Author Archives: Jerry Beck

Spotted A Few Things at the Licensing Show…

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…and wanted to share them with you. As I said in a previous post, I attended the 2010 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas yesterday. Here are several items of note (click thumbnails below for larger image), each reflecting a new take on an old favorite.

Left to right: Apparently there’s a new Top Cat movie (filled with ‘tude) coming from South America; The Toon Studio of Beverly Hills is offering up this revised version of The Wizard of Oz; and King Features has a new spin on Olive Oyl.

Another Pic from The Looney Tunes Show

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Collider.com has posted this image from the new CG Road Runner and Coyote shorts being produced for the new Looney Tunes Show coming to Cartoon Network. This new picture isn’t as exciting as the previously released image – but I believe the previous shot was from one of the upcoming theatricals and this new one is from the TV series. If anyone from the production would care to enlighten us, we’re all ears.

Original MGM Cartoon title art

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The image above left is the original art, for the original title card of Rudolf Ising’s 1940 MGM Cartoon, The Fishing Bear. The image above right is the original art for the reissue print of the same cartoon in the 1950s. MGM did that. They re-did the titles when they reissued a cartoon. Unfortunately the original negatives to their pre-1952 cartoons no longer exist, so finding original nitrate film prints – or the incredibly rare original art – is a big deal to those of us who regularly research cartoon history.

Both these pieces above were recently acquired – along with 18 other astounding MGM animation originals – by my favorite gallery owner Mike Van Eaton. Mike’s my favorite because when he gets stuff like this he calls me over to look at it and help him identify it. This mother-load of MGM Holy Grails includes background art from such films as Abdul The Bulbul Ameer, Blitz Wolf, Farm of Tomorrow and Good Will To Men; and title cards from Peace on Earth, The Goose Goes South, Dance of The Weed and Milt Gross’ Jitterbug Follies.

I can’t post them all here, but click thumbnails below to enjoy a few scans from this cache. Yes, they are for sale. If interested contact Mike right now.

Gene Deitch in LA July 6th

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An early heads up on my next CineFamily/Silent Movie Theatre screening next month. Animation director, cartoonist, creator of Tom Terrific and father of Kim and Simon (pictured above), Gene Deitch will join us in person for a screening of rareties from Terrytoons, UPA, his commercials, his award winning short films – and yes, we’ll have him explain his Popeye, Krazy Kat and Tom & Jerry cartoons.

As you know Deitch lives in Prague, Czech Republic, and rarely visits L.A. — so don’t miss this rare one-of-a-kind evening of amazing animation with a living legend. More details when I post about this again later this month. Yes, you can reserve tickets now. If you live in L.A. you should not miss this show.

Stop Motion Marvels

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If you’ve been following recent trends in animation you’ve noticed that stop-motion is alive and well, in fact in better shape today than it’s ever been. And if you are a fan or practitioner of the art, I’ve just received two new releases–a DVD and a book–that are absolute must-haves.

Stop Motion Marvels is the latest release from Steve Stanchfield and his Thunderbean Animation Company–and this may be his most important release yet. I cannot over-state how amazing this DVD compilation is. It contains over forty stop-mo puppet films ranging from 1909 through 1972, short subjects, commercials, home movies, and work prints; mostly stuff you (or I) never heard of, rescued from obscurity by Stanchfield and his team of animation archivists. The highlight of the set is the collected works of the Kinex studio, a forgotten creator of direct-to-home movie films featuring the strangely appealing antics of Snap the Gingerbread Man, Chip the Wooden Man and Daffy Doings in Doodlebugville. There are examples from animation notables (Willis O’Brien, J. Stuart Blackton, George Pal, Lou Bunin, and the most bizarre Len Lye experiment you’ve ever seen), but the real surprise are the John Burton (future Looney Tunes producer) shorts of the 1930s (including one in color) which pre-date all others in trying to incorporate a cartoonists’ sensibility into puppet animation.

There’s audio commentary by stop motion experts and animators, a still gallery of rare photos (including a George Pal Puppetoon exposure sheet – Wow!) and a twelve-page information booklet (written by cover illustrator Stewart McKissick) round out this remarkable DVD set–an achievement in documenting a long-neglected segment of animation history. Bravo, Steve! This may well be the best video release of the year. Buy it now- you will not be disappointed.

