Gene Deitch: The Animated WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Detail from the storyboard.

Animator Gene Deitch talks about the long process of making the WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE animated film. 

The production was long and arduous, five years of on-&-off start & stop, with Maurice demanding change after change, often contradictory. I still have boxes of letters, memos, notes, sketches, scribbled ideas, rejections, arguments, changes, changes, changes.  Was it worth it?  Well, yes, it’s my all-time best-selling film, and the royalties soothe my memories of pain. I’m posting here a few random samples, which can only give you a rough idea of the ups and downs and general angst we endured.

There are several amazing bits Mr. Deitch shares:

• the now-rare original soundtrack version of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE,
  
• and an unseen 1984 film of Deitch and Maurice Sendak talking about their IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN film.

Go read the entire tale here.

Via wardomatic! Thanks, Ward!

Animated Graphic Novel Coming Soon: Ryan Woodward's BOTTOM OF THE NINTH

A friend sent me this item from ESPN with the comment, ""Animated graphic novel?" Wouldn't that be a MOVIE???"

Animation industry pro Ryan Woodward has produced BOTTOM OF THE NINTH, a story about a young woman baseball player. It is, regardless of the snark above, a beautifully created vision.

Maybe it's a peek into the future of producing a GN for electronic delivery systems. Patrick Dorsey of ESPN writes that BOTTOM OF THE NINTH is a "rare type of project [that] is available in a pretty unorthodox form, too -- as a series of apps, the first one titled 'Prologue.'"

Launch date to be determined.

Here's the trailer:

Video: "Drawing Account" Behind the Scenes at a 1941 Animation Studio

"Cartoon Films, Inc." creates an animated spot in this 1941 nine minute short titled "Drawing Account."

Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was

Above image from the Chuck Jones Crawford site. Much amazing unseen Jones art there.

The new book CHUCK JONES: THE DREAM THAT NEVER WAS by Kurtis Findlay details a little-known, short-lived newspaper comic strip titled "Crawford" that Mr. Jones created. The strip ran six months and then crashed.

Findlay describes the origins of the idea:

I first learned about Crawford while reading Chuck Jones’s Wikipedia entry. “From 1977-1978, Jones wrote and drew the syndicated comic strip Crawford (also known as Crawford & Morgan) for the Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate.” That was it; a single sentence. I longed to know more, but could only find two examples of the strip online. It isn’t discussed in any of the books on Chuck Jones, including his two autobiographies.

Kurtis Findlay, along with IDW's Library of American Comics editor Dean Mullaney, shows us every strip, plus preliminary sketches and a treatise on Jones' post-Warner animation career. The new hardcover book, recently expanded by 26% ("...[W]e have now had to add an extra SIXTY PAGES to accommodate all of the art we found!"), is scheduled for release in December.

Westfield Comics' Roger Ash interviews Kurtis Findlay here.

Do visit the great site for the book with lots of art and previews.

Absolute Truths: Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks and Brendan Behan

From a 1997 interview with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks about the 2000 YEAR OLD MAN recordings:

Reiner: At that second recording [for "2,000 and One Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks] ... we had Brendan Behan, the famous Irish playwright [in the audience], and Mel didn't know he was there. I'll never forget this. I'd asked Mel, "Did you have a national anthem?" He said, "Yeah, every cave had a national anthem"--he didn't know I was going to ask him that, and he sang . . .

Brooks: [Sings] "Let them all go to hell, except Cave 17."

Reiner: And Behan came up after the session and said, "You know, I've got a new motto now," and he said something to me in Gaelic. I asked, "What does that mean?" He'd translated Mel's anthem. Now, that is exactly what flags, what nationalism does. Everybody should go to hell as long as we're OK. That's what I mean--Mel hits the absolute truths.

Below is the 1975 animated special, with character design and pretty much everything else by Leo Salkin. The audio is directly from the 1960s comedy albums. Titled "The 2000 Year Old Man," it aired January11, 1975.

It was my introduction to their work. Irish, Jewish, whatever -- this stuff is full of some great truths. And it still makes me laugh. The difference between tragedy and comedy, Shakespeare's lost play "Queen Alexandra and Murray," the greatest thing that mankind ever developed in 2000 years, the superiority of nectarines -- it's all here. If you just want to sing the national anthem along with Mel, click here. (And to my ears, Mel does sing "cave 17" but for some reason the cave is labeled with "76!" Go figure!)

Here's "The 2000 Year Old Man" animated special from 1975. Listen for Brendan Behan's laughs in the background there.

