Check out our image gallery of Mel Shaw artwork, which will soon be on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum.
The post From ‘Bambi’ to ‘The Lion King,’ Disney Legend Mel Shaw Lassos a Retrospective appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
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Check out our image gallery of Mel Shaw artwork, which will soon be on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum.
The post From ‘Bambi’ to ‘The Lion King,’ Disney Legend Mel Shaw Lassos a Retrospective appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
Add a Comment"Inside Out" production designer Ralph Eggleston and historian John Canemaker will introduce some of the screenings.
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At one point I found myself at a signing table between Deborah Heiligman and Rebecca Stead with Susan Kuklin, Chris Raschka, and Peter Lerangis on either side. I picked up the name tag that Jerry Pinkney had left behind so that I could at least claim a Caldecott by association. Of course that meant I left my own nametag behind and a certain someone did find it later in the day . . .
Then that afternoon, after wolfing down an Upper West Side avocado sandwich that had aspirations for greatness (aspirations that remained unfulfilled) I was at NYPL’s central library for the panel Blurred Lines?: Accuracy and Illustration in Nonfiction. This title of silliness I acknowledge mine. In any case, the line-up was Sophie Blackall, Brian Floca, Mara Rockliff, and her Candlewick editor Nicole Raymond. It was brilliant. There will perhaps be a write-up at some point that I’ll link to. I just wanted to tip my hat to the folks involved. We were slated to go from 2-3 and we pretty much went from 2-4. We could have gone longer.
BSFA and Carnegie Medal longlister Frances Hardinge’s debut adult novel THE KNOWLEDGE, about a London cab driver with a special license to travel between multiple alternative Londons, who, after rescuing a long-missing fellow driver, finds herself caught up in a widening conspiracy to control the pathways between worlds, to Navah Wolfe at Saga Press, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2017, by Barry Goldblatt at Barry Goldblatt Literary on behalf of Nancy Miles at Miles Stott Literary Agency (NA).
Mind you, this means I’ll have to read an adult novel now. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Smarties.
The other day I linked to a piece on the term “racebent” and how it applies to characters like Hermione in Harry Potter. It’s not really a new idea, though, is it? Folks have always reinterpreted fictional characters in light of their own cultures. This year the publisher Tara Books is releasing The Patua Pinocchio. Now I’ve been a bit Pinocchio obsessed ever since my 3-year-old daughter took Kate McMullen’s version to heart (it was the first chapter book she had the patience to sit through). With that in mind I am VERY interested in this version of the little wooden boy. Very.
Daily Image:
I am ever alert to any appropriation of my workplace that might be taking place. Recently I learned that in the Rockettes’ upcoming holiday show there will be this set in one of the numbers. Apparently Patience and Fortitude (the library lions) will be voiced by (the recorded voices of) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. I kid you not.
Years ago when I worked in the old Donnell Library I looked out the window of the Central Children’s Room to see three camels standing there chewing their cud or whatever it is that camels chew. They were with their trainer, taking a walk before their big number in the Rockettes’ show. The crazy thing was watching the people on the street. The New Yorkers were walking past like the it was the most natural thing in the world. This is because New Yorkers are crazy. When camels strike you as everyday, something has gone wrong with your life.
Edward Levitt, an unsung hero of the Golden Age of animation, has died. He was 96. Levitt died on Tuesday, April 2, in Palmdale, California.
Levitt worked as a production designer, storyboard and layout artist, and background painter for thirty-five years in the animation industry. His superb skills as a designer made him a key figure during the Cartoon Modern era of the 1950s.
Ed Levitt was born in New York City on April 17, 1916 and grew up in Somers, Connecticut and Brooklyn, New York. His family moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1930s and following graduation from high school, Levitt applied to the Disney Studios in 1937. He was hired at $16.50 per week and did rotoscape tracing on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The Disney studio recognized his talent as a painter, and by the end of production on Snow White, he had switched to painting backgrounds. He worked as a background artist on Pinocchio, the “Rite of Spring” segment in Fantasia and Bambi. Levitt picketed during the Disney strike of 1941. He returned after the strike was settled to work on Victory Through Air Power, but left again to enlist in the Marines in 1943. During the war, he made training films while a member of the Marine Corps Photographic Section in Quantico, Virginia.
