Innovations in Animation - Part 3 - The Peanuts Movie

(copyright Blue Sky Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Animation, United Features Syndicate, and of course "Sparky" Charles M. Schulz)

Late to the party again, I finally borrowed the The Peanuts Movie screener DVD from work. After virtually growing up with all the original Bill Melendez animated TV specials from the 60's, I was hesitant to face a possible "South Park" kind of treatment of my childhood heroes. 

 But this film wasn't bad. As a family film, The Peanuts Movie is a nostalgic romp going through the key story points of the entire Charlie Brown saga: the childhood torments of grade school, his love of baseball and his longing for the distant, seemingly unattainable attention of the Little Red-Headed Girl. And of course, Snoopy relives his never ending aerial battles with the mysterious and relentless Red Baron. And then there is the actual design of the movie itself, and how the director Steve Martino and crew strove to stay faithful to style and charm of Charles Schulz' original comic strip.

 Looking back on my last entry, I'm beginning to notice how studios having been making big strides in creating 3D polygon models to resemble flat, cartoon shapes. As with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Blue Sky Studios worked overtime to take Charles M. Schulz' beloved Peanuts comic strip into the CG world, and then make it "flat" again. I used to think that the studios are using 3D animation in ways that it was "not meant to be used", in as far as the usual process of modeling, rigging and animating CG characters.

But The Peanuts Movie is a nice reminder of how CG can do virtually anything, and should not just be shoehorned into mimicking alternate concrete looking realities. Director Steve Martino described how their first attempts with traditional modeling and rigging just didn't cut it, and eventually switched to a stop motion style to maintain the illusion of Schulz' and Melendez' art and animation styles. On a smaller scale, shows like South Park and the Olive The Other Reindeer Holiday special may have solved similar issues in the past with these techniques.

To sum up, The Peanuts Movie is worth a look, and can be a warm, fuzzy torch to pass on to a new generation.

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  https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/charlie-brown-and-snoopy-the-peanuts-movie-animation-cheats/ 
   
  https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/the-tech-of-the-art-of-the-peanuts-movie/ 

 https://mashable.com/archive/making-the-peanuts-movie

 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/movies/review-the-peanuts-movie-curses-the-red-baron-in-3-dimensions.html

c • C • ɔ

 

Paul Coker, Jr. - Rankin/Bass Christmas TV Specials

 Time for sentimental, Holiday trivia again. And to offer some distraction from the pandemic. Only this time, on Black Friday, the networks slammed us with three classic Holiday specials at the same time: Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and of course, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Plus, the Minions brought some of their new samples of Holiday havoc after The Grinch.

Good Grief!

That reminds me, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" will not be broadcast over regular TV or cable this year. That may become another rant soon. As usual, the networks didn't waste any time trying to get viewers in a festive Holiday mood. I suppose it's good to introduce these shows to a new generation, especially with the strain and heartbreak of the lock-down. But for me, it was still too soon to watch these shows, with the obvious situation of the networks competing against each other for TV ratings and ad time. Looks like I'm in grumpy old man mode again.

(original copyright Rankin/Bass)

Getting back to my rant, it struck me as I was flicking back 'n' forth between channels, I finally noticed there were two Rankin/Bass Christmas TV Specials up against each other; the stop motion "Santa" (1970) and traditional hand-drawn "Frosty" (1969). Even with the advantage of experience, I still fell under the rosy spell of the old Rankin/Bass universe. Charming, whimsical characters that bordered on the fantastic, even bizarre, especially the stop-mo Santa film. What was in their style that kept viewers glued to the screen after all these years?

 

(original copyright Rankin/Bass) 

Of course, the Secret Ingredient: artist Paul Coker, Jr.!

Coker was the artist and designer that gave the Rankin/Bass Specials that quirky, off balance, yet lovable look. According lambiek.net, Coker started out as an artist for the Hallmark greeting card company. He also found work cartooning for magazines such as Esquire and Good Housekeeping, and even Playboy. This work got him the notice of Mad Magazine where he developed his own characters and acidic movie parodies. From there, Coker was hired by Arthur Rankin Jr., which pretty much set the tone and style of their beloved Holiday specials through the 1970's.

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/coker_jr_paul.htm

 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170082/

http://www.theculturecache.com/the-awkward-magic-of-rankin-bass-holiday-specials.html

Since their original broadcasts, the Rankin/Bass specials have become the targets of parodies both in tribute, and out of nastiness. The writer of the culturecache.com article completely overlooks Coker's influence when she mentions the designs and proportions of the Rankin/Bass characters. The nature of animation, plus the pressures of TV production do lead to artwork that looks off kilter, forgettable and many times, unappealing. Especially nowadays, the charm and daring of character designs like Coker's could be bulldozed under completely. Like many animation artists, Paul is modest, and works in relative obscurity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kvTGHZwv0g

But like benign ghosts from Christmases past, these old friends shake off the dust, and are brought down from the shelves. It's kind of the way distant relatives drop by, or the way old decorations are brought down from the attic. They may still bring us some magic, and maybe some comfort as we limp through probably one of the grimmest Holiday seasons since WWII. But when it comes to imagine and appeal, here's to Paul Coker, Jr.!

https://www.comicbooksdallas.com/paul-coker-jr-special-guest-artist-mad-magazine-rankinbass

Visual Effects Artists Rough Timeline

Here's a rough chart of the visual effects artists and animators I put together during my years at Woodbury University. From what I learned, these are some of the key the people who built the foundations of the computer and traditional animation we have now, and their connections with each other as the film business progressed.

