Erotic Cycles

Betty knows just how much Bimbo is turned on by cycles.
This is what I would consider not conservative animation. Grim isn't holding anything back. He's just doing what he thinks is naturally funny. He's not checking his rule book first.
You'd have a million people saying no to this kind of thing today - or even in the 50s.
Not just because it's dirty - but because it's too cartoony. It "doesn't make sense".
This arm wave is funny as hell, you better say no to it, quick!
And of course the rubber butt slap is the topper of it all.
The Fleischers had their own sort of "limited animation " techniques. They would animate a lot of cycles or bits of animation and repeat them a couple times. This could essentially cut their budgets in half. This is different than say, HB's limited animation of the late 50s - where they were trying to hide the animation. The Fleischers made the cycles themselves funny and worth looking at more than once.''


By the 50s animation was still professional, but outside of some commercials, was pretty conservative. "We don't do that sort of thing anymore".
I love this early purity.
To me, this is the essential part of animation- moving things funny.
Now you have to fight like Hell to get anyone to allow you to do what simply comes naturally to the medium.
Look what this is doing for Bimbo!
Don't you wish your gal/dog? would do some erotic cycles for you?



http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/BettyBoop/mysteriousmose/bettydance1slapbuttsml.mov

Next: Grim Natwick's Cutest Boop Drawings

Grim in Barnacle Bill

BARNACLE BILL

Grim did the scenes with Betty and Bimbo making out on the couch and the scenes with Bimbo being chased through the rain. Genius!
I got these frame grabs off a youtube clip. There are much weirder ones even than these but I couldn't freeze the ones I wanted. But watch the cartoon and see some crazy stuff!
This is Grim with no rules except to have fun.
He drew Betty kinda ugly in this one for some reason. She looks really cute in Mysterious Mose.
Early animation was expected by everyone - producers, animators and audience to be imaginative. Grim really delivered.
You gotta see Betty and Bimbo make out on the couch! Pure cartoon magic!



This pussy has some really amazing lips.http://duck-walk.blogspot.com/2006/04/rubber-hose-animationbarnacle-bill.html

If anyone has a good copy of this cartoon, please make some frame grabs!

http://flickr.com/photos/brett_w_thompson/sets/72157603210963904/

Go See Grim Natwick Art In Person!

Grim Natwick is one of my favorite animation stylists. He drew in a really personal style that stands out from the studio styles he worked in.

As animation grew more principled in the 30s and 40s, it also had a tendency towards being generic. Disney's powerful influence urged animators to draw in styles that were "animation style" and many artists' submerged their personal styles to fit in with the group. A few charismatic and confident artists resisted. Grim is one of them.

Grim's illustration for a children's book.

A portrait of an ink and paint girl. Grim had a drawing ability beyond many animators. He could have been a successful magazine illustrator. He must have loved animation!

Steve Worth has put together a great exhibit of Grim Natwick's art from Grim's own collection.

This is wonderful on 2 counts:

1) It shows not only great drawings by Grim himself, but also drawings by other animators he worked with. Production drawings, caricatures, gag drawings. It really gives you a sense of what it was like working at Golden Age cartoon studios.

2) It's a compacted history of the entire cartoon Golden Age period-from the 20s to the 60s. Grim was there for all of it and played some big roles. You can see this all arranged in chronological order at the archive and Steve will give you a personal tour and history lesson.

30s - Fleischer

This is my favorite period of Fleischers- the most purely creative. Grim's personal style is most evident in these cartoons. He created Betty Boop and did the best animation of her by far. After he left for the west coast, they began tracing model sheets and she never had the appeal or spontaneity that Grim gave her again.

mid 30s IwerksAt Iwerks' studio, Grim's style was still strong but was starting to be influenced by Disney's cutesy animation style. This picture of Neptune is pure Grim. It's just pouring out style and indiviuality!

mid 30s DisneyWow. This seems like a complete waste of Grim's talents!

Late 30s FleischerYou can really see the Disney influence in these cute little girls. They are beautiful drawings and still more specific than the general animation style of the late 30s. Steve says these designs were rejected at Fleischer's in the late 30s in favor of more blanded out characters - Disney's great influence on the animation world did not encourage stylistic individuals like Grim.

40s LantzGrim's drawing style is less evident in a lot of his Lantz work, but he did some really funny animation there. That chicken is from my favorite Woody cartoon - Solid Ivory. Grim's animation is hilarious in what could have been a generic cartoon story without him.

He had trouble drawing Woody in the Lantz style and some of his funniest scenes are the ones that are most off model. He seems to be resisting the generic west coast style.You can see some of Grim in here, but he's struggling to balance the studio style with his own. All his Lantz animation is fantastic and super fun.

50s-60s UPA NY I don't know much about this period, but I think Grim's 30s drawings have much more design and style than this artificial design movement is asking of him.
Anyway if you are in the LA area, get over to the Archive and treat your eyes to some great art and amazing history. And give Steve a massage - preferably with a happy ending! He's earned it.

http://www.animationarchive.org/2007/11/exhibit-grim-natwicks-scrapbook-index.html


2114 W Burbank Bl Burbank CA 91506

Grim Natwick - Drawings and Ideas are part of what animation is

Marc Deckter put up a really good post about Grim Natwick.

DUCK WALK: GRIM NATWICK'S DANCING WAITER

This is animation from 1930-before there were any "rules" about how to animate. They didn't know much about squash and stretch, overlapping action, maintaining volumes, smeared inbetweens, cushions, secondary actions, etc...It isn't super smooth like Disney became a few years later.

But it has something that much "polished" animation that uses all the principles sometimes neglects.

Imagination

Fun

Drawings and motions that are fun and funny.

In the early days, animators thought in terms of entertainment first. How funny can I make my walks and dances and dialogue?

Grim did his best stuff before he was swayed by the mass hypnosis that Disney cast over the whole industry in the late 30s.

Once animation got "smoother" and had weight and all these other abstract properties, many animators started losing track of what cartoons were all about in the first place.

I personally believe in knowing all the fundamental principles of animation, but I don't think that is enough to make entertainment.

Smooth movement isn't entertaining by itself. It's impressive, but not as impressive to me as fun drawings and actions and ideas moving. The principles of animation should be in service of the drawings and entertainment, it shouldn't be an end in itself.



Here is a clip from Cats Don't Dance. The movement is great for sure, but what is being animated is just standard drawings that we've seen a million times before.

It's a polished version of Tiny Toons designs and poses with some Don Bluth thrown in.





Don't get me wrong, I think these animators are hugely talented and would love to be able to work with a great crew like this and have a similar budget to make a fully animated movie.

I just lament that the business uses such strong talent to do the same stuff over and over again. -and to make each animator basically design, draw and move things the same way.





Here's Betty and Bimbo in an unprincipled highly imaginative and entertaining cartoon: