Animation Artifacts &Models &Story & Storyboards 16 May 2012 05:53 am
Popeye Storyboard – part 2
- I continue posting this storyboard from the 1949 Popeye cartoon, “Barking Dogs Don’t Fite.” This is part of the late Vince Cafarelli‘s collection of animation artwork. He’d saved it from the different studios he worked at.
The storyboard was by Jack Mercer and Carl Meyer, and I’m not sure as to who drew what. There are definitely two different styles in there especially in the way Popeye and Olive are drawn. Bluto also has an original look here, but he seems to stay constant.
Each drawing is done on inexpensive 8½ x 11 paper. One wonders if they even made an animatic of the film. None of the board has any registration.
We pick up with the last drawing from last week’s post.
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Here’s the full short as seen on YouTube.
I still can’t get used to Popeye’s powder blue uniform.
I wish the look was a bit closer to the board, however some of
the layouts are improvements over the planning in the storyboard.
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on 16 May 2012 at 7:20 am 1.Mark Mayerson said …
Terrific sense of motion in those boards.
on 16 May 2012 at 9:18 am 2.Jason said …
Thanks for posting these Michael.
on 16 May 2012 at 3:38 pm 3.J Lee said …
Famous’ timing in its early years (1942-46) wasn’t much different than what was being done at the same time on the West Coast — if the cartoon had been released then, odds are much more of what was in the storyboards would have made it to the screen without being slowed down as much as it was by the time the short did come out at the end of the decade (i.e. — the hospital “Quiet Zone” drawings here have the potential to work just as well when animated as the same type of gag used by Tex Avery before and after this cartoon was released, but the final product was a pale imitation of Avery’s timing).
on 16 May 2012 at 4:08 pm 4.The Gee said …
“…the hospital “Quiet Zone†drawings here have the potential to work just as well when animated…â€
The timing of the antic of the bulldog bumping the poodle seemed off when I first watched it. But, I watched it with the sound off. Watching it with the sound off, the timing makes more sense. Now, I don’t get it from a gag standpoint though.
It is a hospital zone and there is an attempt to be quiet then it seems like it could have been zippier, having the tippy-toeing be constant while the dog is doing the butt-bumping. It would have had different timing, could have taken up the same amount of screen time and even had some variation for the gag that would have avoided the awkward last double-bump. The poodle getting bumped out of the Quiet Zone wasn’t that funny.
in my humble opinion, of course…
on 16 May 2012 at 4:10 pm 5.The Gee said …
rats.
I meant to write:
“Watching it with the sound on, the timing makes more sense.â€
on 17 May 2012 at 2:29 am 6.Charles Brubaker said …
I always think of Jack Mercer as a voice actor. It never occurred to me that he was a terrific cartoonist as well.
on 17 May 2012 at 3:54 am 7.Michael said …
Mercer was in the story dept of the mid-30s Fleischer studio. He was known for his Popeye impersonations, and it didn’t take long for him to get the VO job once Billy Costello was fired. Lou Fleischer had overheard Mercer singing a song in character, as Popeye.