David Shepard (1940-2017)
On Tuesday, we all lost a giant in the preservation of film history: David Shepard. Here is just a little about how this one person’s life helped preserve the work of many filmmakers.
Tag Archives: Ub Iwerks
Halloween Haunts: Flip the Frog in “Spooks” (1932)
Grim Natwick seems to carry a lot of the animation on this short, and his well-drawn poses on the skeleton man are some of my favorites in this cartoon.
Needle Drop Soundtracks In Iwerks Cartoons
Ub Iwerks seems to have had a regular working relationship with RCA Victor. As we will see, Victor records seem to permeate Iwerks’ scoring – – at least for a while.
Max Fleischer and Novelty Records
One type of record that companies hoped would sell were called “novelty records”, for lack of a better term. Max Fleischer used three such “novelties” in some of his 1930’s cartoons.
Needle Drop Cuban Rhythms For Boop and Flip
Cuban rhythms really didn’t filter their way down to North American popular music – the kind that most folks would buy – until 1930. It’s an entertaining, if roundabout, story.
Evaluating the Iwerks “ComiColor” Cartoons – Part 1
I went out to the UCLA archives to evaluate the materials on the Iwerks ‘Comi-Color’ series of cartoons. Happily, the series exists in 35mm with all original titles intact on every film.
‘Needle Drop’ Recordings in Classic Fleischer & Iwerks Cartoons
In the early sound era it was apparently easier to use, on occasion, “Needle Drop” music from commercial records to score a cartoon. Here’s a list of several I’ve identified.
“Flip the Frog” Sneak Preview and Preorder
I’ve completed the inspection of the Flip materials here, and they’re overall just beautiful. The MGM fine grains are things of beauty.
“Minitoons” from Cartoon Films LTD/ Animated Cartoons Inc.
Ub Iwerks renamed his company Cartoon Films, Ltd. in 1936 after the split with Pat Powers. Here are a few animated theatrical commercials from the studio dating from 1939 and 1940.
First Look: “Flip the Frog” and “Cubby Bear” Scans
This week this space is devoted to an update and showing still frames on two projects in progress: Ub Iwerk’s Flip the Frog and Van Beuren Studio’s Cubby Bear.
