The World of Animation

Making room on the ol' bookshelves for some recent arrivals caused me to pull this down.

The World of Animation was published by Kodak in 1979.  Written by Raul da Silva with lots of illustration from Ray da Silva including this cover...

...it's one of those step-by-step beginners guides to animation which currently glut the bookstores.




Maybe time has treats these books well.  Maybe a more educated audience makes these guides from decade past interesting today.

This copy was once in the library of The Richard Williams' Studio.

 

 

It contains a couple nice photos of a 1977 laptop computer.

CAESAR: I came, I saw, I generated 12 frames of backlit green lines in three weeks.

What caught my eye were these model sheets from Gulliver's Travels

I can only make out the signatures "OKing" the sheet from Seymour Kneitel and Frank Kelling. There are a few others but they're too faint in the reproduction.

I'm guessing these are from 1939 and the artist who dated #2 here was still a little hung over from the New Year's celebration.  The film was released in December of that year and was made with breakneck speed.  The Miami studio opened in the Fall of 1938 and the entire picture was produced there.

I love the action punching drawing in the center of model #2.

We're then shown a clean up guide model sheet from The Thief and The Cobbler.  Looks like drawings from a scene photostatted onto one sheet to make the model page.

ASIFA Magazine - Fred Mogubgub, part two.

Other big commissions followed including animated sequences for Jerome Robbins' Broadway staging of Arthur Kopit's Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad. Following the graphic breakthroughs of UPA, FMS reached beyond the traditional confines of the animation studio for inspiration. Chas. B. Slackman, for instance, was recruited as designer and staff artist Irene Trivas made major stylistic contributions.

Famous Sally, illustrated by Chas. B. Slackman

In business, popularity can breed conflict  Within a year Mogubgub left FMS.  Irene Trivas and Ed Smith joined him in his new office on Sixth Avenue at Mogubgub LTD.  The "M" in FMS was replaced by a fictitious "Mohammed".  Schwartz and Ferro would go on for another two ears producing commercials as well as titles for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.

Clients followed Mogubgub.  His first major commission was a recruitment film for J. Walter Thompson.  The ad firm wanted to lure young talent,  Mogubgub was hired to attract them.  The result was a romp around Manhattan set to the Beatles first album.

Quick cutting wasn't Mogubgub's only approach.  And ad for Ford titled "Ford Has Changed" was reminiscent of Saul Steinberg.  American icons parade across the screen led by a cowboy, Abraham Lincoln, and a strong man.  The visuals support, yet continuously undermine the sales pitch.  "Ford has changed": A man barks at a dog.  "...until you get inside": Jonah inside the whale.  "Take the wheel and see": a cop chasing a robber.  Comic images, but sinister.  After the stream of icons passes, the same gang who started the parade bring up the rear.  As they move to center they remove their heads as though tipping their hats.  Lincoln becomes a priest, the cowboy -an Indian, the body builder -a scrawny ectomorph.  This last transformation is more than a comic twist.  Instead of rejoicing at the new face of Ford, the finale questions the legitimacy and the necessity of "change".   An early salvo in the upcoming cultural revolution.

The marching band soundtrack, the artwork, and the immediate comedy in the animation disguise the complexity of the Ford commercial.  It's Brechtian verfremdungseffekt.  Music and visuals take issue with one another and offer opposing points of view.  The Great Society is a further example of this technique.  A series of product shots are cut to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", it satirizes advertising and American culture.  The send up is made palatable by the filmmaker's clear affection for his target.  Commercialism isn't evil, just ridiculous.





Mogubgub wasn't educated in cinematic theory (or practice) or literature. his filmmaking skills were largely self-taught. Once while waiting in a lobby, The Battleship Potemkin was running on the Moviola. Having never heard of Sergei Eisenstein (much like today young animators) he began to recut "The Odessa Steps" on the spot. He was fond of Godard's line "Film is the truth 24 times a second". Mogubgub's main complaint with film was that it was too slow, that filmmakers underestimated their audience. People can process information much quicker than the movies present it.

The success of artists like John Hubley, Ernie Pintoff, and Norman McLaren encouraged a generation to experiment. Technological innovations offered further possibilities. In 1963, a new film splicer from Italy allowed for cuts to be made in a single frame (previously, an editor would lose surrounding frames and wasn't unable to make another cut for around a foot). This opened Mogubgub's world in much the same way non-linear editing and desktop compositing has influenced animators today.

