Monday, December 20, 2010

Animation of Christmases Past

This Christmas greeting for CBS Television (from 1966) was designed by R.O. Blechman , animated by Willis Pyle.


(I have always loved the elegant minimalism and great sensitivity of this piece ... I had it on Super-8mm from Blackhawk Films in the late 70's .   I've been glad to notice that since I posted it to YouTube on Dec. 24, 2006 that it has received over 281,350 views to date.   So a few other people appreciate it too I guess.)



More Blechman:

This is from Blechman's Christmas special for PBS, "Simple Gifts" ... opening sequence designed by Maurice Sendak , animated by Ed Smith.



I wish this beautiful Christmas special were available on DVD . I don't know why PBS doesn't air it annually . '


The bits of it available on YouTube are not the best presentations , but unfortunately all that is available at the moment .

Christmas 1914 -




No Room at the Inn -




Here's Richard Williams wonderful (though much too short ) animated version of Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" ---





This is another film that should be available in a restored version on DVD , but is only available on the internet.


A cel from "A Christmas Carol" that I own.   This was animated by Abe Levitow. Director Richard Williams graciously autographed it for me last time I saw him at the Disney Studio when he was there giving a lecture about animation.


1 comment:

Michael Sporn said...

Blechmanhas another video in today's NYTimes Opinion pages. You can see it by going to this html:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/12/22/opinion/1248069477462/pies-on-earth.html?scp=1&sq=pies%20on%20earth&st=cse