Baker's Animation Showcase

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Sep 16, 2020 7:13 pm



I think I became a fan of They Might Be Giants just because how often their songs were used in animation. "Tiny Toons" did a couple of music videos with their songs, they did the theme song for "The Oblongs", Homestar Runner collaborated with them a lot, etc.

There were also a bunch of music videos that was animated, like this one. The animation was done by Joey Ahlbum, whose style you might recognize if you watched a ton of Nickelodeon in the 1990s; a lot of those animated bumpers were done by him. Ahlbum even did a pilot for them when they were starting up Nicktoons, but his pitch was ultimately rejected. He later produced a pilot for Cartoon Network as well, as part of their "What a Cartoon" lineup, "Zoonatics", which some of you might remember, but again, didn't become a full series.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:57 am



Weird Al is another one of those guys that really lends himself well in animation, but he always had a cartoony persona. Weird Al would occasionally commission animators to make music videos of his songs, so it's no surprise he eventually reached Bill Plympton, who did a couple of videos for him. This is one of those.

Pirating music was always a thorn on the music industry's neck, so Weird Al parodying it was inevitable (Weird Al's own views on filesharing is mixed, from what I hear). The song is done in the parody of charity songs like "We Are the World" and the ilk. Metallica's Lars Ulrich is mentioned, referring to his crusade against Napster that ultimately lead to its demise. Also mentioned is Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong, who went to prison for distributing drug paraphernalia (bongs) in the mid-2000s.

As for the animation itself, I like how Bill Plympton contrasts the styles here, with the beginning and ending being digitally colored, but the good portion is done with his trademark "pencil" style. Plympton is AMAZING for animating with colored pencils on a regular basis. Amazing and insane.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2020 3:27 am



Cartoon Network's shorts program "What a Cartoon" was certainly revolutionary, an animated anthology show where different creators would get to try out their own ideas and maybe potentially turn it into its own shows. "Dexter's Laboratory", "Johnny Bravo", "Cow and Chicken", "The Powerpuff Girls", and "Courage the Cowardly Dog" all came from that shorts program.

There was one animator who dominated that shorts program, however: Pat Ventura. He made a whopping 6 shorts for the program, and they never lead to a full series. Sometimes I wonder if Ventura ever made it a goal to have his own shows. Truth to be told, his cartoons work best as one-shots or occasional things. Butch Hartman also had several shorts in that program, but he wouldn't get his own show until he moved to Nickelodeon (Hartman's also sort of a machine when it comes to pitching pilots, so the laws of average worked in his favor when several of his ideas become its own shows).

I know many people will disagree with me, but I actually like Ventura's shorts because, well, they're pure cartoons. They're chaotic, insane, crazy things happen, and the animation is super expressive, limited or no. It's nice to see cartoons be cartoons, ya' know?

George and Junior is an odd choice to use in these shorts. They originated in a set of cartoons Tex Avery did back in the late 1940s, but if there's anyone to revive them, it'd be Ventura. He very much has a Tex Avery-ish sensibilities with a modern twist (if we're counting the 1990s as modern). The "bend over" running gag, which is present in the original shorts, is used here.

I remember writing to Ventura about this, and he explained this was due to disaffection when he worked on the "Screwy Squirrel" revival in the 1990s, where they toned down Avery's craziness in favor of typical Saturday Morning cartoon format. So when he started doing these shorts he decided to revive another Avery creation and actually go for the cartoony angle they are known for. Whether he succeeded or not will vary depending on your POV, but here it is.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Oct 03, 2020 12:17 pm



Another student film from the SVA. The short, released last year, centers around a black child trying to escape police brutality. With the current ongoing protests, the ending is especially fitting.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Oct 04, 2020 2:18 am



Seth MacFarlane and Butch Hartman making a cartoon together. What else can I say about this? :-I

I like MacFarlane's "Larry and Steve", though. I rewatched it today and actually got some laughs out of it.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:36 pm



Harvey Kurtzman was one of the comics greats. He's best known for creating MAD Magazine (back when it was a comic book), but he did a bunch of other stuff as well. Among them is a series of comic strips called "Hey Look!", which were one-page fillers that ran in numerous Timely Comics publications from 1946 to 1949. Stan Lee (yes, THE Stan Lee) was the editor who offered Kurtzman the gig of doing these filler comics. Lee also came up with the title, according to the book "The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics".

