Happy Holidays from Film Roman, 1991-1994
Film Roman is the studio responsible for the production of such notable animated fare as The Simpsons (Season 4 to date), King of the Hill, The Oblongs, The Critic, Garfield and Friends, Bobby’s World, Grimmy, Mighty Max, Felix, Cro, and Tom and Jerry: The Movie.
I began working there as a storyboard revisionist on Garfield for line producer John Cawley and producer/director Vincent Davis. Later, I would be hired to work on The Simpsons for two seasons, followed by another stint on The Simpsons years later.
During my time on Garfield, I met Bobby’s World producer/director Gary Conrad, who invited me to participate in one of his annual Christmas videos. This month, Gary made these videos available online, and it’s great to view them after all these years.
The first is “Phil Roman’s Christmas in Wonderland.” This was made after the studio moving from its bungalow in Toluca Lake to a larger building on Chandler Blvd. in North Hollywood. Says Gary, “The staff had grown to more than 200, so this video includes the final appearance of what had been an annual Christmas video tradition, the ‘waving montage.'”
http://vimeo.com/114687729
Here’s the annual Christmas video from 1992, “Phil Roman’s Holiday Hello,” featuring “a timeless performance by the Film Roman Family Singers.” The singers are Bob Boyle (creator, Wow Wow Wubbzy), Cliff Vorhees, Bill Riling, Jim Schumann, and myself.
https://youtu.be/5PPtuM79brI
From 1993: “Phil’s Roman Holiday” features a rare performance by the one and only “Film Roman Yuletide Combo”: Simpsons directors Mark Kirkland and David Silverman.
https://vimeo.com/114574293
Film Roman Christmas Video 1994
“Phil’s 10th Anniversary Extravaganza” turned out to be the last Film Roman Christmas Video, in 1994, celebrating–what else?–the studio’s tenth anniversary.
http://vimeo.com/113299183
Never Laugh at a Live Dragon
On December 11, 2014, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central interviewed none other than Smaug the Tremendous. This is a brilliant piece, with the fire drake showing more emotion than he ever did in The Desolation of Smaug–eye-blinking, tongue-licking, hackle-raising and the like. Considering the enormity of resources involved in bringing the dragon to Hollywood, could this be the most expensive interview ever done on a talk show?
See the video when you click on this link or watch here (PG disclaimer: profanity at the end):
The signoff, crediting Smaug’s “handlers”:
The credits are as follows:
Benedict Cumberbatch – voice of Smaug
Peter Jackson – director/screenwriter
Fran Walsh – screenwriter
Philippa Boyens – screenwriter
Matt Aitken – visual effects supervisor
Marvyn Young
Zoe Saker-Norris
Philip Korsika
Mat Monro
Alexander Berson
Sebastian Bommersheim – digital compositor
Sabine Laimer
Douglas McHale
CodyAmos
Jason Laseroff
Simon Baker
Gerardo Aguilera – visual effects technical director
Chay Johansson
Max Telford
Aaron Gilman – animation supervisor
Alex Burt
Anthony McIndoe
Ben Folkman
Carlos Fraiha
Carlo Leggiero
Caz Ting
Daniel Zettl
Dave Clayton – visual effects
Drew Park
Edwina Ting
Jerry Kung – previsualization animator
Joseph King
Julie Legge
Kevin Estey
Ludovich Chailloleau
Mark Smith
Matthew Riordan
Merlin Maertz
Mike Clark
Peter Chen
Simeon Duncombe
Victor Huang
David Farmer
Brent Burge
Jason Baker
Matt Lappin – The Colbert Report
If anyone knows the duties of each artist, please contact me and I’ll give the credit where due.
Here, Peter Jackson talks about Smaug’s appearance with Colbert:
Uploaded December 17, 2014.
The Making of Panel 19 — Cobblestone’s Reluctant Dragon
In June 2013 Cobblestone Media launched an effort on Indiegogo to crowd-fund its first project, The Reluctant Dragon, with hopes of a series of ebooks to promote reading. Fantasy painter Den Beauvais rendered a series of gorgeous paintings, with the expectation of doing more to complete the book once the funds were raised.
