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Ended up going down a Wiki hole about the long, tortured development hell of the Little Nemo animated film, which had on staff at various times Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Ray Bradbury, Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnson, Chuck Jones, Brad Bird, Mœbius, John Canemaker, Brian Froud
And STILL managed to eventually be terrible because nobody had any fucking idea what to do with this thing
I will not try to sum up how deeply mired this thing got in development hell, you can look it up elsewhere, but there's a story Brad Bird told about visiting the project and talking to the animators, who said "We're just illustrating what Bradbury writes"
And then they saw Bradbury walking around later and talked to him, and he said "I'm just putting in writing what these wonderful artists are drawing!"
At which point I believe Bird said he looked at his partner and went "uh-ohhhhh"
At which point I believe Bird said he looked at his partner and went "uh-ohhhhh"
It did net us an absolutely jaw-dropping pilot, though, I still can't watch this thing without getting shivers over how beautiful it is
Kazuhide Tomonaga was a key animator on this, who also animated the car chase sequence in Castle of Cagliostro and the openings to both Batman: TAS and Inspector Gadget
The DIRECTOR, meanwhile, was Yoshifumi Kondo, who directed Whisper of the Heart & who was setting up to be one of the big heavy hitters at Ghibli before he died of aortic dissection at 47
It's no wonder it looks as good as it does. One of my favourite animated shorts, anyway
It's no wonder it looks as good as it does. One of my favourite animated shorts, anyway
The movie that eventually resulted from all this talent wandering around looking for a direction, any direction was ... not great
Like I was at an age where I was the target audience when it dropped and I barely remember it making a ripple
Like I was at an age where I was the target audience when it dropped and I barely remember it making a ripple
Other extremely random thing I just found out: The movie's director was Masami Hata, who gave the world the bonkers Nietzschean revenge fairy tale "Ringing Bell"
Fucking EVERYBODY worked on this goddamned thing
Fucking EVERYBODY worked on this goddamned thing
And what we eventually got was VOICES BY MICKEY ROONEY, SONGS BY THE SHERMAN BROTHERS!
But that pilot was really something else
There were actually THREE pilots, of which that one was the second. The first one was animated in 1980 and looks completely different and interestingly WAY more like a moving version of McKay's art
There were actually THREE pilots, of which that one was the second. The first one was animated in 1980 and looks completely different and interestingly WAY more like a moving version of McKay's art
They mimic his fine lines perfectly, a full movie in that style would have been super interesting
Buuuuut, again, that is not what we got, more's the pity
Buuuuut, again, that is not what we got, more's the pity