These comics are fun, and showcase Kurtzman's wild humor, and they have a following among fans even today. One such fan is animation director Vincent Waller. While working on "Oh Yeah! Cartoons" he pitched the idea of doing an animated version of the strip, which got made.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:02 pm



"Snowman in July" was shown in US television a lot in the 1950s and '60s, being part of a larger package of cartoon shows that stations could run for cheap. It's fondly-remembered among boomers who saw it on TV growing up, and was pretty widely distributed in one way or another.

I wonder how many people who saw it knew it was made in Nazi Germany in 1943? :-I There's absolutely no Nazi imagery, though, and contain no references to Hitler. By all accounts, director/animator Hans Fischerkoesen was anti-Nazi and part of a underground resistance group, although he managed to be just under Goebbels's radars when he started making his grand plans to make the German film industry the envy of the world.

In spite of that, after the war Hans Fischerkoesen was arrested by Soviet troops and sent to a concentration camp, where he stayed for 3 years until he proved he was never a Nazi sympathizer and released. He couldn't continue working in East Germany due to his anti-communist beliefs, however, so he moved to West Germany, where he continued producing advertising animation until his death.

After the war the cartoon was acquired by US distributors, which were packaged with other European cartoons and sold to local stations.

Hans Fischerkoesen has a granddaughter who became an infamous cartoonist on her own right. She's Stephanie McMillan, creator of "Minimum Security".

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:46 pm



Oh wow, this is online. I've seen searching this for over 10 years.

Patrick McDonnell is best known for his newspaper strip "Mutts", featuring a cast of critters. The strip is known for advocating pet adoption, including the annual "Shelter Stories" set of strips.

However, before "Mutts" McDonnell did another strip called "Bad Baby", which ran in the Parents magazine for 10 years in the 1980s/1990s, featuring a family raising a newborn baby. It had a book collection out, but it's been overshadowed by the more successful "Mutts" over the years.

In 1997 a "Bad Baby" TV movie was made, produced by Calico Enterprise and broadcast on Showtime. In spite of getting a producer credit, Patrick McDonnell was not involved in the production, something he came to regret as indicated when I asked him about the movie at a convention, and is not fond of it at all. He indicated he won't make the same mistake again whenever "Mutts" becomes animated.

Among the voices are Jim Belushi and Kathleen Turner, plus Tress MacNeille and Rob Paulsen.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Oct 12, 2020 12:21 am



Cute animation from the Soviet. Love this animation style.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Princess Flufflebutt (?) » Mon Oct 12, 2020 12:33 am

The music slaps
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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue Oct 13, 2020 8:52 pm



A friend shared me this Halloween special from Canada. I really love the animation style and how everyone is colored. Really neat style

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:50 pm



I remember liking this when it came out. A charming film with nice animation.

Notably, this is one of the last cartoons to be painted on cels; it came out in 2011, long after digital coloring became the norm.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Oct 16, 2020 5:14 pm



Arguably the most famous adaptation of Dr. Seuss's story made during his lifetime is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", which became a Holiday staple that's become Christmas tradition for many years.

However, "Grinch" was not the favorite adaptation of the good Doctor, who has expressed dissatisfaction due to Jones' own style overpowering Seuss's. So what special did Seuss like the most? Ralph Bakshi's take on "The Butter Battle Book", which aired in 1989 on TNT (just two days before my birthday, even). Seuss considered it the most faithful adaptation of his work. It's also one of the more obscure Seuss specials.

