Jules Engel - 1001 Arabian Nights (1959)
I wouldn’t go so far as to call UPA’s feature 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS a good film, but there is a lot of nice artwork in it. By the late-50s, UPA had squandered its reputation as a progressive modern animation studio, and the dumbed down storytelling and general immaturity of this film proved to be the final nail in its coffin. After production on this film, nearly all of the studio’s top artists departed, including their three primary background painters—Jules Engel, Bob Dranko and Bob McIntosh. In this post are some of Engel’s thumbnail color scripts for one of the film’s scenes. (As usual, click on them for larger versions.) There’s also an earlier post I did HERE with more concept art from the film. The final image in this post is a still from the finished film to give an idea of how the final bgs were executed. Which color styling do you like better—Engel’s color scripts or the finished backgrounds? There’s no right answer, I’m just curious to hear your thoughts.
This film came out the same year as Sleeping Beauty. For someone, in 1959, who had only seen Disney product and whatever B&W images TV offered, the two films were a blow to the imagination.
Sure, all those great UPA films had been done earlier, but those shorts didn’t make it to the general public in NY (although presumably they played in the early 50’s.) Daring animation styling was available only in B&W commercials.
The two features were an influence, indeed, and I have a soft spot for both of them.
Engel’s work is excellent, but it is preliminary work and couldn’t have made it to the final at that point in time. It took the work of Dunning and Hubley to loosen things up. That didn’t really happen until the 60’s.
Comment by Michael Sporn — August 26, 2006 @ 6:09 am
Hi
Great stuff. I especially like the three guys on the horse. I’ve got some Engel concepts like this from Format’s Alvin Show. I’ll post them on the archive blog this evening and link back here.
See ya
Steve
Comment by Stephen Worth — August 26, 2006 @ 10:10 am
Amazingly I was going to write almost word by word what Mike Sporn wrote above. This film was for us, young animators of the time, a horrible disappointment. The commercials of the time were better than this film!..I don’t even like these preliminary sketches, well below of what Engel was capable to do.
Comment by Oscar Grillo — August 26, 2006 @ 10:52 pm
I just posted some Engel keys for the Alvin Show on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive site. I had a chance to talk with Engel about both the Alvin Show and Magoo’s Arabian Nights. I showed Jules a stack of layout drawings from Arabian Nights, and he looked at one of them and laughed. It had a scribbled note on it from the layout artists on it that said, “J- use a brush on this one!” Jules explained that they used to tease him, saying he was the only painter in the history of art who never used a brush… just rollers, colored pencils and sponges.
See ya
Steve
Comment by Stephen Worth — August 27, 2006 @ 7:35 pm
That statement by Engel seems a bit unlikely. If you look at his finished paintings, he very obviously uses a brush. Perhaps he was referring to the airbrush because he definitely didn’t use that. I was showing one of Engel’s original UPA bgs to Bob McIntosh, and he immediately noticed the airbrush and said that Jules didn’t do that. When he needed to have airbrush, Bob said Jules would ask Herb Klynn to do those parts of the painting for him. Next time I see Bob I’ll ask him about the possibility of Jules never using a regular brush.
Comment by Amid — August 28, 2006 @ 12:17 am
Jules definitely used a brush… they were just teasing him saying that he didn’t because he used techniques that they weren’t used to. I have a Grim Natwick studio gag drawing that’s similar… It shows an animator going down to ink & paint to see his scene and being horrified to find that the I&P girls are cutting his drawings out with sciscors and decorating them like easter eggs. Not everyone was ready for the modern cartoon revolution!
See ya
Steve
Comment by Stephen Worth — August 28, 2006 @ 11:27 am