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ROBIN ALLAN, A DISNEY SCHOLAR FROM ENGLAND, WILL TALK ABOUT EUROPEAN INFLUENCES ON THE STUDIO'S FIRST FEATURES AND SIGN COPIES OF HIS NEW BOOK AT OUR TUES. SEPT. 12 EVENT Dr. Allan will show a selection of rare images that influenced Disney's artists and talk about his years of research. Several years ago he presented our ASIFA chapter a work-in-progress slide lecture and people were quite impressed with the insights they got from his talk. Since then he has completed his book Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney, John Libbey & Co., Sydney, 1998. Available in North America from Indiana University Press.
Allan's research is based on interviews with artists who created features and short films at Disney and on records in the studio's archives (story conference notes, etc.). Allan spent over 10 years working on this project. The book covers some of the classic shorts, features from Snow White to Jungle Book, Disney's choice of music for Fantasia and other films, European influences on the design and architecture of Disneyland, etc. This a rare chance to hear Allan discuss this fascinating subject.
The event will be at the Exploratorium, Tues. Sept. 12 at 7:30 pm. Note: For the best seats arrive early. Our July event, Animation as a Great Art Form, was so popular
that some people had to sit on the floor and some latecomers were turned away. We are now announcing events on the Internet and it apparently reaches lots of people who otherwise would not hear about our activities.
CHRIS LANIER'S ROMANOV MAKES THE COVER OF ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE at www.awn.com. He wrote an intelligent and informative article about the aesthetics of animation on the Internet. The second season of Romanov for Wild Brain.com has gone into production.
THREE RARE OSKAR FISCHINGER PROGRAMS AT THE PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE IN SEPT. DR. WILLIAM MORITZ FROM CAL ARTS WILL INTRODUCE THE SHOWS Fischinger was a pioneer of animation as a fine art. He worked in Germany until he fled to America in the mid-30s. Hitler's administrators left him alone until he won a major international prize at a festival in Venice. The festival's publicity embarrassed the Fascists as his work was not in a style they approved of. In the US he worked for Paramount, MGM and Disney. He had some financial support from the Guggenheim Foundation, but found life difficult being a German in Los Angeles during the war (he had to be home every day before dark, etc,). Today, he is considered one of the great masters of animation.
Don't miss this rare chance to see mint 35mm prints of his work. His major works will be shown on Sat. Sept. 23 at 7 pm and again on Tues. Sept. 26 at 7:30 pm. A program on artists influenced by Fischinger will be shown on Sat. Sept. 23 at 9 pm. A program of less well known works by Fischinger will be shown on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 5:30 pm. (Also coming to the PFA are films from the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Nov. 4 and 11.)
MARIKO HOSHI, 3RD PRIZE WINNER AT OUR SCREENING OF THE ASIFA-EAST COMPETITION, IS A BAY AREA ANIMATOR Her award winning Hello Dolly! was her second film. It was made while finishing her graduate work at the Academy of Art (her first film was shown at our annual open screening for students 2 years ago). Since completing the work in December, it has won awards at SIGGRAPH 2000, Big Kahuna Computer Contest (prize for story telling), ASIFA-East (2nd in the student category), and Crested Butte in Montana (silver award in the student category). At SIGGRAPH it was one of 40 works selected to be shown in their main show, the Electronic Theater. It is available on the DVD of highlights of this year's SIGGRAPH. It was reviewed by Wendy Jackson in the August issue of Animation World Magazine (at AWN). Two companies are currently discussing distribution rights with her. Hoshi did her undergraduate work at SF State in Graphics Art and Design. She thanks Jane Veeder, who teaches computer animation at State, for introducing her to ASIFA.
CAST OF PIXAR'S MONSTERS INC. ANNOUNCED It includes Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Lily, Bonnie Hunt and Mary Gibbs. It is an adventure of a girl in a land of "spooks and scares." The directors are Pete Docter (Toy Story) and David Silverman (The Simpsons). Release date is Nov. 2001.
FILM ARTS FOUNDATION HAS AWARDED JEREMY SOLTERBECK A $7000 COMPLETION GRANT for his animated hand drawn Moving Illustrations of Machines. The film is being completed in 35mm.
RADIUM MAKES A CAR FLY AND A DOG TALK The first 3D effect shots were for an ad for Autobytl.com. The car in the ad is delivering newspapers. The talking dog is for a Kellogg's ad. The facial expressions include raised eyebrows and moving ears.
A third Radium ad was for the 2001 Oldsmobile Aurora. They showed it moving through a house and onto elevated tracks that led it to a country landscape inhabited by giant turtles. Simon Mowbray was the digital artist and Mark Malmberg was the cgi director.
XAOS HAS COMPLETED AN AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE FILM It was created for the Autostadt Theme Park in Germany.
