[No, this is not about the group who did “Spinning Wheel.”]
Unless you’re a 50-something muso there’s no way, or no reason really, to explain how much a difference Al Kooper made to us. He’s dined out way too long on the story about being an songwriter/amateur organist/hustler who convinced Dylan to let him play on Like A Rolling Stone, but something about his hustle, his fandom, and the limited talent he had made a generation of musicians believe they had a chance to go all the way. The fact he started to believe he was the prime talent on his records, rather than the catalyst, tanked his career and ambitions. (It wasn’t until he got back to producing the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd records that he made it clear what he was good at.)
With his original Blood, Sweat & Tears Kooper was the sparkplug for the marriage of jazz sensibility with post-rock pop. These are three of the tracks I love from their only album (two written by Kooper, one by Harry Nilsson).
Tip #3 Avoid sleep, people, and your job. There can be nothing more distracting than life and all its little annoyances. Cut yourself off from the world and get to work.
Tip #2 Avoid straight smooth lines. There is nothing more authentically independent then shaky lines. It also tells the audience,” Hey this is animated, look at all them drawings I did!”
Jaime, Billll, Dr. Froyd, Nurse Duckett, Lulu Raging Bullfrog, Bossy LeCow and the entire over-population of Dr. Froyd’s Funny Farm bid you all fondue. We’ll be checking in periodically from remote locations like Altadena and Studio City, but you won’t have us to kick around the studio anymore…at least until the next time. Which we hope will be soon. We LIKE being kicked around. Chow BB
Goliath (Kevin Michael Richardson) recently came in to do Line Pick-ups, and again did a fantastic job! Voice Director Ginny McSwain was great to work with in the session (a huge help for me), and the cartoon will be all the better for it! I have not uploaded audio before so this may or may not work:
Paramount’s Little Lulu cartoons were produced in Times Square in New York City. Lulu, and a new series of miscellaneous cartoons, called NOVELTOONS (a play on the word “novelties”), joined the POPEYE on the Paramount short subject release schedule in 1943.
This was part of a new begining for Paramount’s cartoon studio - formerly the Max Fleischer studio - now dubbed FAMOUS STUDIOS (after Paramount’s Famous Music and Famous Players subsidiary businesses). Paramount moved the operation back up to New York City from Miami - and demanded a fresh start. Only Popeye remained a holdover from the last regime - and now those cartoons would be produced in color.
Paramount bought the rights to Little Lulu, a popular Saturday Evening Post panel cartoon, an created a very funny, very appealing series around her. Audiences loved the cartoons and animators loved the character. Feminists still consider her (along with Wonder Woman) an cartoon icon.
When the Lulu deal ended in 1947, Famous continued making similiar cartoons under the name “Little Audrey”. When Paramount sold the rights to Little Audrey (and Casper, Baby Huey and Herman & Katnip) in the late 50s to Harvey Comics, the studio actually went back to creator Marjorie Henderson Buell (”Marge”) and licensed the rights to make two more Lulu cartoons in 1961.
But by then, the magic was gone. The 1940s Lulu cartoons are a special series. One that has been overshadowed, forgotten and neglected by time. Check out todays cartoon and re-discover a classic.
So HERE is a test of our water fountain. It’s still pretty rough, but this is where we are at with the simulation. All of the action in our segment takes place at the water fountain, so it’s important to make it look just right.
Comic Strip Week comes to a close with “A Scout with Gout,” a 1947Little Lulu cartoon from Paramount/Famous cartoon. ‘Marge’ (as in ‘Marge’s Little Lulu”) referred to Marjorie Henderson Bell, the cartoonist who introduced the tiny terror in the Saturday Evening Post, back in the thirties. But most baby boomers remember Lulu for just about everything else she did outside that original venue — comic books, animated cartoons… even her stint as spokesperson for Kleenex tissues.
I always thought Little Lulu was just about the most underrated classic cartoon series from animation’s golden era. These things had wonderful production values, and were, on the whole, among the funniest films Famous ever turned out.
Don’t you just love Lulu’s pop in “A Scout with Gout?” A really zesty, full blooded personality —look at his body language describing the great outdoors. No doubt a lot of this extra punch is due to the fact that the director was Bill Tytla, one of the greatest character animators of all time. I suppose after drawing the demon king in “Fantasia,” everything would be anti-climatic, but, like a lot of Tytla’s post Disney work, “Scout” is really first rate. All the business in the end where Dad ingests an entire brook is pretty fabulous!
Next week, we’re off in a new direction celebrating celebrity cameos in classic cartoons. Accept no imitations! Log on to ReFrederator, the first daily cartoon podcast.
Like most of us animators we have about a hundred unfinished films lying around. Whether it is some actual test animation, a story board, or just a scribble of an idea in a sketchbook, here are some helpful tips to get that film finished quick, easy, and guaranteed to achieve success.
Tip #1 Skip every other frame. Nobody will notice if you take out every other frame besides the hardcore animation fans, and you can just say they have no life for pointing that out.
I worked on this bg in the loft at my apartment. I didn’t have time to clean so the loft was a total piggy dump. My usally allergies attacked me, my nose and eyes ran all day long. My loft is still a dump but I am happy to be here to blog this and go back to my drawing desk.^^
![[large][black] FReDERATOR badge](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3502/3317571331_e33068a3c8_m.jpg)
