Monthly Archives: May 2012

UPA’s “The Sailor And The Seagull” (1949)

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The complete output of animation produced by UPA may never be definitively collected, as they produced a large quantity of material for the Army and the Navy; commercial, educational and industrial films for various clients; and interstitial bits and pieces – many of which are unaccounted for and some still undocumented.

I’m happy to report that we can cross this one off the “endangered species” list. Earlier this year The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) painstakingly cleaned and digitally restored this rarely seen UPA Navy re-enlistment film from 1949. The restored film made its debut last month at the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) conference in Beijing, China.

The Sailor and the Seagull is a fascinating little film. The lead character, “McGinty”, is a cross between the Navy’s Mr. Hook and UPA’s future character Pete Hothead. He is voiced by John T. Smith. Daws Butler is the Seagull, an classic old-school wise guy. It’s a pretty traditional looking picture until about 3:20 when an Arabian Nights fantasy sequence (predating the Magoo feature by ten years) turns it briefly into a stylized feast of scantily clad ladies and drunken debauchery!

There are no production credits, but I think its safe to assume that the direction is by John Hubley, the girl animation is by Pat Matthews and the music composed by Del Castillo. I welcome educated guesses as to who might have animated what – or any corrections to the above.

(Thanks, Florian Schmidlechner)

Nick picks up “Quick Quack Duck”

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We don’t cover pre-school here as much as we should, but I’m particularly proud to post today’s announcement by Nickelodeon concerning the pick-up of 52 episodes of Quick Quack Duck. Co-created by my girlfriend Yvette Kaplan (Beavis and Butt-head Do America) and Gili Dolev (The Happy Duckling), the show has been several years in development and is about to commence production in Israel. As you can see by the pilot clip above, the series is set in a ‘pop-up book’ world and has a unique paper sculpture look, courtesy of art director Erez Gavish. The show won’t debut for over a year, but I already know it’s going to be a winner. Congratulations Yvette, Gili, Erez and producer Ronen Shani! You did it!

Dick Beals (1927-2012)

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Animation voice actor Richard Beals (aka Dick Beals) passed away this week at age 85. Nobody has a better obit online than Mark Evanier, but I couldn’t let him pass without a remembrance here on the Brew. Beals had essentially one voice – that of a cheerfully optimistic little boy – but it was used often and well by just about everyone in Hollywood. Most famously, Beals voiced Ralph Phillips in Chuck Jones’ theatrical cartoons (above) and was Speedy Alka-Seltzer in numerous TV commercials (below).

In addition, Beals was Davey in Davey and Goliath, Buzz Conroy on Frankenstein Jr. and Birdboy on the Birdman series. Hanna Barbera used him to re-dub live action boy actors in (or more likely, they pre-recorded the tracks for) Gene Kelly’s Jack And The Banstalk and in commercials like this:

Beals had a long career on radio and on early live television before settling into voice-over roles. Perhaps my favorite was this one – in support of Gary Owens as two members of the American Eagle Squadron, as both Dan and Yank on Roger Ramjet (below). There is no better way to pay tribute to Beals today than to rewatch and listen to his work – and to thank him for all the memories. Rest in peace.

(Thanks, Derek Tague)

“Brave” Books

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Less than one month to go before the release of the next Pixar “original” and the publicity is certainly heating up. Billboards are up all over Los Angeles and tie-in merchandise is hitting the stores. Two traditional indicators of the film’s quality have now shown up on my desk – and the good news is they do not disappoint. Chronicle’s The Art of Brave, written by Dreamworks’ story artist Jenny Lerew, is as usual a visual feast. I’ve become a real fan of these Art-Of books – even more so as the digital age threatens to do away with print. The artwork preserved here, perfectly printed on sumptuous glossy paper, is glorious to behold. The book presents hand drawn pre-vis by such notable talents as Tony Fucile, Matt Nolte, Peter Sohn, Steve Pilcher, Carter Goodrich and others – as well as Brenda Chapman (who contributes a Foreword, along with a separate one by co-director Mark Andrews). No controversies here – this is gorgeous stuff. Plentiful story sketch and color keys, sculpts and character designs. I can spend 20 minutes on each page. If the movie is half as good the art in here, it’ll be another classic.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Brave Little Golden Book is out. I bought one today at Ralph’s supermarket. For $3.99. Long time readers know I love the Pixar Little Golden Books, as they are executed in the lush, classic tradition of the series – which dates back to the 1940s. They usually choose one of the best artists – either from Pixar itself, or the Disney Publishing pool of talent – and this time Disney’s Lori Tyminski got the opportunity to show off her delightful style on this material. Bright and lively – and oh so appealing. Highly recommended! Now bring on the movie – I’m ready to see it all in action.

