puppet animation

puppet animation for a change - THE FOOL OF THE
WORLD AND THE FLYING SHIP. 1990, cosgrove hall
production, great britain. terrific animation and beautiful
designed puppets /environment.
the story is a kind of russian muenchhausen fairytale.
mark hall and brian cosgrove formed that animation
company in 1976 in manchester. their most successful
films are DANGER MOUSE, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS,
PETER AND THE WOLF, - puppet animation as well as
traditional animation.





and my all time favorite puppet animated film -
THE MIDSUMMERNIGHTS DREAM by JIRI TRNKA,
1959 czechoslovakia. it is a masterful adaptation of the
shakespeare comedy, richard burton is the narrator in
the english language version. in my oppinion the MUST
SEE puppet animation masterpiece.
there are several books with trnka's puppet designs still
available. check -
www.bookfinder.com
www.abebooks.com
www.powells.com
the film is available on DVD in japan by GENEON,
JIRI TRNKA FILM WORKS VOL.5, 2004

jan lenica

images from RHINOCEROS made by JAN LENICA in 1963.
he used a cut-out collage technique for this short loosely
based on eugene ionesco's theatre piece. lenica was born in
poland and became famous there for his unusual movie-
and theatre posters. in the 60s he produced several very
stylized animated shorts in germany and france.

hungarian

most of you have probably never seen this masterpiece,
sorry - another one! it was animated within 5 years by
hungarian animator/painter JOSEF GEMES. "HEROIC TIMES"
or the original title - 'dalias idoek'. 1985, same year grand
prize in annecy. he animated the whole film with acrylic
color on glass. it is a beautiful m o v i n g p a i n t i n g !

hope I don't bore you repeating myself - you might notice
a little bit of a difference between these traditional 'hand-
made' films and most of the ... crap you might, or maybe
not, have watched recently. and I am not excluding
'underwater'- or 'route 66' operas. or worse -
some still existing 'anime' stuff.

I will continue to bore you -
too bad - NEW YEAR's resolution!

studio shanghai

these screencaps are from a chinese animation
masterpiece - MUDI, or - the boy with the bamboo flute.
animated in 1963 by TE WEI and QIAN JAJUN, produced
by studio shanghai.
when I was teaching in china last year I had a chance
to meet several of the animators of studio shanghai's
past. most of them are now teaching animation to
the new generation of artists.
the animation technique of the above film is very
interesting. when I was visiting studio shanghai
I saw a few originals. some of the animation was
done in the traditional chinese watercolor technique
on special watercolor paper. the backgrounds were
painted with cel paint and ink on cels and then photo-
graphed on top of the animation. the other way
around. beautiful watercolors!

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