And give a big thanks to organized labor this Labor Day, especially in a business like animation!

Missing Link stop motion by Laika Studios | behind the scenes

Incredible behind the scenes of stop motion at Laika studios.
I hope you can open this link on facebook!

(copyright Laika studios)

https://www.facebook.com/Movjis.com.pe/videos/vb.1268800513168300/2556394721300624/?type=2&theater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4zoaZ1CR_Y

Animation loses Claymation king Will Vinton

I have to admit, I wasn't a huge Will Vinton fan, but I was struck by some of his work. "Closed Mondays" was the first Vinton film I ever saw that didn't revolve around singing raisins, or other commercial characters.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoBmlbQApJE

 There were some various TV specials, and the series I remember was the "PJ's" created by Eddie Murphy. Vinton was listed as Executive Producer on a few episodes.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182621/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

 (original copyright Touchstone Television)

(Street Poster I found years ago in L.A. Haven't seen anything else like it.)

I was saddened to learn later that his studio was bought out by Phil Knight of Nike shoes, and Vinton was forced out. Vinton Studios eventually became Laika.

 https://priceonomics.com/how-the-father-of-claymation-lost-his-company/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-vinton-dead-oscar-winning-legend-claymation-was-70-1149596

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/rip/will-vinton-stop-motion-legend-and-claymation-creator-dead-at-70-164928.html

 http://dorkshelf.com/2015/12/19/from-coraline-to-kubo-laika-is-the-stop-motion-studio-that-never-stops/

 

Correction: Vinton Studios were taken over by Travis Knight after they continued to lose money after his initial investment.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/how-will-vinton-lost-his-studio-to-a-rapper-named-chilly-tee-99327.html

Kubo and the Two Strings

(copyright Laika studios) It's mortals vs. the gods in Kubo and the Two Strings. An outcast boy whose music and stories that brings origami to life goes from hustling on the street to a real challenge when he learns more about his true origins.

Laika has got another winner here! The plot is a little vague at the beginning, but things are not what they seem, as Joseph Campbell might have once said, and that's good for the film. The stop motion is well done, almost looking like CG animation. Director Travis Knight and his crew didn't cut any corners on this film

The action, although theatrical, is intense, and I am still surprised (and annoyed) at parents bringing very small children in the cinema. Still, the story succeeds on concepts of being true to yourself, appreciating your parents, and your gifts.

Get a good seat! I'm looking forward to the Blue Ray already.

The Gnomon Workshop presents an Evening with Grzegorz Jonkajtys

Polish animator Grzegorz Jonkajtys has an interesting technique in combining miniature hand built sets with CG characters. Glad I made it over to Gnomon to see the talk.

Grzegorz's film credits include Sin City, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Mist, Rango, Pacific Rim, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Warcraft, and The Revenant. His titles were VFX Artist and Lead Animator.

(copyright Grzegorz Jonkajtys?)

After such grim short films such as ARK, where an animated Leonard Nimoy type character is trapped on a doomed plague ship, Grzegorz is bringing us a family oriented film based on a Polish character, Teddy Floppy-Ear. 

Teddy, and his friend Hare find out that a toy factory is not all fun and games. Grzegorz slips in some social commentary when the system tries to toss Teddy into an incinerator for having one minor defect, in this case, his floppy ear,

After years of CG work, Grzegorz said it was refreshing to build miniature sets by hand. He pointed out that his hand built sets have a more convincing depth and character than the usual CG backgrounds. This was his strategy in filming "ARK". Grzegorz had his crew do lighting checks with real miniature models so the lighting on the CG characters would match the hand made backgrounds in a more convincing way.

Using kit-bashing and Styrofoam containers, drinking straws and mint candy box tins, Grzegorz and his crew built the charming, and at the same time, frightening world of Teddy Floppy Ear.

http://jonkajtysfilm.com/following/all/jonkajtysfilm.com/Teddy-Bear

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/2016/03/an-evening-with-grzegorz-jonkajtys-combining-cg-animation-miniature-sets/

Christopher Lee in the Corpse Bride

Hello, it's still been a hectic spring at work, even with classes being over. Haven't had the energy to put up a post. 'Til now.

Well, we lost Christopher Lee this week at the age of 93. But when you look at his life on and off the screen, I would say his time on earth was pretty remarkable. Mr. Lee was sort of an unsung hero to me as a voice actor in animation, as well Star Wars, and all the horror movies he acted in. Here he is as Pastor Galswells in Tim Burton's the Corpse Bride.

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride from Malcolm Hadley on Vimeo.

(copyright Time/Warner)

https://vimeo.com/9729948