Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Back when I was a kid, sleeping in the same room with my two brothers, we had on the wall a number of Disney characters.

These weren’t painted on the walls, they were some kind of pressed cardboard, about 3/4″
thick, cutout characters. They were brilliant, though. The grouping of cutouts, hung like picture frames, using nails, painted little scenes. Cinderella in her coach with all of the horses and coachmen, Dumbo flying with Timothy below him, or the Three Little Pigs and their varied houses with a lurking wolf. (The image to the left was found on line, but it’s not as well drawn as the images I saw daily back in the early 60′s.)

I recently received some pictures sent by Tom Hachtman. You may remember that he, the cartoonist friend who draws Gertrude’s Follies, works with his wife, Joey Epstein, as part of a group which paints murals on walls for people who commission such things. (See posts 1 or 2.)

Obviously, they’ve been hired to put a little Disney on a couple of walls. Tom sent me photos of the end results, and I’m inclined, obviously, to share them.

This is a long way from the pressed cardboard characters that floated over my bed. Times have changed – only a bit, though. This very same Bambi setup was one of the cardboard setups I looked at daily. A good image is a good image.

I think this is the first time I’ve seen the Fox and the Hound mixing with 101 Dalmatians
with Lady & the Tramp. A doggy park on the wall.

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- Artist and friend, Adrian Urquidez, pointed me to some older images of park benches. “Why park benches?” you ask. You may remember that I posted an entire group of photos of NY benches. He thought I’d find these illustrations of interest. I did and still do, and I thought it time to share. Here are some park benches of the past – they’re probably still in use in NYC parks.

These benches are found in Union Square, the park at 14th Street and Park Avenue. My post featured benches about 9 blocks away at Madison Square Park.

I think Adrian may have noticed that these benches also had dividers. I’d commented that I thought they were adding dividers to the new benches to stop vagrants from stretching out and sleeping on them.

There are no benches in this picture, but Adrian sent it, and why not include it?

- In the past, I’ve posted a number of photos from my friend, Steve Fisher. He’d sent me many other stills, but I never found the proper time or place to post them. So, this one fills the bill. The photos are too great to not share. Thanks Steve.

It kinda looks to me like a camel got stuck up in a tree.

One might wonder if there were elephants set free in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Balto? I don’t think so.

Another monumental shepherd.

No leash policy.

- About a hundred years ago, it seems, John Canemaker gave me some copies of models and drawings by Ward Kimball. I’m sure at least a couple of these have been published in some of John’s books. His book, Nine Old Men, includes many other beautiful Kimball drawings, and I’d suggest you look there for more Kimball inspiration.

I once posted a couple of these, and I like them a lot. I’m posting them again and adding a bunch more that weren’t included. Ward was a brilliant artist with a very active and excited intelligence. His material from the 50′s is just excellent, and it’s always worth a look.

During the making of “Peter Pan” Kimball illustrated how Frank Thomas, Ward, Milt Kahl, Marc Davis, Clarke Mallery (an Asst at the time) and Ollie Johnston would look as “Hook”.

When Ollie Wallace, a composer at the studio, went to hospital to have his appendix removed, Kimball made this card for Ollie. It was based on Rembrandt’s painting, “The Anatomy Lesson”. It got Wallace laughing so hard in the hospital that he burst his own stitches and had to have them re-sewn.

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- Among the brilliant scenes in Dumbo is one that usually is overlooked in all the animation books. Yet, to me it separates this film from other Disney films, except, perhaps, Pinocchio. The tent building scenes are a brilliant mix of solid animation, excellent (and quietly hidden) effects, strong music and perfect screen direction. The sequence works extremely well on its own, but it works even better as a significant part of the film as a whole.

I sincerely doubt that Walt could have been in the studio when the sequence was built. Certainly, this espouses the Socialist politiical views of many of the strikers and one wonders what Walt thought of it. Presumably, because it has been developed as such an integral part of the film, the underlying political current of the sequence could hardly be lost, but it’s hard to miss the overall feel of it. Perhaps I’m completely wrong, and the feel of the piece can just be chalked up to a product of the period.

I would love to hear what other, more informed historians have to say about it.

Here, are frame grabs detailing the sequence.

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– Retta Scott has been fascinating to me from the earliest days in my interest in animation. I believe it was on a “Disneyland” when I first heard her name. Back then the research readily available to me was not great. Bob Thomas’ book The Art of Animation listed her as an animator on Bambi. It doesn’t even give her credit for Fantasia, despite her principal work on the Pastoral sequence. Nor does it mention her work on Dumbo, The Wind In the Willows or The Ruluctant Dragon.

She was layed off at Disney’s when they hit a slump in 1941 but came back to do a number of Little Golden Books for Disney. The most famous of her books was her version of Cinderella, one which was so successful that it remains in print today as a Little Golden Book. She was an animator on Plague Dogs.