GENE PORTWOOD JR., 1933 - JULY 17, 2000 Portwood is probably best known as the co-creator (with Lauren Elliot) of Carmen Sandiego (Broderbund). He had worked for Disney in the 1950s on Lady and the Tramp (1955), Paul Bunyan (1958), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and other films. He also drew lots of Jiminy Cricket openings for The Mickey Mouse Club. He opened Elliot Portwood Productions with Lauren Elliot after he left Broderbund. They specialized in CD-ROM productions.
Gene Hamm reports that at the end of his funeral they played a melody that he loved, "Always look on the bright side of life." Portwood is buried near the resting place of Charles Shultz.
SPAZZCO, A NEW ANIMATION STUDIO SPECIALIZING IN WORK FOR THE WEB, HAS A CONTRACT WITH CARTOON NETWORK They are creating 3 original cartoons for Cartoon Network.com. Time-E-Lapse covers the do's and don'ts of time travel. The pilot went on-line Aug. 14. Journey to the Center of my Dog's Head explores the complexities of a boy's ailing canine. It will be released in Sept. The Bickleshnotz County Flying Club recalls the exploits of the world's most outlandish aviators. It premieres in Oct.
SpazzCo is a "fancy-pants animation studio" according to their press release. It claims Dana Muise, their creative director and founder, makes their artists "speak in Scooby" every Friday… (There is a rumor that his canine fixation was brought on by his working too many years as a freelance video game artist.) The current production team includes producer Catherine Dingman and animators Aaron Blecha and Aaron Kohr. SpazzCo is located at 1620 Folsom, SF, 94103. (415) 551-2692, www.spazzco.com
WILD BRAIN HAS COMPLETED 3 SPOTS FOR SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT The ads combine cel animation with live action music video footage. The spots were made to be shown exclusively on MTV. Ed Bell was the creative director and Robert Valley was the director. Valley had a hand in designing the Japanese style animation in the ads. Stewart Lee was the animation director and the animators were Dan McHale, Brad Rau and Aaron Sorenson. The effects animator was Chris Carter.
GEORGE LUCAS MAY PRODUCE A JAPANESE ANIME FEATURE He is scheduled to go to Japan in September to finalize the agreement to produce The Tiny Fairy. It will have a $18.5 million budget.
DOTCOMIX (FORMERLY PROTOZOA) IS RUNNING THE ELECTION YEAR CAMPAIGN FOR GARY TRUDEAU'S UNCLE DUKE ON THE WEB AND ON TV The Duke 2000 Campaign hit the road with an hour long guest appearance of Duke on the Larry King Show. Duke, a real-time digital star, has also been on other network programs. On the Entertaindom web site Duke just advocated "compassionate fascism." The comic strip star is now a nicely modeled 3D realtime computer generated character. Trudeau has accepted a position on their advisory board.
DotComix is growing rapidly in size, thanks in part to their getting $8.5 million in financing. They expect to have 90 employees by the end of summer. They have added several seasoned writers and other talented people to their staff. Their founders are Brad de Graf, Eric Gregory and Mark Scaparro.
SPY POST MOVES TO A NEW LOCATION, OUT OF WILD BRAIN'S STUDIO This digital post production facility did the compositing and color correction on Wild Brain's contribution to the recent Rocky and Bullwinkle feature. They also worked on Wild Brain's latest ads for Sony Music. Their press release doesn't say where their new home is (only "south of Market") or what their phone number is, but they do have a web address - www.spypost.com
RAY HARRYHAUSEN SPOKE AT THE RAFAEL FILM CENTER The event in July offered fans and professionals a chance to ask him questions for almost an hour. They also showed a few film clips and a video tribute from many giants of the film industry (Lucas, Phil Tippett, Spielberg, etc.) in honor of Harryhausen's 80th birthday.
Harryhausen stressed that he did most of the animation and model building by himself, that his work was for low budget productions and he did not want his work to look photo realistic. Several times he mentioned that he worked on fantasy productions that featured wholesome stories. He hopes none of his films ever corrupted the minds of young people. He suggested that some of today's films have a negative influence on impressionable minds.
PART OF KARL COHEN'S BOOK FORBIDDEN ANIMATION IS BEING TURNED INTO AN HOUR DOCUMENTRY FOR BRITISH TV A crew from Keith Griffith's* Illuminations spent several hours taping an interview with Cohen in August. The show is based on material discussed in his book Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators (from McFarland & Co.). Cohen's interview will run throughout the show. Other interviews will be used to build on the subjects he introduces. Mike Judge, John Kricfalusi, Jerry Beck and Dr. Bill Moritz were interviewed for the show in LA and Ralph Bakshi and J.J. Sedelmaier were interviewed on the East Coast. The show airs in England on the BBC's Channel 4 on Sun. Sept. 17 at 10:30 PM. It is a special feature of their animation week programming. (*Griffith is the producer of Svankmajer's Alice, films with Brothers Quay and lots of documentaries about culture and the arts.)
