l

/' ,4~:",-, „: 'm'- 'yr . i7. " , " ' :

II I
I
I I'
Animato is a great place to advertise characters. Many vintage drawings, too. (201) 842-8489. Inquiries kept confiden-
original art, books, films and tapes, and GALLERY LAINZBERG, 200 Guaran- tial.
other products of interest to our enthusi- ty Building, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401.
astic readership of animation fans. Full FOR A FREE CATALOG, CALL 1- COLLECTIBLES FOR SALE
page ads are $60; half-pages are $30; 800-553-9995
quarter pages are $15. (Typesetting is in- 16MM CARTOONS. S uperb collec-
cluded in these prices if you need it.) STAY TOONED! O R IGINAL ANI- tion of Warners, Fleischer, Avery, Har-
Classifieds are also available, at 15 cents MATION ART for sale! Our selection man-Ising, much more. Great stuff!!
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an ad, or for further information, write including Warner Brothers, Disney, Han- first purchase to Animato readers. C.G.
us at An imato advertising, PO B ox na-Barbera, etc. W e h ave eels, ani- Vesce, Box 223, Wanaque, NJ 07465.
1240, Cambridge, MA 02238. mator'sdrawings, and backgrounds from
vintage to contemporary cartoons! For a ANIMATION COLLECTIBLES!
ORIGINAL ART FOR SALE free illustrated price list, contact us: Books, videos,art and more. Send for
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FREE CA TALO G O F O R IGINAL PO Box 7540-AN, Nashua, NH 03060. 1643, Burbank, CA 91507.
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display America's hottest collectible:
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A nimation Art f r o m

CEl -f l3RcLTIOhl~
S I~ECIAI. I Z I N 6 IN
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PA M M r L R T I ! tiil P. O B O X 42 3
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Also Available: For more information write:

Art from the Chipmunks' Bagdasarian Productions
T.V. shows and specials. 4400 Coldwater Cyn Bl. ¹315
Studio City, CA 91604

(c) 1988 Bagdasarian Productions The Chipmunkstii Bagdasarian Productions

SPOTLIGHT ON WARNER BROS. REGULAR FEATURES
8 AN INTERVIEW WITH FRIZ FRELENG 4 PRAXINOSCOPE
In a rare interview, Warner Bros. gteat Friz Freleng chats Animato'smelange of news, commentary, and more.
about his career, from the Kansas City of the 1920s to the
golden age at Warner's, to the creation of Depatie-Freleng, 26 SHORT SUBJECTS
his own studio. Reviews of recent films, books, and television programs,/
Interview by Jerry Beck including a look at the current Saturday-morning season.

16 THE TRIUMPH OF TERMITE TERRACE 39 ANIMATO FILM POLL

The Warner Bros. cartoons finally have their own coffee-
table art book Steve Schneider'sThat's All Folks! An
examination of the book, and why it took so long for it to
COLUMNS
get here. 2 ANIMATORIAL/FAN MAIL
Review by David Bastian
31 FLIPBOOKS
18 TOONS ON TAPE David Bastian on recent animation books, including works
Our video column concentrates on Warner Bros. cartoons by Shamus Culhane and Len Lye.
newly available on videotape, ranging from early Bosko
rarities to a 1970s Chuck Jones production. 34 KOKO KOMMENTS
Column by Matthew Hasson G. Michael Dobbs takes some time out to answer reader
mail.
INTERVIEW
36 JIM KORKIS'S ANIMATION ANECDOTES
26 "ONCE UPON A TIME IN NEW YORK Old favorite (Harlequin), new name: Jim Korkis's roundup
CITY" of tidbits and trivia about animation past and present.
Director George Scribner takes behind the scenes of
Disney's latest animated feature, the very popularOliver h 40 A Lrm E B I R DIE TOLD ME
Company. Also, a review of the film. Thelma Scumm, animation's most prominent society
Interview by Harry McCracken reporter, tells all about everybody who's anybody.

STAFF DISTRIBUTORS
Harry McCracken Capitol City Distribution, Inc., 2827 Perry St,
Edi torlArt Director' Madison, Wl 55713

Mke Ventrella Comics Unlimited, Ltd., 6833 Amboy Rd., Staten

Co-EditorlPublisher Island, NY 10309

David Bastian, Steve Batory, Jerry Beck, Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc., 1720 Behnont
G. Michael Dobbs, Timothy Fay, Ethan Ave., Bay C-2, Baltimore, MD 21207
Gilsdorf, Matthew Hasson, Jim Korhs,
Mark Mayerson, Bob Miller, Stu Friendly Frank's Distribution, Inc., 3990 Broadway,
Schiffman, Thelma Scumm, Steve Gary, IN 46408
Segal, Bob White
Contributors ANIMATO (1SSN: 1042-539X) ¹18, Spring
1989. Published at PO Box 1240, Cambridge, MA,
Shamus Culhane,HeidiHooper, 02238. Subscription rate: $10.00 for four issues in
Natalie McCracken, Melissa Schwarz, North America; $15.00 in US funds elsewhere.
Allied Advertising, Walt Disney Original contents copyright (c) 1989 Animato except
Pictures where noted. Unsolicited manuscripts and artwork
Special Thanks should be accompanied by a SASE.
 THEY DON'T MAIM THEM
LIKE THEY USED TO
p ne of the nice things about
the art of animation, and
something that sets it apart from
By HARRY MCCRACKEN

Chuck Jones took as much advan-

most popular media, is its timeless- tage of the situation as anyone. He
ness. The Warner Bros. characters made one-shots,like One Froggy
whom we focus on in this issue of Evening, and felt no obligation to
Animatohave been around for dec- turn them into series. He used charac-
ades; while the songs, live-action ters like Hubie and Bertie and the
films, and other products of the time Three Bears sparingly, resisting the
have becomeperiod pieces, Bugsand tempation to run them into the
Daffyhave remained ever-young and ground. And when characters rich in
popular. possibility came along - B u gs,
What makes the Warner cartoons, Daffy,Wile E. Coyote -he developed
and other great animation, so time- rated; the excellence of Warner, MGM, their personalities over the course of
less? Why has relatively little of the and other animation producers as many years.
animation produced in this country in studios in the artistic, pre-Hollywood This room to experiment and refine
the lasttwo or three decades shared sense of the word rather less so. What was directly responsible for many of
that quality? There are countless an- the directors of the golden age had (the the great characters being able to
swers to those questions, but I ability to make several short animated reach their potential for greatness;
suspect one of the reasons has to do films a year, with adequate budgets, the creation of Bugs Bunny is the
with the special strengths of the theat- staffs, and deadlines) and what was classic example. The rabbit began
rical cartoon short as a format for required of them (simply to make the as an unfunny one-shot character who
animation. cartoonsfunny) was priceless. little resembled his later self, then
The Disney studio's unique place in went through several distinct stages
animation history as a center of ex- Illustration copyright (c) 1989 Warner ofdevelopmentbeforereachingmatur-
perimentation and growth is oft-celeb- Communications, Inc. (Continued on page7)

sics version is McBadger simply

answering the door to find Ratty and
Mole taken aback by his anger. And
no wonder. Without the previous
sequence, McBadger's fury (not to
pP,O® mention his line of sight, over Mole
g Ir > ~ and Ratty's heads) makes no sense.
Y78
proOU5OE9. Perhaps other purists can locate
SO< i.~a« additional cuts. Perhaps Disney can
c/o " >Z~o offer an explanation.
pox 0 »~8
C z~ " FAN SEEKS
UNCENSORED CARTOONS
Jonathan Sweeney
Andover, MA
I had read in volume I, issue 4 of
Animation Magazine that MGM/UA
MR. TOAD'S CREDITORS brief sequences cut from the original. would be selling a tape of World War
REPORTED MISSING When the newspaper reports of Mr. H cartoons including Bugs Bunny
Alan Dean Foster Toad's trial are flashed on the screen, ¹ps the ¹ips and a Tex Avery tape
Prescott, AZ one or two of the originals are not in- including The Blitz Wolf. Can you
Like the new, larger format. Better cluded in the Mini~ s i cs version. tell me if any companies plan on
for the artwork and far more profes- Of much more importance is the ex- releasing any World War II training
sional looking. cision of the confrontation at the en- cartoons? (I already have about ten
Purists should be forewarned that trance to Toad Hall between the harried Private Snafu cartoons,The Spirit of
the Disney Mini-Classics tape of McBadger and Toad's angry creditors. '43, andCamouflage.) Will anybody
Wind in the Willowshas at least two What we have instead in the Mini-Clas- ever releaseCoal Black and de Seb-
 ben Dwarfs? And will Animato reprint been in Hollywood until the 1960s; the
any back issues that are sold out?
(To answer your last question first, there
SleepingBeauty goons would not have
been around that early, either. A friend Some yeoyle yo
are no plans presently to reprint out-of-
print issues of Animato. Public demand
of mine says that the inclusion of the t o extremes.. .
Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote is also
might possibly sway us, though, so an anachronism, but it is possible that
those who want them can feelPee to let they mayhave been in Hollywood fora
their desire be known. (Yours is not the yearortwo looking forwork beforeWar-
first query we' ve heard about the ner hired them. 'Ibis past Summer at
subject.) the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, the Canadian
As for your other questions, MGMIUA animator Peter Adamkos pointed out
has recently released Tez Avery and that the Goofy cartoon Roger Rabbit
wartime cartoon tapes, but they don' t watches was released a year after the
include the little-seen cartoons you events of the film were taking place.
mention. Given the radically different at- (We noticed the frog who hopped up the
titudes towards racial stereotypes that steps of the Maroon Cartoon studio, but
prevail today, we find it hard to believe decided after thinking it over that he
that MGMIUA would make those car- probablywasn'tMi chigan J.,because of
toons or Coal Black available on tape. his derby and other visual differences
Your best bet to locate World War Il- from thelegendary Chuck Jones charac-
themed cartoons is probably the cata- ter. S i milarly, the Bozo-like clown
logues of videotapes that cater to col- seemed tous to be one of several made-
lectors, some of which include cartoons of-whole-cloth characters who appeared
which are otherwise unavailable. See in crowd scenes.)
'Toons on Tape" on page l8 for reviews
of two such tapes.) Like us,for example — Hake's
JAPANIMATION DEBATE
CONTINUES Americana L Collectibles. We
ROGER RABBIT A SPOOF, Mark Dmuchowski don't dress up in roller skates,
NOT A MYSTERY STORY Sarasota, FL but we do produce six mail and
Donald Ahn Webster Like a reader of yours whose letter was phone bid auction catalogues
Hapeville, GA printed in the latest issue of Animato, each year offering over 15,000
It was most interesting to read Harry Gary Weir, I'd like to see more articles old and original nostalgia collec-
McCracken's review of Who Framed on Japanese animation, or at least more tibles. All items are illustrated
Roger Rabbit [Animato 017], but I space of some kind devoted to it. For and accurately described so you
think he has missed a rather obvious too long, I' ve read articles exalting the can bid by mail or phone from
point. It is not a "a mystery. story," it brilliance of this American animator or the comfort ofyour home or
is a sendup of mystery stories. It is a that British director, without a mention office. So, if you collect items in
parody, a spoof. '11ie plot bears some of any of Japan's top animators and the following categories, or just
(obviously notcoincidental) resemblance directors. I hope the influx of Japanese want a pictorial time capsule of
to the plot of Chinatown. That the ex- comics into America will make it easier the pastninety years, send $3
phnation to the title question is "ob- for Japanese animation to get a fair and we will send our next 200
vious, confusing, and improbable" is shake both on TV and in the theaters. page catalogue. A four catalogue
intentional; it is a spoof of serious mys- Bob Miller's article on Di s ney's subscription is $10.
tery stories where the solution was "ob- Adventures of the Gummi Bears was
AOVERTISINB MOVIE STARS
vious, confusing, and improbable." In- especially appreciated! Now I know that AVIATION OLYMPICS
deed, Judge Doom was such an obvious someone feels the way I do - that it's a BASEBALL PAPEROOLLS
BATTERYTOYS PERSONALITIES
villain that I doubt if anyone was in- damn fine show, both artistically and BIBLITTLE BOOKS POCKETlNTCHES
BOY SCOUTS POLITICALITEMS
tended to be surprisaL storywise. The jokes are great, and the BUCKROGERS PULPS
The list of cameos of noted toons was production is topnotch. It's been one of CAP GUNS RADIOPREMIUMS
. COMIC CHARACTERS, ALL ROBOTS
interesting, and included many I had not my favoriteSaturday-morning shows DISNEYCHARACTERS, ALL ROY ROGERS
DIXIE LIOS SHIRLEYTEMPLE
spotted. Of course, when they.got to since it premiered. I hope that Disney ELVIS PRESLEY SUPERHEROES
Toontown, things went by so fast, it will eventually syndicate it so it can EXPOSITIONS TV COLLECTIBLES
FAMOUS COMPANIES TEDDYBEARREIATEO
was hard to spot all that was going on. compete with other daily offerings. FAMOUSPEOPLE TOM MIX
GENEAUTRY TOYS. ALLTYPES
I did notice a few not on your list: Bozo (Gummi Bearsis presently being offered BUu CARBS WESTERNHEROES
the Clown, the Dodo Bird (from Porky to local TV stations for airing beginning HOPALONGCASSIOY WINDUPTOYS
HOWDY BOOBY WIZARD OFOZ
in Wackyland), Homer Pigeon, and in Fall l990; the package will include JAMES BONO WORLD WVI PATRIOTIC
Michigan J. Frog (fmm One Froggy MARX PLAYSE
TS ZEPPELIN
both networkreruns and made-for-syn-
Evening).I don'tknow how you man- ...ANO MUCHNIOREI
dication episodes. Japanese animation
aged to miss that last one. No doubt
there were others I missed as welL
fans should check out Bob Miller's
article in this issue's "Praxiniscope" for
Hake's
Americaaa R Collectibles
There werea number of anachronisms some good news about a new company P.O. Box 1444 • York, PA 17405
in Roger Rabbit. The penguin waiters that will be bringing Japanese films to Phone 717 / 848-1333
from Mary Poppins should not have American audiences.)
 The World of Animation
ON THE Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers.
Copyright(c) 1989 The Walt Disney
shortly before his death. Scheduled for
release at Christmas (the sequel is al-

DRAWING Com
pany. ready in the works).

BOARD
The Little Mermaid
Look for Disney's next feature to be
hyped as its first fairy tale sinceSleep-
ing Beauty when it p remieres this
Below, a hardly all-inclusive list of nota- Thanlmgiving. Directed by John Mus-
ble upcoming animation releases for the- ker and Ron Clements; score by Howard
aters, television, and videotape. Ash man.

All DogsGo to Heaven The Rescuers Down Under

Also known as Charlie, the Heavenly Disney feature-length animation's first
Dog, Don Bluth's newest film (this time sequel (sinceThe Three Cat alleros, any-
without the collaboration of Steven way): the further adventures of Miss
Spielberg) is scheduled for release some Biancaand Bernard. Directed by Hendel
time this year. Voices include Burt Rey- Butoy and Mike Gabriel; scheduled for
nolds and the omnipresent Dom DeLu- 1990.
Jetsons: the Movie
What was planned as a live-action fea- Rollercoaster Rabbit
Babar: the Movie ture turned into an animated one some- The first of .a planned series of real
Jean de Brunhoff's kingly elephant will where along the way; George O'Hanlon Roger Rabbit cartoons hits the theaters
appear in a Nelvana animated feature dir- completed his role as George Jetson (Continued on page7)
ected by Alan Bunce. His Royal High-
nessreaches theaters in July.

Bambi
The young princebecomes the newest
star of the "Disney Classics" videotape
line when the classic 1942 film is re- 0

leased on tape in November.

Bullwinkle
Jay Ward's classic show makes its long,
long-overdue appearance on (legitimate)
videotape later this yern. To be released
by Disney, of all people.

Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers

Disney's chipmunks will muscle in on
the territory of Alvin, Simon and Theo-
dore in both a syndicated series this Fall
(currently being previewed on The Dis-
ney Channel) and an original theatrical
film to be released in February 1990. litt u

DuckTales
The latest exotic locale visited by Uncle
Scrooge and the nephews will be the big NAX
FISKllER ~agf QTra sppp ~
screen, in the first of a series of original
TV-style theatrical animated features
Ip "Laoa offb(est'ioa-(~rpp)
Rom Disney. Cartoon Siu Schiffman
 THEFLYINGMOUSE: When he fhes over lus house to nnpress
his mother, brothers and sister, the shad-
ow he casts on the ground terrifies them.
'Ikey run into the house and refuse to let
him in. The mouse takes refuge in a
cave, where he meets some bats who
call him brother. The mouse denies it.
By Mark Mayerson FromThe Flying Mouse. Illustration The bats declare thatno mouse ever had
The Disney Silly Symphony The Fly- eopyrt ght(c) 1989 The Wait Disney
wings, and if he's not a mouse and not a
ing Mouse(1934) has been discussed by Company.
bat, he's a nothing.
several commentators. In Of Mice and
The mouse flees and tries to tear off
Magic, Leonard Maltin discusses the ')
~ re his wings. He is unable to, and breaks
color styling of the film. In Disney Ani-
mation: The Illusion of Life, Thomas down andcries. One of his tears turns
into the fairy and she fulfills his wish to
and Johnston write about the advances
return to his former state. She counsels
made in character aniination. So far, the
film's most interesting point has escaped him to be happy being himself and then
discussion. Thematically, this film is (2t
= ~ ,
vanishes. The mouse returns home and
his family eagerly embraces him.
opposite to much of the Disney studio's
Dumbo (1941) takes the idea of a
woik.
"wrong" animal being able to fly and
We are all familiar with the Disney
treats it as a triumph. That's the kind of
attitude that dreams can come true. In
Disney attitude we would expect. The
Pinocehia (1939), Jiminy Cricket sings
that "when you wish upon a star your Flying Mouse is a deeply conservative
film, implying a sort of class conscious-
dreams come true." I n Ci n derella
ness. It seemsto say that you should be
(1950), a song proclaims that "a dream
is a wish your heart makes." In these happy with whatever life has dealt you.
You shouldn't dream of anything out of
films, the characters' dreams come true,
the ordinary, because it will make you
and they are better off for it. In The
different than the rest of your kind and
Flying Mouse,the title character's dream he discovers that the butterfly is really a
comes true, but it results in a night- fairy. She offers to reward him and he you will be ostracized. With this kind
of reasoning, Dumbo would have ended
mare. requests a pair of wings. The fairy com-
with the elephant having normally-sized
A little boy mouse watches birds fly plies, but warns him that "a mouse was
and yearns for wings himself. He imag- never meant to fly."
I would love to know who within the
ines himself the focus of the birds' adu- He joins the birds' airshow, and ends
studio was responsible for the story de-
lation for his graceful flying skills. his display by applauding himself. The
velopment on this project and whether
When he saves a butterfly from a spider, birds are scared of him and fly away.
this theme is echoed in any of their
other work. It certainly seems to run
EXTRA/ EXTRA! counter to the studio's usual attitudes. I
wonder what Walt Disney's own atti-
tudes towards this story were.
This film was in production at around
the time that Disney decided to doSnow
White. Does this film represent Dis-
Everybody knows thatAnt'mato never us to publish a few correctionsto "My ney's doubts about trying to make car-
makes mistakes, right? Well, no. Be- Youth in Cartoonia," his article on toons more than just mice? Is this film
ing human, we do. Readers ofJim Hanna-Barbera that we published in Disney's nightmare of failure? Disney
Korhs's "Harlequin" column in the last issues ¹15 and ¹16. Lo opy de Loop was about to push animation into areas
issue may have been startled to note that premiered in September, 1987 on the it had never been, and about to push
it credited Walt Disney with doing some USA Network, along with segments of himself from being a shorts producer to
animation in Pinocchio.He didn' t, of Magilla Gorilla, Quick Draw McGraw, a feature producer. Was he afraid that
course; Walt Kelly was the Walt in and Wally Gator. The "Invisible Mon- the film industry and the public wouldn' t
question,as was reasonably clear from ster inJonny Questtlueatened Hadji, not accept him in the new role, and that he' d
the context. (The mistake was your edi- Jonny, when the rocket belt failed to be sorry he attempted it? Does The
tor's, not Jim' s.) function. The characterTed Cassidy Flying Mouserepresent the part of Dis-
In the Jack Hannah interview in the voiced inThe Fantastic Four was Galac- ney that wanted to play it safe and stay
same issue, Hannah says he thinks he tus, not "Galacticus" (our typo, not with what he was familiar with?
didn't direct any Charlie Beary cartoons Bob's). Finally, in The Funky Phan- Somewhere in the Disney Archives are
while at the Lantz studio. Mark Mayer- tom, Micky Dolenz voiced Skip, and the story credits for this film and the
son points out that Hannah did direct Tommy Cook played Augie. notes from the story conferences. May-
one:Fowied-Up Birthday (1962). We don'tplan on making any mistakes be they' ll supply some clues as to what
As long as we' re clearing up errata in this issue, or future ones, but please, made The FlyingMouse such an un-
from past issues, Bob Miller has asked if you note any, let us know. usual Disney cartoon.
AMMATO 5
 STREAMLINE PICTURES:

