On June 12, 2011 I turn 65. Thought I would have been killed long before this.
Years ago a bank manager asked, with a sneer, if I had a goal.
I told him my goal was that if I lived to be 100 I wanted to be in my own home with people around me who love me. "I do not want to be ekeing out an existence in a home for senior citizens being spoon fed and sponge bathed by people who don't give a damn whether I live or drop dead." I told him.
Grim Natwick, the creator Betty Boop and principal animator on the character of Snow White for Walt Disney, celebrated his 90th birthday in Toronto with me at a special ANIMAFEASTIVAL EVENT I held in his honour in 1980.
He celebrated his 100th birthday in Hollywood with practically everyone who matter in attendance in 1990. He lived all his life in his own home and was as sharp the day he died as any of us could wish to be.
A few years before that the Academy threw a tribute to Grim. I went out for it. Afterwards he pulled out the bottles of hard liquor. We drank. We got drunk beyond madness. Grim lectured. I listened. I learned more in that one night than I had in all the years before that put together.
65 is one of those numbers.
Grim is my mentor. Chuck Jones called him the Merlin of Animation.
I decided to celebrate my 65th birthsday by honoring the man who animated me.
I have put together a short program of five of the best short films involving Grim's work or characters.
As well, for those who would like copies I have a cd of the talk Grim gave in 1980 and a dvd of the talk Grim gave at ANIMAFEASTIVAL 1982 with special guests Tisse David, Shamus Culhane and Frank Nissen.
THE CINEFORUM is listed in THE LONELY PLANET GUIDE as number 4 of places to see in Ontario. A lot of people around the world think very highly of what happens here.
