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Thursday, July 7th, 2022

Annual Member Bonus Archive Update: Esquire, Starevich and Fleischer

As a special thank you to our annual General and Student members, we have created a special page where we will archive past Reference Packs. There will be at least four reruns of complete RefPacks per year.

If you are currently on a quarterly membership plan, consider upgrading to an annual membership to get access to our bonus page with even more downloads. If you still have time on you quarterly membership when you upgrade to an annual membership, email us at…

membership@animationresources.org
…and we will credit your membership with the additional time.

ANNUAL MEMBER BONUS ARCHIVE

Available to Student and General Members

PDF E-BOOK:
Esquire

Esquire Magazine

Cartoon Annual Volume 1 (1937)

Esquire was the leading "gentleman’s magazine" of its day. Great writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemmingway wrote for the magazine, and the Esquire staff included a stable of illustrators and cartoonists that represented the best in the field. Even though it was founded in the height of the depression, the publishers spared no expense to produce a first class product. The cover price was fifty cents, many times the price of any other magazine on newsstands at the time. Hugh Hefner began his career as a copy editor at Esquire in the late forties, and it’s clear that his vision of what Playboy would become was greatly influenced by Esquire.

In 1937, the staff of Esquire prepared a prototype copy of a proposed cartoon annual containing the best cartoons from the first few years of the magazine’s publication. However before the book could be printed, the project was cancelled and the prototype was put on the shelf. Twenty years later, they finally did publish a book honoring the great work of the Esquire art staff, but it was a much different selection of cartoons. Animation Resources was given access to the one-of-a-kind prototype of the 1937 book, and we will be sharing it with our members in this, the first of two e-books. We hope you find it to be useful.

Click to access the…

Annual Member Bonus Archive

Downloads expire after September 2022

DVD QUALITY VIDEO:

The Mascot

The Mascot

(Ladislas Starevich/1933)

Ladislas Starevich created the first puppet animation film in 1912 and continued to work in the medium for half a century. He was born in Russia to Polish parents in 1882 and emigrated to France soon after World War I. Assisted by his wife, who made the costumes for the puppets, as well as his daughter and son, Starevich produced a large and varied filmography. We are presenting the most famous of his films, "The Mascot", which Terry Gilliam has cited as one of the ten greatest animated films of all time.

"The Mascot" (1933) is a technical marvel, with sophisticated puppet armatures, a wide variety of techniques, and fantastic subject matter. Starevich simulated motion blur in this film by smearing vaseline on a glass plate between the camera and the puppet. He also broke new ground by rigging the puppets so they could move slightly while the shot was being exposed. This technique predated Jim Danforth’s "Go Motion" in the Star Wars films by almost 50 years! We have deinterlaced this film and encoded it at an increased bitrate so you can step frame through the animation and study the animation. Starewich often created a seamless blend of several different techniques in a single shot. It’s fascinating to look at the work frame by frame to discover the secrets behind the cinematic magic.

"The Mascot" was edited and reformatted several times over the years. It is rarely seen with the original soundtrack and running time, but Animation Resources obtained a copy of the film as it was first released and we are proud to be able to share that with you. If you would like to see more films by Starevich, let us know on the Animation Resources Facebook page.

Click to access the…

Annual Member Bonus Archive

Downloads expire after September 2022

DVD QUALITY VIDEO:

Screen Songs

Two Fleischer Screen Songs

“Tune Up And Sing” (1934) “Let’s All Sing Like The Birdies Sing” (1934)

When the Hayes Office took aim at risqué humor in the movies, Fleischer’s Betty Boop cartoons were square in its crosshairs. The difference between the 1933 Betty Boop cartoons and the ones from 1934 is stark, and the series never really recovered from the blow. The Screen Songs weren’t hit nearly as hard, but you can still see that when it comes to gags, punches are being pulled. To add insult to injury, when these cartoons were syndicated to television in the late 1950s, the live action celebrity cameos and singalong sequences were usually cut out, and that is the case with the two examples we are sharing in this Reference Pack. But because of the way the cartoons were constructed, the edit isn’t too noticeable and they play well as short cartoons.

In the home video era, the Fleischer Screen Songs cartoons are missing in action. Only a tiny handful have been released. Animation Resources would like to thank our Advisory Board Member, Steve Stanchfield for sharing these rare films with us.

Click to access the…

Annual Member Bonus Archive

Downloads expire after September 2022

Get your friends to join Animation Resources!

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Animation Resources is asking our membership to consider donating to help us establish a video podcasting studio to be able to present seminars, interviews and informal updates live streamed on YouTube and Facebook. Our goal is for 25 of our members and supporters to donate $100. If you donate $100, we will provide you with a coupon code for a free membership to give as a gift to a friend or peer, or we can credit your donation to sponsor two students for a one year student membership.

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Posted in esquire, fleischer, puppet, refpack | Comments Off on Annual Member Bonus Archive Update: Esquire, Starevich and Fleischer

Wednesday, July 6th, 2022

RefPack046: A Peek At The International Section

People who aren’t members of Animation Resources don’t understand how comprehensive our Reference Packs are. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting what each section of our current RefPack looks like. If you are a member of Animation Resources, click on this post to go to the Members Only page. If you aren’t a member yet, today is the perfect time to join! Our current Reference Pack is one of our best yet, and General and Student Members get access to a special Bonus Archive with even more material from past Reference Packs.