Cohen has been invited to introduce his film program Forbidden Animation in Bilbao, Spain in late Nov. at their international film festival.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS (NAB) TO HOLD ANNUAL CONVENTION HERE - MEDIA ALLIANCE REPORTS WE CAN EXPECT PROTESTS AGAINST NAB "The NAB spends millions of dollars every year lobbying to keep the airwaves out of the hands of the public. They represent the media giants who put out the trash that we call commercial radio and television. They steal our airwaves, misrepresent our issues, and stereotype all of us. They are the media arm of the corporate agenda." The event is Sept. 20-23 at Moscone Center. Go to www.mediademocracynow.org for information about the protests.
SF STATE'S COLLEGE OF EXTENDED LEARNING OFFERING CONTEMPORARY ANIMATION THIS FALL Imagine getting college credit for watching the latest cartoons and meeting some of the people who create them. Karl Cohen will be taking students enrolled in Cine 465 on a 16 week tour of Bay Area and world animation. Students will explore everything from traditional storytelling to sick and twisted works. Animation made for the Internet, TV censorship, the British industry, the rise and fall of animation in communist countries and the use of the medium in China and Japan are among the topics to be covered. Guests will include several SF State alumni who work in the local animation industry. They will talk about their jobs, marketing, distribution and other topics.
For more information (3 units, meets Wednesdays, 7-10 pm, beginning Aug. 30) call 415 405-7700
CURIOUS PICTURES IN SF DID THE OPENING FOR THE BOB CLAMPETT SHOW ON CARTOON NETWORK The opening features Clampett characters from both his Warner Bros. years and his work for TV. Denis Morella of Curious' local office directed it.
FRANK AND CAROLINE MOURIS (FRANK FILM & FRANKLY CAROLINE) WRITE US "Many thanks for the pleasant surprise of your newsletter and the wonderful prize!" (a check for winning 2nd
place in our screening of winners from the ASIFA-East annual competition).
ASIFA-SF STILL NEEDS SOMEBODY TO KEEP OUR MAILING LABELS UP-TO-DATE AND TO PRINT THEM OUT 11 TIMES A YEAR. IF WE HAVE TO USE A MAILING SERVICE, YOUR DUES WILL PROBABLY GO UP… If you can help, please call Karl Cohen (415) 386-1004.
Our dues haven't gone up in over 15 years because everybody volunteers their labor. At present we are spending slightly more than we take in each year, but we can absorb the loss as we have a small cash reserve.
Our annual expenses are going up (hall rentals, Internet fees, printing costs, etc.) and the number of members is going down slowly, so…
please help - get a friend to join
Tues. Sept. 12, ASIFA-SF presents Robin Allan on EUROPEAN INFLUENCES ON THE ART OF THE DISNEY STUDIO, 7:30 PM, Exploratorium, free.
Sat. Sept. 23, OSKAR FISCHINGER TRIBUTE, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley. His best known classics at 7 PM. At 9 works by animators influenced by him. (see p. 1 story)
Sun. Sept. 24, OSKAR FISCHINGER TRIBUTE, PFA, 5 PM, a program of rarely seen works by Fischinger.
Tues. Sept. 26, OSKAR FISCHINGER TRIBUTE, repeat of the Sun. Sept. 23, 7 PM show.
Wednesday - Saturday, September 27 - 30, ANN ARBOR TOUR PROGRAM contains several new animated shorts by Luke Jaeger, Nadia Roden and other artists. Another good reason to attend is to see 2 live action films by Jay Rosenblatt (he teaches at SF State). Get a theater schedule as 4 different hour long programs are scheduled to be shown over the 4 night run. Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck in Berkeley.
THE DISNEY FAMILY HELPS SAVE WALT'S FIRST STUDIO The Walt and Lily Disney Foundation has donated $450,000 towards the restoration of the building in Kansas City.
A non-profit saved the structure from the wrecking ball by buying it for $12,500 in 1996. They plan to restore the 2nd story where the original studio was housed and turn the 1st floor into a theater. The Disney Studio has declined to contribute to the project.
DISNEY HAS MORE LAWSUITS TO CONTEND WITH One new legal mess covered by the press is over the merchandise rights to Tinkerbell. The company New Tinkerbell has held those rights since 1952 (before Disney's Peter Pan came out). Their products were sold by the theme parks until last year. Now Disney is selling their own line of Tinkerbell products so the lawyers are making $$$...
The widow of Louis Prima wants royalties that she claims were unpaid since Jungle Book came out on DVD and video. Her husband was the voice of King Louis of the Apes. Disney claims their contract with Prima did not include royalties for new technologies that might use his performance. Phil Harris, who sang Bear Necessities in the film, sued over a similar issue and settled out of court.
Disney has been fighting over the merchandise rights to Winnie the Pooh characters in court since 1992. This case started over a 1983 contract that didn't include payment for video and computer software royalties. In June it was discovered Disney destroyed documents concerning the case so the case was once again in the news.
