The Cartoon Cave

Here's a new caricature of Vincent Price that I drew for this past week's subject on Caricaturama Showdown 3000. I've written about Vincent Price before, as he was one of my favourite actors and I was lucky enough to have met him in person many years ago. As reference for this illustration pictured above, I turned to his role as Mr. Trumbull the undertaker, who's desperate for business in the 1963 dark comedy, The Comedy of Terrors. Here he is offering up some "medicine" to his infirm and nearly deaf father-in-law, played by Boris Karloff.

Incidentally, I'm dedicating this Halloween post to Belle Dee, who is a huge fan of Vincent Price, as well as of all the gothic horror films from AIP and Hammer studios of the 60's and 70's. Belle is also a very talented illustrator/cartoonist who has created a great many illustrations of her favourite horror film stars. Please be sure to check out her stylish art on her Facebook page.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of this cop who's trying to arrest me for drinking and jiving at the Arthur Murray Halloween Dance...

One of my favourite regular reads has been the blog of Disney cartoonist and gagman, Floyd Norman, AKA "Mr. Fun". Recently, Floyd had mentioned on his blogsite that he might be retiring from blogging, due to the blog's host site being phased out. That would have been a real shame, as I and many others have come to really enjoy his posts relating his many years working for Disney. Floyd is a genuine link to Disney's illustrious past, as he started working for the Disney Studio back when Sleeping Beauty was still in production. Fortunately, Floyd gave it some more thought and decided to keep on blogging using a new hosting service.

I have a special fondness for Floyd Norman, as he was a story artist on my alltime favourite Disney feature, 1967's The Jungle Book. Many of his posts are warmly nostalgic about that era of animation, and his personal recollections of attending story meetings presided over by Walt Disney himself help to give the reader a good sense of what Walt was really like. I also enjoy his stories of that master animator, Milt Kahl, who had a reputation for being a pretty colourful old curmudgeon.

Anyway, I'm personally overjoyed to see that Floyd Norman will still be regaling us with his tales from the Disney Studio back in its glory years. I've just updated the url to his new site in my list of blog links to the right. I hope you folks enjoy his stories and cartoons as much as I do!

This post is primarily for the benefit of the students currently in my Character Design class in the Sheridan College BAA Animation programme. An ongoing assignment that they've been working on throughout this fall semester involves drawing a number of people from life or from video (but NOT from still photos!), as a way of building up a reference library of "Character Types", that ideally they should then refer back to when trying to create new characters for animation or other assignments. I'm a great believer in creating a character design that communicates something about the character to the viewer through the visual appearance alone, even before they start to move or speak in the animation. Just as the Casting Director in a live-action film tries to cast an actor who looks credible for the role, so too does a Character Designer strive to "cast" the right sort of type for an animated character, giving much consideration to how the physical aspects of the design will suggest a certain personality type that the viewer will recognize.

I've written about this before, and there are more thoughts and visual samples to be found in these previous posts:
Sketching Character Reference
More Character Types
Variety Is The Key!
Working Out The Likeness

Before you even start to sketch a subject, you should be taking some time to properly observe and analyze their head and face type. Ask yourself the following questions when trying to form a strong visual impression of the subject:

1) What is the basic head shape? Is it long or short? Round, blocky, or triangular? Wider at the top, middle or bottom?

2) Is the facial plane straight up and down, convex or concave, or angled forward or back?

3) What is the relative placement of the facial features within that head shape? Are they mostly in the lower area with a high forehead? Are they converging toward the middle or stretched vertically along the facial plane?

4) Where are the features relative to each other? Are the eyes wide apart or close-set? Is the bottom of the nose not far from the eyes or pushed down closer to the mouth?

5) What is the relative size of the features to each other? Large or small eyes? Long or short nose? Wide or narrow mouth?

6) And finally, what are the specific shapes of the features? Are the eyes angled up or down, narrow slits or wide with much white space around the pupil? Is the nose "Pug", "Ski-slope", or "Roman"? Thick or thin lips, etc. etc. etc.....?

Study the Character Type samples I have posted here and try to analyze them using these and other questions to determine what makes the head shape and features distinct and unique!

