A little more MULLIN

A few more from "CLOWNING THROUGH BASEBALL" by Al Schaact, illustrations by WILLARD MULLIN.

Clockwork: the one that got away...twice!!!

GO HERE TO SEE THE RELATED VIDEO

This YouTube video has been pointed out to me, regarding a scene reanimated in Disney's BEAUTY & THE BEAST of "Cogsworth" the talking clock character I was supervising animator for.

The first version was not animated by me (I think I was out sick or on vacation) and I frankly begged to get a shot at re-doing it myself because I felt it was over-done and the shimmy was un-natural forced. In the grand scheme of things, that shot never came....

...Until the decision to update the film for a special home video release, (including the originally cut song "Human Again.") The studio often takes the opportunity in these special updates to address other fixes and the directors and producers knew I always wanted this scene re-done. Unfortunately, I had left Disney during that period and wasn't aware of the change or of any of the new material on the character until it was all finished. I would have re-animated the scene in a heartbeat at no charge had I been asked and still wish I had. Apologies to both animators of versions one and two (both are top-notch feature animators) but I don't like either version much and had something much more "in character" in mind. But everyone's heart was in the right place here and no "conspiracy" was at hand.

Oh well. That's what comes of not having control of your own work folks...

"But WHHYYYYYY...didn't you let ME re-do it?"

(Thanks Alexey)

A Tale of Two Cats

"Heavens to Murgatroyd! Copycat--stage right!"

With Depatie-Freleng cartoons in heavy rotation here I thought I would bring up a mystery that has haunted me since the advent of that studio's famous PINK PANTHER character...

The strange thing is that another cartoon pink mountain lion (which could also be called a "panther" by a zoological stretch) preceded that character by at least two years on the public forefront. Namely Hanna-Barbera's SNAGGLEPUSS. It's probably just a co-incidence, but this is a rare case where such a 'co-incidence' occurs out of sync, meaning that Hanna-Barbera's creation actually came out before the other one. H-B cartoons were always conspicuously liberal about "borrowing" --as in THE FLINTSTONES resembling THE HONEYMOONERS, THE JETSONS resembling the BLONDIE movies, heck--even the moniker "TOM & JERRY" belonged to a completely unrelated series of Van Beuren cartoons before Bill & Joe's cat and mouse came along.

Ultimately the differences between the characters far outweigh the remarkable physical similarities, "Pink Panther" is a purely pantomime character and "Snagglepuss" never shuts up for one thing. "Pink Panther" generally inhabits a kind of psychedelic universe that is vaguely urban, whereas "Snagglepuss" lives in the wilderness (or somewhere else, I can't sit through a single one of these any more).

Still the coincidence, (which is what I honestly think it is in this case) amuses me.

P.S. Purists, bear with me on the drawing, it was done entirely from memory. Also: "SNAGGLEPUS" is copyright protected by Hanna-Barbera/Time-Warner. "PINK PANTHER" is copyright protected by DFE enterprises, MGM-UA, and FOX HOME VIDEO.

Funkadellic FRIZ

These scans of BG's from Friz Freleng's THE INSPECTOR series are blowing me away lately. I was studying the DVD with the aforementioned Mr. Logan recently, who is also a fan and has one of the sharpest senses of design around.

UPDATE: As one commentor has already pointed out, TOM YAKUTIS was the key designer on the show and should be singled out for credit on these outstanding designs.

I am embarrassed to admit that as a kid, I didn't completely get how cool the style of this show was. I liked the cartoons tho. Seeing them today, I am really impressed with the blend of contemporary techniques in them. Adding to the fun, character actor Pat Harrington flawlessly channels Peter Sellers in the voice work. The irresistible Paul Frees voices most of the villians.

Storyboard artist JOHN DUNN was something of a one-man show at DePatie-Freleng studio. His super-sixties inventiveness in writing, boarding, designing and visual gags influenced every cartoon. If you haven't already, check out the ANIMATION BLAST cover story on him. Amid Amidi gives a comprehensive overview of his work, including many previously unpublished sketches, ideas and anecdotes.

Because it's Friday the 13th, (and also because I haven't posted my own drawings in a while), here's a tribute drawing I did freehand after numerous viewings of the DVD:

(Images and characters = copyright MGM/UA and FOX HOME VIDEO)

Logan's Fun

BOB LOGAN (superstar) has posted on his blog direct scans of old View-Master stereo slides featuring various Hanna-Barbara characters like my personal favorite YOGI BEAR.  Now there is yet another reason to visit him and be amazed.

Just for this, I am going to get him back in my next post.

Even more MULLIN

Believe it or not, I am actually contemplating going over that previously published DIVITO cartoon some more, if time permits. 

In the meanwhile, however, due to popular demand, here are more WILLARD MULLIN spot illustrations from CLOWNING THROUGH BASEBALL by Al Schaact. 

Check out the 180 turn on that guy's neck!

Still more of these to scan through and clean up. (I dropped the lovely and antique-feeling paper color and texture so they'd upload faster.) Again, these are large scans, so click on them to inspect them in more detail.

Divito

This South American cartoonist was versatile and prolific. I had seen a few comic strips by him in old comics history books, but have been blown away by the variety of his work that CARTOON RETRO has displayed. There are fantastic color humor covers (for a magazine called RICO TIPO), b & w comic strips, and generously illustrated two-tone magazine gags. You have to see the RICO TIPO covers to believe them...

His figures are so rhythmic and expressive, even in a static situation. What could be more boring than drawing a bunch of people standing in line? Not boring for Divito! His sense of design is amazing, the grouping of figures allows him to emphasize their attitudes while going for the most pleasing arrangements possible. The detail of people in this line for a card game at a party is stunning and delightful.

These figures have just enough detail in their clothing to make them believable, but they don't get overly-complex. They all have the same posture and attitude, but each is a specific and different type. No repetition, really. And the use of negative space between figures is simply perfect. I recommend copying some of these characters as an exercise. Here's the entire gag, the speaker and listener are also phenomenal figures:

Though the gag on top has a slightly more dated look,
I kept it in to show how he used overlapping space to design
the bottom gag, framing it with the plant and extending
the ceiling up beyond the natural border.

Divito apparently lived fast, played hard and died young, in a sports car crash around the age of 50 (? Fact-checkers welcome, as always)

One Divitto's better "Chicas" drawings

A lot of his gags focus on curvaceous, impossibly wasp-waisted  "Chicas". For my money, ironically these often seem to be the most awkward and unbalanced figures in his drawings (they're usually at least 15 heads tall, which can get awfully unwieldy on figures that curvy). Still they proved so popular that a "Chica" doll was mass-produced. Some of the simpler female characters in his comic strips are a lot more appealing to me. The curves are still beyond belief, but the height proportions have a positive effect, in my opinion.

The confines of a newspaper strip has an upside.
Wonderfully crisp artwork.

My friend artist Luis Grane showed me an original strip he has very similar to the one above. Though the sight of a few touches of white-out always give me a sense of relief, the drawing was really impeccable.

There's another Divito image (also courtesy of SHANE GLINES and his CARTOON RETRO) that I will examine another time soon...

UPDATE: blogger JULIAN was kind enough to send along this LINK to a Divito blog. If you like what you see here, you have to check it out!  I hasten to add that there don't appear to be any "repeats" of the choice images from CARTOON RETRO, so check them both out if you can...

VIVA DIVITO!