Here are a couple examples of his paintings from Fantasia and Bambi:
After the war, Levitt became a partner in a Los Angeles-based production company called Cinemette, which was formed with ex-Marines (and Disney artists) John Chadwick, Jack Whitaker, and Keith Robinson. The studio operated between 1946-1950, and they created a number of industrial films, as well as entertainment short subjects and early TV commercials.
Levitt’s liberal politics led him to direct Grass Roots (1948), which called for establishing a world government through a revision of the United Nations charter and was partly funded by the United World Federalists. He also produced a popular anti-nuclear film Where Will You Hide? (1948), which attracted the attention of no less than Albert Einstein, who commented, “Somebody, after having seen this film, may say to you: This representation of our situation may be right, but the idea of world government is not realistic. You may answer him: If the idea of world government is not realistic, there there is only onerealistic view of our future: wholesale destruction of man by man.”
Levitt’s star rose during the 1950s when commercials and commissioned films were produced at an increasingly frenetic pace. His graphically accessible yet sophisticated style made him much sought after as a designer, storyboard and layout artist. “He was a great artist,” said animator Bill Littlejohn. “And his layouts were the best. He could animate, too. I sure liked working with him. He was so damn good at what he did. He knew the problems that the animators would face and he would design things with that in mind.”
These are a few examples of commercials and films designed and laid out by Levitt:
Through the 1950s, Levitt worked as a freelancer at more than a dozen studios including Graphic Films, Cascade Pictures, Raphael G. Wolff, Quartet Films, John Sutherland Productions, Eames Office, ERA Productions, United Productions of America, Ray Patin Productions, Academy Pictures, Churchill/Wexler Film Productions, Storyboard Inc., and Fred A. Niles Productions.
At Playhouse Pictures, Levitt worked closely with director Bill Melendez on many of the Ford spots starring the cast from the Peanuts comics. When Melendez opened his own studio in 1964, Levitt was one of the first artists he hired. “I remember Ed as being reliable, steady, pragmatic, kind and generous,” said Melendez’s son Steve, who also worked at the studio. “I know that he helped Bill in the early days not only artistically but also financially. Bill always considered Ed to be ‘The Best’, a title he did not bestow easily or often. Ed could draw anything and had a great grasp of how a film is made. He was the best layout person I have ever met.”
Levitt played a key role in designing the first Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas with backgrounds like this:
He also coined the famous credit used for many years at the end of the Peanuts specials—Graphic Blandishment. “Blandishment” is defined as “something that tends to coax or cajole,” which speaks to Levitt’s modesty and his view of the role he played in the filmmaking process.
Steve Melendez recalled that Levitt was proud of A Charlie Brown Christmas even during times of uncertainty and doubt:
“When we completed A Charlie Brown Christmas, and we all had a chance to look at the answer-print, Bill, Lee [Mendelson] and everyone else thought we were the authors of a great disaster and we would probably never make a film again. Ed was the sole voice who said, ‘Don’t be silly, this film will be shown for a hundred years!’ And he was right. I don’t know if he believed it or not, but his calm confidence gave everyone hope that perhaps things were not as bad as they seemed.”
By the early-1960s, Ed identified himself as a Cartoonist-Rancher on his income tax returns. He had begun taking animal husbandry classes at Pierce College, and had purchased a ranch in Lake Hughes, an hour’s drive north of Los Angeles, near Gorman, California. There, he planted cherry and apple orchards, and began to raise cattle.
Bill Melendez made this drawing of “cartoonist-rancher Ed”:
He spent most of the 1960s working on the Charlie Brown TV specials, and also directed a couple of Babar specials for Melendez. Other Sixties projects included the titles of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and the features Gay Purr-ee and The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
Levitt retired from animation in 1973 to become a full-time rancher and orchard owner. “As you get older,” Levitt told a newspaper reporter, “it just seems a lot nicer to sit up here in the forest and listen to the trees grow.”