The story was made during the height of the Cold War, with two opposing sides (one who spreads butter side up, while another spreads down) creating more and more elaborate weapons to defend against each-other.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Oct 18, 2020 10:59 am



"Jot" was created as a Southern Baptist counterpart of "Davey and Goliath", a stop-motion series of Christian-themed cartoons made by the creators of "Gumby" (most infamously it was the inspiration for Adult Swim's "Moral Orel"). It was produced in Dallas, TX by the Keitz & Herndon studio, a company made up of mostly self-taught animators (there wern't that many animators in Texas at the time, as you can imagine) that did commercials and industrial films.

Even with the religious overtone "Jot" is a pretty charming cartoon, at least from the visual standpoint. The budgets were low, so they cut costs down by relying on stylized animation. The characters are all dots with faces, but whenever they move they turn into literal white circles that move around, their faces only being shown when they're standing still.

"Jot" originally debuted in local stations in Texas, but it was soon syndicated all over the country, and eventually the world. Most syndicated cartoons of the era had their episodes produced in large batches (usually 100), but "Jot" was produced in small batches, from what I can find, with the last set of episodes released in 1981. Other than that, however, I have no idea exactly how many were made (Wikipedia says 30, but I can't verify it) and in what years and I can't find much info about the episode listings.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Madeline (?) » Tue Oct 20, 2020 12:03 am

Mr. Big wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:50 pm


I remember liking this when it came out. A charming film with nice animation.

Notably, this is one of the last cartoons to be painted on cels; it came out in 2011, long after digital coloring became the norm.
oh hey, I remember seeing this cartoon in some kind of festival thing many years ago. I didn’t know it was one of the last ones painted on cels

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Madeline (?) » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:40 am

actually I think Baker’s the one who showed it to me :ponder:

why is my memory so poor

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:21 am

Madeline wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:40 am
actually I think Baker’s the one who showed it to me :ponder:

why is my memory so poor
I think I shared so many cartoons with you over the years, I can't keep track of it myself either :-I

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Oct 23, 2020 11:19 pm



"Loopy De Loop" was an oddity in the early days of Hanna-Barbera. Produced concurrently with "Yogi Bear", "The Flintstones", and "Quick Draw McGraw", the cartoons were released theatrically through Columbia Pictures, having picked up the cartoons after they decided not to renew their contract with UPA, the makers of "Mr. Magoo" (at the time Columbia's television subsidiary, Screen Gems, were co-producing these early H-B shows).

You would think that, since these were theatrically released, they'd at least polish up the animation, but they looked no different than their television work; sometimes it actually looked WORSE. The cartoons always came off as if it was side thing for the company, with the story about a wolf trying to rid of the stereotype about wolves being vicious, but Loopy's attempts always being futile in the end.

I think the only thing H-B splurged out on with "Loopy" is that they got Hoyt Curtin to compose music for them; at the time H-B relied on stock music library for the background music, with Curtin only composing theme songs for the cartoons (they eventually stopped using stock music and hired Curtin and others to make their own music library for the studio)

This one has the squeaky duckling that Hanna and Barbera really liked to include at the time (anyone remember "Yakky Doodle"?), even getting voice actor Red Coffey to do the voice he did for the duckling in those "Tom and Jerry" cartoons. Coffey's name is misspelled "Coffee" in the end credits, so his name was listed as Red Coffee as a result.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Oct 25, 2020 12:45 am



I still love this short, about a blind girl who lost her seeing eye dog and tries to locate them.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:46 pm



Okay, this is a fun, bizarre short from Canada. My only wish is that it's longer, but what we get is fun on its own.

Also, this short is somewhat related to this forum because the guy who made it, Brad Gibson, was an animator on FiM in the early episodes. So there's that connection.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:29 am



"Colonel Bleep" was late-1950s TV cartoon that was distributed by syndication, about an intergalactic police keeping things in order, with the help of a caveman and a puppet. It was made at a small animation studio in Miami, Florida, called Soundac.

Not the greatest of shows, but I love the very stylized visuals, which helps sell the limited animation.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:57 pm



I got an art book for "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" this week, which contains production art and behind-the-scenes info for the special.

