Advertising: Bob Kurtz Commercials

Today, we had a visit from Director/Story Man/Designer Bob Kurtz. Bob started out working on The Alvin Show, Roger Ramjet and Linus the Lionhearted, and went on to a long and distinguished career directing commercials. He was kind enough to contribute copies of his commercials to our collection, and promised to come back again soon to do a taped interview for the blog. He's currently preparing a program on animated commercials for the Cinemateque in Hollywood. It's scheduled for early November. I'll let you know the specifics soon. In the meantime, check out this reel of great commercials from Kurtz & Friends...






Kurtz & Friends Historical Reel (1970s-80s)
(Quicktime 7 / 37.2 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Many thanks to Bob Kurtz for stopping by and sharing this with us.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Interview: Bob Givens- Grand Old Man of Animation

UPDATE: A 50 minute extended version of this interview has just been made available to members of ASIFA-Hollywood. Members, please check your email for downloading instructions.


This week, we were very fortunate to host a visit to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive by the legendary layout artist, Bob Givens. Will Finn, Mike Fontanelli, JoJo Baptista, Michael Woodside and I were treated to nearly three hours of fabulous stories relating to his six decades in the animation business.


At Warner Bros, Bob designed the character models for the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, "A Wild Hare", as well as providing background layouts for countless Jones, Freleng, Avery and McKimson cartoons.


Givens' career continued to flourish throughout the television era. He worked on the first TV cartoon, Jay Ward's Crusader Rabbit, as well as Clampett's Beany & Cecil, Post Cereal's Linus the Lionhearted and Hanna Barbera's The Flintstones. Along with Bernie Gruver, Givens designed the classic "Raid Bug" spots for Cascade, and continued to work steadily into his 80s, retiring in 2001 after laying out Chuck Jones' Timber Wolf.


Here is a segment of the interview where Bob discusses his television career...


Bob Givens' Television Career (11.11.08)
(Quicktime 7 / 10 minutes / 24.4 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

I have also posted another clip from this interview to YouTube. This one relates to Bob's work at Warner Bros...


Bob Givens on Warner Bros (11.11.08)
(YouTube / 10 minutes)

Feel free to embed this YouTube video in your own blog or website. Please link back to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive blog in case your readers would like more information.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be making available extended segments of this interview exclusively for members of ASIFA-Hollywood. The first 50 minute video file is now available for downloading. ASIFA members, please see your email box for downloading instructions. If you aren't a member yet, you should be.

Many thanks to Bob Givens for sharing his experiences with us, to Mike Fontanelli and Will Finn for taking time out of their busy schedules to speak with Bob, and to Michael Woodside and JoJo Baptista for producing this video.

Will Finn posts his impressions of the interview on his blog, Small Room.

The Second Part Of This Interview Has Now Been Posted... Bob Givens Interview Part Two: War And Working For Walt

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Advertising: UPA's Bert and Harry Piels

For the past couple of weeks, we've been working on a project to document an important part of the history of the animated commercial. I'll have more information on that project for you soon. I've spent the last two days in telecine sessions transferring some incredibly rare films to video, and I wanted to share a little bit of what I discovered with you.


In December of 1955, the Young & Rubicam advertising agency introduced the first series of spots for Piels beer featuring the characters Bert and Harry Piels. Voiced by the comic geniuses from radio and records, Bob & Ray (Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding), this pair of cartoon pitchmen bungled their way through some of the best television commercials ever created. The spots were animated by UPA in Los Angeles and New York. After UPA dissolved, for a short time they were animated by Gene Deitch at Terrytoons.


Even though Piels Beer was only sold in New York, the fame of the commercials spread across the country. TV Guide even listed air dates for the spots at the peak of their popularity.


Time magazine wrote of the spots...

For five years the softest sell on East Coast TV and radio opened with a gruff, bullying "Hello viewers, I'm Bert Piel and this is my brother Harry." Cartoon characters created by UPA (Mr. Magoo) and given voice by radio's Bob (Elliott) & Ray (Goulding), Boisterous Bert and Harried Harry were pitchmen for Piel's Beer- and invariably the pitch went awry. The lights failed during a taste-test, the man-in-the-street interview turned up a long-winded Piel's fan who would not let Bert get his motivational research questions in edgewise, the labels got switched during a beer test and Brand X's foam lasted longer. Bert and Harry not only spoofed Piel's but Madison Avenue itself, put a new twist in kidding commercials.

The viewers (Bert invariably addressed the radio audience as "radio viewers") loved it, and for three years Piel's sales set new records.

