by Doug Ranney
The city of Seattle
hosted it's first-ever animation festival this past Fourth of July weekend.
Attendance could have been stronger, but those who were there, fans and
animators alike, gave the event across-the-board rave reviews. Animator
Marv Newland said it reminded him of Annecy in the late seventies: no hype,
no self-promotion, just a heartfelt display of craft and opinion. The low-key
nature of the festival, perhaps typical of Seattle, more than made up for
its lack of glitz by providing attendees with an unprecedented chance to
mingle closely with some of the top animators in the world. Most of the
guests made themselves available after their presentations, holding informal
Q&A sessions in the lobby of the Seattle Art Museum. Ray Harryhausen
lingered for nearly two hours after his session, taking questions, signing
autographs, and posing for pictures. Barry Purves did likewise, even allowing
fans to pass around and manipulate several of the original stop-motion
puppets he had brought along.
Amazing Events
With 25 animators and 29 separate events, where does one begin to summarize
this festival? Here are a few examples. On Sunday there was a remarkable
panel composed of Mamoru Oshii, Rene Laloux, Marv Newland, Igor Kovalyov,
Craig Bartlett, Bill Plympton, David Silverman, Jim Blashfield and Maurice
Noble. You could hardly ask for a wider cross-section of animation backgrounds
and styles. At times, a question from the audience would spark an interchange
among the panel members, leading to the somewhat comical sight of Rene
Laloux posing a question in French that was translated into English and
re-translated into Japanese for Mamoru Oshii, whose response in Japanese
was translated into English and.. you get the idea. While the panel members
disagreed about many things, they concurred that commercial distribution
remains a big problem for animation. Oshii maintained that even in Japan,
the domestic audiences prefer Disney films, and regard their own Japanese
anime as somewhat disreputable. Naturally, independents Marv Newland and
Bill Plympton know all about the difficulties of getting their work seen,
but even Maurice Noble had some marketing horror stories about the later
work he and Chuck Jones did together.
Looney Tunes veteran Maurice
Noble entertains an attentive crowd in the
Seattle Art Museum lobby. Photo courtesy of Susan Purton/Scarecrow Video.
On Monday, an impressive panel of stop-motion
animators was assembled, including Bruce Bickford, Stephen Holman, Barry
Purves, Henry Selick, Ray Harryhausen, David Anderson, and Janice Findlay.
The dominant theme was the increasing competition stop-motion animators
are facing from computer animation. Naturally, there was plenty of criticism
of the shortcomings of CGI. Barry Purves, in particular, waxed bitter about
putting in nine months of puppet work for Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!,
only to see it thrown out in favor of CGI. Even Burton collaborator Henry
Selick criticized Burton's decision, pointing out that you can't do a real
homage to cheesy Fifties sci-fi stop-motion by using hyper-realistic computer
animation. The general consensus was that, Nick Park notwithstanding, puppet
animation is getting harder and harder to sell.
One of the biggest draws of the festival was the Sunday night Simpsons
show with director David Silverman. He talked the audience through two
hours of clips, including some early proto-Simpsons work. Big crowd-pleasers
were a compilation of "couch gags," and a censored "Itchy
and Scratchy" sequence. It's hard to believe, but there are some things
beyond the pale even for Itchy & Scratchy, in this case involving chewing
his own leg off to escape a trap. Silverman laid out the entire history
of the show and talked the audience through the production process of a
typical episode. After experiencing two and a half hours of his intense,
quick-witted personality, it's easier to see how Silverman's show maintains
its creative edge. Even during the Q&A period, he never let up, and
more than one insipid question was answered with a tart, though not nasty,
response.
Mark Gustafson presented his stop-motion
short,
Bride of Resistor. © Will Vinton Studios. 
The Old Guard
The wide-ranging roster of attending animators
might be grouped into a few major categories. The Old Guard included Disney
veteran Marc Davis, layout artist Maurice Noble, and stop-motion wizard
Ray Harryhausen; all gracious, entertaining, and unanimous in their dislike
of most commercial animation being done today. Davis kicked off the festival,
showing some of his work and narrating slides of his designs for Disneyland
attractions, including "Pirates of The Caribbean" and "The
Haunted Mansion." Maurice Noble filled in for an ailing Chuck Jones
at the last minute. Since the screenings were already set, Noble ad-libbed
his way through Jones' work, some of which he had not worked on. In the
end, he completely charmed the audience, and his off-the-cuff presentation
led him to some offbeat topics that probably would not have been otherwise
covered.
