July 10, 2004

SAMMY McKIM (1924-2004)

If I could be one person in Hollywood history, I think I'd like to be Sammy McKim.

sammy mckim
haunted mansion
Who? Sam McKim! He spent his childhood on the backlots of Republic and Columbia Pictures appearing in two dozen B-Westerns (with Charles Starret, Gene Autry and Ray "Crash" Corrigan) and four serials (including The Lone Ranger and Dick Tracy's G-Men). After the war he pursued his love of art and became a artist for the Disney studio - mainly as one of the Imagineers, for 32 years (his conceptual paintings are among the most influential, and beautiful, for the Disney theme parks).

What a career! Sadly, as Jim Hill notes today, McKim has passed away. I had my one and only chance to meet him earlier this year at Bill Justice's birthday party. I asked him a lot of questions about making the serials... and what he thought about his boss, Walt Disney. He was in great spirits and I noted that looked like a double for Donald Rumsfeld (photo here)! But what a great guy.

Posted by at 11:35 AM

Melbourne Animation Fest Thoughts

Russell Degnan has a nice REPORT from the Melbourne International Animation Festival with mini-reviews of the films and retrospective programs that he saw at the fest. He's very thoughtfully divided up his film reviews into categories like "The Entertainers" and "The Bizarre But Brilliant". Definitely worth a read, especially if you see a lot of short films. And his festival report reminds me, I should probably get around to posting some comments about the Zagreb Animation Festival.


Posted by AMID at 04:21 AM

Just another day at the office

A couple of electronic bugging devices were found in Michael Eisner's Disney office last week, according to the anonymous LA blogger A Fly On The Wall. Upholstered furniture was also removed from Mikey's office as a precautionary measure. More from the Fly:


Eisner routinely pays for a security sweep by electronics experts every few months out of his own pocket. This is the first time evesdropping bugs are believed to have been found.

The devices were analyzed by electronics experts and determined not to be the sort used by law enforcement authorities.

After some apparent internal disagreement, Disney officials decided not to alert the Burbank Police Department about the secrity breach...


Posted by AMID at 01:33 AM

July 09, 2004

Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy

Nearly every single US presidential television ad from 1952 to the present can be seen HERE. Noticeably there aren't many animated commercials, except in 1952 when both Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson had cartoon spots. Poor Stevenson was getting bargain-basement animation, as evidenced by the hands of one of the characters which is screwed on backwards in the "Double Talk" spot. Also in 1960 there's the John F. Kennedy spot which was produced by none other than UPA director/ROGER RAMJET creator Fred Crippen, who is the subject of a retrospective that I'm putting together for this year's Ottawa Animation Festival. The story behind the ad is that Fred and some co-workers had decided to create a spot for Adlai Stevenson's 1960 run against Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and others at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. They put the ad on a loop and took it down to the Memorial Sports Arena where at night they projected it against the side of the building. They hadn't been commissioned by Adlai's campaign to do this, but were merely ardent Stevenson fans who wanted to show their support for him. The ad was something of a hit, and while Stevenson lost the Democratic nomination, some of Kennedy's people who had seen it projected at the convention liked it enough to hire Fred's studio Pantomime Pictures to produce the catchy Kennedy jingle spot. (link via BoingBoing.net)

Posted by AMID at 09:37 PM

MINTZ-COLUMBIA STAFF PICTURES


scrappy krazy
Our buddy Mike Van Eaton at the wonderful Van Eaton Gallery on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks, California recently came up with this wonderful piece of animation history: a 1933 Charles Mintz studio Christmas Card featuring photos of the entire staff!

Check it out by clicking here! If you look close you'll see the likes of Ed Benedict, Art Davis, Joe DeNat, Emery Hawkins and many other famous names - as well as the inkers, painters, producers and support staff. What a treasure this is! Thanks for sharing this with us, Mike.

