Comic Art &Commentary 12 Nov 2011 07:44 am
Academy, Keane and Odds & Ends
Academy voting time
- This past week was a relatively quiet one. I’ve been spending more and more of my time going to screenings for the Academy. Not only are there normal screenings at the AMPAS NY center (usually, at this time of the year, on Tuesdays and Thursdays), but there are also invited screenings. The Academy screenings have started to increase in that there are two films a night, and it gets to feel a bit like overload. I try to spread it out somewhat so that I avoid two films in one night by going to see some of the films at the invited screenings. Often present at these screenings are some of the celebrities from the films.
On Tuesday I saw the Lars Van Triers film, Melancholia – which droned on for four hours (or maybe it was just really 2’15″), and Thursday there was J. Edgar, the Clint Eastwood film with Leonardo DiCaprio. (2 hours 17 mins.) Definitely acting Oscar nominations in both films; both films had problems.
Starting next week the Animated Features begin screening. I have the DVD for Winnie the Pooh, but I’ve been trying to hold off seeing it until it’s on a big screen. As a matter of fact, that’s what I try to do with all the films, no matter how small. I try to see them all properly projected to be able to vote for them fairly. As for the feature animation, this is the first year the NY members are able to vote for the nominees in this category, so it’s something I’ll take seriously. That means I’ll have to sit through Hoodwinked 2 and The Smurfs in a theatrical setting (god help me). I do look forward to Winnie the Pooh, as I’ve said, as well as Cat In Paris on the big screen. (What can I say; I’m a 2D kinda guy.) After the theatrical screening, I’ll probably look at the DVD of W the Pooh a bit more closely.
Nest week, Between Sunday and Wednesday, there’s My Week with Marilyn, The Descendants as well as Rampart. There’s Puss In Boots and Tin Tin. To top it off, on Monday there’s a special screening dedicated to the work of Saul Bass – not Oscar related. It all starts to add up. But I’m not complaining; I actually love it and feel privileged to be able to take part in the process.
- I was saddened to learn of the death of Bill Keane, the cartoonist who created Family Circus in 1960. He was also the father of Disney animation director, Glen Keane.
I was not the biggest fan of this comic strip when I was young. However, there was the Family Circus Christmas that aired one year. I thought it had one of the best stories ever done for a Christmas Special, and it gave me a new outlook on the strip. That show was directed by Al Kouzel in 1979 (Glen was one of the animators on the show). The animation isn’t very good, but the show reached out to me back then.
As a tiny tribute to Bill Keane, I’m posting this four page piece from Cartoonist Profiles, Dec. 1980 issue. It’s an edited transcript of an interview done with Bill on the Larry King Show.
1Click any image to enlarge.
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- I received this note a few days ago:
My name is John Kassab, and I was the sound designer on the Oscar winning short animated film, ‘The Lost Thing‘.
I am currently producing a wonderful animated short called ‘Cabbit‘ by emerging artist Soogie.
We are in the process of raising awareness about our Kickstarter fundraiser and wondering if you would like to check it out: here.
This is a little interview i did this week about the sound design: here.
… but we would love to get more attention for Soogie, our illustrator / writer / director / animator.
I don’t like to post Kickstarter events on this blog, so please don’t tell me about yours up and coming. There are too many films trying to raise money for me to be promoting any of them. I have my own films wanting funds and rarely mention them here. This film seems to want the funds primarily for post production.
- Bill Benzon has been writing in depth about Fantasia. On his blog, New Savannah, he’s been detailing the artistic and intellectual struggles visible in the film. Finally, he’s reached the last of the segments, the Pastoral, and he’s uncovered the sexuality just below the film’s surface. Bill writes:
- I saw the sexual undertones way back when. But it wasn¹t until I started taking frame grabs‹the last thing before I actually start writing‹that I noticed that all the thunderbolts are directed at Bacchus. And once I saw that, well, the fact that the last one exploded the vat full of grape juice . . . well, you¹ll have to read the post to see what I make of that.
He also posts that he’s going to put all of the eight segments together as a PDF. When he does that, I’ll let you know.
- Stephen Worth has started the Animation Resources blog. It’s a new place to check daily on your blog rounds. This is a way for Stephen to rekindle all the great posts from the old ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive blog and for him to add some great new material. There was just too much good material there to let it pass on. You’ll notice it’s part of my blogroll to the right.
on 12 Nov 2011 at 12:19 pm 1.Bill Benzon said …
Thanks for the link, Michael.
