More From Iwao Takamoto

 Well, it sure has been a minute. I'm sorry for the lack of posts this month. Work has been ramping up (and will probably get even crazier as the summer continues), I got a promotion, and I was down with the flu for over a week. With all of this going on, you probably won't be shocked that the blog got kind of lost in the mix. But I've got some cool stuff for this week, starting with a short newspaper piece on Iwao Takamoto. 

I originally meant to post this shortly after his 100th, but then all of the above happened. Better late than never, though! The following appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on May 16th, 1997. Beyond being an intriguing look at how Takamoto operates as an artist, this may be the only time I've seen Velma referred to as Thelma.

Scooby who? Just ask Iwao Takamoto

By Richard Jinman

    Dogs have been good to Iwao Takamoto. The 72-year-old creator of celebrated cartoon canines such as Dick Dastardly's sniggerting comrade Muttley and The Jetson's space-age pooch Astro, admits a well-drawn dog can transform an animated film.
    So when CBS commissioned Hanna-Barbera to create a "teenage mystery" in the late 1960s, its primary designer was told the human cast—Fred, Daphne, Thelma and token beatnik Shaggy—needed a pet dog to inject some humour into proceedings.
    "Rather than a cute little dog, we decided to go for a big do,g and the biggest I could think of was a Great Dane," said Takamoto, who is in Sydney to open an exhibition of Hanna-Barbera animation art at the Silver K Animation Art Gallery in Parramatta.
    "I found out what made a prize-winning great dane and went in the opposite direction. The legs were supposed to be straight, so I made them bowed. I sloped the hind-quarters and made his feet too big. He was supposed to have a firm jaw, so I receded it..."
    Scooby-Doo was born.
    Today, the show is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, particularly in the United States. Its 60s fashion sense fits the prevailing retro-sensibility, and Scooby Snacks has even entered the language as street slang for narcotics.
    Takamoto's animation career began in 1945 when he secured a job at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.  
    A move to Hanna-Barbera in 1960 saw him playing a major role in the design of literally hundreds of animated characters. The Jetsons, Atom Ant, Precious Pupp, The Banana Splits, Wacky Races, and Grape Ape. Wacky Races' svelte damsel in distress, Penelope Pitstop, was a particular favorite.
    According to Takamoto, Pitstop—who was based on an old movie character called Pearl White— presented particular problems for his team of male animators.
    "As an animator, you become fascinated by movement," he said. "I'm not a woman, and there are so many nuances and bits of timing [peculiar to women] that aren't natural to me. It can be nothing more than a little gesture of frustration, but getting it right became an intellectual process."
    A fan of The Simpsons and the "craft" demonstrated by Ren and Stimpy, Takamoto denies there has been any radical shift in animation in the '90s.
    "Whether it's The Simpsons or The Flintstones, it's a reflection or caricature of the world we live in," he said. "The way we conceive or want the world we live in."

Daws and Don Congrat Bill and Joe

 I've got a neat find for today's blog post. Below is a 1977 print ad that appeared in several entertainment trades (this copy in particular came from Variety). It congratulates Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera for Hanna-Barbera's twentieth anniversary, calling them "one of the best comedy teams of all time."

Taft weren't the only ones congratulating the duo. Another Hanna-Barbera duo, Daws Butler and Don Messick, also had ads celebrating the occasion. Daws' even features a caricature of himself, as was standard in his business cards and other similar items.

As a bonus, here's another congratulations, this time from Wonder Woman herself, Shannon Farnon. Apart from Superfriends, Farnon was also heard on Hanna-Barbera's Valley of the Dinosaurs. 

Video of the Week: The Flintstones Playset Toy Commercial

 

The Flintstones have been the subject of numerous toy lines over the years, and in the seventies, Mego had a short-lived go at the license. Mego, for those unaware, produced toys for everything from Marvel Comics to Planet of the Apes. Yet, all that they produced for this series was a single playset, which you can view an advertisement for below.

For the curious, here's a photo of the playset and its contents. It's not too bad of a set, if you ask me, and the figurines, though obviously dated, aren't that far off from their screen counterparts. This set is apparently pretty rare, so if you have this one in storage or something, you might have some real money on your hands!

Doug Wildey Does DC

 DC and Hanna-Barbera seem to be one of those pairings that go together like peanut butter and jelly. Whether it's the Superfriends cartoon in the seventies or the modern Hanna-Barbera comics by DC, their partnership has certainly been a long-lasting one. 