As a long line formed for Ray Harryhausen's program, a pleasant sight was
Harryhausen and Henry Selick chatting in the lobby. It was the kind of
sight that proved to be common throughout the weekend. There's no doubt
that the animators enjoyed sitting in on each other's programs as much
as the fans did. As Marv Newland put it, they all had a great time hanging
with each other and just "making the scene." The fans were by
no means kept at arms length, either. One attendee, whose experience was
not unique, related how he struck up a conversation with Harryhausen when
he found himself seated next to him in the audience of another animator's
event. When Harryhausen's screening of Jason and The Argonauts ran
long, he graciously took questions in the lobby afterwards. This was in
contrast to Marc Davis, whose corporate handlers hustled him out of the
museum like a rock star.
Young Whipper-snappers
In contrast to the old-timers were the younger, and employed, animators,
such as David Silverman and Hey Arnold's Craig Bartlett. These guys
are young, successful, confident, enthusiastic, and irreverent. Silverman
fairly crackles with intensity and wit, while Bartlett radiates upbeat
energy. Both had great fun goofing on the "Masters of Animation"
theme, suggesting that others bow to them and respond, "Yes, Master."
Despite the banter, though, they exhibited a sincere awe of the aforementioned
Old Guard. Mark Gustafson screened Mr. Resistor and Bride of
Resistor, with engaging stories of life at Will Vinton Studios. Devo
co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh presented his musical scores and jingles for
animated shows, while Stephen Holman screened his hard-to-describe hybrid
Life With Loopy segments.
Nosehair, a sequence featured in Bill Plympton's Mondo
Plympton.
The Independent Presence
The Independents included Bruce Bickford,
Jim Blashfield, Rose Bond, Janice Findlay, Joan Gratz, Ruth Hayes, Marv
Newland, and Bill Plympton. All are doing, or have done, interesting personal
films, with Blashfield, Newland and Plympton being the most commercially
successful. Bill Plympton is as tireless as usual, screening Mondo Plympton
and working on yet another one-man feature, although this time he's using
traditional cel techniques to increase his production speed. Also in this
category, but somewhat distinct, are the Brits David Anderson and Barry
Purves. Both have created some terrifically impressive shorts, especially
Purves' Achilles- a stop-motion tour de force with a decidedly
un-commercial homosexual theme. Poor Barry had the misfortune to be scheduled
at 8 PM on Friday opposite the Fourth of July fireworks, so his program
drew (it must be said) an embarrassingly small crowd. Nonetheless, the
jet-lagged animator screened some beautiful works, and thoroughly engaged
the audience with his passion for the art form.
Friday's biggest crowd turned out for Mamoru Oshii who screened his early
independent work, Angel's Egg. Oshii, speaking through his translator,
went to great lengths to underscore what a flop the film was in Japan.
He claimed that it kept him from getting work for years, and thanked the
audience for not falling asleep during the screening. When asked what he
thought of the festival, the shy director replied only that he hated traveling,
he missed his dogs, and his producer had forced him to attend. We think
he was joking. Despite his less-than-outgoing nature, Oshii's screening
of Ghost in The Shell on Saturday was a big draw.
Animation director Jack Stokes made an
extremely rare public
appearance with an uncommon screening of Yellow Submarine. 
Rene Laloux seemed every inch the French elder
statesman, holding forth on a variety of subjects. The voluble director
sometimes rambled on in French for minutes at a time, leaving his dazed
interpreter to try to sum up his remarks afterward. He brought along the
original version of Fantastic Planet, much different than the edited
and dubbed version seen in America, as well as the rarely seen Time
Masters. Martin Rosen had two presentations, screening both The
Plague Dogs and Watership Down. Animation director Jack Stokes
made an extremely rare public appearance with an equally rare screening
of Yellow Submarine. Gerald Potterton had two presentations, including
the festival-ending screening of Heavy Metal.
All in all, there was just about everything for which an animation fan
could wish. In a sense it was an "anti-Animation Celebration,"
in that it was all about the works themselves, with practically zero focus
on "the industry." Festival organizer Norm Hill believes that
one is unlikely to see another program of this size anytime soon- anywhere.
It's a real shame that the crowds weren't better, but it was Seattle on
a beautiful holiday weekend, after all. And the event was a first-time
effort at that. Not one single event was a clinker, and even the rookie
projection room screw-ups at the Art Museum had serendipitous side-benefits.
Nearly every program ran long, which led to all those wonderfully intimate
Q&A sessions in the lobby. Considering how influential American cartoons
are worldwide, it's odd that there really isn't a regular, honest-to-God
animation festival in the United States. Neither Annecy nor Ottawa have
much to do with animation in France or Canada...maybe Seattle could become
their American counterpart. Let's all hope so, because years from now,
the animators and fans who attended the 1997 Masters of Animation will
still be talking about it.
Doug Ranney founded the Whole Toon Catalog, and currently owns
a book publishing firm, Tiger Mountain Press. He resides in the
Cascade foothills just east of Seattle.
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