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NATIONAL NEWS
WALLACE AND GROMIT KIDNAPPED IN NEW YORK CITY Nick Park came to the Big Apple in October to plug the release of his latest video, A Close Shave and to promote the sales of the box set of 3 tapes of his works. Unfortunately, when he got to his hotel he left the box containing his world famous stars in the taxi. A reward was offered for their return and the media was contacted. The New York Post ran the story, as did the BBC and a lot of other papers and radio/TV stations. A couple of days later, while Nick was talking to John Canemaker's class at NYU, the taxi driver and the press showed up for a happy reunion. Canemaker says the taxi driver refused to accept the reward.
Nick and his friends are now safely back in Bristol, England. He told the class he was presently writing a feature with Peter Lord, and that they had funding for the film. It is not yet in production.
THE SEATTLE ART MUSEUM and the 911 Media Art Center will honor LA animator Christine Panushka on Jan. 11 with a screening. It will include her new film Marrow and a demonstration of her "Absolut Panushka" web site. The latter is animation done for the vodka company at www.absolutvodka.com
NOTES FROM THE BIG APPLE In Sept. I finished my book Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators, and sent it to McFarland, my publisher. After writing the newsletter I headed to New York City to see friends, art exhibits and fall color.
John R, Dilworth of Dirdy Birdy fame is still waiting for the right deal to come his way after winning an Oscar nomination this year for The Chicken from Outer Space (since nominated for an Annie and a Cable Ace Award). He was recently in Europe where he was honored by a film festival in Spain. He is in production on a personal film, Noodle and Ned, while waiting for the right project to be offered to him.
Will Ryan, a former head of ASIFA-Hollywood, is writing with executive producer David Cohen 20 shows for Nickelodeon titled "The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss." The good doctor wrote 40 books in his lifetime, so Ryan says it is a really difficult assignment to try to come up with 20 good shows in one year. They have used freelance writers, but Ryan and Cohen end up doing most of the work.
The shows are produced by Jim Henson's company using puppets as Sneatches are hard to train as actors and the last living Lorax didn't want to work in the city. The production offices, model shops, stages, etc. are on 67th Street.
Marc Davis, a retired Disney talent, was in New York. He appeared at Animazing Gallery and at NYU where he talked to students in John Canemaker's classes. Adam West of Batman fame also appeared at Animazing Gallery in October. He autographed posters of Batman. By the way, the gallery wasn't amazing. They mainly sell the same stuff found in other cel galleries. They did have a stack of Bill Plympton's book for sale.
Faith Hubley was honored Oct. 21 with a screening of her latest film at the Museum of Modern Art. Sybil DelGaudio, who directed the TV series Animated Women, is working on a video about Faith and John Hubley.
Bill Plympton is on schedule with his two features, and both will be completed next year. His I Married a Strange Woman has unusual backgrounds that he created by having miniature interior sets built out of thick paper and balsa wood. He then photographed them and painted the photos of the sets with oils and watercolors. The film is being edited on Avid and shot in 35mm. About 3/4 of it is finished. The sequences he showed me on tape looked great. The plot is what you might expect from Plympton - wild, crazy, strange and very funny.
Howard Beckerman, who once headed ASIFA-East and has talked to our chapter about his career, is presently working about half of each year doing material for Nick Jr. He has a book coming out that covers both animation history and techniques. It is based on his method of teaching college students.
ASIFA-East showed the Siggraph '96 Electronic Theater reel in October. Jerry Beck was offering them a show of the world's worst cartoons for their November event. The Siggraph show features a lot of work done locally by PDI, Brian Barksy of UC Berkeley, Pixar, Tippet Studio, and Xaos.
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD IS BUSY WITH EVENTS In October they had a screening of Annie Award nominees (their annual competition), Tom Sito interviewing Floyd Norman about his career (he is presently doing story development on the upcoming Disney CG feature Dinosaur), Bill Riling talking about writing for animation, and they conducted life drawing workshops.
On Nov. 10, they will host their annual Annie Award ceremony/party. Tickets are $50 or $35 a person for members of their chapter. The event starts with a champagne reception at 4:30 and the awards ceremony is at 6. At the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Black tie optional. (818) 842-8330. Tickets must be purchased in advance.
7th ANNUAL MEDICINE WHEEL ANIMATION FESTIVAL is a touring package that can be booked by non-profit exhibitors and theaters. The new package includes Lynn Smith's Pearl's Diner, Yvonne Andersen's We Will Live Forever, Andres Sanz and Javier Ruiz (of San Francisco) El Instante McEwan, and 10 other works. For booking information contact Medicine Wheel Animation Festival, PO Box 1088, Groton, MA 01450. (508) 448-3717. If you have an animated film, contact them about showing it in their next festival.
ASIFA CANADA HELD A MAIL-IN POSTCARD SHOW THAT WAS PUBLISHED IN THEIR MEMBERS MAGAZINE They sent blank cards to their members and asked them to send them back with original art on them. They got about 40 cards back including several signed with nom-de-plums and 2 from anonymous. IS THIS SOMETHING WE MIGHT WANT TO DO?
FLEISCHER ANIMATOR GORDON SHEEHAN DIED He was in his late 70's according to Veto Stasiunaitis. Sheehan worked at the Fleischer studios throughout the 1930's. After the studio closed he moved to Hollywood and then to Chicago where he animated for Coronet Films (they made educational productions). He also taught at Columbia College for many years. ASIFA-Central honored Sheehan with an evening several years ago.
Veto worked with Sheehan at Coronet and said he was a quiet guy and mild mannered. He didn't tell many stories about his days at Fleischers, but he did tell Veto that Paramount didn't want to do another feature after Gulliver. When they saw the sets and storyboards the studio was creating for Hoppity, they reluctantly went ahead with the project.
Veto said Sheehan described Max as being old fashioned in his ways and very fatherly in the manner in which he ran the studio. Sheehan was one of several former Fleischer animators who were less fond of Dave. He told Veto that Dave took too much credit for the work of other staff members. He was not alone in making that comment.
Sheehan talked with writer Leonard Kohl about his career and part of that interview is in an article published in 1995 in Popeye, the official Popeye fanclub news-magazine. He said, "Dave Fleischer was showing some visitors around the studio one day as I was drawing my pencil animation for this action. As was his habit, he would pick up some animator's drawings from someone in the group, and 'flip' them for his guests. This day, he picked up my scene of Popeye violently wiggling his posterior to extricate the can of spinach. After flipping my drawings, he seemed to get a little 'shookup,' and put my drawings back on my desk without comment. Later that day, Dave Tendlar, the director, told me, Dave told him that my scene was too violently 'suggestive' and that the action would have to be 'toned down' to avoid any promiscuous sexual implications. This was something that never entered my mind, but I did as I was told, and modified the 'offending' actions. At the time, the Will Hays censorship office had the pants scared off movie producers (even cartoon producers) regarding sexual promiscuity. The office carried plenty of 'clout' and could exert their authority sometimes at considerable expense to producers. Evidently, Dave Flesicher was well aware of this, in 'censoring' my animation."
ASIFA-INTERNATIONAL IS DEVELOPING A PROGRAM ON TOLERANCE Austrian board member Thomas Renolder is looking for shorts to put in the show. He will circulate it to animation festivals around the world. They need films that call for religious, ethnic and racial tolerance. If you know of such work, or have created such work yourself, please contact Thomas. Fax: 43-2236-33704.
ASIFA SALE OF ANIMATION ARTWORK is being handled by Gerben Schermer of Holland. Members interested in selling their cels or drawings should contact him at Fax: 31 30 312940.