Gordon Bressack, RIP

Some of Mr. Bressack's "Pinky and the Brain" handiwork.

Animation writer Gordon Bressack passed on today. Born in New York, for thirty-plus years he worked as a writer, director and producer in Los Angeles. On the west coast he also wrote plays and live-action, and performed on various Los Angeles stages as an actor.

But it's in animation that Gordon Bressack left the biggest footprint. With his longtime writing partner, Charles Howell IV, he was part of the young and dynamic Warner Bros. Animation crew that shaped Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain when Warners' animation division was partnering with Stephen Speilburg and re-establishing itself as a viable cartoon production unit. He won three Emmys for his work.

Mr. Bressack was passionate about writers and their place in the animation universe, and wasn't afraid to communicate it. Even when he was slowed by illness, he continued to write and create. He leaves three children and one grandchild.

Free ... Free ... FREE!

Apparently a sports star wants you to work for his greater glory .... gratis.

Are you an animator or artist? Visit http://www.shaqtoons.com to download one of my stories and use it as the inspiration for an original cartoon that YOU draw to life. If selected, you’ll be awarded $500 and your animation will be shown on my new show, Shaq Life. Good luck!

Of course, it's not exactly Shaq asking for this. It's Time-Warner-Turner-AT&T asking for this. (You know, a poor little hand-to-mouth entertainment conglomerate.)

It's the usual scam from the usual low-lifes, except these low-lifes are in tailored suits drawing large, large salaries: Hey suckers! Just bust your backsides turning outsomething for a large company, and if the large company likes it, said company will throw you some crumbs (and a teensy bit of publicity!) Oh, but don't think about using anything you do, because if you send it to us, it's OURS, whether we use it or not.

And it seems this whole deal hasn't gone down too well with the people who do animation for a living. (Can't fathom why.)

... That’s like... more than several grand’s worth of work you’re just expecting animators to do in their spare time for only one of em to get paid a fraction of the cost for it.... Nah ...

And so on. The problem is, there will be SOMEBODY who will rise to the paltry bait, because there are a lot of hungry artists out in internet land.

Add On:No, definitely not going down well:

The creative community has called foul on his “Shaqtoons” idea, with hundreds of animators and other artists in creative fields lambasting the concept.

And kindly note that this kind of thing isn't new, nor is it rare. It's just not usually done by a jillion dollar conglomerate.

Add On Too: And as you can see, the snark has gotten the big company to (grudgingly?) up the ante:

To all my animators out there, I heard you. I love your work and want you to feel the love. If your cartoon is selected, you’ll be awarded $10,000 and your animation will be shown on my new show, Shaq Life. Can’t wait to see what you got! http://Shaqtoons.com

Ah, how bad blowback can change money totals (which are still ridiculously, pathetically low.)

The Man Who Filmed "Fantasia"

On this day in 1899, Wong Tung Jim is born in Guangzhou, China. At five, his family immigrates to the United States. His parents own a General Store in Washington state, and young Jim comes into possession of a Brownie camera. Which triggers his interest in photography. Which prompts, ten years later, a move to Los Angeles to find work in a portrait studio and then ... as a camera assistant in silent movies.

Along the way, he becomes known as Jimmie Howe. After awhile, that morphs into JAMES WONG HOWE. James W. H. rapidly becomes a topflight cinematographer. He develops a system for making the light blue eyes of actress Mary Miles Minter look darker by photographing them while they gaze at black velvet. Ms. Minter quickly decides that Mr. Howe is the cinematographer for HER.

"Jimmie Howe" goes on to do deep-focus photography in "Transatlantic", in 1931. His cinematography continues to be groundbreaking, from the Technicolor of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (where he has to fight color supervisor Natalie Kalmus to make "Injun Joe's cave" DARK and ... ahm ... cave-like), to the moody black-and-white in the noir Western "Pursued" (1947) ... to the drained-of-color look of "The Molly MacGuires" in 1970.

And in 1939-40, Howe shoots -- without credit -- the striking live-action segments of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia orchestra for Walt Disney's "Fantasia". (Walt liked to employ the best; he used Gregg Toland for the live-action in "Song of the South".)