By Bob Miller America, the corporate-mentality think- ious flying castle. Laputa will be re-
For years, Americans could only see ing of the movie companies that produce leased to selected cities beginning this
Japanese animation at science fiction animation is to make musical comedies Spring. Streamline will also show an
conventions or at club gatherings, where about talking animals. unusual film called T wilight of t h e
fuzzysecond-generation videotapecopies "I don't care if it's the greatest cartoons Cockroachesduring that time. Twilight
would play on TV screens in a language ever made, like the Warner Bros. car- is a mix of live-action and animation,
unhmiliar to most viewers. T h ose toons; we' re in trouble if animation's about cockroaches battling humans-
cartoons dubbed into English usually just pigeonholed as funny animals. lrom the cockroaches' point of view.
had their storylines substantially altered Take Disney as the god of animation. While Laputahas aheady been dubbed
by American distributors, who also edit- He neverdid that. He had funny car- by the Japanese, Streamline will be dub-
ed out scenes depicting mature subject toons with Mickey Mouse; he had dra- bing its future releases. In rare cases,
matter such as sex and violence. matic cartoons like The Old Mill; and he films such as Twilight of the Cock-
Now Streamline Pictures, a new did experiments like Fantasia, full- roaches will be subtitled. C u rrently,
distribution company, has been formed length featiues that were fairy talks like Streamline is negotiating for the rights
to bring the finest Japanese animation to Snow White, and realistic nature dramas to show Fist of t he North Star, Lens-
this country. Features will be presented like Bambi. Di v e rsification like that man, and Akira, which it hopes to re
on big movie screens as they were proves you can tell all sorts of stories in
lease this year, with more movies to
meant to be shown, and translated into animation. follow the next year.
English while remaining true to the "The Japanese have taken animation in Jerry Beck believes the time is right
originals. directions that the animation film direc-for Japanese animated films in this coun-
"What we hope to do is really start a tors in America are afraid to go into and
try, with 1989 shaping up as the year of
sensation," says Jerry Beck, Streamline's haven't gone into," Beck says. "They' rethe fantasy hero: with Batman, Indiana
cofounder and president of distribution. doing all sorts of things, from children' s
Jones, Ghostbusrers, Star Trek, and
"'Ihe general public is not aware of these stories to adult drama. That's the way others.
kinds of films. And we think that a lot animation should be. Says Beck, "We' re competing against
of people are going to discover a whole "They' re doing basically what we' re
iton the one hand,and on the otherhand
new world ofwhat can be done in the importing; well-done, mature fantasy we' re not, because we' re not going head-
world of animation with these films." films. They would be rated 'PG' or 'R' to-head with multi-million-dollar produc-
Beck has been involved with film for the most part. Things happen in tions and giant advertising budgets and
distribution for many years, with Orion these films that would cost a fortune to opening in one thousand theaters on
Classics and MGM/UA, and with Expan- be produced in live-action. There's def- Friday afternoon. We' re playing to art
ded Entertainment (the company that initely a place for these kinds of mov- theaters, which are not the same theaters
distributes the Tournees of Animation, ies. that will be playing these other movies.
the Festival of Claymation, and other By working as a " middle man," And we' re going after a d i f ferent
compilations). He's written numaous Streamline will be servicing several audience. The thing is, we' re hoping to
articles on animation for magazines in- groups of people: fans interested in high- profit by their success. And there' s
cluding Animato, and with Will Fried- quality animation; Japanese animators certainly enough money to go around for
wald has co-authored the Warner Bros. who want their work released in the Uni- all these films.
cartoon reference book Looney Tunes ted States, presented properly on the "Our company is a very small com-
and Menie Melodies: a Complete Illus- movie screen; and theaters looking for pany. We do not anticipate being in the
trated Guide to the Warner Brothers Car- innovative, off-beat movies that don' t same league as Paramount Pictures and
toons. usually play at mall cinemas. their Indiana Jones. There's just no
"I believe in all different styles of To address the fans, Beck says, "We' re way. These (Japanese animation) films
animation," Jerry Beck says. "I'm not going to be tying in with a lot of comic- should be distributed by those com-
going to say that Japanese animation is book conventions. We' re taking out panies and given the grand-scale treat-
better than American animation. I think ads, and we' re going to tie into local ment. But they' re not.
anyone who says that is wrong. I think comic book stores. We want to get the "We' re here to hopefully get the ball
anyone who says that is ignorant of word out that these films are coming out rolling, to hopefully start an explosion
what's going on i n t h e wo r ld o f in the theater." of Japanese animation awareness in this
animation. The first Streamline release is Hayao country. What's really going on here is
"But the Japanese offer an alternative. Miyazaki's Laputa: the Castle in the there is high-quality work that's being
They make films that are dramatic, that Sky. The story involves a boy and a done, excellent films being made, and
are adult, that tackle subject matter that girl outwitting government agents and there's an audience for it in this country.
they just don't tackle in this country. In air pirates, while searching for a myster- That's what we' ie about."
6 ANMATO
 Nod I s4wl"Y(dk h "~~ltvgff • CON
TRIIIUTORS'NOTES
-Alisdxf NavskovHs Sohotfo- 'J>1 David Bastian is a New Yotk-vased
animator and teacher. Ti m othy Fay
is a freelance writer and cartoonist, cur-
Chaactl(
~ y » rently working on his bachelor's degree
in computer science at the University of
TheOatol. Minnesota Ji m K o rkis has contrib-
Tris uted to just about every animation and
comics magazineyou can think of,and
is co-editor of Cartoon Quarterly. Mat-
thew Hasson, one of Animato'smost
prolific writers, has contributed some-
thing to almost every issue since ¹5.
Mark Mayerson is an animator with
. Side Effects, a Toronto-based computer
graphics company. Bo b Mi l ler is a
Srequent contributor to Animato who has
schule: RWET5 also written for Starlog and Comics
W~ UF ' S Scene. Stu Schiffmanis the writer
and artist of Sax and Violet, the back-up
feature in the comic book Captain
Confederacy. Steve Segalis a Holly-
wood-based animator, presently with
Gwcler ksyo hy p~ 5ckiFlman American Interactive Media

ABOUT
THECOVER
ANIMATORIAL cunently producing new Roger Rabbit
(Continued from page2) cartoons and featurettes starring Mickey This issue's cover (artist unknown, un-
ity in A Wild Hare (1940). There hasn' t and Donald and the gang. It's encour- fortunately) celebrates this issue's Friz
been arealplace forcartoon characters to aging to see these studios making this Freleng interview and focus on Warner
develop in this way since the death of tentative, small-scale return to the form; Bros. cartoons by reprinting the illus-
the Hollywood short, which goes a long let's hope it's successful enough to war- tration portion of the title card prepared
way towards explaining why so few rant more. to advertise Freleng's 1946 cartoonHol-
memorableones have emerged. lywood Dyk
ey. Illustration copyright (c)
At first glance, the animated television On an entirely different subject, this 1989 Warner Communications, Inc.
series seems to offer a lot of the poten- issue of Animato would not be complete
tial that the theatrical cartoon had for without some mention of this year' s DRAWING BOARD
this kind of experimentation, but it has- Academy Award for best animated short. (Continued Pore page4)
n't often worked out that way. Have No, we don't take the Oscars themselves this Summer. ( See "A L i ttle Birdie
Fred Flintstone, Scooby-Doo, and Fat that seriously, but the awarding of one Told Me," page 40.)
Albert grown as characters over the to a film animated by computer - John
many years they' ve been around? Not Lasseter's Tin Toy - is a truly signifi- Tale Spin
really. (To be fair, theatrical characters cant event. Computer animators long It's a spinoff of DuckTales - get it? The
like Heckleand Jeckle never demon- ago proved themselves capable of pro- JungleBook's Baloo and King Louie go
strated much personality development, ducing snazzy TV sports titles, and more syndicated beginning Fall 1990. (See
either.) recently have made some pretty impres- "A Little Birdie Told Me," page 40.)
There is at least a little reason for sive commercials. But Tin Toy'sOscar
optimism. Mighty Mouse: the New Ad- m arks the computer's coming of age as a Tiny Tunes
ventures has exhibited some of t h e tool for real storytelling and character Steven Spielberg brings us pint-sized
creative impulses of the classic theatrical animation. relatives of the Warner Bros. characters
shorts; see Animato ¹16 f or f o rmer in this new syndicated series, starting
Senior Director John Kricfalusi's expla- Finally, an invitation. Would you like Fall 1990. (See "A Little Birdie Told
nation of how he modeled the staffs to share your opinion of recent animated Me," page 40.)
organization after the old Hollywood fihns and TV shows? Why not send us
studios. And the theatrical animated a paragraph or two on them for our Who Framed Roger Rabbit
shortitself,gone for so many years,is letters section? It's an easy and fun way You'll finally be able to spot every ani-
staging a quiet comeback: Warner Bros. to make your voice heard among a lotof mated cameo and in-joke when hst
released two new Daffy Duck shorts last enthusiastic animation fans. You might year's biggest theatrical hit makes its vid-
year, though not widely, and Disney is even start a contioversy. eotape debut in October.
 BY JERRY BECK

In thecourse of researching my new, BECK: You started in Kansas City He had worked for Film Ad, but nobody
completely rewritten Warner Bros. car- with Disney, right? had ever heard of him. A s h i story
toon filmography Looney Tunes and shows, he tried to do some films there.
Merrie Melodies: a Complete Illustrated FRELENG: Disney wasn't at United So did Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising.
Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons Fihn Ad Service when I was there, but They tried to do some local films, but
(Henry Holt Publishers) with Will he had just left. S ee, I base half or it didn't work
Friedwald, I had the pleasure of meeting almost all of m y w h ole career on I told them I didn't know anything
one ofthe legendary figures in Warner destiny, where something's guiding me about animation. I used to watch Tetry-
cartoon history, Friz Freleng. besides myself. toons, but I didn't know how they got
Friz has retired from active cartoon When I had just graduated from high them on the screen and really didn't give
production, but he remains quite active school, I was looking for a job, and it any thought. Any more than people
in the animation field. An arrangement there was an ad in a Kansas City paper think today about how a picture gets on
with Circle Galleries htts him touring for an office boy that could draw. So I a television tube. They just accept it,
the country promoting limited-edition put a bunch of drawings together, and and so did I.
eels,and he hasjust been signed as a headed downtown to Film Ad to apply So they said, "Well, we' ll teach you."
consultant, along with Chuck Jones, to for that job. But I got to the door and 'Ihe only ones there were Hugh Har-
Steven Spielberg'snew Warner series said, "Oh, I don't want to show this man, and Ub, who was ready to leave.
Tmy Tillles. stuff." I was embarrassed by it. So I There was a fellow by the name of Ben
I met Friz Freleng as his guest at the turned around and went home, didn' t Hardaway working there, and Tubby
Friars Club in Beverly Hills on August even apply. MiHar was working there. They were
22nd, 1988. With his permission, I rec- My mother said, "Did you get the writers who wrote ads. They came after
orded ourlunchtime chat; Harry Nc- job?" And I said, "No, it was already I did.
Cracken transcribed and edited this taken." And about two weeks later that Hugh Harman had the patience to sit
informal interview for publication. same ad appeared, and this time I got up down andgive me an idea how they did
Jerry Beck the nerve to go in and ask for the job, it. And then Ub left, and Hugh was
and they said "It's yours." $27.50 a ready to go, too. A f t er Hugh left, I
week, which was a lot of money. was left alone. They got Ben Harda-
Walt hadgone, and Ub Iwerks was way trying to do some animation too,
Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations ready to leave. which he didn't want to do, 'cause he
accompanying this interview are copy- didn't know anything about it. But
right (c) 1989 0'amer Communica- Was Walt well known at that time in once in a while when they were just
tions, Inc. Kansas City? overloaded, he did some.
 No, I did not. See when I came to work
for Walt, I couldn't get along with him.
He had tohave a whipping boy, and I
guess I was the guy. There was a little
guy by the name of Ham Hamilton who
worked forhim before,and Walt made
life so miserable for him that Ham quit.
I didn't know I was taking Ham's job, or
I probably wouldn't have. I f I h a d
known Ham at that time, I would never
have taken it, because I loved the guy.
So I didn't get along with Walt, and I
quit and went back to Kansas City and
worked for Film Ad again. And I corres-
ponded with Hugh Harman, and he said
everybodywas leaving Walt. Hugh, and
Rudy [Ising]...

That was when they signed that contract

with Mi ntz (to do Oswald cartoons J?

Yes. And then Ub left also, and started

his own studio. And that's all history,
as you probably know already.
Then Icame out here and worked for
Charlie Mintz, who was really a nut.
fLaughs] And Walt Lantz was working
for him, too. Right in the middle of ev-
, erything, it seemed like, Universal took
it away from Charles Mintz, and gave it
After Hugh left, I said, "I don't know before."So one weekend they'd add five to Lantz. So Hugh, Rudy, myself, and
how to do this." And he said, "Get a dollars, another they'd add five dollars, Hamilton did a film with sound - Bosko
book at the library called Lutz's Book of and by the time got to the $47.50 I was the Talk-Ink Kid.
Animation." So I did, and that was ac- ready to leave anyway. So I told Walt I I stayed with Hugh and Rudy through
ceptable to them. Everything was ac- was coming out, and I did come out. the start of the Schlesinger erL When
ceptable in those days, because the guys Walt met me at a little old station near we lost the contract with Schlesinger,
who hired us didn't know beans. They where the Union Station is now, the we were doing work for Van Beuren,
didn't know as much as we did, which Santa Fe station. Walt had a roadster, farm-out work. I stayed with Hugh, but
was zero. and took me to the studio over on Hy- I thought he was going nowhere. Not
Then Walt started corresponding with perion. that I could see the future.
me, asking me to come out. Hugh Har- When Leon Schlesigner tempted me
man had told him there was a guy out in What werethey working on then? away from Hugh and Rudy when they
Kansas City at Film Ad who looked like went to MGM, I had a guilt complex
he had potential. And so Walt offered They were just finishing Alice and start- about it. S chlesinger sent Ray Katz
me fifty dollars a week to come out. I ing on Oswald. They put me to work over to see me, called me every once in
said I didn't know anything about ani- next to Ub Iwerks, to animate. a while, and tempted me to come over.
mation, but was willing to learn. He hadhireda guy by the name of Tom
When I told the people at United Film You were friendly with them? Palmer,and Jack King, a couple ofguys
Ad service I was leaving, they said "Oh, from Disney. Guys who were not
no, we'd love to have you. We' ll give Oh, yeah. Well there were only four ani- making it.
you more money." They came up to mators there. Hugh Harman was very
$47.50. So I hesitated to come out. I nice to me. He's really the guy who Who was Earl Duval? He directed two
had never left home, so it was a big guided me. cartoonsand then disappeared, asfarasI
move for me. I figured if I didn't like I owe everything to Hugh. I didn' t know.
California, or Walt didn't like what I did, know Hugh when I went to school, but
what was I going to do? There was no I knew his name. I used to see his draw- He was a very lovable man, but a heavy
place out here to work - everything was ings and his name, but I never met him. drinker. And he did the best cartoons
in New York at that time. He drew a lot like John Held, Jr. at that over there before I got there. And when
Funny thing about United Film Ad time. Hugh seemed to be restricted in I came over they let Tom Palmer go.
Service: they said, "Oh, we' re going to what he did. He was an imitator. Really, these were not writers. They
raise you twenty dollars, but we can were pretty good animators, but they
only give it to you a little at a time, Did you remain in touch with Disney weren't creative people.
because we' ve never given such raises and Iwerksthroughout the years? I met Earl Duval at the drugstore for
 rie Melodies. Since I was the senior
animator, I was doing them. Then when
Tex [Avery]came over,he locked onto
the Porky Pig character.

You leftWarner Bros. and took Hugh

Harman's place at MGM for a while.

Fred Quimby tempted me to come over.

LL He offered me a totof m oney; forme at
J that time, it was a hell of a lot of mon-
ey. I signed up in August, and my con-
tract was up in October with Schles-
inger. And Leon was madder than hell.
He said, "You'didn't give me a chance to
compete before you signed up with
lum "
When I got there, Fred Quimby said to
me, "Do anything you want to do.
What are you going to do?" And I said,
From Beauty and the Beast(1934).
"I don't know. If I had something in
breakfast onemottling,
and he wasdrunk Buddy seemslike a character they came mind, I would be making it over at
already, and he said, "I'm going in and up with out of desperation because they Schlesinger's." He said, "You' re right.
I'm going to tell Leon off a little bit. didn't have Bosko. It's just a little boy, Well, you can do whatever yc~ feel is
I'm going to get more goddamn money and that's all it is. There's nothing more right."
then he ever wanted to put out." to it. I jumped horn $250.00 a week to
$375.00 at MGM. I t h ought it was
And that was the last we saw of Earl Yes, acomplete lack of character. But going to be the same as over at War-
Duval. that's the character they had, and I think ner's: everybody cooperating with each
I made a couple of them, and Earl Duval other, nobody undermining the other
I kept warning him. I said, "Don't do it made a couple. And there was one called guy. If they did [at Warner's], l„wasn't
now. Wait until some other day when Honeymoon Hotel that he did, that I conscious of it. I think Leon depended
you' re sober." H e s aid, "I'm sober thought was pretty good. on me, and no one dared try to under-
now." And he walked away down the I did a few black-and-white musicals. mine me.
driveway. I was falling into the Silly Symphonies So when I got over to MGM, there
By the time I finished breakfast and style that Walt Disney was doing, with- was conspiracy right away. Joe Barbera,
came down the driveway, here comes out a main character. Then, when Porky Dan Gordon, George Gordon, all them
Earl Duval back. He said, "I got fired." Pig came along, with his stuttering, he were working trying to put the New
He was a bad infl uence in a way, be- stood out. York people in frontof the California
cause of his attitude. W hen they started in w it h t h e people. And then there was real turmoil,
Cinecolor, Leon had me doing the Mer- because everyone was clamoring for
I also noticed one or two cartoons that
said that they were directed by Bernard
Brown.

That was just pure policy. He was a A

sound man. I don't think Leon even ivIKRQ E PIELOOIE
knew what a director did. oon
So anyhow, they let Palmer go, and I ia TECHNICOLOR
I
took all the drawings that he had made.
Warner would not accept their cartoons,
and Leon thought he was going out of J I

business. He said, 'Tve got everything

I' ve made in my lifetime dumped into l
this thing." So I took a lot of the draw-
ings, and. I retimed them, threw out a
lot...
4
These would be those first cartoons after
Hugh andIludy left,I guess?
MERRIE
HOOOIE
Yes, they came up with a character TECIINICOlOIL
called Buddy.
10 ANMATO
 position. I was so glad to get out of
that place.
SHOW BIZ FRIZ: AN APPRECIATION
Did you last a year at MGM?

I was there about a year and a half.