FILM FORUM IN NY IS PRESENTING PROGRAMS OF 3D CLASSICS INCLUDING A BUGS BUNNY CARTOON Bugs only made one cartoon in 3D, Lumberjack Rabbit with Yosemite Sam as his co-star. (2D prints are shown on TV). It shares a program with The House of Wax. Sept. 22-28
ITVS HAS ANNOUNCED THEY ARE FUNDING THE COMPLETION OF AN HOUR DOCUMENTARY ON JOHN & FAITH HUBLEY. The Hubley project is by Sybil Delgaudio and Patty Wineapple, the team that made the outstanding 4 part Animated Women series. One half-hour show in that series was on Faith Hubley. The new program will be Independent Spirits: The John and Faith Hubley Story.
FIGURES OF SPEECH, FUNDED BY ITVS WILL AIR ON PBS THIS FALL Figures of Speech is a series of 2 to 6 minute interstitials by Tommy Pallotta and Bob Sabiston. They used digital technology to turn real people into animated caricatures.
ADULT ENGLISH ANIMATION FANS ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO A NEW ANIMATED SERIES ON THE BBC It is The Big Knights by Mark Baker (Jolly Rogers, Hill Farm) and Neville Astley (Trainspotter). Advanced screenings of episodes at festivals have won several prizes (best adult series, a prize for the use of the new Cel Action 2D Software, etc.).
TOONZ 2D & 3D CONFERENCE IN LONDON, OCT. 10-11, FEATURES SPEAKERS FROM Wild Brain, Cosgrove Hall, Klasky Csupo, Varga, MTV, BBC, Warner Bros, etc. www.access-conf.com
FESTIVAL IN INDIA IS BRINGING TOP ANIMATORS THERE FOR THEIR OCT. 30 - NOV. 3 CELEBRATION The invited presenters who have confirmed they are attending the 2nd "Week With the Masters" include Bill Plympton, Joanna Priestley, Gerald Potterton, Piet Kroons, Will Vinton, R.O. Blechman, David Fine and Normand Roger. The event is produced by Toonz Animation India. The company is in production on the TV series Turtle Island for Mimosa Productions of Canada.
MOST OF ZAGREB'S TOP PRIZES WENT TO EXCELLENT FILMS ALREADY SEEN IN THE BAY AREA When the Day Breaks won the grand prize. Other prizes went to Fishing (from PDI), Old Man and the Sea, At the End of the Earth, Village of Idiots and My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts.
NEW IMPROVED VIDEO LUNCH BOX MAY BE RELEASED SOON "Lunch Box Synch" will offer a sharper picture, 10,000 frames of storage, the ability to add synch sound, and other fine features not now available. It will premiere in Sept. at Ottawa if the product is ready to be shown to the public.
Another possible hot tip is the PD 100A cam- corder. A review said it shoots animation with good results, but it isn't clear if it shoots 3 frames at a time like other cameras, or if there is finally a single frame camera available.
PHOTO-REALISTIC CGI CHARACTERS IN FEATURES MAY BE COMING TO THE SCREEN Final Fantasy: The Movie will be a completely animated with photo realistic images according to Square Productions, Honolulu. There is a trailer for the production at www.finalfantasy.com/start-f.
New Line has announced Al Pacino will play opposite a cgi character in the proposed feature Simone.
DOES NBC HAVE ANOTHER ANIMATED PRIME TIME FLOP? The latest show is Sammy with the voice of David Spade. The first show in August got a poor rating.
BILL PLYMPTON HAS NOW COMPLETED THE ANIMATION ON HIS NEXT FEATURE His Mutant Alien project is now in post-production.
THE CUMMULATIVE BOX OFFICE GROSSES
FOR 2000 ARE:
#1 Mission Impossible 2, $212.6 million
#2 Gladiator, $181.6 million
#3 Perfect Storm, $170.48 million
#4 Scary Movie, $144.8 million
#5 The X Men, $143.9 million
#6 Dinosaur, $133.776 million
#11 Chicken Run, $99.9 million
#13 Klumps, $93.99 million
#23 Fantasia 2000, $58.3 million
#30 Hollow Man, $50.3 million
#33 Pokemon 2, $40.7 million
#36 Space Cowboys, $39.2 million (1st 10 days)
#40 Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas, $35.2 million
#48 Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, $24.66 million
#50 Titan A. E., $22.64 million
#65 Thomas and the Magic Railroad, $13.28 million
The above comes from The Movie Times, Aug. 16, 2000. It does not list T. Rex, an Imax film that has grossed $32.89 million. Keep in mind the charts do not list production costs, grosses outside of the US, or how much of the gross actually gets back to the producers.
MACROMEDIA PROFITS UP 85% for the first quarter this year. They took in $94.4 million this year. There are now over _ million Flash authors and there have been over 180 million Flash downloads.
Time Warner had a record breaking 2nd quarter. Profits were up 12% ($1.38 billion on a gross of $7.08 billion).
AARDMAN'S ANGRY KID SETS AN INTERNET RECORD One million people saw the series on the Internet in just 7 weeks. It is on the Atom Film web site.
Spike and Mike showed Angry Kid episodes in their "classic" festival package this year. The star is a brat that throws temper tantrums. Not my cup of tea, but a lot of people must be talking about it. KC
LIL' PIMP MAY BECOME A FLASH FEATURE to be distributed by Columbia Pictures. The web cartoon is about a 9 year old pimp who scams and hustles. Yes, the kid makes money from prostitution. Joe Roth, former Disney chairman and now head of Revolution Studio, is behind this project. The announcement on AWN's Flash said the project is "more of a publicity tool for the series." (Is a child in the sex trade the best a former big cheese from Disney can do? KC)
CREATIVE PLANET, THE NEW OWNERS OF AWN, GET $38 MILLION MORE IN FINANCING They publish several Internet trade publications including Animation World Magazine (purchased last year from Acme owned by Ron Diamond). Part of the new funds will be used to develop new technology.
NEW CHUCK JONES CHARACTER TO APPEAR IN WEB SERIES Thomas T. Wolf gets hit by something falling every time somebody yells "timber" according to a story on AWN. The wolf and company will premiere on WB.com and Entertaindom in November. Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, will do the voice of Earl Squirrel on the show.
DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK (DEN) IS BANKRUPT People involved are telling the press about executives getting outrageous salaries (the CEO made $1.2 million last year plus a $274,000 bonus). DEN is also accused of selling off assets in a possibly fraudulent manner (laser printers that cost $2,000 were sold for $300). About $60 million had been invested in the company. Rumor has it that a new, slightly different company has been formed by former employees of DEN.
ICEBOX.COM ANGERS ASIAN-AMERICANS BY RUNNING A RACIST ANIMATED SHOW Animation Blast reports that Daphne Kirk, director of Organization of Chinese Americans, finds the bucked-toothed butler named Mr.. Wong "an outrage, humiliating and debasing attack." Animation Blast calls the Mr Wong show "stupidly offensive" and "mindless." It was created by writers who had once worked on South Park.
The Chronicle (Aug. 16) reprinted a LA Times story that spent a lot of ink defending the show. They ran the following quote by an Asian actor, "The Internet generation is less sensitive. In a way, people who care about racism are portrayed as dinosaurs." They ran the results of a pole run by an Asian web site - 20% found the show "totally offensive;" 33% said "offensive, but laughed;" 19% said it was an expression of free speech and 28% said "funny as hell." Although we do not know if the free speech voters found it offensive we can say at least 50% of the voters found it offensive. Isn't that a good reason to call it racist?
A FINE GUIDE TO ANIMATION ON THE INTERNET IS PUBLISHED BY YACK.COM The free site is an on-line magazine with sections for music, sports, sex, animation, books, etc. The animation guide is quite impressive as it lists hundreds of works in 6 categories (Anime, classics, stop-motion, contemporary, digital and interactive). The titles range from public domain cartoon classics with Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, etc. to recent releases. There are lots of Aardman titles (from Creature Comforts to the Angry Kid series), works by local artists including Tim Hittle (Canhead), works seen in recent Spike and Mike packages, etc. Caution: The captions describing the works are dubious at best (probably written by people who haven't seen the works).
AWN publishes a weekly guide to new Internet animated shows. It lists hundreds of episodes on their AWN Flash service (available as a subscription service). It is informative and well written. All of a sudden there are dozens of sites offering animated shows. AWN's Flash knows about most of them.
INTERNET SITES FROM ITALY Animator Bruno Bozzetto has a site in English at www.bozzetto.com. www.fumetti.org "e il sito dell'Anonima Fumetti con una montagna di informazioni, link, e servizi per appassionati, professionisti, curiosi, studenti del fumetto a 360." ASIFA Italy also recommends www.favolandia.com.
CARTOONIST UNION IS OFFERING NEW INTERNET COMPANIES A SPECIAL CONTRACT It doesn't call for different wages for various job classifications, but it does offer employees a benefit package that costs less than similar packages at non-union shops.
HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVES DO NOT SEEM TO BE SKILLED AT SPOTTING FLOPS AHEAD OF TIME by Karl Cohen. The Sunday Datebook ran an article saying turning old TV shows into features doesn't work any more. Other excuses in the press have been given for recent failures, but I have yet to hear anyone blame the executives who green lighted and oversaw the productions that failed.
Titan A.E. may have looked good as an idea on paper, but somebody at Fox should have put their foot down after work on the soundtrack had started. The voice talent comes across as flat and boring so either the script was at fault and/or the direction of the voice actors was all wrong. Don Bluth delivered beautiful images, but why did Fox let him proceed with the animation when he was animating to a dull, dated and boring soundtrack?
Fox woke up when the accountants showed them the red ink, but it was too late. They closed down Bluth's studio and put a lot of animators on unemployment. Bill Mechanic, CEO of Fox resigned. It would have been wiser if Fox had rethought the project at an earlier stage.
Fox is not out of the animation biz. They are supposed to release Henry Selick's Monkey Bone in Nov. see next article Chris Wedge of Blue Sky in NY State (Oscar for Bunny) is developing the cgi feature Ice Age for Fox. Fox also has animation development deals with the Farrelly Brothers and Steve Oedekerk of Thumb.com.