Howe wins two Academy Awards ("The Rose Tattoo" and "Hud") and is nominated for eight more. His professional life, not without setbacks, is smoother than his personal one. From the time of his childhood, he has to navigate around the warm and welcoming embrace the United States often gives minority immigrants. (Howe only becomes a citizen after the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed in 1943.) His interracial marriage is finally recognized by California after the state's ban on interracial marriage is abolished in 1949.

James Wong Howe's last professional work is "Funny Lady" in 1975. He dies in 1976, six weeks shy of 77.

The Eternal ReBoot

We're getting toward the top shelf in the Disney library. The one that's three-quarters empty.

Happily, when Diz Co. is finished remaking Snow White and Fantasia and Bongo in "live action" (which is actually animation in the digital realm), the company can start remaking all the cheesy sequels that Disney Toon Studios belched out in the 1990s in "live action" versions.

I'm serious. Wouldn't Will Smith sign on for Return of Jafar? It sold a boatload of VHS cassettes before people caught on that it was a cheapo knock-off sequel of Aladdin. I'm confident that Disney would be delighted to run that play again.

The Unending Disney CEO Succession Game

The entertainment press speculates (yet again) on who will succeed Robert Iger when he retires at the end of 2021:

Some observers now believe the inside track [for Disney CEO's successor] may belong to Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-to-consumer and international who is expected to appear at the convention to showcase Disney+. That Iger has called the upcoming streamer the "most important product" to launch since he became CEO in 2005 speaks volumes about the stakes for Mayer, 57, and how the performance of Disney+ could influence who takes over when Iger retires at the end of 2021. ...

Iger [might] extend his run again, [and] the succession bake-off also could change dramatically, as it did when former CFO-COO Thomas Staggs — once positioned as the primary contender — left the company in 2016. ...

It's difficult for Top Dogs to give up all the trappings of Top Dogdom when announced retirement dates draw near. I mean, wave goodbye to all that money and power? All those corporate aircraft? And the smiling faces that tell you agreeable, ego-boosting things every time you walk into a room?

Hard to let all those pleasant, day-to-day realities go.

There has been no Disney chieftain, outside of '70s corporate head Card Walker, who's left voluntarily. Walt and Roy Disney died. Ron Miller was pushed out by Disney's board of directors. And Michael Eisner got a strong "no confidence" vote from Roy E. Disney and a large number of other Disney shareholders.

But even after the vote, Mr. Eisner stalled around for as long as he could.

And so we come to Robert Iger, who has already made a minor career of delaying retirement. (To date, his exit has been pushed back twice. And he will be close to 71 when his current contract expires at the end of 2021.)

My guess is there's a 50/50 chance Mr. Iger will leave when the trumpet blows a third time. Kevin Mayer, the current top candidate for Robert Iger's job, could suddenly be found wanting and (surprise!) Mr. Iger's contract would be extended yet again.

And Robert Iger would no doubt stay on "reluctantly" with much sighing and head shaking. Because, after all. Why give up money, prestige and company planes before you absolutely have to?

Chinese High-Flyer

To remind animation fans it isn't all Pixar and Disney and (every once in a while) Blue Sky Animation, there is this:

Chinese animation “Ne Zha” continued its run as China’s biggest hit of the summer, maintaining its top spot at the box office even 25 days into its run with a weekend gross of $41.2 million. The tally made it this weekend’s fourth highest grossing film worldwide. ...

As the saying (sort of) goes: "When they want to see your movie, you can't stop them." First time director Yang Yu might have struggled to get funding for his long gestating epic, but financing for pictures he wants to make won't be a problem going forward. Even in the Middle Kingdom, he's what is known as "bankable".

Global Box Office

The worldwide totals for current animated features (including the one masquerading as a "live action" feature):

WORLDWIDE GROSSES

Angry Birds Movie 2 -- $45,399,338

Lion King (2019) -- $1,437,423,549

Secret Life of Pets 2 -- $401,091,985

Toy Story 4 -- $1,017,026,843

Lion King (2019), of course, is the animated remake of an animated feature, no matter what the director of the newer iteration says.

Animated features will continue to be made because they, like super hero features, make too much money. It's a shame that some filmmakers think that animation is a lesser art. Because it's not.