Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
The first clue that something funny was going on at the Honolulu Academy of Arts came early. "When the crates came in they had ACME written on them," said Karen Thompson, educational curator of "That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation," which opens tomorrow.
What's up, Doc? The Warner
Bros. animation exhibit at the
Honolulu Academy of ArtsBy Stephanie Kendrick
Star-BulletinThe exhibit showcases more than 160 drawings, paintings, cels and other objects used to produce Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1930s to the '60s.
So why do Bugs, Taz and Sylvester deserve a spot under the same roof that crowns French Impressionists and Chinese scrolls?
"You should ask that of the Museum of Modern Art in New York," said Steve Schneider, curator of the exhibit.
In 1985, Warner Bros. became the first cartoon studio to be given a retrospective by MOMA. According to Schneider and others, the show was a huge hit.
A couple of years went into expanding the exhibit. It has since completed two American tours -- this is it's third -- and one European tour.
The objects in the show are part of Schneider's private collection."I adored these things when I was a kid, began my collection 25 years ago," he said, which was long before cels began selling for thousands on the collectors market.
"The films themselves are so splendid," said Schneider. "Some of these artists were great, great masters of art and animation."
The academy's show focuses on the process of animation, using the work of studio directors Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett.
"We are going to stress the art aspect of it more than anything else," said Thompson.
The process starts with story boards and character sketches. Model sheets show characters from all points of view, engaged in different actions and expressions. Instructions are written on some sheets. For example, specific lengths are spelled out for Tweety's three hairs and his hind end is annotated: "perky fanny."
The exhibit shows changes in the characters over time. Speedy Gonzales dons a sombrero and becomes less seedy looking, Porky Pig gets a lot less Porky and Daffy gets more angular and mischievous, less Donald-like.
The model sheets were used to encourage consistency among multiple animators drawing the same character.
Warner Bros. short features involved dozens of artists working over months, said Dan Boulos, an animator and owner of Wiki Wiki Cartoons.
Even with the advent of computers, it takes 300 to 500 artists about four years to complete a full-length feature, he said.
There's still a lot of animation computers can't do, he said. Mostly, technology has sped up some of the most tedious tasks and added new levels of complexity to the traditional cartoon.
"It's like the invention of the washing machine. We just add more things to our day now that we don't have to take the day off to do laundry," said Boulos.
But frames are still drawn by hand, and it takes 24 of them to fill one second of film.
Boulos, who helped the academy design its interactive educational exhibit, is offering animation workshops 9 to 11 a.m. Feb. 10 and 17 in the Education Department Lecture Hall. He also will be demonstrating his art in the Animators Studio.
The Animation Station features reproductions of early animation devices, such as the thaumatrope, zoetrope, kineograph and phenakistoscope.
Keiki will get to make thaumatropes, which are cardboard disks with drawings on them suspended on string. When they are spun, an optical illusion results.
The academy's zoetropes were made far over scale so multiple viewers could use them at once. They look like castle turrets. One spins frames of a running man, the other a jumping frog.
Boulos designed the kineographs, or flipbooks. He also drew the frames for the phenakistoscopes, large standing wheels which are viewed in a mirror.
The images on both the phenakistoscope and zoetrope are viewed through slots in the outer edge of the wheel.
"The slots act like a shutter, like in a movie camera," said Boulos.
Moving into modern technology, there also will be an interactive display of computer animation.
"They really will learn a lot about how cartoonists create their cartoons," said Thompson.
And then they can watch some.
Academy Award winning Warner Bros. cartoons will be screened continuously during museum hours in the Cartoon Theatre. Classics include "What's Opera, Doc," "Duck Amuck" and "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery."
Joseph Stanton will feature "Duck Amuck" in his lecture on "Thwarted Predators, Peculiar Parodies ... and Beyond" 2 p.m. Feb. 11 in the Academy Theatre.
He describes the cartoon as a parody of the cartoon genre as Daffy argues with a mischievous animator.
"I'm going to be discussing some of the motifs that are prominent in the cartoons," said Stanton, who teaches art history and American Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
"Things that are popular are going to say a lot about us," he said. "There's something about Bugs Bunny's resilience that seems to speak to a kind of hope. That we can somehow, by our wits, rise above the things that would destroy us.
"We look at the pratfalls and the failures of others and we laugh," he said. That riotous kind of behavior represents the freedom and energy of the human spirit.
"That all sounds kind of corny. Really what it's about is getting us to laugh," said Stanton. "They manage to be funny for a broad audience. Kids would laugh hard and so would adults. They might laugh at slightly different things, but both segments of the audience would be entertained."
Thompson agreed.
"It has turned out to be an exhibition that appeals to all age groups," she said.
According to curator Schneider, Warner Bros. characters and cartoons consistently rank as the most popular in polls. Bugs Bunny has long been the world's overall favorite.
In one of the cities that hosted the exhibit, however, 18- to 25-year-olds overwhelmingly preferred the Tasmanian Devil.
"I don't know what that says about Generation X," said Thompson.
Bugs was the favorite character of everyone interviewed for this story except Thompson. She admitted to having a soft spot for Pepe Le Pew.
"He's got that wonderful French accent," she sighed.
So in the words of Pepe, "Come, pink pigeon, we are wasting valuable time!" Get zee to the Art Academy.
On view
What: That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation
Click for online
calendars and events.