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the very tragic death of Natalie Wood on Nov. 29th 1981. Of course, that terrible incident has been back in the news lately, due to the captain of the yacht coming forward with what may be new information that was not disclosed at the time of her drowning all those years ago. I was only 21 at the time, but I remember the sad news with great clarity. Natalie had been starring in Brainstorm, which was still in the middle of production when she died. She hadn't been in many theatrical films for awhile, as it seemed she was doing more in the way of made-for-TV movies in the late 1970s. At the time of her tragic death she was only 43, still a very vibrant and beautiful woman.

There was so much mystery surrounding her death by drowning, that speculation ran rampant about what led to it and what possibly transpired on the yacht that night. I doubt that this current re-investigation will turn up anything more conclusive that would disprove it being an "accident", but it will be interesting to see if any new facts come to light. It was certainly a very suspicious incident, though, and there has to be far more behind it that we'll probably never know the truth about.

Interestingly, as I was looking through her list of theatrical film credits on IMDb, I think I've only seen about a dozen of them that I recall. In fact, she only made about 30 odd films as an adult performer, if you start counting from her appearance in John Wayne's The Searchers, when she was just 15. Of those I have seen, there are several that I've watched a number of times, including her iconic performances as "Maria" in West Side Story, the vaudeville-to-burlesque performer "Gypsy Rose Lee" (aka "Louise") in Gypsy, and as the intrepid feminist reporter, "Maggie Dubois" in The Great Race.

Another film I've seen several times is 1964's Sex and the Single Girl, in which Natalie played real life writer (and later editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine) Helen Gurley Brown, although the movie is a fictitious romp only loosely related to Ms. Brown's book of the same title. It's not a great film, but it is a lot of fun to watch. Natalie's paired up with Tony Curtis, before costarring again together famously in The Great Race the following year, and they've got terrific on-screen chemistry. (Actually, their first onscreen pairing was in Kings Go Forth, in 1958 alongside Frank Sinatra.) Here's a clip from the film where Tony's character is trying to seduce Miss Brown while they're waiting for their clothes to dry off after a scene in which they both ended up toppling over a pier into the water. (Yes, there's a tragic irony in that, isn't there?). Of course, it was from this film that I chose to sketch my caricature of Natalie Wood that appears at the head of this post.

A truly beautiful lady with great warmth and charm. She was one of the true screen goddesses of the 1960s, and I miss her very much.

Good people of North Korea, do not be sad. Your Dear Leader is not really dead at all. No, he is but in the deepest of sleeps awaiting his true love's first kiss.

Though admittedly, given his former social status, that may take quite a while to happen:

My good friend and colleague, Mark Mayerson, has written his well reasoned theory on why today's audiences may have forsaken traditional, hand-drawn animation in favour of the ever increasing use of CG. I think he's correct, but only up to a point, as he uses the new French film, The Artist, to make an analogy between the decline of silent film after the introduction of sound with the current decline in popularity of drawn animation. I just finished putting my own thoughts into an impassioned (if longwinded) comment in response to his post. Since I'd been wanting to say something regarding drawn animation vs CG here on my own blog, I figured I'd repost my thoughts here in order to get more mileage out of them. For what it's worth, here's what I said on the matter:

I haven't seen The Artist as yet, although it's top of my list to see. (Actually, it's about the ONLY film that I'm planning to see these days, sad to say). I have to quibble with you on one thing, though. There's no question that it is an "affectation", as you describe, but I'd argue that it was never meant to be anything more than that. It is undoubtedly meant as a loving homage to those simpler times of the silent films, but it is a one-shot novelty, not in any way hoping to bring about a return of the silent, black and white film as a form of popular entertainment. I think that's quite obvious from the fact that it's set in the 1920s, not using the format to tell a contemporary story. Back in 1976, Mel Brooks gave us Silent Movie, which was also a love letter to silent films, though one set deliberately in modern day in order to parody it in the Mel Brooks style of absurdity. But that film too was never intended to usher in a new wave of silent pictures.

That's why I think your analogy to handdrawn animated films may ring a bit false here, Mark, with due respect. Whereas nobody would want to bring back the silent film as an ongoing form of popular entertainment, recognizing its inherent limitations that no longer exist since the advent of sound and colour, those of us who champion drawn animation still believe it will always be a valid form of the art. Also, I don't think that opinion is limited to just those of us who work in animation or related fields of visual art. A lot of people, particularly mothers of young kids, do see the difference between traditional drawn animation and CG and have told me that they do indeed miss the former.