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The world of animation is much bigger than it might appear to us at first glance. We are all familiar with the films we grew up with, but Hollywood wasn’t the only place that produced great cartoons… Poland, Japan, Russia, China and Europe all have their own traditions and a rich history of animated film making. Animation Resources’ archive contains many foreign films that are rarely seen in the United States. We feature a sampling of interesting animation from around the world in each Reference Pack.

SD VIDEO:

Winnie The Pooh episode 02

Fyodor Khitruk / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1971
Download this article

This time, Animation Resources is continuing Fyodor Khitruk’s series of films based on “Winnie The Pooh” with the second episode, Winnie The Pooh Pays A Visit. You’ll find that this series is quite different than the Disney version. Khitruk omits Christopher Robin and focuses solely on Winnie the Pooh and his friends. He said that he made this choice because he didn’t want the characters to be subordinate to a human character; and it’s clear that Khitruk’s choice was a good one. On a visit to California, Khitruk paid a visit to the Disney Studios where he met Woolie Reitherman, the director who had won an Oscar for Disney’s version of “Winnie The Pooh”. Reitherman admitted to Khitruk that he liked Khitruk’s films better than his own.

The story of the second short film in the series follows the same plot as the second half of Disney’s first Winnie The Pooh film… Winnie The Pooh And The Honey Tree. If you have seen that film, you will have no problem following along, even if you don’t speak Russian. Like the Disney film, Pooh and Piglet visit Rabbit, and Pooh proceeds to eat all of his honey. When it comes time to leave, Pooh gets stuck in the door. Pooh is extricated in a different way in Khitruk’s film.

Although the pacing of the film is leisurely, the timing is still sharp. Khitruk focuses on “micro gags” and quick changes of expression that use personality to keep the audience engaged with the characters. The style is charming and disarmingly simple, much more in keeping with the spirit of the original book than Disney’s version. There is one more films in this series. We will have that for you in RefPack047.

REFPACK046: Winnie The Pooh Ep02

MP4 Video File / SD / 09:55 / 146 MB DownloadSD VIDEO:

An Unusual Match

Mstislav Pashchenko, Boris Dyozhkin / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1955

In the years immediately following the end of WWII, Russian animation progressed rapidly. By the mid 1950s, the quality level had caught up with the peak standards in the West. One of the most popular films produced by Soyuzmultfilm during this period was "An Unusual Match". In the past two Reference Packs we shared "Goal! Goal" and "A Match Revenge" which dealt with ice hockey. This film involves toys coming to life and competing in a soccer match.

It’s midnight in a toy shop and all the toys have come to life. The dolls and stuffed animals play while the wooden toys are tied up in a box. A rabbit comes to their rescue and lets them out, and the wooden toys swagger around boasting and playing pool. The dolls decide to call the wooden toys’ bluff and challenge them to a soccer match. The wooden toys try to cheat any way they can, but in the end, the dolls win decisively, proving that good sportsmanship always comes out on top.

Hollywood animation had penetrated into Russia in the pre-war years and animators there took notice of the styles and techniques from America. The earliest post-war films produced in Russia leaned on rotoscoping, but it didn’t take long for them to move past mechanics and begin animating without tracing. This film is clearly influenced by Disney’s Silly Symphonies, not only because of the "toys come to life" trope, but in background and color styling as well. The music was composed and conducted by the famous Russian composer, Aram Kachaturian, whose "Sabre Dance" was a staple in soundtracks of golden age cartoons. Soyuzmultfilm in this era was producing films that were second to none.

REFPACK046: An Unusual Match

MP4 Video File / SD / 20:38 / 647 MB DownloadSD VIDEO:

A Brave Hare

Ivan Ivanov-Vano / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1955

During the 1950s, Soyuzmultfilm produced dozens of films based on Russian fables and folk tales featuring forest animals. Designed to teach morals to children, they began to define a sense of cultural uniqueness for Russian animation. Even though the style of the films resembled American cartoons, the content was distinctly Russian. This film has a live action wrap-around which resembles some of the scenes in Song Of The South, but it is doubtful that the animators had seen that film. The Iron Curtain had descended, and Western films, music and books were not freely available in the Russian block.

The film begins with an old woman and her two grandchildren. The boy and girl argue about who is braver; but when they see a mouse, both are terrified. The grandmother scolds them for being afraid and tells them the story of a little rabbit who was afraid of everything— a fluttering bird, a lump of snow falling from a tree or the snap of a twig. The other animals laughed and made fun of him. All at once, he got tired of fear and decided to announce to the world that he was the bravest of all, not afraid of anyone or anything. This made the animals laugh even harder and dance with joy.

