Prod. 2521 - The Small One (VI)  - Section 6 - Horse market and auctioneer

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Animation by Chuck Harvey, Cliff Nordberg, Gary Goldman, Randy Cartwright, John Pomeroy, Ed Gombert, Don Bluth and Bill Hajee.

Cliff Nordberg's auctioneer works well, though not a masterpiece - and the business isn't as entertaining as the three merchants. It is a strange mixture of underplayed over-animation - somehow a sign that he tried to get the best out of very little. Of the boy-and-donkey animators, John Pomeroy definitely has the upper hand - and the best material. Chuck Harvey and Ed Gombert's scenes are not much more than head-turns. Don Bluth and Bill Hajee's crowds are serviceable, and Randy Cartwright's two scenes are less angular than the scenes around them, which is strangely pleasing...

Comments

  1. Zartok-35July 4, 2010 at 1:31 PM

    Indeed, the auctioneer isn't as entertaining as the merchants, but it's still a great performance.

    Many of the Nordberg scenes seem much quicker and more livley that they contrast the other animators. That seems to have been his trademark selling point for years!

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  2. Bill CotterJuly 12, 2010 at 9:18 AM

    Cliff told me he was excited about doing these scenes. He had been stuck doing animated titles for features and other less than challenging jobs and he said this was a nice change. He was a great guy to talk with.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John V.October 10, 2010 at 5:24 PM

    According to this interview (http://animationpodcast.com/ronandjohn-part-one/) Eric Larson was originally going to direct The Small One, and Ron Clements animated "the scenes of the auctioneer which Cliff didn't do", but I don't see his name here... (and he would have been a full-fledged animator by this point, not an assistant or inbetweener)

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