Posted by at 05:25 PM

Life After Disney

Timothy Albee moved to Alaska after working on Disney's DINOSAUR and created his own 22-minute CG short called KAZE, GHOST WARRIOR. He made the film not just to tell a story, but also to make a statement, namely that animators can create feature quality animation on their own personal computers for a fraction of the cost of studio features. Albee says that he spent only $5000 on the film. His production credits for KAZE are another strong indictment of the Hollywood system, highlighting the bureaucratic and archaic production system which plagues modern animated features. There's more about Albee's film in this article from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Tim also recently wrote a book about the film's independent production process - CGI FILMMAKING: THE CREATION OF GHOST WARRIOR.

Next is a very different type of project. Sergio Pablos, an animator who worked at Disney Feature in both Paris and Burbank, has moved to Spain where he has become creative director of the Madrid-based studio Animagic. Here he's produced a beautiful trailer for a hand-drawn animated film called GIACOMO'S SECRET (click on the "What we are doing" link). The film also has an intriguing story to support the artwork, however it'll be a few more years before anybody can see the completed film. Sergio recently wrote a bit about the trailer on Animation Nation:


To answer some of your questions, it's still too early to know whether or not the film will be released in the States. First we need to find out whether the film will get enough financing, although all signs are pointing to yes so far. In any case, the film wouldn't go into production for another year or so. Unfortunatelly, that's the way things work in Europe. You have to get companies from different countries involved in the project, then each of these companies requests funds from their own governments, and that can take a while. No private investor in Europe will ever produce an animated film on his own. And it doesn't look like this is about to change either.

As for the trailer, it's the work of one lay out artist, one BG painter, two animators (myself included), and a few people who chipped in by doing just about everything. It was a very low budget, and a very short schedule, but we were somehow able to finish it in time.

As for any other ex-Disney guys beside myself, the other animator was Borja Montoro, another Spaniard with whom I worked with at Disney Paris. Most of the character design work is also his. Very talented guy.



Posted by AMID at 05:04 PM

2D Expo Photos

Jorge Gutierrez's wife, Sandra Equihua, was kind enough to forward some photos she took during the Flash & TV Production panel, which I moderated at ASIFA-Hollywood's 2D Expo a couple weeks ago. They serve little purpose but I figured as long as I had them, it wouldn't hurt to post them. There's also a photo from the TV Development panel which featured Eric Homan (Frederator) and Peter Gal (Nickelodeon). If you're trying to get a show on Nickelodeon, you should consider being nice to at least one of these fine gents.

Photos (identified left to right):

1. Gabe Swarr, Bob Harper

2. Eddie Mort, Lili Chin, Jorge Gutierrez

3. Me, Eddie, Lili, Jorge, Gabe, Bob

4. Development panel with moderator Rita Street (Animation Magazine), Eric Homan (Frederator) and Peter Gal (Nickelodeon).








Posted by AMID at 01:16 AM

They Call him Chris McD...

I had the pleasure of working with Chris McDonnell for a while at Spumco last year when he was at the studio developing a Bakshi project. Chris is an industrious fellow who can do pretty much anything including illustration, animation, character design, web design and music. Learn of his many talents at ChrisMcD.com.



Posted by AMID at 01:03 AM

July 08, 2004

COMPUTER GENERATED DUCK

The future of Disney animation? You decide: Click Here!

(Thanks for "Rzetlin" on Animation Nation for the link)

Posted by at 06:40 PM

UCLA FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION

alfalfa
Every two years the UCLA Film and Television Archives opens it's vaults and presents it's latest restorations to the public in a gala program called "The Festival Of Preservation". The 12th edition of this incredible film series runs from July 22nd through August 21st, mainly at the James Bridges theatre in Melnitz Hall on the UCLA Campus.

Relevant to us, however, is the bounty of restored animation showcased during the festival. Opening night (7/22) "Paths Of Glory"will preceeded by a restored version of George Pal's anti-war Puppetoon TULIPS SHALL GROW (1942). On the following Sunday night (7/25) a restoration of the Max Fleischer Color Classic A CARTUNE PORTRAIT (1937) will screen preceeeding "Penny Serenade".

A previously lost Toonerville Trolley cartoon, TOONERVILLE'S BOOZEM FRIENDS (1921), will preceed a double bill "The Roaring Road" and Harold Lloyd's A Sailor-Made Man.

