Talking Animals And Other People [Paperback]

Shamus Culhane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 1998

Shamus Culhane (1908–1996) enchanted several generations of animation lovers with his characters Pluto, Pinocchio, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, and Popeye, as well as with his famous "Heigh-ho" sequence in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He started as an errand boy at age fifteen at the Bray studio but went on to become president of his own company and later head of the animation studio at Paramount. Talking Animals and Other People is both a memoir of Culhane's life and career and a history of the art, taking readers from the earliest days of animation, the creation of the flipbook, and the first animated motion picture to the "assembly-line" Saturday morning TV cartoons and recent advances in computer animation. Culhane gives an unsparing insider's view of the industry: from harsh labor relations and brutal internal politics to comical anecdotes and frank portraits of animation giants. Filled with over 150 photographs and illustrations, Talking Animals also includes detailed descriptions of the craft, technique, and processes of cartoon-making. Entertaining and informative, this book brings to animated life the everyday world of this beloved art form and the man who helped build it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 477 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306808307
• ISBN-13: 978-0306808302
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Cinematography

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent memoir from the curmudgeon of animation, March 24, 2001

By 

Rachel Newstead "finder of forgotten animation" (Appleton, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Talking Animals And Other People (Paperback)

James "Shamus" Culhane is not a name that is instantly recognizable to the general public, as is Chuck Jones, but his contributions were every bit as significant. Like Jones, he can be maddeningly arrogant and dismissive of the efforts of his fellow animators, but the truly annoying thing is that he is often right. Culhane worked at virtually every major cartoon studio during its "Golden Age", and generally improved the output of every studio with which he was involved--however briefly. He turned the Fleischer's version of Popeye into a fluid, living character, whereas before Popeye seemed to move like some sort of animatronic figure at Disneyland. He directed one of the few bright spots at Walter Lantz, a Woody Woodpecker cartoon called "Barber of Seville" (which garnered an Academy Award nomination). He also takes us where few other books in animation dare to go--the early days of cartooning for television (did you know he was one of the first producers to make animated commercials for TV? The Ajax elves were his). He even attempted to get in the ground floor of the TV animated series market, though his efforts did not succeed.

This is a must-read, if for no other reason than it avoids rehashing the same material covered again and again by previous books, and gives us an insight into the inner workings of an animation studio as few other books do.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of its Kind-a Great Memoir!, June 24, 2000

By 

PonyExpress (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talking Animals And Other People (Paperback)

I've probably read every book on animation written in english-both in and out of print; Shamus Culhane's book, while an autobiography, is also a detailed insider's view of what it was really like to work in animation's "golden age". And word for word, as a history-it's the best of them all. Culhane spares no one(least of all himself)in his funny, always passionate-and often downright angry-stories of his career which went from New York in the early 'thirties, to depression Los Angeles and the fabled Disney studio, pre-"Snow White", to Fleisher, Warner Bros., Lantz, and finally running his own small studio. A cracking good read!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely the best, January 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Talking Animals And Other People (Paperback)

Along with Mike Barrier's "Hollywood Cartoons" the best book written on the history of the medium. Some quibble about these books being "Disney-centric," but both books pay homage to the man who FIRST emphasized CHARACTER and PERSONALITY in the animated film. And that goes a LOT further than slapstick, no matter how good!