Monthly Archives: September 2011

Earl Kress (1951-2011)

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That’s Earl Kress (above left) with me at the Van Eaton Galleries in May 2010.

My friend, animation writer and Hanna-Barbera historian par excellence, Earl Kress passed away early this morning, succumbing to liver cancer. He had just turned 60 years old.

Earl’s credits are so numerous – I don’t know where to begin. For theaters he worked on story for Disney’s The Fox and The Hound, and the great Looney Tunes short Little Go Beep. In comic books, Earl penned many stories for Hanna-Barbera as well as The Simpsons for Bongo Comics and Looney Tunes for DC. The list of his television credits is too large to recount here (check IMDB), but highlights include various episodes of Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Tom & Jerry Tales – not to mention a pilot I produced called Hornswiggle.

He was also a devoted animation historian, and he produced several DVD and CD compilations that are indispensable: His Rhino Records’ Pic-a-nic Basket of Cartoon Classics and Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Sound FX are important preservations of these classic television soundtracks. His expertise made Warner Home Video’s Hanna Barbera DVDs as great as they could be: The Flintstones – Seasons 2, 4, 5 and 6, Top Cat – The Complete Series, Wacky Races, Huckleberry Hound – Volume 1, Yogi Bear – The Complete Series and Magilla Gorilla – The Complete Series. Without Earl, The Flintstones laser disc that John K. organized would not have been half as good.

Earl also served as a Vice President of the Animation Guild and was a founding member of the Writers Guild Animation Caucus.

But of course, Earl was more than a great writer and historian – he was a true friend and a great lunch buddy. He really helped me out on more than one occasion, eagerly sharing his knowledge and film collection when I needed help on several of my books regarding Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera. His work on Hornswiggle and several other projects we did together was top notch, and thoroughly professional. That’s what he was – a top professional and one of the good guys – make that one of the best guys – in the business.

I’ll mourn his loss. This is a very sad day. He will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace, my friend.

POST SCRIPT: Internet radio program Stu’s Show aired a tribute to Earl Kress on Monday with Mark Evanier and I sharing our memories. It is available to download at no cost for the next two weeks. Scroll down near the bottom of Stu’s main page to locate the link.

Hand-Drawn Animation Tops Box Office for 1st Time since 2009

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Lion King 3D

Disney’s re-release of The Lion King in 3-D defied both box office expectations and the downward trend of 3-D by taking over the American box office last weekend with a FINAL total of $30.2 million. 3D screenings of the film accounted for an impressive 92% of the gross. The 1994 feature, which remained the highest-grossing hand-drawn feature of all-time even before this re-release, is the first number one hand-drawn animated feature at the American box office since the theatrical run of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, which held the top position on December 11-13, 2009 with with $24.2M.

Happy Birthday June Foray

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I snapped the photo above earlier this past week. I was on one side of a glass wall, inside the studio on the other side director Mark Evanier (back to camera) is rehearsing lines with actress June Foray prior to taping a new episode of Garfield.

There’s June, still vital and a giving a classic cartoon performance, still a legend and one of the greats in the business. No one can replace what she brings to a character.

Today is her birthday. Happy Birthday June. I look forward to posting this greeting to you for years to come!

“Smile” by Max Xenda

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Check out all the eye candy in this music video featuring Ukrainian pop singer Jamala (aka Susana Jamaladinova). “Smile” was directed by top Ukraine video maker Max Xenda, and combines live action with miniatures and stop-mo puppet animation, designed by art director Vlad Ryzhikov.

Click here for behind-the-scenes footage, and some nice photos of Jamala.

(Thanks, Eric Graff)

Kevyn Wallace memorial

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Animator/layout artist Kevyn Wallace passed away on September 14th, at 3am, succumbing to the injuries sustained after being hit by a drunk driver on August 9th, 2011. He was 48 years old.

Kevyn was an accomplished Feature Animation Layout Artist having quietly spent much of his career at Disney (Tarzan, Mulan), Universal (Land Before Time series) and Film Roman (The Simpsons Movie). At the time of his death, he was working on his own documentary chronicling the history of African-American Artists in Animation and their invaluable contributions to the industry. We received this information from his family:

Kevyn’s family would like to extend their gratitude for all of the love, the well-wishes, the cards and the positive thoughts sent to Kevyn – and to them – during this very difficult time.

We cordially invite you to join us in honoring Kevyn on his birthday…

A Life Celebration of Kevyn Wallace
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7pm

Art Center College of Design
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, CA 91103-1999

We also understand that donations to the LAC+USC Burn Center would be welcome in lieu of flowers.

“This Papaya Tastes Perfect” by Ian Cheng

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Mainstream motion capture performances have the paradoxical effect of looking both flawlessly perfect and utterly unconvincing and unnatural. The problem is that the directors who use motion capture aren’t interested in exploring the artistic possibilities of the tool they’re using so much as wanting an off-the-shelf technical solution for recreating something that already exists–human actors. Thankfully, there are artists like Ian Cheng and his fascinating mo-cap experiment This Papaya Tastes Perfect. In it, he explores a more honest form of motion capture that hasn’t yet been cleaned up into a sterile imitation of live-action, and in the process he discovers a more expressive and intimate use of the technology.

Cheng described the film to us as such:

Performed under the influence of whiskey, wrecking the mocap suit. . . .dirty data resulting in 3D animation as drunk and unprofessional as the characters within it. Un-integrated stupidity one-to-one at scale with its form. Note: you might have to tilt your laptop sideways or watch it on your cellphone.