An image was an image, whether a starlet photo from the silent era, animated drawings, or stock footage from a gangster picture. He practiced a dodecaphonic of film in which each frame is given equal value without regard for traditional consonance.

continues tomorrow

ASIFA Magazine - Fred Mogubgub, part one.

Here's a reprint of an article I wrote for ASIFA Magazine Vol 15 - No. 2 Autumn 2002. Chris Robinson, editor.

I've done a few rewrites, since nearly every sentence makes me cringe.

It's long so we'll post it in a few parts

While standing at the Smith and 9th Street train platform, the Statue of Liberty waving in the distance, a radio impatiently switching every 30 seconds, a Brooklyn bound train pulled in across the tracks.  In homage to the underground bombers of the 70s, the train was covered stem to stern with graffiti -a cartoon Superman duking it out with Batman, a six foot bottle of Coke, an apple pie and an American flag.  As tge train pulled through, the painting came to life: a parade on wheels at 24 frames per second.  Like the films of Fred Mogubgub.

Jeff Cox, who worked with Mogubgub for several years, pitched on article of Fred to The New Yorker.  Their response, "Fred who?".  Discussing influences with young animators -a resounding "Fred who?".  Mention him to New York animators from the 60s -the accolades ring with hyperbole.  Animation is a field of unheralded geniuses, even here, Fred Mogubgub is an unheard of genius.




Mogubgub's best known film, Enter Hamlet, was commissioned by The School of Visual Arts.  Maurice Evans' elegaic reading of Hamlet's Soliloquey is poised against pop graphics.  Each word is represented by a drawing, each scene cut to the word.  A hypnotist gestures a woman to "sleep", a cartoon of Whistler's Mother says "respect", an electric chair signifies "dread".  Each cut is a story in itself.  Enter Hamlet works beyond of its iconography.  The film seems so obvious -how could it be any other way?  Enter Hamlet can be ranked with the most successful cinematic interpretations of Shakespeare.  It echoes the same eternal question, and resounds with the same basic truths.  "To be or not to be?".  The answer is everywhere, simple and exhuberant -the lawyer in court, the man drinking a cola.

In the 1950s, Mogubgub first worked at Lee Blair's Film Graphics then moved to Electra Films, Screen Gems in the Brill Building and Gifford Animation.  While working at Film Graphics he studied at The Art Students League on the GI Bill.  He had lied about his age to serve as a paratrooper on the Pacific Front during the Second World War.  Later he boasted of going to Japanese barbers during the occupation (in the days before safety razors) to show how fearless he was.

At Film Graphics Mogubgub met Pablo Ferro, Ed Smith, and Vincent Cafferelli.  These artists would play crucial roles throughout his career.  Film Graphics was one of the few commercial studios in New York in the mid-50s.  His work wasn't out of the ordinary but Mogubgub's artistic inclinations began to show.  Despite frequent visit's from Lee Blair's kin Preston to show the staff how "Golden Age" animators did things, Mogubgub took his own tack.  If an arc for an inbetween went one way, he'd go the other.  If something needed squash, he'd give it stretch.  This wasn't obtuseness, but a manifestation of a profoundly different way of seeing the world.

As a young animator Mogubgub dropped the final "gub" from the family name and went as Fred Mogub.  Pablo Ferro met Fred's family while working together at Electra and was surprised to see the extra syllable on the mailbox.  He asked Fred, "Why don't you use your full name?" "It sounds funny," he was told, "People will laugh."  "They'll laugh.  But they'll remember you and they'll hire you."

To put this advice to the test, Mogubgub started FMS with Pablo Ferro and Lew Schwartz in 1961.  Each partner put up an initial $5000 investment.  In no time, the studio was billing $1 million a year.  Ferro and Schwartz attribute their initial success to the novelty of a Cuban, an Arab and a Jew working under one roof.  In truth, FMS was creating animation in a novel style.

FMS' first project was for Ford Motor Company.  This 90-second television commercial introduced the quick cut to advertising.  This editing style would (for better or worse) alter filmmaking more than any  other aesthetic revolution in the last five decades.  Advertising had always been edited like any other film.  Shots rang long enough to let the scene play.  A single cut would often run 50 seconds out of a standard 60 second spot until the product was shown in close for the final 10.  FMS accelerated the action.  Scenes could be one second, less than one second, always long enough to convey the shot's meaning without overstaying it's welcome.