Animation may have started out as a novelty on screen, but once Disney and Fleischer popularized the illusion of moving cartoon drawings as a legitimate form of entertainment, it was recognized as a distinct art form in itself, a completely different experience to that of a live-action film. Even the technological advances in features like Pinocchio, Fantasia and especially Bambi, did not so much blur the line between drawing and live-action, but rather, treated the resulting imagery more like moving paintings, still far removed from live-action cinematography in their graphic visual clarity.

This is why I cringe at what is being done today in the name of "animation", utilizing the computer to replicate everything in live-action: light, shadow, texture, and now, with the introduction of mo-cap, slavishly realistic movement, devoid of creativity and caricature. In short, there really is no such thing as animation anymore, as the industry honchos have decided that the inherent charm of a cartoon drawing seemingly springing to life on the screen is passé, and must never be see again. The rules of photography can be the only goal to aspire to if one is to remain working in Hollywood.

What a sad state our industry has fallen into. Even sadder because nobody working in it has the courage of their convictions to fight back against the madness of it all.

There's more I want to say on this topic, but I need to gather my thoughts together first and grab some visuals to illustrate it. In the meantime, please leave your own thoughts in my comments section.

Well, just another quiet New Years Eve for me again this year. Not much to report, but just in case you're wondering, here's how it played out....

I asked my friend Julia if she'd have dinner with me this evening, but she was too busy making a movie so she took a rain check.

Plan B fell by the wayside too, as J-Lo was still miffed at me over what happened on our last night out together. Ouch!

It looked like a night out on the town with Jenna was a sure thing, only she couldn't find anything to wear. Ah, maybe next year...

So, after licking my wounds, I ended up dancing most of the night away with Beyoncé, who showed me a few new moves.

Luckily for me, just as I was resigned to heading back home in time to watch Anderson and Kathy do the countdown on CNN, I ran into that good sport, Lindsay, who invited me along to celebrate her recent discharge from rehab.

So, I guess it was a pretty decent New Years Eve after all. Um, how was yours?

Yeah, I know it's a long time since New Years Eve when I last posted on this blog. Blame it on a lack of creativity on my part, as well as my general feeling of disinterest in that which passes for entertainment in this 21st century thus far. I'm afraid I'm very much out of step with the tastes of modern society, and that's why most of what you'll see here at The Cartoon Cave is dedicated to my nostalgia for a better era.

Still, I have to post something to keep you folks interested in coming back, so here is a brand new caricature I just finished yesterday of that beautiful Italian goddess, model and actress, Monica Bellucci. She's the featured subject this week on Caricaturama Showdown 3000. The initial sketch was done from watching her in the Italian film, Malena, in which she plays the title character, a beautiful yet terribly ill-treated young woman in Sicily during World War II. However, I decided to portray Monica just as herself in more glamourous mode. By the way, as today is also the birthday of my Italian buddy, Cory Crivari, I shall dedicate this caricature of Ms. Bellucci to Cory, as he well appreciates the charms of a lovely woman as do I. Happy Birthday, Cory!

Here too is a montage of clips from the film, Malena:

I read the sad news on one of my favourite sites, Cinemaretro, that Robert B. Sherman has passed away. Robert along with his brother, Richard, were the talented songwriters who wrote much of the music that we all loved from the Disney films and theme park attractions throughout the 60's, 70's and even into the 80's. Since I was a child of the 1960's, Disney films such as The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats were very much a part of my formative years, as well as their absolute masterpiece, Mary Poppins. Actually, I had just screened my DVD of Mary Poppins over the Christmas holidays, watching it for the first time on my big HDTV, and was awestruck by the sheer craftsmanship that is in abundance at every level in that film. I was a bit teary eyed in fact as I listened to "Feed The Birds", remembering that it was the song that Walt Disney would often request that Bob and Dick play for him in his office when he was in a reflective mood.

The music of the Sherman Brothers is strongly melodic with witty and whimsical lyrics, making everything they wrote memorable and timeless. For me, their songs, combined with the orchestral scores by composer George Bruns, were so much a part of that warm and wonderful era of Disney, and I am grateful to these talented men for the legacy they have left us. Bob, I hope you're now enjoying a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!

I don't normally venture into the fields of politics or current affairs, but this news item has affected me quite emotionally. I would not have even been aware of the death of William Sampson at age 52, had it not been for a a chance sighting of a fleeting mention on the news ticker on CBC News Network. While it was later mentioned during the actual CBC news broadcast, the news of his death has been largely ignored by the Canadian and world media, including our own national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. And that is a travesty, in my opinion.

