Saturday, February 20, 2010

Art Collection: Magstravaganza

Click for bigger.

I mentioned recently that I used to work for Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation and implied that it was a less-than-wonderful experience. However, there was a lot I loved about it, too: the films themselves, the travel experience, and especially my excellent colleagues (including Pony Pal™ Mr. Bad Trash!). A huge bonus was getting to meet so many great animators and to see behind the scenes at several studios, including Disney (where I saw an entire warehouse filled with preliminary work on The Lion King and a scrapped version of Fantasia 2) and Hanna Barbera.

Shown above is a sheet of cardboard which, over the course of two days, I had six different directors of The Simpsons draw Maggie Simpson for me. They were all guest speakers at the FOA in, I believe, Northridge, CA. in about 1992. All these directors/producers were well respected at the time, but what they've all accomplished since then (three Oscar noms, two Oscar wins, three BAFTAs, and fifteen Emmys between them) makes this keepsake a really special gem. The artists interpreting Maggie are as follows:

  • Wesley Archer: Won an Emmy for his work on The Simpsons.
  • David Silverman: Also a producer of The Simpsons, won four Emmys and was nominated for the BAFTA for The Simpsons Movie, co-directed Monsters, Inc.
  • Jim Reardon: Co-wrote the screenplay for WALL-E, for which he was nominated for the Oscar. Won five Emmys for The Simpsons. He wrote many of the episodes of The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse!
  • Mark Kirkland: Won three Emmys for his work on The Simpsons.
  • Rich Moore: Won two Emmys for his work on The Simpsons.
  • Brad Bird: Wrote and directed The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, won Oscars for the latter two and BAFTAs for all three.
UPDATE: also this (click for bigger):

5 comments:

Karen Zipdrive said...

That's one valuable cartoon, Petey.
Very cool.

Diane Griffin said...

Wow.

z7q2 said...

OMG I am totally in awe!

This is like having a photograph of you having tea with John Waters in a questionable street cafe.

samael7 said...

That is seriously awesome.

I'm also completely intrigued by the Fantasia 2 stuff you got to see.

Peteykins said...

Samael, I can't remember specifics, but it was a lot of stuff. One thing was based on a previously published children's book (not by Disney). None of it ended up in what was later called Fantasia II.

The Lion King stuff was amazing, wall after wall of gorgeous watercolor studies of the scenery.