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Cohen’s Cartoon Corner: Dec 2019 by Karl F. Cohen
Jim Goldner, director of the SF State Film Department, demonstrates a Bolex in 2008. photo Gino De Grandis
Celebrate Jim Goldner’s Life on Dec 6
Professor Emeritus Jameson “Jim” Goldner, a founder of the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University and a strong supporter of the animation program, died September 30th. He was 81. He retired in 2014 after 52 years of teaching.
The School of Cinema will host a memorial in Goldner’s honor Friday, December 6th, at 7 pm, in the Coppola Theatre (Fine Arts 101), with the reception starting at 6 pm. The school invites all former students and friends to join us as we remember this wonderful, delightful and beloved man.
Goldner was born and raised in Los Angeles. As a kid, he knew several of the animators at UPA (United Productions of America). He went on to study film at UCLA alongside Francis Ford Coppola and work on both low-budget films and at major studio productions. In 1963, he accepted a tenure-track position at SF State.
Although film was originally part of the Television, Film and Radio Department, the faculty established the Department of Film in 1967. Eventually known as the School of Cinema, it became one of SF State’s most prestigious programs. In fact, The Hollywood Reporter calls it one of the best film schools in the U.S. (in each of the last five years). Earlier this year, Variety listed SF State as one of the best film schools in the world.
For this achievement, we owe Jim Goldner a serious debt. For more on Goldner, see cineSOURCE article.
Scene from 'To Your Last Death', an animated horror feature by Jason Axinn at Another Hole In The Head. image: courtesy J. Axinn
The 16th Annual Another Hole In The Head Film Festival
On Sunday, December 15th, at 9 pm, Another Hole In The Head showcases its closing night feature “To Your Last Death”. The 91-minute animated horror feature by Jason Axinn (2019) opens with Miriam DeKalb (voiced by Dani Lennon) covered in blood, bursting out of a building, clutching an axe, while two mysterious figures look on. “Lock the bets,” one tells the other.
“He killed them!” Miriam exclaims. “He killed my family!” As the sole survivor in a deadly revenge game set up by her father to punish his children, she receives an offer from a supernatural entity to go back in time and try again. Now, Miriam must survive both her father's blood lust and the Gamemaster's ever-changing rules to save her siblings as she relives the worst night of her life.
Anon Bitel writes, “Jason Axinn’s hyperviolent anime ‘To Your Last Death’ offers an alien-eye view on our capacity for self-destruction at a familial and corporate level.”
A week earlier, on Sunday, December 8th, at 1 pm, “Stranger with Eye Candy” is a program of 11 animated shorts: “Cemetery Song”, “Dong Kae (“My Little Bum”), “Hell Hath No Furie” (a short thriller starring angry women), “Into the Flame” (Floyd goes over the edge contemplating the disappearance of his cult obsessed wife), “Kaeru, La Noria”, “Monarcade”, “Odd Dog”, “Skeleton in the Closet”, “The Spotlight Effect” AND “Stuck” (based on “Tales of Mere Existence). There will be a Q&A after the screening.
Both programs are at the New People Cinema, 1746 Post, SF.
Paul Naas’s ‘How To Cheat In Maya', the English version. image: courtesy P. Naas
The Bay Area International Children's Film Festival (BAICFF)
The upcoming 12th annual Bay Area International Children's Film Festival will be February 22-23, 2020 (Sat-Sun) at the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland. There will be presentations by award-winning Pixar filmmakers, a hands-on stop-motion animation workshops for kids, new animated films and more!
Japanese ‘How To Cheat In Maya 2017’
Paul Naas’s book, "How To Cheat In Maya 2017", has been translated into Japanese.
“According to my friends who can read Japanese, the title has changed to ‘Maya Character Animation’,” I was told by Paul, a former Disney animator who now heads the animation program at Cañada College. “I had no idea the publisher was doing this, and I only found out about it when the author copies showed up in my office.”
“It's exciting to think that there's enough interest in this subject to warrant a translation of this book, the latest edition in a long line for this title.”
An Aged Mickey Has to Wear a Plastic Head in Public
Mickey Mouse turned 91 in November, given his “Steamboat Willie” premiered in 1928. This birthday card parody was created by Gene Deitch in 1992 for his wife. In case you can’t read Czech, the translation is “Excuse me. I’ve just removed my makeup!” Those are his false teeth in his hand.
Animator Gene Deitch loved to poke fun at everything. image: courtesy G. Deitch
Tragic Magic Short
Geoffrey Clark’s new stop-motion short “Tragic Magic” is being shown by the BASH-Fest, at the Albany Twin Theater in Albany, CA, on Sat. Dec. 7th, AND on the same day at the Los Angeles Animation Festival (LAAF), at the Mayflower Club in North Hollywood.
Bay Area Light Shows
For an excellent history of Bay Area liquid light shows go here.
Protests Effect Hong Kong Disney
The Disney’s Park in Hong Kong is not the happiest place on earth due to the protests. If they continue, the park could see a $275 million decline for the year, according to Disney CFO Christine McCarthy. The company was expecting the park’s income to fall by $80 million in its next quarterly report.
