Cartoon Modern

Archive.org is an excellent source for public domain films of all kinds. Among them are a handful of well designed 1950s shorts produced by John Sutherland Productions. Sutherland was one of the busiest producers of animated industrials during the 1950s and his studio’s work is discussed in greater depth in my book. I’ve never found a good filmography of exactly how many films Sutherland produced, but from what I’ve been able to gather, he produced well over one hundred corporate/educational animated shorts between the mid-1940s and the mid-1960s, which was his studio’s ‘golden age’ period. The working conditions at Sutherland were ideal for artists: he paid top dollar so he always attracted A-list designers and animators, and he was very hands-off when it came to the visuals, so artists were free to do as they pleased. These four films at Archive.org offer a good sense of the type of films Sutherland produced, though they are only the tip of the iceberg.

IT’S EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS (1954): Featuring Maurice Noble in one of his rare forays outside of Warner Bros. during the 1950s. Dynamic layouts and beautiful color styling can be found throughout this film. Noble worked again for Sutherland in the late-1950s on RHAPSODY OF STEEL, but that film’s designer was Eyvind Earle, and the end results are much more noticeably Earle than Noble.

DESTINATION EARTH (1956): Jointly designed by Tom Oreb and Victor Haboush, this is among at least two films that I know Oreb designed at Sutherland. The other film is THE LITTLEST GIANT, which is not available online. Oreb likely did others too, but I haven’t been able to track them down. One thing that DESTINATION EARTH proves is that Oreb was equally adept at designing backgrounds as he was designing characters. Vic Haboush also provided great layouts in this film. I think Vic did mostly the Mars layouts, and Oreb dealt with the Earth scenes. (The image at the top of this post is a character layout by Oreb from DESTINATION EARTH.)

YOUR SAFETY FIRST (1956): This film has the weakest design of the four films here. The character designs are really poor, and though the layouts are much better, they’re nothing extraordinary. The film was designed by Gerald Nevius (a veteran who had also worked on DUMBO and FANTASIA) and Charles McElmurry, a designer who did plenty of excellent TV commercial design at Storyboard and Quartet in the mid-1950s.

WORKING DOLLARS (1957): The characters in this film have really nice appealing shapes. They were designed by Bernie Gruver, who also worked as a designer at other commercial studios including John Wilson’s Fine Arts Films and Playhouse Pictures. There’s a great Gruver model sheet in my book for Friskies Dog Food, a series of commercials that he designed for Playhouse in the late 1950s.

Looks like CARTOON MODERN won’t be the only Fifties-related animation book released next year. Comic book/animation artist Scott Morse (currently working at Pixar) has just announced a new book project, NOBLE BOY, which will be out in spring 2006 through his new publishing company Red Window. The book is a graphic tribute to his mentor, Fifties designer Maurice Noble. Morse recently told Newsarama:

“I worked with Maurice beginning in 1994 and grew close with him. He was a sort of surrogate grandfather for the small group he hand-picked to train, dubbed ‘Noble Boys’, though there were a couple of women, as well. What was so great about Maurice was not only the aesthetic of his artwork, but his drive and energy as a human, his ability to be so down to Earth and not take himself so seriously. It was this view of life that informed his work, and it’s more that than anything that informed the work of the people he grew close to.”

Newsarama’s Chris Arrant has more details on the project: “Told all in rhyme, NOBLE BOY seeks to encompass both the playful quality of the man as well as bringing new light to his teaching and theories. Although it is set to be bound as a ‘board book’-style children’s book, Morse promises that ‘it’s very much for adults as opposed to kids.’”

It’s cool to see that the new artwork Morse is creating for the book incorporates elements of Maurice Noble’s own artwork, like the image above, which is based on a Noble layout for WHAT’S OPERA, DOC? (1957). This project is also a great example of how Fifties animation design continues to exert its influence on today’s animation creators. I can’t wait to check out this book!
(via Drawn!)

Here are some of Maurice Noble’s layouts and color styling sketches from the Chuck Jones short 90 DAY WONDERING (1956), a military recruitment film produced for the US Army. The pieces are pure Noble, with many of his trademark flourishes, including the use of silhouetted shapes in the foreground and heavily skewed perspectives. All of these layouts and color concepts are currently available for sale at the Gremlin Animation Gallery. One small bit of trivia: the name on the train depot — Spooner — is a Noble in-joke that references his place of birth, Spooner, Minnesota. Not sure if this appears in the final film.

It’s perhaps a bit ironic to start with Noble because he was one of the more controversial designers of the 1950s. In modern day animation, he is revered as a design god of sorts, but it wasn’t always that way. During the 1950s, many of Noble’s contemporaries were not particularly fond of his design work, and his work was often derided as being too playful and frivolous. I must admit that when I began writing the book a couple years ago, I wasn’t a huge fan of his work either, but I appreciate it much more now that I’ve studied his work and understand why he designed films the way he did.