Then one day I came home so disgusted
ONCEMORE,WITHFRELENG--
with the whole thing I told my wife, Warner Bros. fans tend to take Friz he staged his materi@. Cartoons like
"You know what? I'm going to swal- Freleng for granted. The accomplish- Racketeer Rabbit (1946), High Div-
low my pride, and call Schlesinger and ments of other major Warner directors ing Hare (1949), and Knighty Knight
see if I can get my job back." are easier to pin down: it was Tex Bugs (1958) are classic Freleng:
And you know, that very evening, the Avery who built the foundations of streamlined, conflict comedies in
phone rang. I t w a s H enry Binder the Warner style, Bob Clampett who which every gag is carried out in a
[Schlesinger's assistant]. I l a u ghed, stretched it to its looniest extremes, way that's straightforward, efficient-
becausenobody ever called me before. and Chuck Jones who refined it to its and hard to find fault with. Several
He was laughing, and I was laughing. most sophisticatedstate. critics have remarked on Freleng's
He says, "I hear you' re unhappy over Freleng, by contrast, has merely love of corny, vaudeville-type jokes;
there." S o t hey must have got it spentsix decades (offand on) as one they' re right, but there's a lot of
through the grapevine. of the studio's top talents, starting by subtlety beneath that broad humor.
So to make a long story short, I went animating Bosko the Talk-ink Kid, One of the highest compliments you
over and talked to Leon, and said, "I the first Warner cartoon, and contin- can pay his cartoons is that the more
don't want any more money. I' ll take uing into the 1980s, during which he carefully you watch them, the funnier
the money that I had before. I just has directed three compilation features they are. His use of facial expres-
want to get out of there." And he was and served as a consultant to other sions is a case in point: unlike Jones,
very happy to get me back, because he studio works.' But to conclude that he rarely calls attention to them or
tried two or three other guys there. A his cartoons are superbly-crafted enter- derives humor directly Irom them.
fellow. by the name of Norm McCabe, tainments (which they usually are), But the expressions in Freleng's best
and Ben Hardaway... And they were all rather than lofty works of art or dar- films are always amusing, always
making cartoons that just didn't have it. ing experiments is hardly to demean appropriate, and always conlributing
The cartoonsnever seemed to find the t hem; call hi m H arold Lloyd t o to the quality of the cartoon's humor.
path, they kind of wandered about. Jones's Chaplin and Avery's Keaton. Freleng has voiced his disinterest in
There was no guide there. With Leon,
it was like a ship without a captain.
Freleng made many of his best car-
toons in the late 1940s and early
creating Avery-style departure h orn
reality in his work, and this orien-
Everyone was going in different direc- 1950s, a period when Clampett, tation shows up in numerous ways in
tions, and Leon just didn't seem to be Avery, and Tashlin had left the stu- his cartoons. It's easy to forget how
able to handle that. dio, and he and Jones (and sometimes many of his cartoons had unusual but
So I came back, and Tex started Bob McKimson) were polishing the well-realized settings, f'rom the Lower
making better cartoons, and we all start- Warner style into a m ore purely East Side of A H a r e G r ows iri
ed imitating each other. We finally character-oriented, slightly gentler M anhattan (1947) to the Revo-
found a path. form. Like Lloyd's films, Freleng's lutionary War of Bunker Hill Bunny
cartoons derive much of their consider- (1950). Even when he followed Hol-
There was that gag sensibility you got able appeal from their simple zeal and lywood animation's rush into UPA-
around l940. quick-wittedness; there's something inspired stylization, his cartoons
marvelously chipper about his work usually took place in tlute-dimen-
We finally found a direction. Clampett His Bugs Bunny is Bugs at his most sional sets, rather than against flat
was very good at it. energetically clever, and Freleng char- hickdiops: the cottage in Goldimouse
actersas disparate as Tweety, Yose- and the Three Cats (1960) is a very
What were your feelingsabout Tex mite Sam, and Speedy Gonzales share real, atmospheric place, down to the
Avery and Bob Clampettback then,and a likable wide-eyed alertness as a warped floorboards.
Chuck Jones even? What wasyour reac- distinguishing characteristic. The conceit that cartoon characters
tiori to themas people? Freleng's greatest strength as a are in reality hard-working, high-
director was the facility with which spirited entertainers, recently popuhr-
I was so engrossed in what I was doing ized by Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
I didn't even care what the other guys Which is not to say that Freleng was used by Freleng in several car-
were doing. You were always trying to was never a trend-setter. his music- toons, including Cu r tain Razor
do better than they were. Unconscious- themed cartoons, often written by (1949),Show Biz Bugs (1957), and,
ly, there was competition, naturally. Michael Maltese, were particuhrly in- most notably, You Ought to be in
We wanted to make the best pictures fluenti
al;the Wagner sequence inH err Pictures (1940). That's a nice way to
possible. Meets Hare (1945) clearly inspired look at Friz Freleng, too: like his
I think we all influenced each other. Jones'sWhat's Opera Doc, and both characters, one of the most con-
Without bragging, like where one guy Hanna and Barbera'sThe Cat Conerto summate entertainers in animation
thinks he created this and that. I don' t and Jones's Baton Bunny owe much history.
think anybody created anything himself. to Rhapsody Rabbit (1946). Hany McCracken
I think they were all little pieces of because Bill and Joe took over. He was It seemed like he never came up with
somebody else. I'd see something that secondbanana,no matterwhat he did. He a strong personality after he left War-
Clampett did and I liked. I.did it maybe tried desperately. I look at his cartoons ner's. Tex was so anxious to please he
in a little different way than he did. I'd and see elements of desperation. was overdoing everything. He should
see something that Tex Avery did, that He was afraid to do subtle things. Tom have come up with characters like
Disney did... You don't create these and Jerry had that. They had little person- Bugs Bunny, things like that...
things all yourself. They build from alities, and subtleties, and things like that. But I think he created a kind of
other people. Of course they had the broad gags - they contemporary art with that desperation,
It was a creative thing. The guy who were stealing part of Tex's stuff, the broad when you look back. His stuff was no-
had the greatest imagination in the stuff. thing I admired.
whole business was Walt himself.
When I saw Snow White, it was an en- There was acartoon about two or three What's great is that your st+ and
tirely different concept than anyone had years later, that you made about a spider, Tex's st g is dt'fferent. It's diferent,
everthought of, ever. The concept of calledMeatless Flyday. and yet they' re bothfunny, and they
animation, even. Nobody animated like both use the cartoon medium to its
that; nobody drew characters like that; Oh, it was terrible. potential.
nobody put personality like that into the
characters. It came from him. Well, I like that cartoon. And you used Well, you put your own personality
I'm sure it influenced our thinking, and Tex'svoice as the spider - did you say in. Tex was a very introverted man. I
everybody's thinking in a nimation. come overand do thisfor me, or some- think he had real family problems.
They' restill trying to imitate that. thing? You didn't know Tex; I never knew
him outside of his outer skin.
Let me ask you some little specific ques- Yeah. I also had him do a character where To start with, I never mixed with the
tions. Whathappened when Tex Avery he was supposed to sing in rhythm, and guys at the studio socially. I had my
left Warner Brothers? Was it over them he just couldn't get the rhythm. I wife, and my family, and my sisters
cutting a gag in one of his Bugs Bun- remember we put him in one of these and brothers, and my wife's sisters and
nys? Do you know anything about booths you record in, and shook the brothers. We socialized with our fam-
that? booth, and said "Just sing to that ily, and we never socialized with these
rhythm." But he couldn't do it. He just people. A le of them were drinking
I don't think so. I think Bobby [Clam- never had a sense of rhythm. people, and we never drank.
pett] and Tex were always seeking some- He was a fun guy to work with.
thing else. Because nobody really knew Everybody liked Tex, but Tex was so Letme ask you a question. In your
what the futurewas, and everybody wan- insecure. I felt about his cartoons that he family, back in the forties, what was
ted to be his own producer. But they overdid them because he was so insecure the reaction to your directing those car-
didn'tknow enough about making deals, about them. He couldn't do a subtle toons? Was it any big deal? Did they
and they never really got anything out of cartoon. If he did something, it had to be not care?
it. twice as strong as anybody else, because
I think it was Speaking of Animals he was insecure about what he was doing. My eldest daughter, right now, will
that Tex was working on before. I think
in his book [Tex Avery: King of Car- Variations on a canary: an early drawing of Tweety, and a later,
toons, by Joe Adamson] he mentions more familiar rendition.
that he IiroImsed it to Leon, and Leon
turned it down. I never knew what was
going on, really.
The reason he went over to MGM was
when I came back he knew there was a
spot open. And when asked me about
it I said I left theie because the politics
were terrible. But MGM was the height
of motion picture studios, and I said,
"Tex, they'd love' to have you there." I
figured I'd warned him enough. He said,
"You think so?" I said, "I know they' d
be tickled to death to have someone like
you.
Boom! He was over there, and he got
the job. I didn't think he was going to
go over there, because I told him about
the problems I had. But I figured he
must have figured, "Hell, that won't hap-
pen to me."
It happened to him. When he got over TWEET' "1WEETY"
to MGM he was a very unhappy man,
 ln 1959, therewas that little lay+ of
" ~ TRIAL. >MR.WQLI " six months orso when 9-D came in.
What did you do during that time?

I just continued on.

Youweren't laid ops

No. Warren Foster, Hawley Pratt, and I

were the only ones in the studio. And
we just continued on mahng pictures.

M~e"el~ Management just decided they didn' t

want to let me go, or my people. They
0 figured if they let me out, I'd go some-
M<Coolg o 0 where else, I guess. It was never ex-
plained. We were very happy that they
CAR) Doe didn't cut us off. I t hink Chuck went
' 'QciIHlcoLOQ
p' over to Disney.
(He did.- Half.j

Let me askyou about the commercials

you had told me about. When did War-
ner'sstartdoing 1V commercials? Was
that in the early fifties, or the late'Pf-
ties? You told me about Charlie the
admit that when she went to school she You made a Plm called Along Came Tuna and all that.
was embarrassed to tell people that her Daffy which has Dagy Duck as a
father made Bugs Bunny. Be c ause salesman, and in the cabin, there are two It must have been during the hte fifties,
when she was growing up her two hont Yosemite Sams. because we were over here in Burbank at
teeth came in big, and they teased her, "I that time. I t hink Dave DePatie was
know where your daddy got the idea for Oh, yeah. That was a mistake. We one ofthe guys who wanted to do com-
Bugs Bunny," S o she wouldn't tell thought it was a funny idea, I guess, but mercials. So was Jack Warner, Jr.
anybody. we didn't know i t w o uld hurt t he 'Ibe period that W arner went into doing
Last night, we were over at my character. It got too vague. commercialswas the days when they
youngest daughter's house. Her daugh- It was one of those mistakes. Things were doing The Outlaw, 77 Sunset
ter, that's my granddaughter, her friend you think are funny one day. And as Strip, and some of the other popular
calls her up and says, "Your grand- you finally find out, your mistakes are shows. T h e commetcials were sup-
father's on television now, on Enter- indelible. You can't erase 'em, and there posed to go with these. B u t Jack
tainment Tonight. 'Hey showed his are a lot of them. Warner [Senior] hated them. He hated to
picture and announced his birthday."
'Cause within the family we don't think
about it. It's like seeing Milton Berle
every day. He's just another guy.
My kids never bragged about it. They
said, "Well, we won't tell anybody,
they%i think we' re bragging."
d

', ".+3pg
Was it your un it t hat put t ogether
Dough forthe Do-Do? That'sthe one
thatwas the remake of Porky in Wacky-
land.

Ciampett made one in black-and-white.

And I saw it after Clampett left and said,
"Gee, that ought to be in color." So I
made the same thing in color. I had to
make up a picture or something.

That's wlrat I wanted to know, since

there was no director credit on that.

Well, that's because it w a s r eally p „ o g @c @ g I > ~ A g N~g @gog C A . I~OOg'@:-""

do commercials on his lot, because they Freleng's
biggestpost-Warner Bros. star: said, "How would you like to go into
came with agents, and the agents were the Pink Panther. Copyright (c) 1989 business with me? I haven't got any-
telling everybody what to do. I t dis- Nirisch-Geojjr ey DF. thing to lose, and I think I can swing it
turbed him very much that they were so we can take over this studio." You
doing commercials on his lot. know, just the facilities.
So he wentto his dad, and we made a
Were youdoing any commercials? deal with Warner's to lease the studio
from them. They gave it to us just the
I was doing the animated ones. We did way we left it. E v e rything was still
Charlie Tuna when Dave DePatie came there.
overand became manager. After Eddie
Seizer was out, they put Johnny Burton So you took over the Warner Bros.
out for about a year. Then they put De- cartoon studio.
Patie in.
Anyhow, whenever animated com- We took over the whole studio for five
mercials came into the studio, they were hundred dollars a month. We started by
assigned to whoever thought they had making commercials. Warner's had one
the time to do them, or who they felt job there that was an army job, I think
they could trust to do them well. I did it was. That kept us going.
Charlie Tuna, Kaiser foil, Skippy pea- So meantime, Blake Edwards was on
nut butter... the lot doing The Great Race. And he
asked me to do a storyboard. He said, "I
You mentioned something about a think I'd like to do an animated title on
parrot. this." He loved cartoons, used to run
the hell out of them and get his gags out
Oh sure, Gillette. I did a couple they of them.
were very happy with. So I said, "Let me read the script." He
hadn't put the show together yet. So I
I want to ask you about Philbert. What head of ABC, was involved in that pay- designed a storyboard, with all the gags,
do you recallabout being approached ola thing, and they handed him a pink just the way you'd see it on the screen.
about that? slip and cancelled everything that War- He looked at it, and he didn't change a
IPhilbert is an unaired liveaetionlani- ner's did. thing.
mation ZV pilot starring William Schal- The Mirisch Company was over on the
lert as a cartoonist whose cartoon char- Getting into DePatie-Freleng, and how Goldwyn Lot. Martin Jarreau was the
a cter, Philbert, comes to life a l a that came to be. Warner's was closing, producer. I showed it to him, and he
Fleischer's Koko the Clown. The live and you decided, "Well, I gotta stay in was like insane, running down the hall,
actionwas directed by Richard Donner business..." laughing, screaming, calling people in.
(Superman, Lethal Weapon, etc.); Fre- So I went ahead and did the film down
leng directed the animation. For more Here's how it really happened. Warner's at the old cartoon studio.
information on this project, please buy closed up, and I went over to Hanna- I asked who was going to do the
my booki - JS.J Barbera I took John Dunn with me. music, and they said Hank Mancini was
going to do it. And I said, "Can I talk
I approached them. I w r o te it a nd You went over to Hanna-Barbera? I to him? I'd like to do this all to music."
approached them, and they liked the idea never heard that before. So after a few days, Hank Mancini came
But they figured it would cost about in. And I said, "What are you doing to
$800,000, and you couldn't get your I went over to Hanna-Barbera. W e do for music?" And he said, "I have no
m oney backon that. They put in every went over there to do a feature with Yo- idea."
damn chargethey could from every pic- gi BearfHey There,It's YogiBear],and So I said, "At least givt: me a tempo to
ture being made, they popped it onto the John andI,and a layout man went over work by." So he went like this [drums
cost. thete, and I made a deal to do a feature. a tempo], and said, "That's it," and
They said I would share in the profit, walked out. And I had to figure out how
but it, wouldn't even show a profit in You mean youwere going to direct the many frames to the beat that was. I
twenty tnore years. They don't even Yogi Bear jtlm? figured about twelve, so I did the whole
know they' ve got it now. thing to twelve, except for a couple of
We were doing the storyboards to start spots. I always timed all my stuff on
That was a project you came up with? with. That's all I was going to do, is music sheets, and wherever I wanted
just the final storyboards for them. I had special things done, I would indicate.
Yeah. They accepted it, I did it, and to make a deal to produce it for them, Time magazine picked it up, and we
they sold it. ABC bought it. I d on' t just to do the story. started doing titles for everyone. I re-
know how many shows - at that time So John and I did the whole boards, member Billy Wilder calling me up and
they'd buy twenty-odd shows. And they then that was it. I n the meantime, we saying, "Could you come over? I have a
penciled it i n f o r S unday at eight heard that Warner's was going to open title I need for a picture, and I'd like you
o' clock. B u t Tom Moore, who was up again. Dave DePatie called me and to do it as an animated title for me." So
14 ANMAYO
 I went overthere, and he gave me a long as I didn't have to [personally] do But when Warner's said we could either
script. I came back, and I was reading them. drop the Pink Panther or get our ass off
the script. There was more than we could handle. of his lot, we got our ass off of that lot.
Meanwhile, all these writeups came We were doing titles, we were doing We went to United Artists, and they
out aboutThe Pink Panther. And one series for networks. So we farmed these said, "Okay, we' ll give you the money
of the articles said the title did hetter out to UPA. to start a studio. We' ll get our money
than the picture. Billy Wilder calls me back through the pictiuIes."
up right away and says, "Cancel itt I Was that everything, or just the Road We went over into the Union Bank
don't want any title to be better than Runners? building over on Ventura Boulevard and
my picture." [Laughs] He canceled out took a whole floor, and started making
because of the success of The Pink Yes, mostly the Road Runners. pictures there. And we gradually paid
Panther. (Though Freleng refers to UPA, he is back all the money that United Artists
Then United Artists 'called us.... actually thinking of Herbert E'lynxes put up for us. And UA came out well.
Format Films, which was a refuge for Blake Edwards gets the biggest piece
How long wa s it be t w een that j t l m most of UPA's top talent. -JS.J now, because he's always complained.
coming out and that happening? Wasit Then Jack Warner wanted to go back It was a 25-25-25-25 deal. United
right away, or a week later? And did into animation again. We got all the A rtists got 2 5 % o f t h e n et , f o r
they askfor one, or for a series right big credit that we got, and he wanted to distribution and all that Blake Edwards
away? get back into animation because of it. took 25%, Mirischtook 25%, and we
So we said, "Great! We'd love to have got 25%. But we didn't see a dollar
It wasn't very long. United Artists said, the studio. Now we can call our own
"Would you like to do a whole series of until about '81 or 82. When Dave and I
shots, our own terms." But when we closed that place in 1979, we owed the
these? We' ll finance you, and we' ll be read the contract, it said we didn't share bank $600,000.
partners." What could we lose? in the old characters. We had to create But thank goodness, the pictures were
So the first one I did was The Pink new characters, which we could share in running, and they kept running. We
Phink, and it won an Academy Award. 50%-50% with Warner's. started getting revenues, we paid off the
So I figure, hell, these things happen. I But another stipulation was that we
didn't make them happen, they just hap- banks, and United Artists got their
had to drop the Pink Panther. Dave money back
pened. DePatie's father said, "Don't do it." He Locally, KCOP had the Pink Panther,
was advising us. So we said, "No way." and they figured, "Well, that's not a kid' s
Unbelievable. And it was a great car-
show." See,we made them forthe thea-
toon. You get some royalties on licensing, ters, and we made them for adults really.
A few years after that, you also did all don't you? That's what they' re finding out about the
these other series, like The Inspector.
Warner cartoons: adults are the people
H ow didthatcome about? You were the O n the Pink Panther, yes. who are really the fans.
opposite of the whole industry. Every- As long as I' ve been in the cartoon So they took them off of K COP's
body was talking about how it wa s business, through the Warner days, all I childrens' show. They figured that these
dying, and you were actually beginning ever heard was, "Well, I don't know how pictures appeal to people hem about age
at that time, and building. long we' re going to be able to retain this 15-35, they didn't appeal to children
business. We can't get another nickel five, three, four years old. They' re a
Well, then the networks came to us, and for these cartoons - we don't get any
little too sophisticated. And United Art-
we were doing network shows. Then we more money for them then we did in ists now is putting them on their video
did [TV specials like] My Mom's Hav- '39." And that was the story we kept
tapes, so you get a cartoon and a movie
ing a Baby, and Dr. Seusses... hearing. like you used to in the old days.
Personally, I couldn't do all these With Schlesinger, it was, "Cut down Maybe someday, Ihave a feeli ng,
things, and it just got out of hand. As the cost, cut down the cost." With War- cartoons will go back into the theaters.
long as I had control, we were doing ner's, "Cut down the cost. If we want to They are so popular now, especially af-
good work. But later, there was a lot of stay in business, we better cut these ter Roger Rabbit.
stuff that I was embarrassed to look at. things down." We started limiting the
We couldn't control it, because there was animation. We used to have more char- In fact, the rumor I hear is that they
just too much to handle. acters, but then everything was down to mi ght actually produce a few shorts with
two characters. Which turned out to be Roger Rabbit. Only Disney could do it
Let me backtrack. How soon after you the best, anyhow. now, I think,because they have the
establishedDePatie-Freleng did you have You felt so insecure. All you wanted whole setup,the distribution. They can
an arrangementwithWarner's to do new was to have a job next week. So when do everything.
cartoons? You did new cartoons with all Warner's turned them over to us, we wan-
the characters. ted to make a dollar. We didn't think the Oh, sure. They can spend a lot of mon-
future of 'em. We got them made as ey on it, too, and not expect to get any
Well, mostly, they wanted the com- cheap as we could, because Dave made back. Theyhave to make cartoons to
binationof Daffy and Speedy Gonzales. us give it to them as cheap as we could, keep the Walt Disney name alive. It' s
They called the shots on that. When we and we had to make a little bit of a calledoverhead. Who would have gam-
were in business for ourselves, whatever profit. And as you can see, the cartoons bled on Roger Rabbit? There isn't anoth-
they wanted, we were going to do. As suffered from that. er studio.
ANMA70 15
 BY DAVID BASTLM

That's All Folks! The Art of Warner tuned to MTV or showing the latest con-
Bros. Animation cert video. But one day I walked by they
By Steve Schneider were showing Lady and the Tramp. And
Henry Holt 8'c Company; $39.95 the day before that it was Winsome
Witch! La ter that evening, I saw Gertie
"You know, I think we should put some the Dinosaur pitch a new automobile in
mountains here. Otherwise what are the a TV ad, while an art gallery less than a
characters going to fall off of?" mile away pitched seriographs of Felix
Laurie Anderson, "Big Science" the Cat! As if, following Andy War-
hol's lead, every artist is searching for
The Kodak company has a giganti c his own pop image with which to assoc-
backlit billboard in the middle of Times iate himself (read exploit).
Square commemorating the sixtieth The question I would like to ask is
birthday of Mickey Mouse. The picture why all these things had to happen; why
displays Mickey (the 1980s design) shak- animationboth good and bad, black and
ing hands with Steamboat Willie on the white, sound and silent had to be this en-
deck of his black-and-white boat. This meshed in the public conscience before a
little nod to the past would have been publisher would take the risk of banking
hard to imagine twenty years ago when on abook devoted to "the artofWarner
the studio's philosophy seemed to be Bros. animation."
"bigger is better." Not until the histor- It's not as if they needed a nudge.
ians who grew up with The Mickey Even before 1974, when the AFI issued
Mouse Club were the new animation re- an issue of their quarterly report con-
gime would the cartoons of the rubber- taining seven articles on animation, cin-
hose days be appreciated as more than eastes have been writing intelligent ex-
All illustrations accompanying this es- just seminal work. positions championing the underappre-
say are reprinted from That's All Folks! But that's not all. Tower Records, mu- ciatedLooney Tunes. While dozens of
and copyright(c) 1989 Warner Com- sic headquarters to the East Village, is these articles got published, most re-
munications, Inc. dotted with video monitors,. usually mained "underground." Not until Leon-
 by Leonard Maltinand Joe Adamson,
used intheirrespective books are re
printed here to help argue the same
points. At times, it seems as though
Schneider is merely reiterating their
opinions as welL Aficionados of WB's
history won't find much that they have-
n't heard before. But though Maltin has
already told this studio's tale, it shared
his book with ten other studios. Schnei-
der hasroom to' spread out and elaborate
on the specific contributions and pivotal
films of each director.
Bob Clampett has never been so seri-
ously dealt with. His place alongside
Tex Avery as animation's most in-
tractable lunatics is at last asserted. In