When asked why females weren’t animators at the studio, the Nine Old Men who traveled the circuit, back in the 1970′s, often mentioned her. They usually also said that she was one of the most forceful artists at the studio, but her timing always needed some help (meaning from a man.)

Ms. Scott was known predominantly for her animation in Bambi. Specifically, she’s credited with the sequence where the hunter’s dogs chase Faline to the cliff wall and Bambi is forced to fight them off. The scene is beautifully staged and, indeed, is forceful in its violent, yet smooth, movement.

Ms. Scott died in 1990.

Continuing with prior posts featuring some of the sketch work from this film, I feature some of the original work from this sequence. Many of these drawings are storyboard pieces and are not actually the work of Ms. Scott. However, they certainly inspired what she would animate.

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_________These, above, are two frame grabs from the sequence.

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The dogs corner and chase Faline up a rock wall where she tries to stave off the violence of the attacking dogs. She remains there until Bambi comes to save her, fighting off the dogs.

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_____Though most of the drawings above aren’t the work of Retta Scott, this one is.

- Dumbo is certainly one of my favorite Disney features if not THE favorite. Naturally, the “Baby Mine” sequence is a highlight. The sequence is so tender and fine-tuned to appear straightforward and simple. This, of course, is the heart of excellence. It seems simple and doesn’t call attention to itself.

This is a storyboard composed of LO drawings from the opening of that sequence. They appear to be BG layouts with drawings of the characters cut out and pasted in place.

It’s not really a storyboard, and I’ve always wondered what purpose such boards served to the Disney machine back in the Golden Age.

Below is the board as it stands in the photograph.

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Here is the same photographed board, split up so that I can post it in larger size. I’ve also interspersed frame grabs from the actual sequence for comparison.

____________________________Happy Mother’s Day
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- Lyle, Lyle Crocodile was one of my favorite experiences since forming my own company. I’d like to revisit two posts of photos that I posted back in October, 2006.

This is the group in 1987 on Lyle Lyle Crocodile: the House on East 88th St. that worked in house. The studio at the time was located between Fifth & Sixth Aves, and I was there from 1985 thru 1988.

These are, Back row L to R : Lisa Crafts – animator, Tom Repasky – coloring, Susan Tremblay – coloring, Madeline Fan (full pic w/T-shirt) coloring, Caroline Skaife (leaning on Madeline) – coloring, Mark Baldo (w/puppet Lyle) coloring, Doug Vitarelli (leaning on Caroline) runner, Theresa Smythe – asst. animator.

Front row, sitting, L to R: Caroline Zegart – coloring, Steven Dovas – animator, John Schnall – Prod. Coordinator/Animator, Ray Kosarin – Asst. Animator/coloring, Michael Zodorozny – Layout, Bridget Thorne – Art Director/Bgs.

Some of the others who worked in the studio and not pictured in the group are: Elizabeth Seidman – ran the rendering and supervised the production, Greg Perler – editor, Kit Hawkins – studio coordinator, and me.

Working out of the studio on the artwork were: Tissa David – animator, John Dilworth – animator, John Canemaker – animator. Of course there were also actors, musicians, camera guys, and engineers.

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(Click on any image to enlarge.)

1) Lisa Crafts animating at her desk. Steve Dovas behind her.
2) Me at my desk with Mark Sottnick a producer of Santa Bear. Theresa Smythe on the right.

The studio was a good one. It was just over a music rehearsal studio where Tito Puente’s group practiced every afternoon. All we could hear was the endless bass line over and over and over and over and over and over. At one point, late night, we heard Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler rehearsing the new album they’d just done.

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Unfortunately, the large skylight made it easy for people to break in. It happened three times in one month, and all that was stolen were walkman radios from the crew. Ultimately, I gave up, and we moved downtown.

A shot of the whole studio from the door. (Things were tight.)
In the BG from L to R: Mark Baldo, Steve Dovas, Lisa Crafts, Ray Kosarin.
At the center table L to R: Susan Tremblay, Madeline Fan, Doug Vitarelli, John Schnall – behind Doug and Liz Seidman (in pink).

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- Here are two more corners of the room in this 38th Street studio, back in 1988.

Greg Perler had a particularly crowded corner of the studio where he edited all of the films we were producing. You’ll note that he was using an upright movieola. (I prized those two uprights and have kept them to this day, though they’re used predominantly for holding things upright.)

Greg, at the time of these photos, was editing Abel’s Island. There was a hurried rush for the mix which was fast approaching, and I was encroaching on his day to take these snaps.

Greg left NY to go to LA. He started as the Asst. Editor on Beauty & The Beast and became top dog on Tarzan. Currently, he’s editing The Love Guru for Mike Myers.
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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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1. Greg’s corner from another angle
2. Greg and Ray Kosarin, an assistant in the studio. who worked with Greg in assisting him in the rush to the mix.

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3. Ray Kosarin drawing on Abel’s Island.
4. Bridget Thorne‘s corner – diagonally across the studio from Greg’s – where she did backgrounds. Bridget, Greg and Ray.

