Videos

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Classic Animated Shorts from Paramount with Jerry Beck and Frank Gladstone

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Video from the 2017 UCLA Festival of Preservation Event: “Classic Animated Shorts from Paramount” screening at the Billy Wilder Theater.

UCLA Film & Television Archive head of preservation Scott MacQueen, ASIFA-Hollywood president Jerry Beck and executive director Frank Gladstone discuss the animated shorts RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY, THE RAVEN and DINAH, recently restored with funds provided by ASIFA-Hollywood in collaboration with the Archive.

Video courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive

About the UCLA Film & Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of newsreel footage, a collection second only to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It has more media materials than any other university in the world.

Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archive screens over 400 films and videos a year, primarily at the Billy Wilder Theater, located inside the Hammer Museum in Westwood, California. (Formerly, it screened films at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus). The archive is funded by UCLA, public and private interests, and the entertainment industry. It is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives.

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State Of The Industry Animation Panel Video: San Diego Comic-Con 2016

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ASIFA-Hollywood became a headlining participant at last month’s San Diego Comic-Con with a panel discussion that included a lively panel on the state of the animation industry. The panel included Rick Farmiloe, Careen Ingel, Camille Kanengiser, Peter Ramsey and Marlon West.

The panel included moderator Frank Gladstone, who led a spirited discussion on current trends of animation, as well as how the industry is changing due to animation being produced in many different countries and emerging technologies. The panelists discussed how animators fit into current business models of animation studios and the ever-changing landscape of motion pictures, television, and new media.

A special thank you to Danny Young for filming the panel.

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Artists Featured in Animation Show of Shows

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Last Thursday, Ron Diamond hosted his annual Animation Show of Shows at DreamWorks Animation to a packed house of animators, and moderated a short Q&A with four of the filmmakers.

With puppets in hand and ready to share their experiences, the Q&A included John Lewis (Australia), Janette Goodey (New Zealand, but currently working in Australia), Isabelle Favez (Switzerland) and Nina Gantz (Netherlands).

(L to R): John Lewis, Janette Goodey, Ron Diamond, Isabelle Favez and Nina Gantz

The session was only 4 minutes, but immediately afterwards the discussion was continued in the lobby of DreamWorks’ Campanile Theater to give attendees an opportunity to view the puppets up close and in a more intimate setting. To the delight of the crowds, the filmmakers discussed the challenges of making independent short films, how they balanced their time in the studio with their personal lives, and how they were able to channel their passions into film making.

What’s in The Animation Show of Shows
Slightly different from the theatrical release now playing around the country, this industry screening was a bit more adult than the theatrical version. Additional films you will not see in theaters are Edmond by Nina Gantz (UK/The Netherlands), Yul and the Snake by Gabriel Harel (France) and Sanjay’s Super Team by Sanjay Patel (USA).

The theatrical version included the following shorts that are currently being screened across the US. In “The Story of Percival Pilts,” Janette Goodey and John Lewis capture the awkward balances of a stilt-walker via stop-motion animation. Lynn Tomlinson’s “The Ballad of Holland Island House” features beautiful visuals of a building foundering in the waves of the Chesapeake Bay. In “Stripy” from Iran, brothers Babak Nekooei and Behnoud Nekooei show a quietly rebellious worker decorating his assembly line products with scarlet calligraphic lines, upsetting the order of a gray, rectilinear factory. “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos” by Konstantin Bronzit, is a story about two cosmonauts n the old Soviet Union and how their life-long friendship endures through the riggers of training for flight. “Love in the Time of March Madness” by Americans Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano, follows the travails of a 6-foot-4 female basketball player.

The Animation Show of Shows is a traveling selection of the year’s best animated short films, curated and presented by Acme Filmworks founder, Ron Diamond. It began in 1998 with the aim of showing the most original, funny, intelligent short animated films from all over the world and presenting them at the major animation studios in order to inspire their animators and directors.

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Hotel Transylvania 2 Screening and Q&A

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On September 25, 2015, Sony Animation screened “Hotel Transylvania 2” for ASIFA-Hollywood at the TLC Chinese Theaters during it’s opening weekend.

Kept as a surprise for the audience, the filmmakers were present at the screening and at the conclusion of the film, they were brought out for a lively discussion with the audience. Due to the film’s box office success during that weekend, it was an added bonus for attendees to discuss the film making process with the director and key members of the production.

Hotel Transylvania 2 panel (L to R): Frank Gladstone, Michael Kurinsky, Genndy Tartakovsky, Michelle Murdocca, Karl Herbst and Alan Hawkins.

This video includes the Q&A with the filmmakers which followed the screening. The panel included Genndy Tartakovsky (director), Michelle Murdocca (producer), Michael Kurinsky (production designer), Karl Herbst (visual effects supervisor), Alan Hawkins (sr. animation supervisor) and Frank Gladstone (moderator).