In 1960, the groundbreaking cartoon team of Bert and Harry Piels was replaced by a simple jingle, ending one of the most unconventional and creative advertising campaigns of all time. Here is a sampling of some of UPA's best Bert and Harry Piels commercials...


Bert and Harry Piels Commercials (UPA/1955-57)
(Quicktime 7 / 17.2 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

In particular, notice how the animation of the characters follow the inflections in the voice tracks and how brilliantly Bob & Ray are at creating unexpected timing and humor. When was the last time you saw a suicide gag in a TV commercial?!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

2007 Review: 7 Modern Animation

As the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive completes its second year in operation, it's time to review the accomplishments of the past year. Here's a countdown of the ten most important subjects we've covered in 2007. See if your list matches mine. (View the complete list.) Click on the links to read more on this topic.


From Early 50s Disney Christmas Cards February 10th, 2007
NUMBER 7: MODERN ANIMATION

Amid Amidi's great book, Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation stirred up a recent revival of interest in 1950s stylized animation. Just about every animation related blog had posts dealing with the subject. Back in May, a firestorm of controversy erupted around a fascinating series of articles on John Kricfalusi's blog, All Kinds of Stuff.


More than any other animator, John K is responsible for bringing stylized animation back to television. The Log commercials on The Ren & Stimpy Show and John's more recent commercials for Old Navy (pictured above) were masterful homages to what Amid terms "Cartoon Modern". But John's interest in the style isn't without criticism. His comments about the dominance of design over entertainment value in the theatrical cartoons of UPA resulted in one of the most stimulating and provocative discussions of animation theory in some time. The informed and impassioned arguments on both sides of the issue spilled over into Michael Sporn's Splog and Amid's Cartoon Brew.


My own volley in the battle over UPA was titled...
Design: UPA Done Right May 24th, 2007

Criticism of modern animation isn't without precident... Mark Mayerson posted a blistering analysis by one of the founders of the UPA style, Chuck Jones...


Chuck Jones On Modern Animation March 11th, 2007

Other posts this year that featured the modern style were...

• Story: Alvin Show Pilot Board September 21st, 2007


• Herb Klynn's The Shrimp February 25th, 2007

I'm sure there will be many more discussion of this interesting topic in the coming year.

Go To Number 6 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Design: UPA Done Right

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.


John Kricfalusi's blog, "All Kinds Of Stuff" continues to be the most information packed and eye opening animation resource on the internet. If you haven't visited it lately, you'll want to check out the series of posts John has been writing on the impact of UPA on animation. I guarantee that you've never heard these sorts of opinions anywhere else, and once you digest the concepts, you'll never look at a UPA cartoon the same again.

Wally Walrus vs. UPA Part One
Wally vs. UPA 2: Stylized Cartoonists Take Their Skills For Granted
Wally vs. UPA 3: Walt Craves Respect
Wally vs. UPA Sidebar: Flat Stylized Cartoons I Like
Wally vs. UPA 4: When Milquetoasts Rebel
Wally vs. UPA 5: UPA Bred Worse Imitations
Sidebar: Spumco Stylized Cartoons: 1990


Here is just a sample of what John has to say...

If you don't know cartoon history and you just grew up watching Cartoon Network, you might think that this flat stuff is something new and "hip". It's not. It's much older than UPA, and the more graphic styles in cartoons before UPA didn't come with the wimpy trappings. Because of our association with UPA's beginnings, we assume that when we do something in a graphic style, we have to also carry over all the other attributes that came with UPA's particular cartoon vision- the blandness, the wimpy world view, the snootiness.

People usually don't analyze or break apart the elements that make up something they like. If we like it we assume that every ingredient in it is equally good. Then when we develop our own styles, we copy the bad with the good. That's what we need ANALYSIS for!

Like many artists, I have tons of influences. There are lots of things that inspire me. I try to figure out why they do and I break them down into their separate ingredients. I then decide which ingredients are the ones that are useful and discard the others that might have just come along with it, but don't actually add anything. There are good things about UPA and Disney- Tex Avery combined them and added his own world view to them and made cartoons more entertaining than either style.

John's comments cut like a sword through the "design for design's sake" school of animation. He cites Tex Avery as the one cartoon director who was able to incorporate modern design sensibilities, while still maintaining the entertainment value and humor of classic cartoons. He's dead right. This post reminded me of my favorite series of commercials... which were directed by Avery at Cascade studios and animated by Rod Scribner.


Not only is the character design modern in the "UPA style" but the movement has been stylized in a complementary manner. Why don't the current "Flat" cartoons move like this?!