William Sampson was a Canadian citizen working in the pharmaceutical industry, stationed in Saudi Arabia. In 2000, he was abducted and charged with some car bombings that resulted in the deaths of several of his colleagues. It is now widely believed that he and several others were falsely accused of these murders because the Saudi authorities were looking for some easy scapegoats and did not want to conduct a proper investigation that might have turned up a situation embarrassing to their own government. While in captivity, Mr. Sampson was beaten and brutally tortured, and deprived of sleep for more than a week at a time, before eventually being coerced into giving a phony confession to the murders. He also suffered two heart attacks believed to be due to long periods of sleep deprivation, and was sentenced to beheading for these trumped up charges. Though he was finally released from the Saudi jail in 2003, it was more due to the efforts of the British consul, not the Canadian, as the latter always just believed at face value what the Saudis told them without further investigation.

I remember being first aware of William Sampson a number of years ago when he was interviewed at length by Peter Mansbridge on CBC. I recall crying while watching him relate his horrific saga, and the man's story has stuck with me through the years since. So this week William Sampson has died of a heart attack, having been failed and forgotten by successive Canadian governments who were reluctant to do anything that might ruffle the feathers and embarrass their friends, the Saudis. Politics and mindless bureaucracy triumph once more. For those of you among my readers who are just as concerned over the plight of individuals like William Sampson as I am, please take the time to watch this interview with the man conducted by Democracy Now back in 2005. Aside from his account of his own horrific treatment, I appreciate his words (at 47:30) regarding what others have similarly experienced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. It seems somehow tragically ironic that this good man has now died from a heart attack the very same week that former VP Dick Cheney has received a heart transplant, the same Dick Cheney responsible for okaying so many dubious interrogation techniques in the name of seeking "intelligence". Disgusting...

Here's wishing the best to my favourite actor, Jim Garner on his 84th birthday. I've been watching a lot of episodes of The Rockford Files lately, as for me it's the best example of TV as "comfort food". I never get tired of watching the charismatic and extremely likeable Garner portraying private investigator, Jim Rockford, as he somehow always gets the better of his adversaries. This expression was sketched from a typical scene in which somebody is putting the screws to Rockford, but they soon find out that he has the upper hand. In this case, a shady District Attorney who's hired Rockford on a personal case is not happy that Rockford wants no part of it anymore after figuring out that the DA is among the guilty, so he threatens to use his clout to have Rockford's investigator license pulled unless he complies. Rockford then just calmly explains to the DA why he probably would regret that move, as it would mean an appeal in court where he'd have to divulge all he knows about the dubious case the DA had him investigating, the details of which might just reveal the DA's own questionable involvement.

I just love situations like that in the show, as they're pure Jim Garner. Having recently read his autobiography, The Garner Files, it becomes quite evident that Jim never let himself be pushed around by others, no matter how big and important they thought they were. He refused to be bullied by studio mogul, Jack Warner early in his career, and years later after doing The Rockford Files, he successfully took Universal to court when he discovered they'd been illegally withholding millions of dollars of profits he was entitled to. He also would stand up for crew members or fellow performers when they might be bullied on a movie set, always looking out for the underdog. It's that aspect of Jim Garner that I admire so much, as I think we could all learn from his fine example of fighting injustice time and again. I'll admit it - this man has long been my hero, both on and off screen, which is why I like to honour him each year here on my blog. So, Happy Birthday, Jim - I hope you have a wonderful day with your family!

On Thursday, April 26th, Sheridan College held its annual Industry Day in support of the BAA Animation program, in which I am the instructor for 2nd Year Character Design. Here are pics of some of the 4th Year students who are graduating this year, photographed at the work stations that were set up in Sheridan's computer commons to showcase their films and artwork for the benefit of the industry reps who had just watched the 2 hour screening of their short films:

Ada Bratic ("Foxed") and Kirsten Whiteley ("Spectra").

Brad McLeod ("Doggy Dilemma") and Natalia Shevcun ("Breakfast Time").

Eva Zhou ("Yeti") and Darryl Kee ("Chewy!"). In the background, Dylan Glynn claws his way into the photo on the right, while my colleague, Mark Mayerson tries to look inconspicuous on the left.

Dean Heezen, creator of the brilliant dance animation in "Sax".

Evee Fex-chriszt, with the furry star of "The Terrible Bandit".