(continued tomorrow)

Animator #96 - 1/19/45

This is the end of the run for the Animator's which Ed Smith gave to us.

We have a full run of the NY "Top Cel" which we'll start to upload.

The Tenth Regional War Labor Board has handed down its directive order in the dispute between Walt Disney Productions, Inc. and the Screen Cartoonists.  We are printing the complete order for your information.  On the question of wage increases you will notice that the Board has deferred action pending the establishment of wage brackets.  We are making an exhaustive study of the whole wage bracket set up.

(click image to read the ruling)

Looks like the union took some major losses in this ruling.

A Marvel Super Special: Rock & Rule

If ambition is the highest aspiration for film, Rock and Rule would be an all time great.

Sadly, there's more to it than that.  Rock and Rule stands as an historical aberration, a path not followed, a piece of archeological interest to animation academics not so much for its quality but for the many factors floating around its production.

One of those interesting artifacts is this comic book adaptation from Marvel.

The art itself appears to be clipped from the film and suffers from the same murky ugliness -right down  to the aggressive page layouts.

The binding prevents a true centerfold, so this is the closest the book gets.

Most interesting is the series of essays written by David Anthony Kraft at the end of the book.

The first is a simple, articulate description of the production process. (click images to enlarge and read the whole thing)

These spreads feature story sketches and rough color design work.

The layout of these articles is very nice.  Probably not the same person who laid out the comic.

We're treated to various sketches and versions of the characters, different stages of production art and even a photo of animator Robin Budd hard at work.

This page begins an article on the special effects in the film.

Some of the film was shot on the multiplane camera.  Other effects like "streaking" (which is essentially moving the artwork during a long exposure) and "Slit scan" (best known for it's use in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek).

This page offers good detail into how many of the shots were actually produced.

The article also claims that cow brains (actual cow brains) were used in the art production of the Demon.  It's too bizarre not to be true.

The next two spreads are about the musicians and voice talent.

Even these articles are interesting.  Leagues above the press releases that pass for journalism in today's trade magazines.

The last page is a piece on the producers.  Nelvana has gone on to be a premiere producer of children's animation.

Had Rock and Rule been a success I wonder if they would have followed it with other semi-mature fair and ultimately form a sort of Canadian rebuttal to the kiddie pictures of Hollywood.

What's Everybody Doing... in 1980

Not too long ago Howard Beckerman was the man magazines (O.K. "magazines" -maybe it was a while ago) would call on to write about animation.  He was a regular contributor to Millimeter and Backstage and probably a dozen others.

Here's a little run down he did in 1980 for "Filmmakers: Film and Video Monthly".

By Howard Beckerman

Animation doesn't belong to any one person or organization; it's the province of all or any who wish to take the plunge.  A look at the humming activity across the country proves that this is the case.  Studios have popped up everywhere using all manner of techniques to develop their ideas.  And a surge of new developments in the technology of animation-related equipment has followed in the wake of the demand for fantasy filming.  There are now computers that create three-dimensional images or add colors to create cartoon shapes and camera mechanisms that can be programmed to spin, turn, and twist in any direction on command.

Interest in animation has grown so strong that hardly a film school in the country doesn't offer some animation training.  Still, there is no guarantee of jobs for all the bright students who are turned onto the medium.

The  following survey demonstrates that if you're trying to make it in animation, the small, individually owned studio is the way to go.  This sampling of what's doing in the world of animation, big studio, or one-person shop, shows the feverish activity in what we like to call "the industry."

 Click to enlarge any image

Above: paragraphs on ART/WIPE in Santa Barbara; Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center Foundation; Walt Disney Productions; Action Productions, Inc. (John Gati's stop motion company); Gabor Csupo; Anivision, LTD in Pittsburgh run by Rick Catizone.

Above: Boyington Film Productions, San Francisco; Bakshi Productions, Inc. (just finished "American Pop"); Darino Films; Howard Beckerman Studio (just moved to 45 W. 45th Street); Hanna and Barbera Productions, Inc.

 
Above: Diaz de Villegas Studios -Puerto Rico's only animation company; The Cartoon Kitchen (who recently completed animation for Carl Sagan's PBS show "The Cosmos"); Eight Frame Camera Service -George Davis' New York based Oxberry; Harold Friedman Consortium was sort of like the Acme Filmworks of the early 80s;  Fluid Art which was Kelly Hart's company specializing in hot wax on glass animation.