If you are interested in stop motion character animation – past, present or future – then Barry Purves’ Basics Animation: Stop Motion is for you. Who better to guide us through the history of the medium, the techniques and the process of filmmaking than master animator Purves (Screen Play) himself. He concentrates on explaining the technique through examples by Jiri Trinka, Ray Harryhausen, Norman McLaren, The Brothers Quay, Mackinnon and Saunders, Adam Elliot, Aardman, and a dozen other leading lights. A good basic text book for any student of the art form, and a great read for those of us who simply enjoy watching it. Everyone should order it ($19.77) from Amazon.com.

(Embed below is one of the few films – a 1960s Chocks Vitamin commercial featuring the voices of Dick Beals and Paul Winchell – on Thunderbean’s Stop Motion Marvels that could be found on You Tube).

Super Delicious Ingredient Force

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Below is a 4 1/2 minute viral commercial for Taco Bell. It’s another parody of 1970s Saturday morning super-hero TV cartoons — the kind J.J. Sedelmaier has been doing to perfection for years — crossed with a Aqua Teen Hunger Force camp sensibility. Todd Durston and his creative crew at DraftFCB Chicago collaborated with legendary comic book artist Neal Adams to conceive this campaign.

UAE Ecological Footprint

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The Al Basama Al Beeiya (or United Arab Emirates Ecological Footprint) is an initiative aimed at inspiring people in UAE countries to reduce their individual footprint. This clever stop-motion promotional makes the point by using recycled paper figures and settings. Produced by the UK production company Asylum. Directors: Ben & Jos. Animation director: Jordan Wood.

(Thanks, DeK)

A Lost Fleischer Cartoon

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I have friends in the stock footage business. They buy large libraries of old 16mm movies by the ton (usually home movies, travelogues and educational films) and every once in a while, while digitizing and archiving their latest acquisitions, they come across an animated film they cannot quite identify. When that happens they usually send it to me to examine.

This past weekend I screened one of those films and it’s a real mystery. It’s not a particularly great cartoon, but its quite an exciting find. Watching it conjured more questions than answers. But one thing’s for sure: It’s an undocumented product of the Miami Fleischer studio. I’m posting an excerpt below (the first 90 seconds) in hopes that others may have more clues to explain its existence – and its 70 year absence from any animation reference.

The Vacationer’s Paradise is apparently part of a proposed series called Traveltoons. It’s sort of an animated travelogue – not unlike what Famous Studios would base their later 1940s series of Screen Songs (like The Sunshine State or The Golden State).

First off, notice the title lettering done by that mysterious Fleischer/Famous studio calligrapher, whom I’m a big fan of. Next note “Mrs. Doe” – a character design that answers the burning question of what happened to Betty Boop after she retired and moved to Miami.

Could this have been a pilot for a new series of Fleischer cartoons? Was material created for this series later recycled in the Famous Screen Songs? Could this possibly be the first Famous Studios cartoon? A “blackout” reference certainly places it in either late 1941 or 1942. Note it’s really more of a film about Florida etiquette than Florida tourism. Perhaps it was created for a Miami Visitor’s Bureau?

Was the film perhaps a contractual obligation of the studio, produced for the Miami Chamber of Commerce, as part of Fleischer’s deal to re-locate to Miami? Why does the film feel so cheap? Why the absence of music in the main body of the film? Why are their no credits whatsoever? Note the voice of Jack Mercer among the background voices. Note the narrator may be Charles Irving, who voiced many of the later travelogue Screen Songs.

Bob Jaques believes that the man in the live action footage to be animator Tom Johnson. Did Johnson direct the film? Was this done by a group of ex-Fleischer artists as a sample film, perhaps to start their own Miami studio after Paramount took over Fleischers? And yet, there is a fair amount of live action and animation material, which leads me to believe this was done under Max or Dave Fleischer’s watch.

Lots of questions, no answers… but we have the film.

What do you think?

UPDATE: We got a few answers! See the bottom of the comments section below.