~Zj the same manner, Robert McKimson's

undeniableinfl uence on many of the
l characters' construction and personalities
is finally made note of. Schneider's
Q i) heart obviously belongs to Chuck
e~ , Jones, whose "modern myths about
greed and obsession" inspiml the author
,g( to contemplate them in much greater
depth than he does the work of the other
directors.
By reconstructing an image of the
studio at which many talents were
pooledtoacommon end,Schneideronce
and for all renders moot the tired ques-
tion "Who really created Bugs Bunny?"
The entire studio seemed to always be in
the process of altering and developing its
ard Maltin's definitive Of Mice and studio didn't have the foresight or the own identity under the leadership of each
Magic (1980) created a sense of order toom fo save all the artwork that today successive regime. So of course, the
could callous film journals and anima- would be valuable artifacts. Generally, characters would also grow and develop
tion fans with no taste for hunting out eels were tossed out, were cleaned off to along with it. Had there been a Walt
FNnnyworld and Mindrot discover that be reused, or ended up in the collection Disney at WB to tighten the reins, Bugs
Tex Avery was not the only "King of of Bob Clampett. There aren't enough may have ended up asrudimentary a
Cartoons." extant souvenirs to amass an "Art of..." character as Mickey Mouse.
That yearalso saw the emergence of or a "Tteasures of..." book. In the book's second half, Schneider
The American Animated Cartoon,Gerald But those drawings, backgrounds, details the careers of fifteen of the stu-
and Danny Peaty's collection of essays model sheets, and sketches that did man- dio's most famous characters, beginning
on animation, which contained articles age to make it out alive tell a story that with the film debut of each (often, as in
on Avery, Clampett, McKimson (!), and to many WB admirers is long overdue. Bugs'scase,severalattempts were neces-
an exceptional interview with Chuck Steve Schneider was guest-curator of the sary before a persona fully emerged).
Jones. All of a sudden, it was possible MoMA exhibit, and his book, like that A long the way, Schneider makes note of
to gain a sense of chronology and in- show, is a record of one studio's attempt the original source of each character, be
dividual accomplishment that had been to produce art in a medium governed by it a derivation from a popular radio show
lacking. money. Schneider divides the studio's character or a reference to a studio em-
The following year, when Jerry Beck 39-year history into five phases: Harman ployee. In addition, he thoroughly doc-
and Will Friedwald's filmographyof The and Ising's embryonic partnership with uments the myriad catch-phrases, gags,
Warner Bros. Cartoons saw daylight,en- Leon Schlesinger; the discovery of the and relevant tunes that were lifted &om
ough reference material was in place. studio's identity through Tex Avery; period songs, movies, and other sources.
The Museum of Modern Art finally com- Bob Clampett's reign of wild energy and These tidbits of lost local color make up
pleted the dot-to-dot with its 1985 exhi- explosiveness; the years of refinement the treasure trove of this book, and to-
bition of Warner Bros. art. Termite Ter- and maturityled by Jones and Freleng; gether with the illustrations are the rea-
race could finally be viewed from Olym- and the eventual decline in quality that son for owning it.
plls. permeated the studio's final ten years. The reasons why all the WB shorts
The amazing thing is that there was In doing so, Schneider relies heavily were long denied the status of "art" for
any artwork to be viewed. Unlike the on research that came before him. Iden- so long will forever mystify me, though
infamous Disney Archives, the WB tical quotes from interviews conducted (Continued on page38)
ANIMA'tQ 17
 o o

A VIDEO COLUMN BY MATTHEW HASSON

WARTIME W RS
AND OTHER NEW TAPES

his issue's column will focus over the head with a mallet. It also fea- diers "monkey face" and "slant eyes."
on several recent videotape tures a little German soldier named
releases of Warner Bros. cartoons... Schultz who bears a startling resem- Bugs Bunny Superstar
blancetoVaughn Bode'sCheech Wizard Produced by Larry Jackson; MGM/UA;
Bugs & Da/Jy: The Wartime Cartoons character. $19.95
Hosted by Leonard Maltin; MGM/UA Tashlin's Plane D~ pit s o ur hero This compilation feature, released
Home Video; $19.95 against the s exy se-duck-tress Hata theatrically in 1975, contains interviews
This is the first "theme" collection. of Mari, and the kissing scenes in this one with Warner Bros. directors Bob Clam-
Warner Bros. shorts to come from would never make it past the censors if pett, Tex Avery, and Friz Freleng.
MGM/UA, the company that owns the it were made today. In Friz Freleng's Most of the cartoons in this collection
rights to the pre-1948 Warner library. Herr Meets Hare, Bugs matches wits have appeared on other tapes, so unless
It has previously issued several Warner's with Hitler's right-hand man Hermann you are just beginning your WB col-
collections of "The Best of B ugs," Goering, and fools the silly Nazi by dis- lection, the interviews are the only new
"TheBest of Daffy," etc., but these guising himself as Hitler and Stalin. material here worth seeing. (The car-
tapes tend to repeat the same selections Chuck Jones'sWeakly Reporter is a toons are shows with complete titles and
over and over. This tape features sever- spoof of wartime newsreels, depicting are taken from excellent-quality prints.)
al thathave never before been made a- life in a time of tire and gas rationing, Bugs Bunny is the star, of course, but
vailable on video, and which seldom get food shortages, and women doing "men' s we are also treated to cartoons including
shown on television because of their work" Foghorn Leghorn's Walky Talky Haw-
dated content. L'eonard Maltin (author The remaining cartoons on the tape, ky. Orson Welles provides some voice-
of Of Mice and Magic and The Disney including DrafteeD agy,Schooner Croon- over inuoductions, and interviews with
Films, and critic on Entertainment To- er, and Little Red Riding Rabbit, don' t the directors fill the spaces between the
night) offers insightful comments on specifically deal with the war itself, but shorts. Avery and Freleng offer some in-
the period in which these cartoons were do have war-related themes or references. teresting anecdotes, but most of the
made andtherole propaganda cartoons Also included is Bob Clampett's Falling interview time is dominated by the ego-
played in the war effort. Hare, which is an excellent cartoon, but tistical Bob Clampett, who practically
Warner Bros. made several cartoons in has appeared on so manyother video takes over the program &om host
black and white that could be classified collections that it doesn't really have to Welles. Clampett does his best to give
as "wartime propaganda," but only color be included on this one. the impression that he was responsible
ones are included here, since the black Noticeably missing from this collec- forallof the studio's successes,regard-
and white ones have fallen into the tion is Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, less of the contributions of his fellow
public domain. Highlights of the tape which is a bit too racy to be shown to- directors and artists.
include Bob Clampett's Russian Rhap- day. Its unflattering portrayal of the Jap- It should also be noted that more than
sody, featuring "Gremlins from t he anese would shock some people for its half the cartoons in this collection are
Kremlin" who torture and torment Hit- racism, but one should keep in mind Chmpett-directed, although I have no
ler himself. (The gremlins are actually that Pearl Harbor was still a fresh and idea if he was involved in the selection
caricaturesof the Warner Bros. staff.) painful memory, and America was still of titles for this feature. 'I%ough he was
Frank Tashlin's Da/fy Commando gives pretty mad. Still, it makes one wince to unpopular with his colleagues for the
Daffy the, opportunity to bash old Adolf hearBugs Bunhy calling Japanese sol- above-mentioned claims, he was still
18 ANMA10
From Carnivalof the Animals:sketches of pianistD agy Duck by Chuck Jones. Mouse-type voice, but here he sounds
Copyright (c)1989 Warmer Communications, Inc. like "Uncle Tom." (It is interesting to
watch these early sound cartoons, tnade
when animators were still learning how
to animate speech. Characters openand
close their mouths with each syllable,
and you can see all of their teeth, not un-
like puppets or ventriloquism dummies.)
Also on Volume 1 is a great collection
of black-and-white classics, all taken
horn excellent-quality prints: Goopy
Gear(staning a short-lived WB character
who neverquite made it),Porky'sPooch
(a Bob Clampett short that inspired
Chuck Jones's Charlie Dog series), and
Robinson Crusoe Jr., starring Porky Pig
as Crusoe and a caricature qf Eddie
"Rochester" Anderson. Two color en-
tries round off this volume: Presto
Change-O,which features the snickering
white rabbit who would later evolve into
Bugs Bunny, and ATale of Two Kitties,
with the first appearance of Tweety Pie.
Volume 2 opens with Sinkin' in the
Bathtub, Bosko's first regular cartoon
and the very first Looney Tune. Other
black-and-white titles included areBosko
Shipwrecked, Red Headed Baby, Porky
one of the greatest directors Warner's This educational/cultural cartoon might Pig's Feat, Porky's Bear Facts, and
ever had, and if your collection doesn' t look good if it were made for PBS, but Smile, Darn Ya,' Smile! (T he last of
already have such Clampett classics as somehow Bugsand Daffy seem outofof which's title song became the theme for
Whai's . Cookt'n' Doc, A Corny Con- place here, dressed in full tuxedoes, Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rab-
cere, and The Old Grey Hare, then this reciting Ogden Nash poetry, and man- bit?)
would be a good addition. agingnot to be funny. The highlight of Volume 2 is Tokyo
Jokio, but not because it is a funny
Carnival of the Animals Inside Termite Terrace Volumes I and2 cartoon; it isn' t. It's a shocking piece of
Directed by Chuck Jones; Warner Bros. Bosko Video; 24.95 each anti-Japanesepropaganda which is even
Home Video; $14.95 These new collections are currently more offensive then Bugs Bunny Nips
Produced and directed by Chuck Jones available only by mail order. They in- the Nips. While its ugly caricatures and
as a CBS prime-time special in 1976, clude some black-and-white rarities un- racially-insulting gags were aimed at the
this cartoon features the work of some available anywhere else, plus some be- Japanese, the cartoon is bound to offend
of the ex-Warner director's old staff of hind-the-scenes footage of the studio anyone of Oriental ancestry. It's even
artists, including Phil Monroe, Ben staff clowning around on camera. more disturbing to think that when this
Washam, and Manuel Perez. Unfortu- Volume 1 includes perhaps the rarest was made,thousands ofJapanese-Amer-
nately, the special doesn't have much to Warner's cartoon of them all,Bosko the icans were being imprisoned in detention
offer in the way of humor. It was clear- Talk-inkKid, produced by Hugh Harman calllps.
ly made with a younger audience in and Rudolf Ising. This is actually a "pi- Color cartoons make up the remainder
mind, with the hope of turning kids on lot" cartoon made by the former Disney of Volume 2: Bugs Bunny Bond Rally,
to classical music. animators sometime in 1929, and was presented here in the best quality to date;
It succeeds on that level, I suppose,
but for fans of classic Bugs and Daffy
never screened thealrically; it was respon- Corny Concerto; D ray
sible for the series being bought by pro- Dinosaur, and The Wacky Wabbit,
Duck and the

cartoons, it is a disappointment. The ducer Leon Schlesinger. It also intro- which are already available on other
first five minutes consist of Bugs and duced what was then a relative novelty; collections.
Daffy arguingover how to pronounce synchronized dialogue. (At the time, Inside Termite TerraceVolumes 1 and
"Saint Saens" ("Sahnt Sahnzz..."). Mickey Mouse's dialogue was still lim- 2 can be ordered from Starbur Corpo-
They then take turns reciting Ogden ited to squawks and squeaks.) ration, 23301 Meadow Park, Redford,
Nash verses over dueling pianos accom- Animator Rudy Ising has a conver- M I 48239, for $24.95 each plus $2.50
panied by a live orchestra. The "Car- sation with Bosko, the character he has postage.
nival of the Animals" itself is presented just invented on his drawing board. Bos-
in a much different, abstract style of ko's appearance is the same as in the Matthew Hassonis a cartoon buffwho
limited animation, and in some spots later series, but his voice gives away the alwaysenjoys hearing from other collec-
resembles Jones's earlier theatrical short fact that he is a caricature of a black tors of animation on videotape. Write
The Dot and the Line. man. He would later be given a Mickey to him cloAnimato.
ANMAVO 19
 MCCRACKEN: How did Oliver 8'c
Company get started as a project at
Disney?

SCRIBNER: I was an animator on

Black Cauld'ron,and I always wanted to
get into slory, because I had done some
direction in little theater in Panama,
which is where I was from. I got into
story with a guy named Pete Young, and
AN INTERVIEW
WITH we started together.
At the time, Jeffrey [Katzenberg] and
GEORGESCRIBNER,DIRECTOROF Michael [Eisner] and the new manage-
ment team had started, and they were
having lunches with all the people who
were involved in story, and they asked
for three ideas. Three ideas were submit-
ted by everybody, and one of the ideas
was just a paragraph:"Oliver Twist set
in New York City, present day. Fagin
is a rat, and he's got a gang of animals
to steal for him."
That was one of the ideas they liked,
and we went into development with it.
And that's how it started. It took rough-
ly six to nine months before it really
started getting off the gmund. We star-
ted showing boards and developing it
further and further, to the point where
Fagin became a human and thegang
became agang of dogs, and Oliver was
isolated as a kitten to visually set him
off.
'Ibis was Christmas of 1984. It started
full force in 1985.

And how d'id you get the job of directing

it? Had you done any animation direc-
ting before?

A little bit, but not an enormous

amount. They were basically just look-
ing for someone at Disney to direct the
project; at the time there were very few
directors in animation. They knew I had
done some direction in theater, and about
six months into the project I was asked
if I was interested in directing it.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit may have ron, made his animatedfeature directorial
been the biggest event in Disney anima- debut with Oliver Bc Company. A na- Was your theater experience helpful in
tion in 1988, but Oliver 8t Company, tiveof Panama and graduate of Boston directing animation?
the animated feature the studio released Univerity and Emerson College, Scrib-
in November,was also a major success. ner has also worked at studios including Yes, it was. The principal difference is
Reachingtheatersthe same day as Don Hanna-Barbera and Chuck Jones Prod- one of scale. In theater, you' re finished
Bluth andSteven Spielberg's The Land uctions. In December, Harry McCrack- in three or four months - you' ve got a
Before Time, Oliverwent on to have the en interviewed him aboutOliver 8'c Com- coupleof run-throughs and maybe a two
most successful initial U.S. release of panyin specljlc and his approach to ani- or three-week run. Animation just goes
any animatedfeature, Disney or other- mation in generaL on for an enormously long time, even
wise, in history. (The previous cham- compared to a live-action feature.
pion hadbeen Bluth and Spielberg's An The inspirational sketches and It was also helpful, because I tended to
American Tail.) storyboard d'rawingsaccom
panying this view animation in terms of acting,
George Scribner, who served as an interview are copyright (c)1989 The rather than just in terms of animation. I
animatoron Disney'sThe Black Cauld- Walt Disney Company. don't look at it as "Because it's ani-
mation, it's special," or subject to dif-
ferent performance rules. It just happens
to be performances that are animated,
rather than put over on stage.

You mentioned that Fagin was orig-

inally a rat; what were other changes in .
the story that happened along the way?

We went through a whole series of

variations on what the character of Oli-
ver would look like. At one time Olivei
and Dodger were two kittens, then they
were two dogs. We just went back and
forth, trying to find what was most
interesting visually, what would isolate
the character most. We felt that like in
the musical and some of the other fea-
tures [of Oliver Twist], it would help to tween that and making something that would carry on, based on emotions that
isolate him if he were a diffetent type of people will still enjoy in the years to never change.
character, so we made him a kitten, and come?
the test of the characters dogs. The eighties feel in Oliver worked much
The other principal thing was that orig- You mean getting a level of timeliness' better than something like The Aris-
inally there was a panda involved, that When I first began the project, I really tocats, which has an early seventies fla-
Fagin kidnaps with his gang. O l i v er wanted to make sure that we avoided vor but is set in Paris at the turn of the
just happens to have run in with this colloquialisms, references to this period century.
gang, and hefeels for this panda and of the eighties, so it wouldn't be so top-
helps him return to the Central Park ical that within a matter of years the Yes, I felt that as long as it was true to
Zoo. picture would seem dated. But the more its environment, it would play all right.
We worked with that for about nine I got into it, the more I felt if we can' t Aristocats is a good example. It's a pic-
months before we realized that we were be true to the period, it's not going to ture that's set in Paris, but its man-
dissipating our focus of sympathy. The have any feeling that it's really oc- nerisms and visual definitions are Amer-
affections were split between Oliver and curring. And that included being true to ican - there's jazz, and so on, although
the panda. So the major shift was in ef- the city of New York graphically; for you could argue that, jazz was a very
fect replacing the panda with the charac- instance, using current ads, billboards, strong movement in Paris in the twen-
ter of Jenny, the little girl. etcetera, at some points. ties. But I'm not sure where that psy-
That was the major change. The rest No matter what, it will appear dated. chedelic sequence in the end came from,
of it was just redoing Mquences and There's nothing I can do about that. I or what it has to do with the picture.
changing their focus. Sykes was the guess I felt that if the characters were That's an extreme example of the idea-
last character to be introduced, and we true to themselves and true to the story of trying to be so hip, so in tune with
came up with the idea of giving him do- that the principal element of the story what's going on that it's over the top
bermans. That allowed us to depict him
on a dog leveL It was much more in-
teresting to depict it on the level of the
animals, rather than on Sykes'. I gen-
i+~i
erally find human animation not as inter-
esting as when its done with animals or
other creatures that you can endow with
that type of dung.

You obviously took a lot of liberties

with Dickens. Were youconcerned at
all about working with a famous book?

No, because we just used it as a starting-

off point. I t took its own course. We
watchedthemusical and read the book,
but it just evolved Bom it.