Justin Hartley ponders the mystery behind "Murder on the Docks".

Kathryn Durst with her delightful puppet family in "Doggy See, Doggy Do".

Leigh Anna Frostad ("Origin Story") shows off a sketch of her pet piggy.

Nichole Ter Horst ("Pillow Talk"), yours truly, and Kat Antonic ("Amare").

Crazy rascal, Noam Sussman ("Gum") and Nicole Ter Horst.

Seol-Ah Rim, with images from her film that seems to have no title!

Shen Ramu, with images from "Bygone Bounce".

I don't want to state what films I considered the "best", however, here is a list of the ones that were among my personal favourites, mostly from the standpoint of character/personality animation, which is what I'm always most interested in seeing each year. If you click on the student's name, it will link to their own blog or website where you can see more examples of their artwork:

Sax, by Dean Heezen - A beautifully crafted film designed around dancing to the jazz beat of a saxophone instrumental. Dean has an astounding feel for appealing character design and his animation is very fluid and fun.

The Terrible Bandit, by Evee Fex-chriszt - Evee is a truly brilliant character animator, and her film about a sly raccoon trying to pry a dish full of dogfood away from a sleeping doberman shows off her exceptional drawing talent so well.

Origin Story, by Leigh Anna Frostad - When in my 2nd Year Character Design class, Leigh Anna often cracked me up with assignments that showed off her funny and appealing cartoon style. Her film featuring anthropomorphic depictions of the moon, sun and earth was a lot of fun.

A film that seems to lack a title, by Seol-Ah Rim - Her film about 3 roly-poly hamsters (or mice?) helping a bear to bake a pie features such an appealing and original style that I found absolutely charming. If you click on her name, you can view the film in its entirety on her Tumblr site.

Bygone Bounce, by Shen Ramu - Somehow I had missed seeing this film in its early leica reel stage, so I was very pleasantly surprised to see it for the first time in final form. Shen's parable on life of a little girl bouncing on a trampoline and aging a year or more each time that she bounces up into our view is absolutely delightful. There are some gags that are so sweet and adorable along the way, with really well thought out personality animation. Definitely one of my favourites this year!

There are many others I could mention but I'll stop there, although I do have to give honourable mention to a really funny crowd pleaser, Gum, by the completely wacky Noam Sussman, a highly original talent who has provided us with much entertainment in his four years at Sheridan. It's always rather sad to see our grads leave the school, yet all of the faculty wish them the best as they head off to pursue their careers in the animation industry. We'll miss you all!

On Saturday, April 28 2012, I once again participated in Sheridan College's Open House, drawing caricatures of the visitors to the event to help raise money for the Animation program, in which I teach 2nd Year Character Design. Here's most of the ones I drew that day:

Yes, it's been a long time since I last posted something. Anyway, here's something I've done as a result of playing with Photoshop CS5. Admittedly, I'm not likely to ever be a "digital painter" in the truest sense, as I find that my efforts to paint without benefit of a containing outline just don't seem to look very good. While it's frustrating to try and achieve the fully rendered approach that others do so well, I suspect that I'd never be totally happy with it even if I could do one to my satisfaction. I am a cartoonist who happens to love the power and graphic boldness of a line drawing, so I'm always going to prefer working like that.

It's for this very reason, actually, that I'll always prefer traditional hand drawn animation to CG, as I still believe that you can make a bolder visual statement through outline describing the illusion of solid form than you can with the fully rendered CG approach. While it's true that I'm adding in all the highlights and shadows in my drawing similar to the look of CG, I find that I really need that outline to hold it all together and make it pop. Anyway, I'll continue to experiment with CS5, since it does seem to give a huge improvement in the way the brush tool handles a controlled line compared to what I was achieving with CS3.

Yes, June 7th marks the 95th birthday of Dean Martin, one of the favourite performers here at The Cartoon Cave. Now that Time-Life are releasing some of The Dean Martin Variety Show on DVD sets, I've been itching to do another caricature of ol' Dino. Though the first two DVD sets have been a bit disappointing for the fans, as they're cut down and missing some of the music numbers due to licensing hassles, I gather that the 3rd set just released finally features complete shows. I sure hope that Time-Life now continue with this approach to keep us all happy.