Above: Image Associates in Mishawaka, Indiana; Bill Helvey Productions, Columbia, MO; Hellman Design Associates in Waterloo, Iowa; Phil Kimmelman and Associates "hopping" with commercial work including a series of medical spots for children entitled "Dr. Henry" designed by Roland Wilson; Anthony T. Isoldi, Staten Island "an animator who is literally boxed in as the creator promos and instructional films for commercial packaging firms.

Above: The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Inc.; Candy Kugel, just completed "Audition" "she even sings on the track"; Peg McClure Moody in Milpitas, CA.  "Moudy is excited about the prospect of applying animation to diverse topics like science fictions, humor and social commentary."; Ovation Films, Howard Basis is actively turning out inserts for live commercials; Luminous Animated Films, Richard Sanca produces a lot of work for Sesame Street; Nelvana Limited working on $5.4 million feature "Drats" (this would become "Rock and Rule")

Above: The Optical House doing special effects for Broadway and features; Perpetual Motion Pictures; Neworld Animation, South Blue Hill, Maine.  Offspring of Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary -started as recording studio and evolved; Mary Ann Michna, Jersey City, NJ.; Moon Studios in Philadelphia.

I've done some limited searching for Peter Craigie and Moon Studios and come up blank.  His address, 2226 Frankford Avenue is right down the street from my family's Fishtown stomping grounds and not far in the other direction from where my father lived for many years.  No luck so far.

Above: Yellow Ball Workshop, Lexington, MA; Ruby Spears; Zander's Animation Parlour hour-long "Gnomes" in production (in addition to Perpetual Motion's "Berenstein Bears" there seems to have been an uptick in New York); Hilda Terry -New York based newspaper cartoonist turned animator, creating animation for baseball scoreboards (one of the dream jobs).

Annecy 1975

Here's a pretty detailed recap of Annecy 1975.  The article calls it "10th International Cartoon Film Festival".  I don't know how that math works for a biennial festival that began in 1960.  Must be an ASIFA thing.

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

It's written by Nino Weinstock for Graphis.

No spectacular innovations, some little masterpieces in every technique, numerous new names, few famous ones -that sums up briefly the tenth meeting of the cartoon film people in Annecy.  The programme accompanying the festival proper, the provision of information and the opportunity for personal contacts seem to be gaining importance.  The influence of the festival is making itself felt, for two of the best films were actually made in Annecy: "Illusions" by Nicole Dufour and "Night Bird" by Bernard Palacios.  Both tell a poetic story with the simplest of means, using cut-out figures on large painted backgrounds.  The rest of the French contribution was also convincing.  "The Actor", "The Footprint", "Landscape" and "One" are included in our illustrations.  Robert Lapoujade was represented by "A Comedian without Paradox", in which subtly operated puppets from Diderot's "Paradoxe du Comedien" say their pieces, and Peter Foldes, together with Paul and Gaetan Brizzi, by an excerpt from "Daphnis and Chloe" in which Foldes' much-admired drawings move and change against a colored background.

France also claimed the Grand Prix with "The Step" by Piotr Kamler.  The was recognition for an oeuvre devoted to research and experiment  and including many films which have not been fully understood.

CAPTION:

Two types of productions stand out at Annecy: poetic films that use technical expedients to tell their story, and films in which the story is used to display technical skill.  Will Vinton's first film "Closed Mondays", proves that the two can also be rolled into one.  A first production that has won several awards, a couple of successful films made in an Annecy living room: the animated film would seem to offer a chance to everybody.  It is to be hoped, at any rate, that in future many artists will be attracted to this interesting medium.  Editor.

1-3.  Lenica's films are always a delight for the graphically trained eye.  He presents his mysterious stories with the simplest of means.  This time, in "Landscape", he deals with the monsters begotten by the sleep of reason, of which Goya spoke.

4. "A Poet's Life".  A piece of filmed literature from Japan, telling of the development of a poet who is also the hope of an oppressed working class.

5-6. "Smile 1 and 2", a two-part Swiss film mad with coloured sand.  In the first part peace is the issue, in the second part Oedipus decides to put an end to his complex.