Oliver is definitely an eighties fllm-

robablyas much as any Disney feature,
it's clearly set in the period it was made
in. Was it hard to strike a balance be-
ANIMA'I 21
ana les nothing to do with either the tion tends to be character-driven. I find average Disney backgrounds, weren't an
characters or the picture. That's hardly that to be the reason Disney's work ex- issue? You didn'tworry about having
what Oliver is. I think it's true to those cels and appeals to so many people. gr~iti all over a wall and that sort of
characters, and they would speak that So it wasn't something looming over thing?
way.y me. It may be partially because I was
never really into animation or the fea- No, we didn' t.
n directing a Disney film, you have to tures when I grew up. I grew up in Pan-
things in the "Disney style" to a ama, and I'm not sure if we even got I've seen several reviews that compared
great extent. Wasthat dilflcult, or was them there. .It wasn't until about ten the backgrounds to Bakshi's work. I
it more of a help, since it's such a well- years ago that I got inteiested in it. don't know if that was an influence, or if
developed style? I didn't feel I had any mandate to theysaid that because when people see
follow a tradition or anything. I just set an urban look in animation they auto-
I' ve never felt that its been a hindrance out to make the picture like I saw it. maticaily think of Bakshi.
oran asset. I guess IjustfeelI have a
natural affinity for it, not because it's a So things like the bcckgrounds, which Yeah. Ralph's work tended to be line
visual style, but because Disney anima- are more "realistic" and grittier than your over @ash. Maybe the similarity hey're p

A REVIEW 0F OLIVER L COMPANF: angular, unbattered taxicabs, which bear

little resemblance to any Manhattan taxi
I' veever seen.
With The Little Mermaid and The Res-
cuers Down Under, Roger Rabbit shorts,
Mickey Mouse featurettes, and numer-
ous TV projects in the works, there' s
no doubt that we' ll be seeing a lot of
Disney cartoons in f u t ure months.
What kind of standard of quality can be
For fifty years, it has not been common funniest, most genuinely warm mo- maintained in all this upcoming anima-
for Disney animated features to be set in ments in any Disney cartoon in years. tion is open to question, but if much of
a time and place that much resemble Music, for so long such an important it equals Oliver & Company (or better
those of their making. Th e country part of Disney animation, had fallen into yet, builds on its accomplishments), it
such a film is set in is substantially increasing neglect after The J ungle will be worth the considerable time it
more likely to be England than the Book; Oliver & C ompany returns it to will take to seek it all out.
United States; the year is most often its rightful place, with reasonably satis- Harry McCracken
identified sketchily, if at all. factory results. In particular, "Perfect
Times and the Disney studio have Isn't Easy," the sassy, satircal song and Selected Credits:
changed,and Oliver &,Company an- sequence that introduce Georgette, the Directed by George Scribner
nounces its identity as a product of the Bette Midler-voiced pampered poodle, is
Walt Disney studio of the late 1980s in a highlight of the film and recent Disney Animation Screenplay: Jim Cox,
many ways: its setting in a f a i rly animation in general. The movie's pop Timothy J. Disney, James Mangold
realistic present-day New York; the songs are pleasant enough, and the
product placements located strategically musical numbers nicely staged; the em- Supervising Animators: Mike Gabriel,
throughout the film; the presence of phasis is on using them to help define Glen Keane, Ruben A. Aquino, Hendel
Bette Midler. Happily, Oliver manages the characters and set moods. They Butoy, Mark Henn, Doug Krohn
not only to survive all this, but also to succeed at doing that, but don't really
be a better fihn than The Great Mouse move the story along as the songs in the Art Direction: Dan Hansen
Detective, The Fox and the Hound, and great Disney features usually did. (The
even some of the Woolie Reitherman next Disney animated feature, The Little Character Design: Mike Gabriel,
films it recalls. Mermaid, feature a score by Little Shop Andreas Deja, Glen Keane
The heart of what's right about Oliver of Horrors's Howard Ashman; it will be
& Company is the success with which i nteresting to s e e h o w m u c h it Production Stylist: Guy Decl
it makes Fagin's gang of thieving dogs resembles the early features in its use of
into real, likable personalities. (Oliver music.) Computer Animation: Tina Price,
himself is just a cute kitten, but then, Disney's use of computer animation, Michael Cedeno
Dickens's Oliver Twist was essentially a which made possibleThe Great Mouse
cute orphan boy.) The film has its share Detective's stunning clocktower scene, Voices: Joey Lawrence (Oliver), Billy
of slapstick, chases, and other loud and continues in Oliver, which is chock- Joel (Dodger), Cheech Marin (Tito),
funny material meant to please kids; but ablock 'withcomputer-generated back- Richard Mulligan (Einstein), Roscoe
it's admirable how often it slows its grounds and effects work. Sometimes Lee Browne (Francis), Sheryl Lee Ralph
pace to deal in some very well-done char- the computer animation works, as when (Rita), Dom DeLuise (Fagin), Taurean
actercomedy. The scene in which the it creates a spiral staircase for Georgette Blacque (Roscoe), Carl Weintraub
dogs tuck Fagin into bed and slip a dog to saunter down; in other instances it (DeSoto), Robert Loggia (Sykes),
biscuit into his mouth is one of the doesn' t, like that of the film's strangely Natalie Gregory (Jenny)
 What I tried to get acmss to the people
who wrote the music was, "Forget
.ii" '.
where we' re going to take this music, or
r. .( f the fact that it will be on an album. As
')
far as I'm concerned, I don't care if it' s
lp ( released as a single or not. Write for the
picture, write for character." And it' s
( pretty successful, I think.

Were there any other particular dif-

ficulties or i nteresting things about
working with the music?
V ,) j ;
I We had multiple producers; we never had
one musicalcomposer who acted as a
story person and came in and sat with us
and wrote all the music. We had to
custom-write every piece, which meant
•l that every piece had to be written with a
different composer and producer, a
different arrangement date...It was just
sort of exponential in terms of the work
pointing out is that we used Xeroxe- mals. It stays with them pretty much involved.
line backgrounds. Generally, the back- all ttuough the picture; it's about their
grounds [in recent Disney features] have problems and what they go through and So the music was written over a period
been very simple washes without an stuff. of time, rather than all at once?
acetate line on top. We decided to go I also foundLady and the Tramp to be
with that look to get a feeling of edge in very interesting in the way it was done Dodger's song was the first piece writ-
the city, and also to match the line of graphically. Not in terms of -line, but ten, and we went from there. It keyed
the characters. I didn't feel that simply the way color and values of light were the tone of the rest of the picture.
painting it without line would be true to used. I'm not saying we were as success-
the city. ful at all, but that was certainly what I Was there any music written that wasn' t
I wanted to depict it from the vantage- was striving for. used?
point of the animals, twelve to twenty
inches high. You' re right, we' ve gotten Oliveris th eist real musical the studio There was a piece written that to this
some criticism for it. But that was our has done in a long time, certainly in day I still like, and I'd like to use it
choice; it was deliberate. terms of the number of songs, and the perhaps in some other form. Jenny's
importanceof songs. Was there a deci- song at one time was a song that took
The backgrounds in Jenny's house seem sion to do it as a musical early on, or place in her bedroom, and it was sort of
to be done in a diferent style. did thatjust grow out of the story? like a jungle song. It became very fanci-
ful; she began playing with the kitten,
We were trying to make a distinction There was a decision early on to try and and they put a record on with this jungle
between the two environments; the en- involve music with it. But it's funny: I rhythm. Thebedroom becomes ajungle
vironment of the wharf and Fagin's always viewed it not as a musical, but environment, and the two of them go
barge,and her apartment. We were as a picture with music. I made a men- through a free-form montage where
originally even a little softer with it; we tal note on my own, along perhaps with they' re playing, reflecting how the imagi-
tended to go with grey Xerox lines in- some of the key members of the staff, nation of kids can take a siniple idea and
stead of a black line, just to give it a not to treat it as a musical, where the go with it.
little more warmth and a little less edge, conceit of the story would abruptly stop, It was really a great song. It was
so there'd be a real distinction visually. and you'd go into a song. written by Herbie Hancock, and we nev-
You wouldn't pick up on it consciously, I think the distinction is important, er used it. The story changed, and it
but would feel the distinction between because it helped us treat the pieces of wasn't right for it
the two environments. music as essentially an extension of char-
\
acter. Rather than stopping to put over As far as the famous people who do
Were thereany Disney films, or non- a plot point, it would essentially be some of the voices in the movie go,
Disney films, that particularly influ- more ofa character piece. In Dodger's were you getting people who fit the char-
enced the film? case, his song "Why Should I Worry?" acters, or designing characters to ftt the
was originally just dialogue. He meets voices? Or was it a blending of the
I would sayLady and the Tramp has the kitten, throws him a sausage, and two?
always been one of my favorites, in a says, "Hey! You want it, come and get
number of ways. It seems to be one of it!" A n d the kitten just follows him It was blending the two. We started out
the features that deals almost exclusively down to the dock; it was played without with very clear, simple templates of
with the world as viewed by the ani- music. what these characters would be - Dodger,
 Yeah, quite a bit. There was an animal
trainer who brought in each of the breeds
for the animators to draw. He would
bring them in and set them up in a
small area of the animation wing, and
the guys would sit around and sketch
them and talk about them.
I also had someone put together a
compilation of dog and cat animation
that had been done at the studio for years-
Milt [Kahl]'s work, and Frank [Thomas]
and Ollie [ Johnston]'s work, Mare
Davis's work, on 101 Dalmations and
Lady and the Tramp, and put it in books
so youcould get an idea ofhow some of
these walks and runs and real interesting
moves were timed. Because the work
had been done, and been done so well.
A lot of the animators on their own
would shoot reference on videotape, and
then print them out with a M inolta
printer.

C ould you mention a f e w o f t h e

Tito, Oliver, Georgette, Rita, Francis, extraordinarily patient, because we went animators, and which characters orsec-
and Einstein. We had a fairly clear idea; through numerous rewrites, and numer- tions of the fi lm they worked on?
it wasn't like we went into casting ous recording sessions. I'd have to go
thinking, "We' ll leave it up to the voice back in and ask them to rerecord different There were two people who designed
to define this character." We held open sections and redo areas they felt they had most of the characters. An animator
auditions for all the characters. We already done. Their exposure was very who worked on Roger Rabbit, before he
didn't go out and read Cheech [Marin]- limited; over a period of two years, they left, worked on Oliver. His name is An-
he was like the fifth person to read for would come in maybe five times for two dreas Deja, and he came up with the
that character. Billy Joel was the same or tluee hours apiece. I'd have to re- basic look of these characters. He then
way. They came along later in the generate their interest in the project, left to go to England, and an animator,
game. show them bit of the film and stuff. who later became a director on The Res-
After we cast it? Yes, very much so. But they were all really into it, because cuers Down Under, named Mike Gabriel,
In anyanimated feature,you go back in most of them had kids, so they found it came inand gave the characters a look
and start to rework the model based on charming to be in a Disney picture. that I felt really hit it. It wasn't like he
the performance that character starts to was redesigning, them from scratch; he
give you. One of the interesting things about just gave them a couple of extra features
Oliver is how the dogs are to some ex- and an edge that would really lock them
But youwould do that even if somebody tent caricatures of the diferent breeds of into the voice.
nobody ever heard of was doing the dog. Was thata major part of the re- The character of Tito was animated and
voice? ~a~rch thatyou and theanimators didfor designed by a directing animator named
the jtlm? Hendel Butoy. Fagin and Sykes were
Yes. For example, William Glover,
who plays Winston. He's a great En-
glish actor. He was great to work with; ( ) o~ . »
he was very professional, and he gave 6ci
readings you'd never expect. We redes-
igned Winston afterwards. We made Jl p rI
him slightly heavier, and caricatured him
more. We made the head a little smal-
(
ler, the rear end a little larger, and the
hands and feet a little more delicate. It
came out because of that voice. )
1 assume thepeople who did the voices
had a fun time.

'Ikey did have a fun time. Sometimes

they didn't quite understand what we
were doing, and in some cases they were
dnwn and designed principally by Glen
Keane. v
That was the principal casting. There
were so many characters that a lot of
people had to take a lot of different sorts
of characters.

The film ha s t h e m ost c omputer

animation of any Disney feature - little
things likecars and so forth, rather than
something like theflashy clockwork se-
quence in Great Mouse Detective. Was b
I b
it hard to integrate the computer work I
with the character animation?

No, because the backgrounds were line

over painted backgrounds. The idea was
that we would use the computer to gen-
erate objects that would be very time-
consuming in effects. I t was a very we wanted to see was if we could gen- sheets. You'd hy your animation paper
simple way to do it. The automobiles erate Fagin's trike, the little thing he down on top and register on it.
and a lot of three-dimensional objects- rides around in. I wasn't sure if we
pipes, and I-beams. The interior of that could pull it off. But by separating all And the computer animation is put on
tunnel at the very end is digitized. It the differentelements on differentlevels- eels just like the handMrawn animation?
was generated in small pieces, and then the flashing lights, the baskets, the
hooked together by the computer. It wheels, the headlights - there's enough Yes, you just treat it as another level.
made it a lot simpler, because once you follow-through that it seems fairly nat-
had the information entered in [the ural. And horn that point on we started Is Disneygoing to be going even further
computer], you could also changean- using it quite a bit. with computer animation in the future?
gles, and do whatever you wanted to.
The information is right there; you Did the computer allow you to do more Yes, they will. Eventually, they' ll prob-
simply have to call it up and rotate it on of that kind of thing than you could ably go to a system where the computer
the X- Y-Z axis. have if you had had to do it by hand? will paint eels and things like that. It' s
From the point of view of a director it in the future, but that's the idea
was just fantastic. But it wasn't like we I would say it was just a simpler way of
had the computer and then said, "Oh generating things, without a lot of crawl Can you tell us anything about what
wow, wouldn'tit be great to do this and or volume changes. It was printed out you' re working on now that Oliver 4,
this and this." It was more organic. We first, and then the animators would ani- Companyis out?
went into it much slower; the first thing mate on it, so you'd have separate
It's real loose at t hi s t i me, very
informal. I'm working on an idea set in
the jungles of Brazil. Who the charac-
ters are or what they do, I don't even
know myself. There was an idea that
was submitted that I liked, and I liked
the fact that it was set in that en-
vironment. That's basically all I' ve got.

Do you have any commentson the

future of Disney animation in general?

I think it's just going to keep im-

proving. There's a lot of support and
interest in quality feature animation on
b
I the part of Eisner and Katzenberg. The
Little Mermaid is scheduled for next No-
vember,and after that's The Rescuers
Down Under. The intent is to release
one a year, which will give us the
opportunity to improve over the length
of these pictures. I'm real happy that
the studio is putting this much money
into Disney animation.
ANIMA'IO 25
 REVIEWS OF RECENT FILMS AND BOOIt S

When you think about dinosaurs, are the comic-relief pteiodactyl who's afraid
they tall, magnificent creatures that in- to fly, a character better suited to a
spire awe, respect, and a sense of won- Scooby-Doo cartoon.
der? Or are they cute and clumsy little Therein lies the movie's major flaw.
twerps? It's inconsistent. Sometimes the dino-
At least the question is more intri- saurs of Land act like the fascinating
guing than say, yet another cartoon creatures dinosaurs really were (as when
about cats and dogs. And with big-name Mama Littlefoot slowly turns her long
talent involved - George Lucas and Stev- neck tospeak to her son; an impressive
en Spielberg - The Land Before Time moment). Other times, they behave like
promises to be a great movie. Saturday-morning caricatures.
Director Don Bluth gives us a world Though Land awes us with some
reminiscent of Disney's "Rite of Spring" wonderful animation and gorgeous
sequence RomFantasia; prehistoric mon- backgrounds, the effect is ruined by shod-
sters on the run from extinction, from dy editing and a lackluster story. Even
the rapidly-changing environment and Illustration by Bob Miller. Character the dinos' colors are inconsistent. Little-
from hungry predators. We begin with copyright(c) 1989 Universal City foot's skin varies from brown to purple
some fuzzy underwater scenes that are Studios Inc. to green to yellow. Cera goes from blue
supposed to suggest murkiness, but to yellow to pink to purple. The colors
instead come across as out-of-focus. Critics have pointed out that it doesn' t probably change to reflect the lighting
You may wonder if the projectionist is matter if the dinos find the Great Valley, of the scene, but usually, it's the skin's
still trying to adjust the picture. because they' re all going to die anyway. tone that changes, not the color. (By
'IIien Littlefoot is born; Littlefoot, Well, Bluth's dinosaurs have souls. Lit- contrast, Spike, Petrie, and Ducky do
with crinkly mummy-like lips, a tongue tlefoot's mom tells him, "I' ll always be remain their natural color.)
that hangs stupidly from his mouth, and with you [in spirit]," and we later learn Predictably, the movie has a character
long eyelashesjust ripe for mascara that he and his pals "will always be to- who sacrifices his life, but it turns out
All the little dinos stop eating each oth- gether." How nice. He Isn't Really Dead. You' ve seen it
er long enough to pay homage to the Uh-oh. There turns out to be a mean happen beforein Lady and the Tramp
new arrival. (They couldn't wait a few Sharptoothafter our heroes. Though (Trusty), Jungle Book (Baloo), Peter
thousand years to do the same for he' s,a Tyrannosaurus Rex, he behaves Pan (Tinkerbell), and The Black Caul-
B ambi.) more like a rat as he sniffs through a dron (Gurgi). At least inLand, the com-
Littlefoot, of course, is a very special thorn patch. Fortunately, Mama Little- ic relief deserves to drown.
apatasaurus. He's the one hope for the foot manages todelay him before an So, The Land Before Time entices us
.perpetuation. of the species. But first, earthquake conveniently breaks up the with its intriguing subject matter and its
he's got to make it to the Great Valley, fight and, at the same time, separates the big-name producers, but ultimately it
or else he and his &iends will starve. dinosaur herds. fails to deliver to our expectations. As a
As the quest begins, Bluth reminds us Then the movie degenerates into result, it's been eclipsed (after a strong
that racial bias is Not Good For You. A S aturday-morning kiddie f are, a s start) by that cat and dog movie. (This
baby triceratops named Cera tells our Littlefoot and Cera are joined by Spike, may bode well for Bluth; his next movie
hero, "Tluee-Horns do not play with a mute but perpetually-hungry stegosaur- is about dogs.)
Long Necks." us, and Ducky, a lively "Big Mouth" an- Nice try, fellows. And too bad,
To which a girl seated behind me said, atosaurus who practically steals the Littlefoot. To me, the king (that is,
"This is just like An American Tail." show (and who should have been the queen) of the dinosaurs is still Gertie.
Give her an A-plus. main hero). And then we meet Petrie, Bob Miller
 by the woinan taikmg to her Ilew pet
kitten.
The combmation of a genumely
chartmng story and a highly styitsnc
approach to the art made the piece one of
the most emotionally moving and struc-
turally satisfying examples of animation
I have seen in quite some time. I was
most taken by its chalk pastel palette.
In contrast to its predecessor, life
seven, "Lab Animal," was a somber, fea-
rful treatment of the story of a cat used
for scientific experimentation. A cat is
injected with a mysterious substance by
what appear to be military scientists. He
escapes the lab to avoid dissection and
has various conhontations with a guard,
naturalforces,and anasty dog.When he
reachessafety,thesubstance takes effect,
within moments transforming the cat
Garfield: His Nine Lives to live happily forever. I found this a i nto a dog. When an army search party
wonderful parallel to Adam and Eve in arrives, the protagonist escapes detection
the Garden of Eden, but with the spiri- by mingling with the dogs who ate
I never used to get very excited over tual perfection of mankind remain' ' ingin-
'- searching for him. This film makes a
Garfield cartoons, butGarfield: His Nine tact. somewhat ironic statement in favor of
Lives
L too kme me ybysusurprise.
rprise. I had looked Life four, "Court Musician," placed animal rights by letting the hero suffer
at the book of the same title and found our hero in the role of familiar to the and later escape his fate.
some rather unique stories. Initially, I g r e at composer Handel. He helps Handel Even though all the episodes wae pro-
was hoping that the cartoon would be an compose a concerto to be performed for duced by different permutations of a set
animated version of each life presented King George I, with the last movement group of creative people at Film Ro-
in the book, but some episodes differed being a cool jazz piece, thus thwarting man, they obviously outdid themselves
from the book's sequence; most notably, the plot of a jester to embarrass Handel. in some cases. It's almost enough to
the intriguing private eye tale was miss- The most appealing element of this make one look forward to the next Gar-
ing from the show. Aside from this short was the static animation style, field cartoon. Mark I. Paul
o mission, , the s how tu med ou t t o be a h i g hly reminiscent of To ot, Whistle,
worthy effort, because of several well Plu n k, and Boom.I"I Stunt Cat, II t h e ' e Felix the Cat: the Movie
that follows, gives us a v ery brief Directed by Tibor Heniadi
Lives one, two, eight, and nine were h omage to Krasy Kat, complete with The world's oldest cartoon character
not all that impressive. With some a n imation similar in style to the comic refuses to die, despite the best attempts
small variations in setting and humor, strip. of today's film makers. Felix the Cat:
these portions were nearly indistinguish- I fe l t that lives six and seven were the the Movieis one of those examples of
able from a typical prime-time Garfield crowning achievement of the program. clever marketing triumphing over quali-
cartoon; that is, flat, simple animation "Diana's Piano", an amazing piece of ty film making. (These days, animated
with sight gags and utilitarian dialogue. work, was the most outstanding seg- films seem to have more to do with
T heironyo 1 t he r a dd e d trait would be the ment, one that could easily stand alone Donald Trump than Donald Duck.) This
unusuall y h ' igh a m o unt o f v i o l ent a s an independent short. A sm small gi' 1r movie wouldhave never been made were
. Th can be easil overlooked, r e ceives a white kitten &em her mother it not for the popularity and marketing
however, given the simple nature of the and the girl is started on pi iano lessons. possibilities of the title character. This
stories. As the story progtesses, the girl grows is all the more disturbing in light of the
0 nt h e o t herr hand the five remaining t o l ate adolescence, during which time fact that the vastly superior The Brave
l ives held a g r eat dea l of creative prom- s he becomes more adeptt the at thiano
p' as Little Toaster never did find a theatrical
ise.. L'f
Li ethree ,"Innthe Garden," set Gar- her love for her pet contin ' ues.. They distributor in America
field as a kitten and a young girl in an m i ss each other whenethe ounyo woman
g Otto Messmer created Felix the Cat in
'n
imaginary gar en filled wi
arden with fun objects. g oes to college, and upon her return, the 1918 while working for Pat Sullivan
A natr at o r recites a mixture of poetic and now grown cat i —omes jealous of the Studios. The cat became the most popu-
dialo e t hrou hout. The girl's w o man s fiance. They move aw a y,a nd lar cartoon character of the silent days,
Uncle Todd leaves her in charge of the f u r ther developments conclude with the and in the 50s Joe Oriolo created a ver-
'
garden, but sh e aand
n her er kitten
n are left w o man playing a brilliant and flawless sion for TV. T h ese were really two
instructions not to open a crystal box in c o ncert for her o ' en . p o differentcharacters. Messmer's cat solved
its middle. Out of curiosity, they sneak conclusion, the aged cat climbs onto the his problems by using ingenuity and,
up to it and, d, aving
h ' reached it, decide k e yboard and passes away. We are made sometimes, his tail; Oriolo's version
not to open n the
e box. x. Content in their a w are at the end of the short tha e used a magic bag of tricks instead. gn
decision, they prance off into the garden preceding sto s rywas
w told as a flashback (Continued on page30)
ANIMA70 27
 A SHORT SUBJECTS SPECIAL: NBC
ALF and Alftales Hour
Last season, NBC's popular live-action
series ALF was translated into an ani-
mated series for SatAM. 'He premise of
the original ser'les was about a wise-
BY TMOTHY FAY cracking, furry Alien Life Form (ALF,
also known as Gordon Shumway), the '