The Dean Martin Variety Show was a great example of the long popular variety show format that has sadly been missing from network TV for too many years now. I personally feel that the variety show was an integral part of the TV schedule, as it brought together top entertainers from TV, movies, and the music business. The benefit was that it kept all popular entertainers of that era very much in the public eye, creating a shared culture for all viewers to enjoy together. We really don't have that today, what with the severe fragmentation of the television audience due to the "500 Channel Universe", where no single show gets much of a market share. Frankly, I was a lot happier back when there were no more than about two dozen TV channels and just the three big U.S. networks creating shows that were genuinely entertaining. Not so anymore, in my opinion.

While most of the variety shows were rehearsed laboriously every week until the day they were taped in front of a live audience, on Dean's show only the guests rehearsed all week. Dean's contract stipulated that he didn't have to show up until taping day if he didn't want to, as Dean liked to keep his image real loose, even stumbling over his reading of the cue cards to add to the comic effect and his on-screen image of being a bit tipsy with the booze. It was an individual approach that worked so well for Dean, as he knew that his natural charm would suffer if he had to adhere to a tightly scripted format.

It also helped when he had just the right chemistry with his guests, as I think is evident here in this clip alongside cute and adorable Goldie Hawn, who was then one of the stars on the very popular comedy review, Laugh-In:

I thought I'd acknowledge Donald Duck's 78th anniversary by posting some of the Disney merchandise that I had a hand in helping to create a few years back. Though most of my Disney work was in the form of traditional cartoon illustration, there were also many figural projects that required a series of rotational drawings in order to help the sculptor visualize it in three dimensions before going to work on it.

MMC Donald Duck Rotations

This piece was to celebrate The Mickey Mouse Club TV show from the 1950s, and I did rotations for both this Donald with the gong and a Mickey figure in bandleader costume, as the two were featured in the opening titles of that show.

Mickey Mouse Club Donald Duck Figurine

I was quite happy with the way this figurine turned out, and the pic above was taken of the actual piece that I'd bought at The Disney Store at the time it was made available for purchase. I only wish I'd bought the one of Mickey as well!

Snow Globes Rotations

This was a commemorative snow globe that was created for the 65th Anniversary of Donald Duck in 1999, called "Donald Duck - 65 Feisty Years". I remember doing a lot of art for that merchandising programme featuring the duck in his various incarnations through the years.

Donald Duck Snow Globes Figurine

I must admit I was a bit disappointed in the sculpture of the large Donald Duck figure in the armchair, as I felt the face wasn't quite right and overall he looked a bit thick and lumpy. Still, it was likely due to the constraints of the mould-making process.

Three Caballeros Rotations

This was a fun project to work on, as the original concepts for these Big Figurines of The Three Caballeros were by the exceptionally talented Disney artists, Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily, and their poses were so expressive to translate into dimensional drawings.

Three Caballeros Big Figurines

Here's a pic of the finished sculpted figurines that I've borrowed from Kevin's site. As you can see, the poses were modified a bit from my drawings - Panchito's hands not on his hips with eyes straight ahead, and José's beak is closed, but otherwise are quite faithful to the way I'd drawn the rotations.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed seeing the process behind creating these sculpted figurines of Donald Duck. I have other examples of my rotation drawings of various Disney characters that I'll continue to post from time to time.

I heard the sad news that Ernest Borgnine died today at the ripe old age of 95. What with this and the passing of Andy Griffith last week, we've lost two major stars of the classic TV era. Of course, apart from his starring role on McHale's Navy, Ernie was even more well known as a veteran character actor from the movies, earning an Academy Award for his poignant portrayal of the lonely New York butcher in the heartbreaking Marty, scripted by the brilliant Paddy Chayefsky.

It was just two years ago that Ernest Borgnine was a special guest at the Toronto Fan Expo, where he was signing autographs and chatting with his fans. Though I am certainly an avid autograph collector, I've made it my policy to only seek out celebrities that I actually really admire, which is why I attended the event that year specifically to meet Ernie, as well as Julie Newmar (the Catwoman on TV's Batman). As is often the case at Fan Expo, the longest line-ups of fans are usually found at the tables with the current crop of young actors and actresses from various sci-fi/fantasy movies and TV series. I feel sorry for the veteran performers who don't usually get as much traffic at their tables, although it works out well for me, as these are the only performers that I truly wish to meet.