My favorite part in the entire special was this song, so I was a bit surprised when I learned it was added in at the last minute. This was the last song written for the special, and the last sequence designed. It was animated in just two weeks by Gerard Baldwin, who worked freelance.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Nov 18, 2020 12:03 am



Finally saw "Twice Upon a Time", an animated film from the 1980s, today. This is a VERY funny movie and is absolutely worth seeking out. Unfortunately Warner Bros. really screwed it over and and gave it a limited release, so not many people saw it in theaters. Which is a shame. It gained a cult following when it aired on HBO, but it was sadly largely forgotten. Thankfully, a DVD is available on Amazon (which I purchased just now).

It was directed by John Korty and Charles Swenson. Korty did a bunch of made-for-TV films as well as animated segments for "Sesame Street". Charles Swenson had a long career in animation, working on "Rugrats" and co-creating "Mike, Lu & Og" for Cartoon Network. Swenson made at least one other animated film, "Down and Dirty Duck", which is a VERY NSFW movie, so beware if you look it up.

George Lucas executive produced, and there's at least one "Star Wars" reference in the film. Voice actors include Lorenzo Music (and yes, we made a lot of Garfield jokes when watching the film with some friends), Paul Frees, Hamilton Camp, and Marshall Efron. Dear lord, Efron just hammed it up when voicing the main villain. He was hilarious.

There are two versions of the film: the original PG cut and another where the voices were re-recorded with more adult language. There are two versions of the film, the original PG cut and another with more profane dialogue. This was done behind co-director John Korty's back, because the producers saw that many college-aged audience walked out during test screenings.

Korty was, shall we say, pissed off about this. The DVD release has both versions of the film, for what its worth.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Nov 21, 2020 2:19 am



Early 1990s animation by future South Park co-creator Trey Parker. He got his Japanese roommate to talk about American history as he knew it, and animated over it with paper cut outs.

It's probably the most tame thing Parker ever did. Also lots of jokes about George H.W. Bush :-I

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:48 pm



One wouldn't think that a Terrytoons cartoon would ever go near Cannes Film Festival, but at least one did get shown there. This one, an early Hashimoto-san outing. It was shown as part of the short film competition in 1961.

It's not a bad cartoon. A cute story about a mouse born invisible. Note that Ralph Bakshi is one of the credited animators.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Nov 22, 2020 1:39 pm



"Look at the size of that rock!" :-D

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Nov 28, 2020 1:22 am



The "Winnie the Pooh" cartoons made in Soviet Union by the Soyuzmultfilm studio has its fans, and for a good reason. A charming take on the original books. It was made three years after Disney's "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree", although the director, Fyodor Khitruk, said he never saw the Disney version while making it.

Supposedly Wolfgang Reitherman, who directed the Disney version, told Khitruk that he liked the Soviet version better than his own.

Video above has English subtitles.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:23 pm



These "Sam Basset: Hound for Hire" cartoons are bizarre. The history behind this is seemingly a mystery, too. It was produced for Australian television circa 1961-63 by cartoon producer Phil Davis, whom nothing much is known about. We don't even know how many episodes were made, although at least 10 episodes were recovered in some form or another.

One thing we do know, however, is that the animation production was done in Yugoslavia at Zagreb Films (still around in Croatia after Yugoslavia broke up). Zagreb produced many shorts with nicely stylized and beautiful animation, although you wouldn't know that from watching the "Sam Basset" cartoons. Still a good snark bait if you're into MST3k-ing a cartoon.

There's a bit of a shipping fuel with the two main characters in the end, but I doubt anyone would bother shipping anything from this cartoon :-I

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Nov 29, 2020 8:23 pm



Paul Fierlinger is an animator based in Philadelphia. He's probably best known for "My Dog Tulip", but he also produced a number of animated segments for "Sesame Street", as well as producing a number of films for the Learning Corporation of America in the late 1970s/early 1980s, a company that distributed films for classroom use. His films are always peppy and energetic, however, which makes it stand out from a lot of classroom films that can be slow-paced. He collaborated with Jim Thurman on these cartoons, co-writing and doing all the voices.