But the big day for us animation historians is Sunday August 1st at 2pm: A TREASURY OF SILENT ANIMATION. This program will include rare animation by Hugh Harman and Ub Iwerks, Earl Hurd and Lyman Howe, and "lost" subjects by pioneers Emile Cohl and Max Fleischer as well as surviving fragments by Paul Terry and J. Stuart Blackton. A partial list of the program includes:

koko
• THEATRE DE HULA HULA (1917)
• LES METAMORPHOSES COMIQUES (1912) Directed by Emile Cohl
• INDOOR SPORTS (1921) Animation: William C. Nolan.
• JOYS AND GLOOMS (1921) Animation: John C. Terry.
• FELIX THE CAT WEATHERS THE WEATHER (1926)
• SICK CYLINDERS (1926) An "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" cartoon.
• THE WANDERING TOY (1928) "Lyman H. Howe's Hodge-Podge."
• JIMMY GETS THE PENNANT (1917)
• KOKO PACKS UP (1925) Directed by Dave Fleischer
• DEEP SEA DIVING (1925) Red Seal Pictures.
• ANIMATED HAIR CARTOON, NO. 21 (1927) Directed by Sid Marcus.
• A MODERN MOTHER GOOSE (1924) Issue No. 1 of the Fleischer "Funshop" series.
• KOKO'S QUEST(1927) Directed by Dave Fleischer.

• And surviving segments from films known and unknown, including early Vitagraph subjects, "Bobby Bumps," "Aesop's Film Fables," "Mutt and Jeff" and other cartoon series.

This program is presented by Hugh M. Hefner and introduced by UCLA Archivist Jere Guldin.

Do not miss this event! The live action films ain't bad either. Check out the entire schedule HERE.

Posted by at 09:47 AM

Foster's and Teenage Robot Links

Here's the official website for Craig McCracken's new Flash animated series FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS which debuts on Cartoon Network next month. Seems CN is trying to woo me back with a show that I actually want to watch. While we're on the subject of entertaining cartoons that actually care about the visuals, here's a link to a new blog about Nick's MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT. The blog is run by a writer working on the show so hopefully he'll continue posting some of the sumptuous artwork being produced for that series. Hey, there's an idea - wouldn't it be cool if all animated TV series (well, the good ones at least) had their own official blogs? So far MUCHA LUCHA and TEENAGE ROBOT are on board. Who's next?


Posted by AMID at 02:26 AM

FRANK MOSER

Reason #432 Why we love ebay...

farmer gray
frank moser
Who knew that Frank Moser - partner of Paul Terry from the early 1920s to the mid 1930s - was an artist known for his Hudson River landscape paintings? And who knew a guy that drew Farmer Alfalfa like this (at left) could paint like that (at right)? Somebody is selling an original oil painting on canvas of Frank Moser, painted by Moser himself - and signed on back - on ebay. What a find! What a mouse! What an absolute must for a Terrytoon completist! You have until Saturday to bid on this animation oddity here on ebay.

If a lucky Brew reader gets it, let us know.
(Thanks to Mark Mayerson for the link)

Posted by at 12:36 AM

July 07, 2004

CLINTON'S FAVORITE CARTOONS

Bill Clinton likes Warner Bros. & Paramount cartoons!

According to his best-selling autobiography, MY LIFE, in chapter three recalling his youth, the ex-president says:

"For cartoons, I preferred Bugs Bunny, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Baby Huey, with whom I probably identified."


Posted by at 02:27 PM

STEAMBOY TRAILER

I am personally very excited about the forthcoming new feature from Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA): STEAMBOY. If you haven't seen the trailer, please click here.

Posted by at 11:14 AM

July 06, 2004

LEGO SPIDERMAN

This is terrific!

Columbia Pictures and Lego produced a wonderful stop motion piece by Tim Drage and Tony Mines (of Spite Your Face Productions a London based animation studio responsible for several successful LEGO parody films) called "The Peril of Doc Ock" - it sums up SPIDERMAN 2 completely in "Legomation". View it in Quicktime here

(Thanks to William Ansley for the link)

Posted by at 11:04 AM

July 05, 2004

BREW AT COMIC CON - Part 2

More details have emerged, so mark your calenders:

clampett, casper and super prez
Bob Clampett, Casper and Super President
The SID JACOBSON spotlight is Friday, July 23 from 1-2pm in room 3.