Behind the Scenes: Mt. Franklin Bottled Water

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First, director Simon Robson of Australia’s Engine recently created this beautiful “relief collage” styled spot for Mt. Franklin Bottled Water (below):

Afterward, the team decided to make a fun little “Making Of” film to go with it. Incorporating a combination of Photoshop, After Effects, Maya and a little bit of live action, the crew worked on it in-house in their down time, taking a total of 4 weeks to put it together. I like it better than the commercial that inspired it.

(Thanks, Nick Petley)

New Investigation Into The Police Shooting Death Of Animator Paul Boyd

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A new video has surfaced that shows the Vancouver police department shooting Paul Boyd to death. Boyd was a director on Ed Edd n Eddy and animated the show’s opening titles.

We reported the story back in 2007. The Vancouver police claimed that Boyd, who suffered from mental illness, was assaulting them with a deadly weapon. He was shot eight times by policeman Lee Chipperfield, who was never held accountable for the shooting.

Witnesses of the shooting contradicted the police reports; one witness said that Boyd was on his knees and compared the shooting to an execution. The Globe and Mail reports that the video supports eyewitness accounts and shows an unarmed Boyd crawling toward police officers. It has prompted the Vancouver police department to ask an independent investigative body in Alberta, Canada to review the case again.

“Mongrel & The Wrath of the Ape King” by Morgan King

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Morgan King had dreamed of making a Ralph Bakshi-ish rotoscoped fantasy animation all his life. This is the result of those dreams: a six-month project, teaching himself as he went along – Mongrel & The Wrath of the Ape King (you’ll note a bit of He-Man and Heavy Metal influence, thrown in for good measure). Says King, “while I didn’t even get close to the breadth of my 22-min script, as a stylistic attempt it gets pretty close to what I was shooting for.”

Lost animated “Little Rascals” pilot from 1970

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Here’s a curio from the early 1970s. In the days before computer colorization, after Fred Ladd found success re-painting and refilming the old black and white Porky Pig cartoons in color, another enterprising producer – Charles King of King-World (the syndicator of the Little Rascals shorts) – decided to re-film the live action Our Gang shorts – in color, using stop-motion clay models and miniature sets. Hal Roach historian Richard Bann tells me that ten (!!) of these were produced by a studio in England. Clearly this idea didn’t work… in fact, its a train wreck. Can you imagine if this had succeeded and someone had the idea to do this to Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin? Here’s a faded copy of one of Rascal re-do’s, Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935):

For comparison, here is the original short (ironically, a colorized version is all I could find online):

Let Frank Tashlin Teach You His “SCOT Art” Cartooning Method

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Frank Tashlin‘s extremely rare 1952 cartooning booklet How to Draw Cartoons has been posted online in its entirety. In the book, Tashlin promotes his SCOT Art technique, which simplifies every cartoon character into squares (S), circles (C), ovals (O) and triangles (T).

Tashlin’s idiosyncratic style is geared more toward print cartoonists than animators, owing to Tashlin’s beginnings as a newspaper cartoonist. Even though his old-school cartooning style was already on its way out when the book was published in 1952, somehow the style looks artful in his confident hands. Throughout the book, Tashlin uses examples from his own illustrated books, including The World That Isn’t, which still holds up as a masterpiece of graphic art commentary.

Not to take this too far off-topic, but if you’re interested in learning more about Tashlin, I’d also recommend this Michael Barrier interview, which was conducted just one year before Tashlin passed away.

Tashlin has never been properly given his due as an animation director, mostly because his career as a live-action director eclipsed his earlier work. But he was easily among the most forward-thinking, singular and influential animation directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Below is a fine example of his innovative directorial style–the 1943 Warner Bros. short Puss n’ Booty.

UPDATE: Cartoon Brew reader Xevo points out that numerous examples of Frank Tashlin’s Van Boring newspaper comic were recently published on Ger Apeldoorn’s Fabulous Fifties blog.