Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- You gotta love Thad Komorowski. His site goes into some real hard-nosed animation history like ironing out all those Production Numbers from the Warner Bros and MGM shorts. His work in this area pushed Adam Abraham to assemble the Prod. Numbers for UPA cartoons and Pietro Shakarian assembled the numbers for the Lantz cartoons (or should I have written cartunes?).

Thad also has an excellent piece on his blog about the early color films of Chuck Jones. Yes, we’re talking Sniffles.

For quite some time, I’ve read many an article about these films constantly putting them down. Thad’s an original – the first I know to find something solid in them. (Though I have to say he does it with an apology in his throat.) The reason behind the post is to review a new DVD on the market, Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles, a collection of Jones cartoons that feature mice. All the Sniffles and the Hubie and Bertie shorts.

These Sniffles films really got me when I was young. I couldn’t get enough of Bedtime for Sniffles. I always thought that film was brilliant – I still think that. I can remember every scene in that movie; I’ve watched it so many times. Jones took WB close to what Disney had led the industry in doing – emotional drama. Some might say overemotional drama – which often veers too close to “cute” for anyone’s taste. These are children’s films, yet Jones was able to find a real conflict in this one-character cartoon, Bedtime for Sniffles. Poor Sniffles just wants to wait up to see Santa. You always feel that Jones is beaming with pride after pulling off such a stunt, and Thad talks in depth (but never quite enough) about Jones’ ego. I think this is probably half of what Jones offers in his films; his ego is the backbone. This was a principal part of the Jones oeuvre. It’s blatantly part of What’s Opera Doc, it drives One Froggy Evening, and it’s in the spine of Bedtime for Sniffles. Maybe it’s just starting to shine in the Sniffles short, but it’s definitely there.

There was this odd period in animation history. Just prior to WWII, cartoons got cute, cuter, cutest. Merbabies, kittens galore, underground gnomes bringing Spring, countless trips to The Milky Way, and all the cartoon stars get a pack of nephews to follow them. What was in the milk that adults drank on the way to the movie theater? Why were these cute cartoons so popular during this short period? The Milky Way might have played with Ninotchka; Merbabies might have doubled with The Adventures of Robin Hood or Jezebel. What was it that the adults of that decade saw that they loved? I’m so far removed from the thoughts of those pre-War people that I certainly can’t judge; I can only wonder. Sniffles was certainly a product of this wave of those animation shorts, and in many ways he stays current. (I love that they revived him for the WB comic books of the late fifties and sixties: “Magic words of poof poof pifffles. Make me just as small as Sniffles.” This was the chant Mary Jane would recite to begin a comic adventure story as she grew tiny.) Warner Bros hasn’t dropped Sniffles altogether; they just don’t use him too often.

Anyway, I was taken with this post by Thad, and he takes it into serious history, where I just reminisce. I will take that film apart though. I may just pull a lot of frame grabs over the weekend.

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Storycorps Kickstarting

- I received an email from Storycorps promoting their latest film. These excellent animation pieces have all been directed and produced by Mike and Tim Rauch with art direction by Bill Wray. The films have a style all their own somewhere between John K and Warner Bros. The tracks are all live storytelling done by Storycorps in their recording booth.

Here’s the latest film they’ve completed:

Facundo the Great

There are also promos with the YouTube video that try to get you to Kickstarter to their fundraising campaign so that they can make their first full half hour special. They do good work, and it’s worth the investment if you like. (I can’t imagine that the $25,000 they’re seeking is the complete budget for a half-hour show.) The final date is approaching within the week.

An interesting thing about the promo-emails that came to me were the names mentioned. After announcing the name of the piece, there’s the sentence, “It’s a spirited childhood story that includes amazing backgrounds from the legendary artist, Bill Wray.”
The only other name listed in the entire letter is “Amy Adsley, Marketing and Communications, StoryCorps” – who signed the letter.
The next day I received the very same letter with a different marketing person. I trashed both emails, sorry I didn’t save the new name.

I hate to say it, but I think the Rauch Brothers have never gotten their proper due from Storycorps considering they sought the connection with Storycorps and did the first couple of films with their own money. Once it was obvious that this was the way to go, Storycorps took charge, and I see the names of Mike and Tim shrinking away from the publicity. I suspect nothing is going on except that the brothers just aren’t getting their due. They’re the ones that pull the films together and make sure they work.

But then this is all speculation on my part. I’m sure all is right in Storycorps land, but it is an observation that I’ve made. I may as well cause some trouble since I have nothing to do with the films or Storycorps or the Brothers (except that I like them both.) If I were they, I’d put my names a little louder in my future contracts.

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Toys in Review

The critics, as might have been expected, had differing views of the new animated feature, Toys in the Attic. Per Rotten Tomatoes, the film garners an 80% positive among the reviews they’ve collected. In New York the thoughts are not too different:

Manohla Dargis of the NY Times gave it a somewhat positive review: “‘Toys in the Attic’ isn’t as unsettling as Mr. Svankmajer’s work, but even in this English-language version, it’s scarcely a cute and cuddly family film of the generic type often foisted on American tots.”

The NY Post‘s Farran Smith Nehme gives the film three stars and says: “Stop-motion animated film has a predictable plot but vividly imaginative, engrossing visuals.” “The movie is passionately retro, but Barta shows his methods can create a world every bit as engrossing as the latest CGI.”

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Offbook

There’s a new YouTube channel from PBS Digital Studios. Their most recent episode of the “Offbook” series is The Art of Animation and Motion Graphics: a brief view of animation and a look at today’s latest innovations. John Canemaker is featured in the film. He gives a short look at the varying forms within the medium. It’s a cursory look for the A.D.D. generation, under the guise of “informational”.

“Offbook”

Apparently a new video is released every other Thursday under the “Offbook” title. To date there are 12 such videos. The one on Typography is good, as is the brief introduction to Title Design and another on Street Art.

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POE Continues

- It was great, these last two weeks, watching first the Republican convention, then the Democratic convention. The two were so different, one from the other. One was workman-like; the other was inspirational. One was full of lying accusations and lots of promises that didn’t quite jive with plans they’d written down. The other featured speeches that sometimes veered into poetry. Night after night the Dems left me charged.

All the while I was doing a scene from POE, over and over and over, trying to tighten the
style. Finally, on take 25 (or thereabouts) I was content to leave it. Locked. I started the next scene, and it feels the same. I’m already on take three, and I haven’t started the animation yet.

It’ll work out, I’m sure.

Meanwhile Jonathan Annand wrote: “There’s a short run exhibition at the Brandywine Museum starting September 8th that you might be interested in, if you don’t already know about it: Picturing Poe: Illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe’s Stories and Poems. The publicity for the show reads: Édouard Manet, Gustave Doré, Paul Gauguin, James Ensor, Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, Harry Clarke, Barry Moser and Robert Motherwell are among the more than two dozen artists featured.

Unfortunately, time is too tight for me just now; I’m sorry I’ll miss it.

Pictured above:
Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe, 1988,
by Horst Janssen (German, 1929-1995)

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