S aturday morning has, for about . CBS

three generations of children, Raggedy Ann and Andy
been a very special time of the week. It I'm sure most of us are familiar with
last survivor of his planet, who's "doin'
time on Planet Earth" with an average
suburban family. Most of ALFs humor
is the ottly time when network tele- these two popular playpen perennials. derives from this premise and the predic-
vision is given over entirely to program- Ann and Andy, along with a slow-witted aments that ALF manages to get his
rning aimed at the younger set. As Bill camel and a persnickety panda, travel to human "family" into. The animated
Watterson's Calvin puts it, "This is mystical lands in search of adventure. ALF takes place on his home planet,
what entertainment is all about... Idi- The animation is standard, and so is the years before he left for Earth. I'm not |t
ots, explosives, and falling anvils." writing. Not especially good, or espe- big fan of the live-action series, but,
Gone are the days, however, when cially bad, Ann and Andy get rated: without the situation on which most of
Hanna andBarbera dominated the made- AVERAGE. the original ALF humor is based, I
for-TV cartoon genre. Huck Hound, Yo- found the animated series even less
gi Bear, and others have been replaced, Superman appealing. Most of the stories for last
successively, by product from other stu- This is the umpteenth time the Man of year's animated ALF were little more
dios like Filmation, Nelvana, DIC, and Steel has come to Saturday morning, than standard sitcom plots, and the few
even Disney. T his season bears the but this tine around the character, and stories that were based on "Melmacian"
mark of yet another force in animation: the production, have the "feel" of the situations weren't much better. Now
graduates from the California Institute of recent series of live-action theatrical fea- comesAlftales, which is even further re-
Arts (CalArts) animation schooL The tures. The animation, very "Japanese," moved: Gordon,Rhonda, and the other
school has recently developed its own is quite nice for a SatAM show but, Melmac denizens give their intetpreta-
strong house style, which can be seen alas, the plots are very standard and un- tions of popular Earth fairy tales and
on a coupLeof new Saturday morning imaginative. The "super" man gets a legends. This idea probably wouldn' t
programs. The work of this new gener- very AVERAGE rating. work,except for the clever use ofchar-
ation of TV anitnators is typified by a acters, the wry humor, and the satirical
loose, offbeat artistic style, and a sense Garfield and Friends twists that occasionally shine through.
of thning and gag writing not seen for Jim Davis' popular "fat cat," along It is enough to make Alftales enter-
many a Saturday morning. I' ll be keep- with his "Iriends" from U.S. Acres, de- taining.
ing an eye on their work in the future. but on Saturday morning with this ser- If nothing else, the ALF and Alftales
What follows are brief reviews of the ies from Film Roman, producer of most Hour has the best opening credits of any
.new, network lineup of Saturday mor- of the prime time Garfield TV specials. Satmom cartoon series. Overall, the
ning cartoons. Due to the nature of tele- The writing is generally on a par with ALF hour gets an AVERAGE rating,
vision entertainment (all kmds, not just what one finds in the newspaper strip, but Alfiales squeaks by with a PLUS.
animated series), each show is rated which makesGarfield and Friends one of
PLUS, MINUS, or AVERAGE. Pour the few truly funny new shows on Satur- The Completely Mental Misadventures
yourself a bowl o f C r unchy Sugar day morning. Lorenzo Music once of Ed Grimley
Bombs — here we go: again lends his chords to the big orange This is one of those shows that leaves
feline, and Garfield garners a big PLUS. one askin, g "What were they thinking?"
"..A new program...that has restored my faith in the medium:" The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Copyright (cl 1989 The Walt Disney Company.
Or maybe, 'What - were they thinkmg?" '...Oneof the worstSaturday Morning serieseverproduced:" Beany and Cecil.
Martin Short's nerdish character Som Copyright (c) l989 Bob Clampett Productions, Inc.
SCTV and SaturdayNight Live becomes
a cartoon character, but one wonders
why it wasn't done live-action, ala Pee-
Wee's Playhouse.There'seven a li ve-
action sequence in each show, featuring
Count Floyd (played by fellow SCTV
veteran Joe Flaherty). Worse still, Ed
Grimley is simply not f'unny. Apparent-
ly, what works as a sketch on late-night
TV doesn't work as a half-hour on Satur-
day morning. Rating:MINUS.

ABC
A Pup Named Scoobyaoo would be doing the series, to be pro- The New Adventures of Winnie the
Once again, the sleuthing hound and duced by John Kricfalusi, one of the Pooh
friends are back, only this time they' re "geniuses" behind Mighty Mouse: the M any of us have bemoaned the lack of
given the "kid" treatment (e.g., The New Adventures. I was concerned be- quality and originahty which is sympto-
Flintstone Kids, M uppet B abies). cause DIC's track record on animated matic of TV kidvid fare (see above).
Scoob hasalso moved toanother anima- series, network and syndicated, was vari- Well, I'm pleased to announce that a
tion studio, Wang Films, and this is one able at best. I'm also apparently one of new program has appeared that has re-
of the series where one can see the work the few animation fans who wasn't exact- stored my hope for the medium.
of the CalArts graduates. Kids who ly bowled over the by Bakshi's new Disney's The New Adventures of
once might have watched the original Mighty Mouseseries. So I was a little Winnie the Pooh,while taking some hW
Scooby-Doo are now writing and draw- bit wary of the news that one of the erties with A.A. Milne's basic concepts,
ing him for yet another generation of people responsible for the new Mighty is still more or less true to the characters
kids. The "mysteries" are not bad, and I Mouse w ould bein charge of reviving of Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Tigger, Owl,
like the idea of involving the viewer in an old childhood favorite. Eeyore, and the rest of the gang from the
guessing who the perpetrator of this Still hopeful, I tuned in the first week- Hundred Acre Wood. The animation is
week's fiendish crime uiight be. Rating - and now I almost wish I hadn' t. What on a par with Disney TV's previous
AVERAGE. theoldBeany and Cecilmay have hcked Saturday M orning effor ts (Wussles'and
in animation, it certainly made up in Gummi Bears),and deflnitely better than
Slimer & the Real Ghostbusters clever design and style. By contrast, the DuckTales(especially some of the hter
The popularity of the gluttonous green newBeany and Cecil looked stilted and episodes of-that series).
ghost has rated him an extra half-hour poorly-drawn. In fact, it looked more But what sets Winnie the Pooh «patt
this season. The first and last fifteen like Bakshi's Mighty Mouse than Clam- &om its cunent network and syndicated
minutes ofeach hour-long segment of pett's Sea-Sick Sea Serpent. rivals is the quality of its scripts and
this show are devoted to Slimer, while What I, and other Clampett aficiona- story ideas. M ost of the episodes
the middle half-hour repeats a Ghost- dos, probably liked best about the old viewed have been witty, lively, and
busters episode from previous seasons. series was Clampett's inimitable sense imaginative. Even the occasional song,
The "Slimer" segments feature more of humor, characterized by the outra- a bane to most productions, is usually
work by CalArts alumni, and are also geousparody and homble puns thatwere pulled off well.
funny and have an interesting "look," packed into each episode. None of this Most episodes feature Pooh and the
animation-wise. Unfortunately, theseep- was present in the new series. The new other animals on "adventutes," but Chris-
isodes are teamed with older, "Japanese" series was flat, unfunny, and poorly topher Robin occasionally joins in,
episodesof The Real Ghostbusters,and directed; the very antithesis of the and his relationship to the magical
the stylistic change is quite jarring. The original. The writers and animators stuffed animals is reminiscent of Bill
"spud" and his pals rate an AVERAGE. seemed preoccupied with copying the Watterson'sCalvin and Hobbes (and of-
"wacky" humor and stylistic quirks of ten just as funny). One episode in
Beany and Cecil the-New Mighty Mouse than in coming particular, "Find Her, Keep Her," is one
I can still remember the fun and excite- up with witty and enjoyable material. of the most touching installments of an
ment I felt waiting to see "A Bob Clam- When old episodes were inserted into the animated series I' ve ever seen on U. S.
pett Cartoo-oon!" during the original series toward the end of its very limited television. Rabbit rescues and raises an
Beany and Ceci7snetwork and syndica- run, it only served to show how much orphaned bird named Kessie, but Rabbit
tion runs. So I was very excited to hear better they were than DIC's version. becomes toofond of her, and problems
that new episodes were coming to tele- Overall, I'd have to say that the new arise when it's time for Kessie to fly
vision in the Fall of 1988. Alas, my an- Beany and Cecil was one of the worst south for the winter. The episode was
ticipation was soon replaced with bitter Saturday morning series ever produced. handled with a charm and sensitivity one
disappointment. The new Beany and Cecil was canceled rarely sees on television. I wish I were
The first ominous development came after only four weeks, making it one of on one of those Emmy Awanl commit-
before the new Beany.and Cecil pre- the shortest-lived SatAM series, as well. tees, because this episode would certain-
miered: It was announced that DIC Rating. MINUS. ly get my vote. Rating. PLUS)
 SHORT SUBJECTS added later to punch up the film. rative or non-narrative. There are so,
(Continued from page 27) The film premiered at the recent L.A. many subplots and side bits and strange
between, in the mid 30's, three sound car- Animation Celebration mainly because things going on that I just get lost. The
toons were produced by the Van Beuren of the promotability of its star. It's sad Writer actually became boring!
Studio but the distributor, RKO dropped to think that the story, or character devel- There was a very nice collection of
the studio in favor of Disney.) opment was of little consideration for Richard Williams commercials which
The TV version, however, did develop the film makers. The one positive sign went by much too quickly. When will
a following, and Joe's son Don got in- is that so far no American distributors they release a Williams show, featuring
volved with various phases of the prod- have picked up the film. (It's currently his best commercials, titles, and A
uction. In 1985, Joe and Don began being distributed in Europe and Asia) If Christmas Carol?
working on the idea of getting a Felix the film were to get distributed it could Neville Astley's Living in a Mobile
feature film on the screen. When Joe hurt the general audience perception of Home had some wonderfully wacky
diedin 1986, Don took over the produc- animation in general, unfair as that British humor but terrible sound, so that
tion, getting backing from producer might be. All the good work done by many of the jokes were lost; Cordell
Christian Scheider and hiring Hungarian Roger Rabbit could be undone by a bad Baker's Academy Award nominee The
director Tibor Hernadi (Time Masters) to film like this one. Steve Segal Cat Came Back was typical National
oversee the animation in Europe. Film Board of Canada stuff (which
The story involves a place called The 21st I nternational Tournee of means very good and very funny); and
Oriana, a peaceful kingdom in another Animation Craig Bartlett's Arnold Escapes Pom
dimension. The evil Duke of Zill is in Produced by Terry Thoien Churchcould have easily been one of
the process of taking over the Kingdom My wife is an artist, so we often get hisPenny cartoons from Pee-Wee'sPlay-
through the use of an army of robots. into discussions about the purpose and house. All worth watching, but nothing
Oriana's princess sends a holographic nature of art. Should it be merely decora- to write home about.
image to our dimension {ours is the di- tive? Should it invoke an emotion? The newest Augusta clay animation
mension with talking cats). Felix inte- Should it tell a story? short, Augusta Kneading, had me think-
rcepts the message and enters Oriana With animation, there is always that ing throughout of Mel Brooks's com-
followed by the Professor and Poindex- feeling that "telling a story" is the main ments in The C ritic: "The guy who
ter, who have been studying Felix to criterion. Like the novel and other nar- made this could have done something
learn the secrets of his magic bag of rative works of art, film seems to be productive. Could have made a shoe."
tricks. (The parallels to Star Wars are often judged by that guideline. But why The Man Who Planted Trees, the 1987
obvious; it's sad that none of the excite- shouldn't animation simply exist to in- Academy Award winner, was more en-
ment or continuity of that film translate voke a mood or to entertain without a tertaining than Frederic Back's last film,
to this one.) storyline? A picture come to life, for Crac, but I still wasn't overly impressed.
'Ihe producers knew that the film was instance. Using abstract drawings of trees to
in trouble, so at the last minute they The recent 21st Tournee collection is describe how beautiful trees are is like
added a computer-animated three dimen- primarily story based, which is a good trying to appreciate music by reading a
sional Felix head at the film's beginning thing. Two hours of non-narrative ani- book about it. I d on't mean to imply
to try to explain the story. Naturally, a mation can get tiring: witness the excel- that an artist should never produce' art
computer rendering of Felix's face to lent-in-parts Fantasia. The most impor- when the real thing exists. I w o uld
introduce a cel animated feature only tant thing is that a visual film cannot be hope that the artist would have some-
makes theviewer more confused. The boring. (Most films that do not attempt thing to say about the subject of the art.
film is peppered with terrible puns in an to tell a story accomplish this through But in Trees,the artist wanted to fill us
attempt to inject humor in a humorless humor.) with the wonder and the beauty of trees
film. Felix says "That Duke of Zill has Georges Schwizgebel's 78 Tours fa!!s but did not accomplish his goal. If he
me in a real pickle, Zill pickle...get it?" into that non-narrative "art" category. had another purpose in mind, I missed
The animation fluctuates from good to There is no plot. but there is some nice it. (I think that I shall never see a car-
fair; there are some interesting settings animation, using a variety of styles. I toon as lovely as a tree.)
and creatures, but nothing adds up to enjoyed it, but would have grown tired My favorite film was the Academy
anything watchable. The voice perfor- had it been any longer than its four Award nominee Technological Threat,
mances make most Saturday morning minutes. Pas a Deux,by Monique Ren- directed by Bill Kroyer. In this hilarious
cartoons sound like the Royal Shakes- ault and Gemt van Dijk, held my atten- film, computer animation clashes head-
peare Company. In the TV version of tion for much longer because of its hu- on will traditional cel animation - and
Felix, Oriolo had legendary voice talent mor. (I really enjoyed the scenes with loses (for now). An office full of Tex
Jack Mercerread his lines very slowly, the Pope breakdancing.) And Candy Avery wolves gets slowly replaced by
because the five minute scripts had to be Jam, like Anijam before it, consists of computer animated robots who do the
padded out to seven minutes. Sadly, the various animators each contributing a work ten times faster and better. The
same stilted style of delivery has been re- section, this time using real candy and blending of the two styles works won-
tained for the feature. And the lip-sync is either pixillating it or attaching "real" derfully, as the wolf is all stretch-and-
so bad that many viewers ask if the film animation to it. Enjoyable, but no mas- squash takes as compared to his more
had originally been made in Hungarian terpiece. And no plot. stilted adversary. A metaphor for com-
and dubbedinEnglish. Even though the Paul Driessen, whom I generally like, puterization of our society or for current
original track was in English it looked is getting much too weird for me. I animation techniques? Doesn't matter-
out of sync, because the bad puns were can't figure out if his new work is nar- (Continued on page 37)
 R R R R R R R R R Q W 'S R R R R R R R R R S
A Book Column6y David Bastian

MICKEY, SHAMUS, & LEN:

THREE BOOKS

Row's garbage one day and came across waiting for the Bette Midler ride at
The Disney Studio Story the manuscript for last year's Ency- Disneyland!
By Richard Hollis and Brian Sibley clopedia of Walt Disney's Animated This depressing note is the only new
Crown; $40.00 Characters (which is exactly the same light shed on an otherwise tired subject
I imagine it went something like this: size), and said "Hey, we can use this! in this book. My advice is to wait un-
We' ll just cut it up and rearrange the til six months from now and then start
Publisher: "The Disney Studio Story?" films year-by-year instead of character- checking the discount bins among The
Hollis and Sibley: "Yeah. You know, by-character!" MGM Story and The UA Story, where
like T he M G M S t o ry, T he R K O What's next? Species-by-species? this ripofF is sure to reside by then.
Story,The Warner Brothers Story, The (Chapter one: mice. C h apter two:
UA Story! Now there'H beThe Disney ducks. Chapter three: everything else.) Animation Pom Script to Screen
Studio Story!" Or perhaps by director? (Chapter one: By Shamus Culhane
Publisher: "Hmm. Well, okay." Robert Stevenson. Chapter two: every- St. Martin's Press; $17.95
one else.) Or by voice artist? (Chapter Shamus Culhane is like the uncle
I hate to be the bearer of bad news to one: Phil Harris. Chapter two: every- who used to help you build model
the person who penned the jacket notes one else.) airplanes. You weren't always sure you
for this book, calling it "the first in- At least the aforementioned Ency- understood his instructions; you were
depth study of the art, business, and clopedia sported a fresh supply of art- self-conscious around him, afraid you
output of the Walt Disney Company," work never published before. Minus wouldn't measure up; and it seemed as
but it will have to share space on my that, and minus Frank and Ollie's in- if he could sense your lack of self-
shelf with the 30+ books on Disney siders' view, Leonard Maltin's analytical confidence and grew impatient with it.
that have preceded it. M ost of you skills, and even Richard Schickel's in- Still, there was something magical ab-
gentle readers have a lot of these books sight, Hollis and Sibley offer us...just out your relationship because the two
as well, and will resent having to the facts...again. ourney
of you were on a j together.
traipse through the same old quips and Ironically, the one interesting aspect Animation from Script to Screen is
quotes to get to what few new tidbits of that is revealed lies in the section detail- both frustrating and enlightening. The
information this book has to ofFer. ing all of the projects the studio has title itself suggests that after thorough
You would think they would have unveiled since Walt's death in order to digestion of the book in its entirety, the
long ago run out of gimmicks with forsake his vision for The Color of reader will be privy to the secrets of
which to package the artwork in the Money: rushedand mediocre animation; creating his own animated film.
Disney vault (which surely is exhausted Danny Devito films; Mickey Mouse Well, yesand no. Anyone who is
as of now). But no. T he same old Disco; Captain Eo; Touchstone Pic- new to the medium of animation and its
stills are all there in all their battleworn tures that look like they could have inherent complexity will be put off of
splendor, and the price to see them has been made by any rival studio and will by the book's greatest shortcoming - its
not gone down. certainly generate none of the longterm tendency to be discursive. The book
In phces, I'd swear that the folks at earnings of the Disney classics; and (the seems to be searching for an identity, as
Crown were going through Harper 8r, u gliest sin) TV cartoon series! I ' m it switches back and forth between
ANIMAL 31
being a "how to" book and a "how they a week tohis course ofstudy.) Znran Perisic's The Animation Stand,
do it" book Taken by itself, it is an uneven way both of which elaborate on technical as-
Indeed, the question is quickly raised to become introduced to the technique pects of animation camerawork, and
as to what audience the book is aimed of animation. The author glosses over which will come in handy to sup-
at. If you are a pmfessional in the many topics, while dwelling for long plement the sections in which Shamus
position of putting together your own stretches on others. But Shamus does- talks in shorthand.)
animation studio and making a com- n't intend the book to speak alone. In- As we have already seen in Talking
petitive bid on a commercial project deed, the very first chapter is a bib- Animals and Other People, Shamus
(andShamus spends most of his pages liography of what he feels to be neces- writes like he is ready for a fight, as if
addressing this type), then you are sary books to round out an animator's our doubting of his word places his ex-
obviously so experienced and wellwon- education. perience and expertise in question. His
nected that you won't think you need In addition to the obvious recom- irascibility, which made his memoirs
this book (although you could pmbably mendations, such as Preston Bhir's Ani- so endearing, seems out of place in an
learn something from it). If you are an mation, Shamus is sold on Kimon Nic- instructional book, which (if success-
animation enthusiast who has thought olaides's The Natura/ Way toDraw and ful) will encourage a student, not defeat
about filming some experiments of Betty Edwards's Drawing on the Right him. When discussing the inevitable
your own in your basement, and are Sid'e of the Brain, two books whose stage of rewriting a script, Shamus
searching for a mentor, you will no philosophies of creative thought he con- writes that "the professional is willing
doubt become tired during the three tinues to return to t hroughout the to change material when it is expedient
chapters on the function of the studio course of the book, with examples of to do so. That doesn't mean that you
director and his paternal role towards.his their applications in practically every have to be a Milquetoast about it. De-
underlings. phase of animation production. Those fend your reasons for writing what you
As a college text, the book is equally w ho never accepted the medium of ani- did, but realize that if your arguments
un ulfilling. T h e chapter on writing mation as a "fine art" because its com- do not sway your agent, you would be
wastes time by warning us about nar- plexity renders spontaneity impossible wise to do it over, and do it without
mw-minded advertising executives and will be turned on their heels by Sham- sulking." The reader will have to decide
the need to sell one's work through an us's assurance that by separating the for himself if he is put off by Shamus's
agent, while the challenge of heaking creative work(right brain) from the tech- gruffness.
down actual animation scripts to inves- nical chores (left brain), a greater degree At times, it seems as though Shamus
tigate their strengths and wealmesses is of success at each will be possible. is goading us along more than encour-
left to the reader to tackle on his own (Curiously, two books remain unmen- aging us. Often,when he gets on a
(Regardless of college, Shamus urges tioned in Shamus's bibliography: Kit roll, he can pretty much sabotage his
the reader to devote at least fifteen hours Laybourne's The Animation Book and own lecture by angering himself into an
entire page of discourse ranging in tone
From Animation from Script to Screen. Copyright (c) l989 Shamus Culhane. f'mm self-righteous to condescending.
Is he really advising us to seriously
study Fritz the Cat and RaggedyAnn
and Andy for their weaknesses, or is he
merely taking the opportunity to ex-
press his opinions?
Fortunately, his opinions are based on
years of first-hand experience, and he
employs this knowledge in many enjoy-
able anecdotes to drive his points home.
On page76,he recounts how the fox in
Pinoechioneeded to be iedengned, but
that the need did not make itself appar-
ent until animation of him had been
C filmed. Only when the fox moved was
it clear that his nose needed to be
shortened. On page 211, Shamus remi-
n isces with a p oet's eye on h o w
animator Bill Roberts reminded him of
van Gogh: "They both drew painfully;
theirs was no God-given facility, but it
was scrupulously honest. I e q uate
some of van Gogh'sdrawings of the
potato eaters with Bill Roberts' ani-
mation. Awkward, searching for truth,
they suffered in the cause of honesty."
Observations like this awaken my
excitement for animation like no primer
has done before. Likewise, the treatise
32 ANlhtMIQ
 on how exhilarating it can feel to Horiocks Lye's kinetic sculpuires utilized the
express oneself artistically, which be- Auckland University Press; $16.50 phenomenon of persistence of vision to
gins on the bottom of page 147 and The name of Len Lye (1901-1980) isolate the pattern of an entire move-
doesn't let up until two pages later, should be familiar to everyone who ment as a design in itself, akin to Alex-
should be read and relished by even the owns a copy of Experimental Anima- ander Alexeieff and Claire Parker's pho-
most experienced (read burnt-out) pro- tion. A p a inter, sculptor, filmmaker, tography of "illusory solids". To quote
fessional. and writer, Lye expressed the desire to Lye, "When the mind if movement-
In my opinion, the book best serves convey both motion and the effect that conscious it is conscious of nothing
those who have already gotten their feet a motion has on the artist and spectator. else; movement, in fact, is something
wet by animating their own films, and He made traditionally-drawn animated that precedes what is strictly called con-
are seeking some suggestions on how films, such as Tusalava (1929), which sciousness,as physical precedes men-
to improve their work (I'm not sure if I was inspired by aboriginal tribal dance; II