7-10.  "The Footprint" is a bitter little story by the artist Cardon who has worked for "France Soir", "Humanite", "Charlie Hebdo" and "Politique Hebdo".  A strange prosthesis, the purpose of which is unclear, is strapped round the heads and chest of the children after birth.  Only when it is removed is the mystery solved: it provides space for the footprint of the child's lord and master.  The impact of this film is heightened by the forceful style of the drawing.

11-13.  In "The Actor" (Jean-Francois Laguionie. Production: Les Studios du Languedoc, Clapiers) a young actor, standing in front of the mirror, changes into an old man, but resumes his youthful appearance after the performance.  But what is he, what was he?  The mirror has a reality of its own.

14-21. "Night Bird".  (Bernard Palacios. Production: Pink Splash Prod., Maison-Alfort)  A civil servant drives home from the office every evening.  Almost by chance he discovers a woman with wings and a bird's head by the roadside one evening and drives her to a mysterious door.  A glimpse of paradise is allowed to him, the he goes back to his daily round.

The jury considered the best complete programme to be that from the United States. Apart from the films illustrated here -"This is not a Museum", "The Cloudmaker", "WOW" and "Closed Mondays" -Gene Deitch showed his film version of Tomi Ungerer's "The Beast of Monsieur Racine" and Bob Kurtz an advertising TV spot for Levi's jeans in the style of the great painter of the West, Frederick Remington.

From Britain came "Bigger is Better", "Butterfly Ball" and "Amateurs Night".  "Cafe Bar" is by Alison de Vere, who once drew for Halas and Batchelor and supervised the settings for "The Yellow Submarine".  Her film has all the ingredients of the successful animated film: an imaginative story, surprising developments and ideas, colours, forms and gags.  The action take place on a lady's hat in a cafe.  "The Miracles of Flight" by Terry Gilliam is a plastic picture book.  It is all about the invention of a flying machine, but as the successful flight never comes off in the film, it has to be limited to the ceremonies taking place in the airport.

There were not many highlights from the Eastern Bloc, which used to hold centre stage a few years ago.  The old master Jiri Brdecka had a new opus to show: "The  Miner's Rose." His films are always among the best, as are those of Ion Popesco-Gopo, who this time presented "Intermezzo for an Eternal Love", a charming piece in which the earth adorns itself with man's productions.  There is admittedly a painful middle passage in which the decorations consists of ruins, fumes and smoking chimneys, but there are finally replaced by flowers, vines and butterflies.  "In the Grass" by the Pole Jerzy Kalina is made up  of movement, cut-out figures and materials. Fabulous creatures of the technical age, half birds, half aeroplanes,  demonstrate the struggle for survival in nature.  Branko Ranitovic wih his "Chameleon" reminds us of the great days of the animated film from Zagreb.  In a ten-minute speech before the UN he unmasks the inconstancy of the political demagogue.  Hungary contributed "Ca ira -Battle Song of the French Revolution" by Gyorgy Kovasznai.  The principal figures of the French Revolution are conjured up in bold brush-strokes to the stirring notes of the song.

Among other productions that caught the attention were an appealing film painted in lustrous colours by Caroline Leaf, "The Marriage of the Owl"; "Smile 1 and 2", done in coloured sand by the Swiss Ernest and Gisele Ansorge; the study "Perspectives" by their countryman Georges Schwizgebel; and Borislav Saktinac's amusing tale of the cat that conjures with mice, "We Are a Crowd."

The members of the jury were Mustapha Alassane, Nigeria; the Russian critic Sergei Assenin; Miroslaw Kijowicz of Poland; the grand old man of animated film, Len Lye; Kati Macskassy, daughter of the Hungarian film pioneer; Farshid Mesghali of Tehran; Jimmy Murakami; the acoustic specialist Pierre Schaeffer; Zdenek Smetana of Prague and the Italian critic Piero Zanotto.

CAPTIONS:

22-27. This is Not a Museum (John E. Haugse.  John E. Haugse, Santa Barbara). A man makes the acquaintance  of modern art in an unconventional museum.  The film is beautifully painted, in some cases directly on the film strip.  The sculpture in fig. 25 is borrowed from Magritte.