"Rainbowland" is one of those films. A man gets sick of his city and goes to live in other countries. Spoiler alert: there's no place like home. Unsubtle social commentary throughout this cartoon.

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Re: Indie Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Nov 29, 2020 10:05 pm

Mr. Big wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:08 pm


This is interesting. It's a 1972 independent short made by two 17-year olds, John Stern and Steve Adams, a little ditty centering on an art auction.

I have to wonder what kind of help they got, even if the caption said they did all the work. It's a very impressive short for a first-time filmmakers still in high school. The film was shown in film festivals and was eventually distributed by Learning Corporation of America, which distributed films to classrooms, libraries, and other small avenues.

Sadly, I can't find what ever became of Stern and Adams. They seemingly never did anything else after this film.
Brief update: I was able to track down co-director Steve Adams and inquire him about this film.

After making the cartoon he graduated from UC Berkeley and got a job at Disney, abet in the theme park division rather than animation, although he have contributed to the Disneyana Gallery. Here's an example:

Image

He said he was forced into early retirement due to Covid, although he's still producing art. He did continue with animation briefly while he was still in Berkeley, even having his own 35mm animation stand, a very advanced tech at the time.

The other guy, John Stern, moved to Seattle and does wildlife photography.

He has said that the film was fun, but "exhausting project for us."

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:56 am



Japan has its share of indie animation, one of the most prominent being Yoji Kuri. He's been working since the 1960s, producing several rather bizarre shorts. They can be a bit of a mixed bag.

This one is probably my favorite of his, if only for the really catchy song.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:14 pm



Another indie anime from Japan. Makoto Wada was primary an illustrator who dabbled on animation on the side. One of his well known is "Murder!", which parodied murder mystery tropes in media, the outcome of the murder getting more and more outlandish in each passing segment.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue Dec 01, 2020 9:33 pm



This was a CalArts student film by Jim Reardon, who would go on to have a career directing episodes of "The Simpsons". This was made when the Charlie Brown specials were still being produced, although its popularity was waning then (in spite of that the specials continued to linger on until the mid-2000s). So a parody short making fun of it was inevitable.

In addition to Peanuts, there are many other references, including Rocky vs. Popeye, Blondie and Dagwood, Mickey Mouse, Godzilla, and others. There's also a cameo of another CalArts student film, "Snookles", which some of you might remember from MTV's Liquid Television.

Also, the song playing over the credits is "Charlie Brown" by The Coasters, which is mistakenly attributed to The Platters instead.
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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Princess Flufflebutt (?) » Wed Dec 02, 2020 12:22 am

Amazing
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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Dec 02, 2020 12:58 pm

Princess Flufflebutt wrote:
Wed Dec 02, 2020 12:22 am
Amazing
Supposedly Charles Schulz saw the film at least once:
According to someone I know in the animation trade, Charles Schulz was shown this on video at an animation convention. Jim Reardon and friends supposedly managed to talk Schulz into watching the film to get his opinion. He reportedly sat silent and motionless as he watched it. After it was finished he stood up, cleared his throat, and said, "Very clever, very funny, but just don't do it again, okay?" That was it.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Princess Flufflebutt (?) » Wed Dec 02, 2020 11:47 pm

That response is great
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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Madeline (?) » Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:55 am

Schulz was pretty strait-laced, but he did have a sense of humor and was willing to be poked fun at as long as it wasn’t prolonged *and* mean-spirited (this is one of the many, many reasons he had a falling out with Al Capp, whom he also correctly pegged as a creep and a grifter who would say anything for attention and cash after knowing him for a while). This is kind of mean spirited but also hilarious and it wasn’t being sold anywhere so he probably figured it wasn’t worth the bad PR of going after animation students and it was probably better to take it in good humor. :-I

