Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– In case you haven’t seen this yet, the Arario Gallery, a Korean gallery, has on display some skeletons for noted animation characters. The Roadrunner, obviously, is pictured to the left. Felix the Cat, Mickey the Mouse and the Coyote are also depicted as are photos of the constructions in process. Though there are enough photographic stills of the sculptures and a number of sketches, I wish there were a bit more text to let us in on the reasoning behind them. (Thanks to Boing Boing.)

- This is the second version of this idea I’ve seen. Michael Paulus, on his website, displayed skeletal systems for 22 cartoon characters. These are pretty hilarious if you haven’t seen them.
(Click on images to enlarge)

More imagination has gone into these illustrations than went into the Korean sculptures. Paulus is an exceptional artist, and you might take a browse around his other art works displayed.

– For real animation skeletons, let’s talk 3D armatures.

Would be puppet animators out there who are looking for realistic (meaning cost-controlled) armatures for their puppets, go to Monterey Motion Puppets to get instructions on how to do it.

They also have a number of their armatures on display at the site. “Junkman,” pictured on the right, is one of their “skeletons.”

– New York’s Film Forum is about to start a retro- spective of Frank Tashlin‘s films. Of course, the former director of Warner Bros. cartoons turned to live-action films and became a somewhat eccentric director of unique comedies.

During the VO recording Tony Randall did for my film, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, Mr. Randall told me that he thought Frank Tashlin was the most creative director he’d ever worked with.
He used as a example a two shot from, I believe, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Tashlin had set up a shot with Randall looking in a mirror, and the reflection of the person he was speaking to was also reflected in another mirror. However the mirrors had been arranged so that the two appeared to have their backs to each other in the reflection.

The films are only showing at the Film Forum for a day or two at most. Included, is a program of animated shorts Tashlin directed. These are on a double bill with Artists and Models (a Martin & Lewis feature.) Note that this program plays only for one day. So get your tickets. New 35mm prints.

The following features are scheduled:
Sept 1/2 FRI/SAT WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?
SEPT 3 SUN: (Double Bill) HOLLYWOOD OR BUST and SON OF PALEFACE
SEPT 5 TUE: (Double Bill) THE LIEUTENANT WORE SKIRTS and BACHELOR FLAT

SEPT 6 WED: (Double Bill) ARTISTS AND MODELS and TASHLIN LOONEY TUNES (scheduled: Porky’s Romance, Scrap Happy Daffy, Porky Pig’s Feat, and more! )

SEPT 7 THU: (Double Bill) THE DISORDERLY ORDERLY and IT’$ ONLY MONEY

For more info on Tashlin’s films go here.
For an interview with Frank Tashlin by Michael Barrier go here.

- Amid Amidi on his Cartoon Modern site has posted some fine images by Jules Engel as prep work for 1001 Arabian Nights with Mr. Magoo. Take a look.

– Last night I saw the exuberant new musical, Idlewild and just absolutely loved it. It’s a grab-bag of songs by Outkast members André Benjamin and Antwan A. Patton, better known as André 3000, and Big Boi of the hip-hop group OutKast. They all had a hand in writing and performing the songs. The joint is jumping, and it’s not really hip-hop; it’s a hip-hop take on music of the thirties. The dance numbers, choreographed by Hinton Battle, to me, are the heart of the film making it an original and fresh musical of a movie.

All of the reviews I read were negative and with good reason. The movie is a mess of cliches and inability, but the total effect of the songs and dances and cgi animation (cuckoo clocks, musical notes, a rooster on a flask, et al) makes for a lively and fun mess. It should have been 20 minutes shorter, and it might’ve helped if they really knew what they were doing so they could have pulled it off properly.

But you have to love the imagination and enthusiasm. The end result is fun. I had a great time.

Reviews: A thoughtful negative in the LATimes. A pan in the NYTimes. Ditto Daily News.

- Speaking of imagination and enthusiasm, I suspect none of either can be found on Tom & Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers. This is a feature length version of Tom & Jerry Meets The Pirates of the Caribbean and couldn’t be a duller idea. Why don’t they put together all those smoking scenes that the BBC is excising from the older cartoons and make a feature out of that? At least the animation would be good.

- Now if you want to see some imagination, click on over to The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive blog. They’ve posted a slew of classsic Disney model sheets. Of course, they’re in great shape (as are all of the art pieces posted on this vital and necessary site.)

- It was a nice surprise to find a copy of the latest Animation Blast in among the bills yesterday.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Amid Amidi‘s been giving us progress reports for weeks and warning that it should be sent out soon, but, for whatever reason, I wasn’t really expecting it. (Just today, Amid tells us at Cartoon Brew, that 1/4 of the issues have gone out.) When a mag takes as long as this does to develop, you sit back and wait on it. The anticipation is on a low boil, and it makes the arrival so much more enjoyable.

It was the case all those years with Michael Barrier’s Funnyworld. The sheer enjoyment of holding the most recent copy of that publication was enormous. (Unfortunately, disappointment always settled in when you finished reading it, so you’d have to go back and reread earlier issues.)