28-30. The Cloudmaker (Peter van Deusen.  Churchill Films, Los Angeles).  An allegory about our endeavors to live with technology.  A small figure, obsessed with the idea of making clouds, labours in vain with huge technical constructions.  Resigning at last, he goes on to manufacture -as a substitute -flying nuts and bolts.  The film, for all its charm, is much too long at over 16 minutes.  It almost seems as though a 15 minute limit would offer all-round advantages, for the phenomenon of the overly long film presented itself in almost every programme.

31-39.  Wow, Women of the World (Faith Hubley; Hubley Studio, New York). Made in honor of International Woman's Year, this film depicts the development of the relations between man and woman and attempts to open up a way to new understand between the sexes.

40-42. Da Da Da (Peter Hudecki: Sheridan College, Ontario).  A 95-second film, the first by this artist.

43-45. The Wild Man (Giuseppe Lagana: Corona Cinematografica, Roma).  writer of children's books makes skillful use of stylistic elements borrowed from Art Deco.  A bogey man steals a child and gets himself into no end of difficulties as a result.  The 11 minute film was made with movable, cut-out figures.

46-52. Amateurs Night (Thalma Goldman: Thalma Goldman, London).  Thalma Goldman, a young Israeli, studied animation in London for two years and now presents her third film.  On an "amateurs night", a number of amateurs do a strip-tease on the stage.  The film shows not only the performers themselves, but also the reactions of an enthusiastic audience that is really "with it."

53-54.  Butterfly Ball (Lee Mishkin: Halas & Batchelor, London).  In this children's film the frog invites all the animals in the wood to a big ball.  Lee Mishkin, veteran of "Popeye", "Magoo" and the "Pink Panther", deploys all his tricks in this bright mixture of Tiffany glass and Hollywood.

56-58. Bigger is Better (Derek Phillips: Derek Phillips, Hounslow).  Cut-out shapes and moving drawings are here used to depict the transition from the individual to mass society and the consequences it entails.

55. One (Paul & Gaetan Brizzi: Paul & Gaetan Brizzi, Paris).  This first film by two graduates of the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris was made possible by a grant of the Service des Arts Graphiques of the ORTF.  It tells the story of a last survivor of a civilization and the nightmarish creature that pursues him.

59.  The Miner's Rose (Jiri Brdecka: Kratky Film, Prague).  Twenty-five years on, still one of the best: Jiri Brdecka.  His 8-minute film is a miner who doesn't go back to his fiancee after the night shift.

60-61.  Closed Mondays (Will Vinton: Will Vinton & Bob Gardiner Prod, Washington).  Expressive plasticine figures are modified from frame to frame.  The hero happens to find his way into a museum on a Monday, which is closing day, and discovers that works or art live lives of their own.  Is it really only a step from the dream to reality?

Marguerita

I picked up a 1975 issue of Graphis for the Roland Topor cover story and found two other notable articles inside.  In the future I'll post the magazine's wrap up of that year's Annecy festival.

For now, a piece written by Stanley Mason on a Marguerita Bornstein -well known at the time by simply  "Marguerita".

Being an international magazine, the editorial commentary is short. Just the top section of this page is the actual copy of the write up, it's then repeated in English and French.

The gist: Marguerita was born in Australia, raised in Brazil and returned to Australia where she became a household name in illustration and worked in animation.

A comparison is made to Tomi Ungerer -fair in one regard, unfair in another.  That's like measuring a left handed pitcher against Steve Carlton and his slider.

The top two frames are from an animated title sequence for "O Rebu" a Brazilian television series.

Much is made of 1950s animation design.  It's been recycled to intramural acclaim for the past couple decades.  I prefer the rawness of the 1970s stuff.

Above: frame from animated sequence from the Brazilian broadcast film "How To Make Your Child Schizophrenic".

The artist has been living and working in New York for some time but I'm unaware of any film work since this article.

But For Fortune

I'm re-posting this Fortune Magazine article we originally put up over two years ago.

Readership has increased dramatically over that time and it's something most folks will appreciate.

Click any image to enlarge.

Originally published in November 1934, this article focuses on the business end of the still fledgling Disney company.

Bottom is an Art Babbit scene from a Silly Symphony.

God of a Plastic Celluloid World

Some production photos.

Music comes first.

Photo of a downshooter and a discussion of story writing process.

Mickey Mouse and the Banker: a nod to Roy Disney and a frank discussion of funds.

Animators gather around Disney for notes.

Lots of Whisky ads next to the animation article...

See.

A breakdown of Silly Symphony's $50,000 budget.