Flintstones animators(plus their MGM work)

[Mibbitmaker]

Threads not too long ago, including the Tom & Jerry reviews, refered to the specific work of certain animators in MGM theatrical cartoons. I have, for most of my life, been able to easily recognise individual animating styles in H-B cartoons, especially on The Flintstones(whereas, for example, my sister doesn't see any difference). However, I've never been able to put names to the styles, or even be sure whether it's a specific animator (as a McKimson or a Scribner in WB) or an animation unit(as in the actual Termite Terrace in WB)

My question, who did which episodes/scenes, is most prominent on the Flintstones, particularly the early 1st season where the styles are most pronounced and only one did an entire episode at a time. So, who is it that drew:

THE SWIMMING POOL(also the 1st season opening/closing)

THE FLINTSTONE FLYER

THE PROWLER

THE BABY SITTERS

THE ENGAGEMENT RING

THE SWEEPSTAKES TICKET

Also the one that shared the task with the one responsible for THE PROWLER during mainly season two.

Added to my quest here, which brings it back to theatrical cartoons, is which of the animators of the above worked in the MGM shorts? The FLINTSTONE FLYER one animated noticably in places, especially a scene with Tom running on his forepaws to escape the bulldog in Solid Serenade. The one who did THE BABY SITTERS animated noticably for Tex Avery; you could see it in their head movements and mouths when speaking. I also noticed the one from THE SWIMMING POOL animating, in particular, in one of the later the later Spike solo cartoons.

As usual, I expect this to be a very informative thread. :)

[Howard Fein]

"My question, who did which episodes/scenes, is most prominent on the Flintstones, particularly the early 1st season where the styles are most pronounced and only one did an entire episode at a time. So, who is it that drew:"

THE SWIMMING POOL(also the 1st season opening/closing)

Ken Muse animated this episode, debatably the first FLINTSTONES episode made- although THE FLINTSTONE FLYER may have been the first one aired by ABC. As you stated, Muse also did the recently-unearthed first season titles. His style is very distinctive (many 'smear' lines following a falling or running character; vivid facial expressions, especially when a character is suffering) in his Tom & Jerry theatricals and for most H-B TV series from 1958 through 1985. Muse also worked on two of the last Avery-directed shorts, DEPUTY DROOPY and CELLBOUND; and for DFE theatricals and TV in the early to mid seventies. That includes numerous Ant & Aardvarks and the first two Panthers made when the character was revived in 1975.

THE FLINTSTONE FLYER

Carlo Vinci, who came to MGM just before it closed. He animated at least one Lah-directed Droopy (DROOPY LEPRECHAUN?), the two Spike & Tyke spinoff shorts and the last coupla T & Js. Before that, Vinci had a very long stay at Terrytoons. Like Muse, his style is easily spotted, most prominently during dancing and bowling scenes (which he specialized in throughout the 'STONES run). Vinci also was a mainstay at H-B through 1978, when he apparently either retired or passed away.

THE PROWLER

Mostly George Nicholas, who was never with MGM, but animated for Lantz and Disney in the forties. He seemed to specialize in grinning, nodding facial expressions, with the character often doffing out invisible suspenders. Probably best known for Fred's famous wide-eyed "BET-BET-bet-" convulsion in a second-season episode, Nicholas stayed with H-B through about 1966, and was little seen after that except for some scattered DFE TV work in the early seventies. Interestingly, Ken Muse animated a short scene in this episode, which may have been slipped in a season or two later, because Barney is voiced in Blanc's 'modern' version in that scene, whereas in the rest of the episode, his 'primitive', nasal Barney voice (think Little John or K-9) is heard.

THE BABY SITTERS

Ed Love, a vet of the Avery MGMs until 1948, then at Lantz, where he became a specialist in Andy Panda. Love's mouth movements and facial expressions are probably the most detailed and vivid of all the H-B animators. He would also remain with H-B well into the eighties, where he also animated many series' opening title sequences. In fact, Love remained active into the nineties, doing work on the NINJA TURTLES series and the title sequences for DIC's SONIC THE HEDGEHOG.


THE ENGAGEMENT RING

Don Patterson, who was arguably Lantz's best director after Shamus Culhane, having helmed some well-regarded Woody shorts in the early to mid fifties. Patterson remained as an animator at Lantz until H-B opened, and also did scattered work at MGM, mostly on Barney Bear. He seemed to specialize in slack-jawed dialogue and somewhat cross-eyed facial expressions. Patterson animated for H-B into the seventies and then became primarily a director along with his brother Ray.