Rocky and Bullwinkle suffered from executives who were also asleep at the wheel. It should not have been released with an awful ad campaign. As a lover of the original TV show I was expecting ads full of brilliant lines. Nobody was laughing when I saw the previews in a theater. The TV show was known for its humor so when the trailer isn't funny and reviewers and friends don't get excited about the jokes, why go?
I was also put off by the attempt to make Robert De Niro, Jason Alexander and the other live actors look as if they belonged in a cartoon. Roger Rabbit worked because we accepted the idea that real people could interact with cartoon characters.
The best reason to see the film is the animation by people that many of us know at ILM and Wild Brain. Wild Brain's 12 minutes of 2D animation looks great and ILM's crew did lots of amazing complex shots.
I didn't see Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but I enjoyed the TV show (I enjoyed watching Ringo). I like the idea of talking trains, but I understand the producers of this show saved money and didn't bother to have talking mouths on their engines. Without moving lips…
Finally there is Disney's Dinosaurs. While it is selling a lot of tickets, it wasn't the hit Disney wanted. (The film took many years to make and cost countless millions.) I found it to be an exciting film until the action stopped and the beasts started to talk. I believe it was a major mistake to have realistic looking animals talk. Cartoon characters that talk are perfectly acceptable, but you break the suspension of disbelief when ultra-realistic animals speak their minds. I feel the executives who approved the look would have had a better film if they had used more stylized animals. I never got completely back into the film once the illusion was shattered. I became a detached viewer and kept thinking about the quality of the animation instead of letting my mind flow with the story. (It also bothered me that the beasts were starving and dying of thirst, yet they looked clean and healthy.)
PS: We should applaud the executives who apparently left Nick Park and Peter Lord alone and let them turn out what was my best animated film experience this summer. If you haven't seen Chicken Run, see it on a big screen if you can.
HENRY SELICK'S NEXT FEATURE IS (WAS?) SUPPOSED TO OPEN IN NOVEMBER. WHY IS THERE A NEWS BLACKOUT ABOUT THIS FEATURE? by Karl Cohen. I suspect something is wrong with the project since Fox has repeatedly turned down requests by the press for news items, interviews and articles about Monkey Bone. Fox has reserved several names for web sites about the film, but they are not yet on line (www.monkeybone.com, etc.) The film is (was?) supposed to open Nov. 3, but Entertainment Weekly doesn't list it as being scheduled to open.
I found two "reviews" of a test screening on Ain't It Cool News (Aug. 3). One called the first half "morbid and twisted and funny…but the last third goes off track with slapstick comedy and zany misadventures." The writer also noted "odd pacing." The second writer said "..editing pace were so off that the movie could end up a complete mess…second half was typical Jim Carrey-type slapstick." Both writers hinted Selick/Fox are not sure of the film's audience. Lots of body sounds and penis jokes for kids mixed in with some intelligent material for adults.
In Aug. a Fox rep. told an editor for whom I write that some footage was being reshot. They didn't say why.
Fans of Selick have published cast and plot information on the web, but only one or two stills have been sneaked out (colored photos of stuffed monkey toys based on the film are available on the web). When the animation was in production in San Francisco at the Custer Street Stage the crew was asked not to discuss the project with the public. (The animation was shot using the blue screen process, so it could be matted into other footage later.)
Since Fox lost millions on Titan A.E. and they will have to spend millions more if they release Monkey Bone, perhaps they are rethinking what they are going to do. As a long time Selick fan, I hope that if needed, they will make the desired changes and release the film on schedule (or in the not too distant future).
THE MOOSE THAT ROARED: THE STORY OF JAY WARD, BILL SCOTT, A FLYING SQUIRREL AND A TALKING MOOSE, by Keith Scott, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2000, about 460 pages with 35 or 40 black and white illustrations, $27.95 hardbound. Reviewed by Karl Cohen.
Being able to read 2 important new books about animation in the same year is a rare treat. Michael Barrier's Hollywood Cartoons (Oxford University Press, New York, 1999) is an exceptional contribution to our understanding of the development of theatrical animation (reviewed in our April newsletter), and now Keith Scott's The Moose That Roared honors people who pioneered limited animation made for television. Fortunately J. Ward's studio produced some of the funniest TV cartoons ever made, so the book is not only an authoritative account, it is also a delight to read.
Scott's book bears almost no resemblance to The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book, a fancy over-sized coffee table book published in 1996. The book from 1996 was designed to please the Ward family. It was disliked by many J. Ward fans as it barely mentioned some of his productions and omitted others completely. It filled up the pages with illustrations, trivia, plot details and cute graphic designs. It only mentioned Bill Scott (not related to Keith Scott, the author of the new book) three or four times even though he was Ward's co-producer, head writer, the voices of Bullwinkle and other characters, and did a thousand other things for the studio. It also failed to explain that much of the show was produced in Mexico, making it the first animated "run-away" production. It was made outside the US to reduce labor costs (non-union) and that resulted in numerous mistakes, headaches and other problems.