He was reluctant to do what Disney did and go after people who put Snoopy on the walls of nurseries, for example, although he did go after someone who put Snoopy on their barn and then started using it to advertise the dairy they were part of, which is understandable. He did let the syndicate talk him into going after a commercial preschool who did something similar to protect the trademark and it made him feel slimy. He was definitely not a perfect person but he wasn’t a monster. Unlike Al Capp or Pat Sullivan

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu Dec 03, 2020 11:43 pm



In retrospect, it's kinda amazing that Famous Studios lasted as long as it did, especially after they sold the rights to ALL of their star characters (Casper, Herman and Katnip, Baby Huey, and Little Audrey) to Harvey Comics in the late 1950s. No longer having star characters, they were forced to come up with new ones.

So the last 10 or so years of the studio's existence basically had them create one pilot short after another. Some of them did manage to become a series, such as Eddie Lawrence's "Swifty and Shorty" and Howie Post's "Honey Halfwitch", but they all came and went with no fanfare. They even picked up Gene Deitch's "Nudnik" as an outside acquisition, releasing them alongside their own in-house productions.

One of the shorts to come out of Howie Post's brief reign running the studio, taking over Seymour Kneitel after his sudden death, was "Two by Two", featuring a Daffy Duck-ripoff named Quacky Whack. Shamus Culhane, who took over Post after he got fired (I'll get into that in a bit), said Paramount always pressured him to create a Bugs Bunny-type cartoon, so one wonders if Post was simply giving the Paramount bosses what they wanted. Needless to say, Post failed miserably.

And this cartoon got Post fired from his job running the animation studio. Apparently the cartoon spoofing a story from the bible, in this case the Noah's Ark, was too much for someone in charge at Paramount, so Post was canned and Shamus Culhane was brought in to take over. This cartoon was held over from release for over a year after its completion, finally being released during the middle of Culhane's reign.

Howie Post was primarily a comic book artist. From what I know he kept doing comic books even while running an animation studio. Some time after Paramount let him go he created a newspaper strip called "The Dropouts", which did get an animation adaptation through Filmation as part of "Archie's TV Funnies", although Post had no involvement with it.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu Dec 03, 2020 11:54 pm

Madeline wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:55 am
Schulz was pretty strait-laced, but he did have a sense of humor and was willing to be poked fun at as long as it wasn’t prolonged *and* mean-spirited (this is one of the many, many reasons he had a falling out with Al Capp, whom he also correctly pegged as a creep and a grifter who would say anything for attention and cash after knowing him for a while). This is kind of mean spirited but also hilarious and it wasn’t being sold anywhere so he probably figured it wasn’t worth the bad PR of going after animation students and it was probably better to take it in good humor. :-I

He was reluctant to do what Disney did and go after people who put Snoopy on the walls of nurseries, for example, although he did go after someone who put Snoopy on their barn and then started using it to advertise the dairy they were part of, which is understandable. He did let the syndicate talk him into going after a commercial preschool who did something similar to protect the trademark and it made him feel slimy. He was definitely not a perfect person but he wasn’t a monster. Unlike Al Capp or Pat Sullivan
That's a good summary of Schulz. I know he also took the MAD Magazine spoofs of his strip in good humor as well.

Schulz would eventually get back at MAD by having Alfred E. Neuman appear in one of the strips.

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Re: Baker's Animation Showcase

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Dec 05, 2020 8:16 pm



A cute animated PSA produced for Australia that explained how the math works when Australia switched their currency to dollar. When you look at how they did the math with the old pound system, yeah, you can see why they switched

I love that the PSA specifically highlights that "bosses will be happier" with the new system. :-I

The animation was produced by Artransa Park in Sydney. When King Features Syndicate entered television business in the 1960s they had a chunk of their animation work (including "Beetle Bailey", "Krazy Kat", and "The Beatles") done at that studio. They definitely had a knack for producing animation that doesn't look out of place from other TV cartoons airing in the US at the time, hence why they were hired to work on those shows.

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