This is true for Animation Blast. I wasn’t expecting it in the size envelope in which it arrived. The magazine has taken a different dimension. It’s a bit larger than my copy of A Contract With God, and it’s about half as thick.

The contents:
- an article by Pete Doctor on Disney animator, John Sibley;
- an extensive article on Twice Upon A Time (I have a longish story about that one that I’ll save for another day – perhaps after I read this article);
- Jerry Beck‘s article about wartime art by animation artists;
- David Calvo’s article about The Three Caballeros (was this called Three Gay Caballeros once or is it just the song?);
and much more.
The magazine is jam packed with art old and new and has a dynamic modern graphic style all its own.
Go here to see more detail on its contents.

Presently, I’m over the top and have a lot of reading to do. I suggest anyone who hasn’t ordered a copy do it. They’ll go fast. Go here.

– There’s more about the Tom & Jerry anti-smoking story in a number of papers. Apparently, they’re also censoring Scooby Doo’s smoking habits from the H&B cartoons. Here are some of the stories in today’s papers:

- The NYTimes has a short piece.
- ITV has their version
- as does ABC
- Ditto China Daily. (China Daily!)

On Friday night, I saw Alan Bennett‘s play, The History Boys. What a gem! The rare case when the awards went to the right show.

One might have expected the acting to be tired and working by rote. The entire cast had done the run in England, did it in Japan, filmed the movie, and now were deep into the Broadway run – 2 years later. I think LA is next. But no; they were absolutely incredible – every one of them. It was a truly great ensemble.

The two standouts were Richard Griffiths (you probably know him as Harry Potter‘s guardian) and Maggie Steed. She’s temporarily taken over the role for Frances de la Tour, but Ms. Steed could not have been better. She gave this performance everything. Mr. Griffiths gave a performance that can not be forgotten. What a brilliant actor! He’s been stuck in a lot of cartoonish character roles in film, but what an actor!
Richard Griffiths (photo by Joan Marcus)

He has two scenes in this play that break your heart – not just in sympathy for the character but also in empathy for what society is doing to our children in their poor education. He works on so many planes, it’s exciting.

And so does the author work on many planes. Richard Griffiths et al just interpreted.
Alan Bennett.

I have loved this man’s work for years. I’ve read all of his plays, his diaries and have seen all of his film work I was able to find. He is a brilliant, articulate, intelligent author who always has much to say about his characters and the human experience and condition.

Originally, a member of Beyond The Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller, he came to my attention with PBS’ airing of the Talking Heads plays: long monologues set to a one hour tv format. They were thoroughly engrossing and completely captivating. His The Madness of George III was as brilliant on stage as it was on screen. And now The History Boys. I’m not a writer, and I have no real words to describe the excellence I saw and felt. However, I do recognize genius, and this is it.

If only we could get Bennett to write something for animation. The medium certainly needs someone who can write instead of the immature scripts we have. Immature in all senses of the word.

Tickets to the show came as a birthday present (back in April) from my dear Heidi. The seats were incredible, sixth row on the aisle, and absolutely worth the wait.
The perfect production.

- I’ve been doing a little catch up on my site stops this week and have a couple of interesting ones to point out. You’ve probably all seen these since they’re posted on the bigger animation sites, but, in case you haven’t, take a look.

– Amid Amidi has posted a Flickr set of photos of artists who worked in animation in the 1950′s. This is a companion piece to his book, Cartoon Modern and gets me even more excited about reading this book. The photos are not your usual studio pictures. The one to the left, of Aurie Battaglia was just too interesting for me not to post. (It comes from the collection of John Canemaker.)

You can see some of Battaglia‘s children’s book work posted on Shane Glines’ Cartoon Retro. Follow the chatroom link about half way down for some beautiful art.

For more stills from his film, Meet the Inventor: Robert Fulton, go to Amid’s website, Cartoon Modern. (Boy does this guy have the goods.) I have a 16mm print of this short (undoubtedly magenta by now), and it still holds up – unlike so many of the shorts from the McBoing Boing series. The art is always brilliant, but the stories often drag. This film is not The Mysterious Moustache of Raoul Dufy, but it’s still sharp.

And, finally, there’s a strange note posted on i am provincetown by his niece.

- Tonight and tomorrow night in LA, the Hollywood Bowl will be presenting Fantasia live on stage. John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra recreate the film’s music with film clips on the Bowl’s big screens.

- There’s a nifty Ward Kimball animation drawing posted at Jenny Lerew‘s Blackwing Diaries. This is always a great site to visit (as if I had to tell you.)

- The Trozo gallery has built a website to feature the paintings of the Peruvian artist, Eduardo Valdivieso. Take a look at some excellent paintings. I came to this site via Drawn, an excellent site in its own right.

There’s an article on Arthur Q. Bryan (the voice of Elmer Fudd) on AWN. This is more on this actor since Michael Barrier’s article in Funnyworld, years ago.