Levitt is predeceased by his wife, Dorothy. He is survived by his brother, Julius Levitt; sister, Annette Priemer; his four children, Alan Cyders; Geoffrey, Dan and Paul Levitt, along with numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made in his name to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
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The legendary Tyrus Wong, who art directed Bambi among countless other accomplishments and who is one hundred years young, was hanging out at Pixar yesterday. Here are some impressions of his visit as tweeted by Pixar artists:
Today I shook Tyrus Wong’s hand and listened to his many stories. He’s got 100yrs worth of them! His secret to a long life: sense of humour! — Daniela Strijleva
You know it’s a great day when Tyrus Wong’s hanging out, chatting on the patio. I wish Maurice was here, too. — Scott Morse
Tyrus Wong is 100 yrs old & looks AMAZING ! He is so impressed by the studio he asked for a job ! — Matt Jones
Today, the rumor is that he’ll make an appearance at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, though they haven’t officially announced it. The museum is hosting a lecture at 3pm called “The Art of Tyrus Wong” with historian Charles Solomon, and production designers Ralph Eggleston (WALL·E, Finding Nemo) and Paul Felix (Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor’s New Groove). I imagine that’s the event Ty will appear at, but even if he doesn’t, it still sounds like a terrific presentation. I’d recommend purchasing an on-line ticket before showing up because it’s probably going to be a sell out.
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In Perry, Florida… long before Disney World, somehow escaping sight of Disney’s lawyers. Hunters not welcome. Here’s a more recent photo.
(Thanks, Devlin Thompson via Bad Postcards)
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Here, courtesy of Hulu, is an excerpt from last Friday’s telecast of ABC’s The View which featured the first meeting, 69 years after the fact, of the voices of Disney’s Bambi and Thumper – Donnie Donagan and Peter Behn. If anyone locates the whole View segment online, let us know:
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Bob McIntosh passed away on June 17, 2010 at the age of 94. Born on March 11, 1916 in Vallejo, California, and raised in Stockton, Bob discovered painting at an early age. Encouraged by Harry Noyes Pratt, the director of Stockton’s then-newly opened Haggin Museum, and mentored by local painter Arthur Haddock, McIntosh applied for a scholarship to Art Center in Los Angeles. He moved with his family to LA in 1934 to attend the school, and afterwards was hired at Disney where he worked on a number of the studio’s features, including Bambi for which he painted multiplane backgrounds directly onto glass. He was drafted into the First Motion Picture Unit during WWII. Following the war, he joined Paul J. Fennell’s commercial studio Cartoon Films Ltd. where he worked on contemporary looking commercials (along with designer Ed Benedict) that prefigured the move towards cartoon modernism in the 1950s.
He joined UPA in the early-1950s and stayed there for the entire decade, primarily painting backgrounds for the Mister Magoo series. This is what I wrote about his work in Cartoon Modern: “McIntosh worked in perhaps the most simplified style of any of the UPA background painters. His ‘poster style’ background paintings used minimal rendering techniques and clean geometric shapes, recalling the work of artists like Stuart Davis and Fernand Léger.” After UPA, Bob painted backgrounds on The Alvin Show and The Lone Ranger at Format Films, George of the Jungle for Jay Ward Productions, and Chuck Jones’s The Phantom Tollbooth, among other projects, before retiring in the early-1980s.
It was a pleasure to get to know Bob while I was writing Cartoon Modern and I kept in touch with him over the last few years of his life. Bob had an admirably unwavering commitment to painting. Though his career in animation stretched over forty years, animation wasn’t his primary passion; it was painting that excited him, and animation provided a steady income allowing him to do what he loved best. He had exhibited his personal artwork since the 1940s, and his lifelong passion for painting resulted in hundreds of canvases in almost every single imaginable style. In his final years, when painting became difficult, he continued to create painted collage canvases. A wonderful life-spanning selection of his paintings can be seen at the Trigg Ison gallery website which represents his work.
Bob was an intensely private person. He never initiated contact; I always had to call him. But when I did call, he was always gracious and friendly. The half dozen or so times I visited him at his home where memorable experiences as he would speak for hours about painting and his life. Our conversations would inevitably shift back to his latest painting projects or his personal theories on painting and color. He was ever the gentleman, even in his advanced years, and dressed with class. He had a good sense of humor about himself and the world around him; whenever I asked him about events that had happened in the past, he enjoyed making jokes about his age by saying, “I think that happened in 1939…or was that 1839?” He would laugh heartily when he recalled the last name of one of his instructors at Art Center: Stan Reckless. He once showed me a collection of unused toilet paper he had gathered during a trip to Europe in the 1940s; the shortage of paper in postwar Europe gave their toilet paper a quality similar to wax paper, which had amused Bob.
Bob is one of the unsung heroes of animation; an artist who worked in the background (and on the backgrounds) while quietly raising the standards of the art form with his masterful artistry. It was a delight and an honor having known him for the short time that I did. His wife, Helen Ner
Add a CommentA new book argues that Disney movies like “Bambi” inspired generations of environmentalists, while others criticize the films’ distorted views of nature and animals.