THE SWEEPSTAKES TICKET

The versatile Dick Lundy, who animated and directed for Disney, Lantz and MGM- although he would never direct during his stay at H-B, which seemd to last through the early seventies. His Fred and Barney seem like the templates for the way they're merchandised and drawn in books- in much the same way as Robert McKimson's model sheet of Bugs. Lundy seemed to give his characters the most solid, 'realistic' look of all H-B animators.

All of these animators did the majority of animation on THE FLINTSTONES and most other H-B shows through 1961. Other MGM animators who would direct and animate made-for-TV H-B over the years included Irv Spence (whose style seems very similar to Ed Love's), Ray Patterson and Grant Simmons. Some former WB animators who went to H-B included Virgil Ross, Manny Perez, Don Williams, Lloyd Vaughan and Bob Matz. With the exception of Williams (shifty eyes, prominent brows), their styles generally could not be spotted from one studio to the other.

[Mibbitmaker]

Now that I know the names :) :) :) ...

I noticed, especially in Ant & Aardvark, the styles of Muse and Nicholas in the DFE stuff, back when they were new. It seemed odd at the time that these styles were in something other than HB, and it's cool to know I wasn't imagining it! :D

I always noticed, especially, the head movements when they talked. In the Muse material, the top teeth were noticable, and the main head-bobbing went up. Particularly in confident gestures with Fred, for example, with his eyes closed and back-and-forth head movement on the upswing. Plus, during the 1st season, he kept the 3 hairs on top rather than just the 2 the animators settled on.

Vinci, one of my favorites, was, as you said, great at bowling scenes(prominent in his first ep.). His characters main head moves were a jerky downward motion, especially effective when Fred shows some aggression. I also liked (as a goofy, cartoon-obsessed kid) Vinci's distinctive line on the side of the men's mouths, subdued or eliminated in later seasons.

Nicholas was another favorite of mine. His head moves were mainly up, with flappy-like mouths. Also note the squared tips of the men's fingers. In his first episode stated in this thread, he drew, for my money, the cuuuutest Betty Rubble when she's looking sneaky instructing Wilma on flipping her(though it ends up being Fred) as a judo lesson.

In the sequence with Ken Muse animating, it seemed that that bit of business was done late in that season's production schedual, since Barney's later voice is a less-polished version, seeing as his voice "evolved" somewhat from one to the other. I'm assuming it was almost evolved before Mel Blanc's car accident(which I only found out about in my young adulthood, early '80s or so), since his 3rd season Barney and the ones he overdubbed from season 2 were the completely developed deeper voice. Plus, the animation in that sequence looked and felt more like late first season than early 2nd (childhood Flintstones 'fanboy' that I was!), since season 2 was quieter, with less music.

Ed Love... the previous post explains my observations better than I could. HIS head moves were jerking both up AND down notably.

Patterson's characters had a slowly-moving upward move with the talking head, emphasis on the chin (such as it were), as exagerated with Fred's "woo woo woo" reaction to first seeing the engagement ring intended for Betty. I actually like the look of his stuff better in mid-period Flintstones, but am always a sucker for the earliest animation/drawing.

Dick Lundy. Big name in the MGM cannon. Cool to be able to place his HB animation now. I always associate his style with later Fl. seasons, so it's fun to see his inaugural episode in season 1. This was during Barney's voice-change. Seems like the little guy starts out the show with his nasal twang, but almost seems fully evolved into his deeper sound by show's end. Maybe THAT's when he became a man :rolleyes: .

Thanks loads, Howard :) Exactly what I was looking for.

...Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on 'fanboys' in other media, eh? (refering facetiously to me and this good-sized post, of course) :D

[Dave Mackey]

Carlo Vinci retired in 1978 but passed away sometime in the 1990's.

[Sogturtle]

Originally posted by Dave Mackey
Carlo Vinci retired in 1978 but passed away sometime in the 1990's.

Dave Mackey is right. Carlo Vinci (late of Van Buren, Terrytoons, MGM and HB) died on Sept. 30, 1993 in California. He was Joe Barbera's first associate at Van Buren

[Howard Fein]

Other MGM animators who would direct and animate made-for-TV H-B over the years included Irv Spence (whose style seems very similar to Ed Love's), Ray Patterson and Grant Simmons. Some former WB animators who went to H-B included Virgil Ross, Manny Perez, Don Williams, Lloyd Vaughan and Bob Matz. With the exception of Williams (shifty eyes, prominent brows), their styles generally could not be spotted from one studio to the other. [/B][/QUOTE]

Silly me! :o I forgot to include Ed Barge in my list of MGM animators that continued their careers on made for TV Hanna-Barbera. Likewise, WB animator and director Art Davis also filled both roles at H-B. Before his 1963-66 sojourn at Lantz, Davis animated (at least) in several Yogi Bear and FLINTSTONE episodes. (You could detect his presence when Fred or Ranger Smith talking in a way that reminds one of Sylvester saying "AHHHH, Shaddup!" to a bulldog :D .) Davis continued directing at H-B into the eighties.