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5. HBO threw a party to screen Lyle Lyle Crocodile. Pictured here L to R: me, Liz Callaway (the singing voice of Mrs. Primm), Bernard Waber (the author, illustrator of the book), and Arnold Stang (the voice of a parrot – he was also the voice of Top Cat among hundreds of voices he’s done over the years.)
6. Pictured L to R: Rick Parks (multiple voices), me, Arnold Stang, Bernard Waber, Carole Rosen (an Exec from HBO with whom I did many films), and someone dressed as Lyle.
We’re about to cut a cake shaped to look like Lyle, the crocodile. The knife was given to Bernard Waber who said he couldn’t cut into his own creation. We had the costumed Lyle cut himself – the cake, I mean. (The head went first!)

- I continue, here, my posting of the two boards filled with artwork from Dumbo’s Pink Elephants sequence, there’s a lot of delightful artwork.

Again, the photos I have, graciously loaned to me by John Canemaker, are smaller than I’d like. (You can get an idea, by clicking on the image to the right, as to how dense the boards are.)

I’ve scanned them at a decent resolution and have broken them up into smaller panels so that you can enlarge them to a viewable size. I’ve had to piece the photos together to keep them in order, so it’s been a bit time consuming. However, I think the boards are worth it. Again, I’ve interspersed some frame grabs from the final film to show how it ended up in color.

The following images were in the gallery part of the dvd. These are the color versions of some of the images above.

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- What better way to issue in the New Year than with models/sketches and drawings from the Pink Elephants on Parade section of Dumbo. Once again, thanks to John Canemaker, I have several photo images to display.

These are rather small images, so by cutting up the large boards and reassembling them I can post them at a higher resolution, making them better seen when clicking each image. It’ll take two days to post them all, so this will be continued later this week.

I’ve interspersed some frame grabs fromt the sequence to give an idea of the coloring.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

- I apologize for the server problems we had yesterday. Our site was down for most of the day. If you haven’t seen yesterday’s post, just scroll down.

- Jack Schnerk‘s daughter, Mary Schnerk Lincoln, has put three of her father’s commercial sample reels onto YouTube . This gives me a good excuse to call attention to his work, once again. There are a number of well-known and collector’s item commercials in these reels. Included are spots designed by the likes of Gahan Wilson, Tomi Ungerer, Charles Saxon and Rowland Wilson.

Jack Schnerk was a great animator who deserves considerably more attention. He was a strong influence on me in the first eight years of my career and taught me quite a few large principles about the business. He also told me a few stories of his work as an assistant at Disney’s on Bambi and Dumbo as well as the great times animating at UPA and the difficulties of animating at Shamus Culhane’s studio. Actually, he didn’t tell me about his problems with Shamus; another animator did. Jack complained about the business, but never about how he was treated.

I wish I had more samples of the many scenes of his that I assisted. He worked in a very distinct style – I don’t think I’ve seen anyone elseever draw that way. Somehow, the very rough drawings weren’t hard to clean up, and he didn’t leave the bulk of the work for the people following him. He was concerned about the timing and did every drawing he needed to make sure that timing worked. Most of the time we worked together, he had no chance to see pencil tests. Only on Raggedy Ann did he have that luxury.

Jack had a dark side, that I appreciated, but he also brought a lightness and individual sensibility to the work he did. He took chances in his animation and timing and sometimes failed but usually succeeded with them. That’s more than I’ll say for most of the animators I’ve met in the business.

See Jack Schnerk sample reel 1.

Jack Schnerk Sample reel 2.

Jack Schnerk Sample reel 3.

- Yesterday, I posted John Canemaker‘s archival copy of the storyboard for Dumbo; the sequence where he gets washed by his mother and plays around her legs.

I think this sequence, on film, is one of the greatest ever animated. There’s a sweet tenderness and an obviously close relationship between baby Dumbo and his mother which is built on the back of this sequence. It not only establishes both characters solidly, without words, but it sets up the mood of everything that will soon happen to the pair during the remaining 45 minutes of the film. Without that established bond, the audience wouldn’t feel so deeply for the pair during the “Baby Mine” song or care so much about Dumbo’s predicament.

Tytla has said that he based the animation of the baby elephant on his young son who he could study at home. Peet has said that Tytla had difficulty drawing the elephants and asked for some help via his assistant. There’s no doubt that both were proud of the sequence and tried to take full credit for it. No doubt both deserve enormous credit for a wonderful sequence. Regardless of how it got to the screen, everyone involved deserves kudos.

Here are a lot of frame grabs of the sequence. I put them up just so that they can be compared to the extraordinary board posted yesterday. Both match each other closely. Whereas the board has all the meat, the timing of the animation gives it the delicacy that would have been lost in a lesser animator’s hands, or, for that matter, in a less-caring animator’s hands. The scene is an emotional one.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

(Click any image to enlarge.)