As there were only a handful of people in line before me, I was able to meet Ernie fairly quickly. He greeted all of his fans with that familiar big gap-toothed grin and he was just so warm and inviting with everyone who came up to meet with him. Whereas some of the stars were not permitting photos to be taken (due to paid for photo ops being organized later in the day), Ernie was only too happy to pose for photos with his fans. I always ink up two originals of my caricatures so that I can present one to the star as a gift and get them to sign the second one for me, so that is what you see here in these pics that accompany this post. Ernie seemed genuinely delighted with my caricature of him in his role of TV's Quinton McHale.

Later in the day I noticed that there was nobody currently in line to see Ernest Borgnine, so I decided to use the opportunity to go up and chat with him some more, as I wanted to ask him about his costarring alongside Frank Sinatra in From Here To Eternity. He was happy to chat about his role in the film, adding that he thought Frank had a lot of courage to work for scale in that pic, as his career at that time needed a boost. He and Frank became good friends on that film (despite the fact that Ernie's character, "Fatso" beats Sinatra's "Maggio" to death!), and he said he was overjoyed when Frank earned the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that year.

I've been fortunate enough to meet many film personalities that I've admired over the years, but Ernest Borgnine will always stand out among the rest, as he was honestly such a joyful and sweet man. In his honour, I just watched him again in Marty this evening - such a touching performance from a truly wonderful human being.

I just love 70's TV shows, and lately I've been watching the DVD first season of Wonder Woman that debuted back in 1975. So I thought I'd try doing a caricature of lovely Lynda Carter who played the title role, in honour of her birthday today. Like many fellows of a similar age who grew up with 70's TV shows, I must admit I had a big crush on Ms. Carter!

Lynda had only had a handful of small parts on TV and in film before being chosen to play Wonder Woman, but she turned out to be just perfect for the role. Having won Miss World USA pageant in 1972, Lynda was a statuesque beauty with a swanlike neck and big blue eyes. However, it was more than just her good looks that she brought to the role of Wonder Woman. Lynda was smart enough to know that the key to the character was in playing her with absolute sincerity (just like Christopher Reeve would do with Superman three years later). Despite there being an element of humour to the show, it was not what I would consider to be high camp, however. It tried to remain pretty true to its original comic book roots, including having an animated title sequence and text boxes to indicate where a new scene was taking place.

The character was an ageless Amazon, born and raised on the uncharted Paradise Island (set somewhere within the Bermuda Triangle, according to the pilot episode), and populated solely by females. So having made the journey from Paradise Island to America, Lynda Carter played the role as a wide-eyed innocent, not completely naive mind you, but initially unfamiliar with the ways of modern man in the outside world during World War II. Since the series was created in the 70's when the Women's Liberation movement was in full swing, there was some feminist leanings to the show. However, the feminism of Wonder Woman was of a gentle variety, as the character would often be aghast at the cruelty and warmongering of mankind, while extolling the virtues of her own female populated society that preached kindness and lived a harmonious and peaceful existence. It should be noted that Wonder Woman uses her powers only in the role of a peacekeeper, never becoming a fierce aggressor. Her desire to protect mankind is not unlike that of a mother doing all she can to protect her children. This is the aspect I appreciate about the show's particular brand of feminism - that compassion for others shows a greater strength of character than to wield force over them. How refreshingly different this is from today's female superheroes and forensic detectives etc, who all sneer cynically and aspire to be every bit as bad-ass as their male counterparts.

Incidentally, I'm happy to hear that Lynda Carter is still enjoying great success today in her other career as a singer, which is what she started out doing prior to pursuing acting. In fact, my caricaturist colleague, Sam Gorrie, who also does cosplay as Wonder Woman in Las Vegas, just recently got to see her idol in concert at the Suncoast Hotel, seen here. Pretty neat, huh?

So, once again, a very Happy Birthday to lovely Lynda Carter. I hope this classy and elegant woman continues to enjoy success while keeping her legion of fans entertained!

Yes, today The Cartoon Cave pays tribute to the great Peter O'Toole on his 80th birthday. This colourful Irish actor always seemed to make decadence look good. Yet despite a lifetime of smoking, drinking, and other excess, this ol' rascal is still going strong today!

He made his indelible mark on American film early on in his career when he portrayed T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, which garnered him an Oscar nomination that year, although he didn't win. He could play drama and light comedy equally well, spoofing his "pretty boy" matinee idol looks in What's New Pussycat? (1965), where he uses a line repeatedly throughout the film as a running gag: "It may sound funny to you, but when the light hits me a certain way, I'm handsome!"

