Hidden Initials. Matt Groening hid his initials in the hair (M) over Homer Simpson’s ear and the center of the ear (G).
Extinct Jurassic Park. Artist Bill Stout was the production designer and drew all the model sheets for a proposed Jurassic Park animated television series for Universal Cartoon Studios. Work on the series began even before the release of the Spielberg’s live action feature in 1993. Reportedly, Spielberg refused to even look at the finished one-minute demo which featured computer animation by MetroLight.
Natwick and Polo. In a 1989 interview, animation legend Grim Natwick who was turning 99 years old in a week, still had some sharp memories. “We (the Disney animators) used to be invited to Will Rogers’ ranch, now a public park. He held big annual dinners there. He was quite the polo player. Polo was in vogue in those days. It was pretty hard on the riders. There was a Russian kid who came over named Tytla. He had kind of a composite imagination that spawned characters surely resembling the way his grandparents used to look, and he brought that look not only to the Disney dwarfs that he animated but also to Stromboli in Pinocchio.”
Got It Pegged. In 1914, animator Raoul Barre invented the mechanical peg system where you punched holes into paper to correspond with round pegs on a Peg Board. J.R Bray perfected the system, patented it and collected royalties on the system until 1931. In 1932, Max Fleischer added a third (center) hole and changed the shape of the two outer holes to a more oval design. The two advantages to Max’s addition was lessening the chance of tearing the paper when an animator removed a drawing and the oval peg allowed air to escape when the cel was placed over the drawing to be traced. In 1935 in the cartoon Mickey’s Garden Disney introduced a new five hole punch. The last time the five hole punch system was used by Disney was on the Pluto cartoon Cold Turkey (1951).
Talking Dogs. John Pomeroy was the producer and animating director on “All Dogs Go to Heaven” (1989). When he was asked about casting celebrity voices including Dom DeLuise, Charles Nelson Reilly and Burt Reynolds, he replied, “Get the characters; don’t create the characters. It was like doing an old-time radio show. You gave them a script. We gave them the basic premise and they would talk over the pacing and gags two or three times, then delivered the final product. You wouldn’t want to tamper with that. We told the editor to just lay it in the way it is.”
Friz Talks. At the age of 85 in 1990, at a signing at an animation gallery, animation legend Friz Freleng stated, “I guess I did more Bugs than any other character and I did Sylvester and Tweety probably more than I did the others. But I was the only one who used Yosemite Sam against Bugs. Yosemite Sam only played against Bugs Bunny. He never played alone and he was an instant hit. The director controlled the look of the character. Mel Blanc did the voice so the voice was always the same. But the gags and the action were all created by the director himself. And it became consistent because one director referred to the other one and they were guided by what had been done before.”
Coming or Going. To avoid the seven hour line to get into the Soviet exhibit at Expo ’67, animation director Bob Clampett simply walked into the exit and worked his way from the back to the front. According to his son Bob Clampett Jr., “He could be a mischievous fellow. Once he went with mother to a party and happened to notice a girl with a gown cut low in the back and protruding ‘shoulder blades’. He convinced the girl to loan her lipstick, mascara and shoulder blades of a little artistic session. He painted a new set of breasts on the woman’s back and then proceeded to escort her into the party this time backwards with her head turned. Everybody thought that was hilarious—except her husband.”
Termite Terrace. In 1943, animator Shamus Culhane returned to Southern California after two years working at the Max Fleischer studio in Miami, Florida. He ended up having a meeting with producer Leon Schlesinger who promised Culhane that he was going to get some Navy contracts to do some military animation and would have Culhane direct them. (Schlesinger later made those films without Culhane resulting in Culhane quitting Warners and going to Lantz.)
Schlesinger suggested that Culhane join Chuck Jones to get acquainted with the staff while waiting for the military assignment. In 1990, Culhane described what the interior of Termite Terrace looked like in 1943: “When Jones ushered me down the hall, and opened the door to the animation department, I was struck by a miasma not unlike the odor of a slave ship. The place stank of old rusted radiator, overlaid by a stink of rancid oil.
“The floor was composed of splintered ancient pine. Instead of sweeping and mopping, the wood was cleaned by sluicing it with oil. This had been going on for years, and it now smelt like a dead goat.
“Each animator and his assistant were ensconced in a cubicle made of beaver-board. This material had been punctured in several places in order to communicate with each other. Not only orally. Drawings depicting pornographic versions of current events were passed through these holes as well.