The BOB CLAMPETT panel is from 4-5pm on Friday, July 23 in room 8.

WORST CARTOONS EVER screening is on Saturday night, July 24 from 8:30-10:00pm in room 6AB (followed by Bill Plympton and Spike and Mike).

Be there! San Diego Comic Con

Posted by at 08:51 AM

July 04, 2004

NEW WAVE ANIME

aka wonderful days
Sky Blue
As 2-D sits dormant here in the U.S., anime continues to evolve in Asia.

Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre, home of the American Cinematheque, runs a continuous schedule of the most eclectic film programming in southern California. The new July-August program is out and there are two animated features making their L.A. debut - and possibly their only big screen appearence - that are worth noting:

dead leaves
Dead Leaves
On Friday August 6th at 7pm is premiere of the english dub of the intriguing Korean feature Wonderful Days, under its new title SKY BLUE. The writer/director of the English dub will appear to answer questions and no doubt explain the plot.

On Saturday August 7th at 3pm, Japan's Production I.G. (Blood: The Last Vampire, Ghost In The Shell) previews their latest film, DEAD LEAVES. This one looks very loopy, fast paced and fun.

Posted by at 10:33 AM

No Experience Necessary

Here's a TIME MAGAZINE story about Imagi, the Hong Kong studio that's producing the animation for the upcoming DreamWorks TV series FATHER OF THE PRIDE. Until a couple years ago, the company's primary business was manufacturing artificial Christmas trees but now they specialize in animation. PDI animator Raman Hui, who is overseeing the animation in Hong Kong, says the studio's lack of experience is refreshing because "They say, 'Tell us how to do it.'"

Posted by AMID at 05:43 AM

New Disney Books

Couple new books about Disney. HOW TO BE LIKE WALT: CAPTURING THE DISNEY MAGIC EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE by Pat Williams is a "character biography" which aims to draw out important lessons from the life of Walt. Might be good, might be bad. I have no idea. If it turns out you don't have what it takes to be like Walt, you might have better luck with another book by the same author: HOW TO BE LIKE JESUS.

Next is FROM WALT TO WOODSTOCK: HOW DISNEY CREATED THE COUNTERCULTURE by Douglas Brode. Being from a university press, the book could potentially be just a bunch of overwrought pretentious nonsense, although the premise of this is fascinating enough that I'm tempted to give it a read. Here's the book description from the Univeristy of Texas Press website:

Douglas Brode overturns the idea of Disney as a middlebrow filmmaker by detailing how Disney movies played a key role in transforming children of the Eisenhower era into the radical youth of the Age of Aquarius. Using close readings of Disney projects, Brode shows that Disney's films were frequently ahead of their time thematically. Long before the cultural tumult of the sixties, Disney films preached pacifism, introduced a generation to the notion of feminism, offered the screen's first drug-trip imagery, encouraged young people to become runaways, insisted on the need for integration, advanced the notion of a sexual revolution, created the concept of multiculturalism, called for a return to nature, nourished the cult of the righteous outlaw, justified violent radicalism in defense of individual rights, argued in favor of communal living, and encouraged antiauthoritarian attitudes. Brode argues that Disney, more than any other influence in popular culture, should be considered the primary creator of the sixties counterculture—a reality that couldn't be further from his "conventional" reputation.

Posted by AMID at 02:37 AM

Something I Didn't Need To See

A brief follow-up to that atrocious Disneyland Paris advertising campaign for their new LION KING stage show. Inkan over at Animation Nation has posted a link to the live-action TV spot that features classic Disney characters climbing up onto the park's architecture to escape the lions. Read what you want into the commercial, but I think it's difficult to avoid the subtext of Mickey hanging on for dear life to a pole on top of a building, in a bid to escape THE LION KING, a creation of Eisner's regime.


Posted by AMID at 02:27 AM