One of my personal favourite roles was when he costarred opposite Audrey Hepburn in the comic heist film, How To Steal a Million (1966). Their onscreen chemistry is delicious as Audrey's character ropes Peter O'Toole's (supposed) art thief into helping her steal a statuette from a museum exhibit, all in an attempt to prevent the authorities from discovering that the figurine is actually a forgery sculpted by her eccentric artist father, played by Hugh Griffith. I've seen this film many times over, yet it never fails to delight me.

Of course, I'm also a fan of O'Toole's later work, when he successfully transitioned to character actor roles after his classic good looks had faded, sadly due to his hard partying ways as much as age. He won rave reviews when he starred in The Stunt Man (1980) as a megalomaniac movie director who manipulates his actors as if he were some diabolical god-like puppeteer. However, my favourite role was when he played the faded swashbuckling movie star, Alan Swann in My Favorite Year (1982). The character is modeled on Errol Flynn, of course, who had lived a life of debauchery that probably outdid O'Toole's own, and O'Toole plays him to the hilt. The film is also a loving nod to live television of the 50's, with Joseph Bologna playing a Sid Caesar-like host of a weekly sketch comedy show. The film was directed by Richard Benjamin and the executive producer was Mel Brooks, who started his career writing for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, and on whom the character, Benjy Stone, played in the film by Mark Linn Baker is based.

Unfortunately for his many fans though, after a lifetime of memorable work, Peter O'Toole just last month decided to announce his retirement in the following letter:

“It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won’t come back. My professional acting life, stage and screen, has brought me public support, emotional fulfillment and material comfort. It has brought me together with fine people, good companions with whom I’ve shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits.
However, it’s my belief that one should decide for oneself when it is time to end one’s stay, so I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell.”

While I'm sad to know there won't be any more wonderful performances forthcoming, I wish Peter O'Toole a happy retirement, and I treasure the film legacy he has left us.

Here is the trailer for How To Steal a Million to enjoy:

So sad to hear that film and stage composer, Marvin Hamlisch passed away today at the relatively early age of 68. We're losing so many wonderful, talented folks this year, and I guess many more entertainers from my youth are at that age where they'll be bidding us farewell in the near future.

I was first aware of Marvin Hamlisch when the Paul Newman/Robert Redford film, The Sting premiered back in 1973. Marvin didn't actually compose the music for that particular film, but he adapted the ragtime songs of Scott Joplin into a highly appealing score. Coincidentally, I'd just watched the blu-ray of The Sting last week, after having not seen the film in many years, and it was as entertaining a caper as I remembered it to be.

Hamlisch composed many film scores, such as The Way We Were and Sophie's Choice, yet was perhaps even more renowned for his stage work, especially the now iconic musical, A Chorus Line, which probably inspired many a music theatre student over the years. He also worked as a conductor and arranger for such notable song stylists as Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli. From the TV of my youth, I recall many times seeing Marvin Hamlisch on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, as well as the various daytime talk shows hosted by the likes of Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore. He would always play samples of his music on these shows, back when one could actually hear real music on TV, before everything turned to rubbish in the 90s (about the time Carson retired and Jay Leno took over). His affable, "nerdy" persona was always a delightful addition to any show he appeared on.

With the loss of Marvin Hamlisch, there is one less great composer to create movie magic, although the number of great film composers being steadily utilized has been declining steadily for years now. Only John Williams (and mostly due to Spielberg) and a handful of others seem to get regular work these days. Unfortunately, Hollywood prefers to throw a bunch of inane pop/rock tunes together and call it a film soundtrack, rather than hire a real composer to create an evocative music score. Anyway, I'm real sorry to see Marvin Hamlisch leave us, as they sure don't make them like that anymore.

Here's an interesting little piece where Marvin describes the process of what led to his song, The Way We Were:

Happy Halloween!

Floyd Norman!

Character Face Types

Natalie Wood

Long Live Dear Leader!

Drawn Animation Still Matters

Happy New Year!

Monica Bellucci

RIP Robert B. Sherman

William Sampson

Happy Birthday, Jim Garner!

Sheridan Animation Industry Day 2012

Sheridan College Open House 2012

Blonde Beach Bunny

Happy Birthday, Dino!

Happy Birthday, Donald Duck!

So Long, Ernie!

Happy Birthday, Lynda Carter!

Happy 80th Birthday, Peter O'Toole!

Marvin Hamlisch