From deep in the forest, a wolf spied the animals and began to stalking the brave hare. When he saw the wolf, the hare panicked and leapt into the air, landing on the wolf’s back. This terrified the wolf and the wolf and hare ran for their lives in opposite directions. With the wolf gone, the animals came out of hiding and looked for the brave hare. The searched everywhere without luck, but finally a little bird lead them to where the hare was hiding. At first the hare was timid, but the other animals thanked him for being so brave and chasing the wolf away. The brave hare stood tall and said, "Of course, you cowards! I’m the bravest of all!"

The pantomime animation of the rabbits in this film is brilliant. Even without understanding Russian, you can clearly understand the attitudes and reactions. Even better are the backgrounds— they are atmospheric and as gorgeous as any in Bambi.

REFPACK046: A Brave Hare

MP4 Video File / SD / 16:35 / 278 MB DownloadSD VIDEO:

The Horse

Witold Giersz / Poland / 1967

A couple of years ago, we shared a film called "A Little Western" by Witold Giersz. It’s time to share another film by this one-of-a-kind Polish animator.

Giersz admired impressionist painters, and Vincent Van Gogh in particular. In this style of painting, the paint isn’t mixed or blended, it is applied in dimensional globs of solid color, referred to as impasto. A color didn’t exist on its own, it depended on the colors around it to define its hue and shade. The colors combined to create dimension and space, and the surface texture added a dimension of its own. Giersz animated by applying oil paint on glass with a palette knife. This allowed him to build up impasto and scrape off paint to make an image move.

If you still frame on any given frame of "Horse," the image might seem flat and featureless, with simple bold primary colors. But behind that simple surface, there is a magic trick being performed. If you play the film in motion, those flat shapes turn into solid volumetric forms. How can it be two dimensional and three dimensional at the same time? The secret is the fourth dimension of time.

Ward Kimball once said that the art of animation doesn’t exist in individual drawings. The art is in the differences between the drawings. The way those flat shapes change from one to another is the secret that gives it form. Think about this as you watch "Horse".

REFPACK046: The Horse

MP4 Video File / SD / 06:05 / 100 MB DownloadSD VIDEO:

Koziolek Matolek ep04: Rally

Ryszard Slapczynski / Studio Miniatur Filmowych, Poland / 1969

Now we shift from Russia to Poland. Studio Miniatur Filmowych in Krakow was established in 1958, and since then it has produced nearly 1,500 animated films. This series, titled The Strange Adventures of Koziolek Matolek was produced between 1969 and 1971 and 26 episodes were made. The current episode is titled "Rally". We will be sharing more of these in upcoming Reference Packs.

Koziolek Matolek was created in 1933 as a character in Polish comic books. The idea behind the character is a bit surreal, and might seem odd to us in America… Koziolek Matolek is a goat who undertakes a quest to find Pacanow, a town where he has heard that they make shoes for goats. His travels take him to the ends of the Earth and throughout time from the jungles of Africa to medieval Europe to the Wild West. Although the character’s adventures have been well known for generations in Poland and are a staple of children’s literature there, I don’t believe any of the stories, comics or cartoons have ever been translated and distributed outside of that country.

The cartoons were directed by a variety of animators, and the character looks a bit different in each of the individual director’s episodes. The focus is on funny movement and expressions, all while maintaining an admirable level of clarity and economy. This series is a model of what web cartoons could be.

REFPACK046: Koziolek Matolek Ep04

MP4 Video File / SD / 08:48 / 286 MB Download

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Tuesday, June 21st, 2022

Illustration: Boris O’Klein’s Dirty Dogs of Paris

Today’s images are a bit of a mystery. Even though untold numbers of these prints have sold over the years, very little is known about the artist who created them. The compositions are all very long and don’t fit the computer screen well, so make sure you click on the images and look at the full size scans.

If you had visited Paris on a vacation anytime during the 1930s to the 1950s, odds are you would have brought back one of these prints as a souvenir. My Uncle who was a Rear Admiral in the Navy had a pair of these hanging in his bathroom and as a child I was fascinated by them. Called "The Dirty Dogs of Paris", this series of etchings was created by an artist who went by the multi-ethnic name "Boris O’Klein". His real name was Arthur Klein and he was born in Moscow, Russia in 1893.

O’Klein emigrated to France as a boy and became a successful magazine illustrator in Paris during the 1930s. The story goes that he spent hours watching the stray dogs in the streets outside his studio and realized that their personalities weren’t all that different from people. He was inspired to create a few cartoons of the dogs doing what dogs do… peeing on trees, chasing female dogs and sniffing each others’ butts.

The dog cartoons were just a lark. His real passion was painting hunting and wilderness scenes. But he realized the money making potential of the Dirty Dogs, and supplied a series of etchings to gift shops and galleries all over Paris. They became hugely popular and overshadowed all of his other work. Eventually, they even overshadowed the artist who created them.

I found these prints at eBay. They appear to be quite common. There are at least four or five different signatures on them, depending on the vintage, so it’s evident that they were cranked out in quantity by a third party. They appear to be still in production, although the recent prints are not nearly as good looking as the older ones.

Boris O’Klein passed away in 1985. I wish I could tell you more about him, but that’s all I know. If anyone reading has any info, please share it in the comments.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources