Just look at the first 12 Tom & Jerry films they did and tell me they were hilarious classics! So just as we felt we were beginning to get the hang of Tom & Jerry, we were not allowed to develop further, as had the original Hanna and Barbera crew. The new bosses wanted the production closer to home.
#Chuck jones tom and jerry episodes movie#
Clicker" was actually: Milan Klikar, my premier animator "Dennis Smith" was actually: Zdenek Smetana, animator A Shortened Runīefore we had even finished our first 12 cartoons, Joe Vogel, who had seemed to me to be the very symbol of the powerful movie studio tycoon, was booted out of MGM.
Newman" was actually: Zdenka Najmanová, production manager "M. To belatedly set the record straight, here are some examples: "Victor Little" was actually: Václav Lídl, composer "S.
Obviously, we could not put, "Made in communist Czechoslovakia" on our titles! We were not even allowed to credit any Czechs with their true names. We were able to use the classic MGM roaring lion logo to head up our Tom & Jerrys, but the originals always had the line, "Made in Hollywood, USA" on the end titles. They were only nervous about the communist Czechoslovak connection. (So there, I am taking the blame for those vital elements! But it was a struggle to get the non-violent Czech animators to hold to them.)īut even though our Tom & Jerrys were never good enough for the animation history mavens, Joe Vogel and his MGM team were well-satisfied with our results. I was the only one present who could draw American style cartoon characters and their facial expressions, so I personally drew all the layouts and key poses. I also did some and reworked those that came in. I knew that story would be the vital ingredient, so I called on my old colleagues, Larz Bourne, Eli Bauer, Tod Dockstader, and even some Tom & Jerry veteran gagmen, for storyboards. We practiced drawing the characters in their typical poses. We watched for the little timing tricks, the "takes," the basic attitudes and facial expressions.
We all studied the material over and over, running the films in projection and on the studio's editing tables.
#Chuck jones tom and jerry episodes plus#
MGM sent me exactly four 35mm Tom & Jerry prints, plus the most recent model sheets, and a few stacks of actual pencil animation, the original drawings on paper. The first step was for my new colleagues to see some examples. So Tom & Jerry were actually battling each other to save me! So I had to suppress my preconceptions, rise to the challenge and do my very best to adapt to the idea that mayhem can be fun. Readers of my book, For The Love Of Prague, will know that in 1961, receiving an Oscar and having production offers such as this as a result, was the key to my being able to stay in Prague long enough to sort out my personal life and be able to marry Zdenka. Yet there were overriding personal and financial considerations that made it imperative that I take on this guillotine project. It was clear to me that the undertaking was basically impossible, and I knew that my colleagues in the animation industry would be unforgiving in their appraisal of our results. Whereas Bill and Joe, and mostly the same four or five animators, had been doing Tom & Jerry for about twenty years at that time - surely knowing the characters better than their own children - and whereas they had been producing the cartoons for over $40,000 each (I think making about six of them per year), we were contracted to produce 12 in a year, from a standing start, with a peanuts studio budget of only $10,000 a piece! Bringing Hollywood to Prague I felt that I understood the idiom enough to adapt to its basics, but how in the world was I going to get it across to the capable but totally Tom & Jerry-innocent group of Prague animators?Īdding to these obvious hurdles was the time and budget restrictions we were presented. Then there was the Prague animation studio itself, with its diametrically opposed school of storybook animation, always tastefully designed and restrained.Įven if the spirit was willing to give it an honest try, the fact remained that these communist-era, isolated animators had never in their lives seen even one Tom & Jerry cartoon! I had seen more than a few, and in spite of my ideological distance, I did appreciate the perfect craftsmanship, the expressive animation, with its exquisite timing, the endless gag inventiveness and the characters' incredible damage survival. Personally, as a UPA man, I had always cited Tom & Jerry cartoons as the primary bad example of senseless violence - humor based on pain - attack and revenge - to say nothing of the tasteless use of a headless black woman stereotype house servant. This is a shot from "High Steaks." © AOL Time Warner. I drew all of the key poses and layouts for our 12 Tom & Jerry films.
0 kommentar(er)
