UPA, John HubleyMarch 23, 2006 5:45 pm
I just had to follow-up on Michael Sporn’s terrific scans of a 1952 LIFE magazine article about John Hubley’s short ROOTY TOOT TOOT (1952). The piece below is a character concept by Hubley of two of the film’s main characters—Frankie and her lawyer, Honest John. These designs were beautifully translated to animation, by the likes of Art Babbitt and Pat Matthews, who managed to bring the characters to life while retaining the daring graphic quality of Hubley’s original drawings. ROOTY TOOT TOOT can be seen this Sunday on the bigscreen, in all its 35mm glory, at the Egyptian Theatre in LA.
(click on image for larger version)
Wow.
Comment by Jenny — March 23, 2006 @ 6:23 pm
There’s a great rumor I heard that Hubley seemed to take forever on boarding this film and eventually locked himself in so that he could finish it the way he wanted. He finally yielded, I’d heard, after he was threatened. Ever hear any version of this story, Amid?
Comment by Michael Sporn — March 24, 2006 @ 6:04 am
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Trackback by gamuza — March 24, 2006 @ 8:10 am
This is just beautiful. And I love the way the characters move in this short, too. Especially the ‘vamp’ singer who comes in with her snake-like moves and twisty arms and legs. Great stuff.
Comment by Ward — March 24, 2006 @ 8:26 am
Ward - The twisty arms you mention was an idea that Hubley had designed in one of these concept pieces. Hubley is unique among the Golden Age directors in that he wasn’t an animator, but he was constantly thinking of the animation and of interesting ways to move the characters.
Comment by Amid — March 24, 2006 @ 12:15 pm