Credits
DIRECTION & PRODUCTION: Ian Cheng
MEMORY: Christian de Vietri & Ian Cheng
CHOREOGRAPHY: Madeline Hollander
PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE: Jonny Mandabach
VOCAL PERFORMANCE: Sean Manning
MOTION CAPTURE SERVICES: Steve Day, Motion Capture NYC
THANKS: Mark Bowman, Paul Chan, Clay Deutsch, Pierre Huyghe, Roy Pak, Erik Wysocan

PREVIEW: “Le Tableau” by Jean François Laguionie

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Le Tableau

French animation website Catsuka has posted the trailer for Le Tableau, an upcoming CG feature by veteran French animation director Jean François Laguionie. The high-concept film, which takes place in a world of paintings, is about some kind of conflict between characters that have been painted and those that lack color or have yet to be painted. The film’s wild, unnatural color choices appear to be directly inspired by French art movements like the Nabis and Fauves. It’s refreshing to see such a bold non-photorealistic rendering style in a CG feature and it’s no surprise that such an artistically accomplished filmmaker as Laguionie would be the one to attempt it, but the generic animation in this clip from Le Tableau is somewhat less inspiring than the trailer.

On a sidenote, with the release of this film, will Laguionie become the oldest director of a CG feature? He’s now 72 years old.

Here’s a portion of Laguionie’s earlier masterpiece Gwen, or the Book of Sand:

“Lion King 3D” talkback

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NPR loves The Lion King, but calls the 3D release a “cash grab”.

You know what I think. How about you? Intrigued enough to see a classic Disney hand drawn feature converted to 3-D? If so, share your thoughts with the rest of us in the comments below (Please respect our talkback rule and only post below if you’ve actually seen the 3D version).

UPDATE: The 3D Lion King was number one at the US box office this week.

Four Theories on the Death of 3-D

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3D Kid

Slate offers four theories on (what they’re calling) the “death of 3-D.” The article points out that theater screens showing Cars 2 in 3-D earned 5 percent less than theater screens showing the same film in 2-D, reflecting an industry-wide downward spiral in 3-D grosses that has been happening all summer long. And if I understood the article correctly, Kung Fu Panda 2 earned 65% less on a per-screen basis from 3-D showings than 2-D versions. Based on this information, it would be reasonable to assume that the sequel to Kung Fu Panda wouldn’t have earned $50 million less than the original in the US if the film had been shown in 2-D only.

All this, and to think that it was only 16 months ago that 3-D was the future of filmmaking:

The Simpsons Network?

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All Simpsons, All The Time? News Corp. COO Chase Carey said earlier this week that Fox is considering starting an entire digital TV channel devoted to airing only The Simpsons. With over 500 episodes in the can (486 have aired to date) and no cancellation in sight, it seems like a very profitable idea. I love the concept – but why stop there? If successful, perhaps someday they’ll be channels devoted solely to South Park, or even Looney Tunes. Cowabunga – Count me in!

“Cars 2″ is the biggest of the year – so far

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It may or may not win any Oscars, but the Disney Company has announced that Pixar’s Cars 2 is the highest earning animated feature of the year.

Cars 2 opened in June 24th and earned $189 million domestically. It’s made $548 million total to date when combined with all international box office figures. Disney claims the film is now the 16th highest-grossing animated film in “global cinematic history”.

This is, of course, before the release of some heavy hitters from Dreamworks, Aardman and Spielberg to come, not to mention Happy Feet 2. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out and who’ll come out on top at years end.

Obsessive Disney-related trivia: A Tyrus Wong in-joke

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For those who must take note of everything (like me): inbetweener/inspirational artist Tyrus Wong (Bambi) was let go from Disney after three and a half years (1938-1941) and spent the next 25 years in the art department at Warner Bros. as a production illustrator, creating story boards and concept sketches for live action feature films.

Last night, I took a break to catch whatever movie happened to be playing on TCM. It turned out to be the star-studded wartime morale booster Thank Your Lucky Stars (Warner Bros. 1943) – and there I spotted, in one quick shot, on a wall behind actor Richard Lane (frame grab above), plaques for various businesses – including one that says “Tyrus Wong, Importer, Chinese Art“. Since Wong – who will be 101 next month – never got the proper credit he was due at Disney, I’d say this particular in-joke was poetic justice.

“Countdown” by Céline Desrumaux

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Every so often I run across a piece of animation that’s truly special. “Countdown” by ​Céline Desrumaux is one such piece. The short, which took over two years to make, is quite simply a masterpiece of composition, cutting, color and design. Céline, whose work experience include Passion Pictures and Cartoon Network UK, uses the malleable nature of film to express her vision: the film is narrative and the ideas pictorial, yet many of the compositions and shots would appear to be completely abstract if not for their sequential context. In other words, it’s a graphic experience that takes advantage of the animation medium and could make sense only as a film.

Her stated influences for the film are Chris Ware, Hans Richter, Len Lye, Stanley Kubrick and Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi trilogy. In the years to come, I’m sure a lot of people will be citing her own film Countdown as an influence.

CREDITS
Directing/design/animation/composting : Céline Desrumaux
Additional character animation : Florent Remize
Music : “Granulard bastard” from Apparat

(via Catsuka)