Tuesday, June 27, 2006

"TALES OF WORM PARANOIA": DRAWINGS THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT TO THE SCREEN


This (above) is from a deleted scene where Sally finally realizes what the Worm's intentions are. I did the sketch and Tuck Tucker did a genius job on the clean-up. The scene was deleted for time.

These last two drawings are inbetweens from the brilliant animation Glenn Kennedy did on the Worm addressing the audience in the beginning of the film. He had great teardrop theories and a beautiful, cartoony line that made me regret the necessity to color the scene. The originals of these drawings, along with a bunch of others, were stolen from the studio before they could be photographed. Luckily I had xeroxed a few before the thief got them.

Glenn did the scene over again, and he did a good job, but the first version is the one that lingers in my mind.

29 comments:

katzenjammer studios said...

"you FILTHY children!"

did you work on 'buy one get one free' (the what a cartoon show about the cats) as well?

both of these cartoons were huge to me when i was 10. thanks for scarring me for life. i thought the what a cartoon show was great. it stayed fresh and it seemed like the quality of cartoons was higher than a longstanding series. but this is all hindsight. distant memories often get distorted.

the unsightly product of your machinations,
chris allison

glamaFez said...

I love any cartoon where particles of sweat, tears, dander, etc., are flying from the character's face. It gets even better when exclamation marks and vibration lines are thrown in.

Shawn Dickinson said...

I love the drawings in this cartoon so much! Eddie, you are the king of cartoon hands!

Gabriel said...

How come that cartoon has so many frames per second? Did you win the lottery and spent all your cash on it?

kp said...

Wonder if any of those drawings have or will mysteriously turn up on ebay. I've seen some tv/movie memorabilia that looked rather suspicious....

Anyway though, I love that crazy little cartoon. That drawing with his eyes all welled up is the best.

Anonymous said...

I love the drawings and the animation on this cartoon so cool!! and i agree with Shawn, you are the king of cartoon hands!

Jesse Oliver said...

Hi Eddie

"WOW!" Those are way cool drawings! Was this Worm character of yours an influence by Tex Avery's "The Early Bird Dood It" cartoon? It would be cool if "Tales Of Worm Paranoia" was on DVD. Maybe it could be a Bonus Feature on a future John K. SPUMCO DVD. Would you ever think about making more of the Worm Paranoia cartoons? Your drawing style in those layouts are so freakin AWESOME! That worm should have made a series. Keep up the cool posting and theories.

your pal

Jesse Oliver

Anonymous said...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rHddYuwQu9I&search=tales%20of%20worm%20paranoia

Danne8a said...

I agree with shawn, I love the way you draw hands Eddie!
Tales of Worm Paranoia has been a huge inspiration to me and I'm very glad you posted these!
Thanks!

Ryan G. said...

Hey Eddie.. Are these frames cleaned up with pencil or ink?

Chad Coyle said...

Eddie, Tales of Worm Paranoia is incredible. I got to see it for the first time a while back on Youtube.

You made a real forties cartoon! Can you explain a little about how you did it? (working at a studio and trying to make something like this)

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Gabriel: You mean how did a fully-animated film like that get funded? My guess is that Fred Seibert just decided to take a chance on it. Of course, it didn't hurt to have a plug from John K. who was advising Cartoon Network at the time.

Chris: Nope, I didn't work on "Buy One." What these two films have in common is that both are influenced by Spumco, but different aspects of Spumco.

Jesse: I'd love to do more Worm cartoons.

Ryan: Pencil!

Chad: I'll explain how I we made it in a future post!

Shawn: "King of Hands!" If only I could deserve that title! John K is the guy who really dominates that field, as he does so many others.

Dave_the_Turnip said...

I found this short on youtube a couple months back. I have watched it about 10 times or so since. I just love it. The acting of the worm character is fantastic.

"Low-lands."

Anonymous said...

What we want now are pictures of pretty girls, Spumco chicks-like.....Post them, man!

Brubaker said...

Ah yes, I remember watching this on Cartoon Network years ago.

Yes, please post behind the scenes of how this short was made. I, and I'm sure many others, are very interested.

Oh, and a stupid question, but what film format was this shot on? (35mm or 16mm). Because I'm wondering what format TV cartoons from 1990s were filmed in.

Anonymous said...

I can't even begin to tell you how impressed I am with Tales of Worm Paranoia. It's jaw dropping. It throws all different kinds of way to entertain you at once. You get the most dramatic acting in a cartoon with lots of goofy jokes at the same time. You really need to direct more.

Gavin Freitas said...

hey I downloaded this from Youtube and it was funny. The Acid part was too funny. What program was this animated in?

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Charles: I assumeit was 35 mm.

Gavin: No program, it was done on cels.

Ryan Khatam said...

WOW!!! that top one is EXCELLENT!! can you please post more? maybe even tell us what was left out of the cartoon?

I used to have this up on youtube but my account got deleted. I recently made a new account and re-uploaded in case anyone here hasn't seen it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rHddYuwQu9I

Gavin Freitas said...

Thats REALLY cool you used cels. I just too expensive though.....

Gavin Freitas said...

Thats REALLY cool you used cels. IT'S just too expensive though.....cant spell worth a DAM

Alex Whitington & Rob Turner said...

I saw the short on Youtube a few months ago.
It is gorgeous.

Marc Crisafulli said...

>both of these cartoons were huge to me when i was >10.

At first I was just going to write and say how much I like this cartoon, and how I thought you were too hard on yourself when writing about it in other forum(s)...

Then I read the comment above, and all of the sudden I felt like I was about 1,000 years old, so now I'm going to take a very long nap.

david said...

AWESOME drawings! wow! really cool and good detail that doesn't take away from the drawings themselves! i love this cartoon. thanks for posting these!

Brian Brantley said...

Eddie, will you ever direct again? I read that you didn't like this cartoon, but at the end were thrilled that you realized how to get a laugh (that you had to tell a joke). I'd love to see you in the directing chair again.

Hammerson said...

That was a great cartoon, Uncle Eddie! I remember a discussion at the Drawing Board forum where you made some rather harsh comments about it. Just wanted to let you know that there are people who really love this cartoon and find MUCH more than just a couple of laughs in it. Are there any more scenes or ideas that were cut from the final version?
Another thing... I was recently watching some episodes of the short lived '80s revival of "Beany & Cecil". Most of the original Spumco crew worked on it, including you, John, Jim Smith and many others. It's a very obscure and rarely discussed part of Spumco history. Can you tell us something about it? From what I heard, it was a troubled and unpleasant experience for all involved. Such a pity, because the three episodes I've seen are actually quite entertaining, though there's an visible conflict between the scripts forced by the network execs, and the incredibly outlandish drawings in some scenes.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Hammerson: Beany & Cecil was an embarrassment to me so I never mention it. John moved mountains to get us some freedom to move but all I remember is the restrictions. I just couldn't breathe on thst project.

Anonymous said...

Greetins from Spain, I have the chance to see your film in CN Spain, and I simply love it. It´s one of the greatest cartoons I´ve seen in a long long time.

Congratulations! You and your team did a wonderfull job!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

ibcf: I'm very embarrassed to say that I can't remember what scenes Kelly Armstrong worked on. Things were pretty hectic at that time. Why not ask her?
She has a blog and a facebook page. I'm not on facebook so I don't know the address, but you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. Or ask Bob Jacques.