clack” with Tom & Pat

__________Here’s PBS‘ press release.
__________The Car Talk site has a lot of stills you can click through.

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- Finally, Karl Cohen led me to this article in Millimeter‘s current issue.

It details information about the live action eyes in Madame Tutli Putli and how they were achieved. This is a must read for all those effects fans out there and for all those who love this short film.

- With this post, I’m completing the remainder of the storyboard material loaned to me by John Canemaker. This takes us through the birth of the puppies and the reemergence of Cruella De Ville in her attempt to buy them. The introductions are done, and the story is about to turn to action.

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Here’s a breakdown of the board, posted slightly larger and mor legible. This final board also featured (albeit in B&W) some cel setups from the film. They’re posted larger, as well.

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- John Canemaker let me know last night about the death of Ollie Johnston, and it saddened me to hear the news. I met him a number of times in the 70′s and 80′s. I remember visiting the South Street Seaport and noticing that he and Frank Thomas were at a small gallery, there, signing books. It was a surprise to me, so I went in to say hello. The bigger surprise came when they remembered who I was and gave me a big greeting. Very few people were there, and we got to talk for a longer than usual amount of time. The moment stands out for me.

It’s been years since I’ve seen him, but I will remember him and cherish him through his animation. It’s nice to see him all over the blogs today.

Ralph Bakshi will be making a number of personal appearances signing his book, Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi , for those interested. His schedule includes the following:

Animazing Gallery – April 17, Thurs 6pm
461 Broom St (Between Greene and Mercer)

School of Visual Arts – April 18, Fri 3pm
209 East 23rd Street
(Bet. 2nd & 3rd Ave)
3rd Floor Amphitheater

Jacob K. Javits Conv Center – April 18 , Fri 6:30pm
IGN Theater
655 West 34th St

Anthology Film Archives – Apr 19, Sat 7pm
32 Second Avenue

Bakshi, of course, is a seminal figure in the history of modern feature film animation. His animated writing and directing credits include: American Pop,
Coonskin, J.R.R. Tolkien’s: The Lord of the Rings, Wizards, Fritz the
Cat, Spicy City, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, and many more.

He will be signing his new book UNFILTERED: THE COMPLETE RALPH BAKSHI.
The book will be available for purchase at a discount.

- In case you’re wondering what direction Disney will be turning in their next big Broadway musical, perhaps there’s a good hint in what opened this past week on a Disney cruise ship out of Orlando.

Toy Story the Musical opened to a positive review in the Orlando Sentinal. You can watch a short video blurb here.

The musical features Randy Newman’s Oscar-nominated song, “You’ve Got a Friend,” which was heard in the film, as well as seven new songs penned by GrooveLily’s Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn. Little Women’s Mindi Dickstein penned the book.

The production utilizes “larger-than-life props [that] help transform the 977-seat Walt Disney Theatre into a toy-sized world of fun and adventure. A rear projection screen aids the transformation between human-sized and toy-sized scenes and takes the show from the comfort of Andy’s room — to the frenzied world of Pizza Planet — to the frightening room of Andy’s neighbor, Sid.”

In a statement Anne Hamburger, executive vice president of Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, said, “When we first thought of bringing ‘Toy Story’ to the stage, there was a great deal of excitement about the project. Everyone on our team could immediately see how the heart and comedy of these characters could come alive in a memorable way that is unique to musical theatre.”