HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSSON'S PAPER CUT-OUTS

Every once in a while I cut something out of white paper just for the heck of it (above). I got the idea from a book on on Hans Christian Andersson's paper cut-outs.



According to the book, which I don't have at hand, Andersson thought he was ugly and hoped the cut-outs would make him more acceptable to the people he told stories to. That's Andersson above. In my opinion he's exceptionally handsome.

The cut-outs look like they could have been done by Matisse. Did Matisse know about these? Was he influenced by them?

Incidentally, Andersson always used big scissors and white paper.

GUSTAV TENGGREN"S BILLION DOLLAR PICTURE

I say billion dollar because my hunch is that these first two pictures are the ones that inspired Walt to make Disneyland. Look at the picture of the hearth (above). The artist beckons us deep into the picture then rightward for an imaginary walk into the fireplace. Look at the low, sheltering ceiling and at the beams which appear to struggle heroically to hold up the ceiling. Check out the ship which every boy would want to get a closer look at. Can't you hear your footsteps on the floor? Isn't the glow from the fire appealing?

Then there's the toy shelves (below). Each toy is one that you'd like to pick up and look at. You'd like to run your fingers along the edge of the shelves, maybe over the carvings. The artist could have made the shadows deeper and slightly more menacing, but that would defeat the purpose, which is to invite the viewer to come closer and examine the toys. There's a real tactile pitch going on here. I want to step into the picture then touch every toy on the shelf.

Maybe you don't see why I'm singling out Tenggren and the pictures above. Maybe you're thinking that all the top-grade Disney artists probably had the same ability, or close to it. OK, take a look at the picture below.

This is obviously a the work of a really skilled painter but it doesn't invite me in and I have no desire to hold the toys. The window might have been more interesting. After all, windows are a powerful psychological symbol just like hearths. Here the window is just a prop. The pillar is pretty good but we don't see where it connects to the ceiling so we never root for the hard-working little pillar struggling to keep the ceiling up. The floor is just textured color.

Tenngren had the ability to make the viewer want to enter his pictures, look around and pick things up. To me they suggest Disneyland where you really can enter these worlds.

I'M SICK AS A DOG!

I'm so sick from the dizzy pills I'm taking that it's an effort just to sit at the keyboard and type. I hope no one will be offended if I post some of my old drawings without comment.

THEORY CORNER MAILBAG # 3A

MY FIRST ANIMATION JOB

MY INITIATION INTO THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY

On the strength of my portfolio I got my first storyboard job way back in 1979 at Filmation, the studio that did Fat Albert and Flash Gordon for Saturday Morning TV. I was in heaven! I showed up my first day, eager to work, pockets full of sharpened pencils and a cumbersome, giant mirror because the animation books always showed the Golden-Age animators mugging into a mirror and I didn't want to look like a piker by showing up without one.

I think my boss-to-be was amused by all this becuase he made a big show of finding a place for me to sit. "Leeeeet's see...wheeeere shall we put Mr. Fitzgerald?" I've got it! We'll put him in with Paul Fennell!" Every face in the vicinity dropped. People said things like, "No! No! No! It's too cruel!" and "No! Even this kid doesn't deserve that!" I had no idea what they were talking about. 

They introduced me to Paul and he seemed likable enough. He'd been in animation since the days of rubber hose. Now he seemed to be in his eighties, just storyboarding away, biding his time till a late retirement. On the way out my boss said, "Paul's supposed to take heart pills every day but some days he forgets. If he ever forgets, and you find out about it, get out of the office! Work somewhere else! If you don't you'll be sorry!" I couldn't even imagine why he said that.

In the following weeks I immersed myself in the life of the studio. The company did everything under one roof: ink & paint, animation, assistant animation, layout...everything! Every moment I wasn't working I would walk around the halls on some pretext just revelling in the thrill of being with other cartoonists. There were times I thought I'd just burst with happiness. Also during this time one of my new friends introduced me to Bob Clampett cartoons. The effect, to put it mildly, was not subtle. Even though I'd only been working in the industry a few weeks I went around the studio telling the old animators that they were doing everything wrong, that Clampett and Scribner were the only ones who knew how animation works. This didn't make me popular with the old animators and they all complained to Paul.

One day I overheard Paul tell one of his friends that he forgot to take his heart medicine. I didn't think anything of it because it was the day of my first deadline and I was working feverishly against the clock. Paul by this time had gotten in the habbit of going into long, daily rants about what a bum Clampett was and what a punk I was and this day was no different. Usually I listened politely but my first deadline was hours away and I was afraid I'd end up on the street if I missed it. I just couldn't think with Paul's rant going on! Impulsively I turned around and shook my finger at Paul, "Paul, you've gotta give me a break here! I've gotta get this board done!"

I thought Paul was on the other side of the room but it turns out that he was right behind me. When I shook the finger I was suprised to see it happen an inch away from his face. He did a cross-eyed look at the finger then at me then hauled off and BAM!, punched me hard, right on the nose!

I was shocked. Shocked and hurt! The nose is a sensitive spot! I held my bleeding nose yelling something like, "Paul! Are you nuts!? Why did you do that!?" Paul was red-faced, caught up in the fury of it all. On the way out of the room he shouted, "Because Clampett is a punk and so are you!Punk! Punk! Punk! I'm gonna tell my friend Bill Hanna about you. You'll never get a job at that studio!"

Later on at lunch a couple of artist friends said they thought I was a wuss for not hitting him back. A wuss? Because I didn't hit a man who was a half century older than me!? That didn't make any sense. What I was really worried about was that I'd be blackballed from the animation industry. All my friends were of one opinion about that. It was probaly an empty threat and Paul probably didn't even know Bill Hanna. They pretty well talked me into their point of view when I returned to the studio and found Paul on the hall phone saying, "Here comes Fitzgerald now! Never hire that bum! he's a dirty-no-good punk!"

Well, I have to end the story somewhere and this is as good a place as any.

HOMEWORK SUCKS!

Let's face it, homework is a drag. After a long day of fire drills, fund raising drives, political correctness lectures, personal anecdotes by teachers, threats,punishments, uninspired lectures, tedious waiting for things, stupid questions by other students, pointless discussions about the way things are organized, evasion of bullies and trying to fit in with your peers, a kid wants to be free. He wants to indulge his romantic soul. He wants to be with the friends who actually like him and don't try to humiliate him. What's wrong with that?

The way I look at it, the grammar school people had their shot at the kid for five or six hours. If they wasted that time with boring triviality then that's not the kid's fault. Six hours a day in school is plenty of time to impart a good education. Teachers who dropped the ball and failed to do that shouldn't expect kids to make up for that by taking responsibility for their own education at night. Homework is a bad teacher's crutch. As long as teachers have this crutch they have no incentive to improve their classroom technique.


Homework also undermines the family. After a hard day at the job parents want to come home and have fun with their kids. Who can do that when the specter of homework looms? Homework forces parents to become jailers. How can you bond with your kid if you feel every night has to be devoted to threatening them and making them feel guilty about homework. ? No wonder kids retreat into their rooms every night as soon as they're old enough to know the score..

I know what you're thinking, that we live in an advanced society and that education, including homework, fuels that advancement. Well, I guess if I really thought the system produced those kind of results I'd buy into it regardless of the drawbacks. But I don't think the results are so impressive. We waste people and we waste time. Ask yourself this: why does it take 12 years to teach a kid the 3 R's plus a smattering of science and social science? Remember that the first 2 R's (reading and writing) are addressed to a kid who's already a fluent speaker of the language! Why does it take 12 long. long years to do that? You should be a doctor after 12 years of education!

I want to see everybody who wants it get a good, basic classical education. Let's confine homework to the subjects that absolutely require it and improve what's happening in the classroom during the day.!

MY FAVORITE LORRE AND LUGOSI MOVIES

Without a doubt the best weird, vulnerable, sickly little psychopath in film is Peter Lorre and the best Peter Lorre performance is in "Stranger on the Third Floor."




A lot of Theory Corner readers will prefer "M", which is a terrific film no doubt , but I'm isolating the performance here. Lorre's performance in Stranger is far, far better and much more caricatured than the one he did in M! I always admired Norma Jean for creating the character of Marylon Monroe and the whole genre of the blonde bombshell. In the same way I admire Lorre for creating the genre of the fragile, sickly, friendly-when-he's-not-trying-to-kill-you psychopath. This performance has to be seen to be believed!



As a matter of fact Tom McKimson liked it so much that he parodied it in "Birth of a Notion."




The other film I'd like to serve up is Lugosi's black & white version of "The Raven." In this film Lugosi finally got a sympathetic director who realized what beautiful word music the actor was capable of. Lugosi was one of the greatest screen actors of his time but you'd never know it if all you saw was "Dracula." This is by far Lugosi's best film and it gets my highest recommendation. (Blogger may delete my picture of Lugosi but I'll let the paragaph stand).