Hello:
The "making of" of DVD films use to be a bit... euh... light. Do you know any documentary about animation? Specially about the early years of Disney, Warner, etc although I am interested in actual production too... Anime, stop motion, 2D...
Any link or reference will be interesting. Thanks
Víctor
Edited: Books included, of course
'The Illusion of Life' is a really good book about Disney, especially about the early years. Not a documentary, i know, but if you're interested in those things then i would recomend it.
Thanks, Philippa. I saw that book a few years ago, when I was learning animation and I bought it :p
I recommend it too :D
Víctor
Tony White's book "Animation from Pencils to Pixels" covers everything and comes with a DVD.
Another useful book is Inspired's "3D Short Film Production" also with a DVD. More of a how-to type book.
I was at Dland last weekend, and saw quite a few copies of "Illusion" in the shops. I thought it was hard to find these days (I have my copies so I'm not looking), but maybe not.
There used to be a companion video to Crafton's "Before Mickey" book; don't know if it's still available. The full-length version of "The Reluctant Dragon" is a studio tour that follows the production process for the featurette, but I wouldn't call it a documentary.
There are all kinds of little bits and pieces floating around. I have a Popeye DVD that has a newsreel of Fleisher's Miami studio. Shows the 3D set rig that he created, etc, but again it's not exactly a documentary.
Have you seen "Frank and Ollie" or Leslie Iwerks' "The Hand Behind The Mouse"?
"Frank and Ollie" is an amazing documentary about Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, who wrote the Illusion of Life.
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Film documentaries on animation are rare . Sometimes the studio-produced "making-of-behind-the-scenes" pieces done for a particular film have some good material in them , othertimes they're just fluff pieces.
[URL=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/chuckjones.html]
"Chuck Jones: Extremes & Inbetweens" [/URL] is a documentary about the work of late, great Charles M. Jones . Purchase it here
"Animating Art" about the work of animator Art Babbitt, directed by Mo Williams (wife of Richard Williams) . Difficult to find . Not commercially available, but copies do float around . Start looking.
"The Boys From Termite Terrace" - CBS Camera Three documentary about the Warner Bros. animators , writer/director , and on-camera host John Canemaker. It's in the extras section of one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs.
Tee Bosustow is currently working on a documentary about the UPA studio :"UPA: Mavericks, Mayhem, and Magoo"
A couple of documentaries about animator/director Richard Williams have shown up on Google Video and YouTube.
"Richard Williams and The Thief Who Never Gave Up" , covers the career or Richard Williams , with particular emphasis on his work for the animated feature film "The Thief and the Cobbler" .
"I Drew Roger Rabbit" , again about Richard Williams's work as an animator/director, particuarly his work on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" , but also with an emphasis on his ongoing efforts (at the time) to secure financing to complete his magnum opus "The Thief and the Cobbler."
"EustaceScrubb" has left the building
Mo is one of the sweetest people on the face of the earth. She remembered me after meeting briefly many years before, and reintroduced me to Richard. She is just a wonderful person!
The best source of animation documentaries are probably those 2-disc "special edition" movies. Some of them are packaged with 3 hours of documentaries & interviews, including production art and the usual commentary tracks.