When I first started working on Fantasia this was easily my least favorite episode. I almost couldn’t watch it. But it’s grown on me. For one thing, when you look at it closely you can’t help but admire the craftsmanship. And, if some of the animation is clunky (the centaurs) some is suberb, like the flying horses. Further, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I now watch it with pleasure.
And, after I’d posted it I re-read it, thought a bit, and decided more needed to be done. I really didn’t deal with color at all. So I’ve now devoted another post to that. The rainbow at the end is very important.
I’m planning to do a third post on the dance sequence. That’ll be mostly frame grabs, 20 or so. I think it’s important to see just how Disney’s animators did the donkey-swap. It’s really quite artful.
on 12 Nov 2011 at 1:44 pm 2.Stephen Worth said …
Thanks for the link and kind words, Michael. I appreciate it.
on 12 Nov 2011 at 4:23 pm 3.The Gee said …
On the Animation Resources link, I got a Page Not Found message, a 404 error.
The main page loads just fine though.
I’m glad that you are still putting up interesting resources, Stephen. Surely, I’m not the only one who should or would thank you for this.
On Bil Keane, he’s gone but the strip/gag comic will continue. That said, I admire his staying involved in making it over the years. While the humor has never been too hilarious to me, the strip had some inventive moments. And, those moments are decent contributions to the form.
The gag of the dotted line in the large Sunday panel allowing you to see how Billy meandered instead of taking a direct route was/is pretty smart. It was like those old Boys Life magazine covers where you have to look at everything to see what was going on. And, on another level, it is an interesting way to work the space in one panel and forces the reader to follow the cartoon in the way the cartoonist desires, all the while putting a little extra time and effort into reading the comic. That’s tough to do with one panel. Waterson and maybe Breathed, in his salad days, used unconventional layouts to achieve something similar.
Additionally, the Not Me ghost gags were pretty clever. They injected a cartoony humor into the strip that allowed it to be less about Funny Things Kids Say After They Screw Up, like “Dennis the Menace†did/does often.
This is probably way too much to write about something folks may consider inconsequential or insignificant but, hey, it is worth noting even if it has been done better elsewhere.
Cartoonist Lynda Berry wrote about the what the strip meant to her. It is worth reading:
http://thenearsightedmonkey.tumblr.com/post/12565479495/i-was-a-kid-growing-up-in-a-troubled-household-we
on 12 Nov 2011 at 4:26 pm 4.The Gee said …
And, to break it up a bit, here’s a story/interview with her where she retreads her thoughts but it is more of a tight little anecdote:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2010/12/887670/barry-and-kalman-state-illustration-sort
Since it isn’t until the end of the article, I am quoting the last three paragraphs for everyone’s convenience:
“”MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE CARTOON OF ALL TIME IS: ARE YOU READY? It’s Family Circus,†Barry said at the Y. “You know that thing you hear of when you’re a kid that if you see beautiful art that you’ll burst into tears and around the same time you hear about that lady who, if she hits the right note she’ll blow up a wine glass? I always wanted to burst into tears in front of beauty, especially around a cute guy really close. He’d go, ‘she’s so sensitive.’ And I’d say, ‘I am.’ So what happened is I was travelling around Europe by myself and I was always at the galleries trying to burst into tears right?†It never happened.
But years ago, she went to a comics convention and met the illustrator behind Family Circus, which was created by Bil Keane and inked by his son, Jeff. “I burst into tears and it wasn’t cute at all,†she said. “I tried to introduce myself to him but I couldn’t stop crying.â€
“The reason why I loved Family Circus so much was because I came from a very difficult, violent, horrible home and I look in that circle and see a happy little life. And I always wanted to get to it. And I realized when I shook his hand that I had come through the circle. I was on the other side. And the way I did it was by drawing a picture.â€
“
on 17 Nov 2011 at 6:49 pm 5.steve fisher said …
Upon scrolling through this day’s blog, I was struck with how much the frame above the Bill Benzon piece reminded me of the miniature watercolorist, Bireswar Sen. If you are not familiar with the extraordinary work of this remarkable Indian artist, you can check out this link: http://bireswarsen.com.