Generally, the first few seasons H-B existed, only one animator worked on each short; likewise through much of the FLINTSTONES' first season, there was only one animator. Towards the end of that season, however, there could be up to FIVE animators per episode, which made for a very jarring effect as the characters kept changing appearance. :confused:

For the second through sixth season of the 'STONES, there were usually two or three animators, although at times there could be up to seven(!), no doubt because the increasing volume of product stretched the staff thin. The theatrical MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE, released after the show was cancelled in 1966, was worked on by virtually every animator that had done the original prime-time series, with the possible exception of Don Patterson. There seemed to be a change every minute or so!

It seems more difficult to detect the characteristics of WB animators, except for:

Scribner: Gigantic takes ("Heh-heh. Ya didn't know I could fly- FLY?!"; "M-m-men from MARS?!"); Foggy's asides ("You don't bean him with a rollin' pin- that comes later.")

Washam: The 'softer' side of Bugs: looking troubled (all through RABBIT RAMPAGE), or putting on his 'soulful eyes' bit (BEWITCHED BUNNY). The 'soulful eyes' no doubt originated with Charlie Dog.

Ross: Bugs looking coy, often while wagging a finger, or in drag (SOUTHERN FRIED RABBIT; HARE TRIMMED). As it happens, Ross returned to WB (after stints at H-B, Lantz, DFE and Filmation) to animate on the reunion theatrical anthologies BB/RR MOVIE and FRIZ FRELENG'S LT MOVIE. Some twenty years later, his style was still apparent whenever Bugs was talking (which represented ALL the new footage in BB/RR! :yawn: )

Davis: Characters usually in jaunty poses, limbs sticking out at odd angles, and with exaggerated mouth movements. Sylvester in the opening scene of TWEETY'S CIRCUS, or BUGS relaxing in Sam's rifle in RABBIT EVERY MONDAY come to mind.

Bonnicksen: When a character is blustering, with a huge open mouth and lotsa trembling and finger pointing. Think Ralph Krumden or Blacque Jacque Shellacque.

Either Levitow or Thompson gave characters extra-wide faces (especially when smirking) and narrow eyes. ("It's really a buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff, but I ain't tellin' HIM that!")

DeLara seemed to give characters very wide faces and snouts, which made for some great dopey expressions after a character suffers a violent misfortune (Daffy in FOOL COVERAGE; Sylvester in LIGHTHOUSE MOUSE).

Nonetheless, animator changes in WB cartoons are much more subtle and fluid than in H-B- especially if Muse is one of the animators. For the life of me, I don't know HOW to distinguish animation by Monroe, Vaughan, Carey, Melendez, Cohen, Champin, Perez, Darling, Grandpre, Ray, Batchelder, Leonardi, Matz, Halpern or Bransford.

On the other hand, I can usually identify an H-B animator circa 1958-64 pretty easily. :)

[Sogturtle]

Howard Fein~

Your commenting on the relative difficulty of discerning one Warner's animator work from another brings to mind the story of Chuck Jones and Richard Williams... Williams had always been a tremendous admirer of longtime Jones animator Ken Harris. When Jones and Williams finally met, Williams expressed his GREAT and profound admiration for Ken Harris's fine work spanning some 30 or so years for Chuck. He then proceeded to cite specific scenes that Harris had animated for Jones over the years. Chuck was left speechless at the notion that anybody could tell one animator's work apart from another's in any of his cartoons!!!

Friz's three permanent animators Davis, Ross, and Chiniquy were essentially pigeonholed by Freleng into particular types of animation.

[Mibbitmaker]

For the last few years I've been wondering if one animator on the Flintstones in particular was Art Davis, knowing he worked on H-B. The style of the Flintstones animator reminded me of the loose, fluid Clampettesque look of Davis-directed cartoons of the '40s. However, I thought I saw some reference somewhere to that beong someone else, but I could've been mistaken. Especially harkening back would be a scene in this animators' work where Fred would give a surprise take where his head'd go upwards, in a fluid jumble of movement that not only looked almost Scribner-like, but as if the moment was fully animated rather than limited(the style in general, really).

[Dave Mackey]

Art Davis had a lot of animation and story direction credits on "The Flintstones" starting circa the 1963-1964 season. Mostly animation to begin with, but soon settling more in a story direction mode.

It's a shame nobody's preserved those individual episode credits...