The 1996 book was simplistic and focused on Ward and his most famous show. It never even mentioned Alex Anderson, the man who created Rocky, Bullwinkle, Crusader Rabbit, Dudley Do-Right, and other characters. Ward was a producer with a business degree from Harvard. It was Anderson, Ward's partner and life-long friend, who had worked in animation and conceived and developed a form of animation that could be made within the financial constraints of television. Working together in Berkeley, California, they pioneered limited animation. In 1950, Crusader Rabbit became their first show to be broadcast on a regular basis. I consider the development of limited animation a major development, yet the author of the 1996 book saw no reason to mention it.
The new publication is a concise history. After a brief overview and introduction, the book provides a detailed chronological account of the life and times of J. Ward, his associates, their work, fun, follies and a few major blunders. While it is lovingly written by a life-long fan who became the world's foremost scholar on the studio, it is honest, insightful and sometimes unflattering. It is so thorough, it not only provides detailed information about the studio's major accomplishments, it also covers unsold pilots, their production of commercials, wacky publicity stunts, biographical information about everybody involved with the productions, problems with contracts, networks, agencies, labor and censors, plus a great deal more that you probably don't expect to find in a book about people making humorous cartoons.
The book provides the longest and best published account of the Ward-Anderson collaborations including some of the problems they faced trying to get Crusader Rabbit aired. NBC approved the proposal for the project in 1948, but in 1949 they decided not to go ahead with their plans to make it a network show. Jerry Fairbanks, who had a 5 year exclusive distribution deal with NBC, decided to release the 5-minute program on a station-by-station basis. It took another year before it aired anywhere on a regular basis. Production stopped after 195 episodes (1951) and the studio eventually closed.
In 1957 William Hanna (without Joe Barbera) joined Mike Lah, Don Driscoll and Don MacNamara to form a company to continue production of the show. They were not told that there was an ongoing legal battle over rights to it. The rights became available when Jerry Fairbanks went bankrupt. Hanna and his associates had started production when they were informed Ward did not own all the rights to the show. The litigation not only ended the project, it resulted in Ward and Anderson being forced to sell their interests in the show to Shull Bonsall who had purchased Fairbank's rights. When I first wrote about this production in the 1980s in Animatrix, a UCLA Animation Workshop publication, Hanna called and denied he had any part in the project and claimed that he and Barbera had invented limited animation in the late 50s! I'm glad another author has researched this issue and was able to catch Hanna on a day when he remembered working on the production.
The story of Ward's next project, one that starred a moose and squirrel, is just as carefully recounted. It covers everything from the development of the show's concept to the almost instant success of the show when it first aired November 19, 1959. There is also excellent coverage of other parts of the program including Peabody's Improbable History and Fractured Fairy Tales. (Aesops and Son replaced Fractured Fairy Tales for one season and the show's name was changed to The Bullwinkle Show when the program was moved from ABC to a primetime slot on NBC, September 24, 1961. Bill Scott appeared on the first few shows on NBC with a Bullwinkle hand puppet.)
Anyone fascinated with the industry should enjoy the account of how Rocky and his Friends ended up being animated in Mexico. The original plan called for the production to go to Japan, but it turned out the studio in Japan didn't exist! The show's first production budget was minuscule compared to the cost of a Hanna-Barbera production from the same time. Keith Scott interviewed the Americans who oversaw the production in Mexico and their accounts explain the numerous problems that resulted. His detailed account even hints at an under-the-table deal that resulted in the show going to Mexico in the first place. (Apparently people with the show's ad agency and/or sponsor owned shares in the Mexican facility).
The text covers Ward's later productions including George of the Jungle, Super Chicken, Dudley Do-Right, Hoppity Hooper, Tom Slick, Fractured Flickers, numerous commercials and much more. As the story unfolds you also get a delightful picture of the good times of Jay Ward Productions. There are accounts of zany parties and publicity stunts, surprise company outings to unusual places, and other unexpected moments. Anderson, who had gone into advertising, occasionally reappears as do several other life-long friends of Ward.
Trivia fans will enjoy much of the information in the text. My favorite "stupid" fact is that when Action for Children's Television (ACT) pressured TV into adopting politically correct guidelines/censorship in 1977, Cap'n Crunch, a 500 year old pirate, could no longer wear a sword. One fact overlooked by the author is who sang the George of the Jungle song? He gives us the names of the composer and song writer, but not Donnie Brooks who sang "George, George, George of the Jungle, watch out for that tree." (I saw him sing it at the Alameda County Fair in the 1980s.) The book also explains why several non-Ward productions were once included with Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes on TV. This led fans to believe Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, King Leonardo and his Short Subjects, Go Go Gophers, Commander McBrag, etc, were produced by J. Ward Productions. They were actually made by Total Television, a company owned by Peter Piech. Piech also had an interest in the TV distribution of Ward products.