KoolAid Spots (Cascade/ca.1960)
(Quicktime 7 / 6.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

UPDATE: I was browsing through Cartoon Modern today, and I found a post that Amid did last Summer that perfectly encapsulates my thoughts about the importance of animation even in stylized cartoons...

The Importance of "Animation" in Animaton Design

One of the hardest things to get across when discussing animation design is that it's not just about character designers, layout artists and background painters. The animator is a critical member of the design team....

The primary reason, in my opinion, that so much of today's stylized animation rings hollow is because nobody ever follows through on the animation. Regardless of whether a show is animated traditionally overseas or if it's done in Flash, most contemporary TV series creators think their job is done once they've created a pretty model sheet and slapped on a bit of color styling. These few stills illustrate however that model sheets are often the least important aspect of stylized animation-- what the animator does with those designs is what truly counts.

Exactly! Great animators like Bill Littlejohn, Rod Scribner and Grim Natwick moved these kinds of designs in unique and stylized ways.

This post is causing quite a ruckus over at Michael Sporn's blog. Check out Michael's post titled Aaargh. In particular, read the comments. Here's a real doozy...

Not everything has to look or move gorgeously to be good or artful. That's one of the dumbest, scariest suggestions I've heard anyone make in animation circles.

Yow! Do people really think lousy animation is artistic?!

Cartoon Brew has jumped into... The Great UPA Debate. Will Finn (check out his great new blog, small room) writes...

I see Steve Worth's point about Kool-Aid ads and such, where perfectly admirable work is overlooked because it wasn't in the service of "Art witha a capital A". Animators who want to evaluate work on a technique level should be able to appreciate that wherever they find it and not just where the intelligentsia have enshrined it with a golden frame.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... Early 50s UPA Model Sheets, Herb Klynn The Shrimp, Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials, Alvin Show: The Whistler Storyboard and Jules Engel's Color Keys.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.2.09
.

Stumble It!

Media: Chad's Design For Television (1960)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.

Remember those matchbooks that said "Draw Me!" on the front? They advertised a correspondence course called "Famous Artists". Everyone made fun of "draw Binky the Skunk any size but the same size"; but the truth of the matter was that the Famous Artists Course was no laughing matter- it was one of the best art instructional courses ever created.

Founded by Norman Rockwell in the early 1950s, Famous Artists had three courses... Painting, Illustration/Design and Cartooning. Each course consisted of 24 lessons in three oversized binders covering a wide variety of subjects. Each month, a new lesson would arrive in the mail. The student would read the program material, complete the assignment, and mail it back to the school, where a professional artist would critique it and offer suggestions.

To design the courses, Rockwell brought together the top artists of the day... Albert Dorne, Stevan Dohanos, Rube Goldberg, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, Willard Mullen, Virgil Partch, and Whitney Darrow Jr, among others. The result was a correspondence course that puts many current university programs to shame.

There were two editions of the Famous Artists Courses. The first was published in the early fifties, and the second was published almost 10 years later. There were differences between the two, especially in the Design/Illustration course. A concluding chapter written by the cartoonist known simply as "Chad" was added in the second edition. It deals with design for television.

Chad (last name Grothkopf) was eminently qualified to write this chapter. After leaving the Disney Studios in 1938, he was hired by NBC to create the very first commercials for television. At this time, there were approximately fifty television sets in the entire country! Chad also worked in comic books, most notably in Fawcett's Funny Animals series, for which he created the character "Hoppy the Marvel Bunny", a rabbit superhero. He passed away in January of 2005 at the age of 89.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is fortunate to have a complete set of the Famous Artists courses, and we began digitizing them for inclusion in the database today. The first article we scanned was Chad's introduction to the TV design chapter, and his discussion of the storyboard. These scans are quite large, but the size was necessary to clearly reproduce the text and details in this fascinating article. I hope you find them useful.













"In this ever-growing field of television, the visual language is supreme, and the artist is the king. So far, there are no famous artists in this young medium. Maybe you will be one of them." --Chad (1960)

The Famous Artists school is still in operation. Visit their website at www.famous-artists-school.com.

If you found this post to be interesting, see more great educational material in our collection... Willard Mullin on Animals, ZIM's Cartoons and Caricatures and How To Draw Funny Pictures, W. L. Evans Cartooning and Caricature Course Brochure, Lesson One and Lesson Two, Preston Blair and John K's $100K Animation Drawing Course, Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips, Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists, Part Four: Editorial Cartoons & Comic Books, Part Five: Sketching, Part Six: Magazine Cartooning and Part Seven: Magazine Cartooning (continued); Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: The History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

7.3.08
.

Stumble It!