A. Film L.A. test

Our latest feature film, Jungo Goes Bananas (I did not name it!) has its Danish premiere on Friday, exactly 70 years after Snow White. Of course there is no comparison, especially as our film was produced for Denmark, a country with 5 million inhabitants, about the same as the San Fernando Valley, and though I do not remember the exact amount, the budget was probably around a third of a Disney Direct-to-DVD. 1 Our latest effort was made in CG since the financiers did not want to invest in a hand-drawn film, the first two Jungo films (and the TV series) being hand drawn. But I must say - the film is actually fun. Especially the scientist's song in the end as he is cracking up - cracked me up! Just imagine what we can do with a REAL budget! Here is the trailer, in Danish... In Danish, the title is Jungledyret Hugo: Fræk, Flabet og Fri - which means Hugo the Jungle Animal: Impudent, - well, another kind of impudent - and Free. Really, it sounds better in Danish. I hope this film get...

The party continues... Woolie also animates the hatter and the White Rabbit. George Rowley handles effects of wheels and springs as the Hatter prods the watch with his fork... Three cheers for my parents, who are celebrating their 60th anniversary today! I hope that their party isn't a mad one - I very much wish I could have been there...

Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern and with layouts by Tom Codrick, the Mad Tea Party is one of the signature sequences of Alice in Wonderland. Animation by Don Lusk, Les Clark and Marc Davis (Alice), Ward Kimball (Hatter/Hare), Cliff Nordberg (ditto and Dormouse), Woolie Reitherman (Hare), John Lounsbery (Hatter) and Marvin Woodward (Teapots and Dormouse). This Final draft is dated 11/7/1950... My postings may be erratic, but I am certainly not gone!

Alice meets the Cheschire Cat in this sequence directed by Gerry Geronimi, assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Charlie Philippi. Animation by Don Lusk and Marc Davis (Alice), John Lounsbery and Ward Kimball (Cheshire Cat). Kimball is only credited for the last cat scene, and how much he contributed to the cat in the rest of the sequence, who knows... As supervising animator he may have ultimately been responsible for all scenes, but then again there are an awful lot of scenes attributed to Lounsbery. This reveals a basic flaw in the drafts for historic purposes: as I wrote before, they were never meant to be historic documents, just guides to the animator responsible for the drawings in the scene. The directing or supervising animator are normally not indicated...

"Bird in the tree" is the actual name for Seq. 07.1. Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Tom Codrick (and Marie Dasnoit is secretary again). Animation by Ollie Johnston, Don Lusk and Marc Davis (Alice) and Hal King (Bird)... Stateside again - remember to look at our updated commercial reel !

This just in from Børge Ring: "Who do YOU think is THE WORLD'S BEST ANIMATOR? --barring yourself, of course..." This question was posed to a small number of animation greats from The Golden Age of Hollywood Cartoons. Each of them gave a different answer. Babbitt mentioned Bill Tytla, "He was the greatest." Ray Patterson chose Norm Ferguson and so forth, all of them had a different favourite. But there was one who answered: "I don't THINK who is the World's best animator. I KNOW who is." "How can you be so sure?" "My mother told me."

Here is the second part of the Caterpillar! In a few hours, I'll be on my way back to the States (and my shorts drafts), so I don't know when my next post will be. But Alice will continue shortly!