As I read the text I kept noticing that the book didn't give a clear picture as to what Ward was like as a person. Scott saved this complex subject to the next to the last chapter. His account of who Ward was is an excellent piece of research. He quotes extensively from those who best knew the man and he reveals uncomfortable incidents that help explain this man's unusual psyche. The statements sometimes contradict each other, but the confusion helps explain who this wonderful man was.
When I met Ward at his store he was quite shy and didn't say much. I saw him come alive when neighborhood kids with skateboards came in the shop. Ward talked with them like he was a close buddy. The first time I visited the store I was researching an article on him. I spoke at length with his wife and once, when she didn't know an answer to an important question, she called him on the phone. I could barely hear him talking to her from the next room. He was famous for not wanting to talk with reporters.
When I finished reading the book I wondered how accurate it was so I called two people who worked closely with Ward. Alex Anderson said, "it was pretty much the way I remembered it." Lucille Bliss, the voice of Crusader Rabbit, enjoyed the book, but felt Scott simplified the complex history of Crusader. She said he didn't fully capture the negative personality of the man who ended up with the rights to the show. "It was sugar coated." She was also surprised at how much he knew about her, yet they had never met or talked on the phone.
My only negative criticism of the book is minor. It would have been better had there been a few well placed footnotes. Scott was not present when most of the events in the book took place so footnotes would have been useful. Scott identifies in the text the person he is quoting, but he does not say how he obtained the quotes or information not in quotes. Had there been footnotes, Bliss would have known where the information about her came from. (I am mentioned several times in the text, bibliography and forward, but not all of my contributions to the book are acknowledged.)
Trivia fans take note: Bliss said Scott came close to guessing her age when he wrote "circa 1927," but the date is wrong. She told me, "I can live with it." June Foray, the voice of Rocky, like Bliss never reveals her age. Scott made no attempt to guess it. I suspect Bliss is younger than Foray as
Foray was doing network radio shows in the mid-40s. Should we care how old people are? What is important is they are both great voice actresses. (According to an article the new Animation Blast, Foray was born in the late 19th Century.)
We are fortunate that Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin's Press was willing to publish Scott's account of the studio. It is an exceptional contribution to our knowledge of early TV animation, a subject ignored by most authors. Fortunately Scott got to interview almost everyone connected with the studio (several of the key figures are no longer alive) and is an excellent writer.
ANIMATION BLAST #5 is a good buy at $3 for 36 pages of rare material. Paul Naas wrote about several layout tips Maurice Noble shared with him. There is a fine interview with Ray Patterson who animated Tom and Jerry, worked at Disney until the strike, owned his own company in the 60s, etc. My favorite items were 13 funny cartoons drawn by Hank Ketcham after he left Disney (1941?) and before he started Denis the Menace. There are also reviews, work by other artists, etc. Elmo Aardvark is the cover story.
ASIFA-SAN FRANCISCO
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114
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Tower Records sells the magazine. So does Comic Relief on University Ave. in Berkeley. Buy it by mail for $3 from PO Box 260491 Encino. CA 91426-0491
You can also visit Animation Blast at a fine web site www.animationblast.com
BILBAO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF SHORT FILMS Oct. 15 deadline for prints, Sept. 15 for forms. John "Dirdy Birdy" Dilworth says this is a fine event. They flew him there, paid for the hotel, etc. No entry fee. Prize money in animation category. Films that have won prizes in other European festivals are not eligible. 16mm & 35mm. www.fic-bilbao.com (34) 94 424 8698 37 Colon de Larreategui, 4th floor, PO Box 579, 48009 Bilbao, Spain
DR. ROBIN ALLAN
BRITISH DISNEY SCHOLAR
WILL DISCUSS
"EUROPEAN INFLUENCES ON WALT DISNEY"
AND SIGN COPIES OF HIS NEW BOOK
TUES. SEPT. 12, 7:30 PM
AT THE EXPLORATORIUM
Dr. Allan will show a selection of rare images that influenced Disney's artists and talk about his years of research. Several years ago he presented ASIFA-SF a slide lecture on his work-in-progress and people were quite impressed with the insights they got from his talk. Since then he has completed his book Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney, John Libbey & Co., Sydney, 1998. Available in North America from Indiana University Press.
Allan's research is based on interviews with artists who created features and shorts at Disney, and on records in the studio's archives (story conference notes, etc.). Allan spent over 10 years working on this project. The book covers some of the classic shorts, features from Snow White to Jungle Book, Disney's choice of music for Fantasia and other films, European influences on the design and architecture of Disneyland, etc. This a rare chance to hear Allan discuss this fascinating subject.
presented by ASIFA-SF, the Bay Area's Animation Association
visit us at www.asifa-sf.org
join us by sending $18 to ASIFA-SF, PO Box 14516, SF, CA 94114
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This issue was written by Karl Cohen and proofread by Pete Davis. The production crew included Shirley Smith, Tara Packard and Ron Seawright. Subscriptions are $18 a year. |
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