Customer Reviews

Masters of Animation

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John Grant has collected here a large group of animators from around the globe, from Walt Disney to Chuck Jones to Hayao Miyazaki, to discuss their accomplishments and why they are "masters" of their crafts. He admits in the introduction that if the book were perfect he could have added more, but what he has here is really fine enough.

Each story goes well into detail about the lives of animators, where they came from, their background, and what their best works were. Even smaller names that perhaps are not as well respected (such as Hannah-Barbera or Will Venton, the man responsible for the California Raisons) are discussed, giving a good balance of fame and talent. There are many animators mentioned here, such as John Hubley, that I think are long overdue in recognition.

However, often at times John Grant tries to analyze things a little too much. I have to wonder how many people who saw the Ralph Bakshi's "Cool World" would share the same concept that it "examines in part the relationship between physical and created universes" (pg. 29) - I am an avid Ralph Bakshi fan, and he is one of my idols...but even I have to say that it's just a bad movie. I also find it ridiculous that Grant claims "Titan AE" was the first Don Bluth movie that couldn't be compared to Disney (pg. 41) - most of Bluth's films had their own unique look to them, and even as a little kid when I saw films like "Rock-A-Doodle" or "The Land Before Time" I could recognize them as being by the same animator - and besides, once again, it was just a bad movie, and despite what Grant claims I doubt there was a "Disney Dirt-Tricks Department" (pg. 42) behind it's failure at the box-office (there was certainly no Disney executive breathing down my neck when I saw it). A final example can be found in the section on Chuck Jones: many will laugh out loud when they read Grant's analyzation of Wile E. Coyote as some great metaphor for people with old gizmos in their attics. (pg. 135) John, listen, it's just a coyote that goes after a roadrunner and gets blown up, alright? It's just supposed to be funny. Leave it at that.

Still, as much as I am tempted to give it three stars for some of these exagerations, I still recommend this book for the animation gurus out there. It is still a fine collection of well-known and not-so-well-known names, and highlights many animated features that have never had the popularity they deserved. As much as I disagreed with John Grant on several issues, I commend him for making this collection at all.

They are legends who created legends. Without them we would have no Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, or The Flintsones. They are the Masters of Animation, all profiled in this wonderful book by John Grant. Grant spotlights 37 of the most talented animators and creators whose creations you certainly know, even if you don't know their names.

Each profile provides detailed biographical information about each of these men, and includes synopses of some of their most noted work as well as Grant's analysis and other anecdotes about their lives. Among the animators included are all of the Warner Brothers greats including Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, and Robert McKimson. Also included are: Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse creator Ub Iwerks, Hanna Barbera, Ralph Bakshi, Don Bluth, The Fleischer Brothers, early pioneer Winsor McCay, and Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz.

While you certainly know their works, Grant fills you in on a lot of details about their lives and the ups and down of being an animator for the often ruthless studios. We will find that the Fleischer brothers Max and Dave who produced such memorable cartoons such as Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman actually couldn't stand each other. Max often took credit for Dave's (the far more talented of the pair) work which infuriated his younger brother.

While animation fans often scoff at the streamlined and cheaper animation of Hanna Barbera, one cannot deny that they brought animation to a far wider audience in the 60's and 70's with shows like The Flintstones and Scooby Doo. Their early work at MGM notably on the Tom & Jerry series was as good as anything put out by Warner Brothers during the same period. Credit the pair for realizing the cheap animation for TV was the way to go once MGM closed their studio in 1957.

Among the more interesting profiles to read was that of Ralph Bakshi and the many problems he went through (many created himself) on the ill-fated Lord of the Rings animated film. Bakshi struggled to find a happy medium between staying faithful to the well known source material, and keeping the film at a manageable run-time.

Grant does at times tend to over analyze some of the works of these animators, often jumping to metaphorical conclusions and allusions where perhaps the animator was simply trying to provide some humor, but he does a great job of presenting all the necessary facts. To think of the stable of animators that Warner Brothers had in the 1940's is simply astounding. As you might guess, Walt Disney gets the longest at some 16 pages. I must also credit Grant for including a couple of men you might not have thought about being in the book, namely Muppet creator Jim Henson and filmmaker Terry Gilliam whose bizarre animations for the Monty Python TV show and films were groundbreaking.

There are a couple of notable exclusions, however. Where is Jay Ward, creator of Rocky & Bullwinkle? I'd certainly put him in the book before I would Will Vinton. And since Grant did include Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, I have to ask why didn't he also include Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of one of the greatest Anime of all time "Akira".

For fans of animation I can think of no better book and can give no higher recommendation than this fantastic book.

Reviewed by Tim Janson