would have heeded his advice before I puppet fihns (The Birth of the Robot Lye saw his art as an attempt to
had specific problems to plug his (1936)); documentaries(Cameraman at thwart the "dags on the mind" or "men-
solutions into.) War (1943)); as well asnumerous"dir- tal stultification" imposed by t he
For such a person, chapter fourteen, ect-drawn" films (images scratched or interference of traditional literary ref-
"Animating," is a godsend! The long- hand-drawn directly on 35mm footage), erences. To do this one needed to distin-
est chapter in the book, it is also the created in an attempt to "compose guish between wQt Lye termed the "old
most thorough. Beginning as a peptalk motion on film." brain" and the "new brain" (paralleling
that any animator could adopt as his For those of us who are amazed by the brain's right and left sides respec-
pledge of allegiance, it soon wings into Norman McLaren's ability to infuse life tively), and try to tap into the "old
an onslaught of invaluable drawing into a hen composed of only two or brain."
tips. If you were to take notes on this three lines, Lye's Particles in Space Though they will probably never be
chapter you would soon'wind up copy- (1979), in which a swarm of mere recommended as companion volumes
ing its entire sixty pages! It's all meat, scratchmarks seem to live and breath, is anywhere, Lye's book shares many of
and it clearly indicates the area for positively flooring. (Witness, I just the same theories as Shamus Culhane's
which Shamus has the most passion. I caught myself using the anthropomor- Animation from Script to Screen In
only wish the other chapters, like the phic term "swarm" to describe scrat- addition to encouraging the reader to tap
the whirlwind exp!anation of artwork ches!) into the creative side of the brain, Lye
photography, were organized as loving- Like McLaren, or perhaps even more reminisces about his childhood days,
ly. than McLaren, Lye wanted to do when he woulddevote an entire day to
Shamus's book doesn't spoonfeed you something different with animation concentrating on the sounds that every-
a lot of basic information, but it isn' t than convey traditional narratives. But thing makes. The next day would be
meant to. He is hoping that with the whereas McLaren wasmore interested "colour day," and the day after that
aid of his book you will 1) hone the in recording the change that occurs "weight day." This nourishing of a sen-
self-motivation, the perseverance, the between each drawing or frame, Lye sitivity to surroundings which is so
obsession which is mandatory for nur- imagined films in which the movement necessary for an artist is exactly what
turing the talent necessary for the field of an object, and not the object itself, Culhane discusses in the "Learning to
of animation; 2) surround yourself with was recorded. He emphasized that art See" section of his book
the resources (books, videotapes, art- should be concerned with neither "realis- Figures of Motion contains a lengthy
work, life experiences) that will broaden tic imagery" nor "social problems of introduction that serves as a biography
these talents; and 3) encourage you to living." Or, to, use Lye's almost, free- of Lye, fourteen pages of color and
see rather than look, so you "will be- verse prose (which preceded Kerouac by black-and-white illustrations of his
come a thoughtful artist." And in do- twenty years), "I like mind to portray work, and examples of Lye's writing on
ing so,he may have bridged the gap mind, not period." his theory of filmmaking and sculpture,
between reader and studio, creating the In the 1930s, when the new color- his recollections of his youth in New
first "how you can do it like they do it" separation film stocks with their three Zealand,and his poetry and experimen-
book matrices were affording filmmakers a tal writings. Anyone who is seriously
Now, as I try to organize the animated greaterdegree of realism, Lye saw the studying the aesthetics of animation
film which I myself am feverishly try- processas a way "to present objects in will find this book a thrilling collection
ing to complete, and which seems to grades of abstraction." Rainbow Dance of ideas and thoughts that are even more
grow more insurmountable with each (1936) and Trade Tattoo (1937) prefig- timely today as the bloated film in-
day, I find myself taking much of Sham- ure the video effects of the MTV set be dustry continues to turn its back on the
us's advice. But more importantly, I forty years. By presenting the human medium's endless creative potential. In
feel his spirit investing me with the figure in Musical Poster (1940) as a his own view, Lye saw both animation
confidence that I can unscramble the large gteen silhouette, Lye wished to and kinetic sculpture as media left vir-
mess I have created for myself and steer emphasize the sensational stimuli in tually untapped. Why has no one
it to completion. No book has ever the colors of pictorial art, rather than picked up where Lye left off?
tried to do that before. And few teach- their application to a realistic form.
ers succeed. Disney is said to have based his idea to (Copies of Figures of Motion may be
Figures of Motion: Len Lye/Selected animateFantasia's "Toccata and Fugue" obtained by sending $16.50 + $3 40 for
Writings sequence with abstract images on Lye's postage to Cecile Starr, 50 West 96th
Mted by Wystand Curnow and Roger Colour Box(1935). St., New York, NY 10025.)
 A FLEISCHER STUDIOS COLUMN BY G. MICHAEL DOBBS

SELECTIONS FROM
KOKO'S MAILBAG

irst, a tip of the clown hat to all release all of the Fleisc her/Famous did make video transfers of the UCLA
of the Animato readers who have Superman shorts. The negatives are at negatives to use in that special. Why
written such positive letters regarding UCLA, but the public domain status of Warners didn't take his one-inch video
my recent columns. Thanks! In this ed- the. material is undoubtedly holding back master tape and use that for their VHS
ition of "Koko Komments," I'd like to their release. Warners may be reluctant tape, I don't know. They could protect
share some of this mail. to invest the money in transferring ma- their investment though encoding.
terial to which they do not hold the As a footnote, serial fans would be
Dear Michael, copyright. interested to know that DC also controls
My comic shop only sporadically gets To thebestofmy knowledge, though, the rights to the two Superman serials
Animato and other publications dealing someone on the west coast got access to starring Kirk Alyn, and the company
with animation, although they are get- these negatives and transferred them to was stymied when its parent company,
ting better at it. In the most recent issue video. I first saw nostalgia maven Jim Warner Communications, decided to
of Animato you mentioned the author- Harmon advertise in The Big Ree/ how release the two productions. It seems
ized release of the Fleischer Superman he had the "best" Superman tapes DC couldn't find its print of the second
cartoons. I too have heard rumors and around. I called him to try to find out serial in its warehouse and had to turn to
wonder if you have any more sub- what the story was behind the tapes, but Kirk Alyn who happened to have a
stantiation of these rumors. I' ve held off he was awfully cagey. All he would say print. Kirk, wanted more money than
buying these cartoons in their various is his tape was not from the same old Warners was willing to pay for the use
public domain forms for this very rea- tired dupes. of the print, but negotiations were final-
son. Even though some of the various Harmon advertised these tapes for a ly successful!
ads in the various mags all tout their while at $80.00, and then at $50.00 for
copies as being made from the very best all 17 shorts, and then stopped adver- Dear Michael,
copies available! (Couldn't have been tising them at all. What happened is I was wondering if you would talk
better if Max himself had handled the anyone's guess. I didn't buy them sim- about the 3D setbacks the Fleischers
transfer.) Yeah, right! Gimme a break... ply because he told me he was going to used. Was this technique used by other
Danny Nader, hold my moneyuntilhe received enough studios? I haven't seen it used in car-
Cincinnati, Ohio orders to make producing the tapes toons today, so is it too expensive to
worthwhile! use now?
We!I, Danny, as far as I know Warner I do know the producer of the terrible Bob Miller,
Communications has not yet decided to television birthday salute to Superman Glendale CA
34 ANIMAYO
 1

/8

I
! I

7« !r
rr
)

IllustrationsPom the patent application for Fleischer's three-dimensional backdrop system.

There have been two major ways to in- To achieve the tlMee4imensional ef- Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor and
ject the illusion of depth into cartoons fect, the cartoon characters on the cel had Popeye Meets Ali Baba and his Forty
(until the recent use of polarized prints). to appear to be "in" the model. To do Thieves.The fabulous model r,." Sinbad's
The dominanttechnique has been the so, the turntable and the model was island is wonderfully conceived, as is the
multiplane camera, developed largely by turned slightly with each cel to give the treasure-laden wagon at the conclusion
the Walt Disney studio. The multiplane cel "movement" in relation to the of The Forty Thieves.
camera allows the filmmakers to achieve model. The 3D effect could also be very
the illusion of three dimensions by pho- The Fleischer 3D method was devel- striking'in black and white. One of my
tographing the action cel at a distance oped by 1933, when Max filed the favorite examples of black and white 3D
from the foreground and background patent papers, and was patented in 1936. is in Betty Boop and the Little King,
eels. By that time, the studio was using the especially when the Little King sneaks
One of my theories about Max process fairly regularly in its shorts, al- out of the opera house to see Betty per-
Fleischer is he was very literal-minded, though they did not make a single form.
and his method of adding three dimen- cartoon completely in this process. I'm One only wishes Max had used this
sions to cartoons reflects this belief. surecostfactorswere a factor,and many kind of effect in the Superman cartoons,
You want three dimensions, you use a of the cartoons with the 3D effect use it but by the early forties the studio had
three-dimensional model as your back- in just one or two scenes. abandoned its use. The studio did use a
ground! The effect was always at least interes- very impressive model of Manhattan in
The Fleischer studio built a three- ting, and, if used properly within a its opening credit sequence of Mr. Bug
dimensional model to act as the back- story, the 3D worked very welL My Goes to Town, but did not photograph
ground.The model was mounted on a lone criticism is the apparent arbitrary eels with it.
turntable and the eels were photographed inclusion of a 3D sequence in some car-
in front of the model. As you can toons. Thenovelty of the effect wears G. Michael Dobbs is the ogicial bio-
imagine, one of the big problems in this off quickly if there is no dramatic reason grapher ofMar Fleischer, and loves to
set-up was properly lighting the for it. hear from animation fans. He can be
m
odelledbackground withoutoverexpos- For me, the effect is used perfectly in reachedat24 Hampden Street,IndianOr -
ing the cel. two of the Popeye specials,Popeye the chard, MA 01151.
ANIMAYO 35
 JIM KQRKIS'S

A Full Circle A Tale of a Tail on the Night,and John Candy led a

Filmation, which recently was sold to Rolf Harris, the popular Australian busload of people in a chorus of the
theFrench company L'Oreal,has under- comedian, loves cartoons, but he loves theme in the film Planes, Trains, and
gone several drastic staff cutbacks in re- spotting mistakes even more. "I' ve just Automobiles.)
cent years. At the time of one of them, been lookingthrough a Tom and Jerry As for the live-action Flintstones
Lou Scheimer,the studio'shead honcho, called Muscle Beach made about thirty movie, Jim Belushi has stated that he
stated the following: "What's happened years ago and its amazing what happens loves the script and is ready to play Fred
to usis a m icrocosm of what's happened to the tails. They keep vanishing. In whenever the production company is
to industry in America. In the short some shots they' ve got them - seconds ready to film.
term, it may be very difficult to produce later they' ve disappeared." Harris hosts a
animation entirely in this country. I see BBC show called Cartoon Time which Chuck Jones's Complaint
one hopeful sign. You can'tafford to do shows some of the classics of ani- "There's a dreadful paucity of ideas on
it in Japan these days, either. The mation, and he encourages his viewers Saturday morning TV that really drives
Japanese are subcontracting work to the to spot similar mistakes. me nuts," says animation legend Chuck
Koreans - who are subcontracting it to Jones. "I really object to the idea in
Taiwan, the Philippines, mainland Chi- those Saturday morning shows that the
na, and Malaysia I'm eagerly awaiting only way we can solve problems is in
the day a Japanese animation studio groups. Our whole history has evolved
comes toask us.whether we would be from individuals, not from group behav-
willing to accept subcontracted work ior.
fiom them."
WasPeter Oswald's Cousin?
Funny as a Crutch Beatrix Potter is well known for her
One of the first Donald Duck cartoons delightful and popular children's books,
wasModern Inventi ons, directed by Jack especially her first, The Tale of Peter
King and released in 1937. (Donald had Rabbit. In 1936, Disney considered ani-
previously been showcased without mating that character, but Potter was
Mickey Mouse in 1936 in Donald and Illustratian by Jim Engel reluctant. "There is a scheme to film
Pluto andDon Donald, both directed by Peter Rabbit," she wrote. "I am not
Ben Sharpsteen.) The late Clarence The Musical Flintstones very hopeful about the result. 'Ikey pro-
Nash, the original voice for Donald, re- The Screaming Blue Messiahs, a pose to use cartoons; it seems that a
membered that cartoon vividly. "I sat in punk/new wave rock group, released a succession of figures can be joggled
on some of the story meetings and made single titled "I Wanna be a Flintstone." together to give an impression of mo-
some suggestions based on all the MTV ran a video of the song, which fea- tion. I don't think the pictures would be
things I discovered I could make Donald tured many clips from the Hanna-Barbera satisfactory without the landscape back-
do," remembered Nash in an interview. cartoon series intercut with scenes of the grounds, and I doubt if the backgrounds
"So they put in a sequence where Donald group playing "Bedrock-style" stone-age would be satisfactory on a larger scale
gets in the mechanical baby carriage and instruments. The 12" extended version and without colour. I think children
puts a coin in the slot and it sings Rock of the song uses dialogue from the with masks, acting the stories against a
a Bye Baby' and he begins to squawk. I "Weirdly Gruesome" episode of the natural background would give more
think this was the cartoon where the show. (Another rock group, the Dic- satisfaction."
man in Canada laughed so hard he left kies, did a song called "Bowling with
his crutches behind when he left the the- Bedrock Barney." Sting sang the Flint- Unknown Animator
ater
If
stones theme in the documentaryBring Some fans know that Bob Wood was an
editor of the Lev Gleason line of com- of Spidernum, the Fantastic Four, and see their first Disney film without suit-
ics. Along with Charles Biro, he was in other characters. "We are having trouble able preparation. The shock is too
charge of the original Daredevil, Crime- with the TV shows. TV feels that any overwhelming. I sat there with my
buster,and many others. However, few animated cartoon is automatically for the tongue cleaving to my dried-up palate,
folks know that at the age of seventeen, six year old age group and thus they in- and my eyespopping out ofmy head."
he went to New York to work on Pop- sist on strict simplicity. T his im-
eye and Betty Boop cartoons for Max mediately 'eliminates everything that is Dttffy's Daddy
Fleischer, and when that didn't work out, Marvel. We just gave up on them, and Chuck Jones has stated that developing a
went back to Boston where he tried to since then, they have gone off on their popularcartoon character isn't such a
open his own animation studio. This own to do all new stories, etc. Personal- mysterious process. It merely involves
also didn't work out, and he drifted into ly, I was very d'ssatisfied with the way the understanding of the inner workings
comics in the forties. our heroes were tiandled." of ordinary human beings. "I had no,
trouble finding Daffy [Duck], because
Stan Lee on Animation Nun Fun everyone is avaricious and wants the
For the past few years, comic-book Monica Baldwin, a Catholic nun, spent best of everything, the way Daffy does.
writer Stan Lee has been involved with thirty years totally secluded in a con- Daffy rushes in and at the same time
Marvel Productions, which produced vent. In her bookI Leap Over the Wall, fears to tread. He never succeeds, but if
Saturday-morning cartoons which fea- published in 1950, she described her fust he wants something, he wants it all.
tured someof the popular Marvel comic visit to a movie theater, in the early I'm most at home with Daffy for that
characters that Lee helped create. This is 1940s, after those years of seclusion. reason. I wish I could be as confident as-
not the first time that Marvel characters "Finally, a Donald Duck' of the most he is. I'm a little ashamed of the Daffy
have been animated. At a 1967 comic shattering variety. In all my life I had in me. The Coyote, to me, has always
convention in New York, Lee was asked never dreamed of such lurid colours, been a hero. He keeps trying. He does-
about his reaction to the Grantray-Law- undreamedwf situations,oramazingtech- n't win, but it takes a lot of guts to keep
rence and Hanna-Barbera interpretations nique. People ought not to be taken to trying," says Jones.