Superfriends was Hanna-Barbera's biggest foray into the world of DC, but it wasn't their first try by any means. Did you know that Doug Wildey, best known for his work on Jonny Quest, worked on a few concept pitches based on DC heroes? Take a look below at his take on The Flash and Green Lantern. Apologies for the "eBay" watermarks. 

As a big fan of Wildey's work, both on and off Jonny Quest, I really dig these pieces. At the very least, they beat the Superfriends any day. There's no info about when these were pitched, but I must imagine it was sometime after Quest ended, but before Filmation did their own take on the DC heroes. Who knows how either of these shows would've turned out, but I can't imagine they'd have been worse than what we actually got. 

Where Does Boomerang Get Those Wonderful Toys?

"Boomer-April" has come to an end, and with this final post, I thought there wasn't anything better to look at than those classic bumpers featuring those wonderful toys. 

Boomerang was designed as a tribute to cartoons primarily from the 1960s, so populating its bumpers with vintage toys of that era was nothing short of genius. Add in Jeff Bergman as the announcer and a catchy tune by Michael Kohler, and you have a channel design that nobody can beat. And people wonder why they stuck with this for 15 years.

Congratulations on Boomerang for hitting the big 2-5. Here's hoping for another 25 years of coming back to us! Going off their track record, their next look will be here in 2030.

100 Years of Iwao Takamoto

 It was on this day 100 years ago that one of Hanna-Barbera's most prolific animators was born. That man was none other than Iwao Takamoto.

Truthfully speaking, what can you say about Iwao that hasn't already been said? The man was nothing short of brilliant, as seen by his impressive credits for Disney and Hanna-Barbera. He overcame great struggles, the most notable being his time at a Japanese internment camp during World War II. His creations continue to entertain and inspire generation after generation. Even during those many dark years at Hanna-Barbera, Takamoto continued to work hard and teach new, younger artists. 

Though Hanna-Barbera would cease to exist after Turner's merger with Time Warner, Takamoto continued to be active in the animation world. He was a creative consultant on numerous projects, primarily those centered on his most famous character, Scooby-Doo. Iwao Takamoto passed away on January 8th, 2007, from a heart attack. Dozens of tributes and eulogies from those in the industry followed. Below is a piece done by artist Scott Jeralds in memory of Iwao that appeared in several trade magazines following his passing. 

As an employee of Disney during its Silver Age and as someone who worked for most of Hanna-Barbera's history, it's no surprise that Iwao Takamoto was interviewed rather frequently. Here is a link to an interview he did for Animation Blast in 1999. It's a great read that I definitely recommend checking out. He also did a multi-part interview for the Japanese American National Museum in 1998. Below is the first clip, but if you'd like to see more, click the link right here. 

Of course, I also cannot recommend the books Iwao Takamoto: My Life with a Thousand Characters and Living With a Legend enough. These titles are quite different in style and objective, but they are both worthwhile reads for those interested in Iwao Takamoto. 

While Iwao may no longer be with us, his work and impact on animation is still felt, and that will continue for years to come. As his grave said, he was a man of gentle and humble spirit. His creative genius will live forever.

The Day Boomerang Changed Forever

As mentioned many times this month, Boomerang was a channel that was constantly evolving (or devolving, depending on who you ask). What started as a new home for classic cartoons would quickly become a dumping ground for its sibling channel, Cartoon Network. While it made some sense when older CN shows like Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls joined the channel, shows like Almost Naked Animals and Pokémon felt completely out of place. Things would get so bad that CN would begin using the channel to burn off the last episodes of some of their less-desired shows.

By 2015, classic WB and Hanna-Barbera shows had virtually disappeared from the programming. Now, the channel aired The Garfield Show, Amazing World of Gumball, and a dizzying amount of Scooby and Tom and Jerry spin-offs. The channel had very clearly changed in its goals, and the folks at Turner decided a change in branding was necessary to reflect that.

On January 19th, 2015, Boomerang had its first (and so far only) rebrand. At this point, Boomerang was being designed as a family channel, with a similar audience to Cartoon Network. The rebrand reflected this, as it was very close to the look of that network at the time. The channel continued to acquire new shows and air CN programming. Overall, it wasn't the best time to be a Boomerang viewer.

Below is a look at what the channel looked like during the last minutes of its original look and the first minutes of its rebrand. While the last program to air was an MGM Tom and Jerry short, the last bit of content seen before the rebrand was a Nacho Bear short. Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.