“I was amazed that nobody seemed to be unduly distressed by these foul working conditions. It felt and smelled like the sub-basement of an out-house. When I complained, and I certainly did, loud and long, the Jones’ staff looked vaguely embarrassed, as if I were being unreasonable in my diatribe. Especially, when I suggested the matter be put before the Executive Board of the Union.
“In spite of the working conditions, I enjoyed working with Chuck and his group, especially Bobe Cannon who proved to be formidable competition.”
Below: Inki and The Minah Bird – one of the Warner Bros. cartoons Shanus Culhane animated on.
Jim Korkis is an internationally respected animation historian who in recent years has devoted his attention to the many worlds of Disney. He was a columnist for a variety of animation magazines. With his former writing partner, John Cawley, he authored several animation related books including The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars, How to Create Animation, Cartoon Confidential and Get Animated’s Animation Art Buyer’s Guide. He taught animation classes at the Disney Institute in Florida as well as instructing classes on acting and animation history for Disney Feature Animation: Florida.
Jim
“Yosemite Sam only played against Bugs Bunny.He never played alone and he was an instant hit”:
Guess ol’ Friz conveniently forgot about HONEY’S MONEY (1962) which he directed.That was Yosemite’s only solo effort! It was okay,but the short really could have used the rabbit!
Ken Harris and Michael Maltese also borrowed Sam for the 1959 cartoon “Hare-Abian Knights” — a cheater cartoon noteworthy only because it ended up providing the basis of the story for Friz’s “1001 Rabbit Tales” 25 years later and because Harris got directorial credit while Chuck Jones was off working on animation for The Bell Telephone Hour for NBC. While the new animation of Sam is very limited, it is interesting seeing him handled by the Jones unit.
“Yosemite Sam only played against Bugs Bunny. He never played alone…”
Guess Friz forgot about HONEY’S MONEY (1962).
It’s fun when they forget!
I kinda wonder why there wasn’t a “Jurassic Park” animated series.
At least someone put their foot down. Sounds like it would’ve been real cheap too given when it was being developed.
I find HONEY’S MONEY hysterical, mainly for the contrast between Wentworth’s monstrous body and the voice of child actor Billy Booth (“My mommy and daddy are fighting.”). Sam’s attempts to get rid of the child by having him fetch a ball thrown into traffic and dumping alligators into his swimming pool are especially funny now because they’re completely Political Incorrect. Thanks Friz!
I know we’re supposed to prefer HIS BITTER HALF (and I do) but HONEY’S MONEY is still a fine cartoon. The best scene is the battleaxe’s glare as we hear the oncoming traffic flatten Sam—less IS more.
I know we’re supposed to prefer HIS BITTER HALF (and I do) but HONEY’S MONEY is still a fine cartoon. The best scene is the battleaxe’s glare as we hear the oncoming traffic flatten Sam—less IS more.
Makes me wish that scene happened in the former! Worked very well here.
Was there ever an actual “5-hole punch” at Disney’s or was it just the existing 2-hole punched paper that got re-punched with the new 3-hole system (two flat/oblong outer pegs, one center round peg) ?
The reason why Spielberg refused to watch the JURASSIC PARK demo had nothing to do with William Stout. Spielberg is a fan of Stout’s (who isn’t?) but I doubt if he even knew that Bill had worked on the thing. He wouldn’t watch it because Jeff Siegel, the executive producer of Universal’s animation department at the time, had made the short film without ever asking Spielberg’s permission in the first place.
Wouldn’t’ surprise me if they done it behind his back like that without asking first.
At the time of the proposed “Jurassic Park” cartoon there was no love lost between Spielberg and a great deal of the executives at Uni. They had taken it upon themselves to make bootlegs of the JP movie made before the movie was released and distribute it among themselves and friends. Many many heads rolled when he found out, or as Louis Tully put it: “Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!”
Didn’t Jones do Yosemite Sam in the TV special A CONNETICUT RABBIT IN KING ARTUR’S COURT?
Chris Sobieniak: Isn’t that what I just wrote???
Oh, excuse me, my mistake.
“Yosemite Sam only played against Bugs Bunny.”
Obviously, The Master – Isadore Freleng – as well as all of you responders – forgot about the 1947 cartoon “Along Came Daffy,” in which door-to-door salesman Daffy Duck encountered _two_ hungry Yosemite Sams in a snowed-in cabin! (One of them had dark hair.)
Culhane’s account of Termite Terrace was surprising, I knew the building was falling apart and dilapidated but wouldn’t imagine it reeking as described.