- Animated-News is at it again. They’ve posted another interview by Christian Ziebarth with Eric Goldberg. It’s a kitchen sink kinda interview, but it’s absolutely engaging. Glad to hear what Eric’s been up to. It’d be nice to see more of this type of interview on the site. Kudos to them; it’s always an informative read.

- On Tuesday, ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive posted a number of early UPA model sheets. These are little gems that should be studied. This site is one of the great ones out there. Everytime I visit, I end up staying for dinner – the guest they can’t get rid of.

- Last but not least is an ad for Honda Accord that took $6 million and took three months to complete. I’m not sure Rube Goldberg had intended this when he created his devices, but it’s still an interesting ad to watch. (Thanks John Dewitte.)

– Currently playing at the Film Forum in New York is Jan Svankmajer’s most recent feature, Lunacy.
I loved this line in the NY Times review by Manohla Dargis: Mr. Svankmajer’s provocations skew toward the intellectual and the shivery rather than the pop and the visceral, and at his best, he doesn’t just get under your skin, but also deep in your head, too.

That’s enough to get me into the theater. The trailer is designed to keep me away. (The least the distributor, Zeitgeist Films, could do in promoting their own film is to spell Edgar Allan Poe correctly. There are two A’s in Allan.)

The Onion also had a review worth reading.

Thank heaven for the Film Forum. They consistently give us alternative films we couldn’t otherwise see. Kudos to Karen Cooper and all the rest involved in the theater and its programming.

There was a time in NYC when a number of theaters would show the more daring films and older movies with pristine prints. Those movie houses have all but disappeared except for the Film Forum which continues like a beacon just around the corner from my studio. It’s a haven for film lovers in New York.

- Thanks to all my friends, old & new, for the support. Claude has at least another month of wearing down to go. It’s gonna take a lot of normalcy from us to support him, and your kind words help.

- Last night I saw World Trade Center, Oliver Stone’s film. It’s so serious of purpose and good intentioned that it doesn’t make for a good film. More like a TV movie with a lot of money to recreate the event via special effects. It’s so earnest.

The acting is brilliant but to no purpose. I was glad to be reminded in vivid detail of the event; it’s not a day I want to forget and doubt I could. However, you look for the tiniest details to be wrong to support your own memory of it. Those hundreds of “Missing” xeroxes pinned everywhere about the City weren’t sharp, focussed, color images of head shots. They were down and dirty xerox copies of fading wedding pictures and out of focus, random photographs. The grittiness of those xeroxes was so beyond words. I know, that’s the only detail I’m picking on, but there were others. This one was so poignant to all of us in NY.

I think we’re too close to it for anyone to give a hardened opinion of the facts. That’s the only thing that could make art out of this highly polished glue and sawdust movie.

Today I’m going to indulge myself. These are two photos of my boy, Claude, taken 18 years ago. The rascal has been a hunter all his life catching mice for sport, daring any pigeon to come near his window screen, and giving Heidi and me endless joy.

We found out yesterday that he now has Cancer in his liver which has metastasized to his right kidney. At 18 he’s too old to operate successfully without causing him pain for the rest of his life. Essentially, that means he has another month or so to go. It’s a blow. He’s still the kitten, to me, and he still acts it. It’s been a tough year.

- Didier Ghez has a new blog called Disney History. This excellent historian offers quite a bit of useful information about Disney and his work. Currently, there’s a lot of reference to books about the man and his studio. It looks to be a new spot for me to visit daily.

– BibliOdyssey is a weblog that features stunningly attractive illustration.

Hundreds of pictures are posted on this site, and you could spend hours appreciating the artwork. Everything from scientific illustration to Russian children’s books to Astronomy paintings from the 19th century can be found here. I got caught up in scanning through some images of frogs. They were painted in 1843 for Oken’s Natural History, but they could have been painted by Picasso.

The site offers excellent reference material, excellent artwork, and good taste. The only information I have about the editor of this site is the name posted, “Peacay at gmale”.

Take a look.

(Thanks to Boing Boing.)
(Click on image to enlarge.)

- From the sublime to the dregs – I mean, dogs:

- Stanley Crouch has an editorial in the NYDaily News, and the NY Post printed an article about the MTV animated program, Where My Dogs At? . The article reports that “episode 4″ shows black women being led about on all fours tethered to a leash. Sounds like a new high point for animation.

The show comes out of Los Angeles. Six Point Harness Studios seems to be producing all of the flash, animated artwork.

The series was created and written by Aaron Matthew Lee and comedian Jeffrey Ross. It’s directed by Greg Franklin. Naturally, the show – which seems to be designed to mock celebrities – has the same coarse sense of humor that Jeffrey Ross employs in his stand-up acts. Just a little more bad taste in the world airing for children to see it at 12:30 last Saturday.

To get an idea of what the flash animated show looks like go to YouTube for a Lindsay Lohan clip.

Happy Birthday MTV.