studio zagreb 2

before I go to my little island for a christmas
vacation I want to show you some more stills
from STUDIO ZAGREB shorts.
this time they are a bit mixed, here are some
of the titles -
COWBOY JIMMY 1957
LOW MIDNIGHT 1960
ALONE 1958
THE BOY AND THE BALL 1960
TWO SNAILS 1960
CAPTAIN ARBANAS MARKO 1967
NOCTURNO 1957
THE GREAT JEWEL ROBBERY 1959
THE EGG 1959
BOOMERANG 1962
LA PEAU DE CHAGRIN 1960







I wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS . . .

interesting

here are some very interesting links -
2 clips animated by alexsander petrov

http://www.pascalblais.com/it_petrov_09.html

http://www.pascalblais.com/it_petrov_08.html

the trailer for the recent russian animated
feature film PRINCE VLADIMIR

http://www.kinomania.ru/movies/k/Kniaz_Vladimir/trailer.shtml

and the trailer for the spanish animated
feature film NOCTURNA, release date next summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mQUSKAKjrs

studio zagreb 1

the collection of scenes above is from my favorite short
out of the ZAGREB animation studio. done in 1961 -
DON KIHOT or DON QUIXOTE. design, animation, back-
grounds and direction by the master - vladimir kristl.

another one of my favorites from studio ZAGREB -
INSPEKTOR SE VRATIO KUCI or THE INSPECTOR
RETURNS HOME, 1959, script and direction vatroslav
mimica, design aleksander marks, animation vladimir
jutrisa, backgrounds zlatko bourek.

these films inspired me, more than the disney, WB or MGM
movies, to start animation myself. I always thought of it as
moving art. hand crafted art created on paper and cels, with
smelly real color and ink. and that is what 'real' animation
will always be for me.

-

ken harris

richard williams gave me these photos years ago.
they show animation legend KEN HARRIS working on
THE THIEF and THE COBBLER, or latercalled ARABIAN NIGHTS,
in the richard williams studio in london around 1975.
I was lucky enough to meet ken harris in 1977 in london.
he started late in the mid thirties as an animator, already
in his late thirties, after having worked as a truck driver.
he was a natural talent and became one of the best animators,
animating most of the WB-cartoon characters in
over 200 shorts.
dick williams invited him to come to london to work on his
feature film, where another legend, ART BABBIT, joined as well.
here is a very interesting talk between dick williams and ken harris
in 1975 -

http://www.packthecat.com/PersistenceOfVision/Notes/
KenHarrisInterview.html

christmas

here are some books I would like to recommend
for christmas. they are illustrated by RONALD SEARLE,
one of my favorite artists. you can only get them in
antique bookstores or order them through
used bookshop websites like -

www.bookfinder.com/
www.abebooks.com/
www.powells.com/

it is worth it. they are not too expensive.
and pure treasures!!



all by RONALD SEARLE -

MERRY ENGLAND, etc
alfred a.knopf new york 1957

BY ROCKING CHAIR ACROSS RUSSIA
the world publishing company, cleveland 1960

BY ROCKING CHAIR ACROSS AMERICA
funk & wagnalls company, new york 1959

ESCAPE FROM THE AMAZON
perpetua books, london 1964

THE ST.TRINIAN'S STORY
perpetua books, london 1959

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
perpetua books, london 1961

THE RETURN OF TOULOUSE LAUTREC
DIE WIEDERKEHR DES TOULOUSE LAUTREC
kurt desch verlag, munic 1969

THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES
dennis dobson, london 1965

THE FEMALE APPROACH
alfred a.knopf new york 1954

HAVEN'T WE MET BEFORE SOMEWHERE?
the viking press, new york 1966

FROM FROZEN NORTH TO FILTHY LUCRE
the viking press, new york 1961

amblimation 5

some of my sketches for BALTO,
london 1992

interesting

amblimation 4

2 of many logo designs I did just for fun
for WE'RE BACK. the final logo that was used
for the movie was from the original bookcover


the telegraph montage was my favorite sequence
in BALTO. it showed in impressive effect shots how
all different ways to transport the antidote to nome
failed. simon wells, the director, had created an amazing
series of hundreds of tiny little thumbnail sketches to
visualize the whole movie. comparing them now they
were very close to the final look of the film. I asked
him if I could sketch that sequence for the leica-reel.
here are some of them...

disgusting!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Fox plans to broadcast an interview
with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses
"how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife
and her friend, for which he was acquitted, the network said.
The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's
How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the
TV network said.
Simpson has agreed to an "unrestricted" interview with book
publisher Judith Regan, Fox said.
"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how
he would have committed the murders if he were the one
responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement.
"In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have
carried out the murders he has vehemently denied
committing for over a decade."