SHORT SUBJECTS Walt Disney's brother Ray. From Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters.
(Continued from page30) Copyright(c) 1989 Jack Kinney.
the whole thing is just fun and silly, and
there's nothing wrong with that.
In total, an excellent show with few
slow spots (especially if you go to the
lobby during the Augusta cartoon). And
the conclusion about the meaning of art?
Ah, art schmart, who cares?
Mike Ventrella

Walt Disney and Assorted Other Charac-

ters
By Jack Kinney; Harmony Books;
$17.95
Jack Kinney's most notable contrib-
ution to the art of animation during his
long careerwas the series of Goofy
"how-to" cartoons he directed during the
1940s: hard-edged and unsentimental,
they are among the most purely funny
of all Disney cartoons.
His memoirs of his life in the anima-
tion business have a lot in common very likable or even entirely wise about was unskilled but very aggressive) in
with those shorts. This is not one of his business. For example, Kinney at- any other book
those books that waxes poetical about tacks the institution of the "Nine Old Oh yes, there are the illustrations
Disney's place in the pantheon of artistic Men" as being an insult to the talented Kinney has drawn for the book. They
expression. Rather, it covers the day-to- Disney artists who weren't among the are here in abundance, splashed over al-
day activities of animation: the hard favored few. most every spread, and are at least as de-
work and lunch breaks and practical But most of the book is just light- lightful as the text. These loose, some-
jokes, a side of the business that, except hearted and funny, including anecdotes times-bawdy drawings are reminiscent of
for certain portions of Shamus Cul- about figures such as Norm Ferguson, the gag sketches pinned up around Dis-
hane'sTalking Animals and Other Peo- Earl Hurd, Bert Gillett, Kinney's brother ney (and every other animation studio
ple, has remained largely unchronicled. Dick, and, above all others except Dis- known to man); they do a better job of
Kinney's portrayal of the title "char- ney himself, Roy Williams. And you accompanying the stories than photo-
acter" is harsh; he doesn't doubt Disney's are unlikely to find an analysis of Walt graphs could ever do.
genius, but Wait doesn't come off as Disney's softball-playing style (which Harry McCracken
ANIMATO 37
A 1937model sheet of Egghead. As far as subject matter goes, many of
our most gifted writers describe phe-
nomena inherent to the twentieth cen-
tury that the Warner artists were de-
picting twenty to thirty years earlier.
Susan Sontag, in Illness as Metaphor,
wrote that, "In the Twentieth Century,
the repellent, harrowing disease that is
made the index of a superior sensitivity,
the vehicle of 'spiritual' feeling and
3 HEAPs 'critical' discontent, is insanity." And
tllQI •
Wile E. Coyote may well be the em-
bodiment of what Marshall McLuhan in
:, C3 Understanding Mediatermed "the gadget
lover,"the modern Narcissus who sees
himself in the gadgets he creates.
As we wade through the debris of the
second half of the twentieth century, we
C
see that animation is the w'orst adherent
to the "Post-Modern" ethic (and Tex
TERMITE TERRACE never had the opportunity to cultivate. Avery is at the helm). Unlike all the
(Continued from page 17) The Whitney Museum undoubtedly other art media, including live-action
I have my theories. First of all, Dis- chose Disney as its patron saint of ani- cinema, animation in its latest phase is
ney's courting of the art world inspired mation so it could exhibit an entire still referring to its own history more
even his earliest critics to judge him on studio's work, yet still exhibit the art of thananythingelse. Who Framed Roger
whether or not he was successful on one man. The work produced in Dis- Rabbit, Family Dog, Mighty Mouse:
that basis. ney's studio was tailored to his order. the New Adventures, and Tattertows all
Realizing that if you can't climb But what would an exhibit of WB art- have joined forces to successfully re-
Disney's pedestal, you can at least try work be about? Tex Avery and his place the age-old question "Is animation
to knock him down off it, the WB crew breaking down of the fourth wall? The art?" with a new one: "Is it art, or is. it
adopted a sensibility too lowbrow for uninhibited insanity of Bob Clampett? art history?"
the elitist Disney: namely, parody. The vaudeville of Freleng and McKim- There is another distinct different
Jules Feiffer once referred to comic art son? The psychology of Chuck Jones? between animation and the other art-
as "the drunk at the wedding [who] can The varying philosophies of the WB forms. If one is a student of the fine
get away with doing or saying any- studio may have proven more difficult arts, he can go by a system which I call
thing, because, by its very appearance, to untangle than Disney's autocracy, "take it or l eave it." 'Ibis simply
it is already in disgrace. It has no one' s but looked at collectively, they seem to means that there is so much reading
respect to lose; no image to endanger." be proponents of Rudolph Arnheim's material on so many art movements
Lacking the budgets and resources to tenet that "the very properties that make that he is fice to pick and choose the
experiment as l eisurely as D i sney film fall short of perfect reproduction period that most interests him. On the
could, the WB gang went reactionary, can actas the necessary molds of an other hand, if one is studying the art of
going for the big laugh, and soon artistic medium." animation, particularly its history, he
became the most popular attractions in Disney animator Mare Davis has must go by the system of "take it
the theaters...while Disney continued to called animation "an anachronism; a whee you can get it."
collect the Oscars. hand-made product in a mechanized Always a believer that one should fol-
Another reason may be the WB shorts' age." This statement is only partially low one's own advice, I will do just
legacy of b u rning themselves out true. Animation, heavily dependent on that, and ask no further why Schneider's
through twenty-eight years of continued the use of technological equipment, is book took so long, or why i t i sn' t
showing on Saturday morning, a phe- most definitely a product of the modern something else. Tha t 's Al l Fo l k s
nomenon that Mickey Mouse chose to age. And if Arnheim is correct, the ani- serves to point out that thete are still
snub. When the Silly Symphonies de- mator is most successful when both his many aspects of the WB cartoons that
buted on video in 1981, they were subject matter and the style employed have yetto be written about Never-
treated like precious objects on exhibit to convey it are of the sort that ani- theless, his is a handsome and loving
at a museum for the first time in mation can express better than any tribute that will appease many fans
decades. But the practice of allowing other medium. Tex Avery's radical use who didn't really need to be convinced
the American TV audiencecontinued of pose-to-pose animatioii in order to of the WB directors' standing as artistL
access to Bugs and Company may have emphasize the extremes, Clampett's ex- And if the hoopla from this book ever
in the long term worked out in their aggerationof the movement between subsides, W.W. Norton may just let us
favor.The kids of the 1960s who grew extremes, and the lean design of the have a look at Chuck Jones's auto-
up with Bugs on Saturday morning are later Jones shorts represent to Arnheim biography yet.
the thirty-something, video-buying a- advocates a more pure use of the med- (Editors'note: Chuck Jones's book is
dults of the 1980s, for whom Bugs ium's possibilities than does creating now scheduledto be published by Far-
strikes a nostalgic chord that Mickey the "illusion of life." rar,Strauss,and Girour is September.)
ANIMA'IO 3$
 ANIMATFILMPLL TELEVISION
SPECIALS
1. How The Grinch Stole
Christmas
As you can see, we' ve squeezeda lot of the We i n v i teeach of you to cast your ballots 2. Family Dog
results of our ongoing poll of your favorites i n all five of our categories. Voting is easy; 3. A Christmas Carol
mto the little space we have f or them this y o u don't eve n need to register, provide proof 4. A Charlie Brown Christmas
issue. We figured you'd like to see as much of residence or citizenship, or declare a party 5. A Doonesbury Special
of each category as possible, and so we put p r eference. Just send your lists to us at 6. A Claymation Christmas
everything in teeny-tiny type and removed, Animato Fil m Poll, PO Box 1240, Cam- 7. A Pogo Special Birthday
director credits. bridge, MA 02140. Special
8. It's the Great Pumpkin,
FEATURE TELEVISION THEATRICAL Charlie Brown
FILMS SERIES SHORTS 9. Banjo the Woodpile Cat
1. Fantasia 10. Mr. Magoo's Christmas
1. The Bullwinkle 1. Duck Amuck
2. Snow Whiteand the Seven Carol
ShowlRocky & His Friends 2. Little Rural Riding Hood
Dwarfs 2. Dangermouse 1 l. A Ziggy Christmas
3. One Froggy Evening
3. Yelknv Submarine 3. Mighty Mouse: the New 12. Rudolph the Red Nosed
4. The Band Concert
4. The Secret of NIMH Adventures Raindeer
5. What's Opera, Doc? 13. Sport Goofy in
5. Pinocchio 4. Jonny Quest 6. Duck Rabbit Duck
6. Bambi 5. DuckTales Soccermania
7. PopeyeMeets Sinbad the
7. Who Framed Roge'r Rabbit 6. The Jetsons 14. Rikki Tikki Tavi
Sailor 15. Here Comes Peter
8. Watership Down 7. The Flintstones 8. Duck Dodgers in the 24
9. Dumbo 8. Beany and Cecil Cottontail
and II2 Century 16. Carnival of the Animats
10.' 101 Dalmations 9. Star Trek 9. The Dover Boys
11.Allegro Non Troppo 10. Lupin III 17. A Cosmic Christmas
10. The Old Mill
12. Wizards 11. George of the JungLe 18. Flashbeagle
11. Coal Black and De Sebben
13.Rock & Rule 12. Starblazers 19. Here Comes Garf teld
Dwarfs 20. Cathy
14. Peter Pan 13. Top Cat 12. Bimbo's Initiation
15. Heavy Metal 14. Adventures of the Gummi 13. Snow White
16. Castle of Cagliostro Bears 14. The Great Piggy Bank INDEPENDENT
17. Laputa: Castle in the Sky 15. Real Ghostbusters Robbery SHORTS
18. Lady and the Tramp 16. Astro Boy 15. Book Revue 1. The Wizard of Speed and
19. Tron 17. Dirty Pair 16.Bad Luck Blackie Time
20. The Black Caukfron 18. Dungeons and Dragons 17.Popeye Meets Ali Baba's 2. The Great Cognito
21. Be Forever Yamato 19. Count Duckula 40 Thieves 3. Animato
22. Warriors of the Wind 20. ALF 18. Rabbit of Seville 4. Futuropolis
23. The Last Unicorn 21. Robotech 19. Mechanical Monsters 5. Bambi Meets Godzilla
24.The Great Mouse Detective 22. Kimba the White Lion 20. Robin Hood Dttjfy 6. Quasi at the Quackadero
25. Raggedy Ann and Andy 23. Speed Racer 21. Minnie the Moocher 7. Luxo, Jr.
26. Phoenix 2772 24. Yogi Bear 22. The Skeleton Dance 8. Closed Mondays
27. The Jungle Book 25. Space Ghost 23. The Cat Who Hated People 9. Tango
28. The Hobbit 26. Tom Terrific 24. King Size Canary 10. Vincent
29.Song Of theSouth 27. Wally Gator 25. Mickey'i Trailer 11. The Collector
30. Three Caballeros 28; Hoppity Hooper 26. Cookie Carnival 12. Opera
31. Galaxy Express999 29. Mighty Orbots 27. Superman 13. Anna and Bella
32. Cinderella 30. Inspector Gadget 28. Kitty Kornered 14. Make Me Psychic
33. Lord of the Rings 31. Maple Town 29. Dizzy Red Riding Hood 15. Oil Spot & Lipstick
34. The Rescuers 32. Dynomutt 30. I Love to Singa 16. The Big Snit
35. Robin Hood 33.M isadventuresof Ed 31. Aktddin's Lamp 17. The Critic
36. Plague Dogs Grimley 32. Lucky Ducky 18. Broken Down Film
37. Terra Hei 34. New Adventures of Winnie 33. Der Fuhrer's Face 19. Furies
38. An American Tail the Pooh 34. Trick or Treat 20. Sunbeam
39. A Boy Named Charlie 35. Good Morning Spank 35. Apple Andy 21. Sundae m New York
Brown 36. New Adventures of Fkrsh 36. A Wild Hare 22. The Street
40. Fire and Ice Gordon 37. The Mad Doctor 23. Elbowing
41. The Land Before Time 37. G. I. Joe 38. Three Little Pups A. Interview
42. Urusei Yatsura: Only You 38. Galaxy High 39. Lonesome Ghosts 25. Flying Fur
43. Gay Purr-ee 39. Fantastic Four 40. Solid Serenade 26. The Fly
44. The Brave Little Toaster 40. Orguss 41. Scrappy's Television 27. Jimmy the C
45. The Fox and the Hound 41. New Adventures of Beany 42. Russian Rhapsody 28. Rapid Eye Movements
46. Grendel Grendel Grendel and Cecil 43. Thru the Mirror 29. Ubu
47. Return of the King 42. Huckleberry Hound 44. Wabbit Twouble 30. Frank Fibn
48. Lensman 43. Eighth Man 45. Screwy Truant 31. Jumping
49. Fritz the Cat 44. Famous Detective Hobnes 46.Case of the Screaming 32. Van Kant Dans
50. Fun and Fancy Free 45.Moppet Babies Bishop 33. Seaside Woman
AMMATO 39
 LITTLEBIRDIET LD E
A GOSSIP COLUMN BY THELMA SCUMM

ello, drearies, time for another

at different stages in their lives? Well it tures episodes are planned for next year!
episode with your f avorite seems that Kathleen Helppie, Vice Presi- I hope everyone by now has seen "Don' t
gossip monger...me! dent of Making A Lot Of Money over at Touch that Dial!", probably the best
I assume everyone hdte saw the Warner Brothers, has decided that noth- made-for-TV cartoon ever, in which
dreadfully boring Academy Awards show ing issacied. Get ready for Tiny Tunes, Mighty gets himself stuck in various
this year, no? The embarrassing Snow featuring infantized versions of Bugs, El- other thinly-disguised Saturday morning
White character singing one of those stu-mer, and all the rest of the WB gang. programs.)
pid Las Vegas-style songs at the begin- (Actually, the show is said to be about Other Ralph news: He is said to be
ning made me run out ofthe room the offspring (nephews? nieces?) of the shted to direct a special based on The
screaming. It seems that it had a similarLooney Tunes crew.) The show will be Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, with
affect on the Disney executives, who syndicated, ready to air five times a day. Chuck Jones serving as consultant; He
promptly sued for copyright infringe- Don't look for it until the fall of 1990, is working on other Tattertown specials;
ment. It took a few weeks, but eventual- though. Ready for the worst of it? It' s He is developing an NBC prime-time
ly theAcademy apologized, and Disney being produced by none other than Ste- animated show called Hound Town
dropped the suit. I would say that the ven Spielberg, the man many people about dogs. If you follow Bakshi news
Disney guys have no sense of humor, think is responsible for Don Bluth's closely, you find that most of his an-
but honestly, that opening was nausea- recent bad films. nounced projects never come to pass, so
inducing. Disney did us a favor this Disney,whose incredibly-successful well wait out these until we get further
time. DuckTales no doubt prompted WB to info.
Speaking of Disney, I'm sure you think up Tiny Tunes, is working up The news from Hanna-Barbeta? Ted
noticed that Who Framed Roger Rabbit more syndicated animation, too. In fact, Turner is working with them now to
won three of the four awards it was nom- they' re putting together a t wo-hour develop a new cartoon series starring
inated for that night. (No, it wasn't up block for weekday afternoons that will Tom and Jerry as (you guessed it)
for Best Picture.) It carried away awardsfeature Tales, Chip N' Dale's Rescue children! There is also talk about doing
for Best Film Editing, Best Visual Ef- Rangers, new episodes of The Gummi a Droopy show. Sigh.
fects, and Best Sound Effects Editing. ItBears, and Tale Spin. Wh a t'sTale They will be missed: T. Hee, writer
lost Best Sound toBird. Hey, notbad- Spin? ImagineDuckTales, only suuxing and artist for Disney and Warner Broth-
Rain Man only won four awards! A The Jungle Book's Baloo as a daredevil ers, and noted caricaturist; Dr. Osamu
special award was also given to Richard pilot. ( The Disney folks say that at Tezuka,the Disney of Japan; Kenneth
Williams, who didn't mention me in his more than $30 million for sixty-five epi- F. Champin, k ey member of Friz
thanks! I say! The award was presented sodes, it's the most expensive syndicated Freleng's animation unit at WB; George
by Robin Williams (any relation to cartoon series ever.) O'Hanlon, voice of Geotge Jetson.
Dick?) doing his Popeye imitation, and Hmmm. I wonder what Disney charac- By the way, thank you to all of you
Charles Flesicher doing Roger Rabbit. ter will be the next to be enlisted to star people who have written to me to say
Oh, I almost forgot...In case you in a syndicated adventure-comedy series? how much you enjoy my column and
haven't heard, Disney is going all out toSnow White? Ranger Woodlore? May- Ant'mato! It s eems that the most com-
produce some Maroon Toons. Yes, it' s be Clarabelle Cow? mon comment is, "Gee, you guys al-
true! They' re spending almost $2 mil- Meanwhile, Nelvana will be producing ways tell it like it is! Y ou don't just
lion on the f irst l ittle eight-minute a Beetlejuice Saturday morning cartoon love everything and recycle press re-
Roger Rabbit film that is scheduled to show for this fall! leases like some other magazines I
premiere this summer, attached to the Ralph Bakshi has begun his live- could name!" Thanks, folks. We feel
Touchstone film Honey, I Shrunk the action film. "It's about how America that we serve our function well here.
Kids. The cartoon's title? Rolfercoaster changed from the '50s to the '80s...how (And also, thanks for being patient with
Rabbit. honesty and ethics have been replaced by us when your issue is late. We don' t
Congratulations are in order for Sally shopping centers and greed." You tell belong to any big animation firm, pub-
(Face Like a Frog) Cruikshank, who is it, Ralphie boy. Gee, life sure was bet- lishing house, or anything else, and wor-
expecting a little baby animator any day ter back in the 50s - unless, of course, hng on Animato is not our full time
now. (Please, Sally, just don't name you were black, a woman, or accused of job!)
him or her "Quasi," huh?) being a Communist sympathizer.. Oh, So, in conclusion, just keep those
Remember last issue, when I jokingly well, as long as he stops making Tat- cards, letters, and marriage proposals
suggested that other studios would soon tertown, I' ll be. happy. (But I do hope coming and remember...TURN OUT
be doing shows about cartoon characters more Mighty Mouse: the New Adven- THAT LIGHT!
 A,ttention, A,nime Fans!
h the worltl of Japanese animation
and mangapassing by too quickly
for you to keep up?
Mould you like to be able to get in
contact arith other anile and manga
fans throughout the world?
• •

If so, America's oldest independent, non-profit fan club for

JapaneseAnimation and Manga, the Cartoon/Fantasy
Organization (founded in 1977), wants Xou uas a member. %'e
publish an annual membership directory, and an optional monthly
fanzine (Regular and Full members of the C/FO receive the three
extra-large "club editions", which are published every four
months,as part of their memberships). The C/FO sponsors apas,
round robins, chapters, affiliates, and other fannish activities
that you can participate in even if you do not live near other
anime and manga fans! As little as two dollars gets you listed in
the annual C/FO Membership Directory, while actual
memberships in the C/FO start at only 44.00 a year (1989 dues)!

Celluloid Diversions the C/FO's monthly animation and manga

Join Bmerica's iansine is noe in its fourth year of regular ~
montht
publication (compare that record to someof the "pro" American
oldest Rnimation and anime and manga magazines). It is a digest-sized fanzine (30-40
Manga Fan Club... pages per normal issue) that prints information on Japanese
anime series (recent articles have coveredSaint Sei a Samurai
Trop rs Rosa ot Versailles, and Srungle), mange, t e activities
~
...Sent! for your of C/FO chapters and affiliates, and even fan fiction and
translations! %'hile Celluloid Diversions is available to
information packet b ( f til l ~ y ). F O t at i t h
copies for as little as 520 a year!
on the
Cartoon/Fantasy If you are an active anime or manga fan (or should like ta be), you
owe it to yourself to gin the C/FO. For more information, send for
Organization Todayl the C/FO General Information Flyer, it has lots of information on
the C/FOand anime fandom in general. To get your copy and a
CIFO membership application, send a large Self Addressed
You' ll be latt you Stamped Envelope (45 cents postage) to the following address:
tti .
Cartoon/FantasyOrganization
(C/FO and Cartoon/Fantasy Organ-
ization are servicemarks of the
DepartmentMZ
Cartoon/Fantay Organization, a P.O. Box 18261
not-for-profit organization.)
Son Antonio, TX 78218-0261
Copyright (c) 1989 by theC/FO
 u r back i s sues, t hat i s . Clampett; T i m F a y o n Japan's cult Max Fleischer's live-action work; Jim
We' ve been publishing the series Urusei Yatsura; plus Saturday Korkis's Harlequin and David Bastian's
m agazinefor more than five years, and Mourning '85, and G. Michael Dobbs Flipbooks columns debut; all topped off
classic Animato issues offer a wealth of on collecting Fleischer videotapes. by a Dave Bennett cover.
coverage of 80s animation, historical
articles, informative reviews, and other ¹9: W i l l V inton's Mark Twain is our ¹14: We mark the year of Snow White
great features. cover boy, with ' Harry McCracken's w ith Mike Ventrella's review of t h e
Issues ¹1-6, ¹11, ¹13, and ¹15 are out overview of Vinton's career inside; G. film; Gary Meyer on Norman McLaren;
of print, but the following issues are Michael Dobbs interviews Shamus Cul- TV's Ewoks and Droids; plus Shamus
still available, at $2.50 each, or any five hane; children's TV expert George W. Culhane and a look at the future of
for $10.00 - you save $2.50. Many of Woolery on the history of TV anima- computer animation.
the remaining issues are in short supply, tion; plus Korkis on Chuck Jones and
so get 'em while they last. H ere's a featured reviews of Starchaserand the ¹16: Our last digest-sized issue is a
look at some of the highlights of these 19th Tournee of Animation. special Mighty Mouse: the New Ad-
jam-packed magazines (each issue con- ventures one, with a J ohn Kricfalusi
tains additional features): ¹10: Dave Bennett's cover announces a interview and RoundTable discussion of
special book review section, with pieces the show featuringcomments by Chuck
¹7: Disney's The Black Cauldron i s on Leonard Mosley'sDisney's World, Jones, Leonard Maltin, and others. Plus
cover-featured, with a look at its making Shamus Culhane's Talking Animals and McCracken on the Museum of Cartoon
and a review; G. Michael Dobbs inter- Other People, and Joe Adamson's The Art's Fleischer Studios exhibit, and
views animation's elder statesman, Grim Walter Lantz Story; Steve Segal begins more. Original cover by Kricfalusi.
Natwick; Matt Hasson on Richard Wil- his first-hand account of the making of
liams'smuch-delayed, frequently-retitled, The Brave Little Toaster; and Mark Mar- ¹17: Our f i rst magazine-sized issue
still-upcoming feature; and Jim Korkis derosian on Goliath Il . features an exclusive Ralph Bakshi
on the Walter Lantz studio. interview and preview of Tattertown; a
¹12: T i mothy F a y p r e sides o v er look at the world of Chinese animation;
¹8: W e celebrate Porky Pig's fiftieth S aturday Mourning '86; Harry M c - an interview with Jack Hannah by Jim
birthday with Matthew Hasson's look at Cmcken onAn American Tail and Don Korkis; and a l ong review of W h o
his long film career; Jim Korkis on Bob Bluth's other work; M i k e Dobbs on Framed Roger Rabbit.

Subscriptions to future issues are also available, of course: $10.00 ($15.00 outside of North America)
gets you the next four issues hot off the presses, before they reach stores.

PO Box 1240,
Cambridge, MA 02238