On the bright side for the company, Disney+, their new streaming business, started off with about 10 million subscribers before its first week had ended. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger was projecting they would have between 60 million and 90 million streaming subscribers world wide by 2024. It currently costs $7 a month to subscribe to Disney+.
The future of Disney+ should be impressive. Within five years it will contain 620 movies and 10,000 television episodes. By then, Disney will also be adding to the platform 60 original pieces of content annually.
What greets you at Disney Hong Kong—when there are no riots. image: courtesy Disney
Verizon is offering Disney+ free to its customers for a year. Now Iger has announced other distribution deals with Amazon Fire, Samsung and LG. He also announced that next March, Hulu, which presently has 28.5 million subscribers, will become the official streaming home for FX Networks, a strategy that became possible when Disney closed its $71 billion purchase of assets of 21st Century Fox, including FX and additional equity in Hulu.
As for Disney’s other video services, ESPN+ has been losing subscribers each quarter, but they still have more than 3.5 million paid members. Disney reported 20 percent year-over-year revenue growth in its cable networks unit and 26 percent growth in broadcasting.
Disney said that its quarterly earnings and revenue exceeded the expectations of analysts largely on the strength of its film business, with titles like “Toy Story 4”, “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” doing land office business. That resulted in studio entertainment revenue surging 52 percent.
Although theme parks, experiences and products showed 8 percent growth, with the costs associated with the creation of Disney+ mounting, the conglomerate saw a net income fall to $1.1 billion in the quarter from $2.3 billion a year earlier. For the entire fiscal year, net income fell to $11.1 billion from $12.6 billion a year ago.
The cool crows from 'Dumbo' (1941). image: courtesy Disney
Disney+ Adds Cultural Disclaimers
Given that the crows in the Disney film “Dumbo” (1941) speak like poorly-educated black hicks, the execs at Disney+ felt it propitious to warn viewers of “Outdated Cultural Depictions” in their classic films.
Indeed, the new streaming service has added disclaimers to “Dumbo”, “Lady and the Tramp”, “Peter Pan” and other films. Rather than cut or banning them from distribution they now carry warning notices.
Over the years members of the public have complained about depictions of black Americans in several Disney shorts and in “Song of the South”, along with Muslims in “Aladdin”, Native Americans in “Pocahontas” and “Peter Pan”, and politically incorrect moments in a few other films. One that I wasn’t aware of was the Siamese cats in “Lady and the Tramp” having exaggerated oriental accents.
Podcast About the Corrector of ‘Song of the South’
Karina Longworth has created a well-researched podcast on Maurice Rapf (see here), whom Walt Disney hired to rewrite “Song of the South”. Since Walt knew it was written from a Southerner’s point of view (hence racist), he hired Rapf, a liberal whom Walt probably knew was a Communist, to rewrite the script. Walt supposedly didn’t want the film to have problems with the black community when it was released in 1946.
When I wrote my book “Forbidden Animation” (1997, see cineSOURCE article) I had the pleasure to interview Rapf. My chapter on the blacklist goes into more detail about the changes he suggested that Walt could make to avoid trouble. Unfortunately, Walt eventually put back some of the cuts and changes, Rapf told me, resulting in the controversy that greeted the film.
Those issues resulted in the studio, years later, withdrawing the film from distribution. It is still withdrawn, but an “unauthorized” copy is on the internet and bootleg DVDs are available from MediaOutlet.com.
Scene from 'Frozen 2', probably Disney's next billion dollar film. image: courtesy Disney
‘Frozen 2’ Should Be Another Billion Dollar Hit
“Frozen 2” has everything fans expect, although there are fewer fancy dress musical sequences. They also didn’t include dorky airhead villains, and there are no princes that are supposed to sweep princesses off their feet and to promise that they will live happily ever after.
Instead the film is a strong adventure quest with Olaf the snowman going along to provide comic relief. Some of his zany moments actually made me laugh out loud.
What I disliked the most in the sequel are the operetta sequences where characters burst into second rate songs. I assume young kids will like the music as it is by the same composer that created the music for the original feature.
On the other hand, the film’s attention to the artwork, both the backgrounds and the animation, is exquisite. I also felt the empowerment of the two females was developed in a natural way and that giving the males secondary roles not only worked, it was welcomed. Elsa can be viewed as a serious role model for girls/women.
I was also comfortable accepting the story as an over-the-top fantasy, so I had no problem in accepting the unexpected.
Although the film is got mixed reviews in Variety and Hollywood Reporter, the Guardian says “Disney/Pixar remain undefeated in the kids’ film industry.” I saw it at a preview for kids and it seemed the several hundred young kids in the hall loved it. A few of the young girls were even dressed as princesses.
Since the original film became the second highest grossing animated movie of all time ($1.27 billion world) and since the franchise had made billions from a stage version and merchandising, I assume this sequel will easily cross the billion-dollar mark.
Does Hollywood Really Need A Lifelike James Dean?
Producers of “Finding Jack” say they have permission from James Dean’s estate/family to create a digital James Dean for a role in the proposed project. The Hollywood Reporter suggests the producer will run into technical and monetary problems, so it probably will not be completed.
Karl F. Cohen—who decided to add his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached . Posted on Dec 02, 2019 - 08:22 AM