Video: SPACE TRAVEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

Space travel According to John from Jamie Stone on Vimeo.


And it's all done with washing powder!

Big hat tip to Forbidden Planet!

Video: Renton, WA: Police to Charge Cartoonist as Criminal; ACLU Offers Help

This story is getting bigger ... still hard to believe this is happening in America.

Below is a news piece from the Washington Station KIRO TV. The local police department has been spoofed in a series of videos by an anonymous animator. The cops want this fellow's hide. They really do. And for good reason: the Renton PD may be rife with corruption.

I wouldn't call this anonymous fellow a cartoonist. The videos are rather long and done with an animation program I've seen before. It's one of those programs where you can create an environment from a template.

Regardless, KIRO TV has lots of serious looking newscasters in suits telling us that no one will talk at the police department will talk about it to them, not even the PD Spokeswoman.



And here's today's piece, where "targeted police feel humiliated." The news anchor asks us if this is covered by the first amendment. Well, yes, parody is covered by the first amendment. I learned that from MAD Magazine!

Watch as Renton Police Chief Kevin Milosevich (!!) says that these animations meet the definition of a crime and the Department was able to obtain a search warrant.



Link: Uncut Locker Room Parody

Terry Gilliam's Do It Yourself Animation Show

From Bob Godfrey’s Do-It-Yourself Animation Show (1974):



Big hat tip to Amid at Cartoon Brew!

Video: Lost 1926 MUTT AND JEFF Silent "Playing With Fire"

Thanks to Silencebound who adds:  

I am very extremely proud to showing a recently found long-lost oldest 35mm cartoon classic starring Mutt and Jeff. I bought it from the States thru eBay few years ago, but I've not joined YouTube during at that time. But it is the big opportunity to expressing my discovery of the lost films and here's the one that is awaiting for the YouTube presentation. This public-domain B/W 35mm film is Nitrate element, and is very dangerous to be projected by a conventional 35mm movie projector (due to the excessive screening light which is very deadly) and left the theatrical-released film almost unscathed which is widely unseen for more than 80 years. Nowadays, very few Mutt and Jeff cartoon shorts is existed today, most notably it can be found on DVDs, but doesn't mentioned about this newly-founded 1,000 ft film, 'Playing With Fire'. I used my 35mm Steenbeck editing machine to playback this lost film along with low-stressing projection light which is major recommendation for Nitrate films. Watch this nice animated-paced funny masterpiece to experience yourself at the focusing element of the lost film classics. Rated far much better than Walt Disney's 'Steamboat Willie' (1928) which is two years away.

THE ATLANTIC: Before Disney: 5 Pioneers of Early Animation

THE ATLANTIC Magazine's Maria Popova lists five prominent pre-Disney animators with samples of their then-groundbreaking work: Émile Cohl, Georges Méliès, Winsor McCay, J. Stuart Blackton and Eadweard J. Muybridge.

Video: THE ROCKETEER Pixar Style

Via CartoonBrew:

 Always loved Commando Cody and was the biggest fan of Dave Stevens’ homage The Rocketeer. Disney made a live action film in 1991, so why couldn’t Pixar make a new one today? French animator John Banana couldn’t wait and made this “fan film” in tribute to Stevens and his creation:

The Rocketeer 20th anniversary from John Banana on Vimeo.

Animation: THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER by Roz Chast

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Via Need to Know on PBS.

Video: NEWS SKETCHES BY MAX FLEISCHER

Here's a mid-1940s short from the Fleischer studio titled NEWS SKETCHES BY MAX FLEISCHER, with the subtitle, "Drawn from the Wires of the Associated Press."

Video: Steve Brodner on Diablo Canyon with Guest Stars: the 3 Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Spongebob and Many More

A galaxy of stars from Steve Brodner's pen are featured in this brand new excellent video over at Slate. Please go take a look so that Slate will see the numbers and want more of this.

Trailer: THE RABBI'S CAT

THE RABBI'S CAT - LE CHAT DU RABBIN - TEASER from Banjo Studio on Vimeo.

Hat tip to Tom Spurgeon!

Who Was Edna Mode in Based On?

The Ask SAM feature of the Winston-Salem Journal answers a question about the inspiration for Edna Mode, that costume designer character from brad Bird's THE INCREDIBLES. Here it is, for the record:

Q: Was the little fashion designer character in the Disney movie "The Incredibles" based on the lady who plays Hetty on "NCIS: Los Angeles"?

J.L.