Presenting Doctor Grordbort’s
Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory!!!
Weta Publishing is pleased to announce its upcoming Weta Originals/Dark Horse Comics publication: Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory.
Doctor Grordbort: inventor extraordinaire! He’s got a gadget for everything! He’s also the creator of a meticulous catalogue of weaponry. Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory is a thirty-two-page catalogue that chronicles a world where chivalry is not dead, advertising is beautiful, and ray guns look too pretty to be lethal.
The stars of the show are, of course, Doctor Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators, but you will also find the shiniest new bifurnilizers, metal manservants, and automated travel loungers. Also included for entertainment and scientific education is a compartmentalised picture story (some call them comics) of the world-famous naturalist, Lord Cockswain. He was the hit of this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, as convention-goers stopped agape at Weta’s hauntingly realistic, life-size memorial statue, celebrating Lord Cockswain and the Moon Mistress’ heroic endeavors on Venus.
Written and illustrated by Weta Workshop conceptual designer Greg Broadmore, Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory showcases dozens of arcane inventions, contraptions, and weaponry. “As a kid I was massively inspired and awed by the black-and-white serials on Sunday afternoon TV, in particular the 1930s Flash Gordon and the many sci-fi movies of that era,” says Greg. “This book allowed me to pay homage to that world of science fiction and create something new at the same time. And it’s full of guns, did I mention guns? Rayguns actually, the best type.”
This hardcover book will be available from Dark Horse Books in January 2008.
Don’t remember — have you already mentioned Lena Dunham’s HBO Hilary Knight documentary? I’ve got the trailer up here: https://medinger.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/lena-hilary-and-eloise/
Yep. Included it in a Video Sunday, though I didn’t post the trailer. Thanks!
In fact, as an update to that Video Sunday post, I have it on good authority that Richard Peck has sent Ms. Dunham a signed copy of Fair Weather in response to her tattoo of the same name.
There was a Charles Addams from many years ago in which an octopus or sea monster appeared through a manhole and grabbed a man off the street, while the victim tried to fight it off with an umbrella. All the people walked past without noticing, except for one man who stood there shocked. (apparently an out-of-towner) His friend said to him, “It takes a lot to draw a crowd in New York.”
BTW, is that you on the Rockettes’ set?
You are flattering me. But from this distance it could be. I’m going to all out lie and say yes. Yes, that’s me.
Charles Addams knew this city well. I may go read his Mother Goose in memory of him.
Betsy, first off—it was a pleasure getting to talk to you at the Bank Street Grand Opening By the way, you left Jerry’s name tag and your own, and even Tim left your name tag after he’d borrowed it (I watched him take that selfie lol), both stuck to the tablecloth ’til the end of the day. Remember how you said you save everything and I said I do too? Guess who has the name tags now? And no, you can’t have them back!
OK, this post is SO packed with great stuff, I want to touch on a few, so humor me, please
You spoke of poetry for children. JUST read a great post (https://bookseedstudio.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/books-let-in-the-stars/) that is “skin prickles” praising LET IN THE STARS (love the title!)
I agree we do not deserve a federation. Brits are definitely cooler than we are and, sadly, I think it will always remain that way : /
The “Seuss” post IS amazing! Lots of stuff I’ve never heard/seen before! Thanks for that link
Lots of fun learning more about you in the Forbes article (will shortly be reading the “Introvert” one)
Am now subscribed to The BiblioFiles! Thank you very much
And I’m guessing that’s Fortitude whose head is turned, checking out the female in front of the beautiful NYPL facade? Wow! Just love those lions
Thanks for such a great post, Betsy
Great seeing you too! And that is indeed Fortitude turning his head. Patience is always on the left, Fortitude on the right. And if you stand in the center of 5th Avenue between the two you’ll probably be hit by a bus, but just before you are you can see that they both are looking directly at you. And thanks too for the poetry book link. Doesn’t look like it’s available through Baker & Taylor, which is a bummer. I’ll check and see if Ingram sells it later.
That’s the best thing about New Yorkers! Nothing fazes us. It also means that we feel free to dress/act bizarrely because no one will give us a second glance.
GREAT to hear news about Hilary Knight. We did two books together for Simon & Schuster – SIDE BY SIDE and HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Love him! Lee Bennett Hopkins