Sunday, October 31, 2004
Headless on All Hollow's Eve
As darkness falls on All Hollow`s Eve and my kids try to talk me into going out trick or treating with them, and I look fruitlessly for my latex severed head from my special effects slasher film days, my mind turns to one of my favorite animations from the Ub Iwerks studio, The Headless Horseman, 1934.
Headless Horseman
Last year I included it is my silent animation screening at San Diego Comic Con even thou it was created with a sound track and in Cinacolor. Ub helped create the first synchronized sound cartoon. What is he doing creating a silent film after being there at the birth of sound cartoons?
Sound cartoons would not have worked without his genius. He worked out the system of visual clueing for the conductor that made the second Steamboat Willie recording session successful, a system that is still used, with little modification, to this day. But 6 years later he created what amounted to a silent film with musical soundtrack accompaniment.
Ub Iwerks Studio
Why? I`ll tell you why. It works. Just like Charley Chaplin`s Little Tramp still silent after the coming of the talkies, it works and wouldn`t have worked with speech.
There is, sadly, a real inconsistency in the product of the Iwerks Studio. Some, like the 1932 Flip the Frog`s The Bully and What A Life are almost unwatchable. Others like Balloonland and The Headless Horseman are real gems. If you haven`t watched them lately, you should.
Cinacolor 1934
Happy All Hollow`s Eve and be sure to vote. I may have lost my head but not my mind!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 5:25 PM
Headless Horseman
Last year I included it is my silent animation screening at San Diego Comic Con even thou it was created with a sound track and in Cinacolor. Ub helped create the first synchronized sound cartoon. What is he doing creating a silent film after being there at the birth of sound cartoons?
Sound cartoons would not have worked without his genius. He worked out the system of visual clueing for the conductor that made the second Steamboat Willie recording session successful, a system that is still used, with little modification, to this day. But 6 years later he created what amounted to a silent film with musical soundtrack accompaniment.
Ub Iwerks Studio
Why? I`ll tell you why. It works. Just like Charley Chaplin`s Little Tramp still silent after the coming of the talkies, it works and wouldn`t have worked with speech.
There is, sadly, a real inconsistency in the product of the Iwerks Studio. Some, like the 1932 Flip the Frog`s The Bully and What A Life are almost unwatchable. Others like Balloonland and The Headless Horseman are real gems. If you haven`t watched them lately, you should.
Cinacolor 1934
Happy All Hollow`s Eve and be sure to vote. I may have lost my head but not my mind!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 5:25 PM
