[MouseMan]

Cartoons come to life in exhibit

Animation blueprints at Fort Dodge museum show artistry behind famous characters By Amanda Pierre
June 27, 2004 De Moines Register

Fort Dodge, Ia. - Classic cartoon characters have contributed many of our blueprints for living.

Fred Flintstone's hot-tempered wail for his wife - "Wil-maaaa!" - taught us about anger management.

The fatal gunshot to Bambi's mother provided early experience in dealing with trauma, and even the most light-hearted animated spots have supplied a foundation of knowledge about classical music.

Turning the tables, an exhibit now at the Blanden Memorial Art Museum in Fort Dodge reveals the blueprints for cherished cartoon characters.
"From Mickey to the Grinch - Art of the Animated Film" features work by and from the collection of George Nicholas. Nicholas worked with Disney, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hanna-Barbera and other studios from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Mickey Mouse, Goofy, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Bambi, Pinocchio and their fantastical friends are in this exhibit in their most fundamental forms.

The exhibit showcases some original drawings, cells and prints from animated films, as well as television series.

Some pieces shed light on the painstaking process that animators used before the digital era. Every move, even the tip of the hat, required a new drawing or re-tracing of a character.

Animators had to work with precision, being careful not to misplace a single hair, dimple or feather. Nicholas himself, according to an essay by his daughter, spent a full year on the parade sequence that takes up just a few seconds in the beginning of "Sleeping Beauty."


Not only does this exhibit make you marvel at the technological processes of yesteryear, it is like looking at old pals when they were young, before they developed into the characters we know today.

One drawing, titled "The Goof," features a toothy animal in a top hat that seems to be auditioning for the role of "Goofy." A little deer bounces around another page, on a page labeled "production model sheet" for Bambi, dated 1942.

You're even led to consider how the animators agreed upon Jiminy Cricket's head shape and the wing placements on Tinker Bell.
The exhibit also illustrates how artists broke down emotions and translated them into facial expressions, often with simple drawing techniques. When Wilma Flintstone is delivering a stern message, for instance, her eyebrows form a distinctive V shape.

Simple, curved lines go above or below Minnie Mouse's eyes to signify everything from flirtation to surprise. All these things become clear when the animated characters are motionless, framed like film stills.

To further investigate the art of animation, folks are invited to try their hand at the animation station, lent by the exhibit's museum of origin in Erie, Pa. Visitors are invited to purchase a blank videotape at the Blanden Memorial Art Museum's reception desk and use appropriate drawings or toys to make their own animation films with a machine on the premises.

This is one of the public's last chances to see Nicholas' assemblage of images. After this exhibition, the pieces will be sold to benefit a scholarship fund Nicholas set up for animation students at the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

Details WHAT: "From Mickey to the Grinch: Art of the Animated Film" WHEN: Through July 25 WHERE: The Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge

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