Hotel Transylvania 2 takes place seven years after the first film, with the hotel now open to human guests. Mavis and Johnnyare now married and have a young son named Dennis, whose lack of any vampire abilities worries his grandfather Dracula. When Mavis and Johnny go on a visit to Johnny’s parents, Dracula calls his friends to help him make Dennis turn into a vampire. However, an unexpected visit from Dracula’s old-school human-hating father, Vlad, soon turns things upside-down.

Voices for the film include Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, with Keegan-Michael Key replacing CeeLo Green as Murray. New additions to the cast include Mel Brooks as Count Dracula’s father, Vlad; Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally as Jonathan’s parents, Mike and Linda; and Asher Blinkoff as Mavis and Johnny’s half-human/half-vampire son, Dennis.

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Treasures of the ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

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In this 1934 cartoon, Aladdin is a slave who has to clean lamps. When he rubs one the lamps that is magic, a genie appears. Wishing himself into the palace, Aladdin is off to the sultan, where he meets a beautiful princess.

The short was produced at the Ub Iwerks Studio and was directed by Ub Iwerks, with animation by Grim Natwick and Benny Wolf.

Ub Iwerks was the artist who designed Mickey Mouse. He left Disney in 1930 to form his own studio. Soon he lost interest in the day to day supervision of the cartoons and turned the directing duties over to Grim Natwick, the creator of Betty Boop. 

Grim Natwick was one of the greatest animators who ever lived, and this cartoon is one of the most skillfully directed cartoons he made for Iwerks. You can see his hand everywhere- in the curlicue filagrees on the Genie, the beautifully composed background layouts, and the Betty Boop-esque heroine.

To view more videos on ASIFA-Hollywood’s YouTube channel, click on the image below.

Please be advised that some of these early cartoons feature behavior, stereotypes and cultural references common to the time that they were produced, but may be interpreted as insensitive or derogatory by today’s standards. Nevertheless, in an effort to provide a look at our history and the evolution of our art form, we show these films uncensored and in their entirety.

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Treasures of the ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive: Gypsy Life

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Few people know the names of the artists who make cartoons, even fewer know of their background and training.

Carlo Vinci was not only the man who animated the sexy girls dancing in Mighty Mouse cartoons and Fred Flintstone’s tippy-toe bowling scenes, he was also an accomplished fine artist. He is mainly known for his career at Terrytoons and Hanna-Barbera animation studios. Among the characters he animated were the original Mighty Mouse, Yogi Bear and Flintstones.

Before his work at the studios, Carlo worked as a commercial artist from 1921 to 1932. In 1933, he was hired at Van Beuren Studios in New York as an animator, where he trained a young newcomer named Joe Barbera. When Van Beuren closed, Vinci found work at Terrytoons Studio.

Vinci was fired during a Terrytoons strike in 1947 but returned the following November. In 1955, Vinci was offered a position at MGM in California by Barbera, where he was first credited on the animated short Give and Tyke. He remained at the studio until it closed in 1957. Barbera helped Vinci land a temporary job with the Walt Disney Studio until the Hanna-Barbera Studio opened the following year. Vinci was one of the original four animators hired at Hanna-Barbera Studio, and remained there until he retired in 1979.

To view more videos on ASIFA-Hollywood’s YouTube channel, click on the image below.

Please be advised that some of these early cartoons feature behavior, stereotypes and cultural references common to the time that they were produced, but may be interpreted as insensitive or derogatory by today’s standards. Nevertheless, in an effort to provide a look at our history and the evolution of our art form, we show these films uncensored and in their entirety.

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Treasures of the ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive: Willie Whopper in Stratos Fear

ASIFA-Hollywood is dedicated to preserving film so that we don’t lose the treasures from the past. To ensure this, we have inaugurated our Animation Preservation Project. Through it, ASIFA-Hollywood will seek out, find, preserve, and restore those cartoon “orphans.” We will endeavor to make animation fans and the general public aware of the need to for preservation. This video is presented as a part of an educational program by the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

To view more videos on ASIFA-Hollywood’s YouTube channel, click on the image below.

Please be advised that some of these early cartoons feature behavior, stereotypes and cultural references common to the time that they were produced, but may be interpreted as insensitive or derogatory by today’s standards. Nevertheless, in an effort to provide a look at our history and the evolution of our art form, we show these films uncensored and in their entirety.

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Treasures of ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive: Floyd Norman

Animation historian and Chair of the USC Animation Program, Tom Sito hosted a series of one-on-one interviews with animation’s movers and shakers back in the 1990s.

In this episode, Tom has a lively discussion with Floyd Norman, an American animator, writer, and comic book artist. Over the course of his career, Norman has worked for a number of animation companies, among them Walt Disney Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar.

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Treasures of ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive: Bill Melendez

Animation historian and Chair of the USC Animation Program, Tom Sito hosted a series of one-on-one interviews with animation’s movers and shakers back in the 1990s.

In this episode, Tom interviews Bill Melendez – a Mexican American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Walt Disney Productions (working on four Classical Disney films, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi), Warner Bros. Cartoons, UPA and the Peanuts series. Melendez provided the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock in the latter as well.

Warning: Please note there is some mild language and subject matter discussed in this video.

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