Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

The Tree of Life .
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- Terrence Malick‘s new film, The Tree of Life, is far and away my favorite of the year, and it’s hard to imagine another besting it. The film starts with a vision of god that moves beyond to a patriarchal dominated family in Waco, Texas. The suggestion of a death leads us back to god and the creation of the earth. From protozoa to dinosaur to the birth of a child, this filmmaker exudes absolute love for every organism he can show us on screen. Yet, right from the dinosaurs onward he creates an ominous tone in this male-dominated power hungry environment. You’re always expecting something terrible to happen in the hands of the children who push the film forward.

This is a film that technically has a new way of presenting itself almost through an impressionistic vision. The whispered narration and dialogue mix and blend into one; the sun streamed backlit late-afternoon interiors create a whispered visual to match. All of it is driven with a new and unusual way of cutting – first seen in Malick’s last film, The New World.

The film only has big thoughts on its mind, and the director’s absolute love of everything pulls us into a world and an environment that is like no other. It’s a great film. Audiences are finding it thrilling and tedious, too long and brilliant. There are many who love it and many who hate it. I loved it and can only question how I can employ some of these new thoughts and devices for my future films. What an inspiration!

I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw it on Tuesday.
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George Griffin & John Canemaker
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Independent Animators .
I’d written last week about regularly featuring articles on this blog about Independent animators. The first one is almost finished and will be run this coming Tuesday. It’s a conversation with George Griffin, an animator whose work has been something of an inspiration to me over the course of my entire career. It was a pleasure putting this piece together for me, and I think it’ll be worth the read.

Bambi articles .
- John Canemaker has an Appreciation of Tyrus Wong on the blog of the Disney Family Museum. This is an excerpt from John’s book, Before the Animation Begins.

The Disney Family Museum are celebrating Bambi all month with a number of articles, and it might be well worth keeping a watch on what they’ll post for it.

Andreas Deja’s New Blog .
- Surely, by now, most of you know that Andreas Deja has a new blog called, punnily, Deja View.

If you haven’t visited and are a fan of Disney art, I suggest you check it out. It’s less than a week old, and we’ve already visited Eric Larsen (pictured to the left with Deja), Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl and Marc Davis. The artwork on display ranges from multiple poses of Maleficent to Cinderella and prince dancing, to Pinocchio skipping. We can only assume this material will continue at the same high calibre for a while.

I hope we get some stories and artwork by Andreas Deja, himself, since I have to say his was my favorite animation coming out of the Disney studio in the time he had worked there. It shows how little the studio truly respects animation that they don’t have proper work for a man of his talent. How little respect animation really gets in these days of computerized puppetry.

Jaws of Victory .
- Jeff Katzenberg was interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter about the decline of 3D in movies. In the interview, Mr. Katzenberg had this to say.

THR: Do you have any plans to change your 3D strategy at DreamWorks Animation?

Katzenberg: We’re not the problem. We have made five films now in 3D and have built this amazing reservoir of knowledge and tools. Nobody else has made five 3D movies back to back. You can see the quality of the experience increasing with every film. The cost has gone down significantly for us the last three years, and there is still meaningful, incremental profit to us, even though the size of our audience has narrowed. On every account for us, 3D is a win. It’s not nearly as big a win as it should be, and it’s certainly not the win it was headed toward being, and that’s really heartbreaking to me because we have managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory as only Hollywood can do.

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