I don't want to comment...

looking back

when I studied graphic design in germany in the late
sixties I had no idea what I might do after my graduation.
to my knowledge there were not too many choices -
illustrator for books and magazines or poster-designer
for film and advertising. beginning of the seventies a
new development happened - advertising agencies
grew big in duesseldorf, the center of advertising in
germany at that time.

so, very early I started to earn good money in advertising
besides my studies . but there was nothing on the
horizon that would somehow lead to animation or
film-design. storyboard yes, for live action commercials.
I was not too happy about it, because dozens of
drawings had to be done over night. good money,
but not very challenging work, the camel guy in the
jungle, housewifes discussing whose laundry looked
more or less white.



very early though I was confronted with cartoony character-
design in the advertising world. again, it had to happen
over night, but that at least was fun.
accidentally through my work in advertising, styling and
storyboarding of animated commercials, I met finally
richard williams. he was at that time the guru in the
animation-commercials world, his famous studio was in soho,
london. after we had met in duesseldorf for some commercial
work he invited me to his studio in london, to do some design
work for him. that was how it all started. the stupid advertising
work at home was forgotten, that was the work I wanted
to do. especially when dick showed me what he had created
over years of his own feature film - THE THIEF, later finished
and bastardised by some other production and released as
ARABIAN NIGHTS. I never forget when I was sitting with
dick in his very small projection room in the basement of
his soho square studio and we both watched about 25 min.
of his superwide-screen animation masterpiece. afterwards
I was not quite sure if I was in the right business or it might
be better for me to start something completely different.
but dick williams was very patient with me, we got along
very well and became good friends after a while.
he came several times to duesseldorf to visit me and
the other guys in our studio MAD T PARTY. we exchanged
our big animation collection and talked about the future.
that was when he first mentioned a new crazy project
hollywood wanted him to be involved, it was about some
life action characters incl. a detective and a beautiful
blonde, and lots of cartoon characters, incl. the warner
stars like bugs bunny,daffy duck and mickey mouse
as well. - and a weird rabbit!



that was WHEN IT REALLY STARTED!
now I got involved in ROGER RABBIT. dick wanted me
to become his assistant. at that time I was too scared and
too stupid to accept that, I could not even imagine to move
to london and work there for over a year on this film, I could
not imagine to change my life so completely. later I realized,
all that could have been solved.
anyway, through the little work I was able to contribute i was
able to learn so much. and it was fun! additional to meet all
these incredible artists, incl. bob zemeckis, artie schmidt
and steven spielberg.
and to enter a new world, where from then on I would
stay for many years. it is interesting to look back after all
that time and to realize that everything happened accidental.
nothing was planned. and with every single new project
another new world opened. - it was good and I would do
it again.



the pictures -
1-3 richard williams studio 13 soho square london
4 shelley page in dick's studio under the roof
5 dick's dixie band DICK's SIX in the hotel brittania
6/7 'roger' and my title logo
8 dick animating in london 1985
9 dick in duesseldorf 1986
10 toontown meeting - me, jeff prize, bob zemeckis, p

...accidentally

searching for more stuff from the old days
in london I found these drawings. harald siepermann
did them while we were working on the toontown
storyboard for ROGER RABBIT at amblin in L.A. july 1987.
the director of the live action, bob zemeckis and the 2 writers,
jeff prize and peter seagram made some comments on
them.
it was an unforgattable time. the 3 of them were the
funniest guys, we were constantly laughing on
the floor. zemeckis threatened us - you have to be funnier
than tex avery. at least for harald and me it was funny
enough. I still have the notes in my script. maybe one day
in my 'memoirs'...

t e a r s

some of the stories you can find in the WORLD-news
r e a l l y bring t e a r s to my eyes. I am just moved
by such incredible s t u p i d i t y ! !

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Members of the
New Life Church were stunned and brought to tears
by the Rev. Ted Haggard's confessions of
"sexual immorality," then accepted his plea for
forgiveness with open arms. Haggard apologized
Sunday in a letter read from the pulpit of the
14,000-member church he founded.
Some in the standing-room-only crowd wiped away
tears and embraced each other as they heard Haggard's
words read by a member of the board had fired him a
day earlier.
"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality.
And I take responsibility for the entire problem,"
Haggard wrote. "I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part
of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been
warring against it for all of my adult life.

Climate change

please do me a favour and read the following articles

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2006/press_stern_06.cfm

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/987/6B/Slides_for_Launch.pdf

...found it!

well, in that case...

One government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of the politically sensitive situation with the issue, said
the working assumption among government experts is that,
more likely than not, it was an important issue. However,
various government agencies were still evaluating the data,
the official said.

≥2

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