This video shows the construction of a maquette Beauvais used as reference for the title character:
Uploaded on September 16, 2012
Alas, the fund-raiser fell short of its goal, and no announcement has been made regarding another attempt for the ebook. However, on May 21, 2014, Chris Derochie released three audiobooks–Preschool, 6-to-12-year-olds, and young adult–which can be ordered here. Narration is by Mike Tate with music done by Chris Derochie’s talented son Philip.
On December 6, 2014, Den Beauvais uploaded a video showing how he painted Panel 19. Have a look:
Behold the final result. Panel 19:
Enjoy more examples of Beauvais’s amazing artwork:
Star Wars Progress Report, 12-07-2014
Skywalker Ranch Research Library, from Pininterest.
This November, I spent a week-and-a-half researching at Rancho Obi-Wan and at Skywalker Ranch’s archives, gathering rare and hard-to-find information for what I am now calling The Star Wars Historical Sourcebook, which focuses on the years 1971 to 1990. This time I catalogued variants to Star Wars novelizations, thanks to the generosity of Steve Sansweet and his vast, comprehensive library.
Here I am at Rancho Obi-Wan from July 2013, though I worked at the same space this year. Photo by ROW manager Anne Neumann:
I also obtained copies of press clippings from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Netherlands and the United Kingdom covering the years 1977 to 1980. Some of the clippings were lacking page numbers, so I requested the aid of various national libraries throughout the world. These are the generous people who have helped me lately, and I sincerely thank them. Their help ensures that the Historical Sourcebook will be as complete as it can possibly be:
National Library of Australia: Scotia Ashley, Leisa Fox, Julie Beadel, Colleen Romano, Tessa Debeljakovic, Sue Chan, Ralph Sanderson, Danelle Edmondson, Shannon Sutton.
Special thanks to Susan Batho and Bill Hupe who retrieved a copious amount of articles for me from the NLA, years ago. Susan’s fanzine collection is stored at the NLA and is described here.
The British Library: Jamie Maxwell, Alice Dowhyj
Austria — Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Information Services: Mag. Franz Halas, Mag. Wilma Buchinger
Belgium — Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België – Bibliothèque royale de Belgique: Lennart Vandamme, Véronique Wese
Denmark — State And University Library: Jesper Boserup Thestrup
National Library of Scotland: Lynsey Halliday
And in the United States:
Glendale, California Public Library: Keith Kesler
Skywalker Ranch Research Library: Jo Donaldson
Rancho Obi-Wan: Steve Sansweet, Anne Neumann, Pete Vilmur
These are but a few of the many kind people who have helped provide information for my annotated bibliography, and their help will be acknowledged.
At this point, I have finished documenting Star Wars press coverage from 1971 to 1976, with about 90 percent coverage from 1977 to 1990 inclusive. Most of these articles are already in my collection; I simply have to catalog them. More progress reports will be forthcoming as things . . . progress.
The Empire is Coming to Town
Happy Holidays from the Empire! Ruby Rinekso and his fellow stormtroopers from the 501st Legion promote Spike TV’s Star Wars Holiday Marathon, which aired January 3, 2014 at 2 p.m. EST. Uploaded by Ruby Rinekso on December 23, 2013.
Here’s another starring Rinekso as the stormtrooper, to promote another Spike TV Star Wars marathon. Uploaded July 13, 2010.
Canada’s Space Channel celebrated Christmas with their own Star Wars marathon. “Spacemas – Christmas Dinner,” uploaded on Dec 16, 2009.
Star Wars Teaser Trailer Parodies
Less than a week after Disney/Lucasfilm/Bad Robot releases its teaser trailer to Episode VII, and already we have three parody trailers.
The Lens Flare edition:
Posted November 28, 2014.
The George Lucas Special Edition edition:
Posted November 29, 2014.
The Lego edition:
Posted November 29, 2014.
21st century word-of-mouth!
