The passing of legendary American photographer/filmmaker Gordon Parks reminds me of an interesting fact I learned while researching my upcoming book CARTOON MODERN. Parks’s first film, the documentary FLAVIO (1964), was produced by the animation studio, Elektra Films, in New York. The studio was one of New York’s most well regarded commercial animation studios in the late-50s and early-1960s and pretty much anybody who was somebody on the East Coast animation design scene worked there at some point. It was started by former UPA artist Abe Liss, who had done layout on a number of the early Mister Magoo shorts in LA. He had also been the creative director of UPA-NY and Transfilm prior to starting Elektra in 1956 with business partner Sam Magdoff.

It’s unclear how Liss and Parks got connected though they shared similarly tough Depression-era upbringings. Both of them came from working class families and had done back-breaking work in the Civilian Conversation Corps during the mid-1930s (though not together). May Liss, Abe’s wife, told me that Liss had been heavily involved in the production of FLAVIO, particularly because Parks had no prior filmmaking experience. The film was among a number of eclectic independent and commissioned film projects that Liss undertook beginning in the late-1950s. He certainly could have gone in some interesting directions both as filmmaker and producer, but unfortunately, Liss died in December 1963 from a heart attack, right around the time of FLAVIO’s completion. Parks was one of the speakers at his memorial service.

I love feel-good stories like the one that ran in yesterday’s MONTREAL GAZETTE (the article is unfortunately not online). The piece is about Jack Dunham, a 95-year-old former animation artist who gave up his apartment last month. Both he and his wife are homeless now. The article doesn’t explain whether he was forcibly evicted from his home or not, but it’s still depressing as hell. In the 1930s, Dunham worked at Disney and Lantz. I can’t find any record of him at Disney because he was probably only an assistant, but he’s in this early-1930s Lantz photo. Here’s an excerpt from the piece:

[Dunham] created the St. Hubert Chicken [St. Hubert Bar B-Q is a chain of restaurants in Québec, the first restaurant being on St. Hubert St.; the chicken is shown on their webpage]. But Dunham, a former Walt Disney Studios artist, is old and a bit frail now; instead of throwing the bawk-bawk-bawk at him, perhaps we should forgive Dunham his red-thatched trespasses.

He’ll be 96 in September. Where he’ll be celebrating his birthday is uncertain, because Dunham and Dorothy Stewart, the former New York fashion model to whom he’s been married for 51 years, are homeless.

Since giving up their St. Marc St. apartment in early February, the Dunhams have been staying at St. Luc Hospital. Social service agencies are trying to place the couple in a care facility, but that could take awhile.

The article also has this priceless quote from Dunham: “I was 6-foot-4 as a teenager and I was still 6-foot-4 when I was 90. But then I started to lose height. I’m about 6 feet, and I weight 125 pounds, down from 250 when I was 90. I told my wife that at this rate, she’ll be able to carry me around in her purse.”

(Thanks, Craig)

I’m not sure how many folks are aware of this, but there’s interesting and rare animation popping up almost daily now on YouTube. For example, I recently spotted a couple of the best shorts produced for Hanna Barbera’s mid-90s shorts series WHAT-A-CARTOON (aka World Premiere Toons), an idea of then-Hanna Barbera president Fred Seibert. TALES OF WORM PARANOIA, was directed by the one and only Eddie Fitzgerald, and it has some of the fullest and most interesting animation in the entire series. Eddie spoke about his experiences making the film here and here. The other short, BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE, was written and directed by Don Shank, Charlie Bean and Carey Yost. The talent on this short was unbelievable - besides the capable trio of Shank, Bean and Yost, other artists who pitched in include Scott Wills, Bob Jaques, Chris Reccardi, Lynne Naylor, Mike Fontanelli, Jim Smith, Craig McCracken, Mucci Fassett, Dave Wasson, Julian Chaney and Rob Renzetti. I can’t even imagine how it’s possible to use so many great artists for one seven-minute short. The production values speak for themselves though and there’s some solid design and layout throughout.

TALES OF WORM PARANOIA

BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE

(TALES OF WORM PARANOIA poster at top via Frederator)

This Flash-animated music video for Telemetry Orchestra’s song “Suburban Harmony” is one of my favorite music videos of recent months. It was created by London-based Australian Steve Scott, who is also a member of the band. The video is pretty clearly a tribute to Heinz Edelmann’s production design for THE YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968), with touches of other late-60s graphic styling like Terry Gilliam’s animated films and the illustrations of New York design studio Push Pin. You can read more about Scott’s work at Cold Hard Flash or check out his animation/illustration portfolio at SteveScott.com.au.

Pixar story artist Jim Capobianco is working on a personal hand-drawn short called LEONARDO and he’s almost done with the rough animation (image above). He tells me the film should be finished by mid-2007. Keep up with the production HERE.

Japanese illustrator Toru Fukuda, previously mentioned here, has started this blog, where he’s posting all types of fun things that inspire him.

There’s some nice drawings on the blog of animation artist Stephen Nicodemus. Also, check out this slick series of bgs he painted for the new Cartoon Network series MY GYM PARTNER’S A MONKEY.

Former Spumco comrades Gabe Swarr and Wil Branca have started blogging.

This interview with Bob Iger is an interesting read. He discusses the Pixar acquisition at some length, and says that in his five months as Disney CEO, the Pixar deal is “what I’m most proud of.” The interview also lays out his three strategic priorities for Disney:

1. Creating great content.
2. Applying technology in the creation and distribution of your businesses.
3. Growing internationally, in terms of both expanding Disney’s businesses around the world and changing the notion that Burbank has a monopoly on creativity.

(via Animated-News)

This is a genius trailer mash-up of TOY STORY 2 and Darren Aronofsky’s gritty REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. (Click on the image above to watch the video.) It also inadvertently makes a powerful point about contemporary cartoons: the problem with most animated films today isn’t the actual artwork or animation, but rather the writing, the voice acting and the lack of directorial vision. TOY STORY 2 is a great film to begin with, but this trailer shows how so many weaker animated films could be improved if other aspects, besides the visuals, were overhauled.
(Official TOY STORY 2 REQUIEM trailer mash-up site HERE)

I rarely buy dvds, but one of the few that I’m planning to get is the forthcoming GOLDEN AGE OF CARTOONS: CARTOONS FOR VICTORY!. I saw a ‘rough cut’ of the dvd a few months back and it’s a spectacular collection of super-rare World War II-era cartoons from the US and Europe. The group of filmmakers represented on this dvd is stellar: Lou Bunin, Jiri Trnka, Hans Fischerkoesen, John Hubley, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin, among others. DVD producer Steve Stanchfield is passionate about animated films and puts a lot of care into finding the best prints around and presenting these cartoons properly. The dvd also has commentaries by Cartoon Brew’s very own Jerry Beck, as well as Eric Goldberg and John Kricfalusi. For a mere $10 on Amazon, it’s hard to go wrong with this collection. For more details about what’s on it, check out this review.