A: Brad Bird, the cartoonist who created "The Incredibles" — and who provides the voice of Edna Mode, the bombastic, diminutive scene-stealing character — has been cagey about her origins. Linda Hunt, the actress you are referring to, is one possibility who has been frequently mentioned.

But the character seems more directly inspired by Edith Head, a famous Hollywood fashion designer who won eight Oscar awards for best costume design and was nominated 35 times. Other possible inspirations include Lotte Lenya, who played a Bond villain in the movie "From Russia With Love," and fashion designers Anna Wintour and Mary Quant. In a 2004 article in Entertainment Weekly, Bird commented, "I've heard, like, 15 different people she reminds people of."

Oh, that cagey Brad Bird!

I had always thought it was Oscar-winning Hollywood movie costume designer Edith Head (below):

That New PEANUTS Special

Have they gone TOO FAR with this new PEANUTS special?!?!

No, just kidding.

The above image is a 1963 parody of Mr. Schulz's runaway best seller by the great Hank Ketcham, from the 17th Annual National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards newsletter.

Seriously ... there is a new PEANUTS special. But it won't be on TV. Not yet.

From what I have heard, this special is reverently done in the Lee-Melendez style and it's good. I haven't seen it. It comes out, direct to DVD, on March 29, 2011.

Titled HAPPINESS IS A WARM BLANKET, CHARLIE BROWN here is director Andy Beall talking about it and showing some pencils tests via Animation Brew:



The special is longer than the classic ones, 46 minutes, and the DVD has many special features:

• Deconstructing Schulz: From Comic Strips to Screenplay - How the Peanuts comic strip was made into a special
  
• Happiness is...Finding the Right Voice - Meet the stellar new voice cast (Peanuts Specials, for those who may not know, have always employed children actors for the voices)
  
• 24 Frames Per Second - Drawing and Animating a Peanuts Special
  
• Deleted Scene with an Introduction by Director Andy Beall

Related: the new PEANUTS graphic novel HAPPINESS IS A WARM PUPPY, CHARLIE BROWN from Boom! Studios ships in April. The book is written by original creator Charles M. Schulz, adapted by Craig Schulz & Stephan Pastis, with art credited to Bob Scott, Vicki Scott and Ron Zorman.

Pop Culture Zoo has a preview.

Disney/Pixar's UP! the 1965 "Pre-make"

What if the movie UP! was made in 1965?



Hat tip to Drawn!

This is just one of a series of "Premakes" by Whoiseyevan.

Related: THE AVENGERS 1952 Premake.

A Walt Disney Christmas Story

Above image from Vintage Disney Collectibles.

Author Jim Korkis shares a story about the young Walter Disney and a Christmas present that changed his life in a way that no one could foresee. (This is not in his book THE VAULT OF WALT.)

It all starts with Walt's paper route:

"Walt never forgot his days as a newsboy and some of those memories weren't always pleasant ones ....

"Young Walt's route was in a fairly wealthy neighborhood. Those folks were certainly much better off financially than the Disney family at the time. Walt would start out at 3:30 a.m. Some of the kids in the neighborhood had wonderful toys and often they would leave them out on the porch after playing with them the previous evening.

"Walt didn't have any toys. If he got a top or marbles or something, it was a big deal. Everything his parents gave him was something practical like underwear or a winter jacket. His older brother Roy was the one who set aside some extra money from his job so that Walt and his younger sister Ruth would always get some small toy for Christmas.

"Anyway, there would be kids' toys out on these big porches. At 4 a.m., in the dark, Walt would put his paper bag down and go up and play with these wind-up trains and things. He'd sit there and play all alone with them. One time he came to a porch and there were some toys, as well as a box of half-eaten candy. So he sat there and ate some of the half-eaten candy and played with the toys."

The rest of the story, which goes on to tell about that particular present that would change his life, is here.

Jack Davis TV Commercials

Here is 6 minutes of Jack Davis TV commercials from years ago. Some unseen Davis work here.



Commercials:

• McCracken's Apple Chips (with voice talents June Foray and Gary Owens)
• Utica Club Beer
• Cask Mountain Wine
• True Temper Uni-Spin fishing rods
• Gillette Trac II (with (I think) the voice talent of Jackson Beck)
• Sominex
• Utica Club Beer (another one)
• The Dodge Boys (1969 Polara)
• Chex Cereal (with Ruth Buzzi)
• Pennsylvania Lottery
• Lectric Shave

Thanks to chiefzabu for posting this!

Another treat: a collection of General Electric appliance commercials created by Rankin Bass for its original 1964 GE-sponsored broadcast of the 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' TV special. I've never seen these!