Yogi's Ground Game

From 1997, an early tribute I did in honor of the UFC.

When I first turned in this scene to CN, they wanted me to cut it because they thought Yogi and Ranger Smith were having "relations". I explained that, no, this was an MMA style of fighting popularized by first, Royce Gracie's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and then built upon by Mark "the Hammer" Coleman's "Ground and Pound" combination of wrestling and strikes. This scene has never aired in its entirety on TV as far as I know, but now that UFC is popular everyone understands what "the guard" position is, so I'm guessing it's safe to finally show it uncut.

Todd White, famous cartoonist and illustrator has a black belt in Machado Jiu Jitsu. He helped me plan out all the poses. It's animated by Anthony Agrusa.

WATCH YOGI GROUND AND POUND RANGER SMITH

what this scene really needed was Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan to do the commentating

I've been a huge fan of UFC since almost the beginning and even pitched the idea to Spike TV to do a reality show based on it back in 2002. I wanted them to follow Tank Abbot around to bars and watch him start fights with people. We even wrote Ken Shamrock into a Ren and Stimpy episode playing Stimpy's Dad. At the time, Spike had never heard of UFC but thank Jesus (and Dana White) it's mainstream now. There was a time when it looked like it was going to disappear forever.

I think it's the best show on TV (the live Pay Per View events) and possibly the last purely human entertainment.

MORE CARTOON MMA ACTION!

Morning Desolation in Limited Animation

One of the things I love about studio animation VS Independent animation (or kids in their basement doing Flash) is the collaboration with other artists. When you are lucky enough to be surrounded by top talent, like I have been, you get to witness lots of different styles and combine ideas that you by yourself might never come up with. This sequence opens up with Aaron Springer scenes. I gave him only general direction and maybe a rough storyboard, but told him to draw it in his own style - jumping off of HB's and mine. Oh - and to never draw Ranger Smith the same way in any 2 scenes of course. He came up with these 3 stylish scenes that really stand out from my blander scenes that follow.
http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/HB/JohnHB/DayInLife/Aaronsmall.mov
He loves his gnome feet.
I always say I want strong styles in my own cartoons, but even I would be taken aback and inititially outraged by Aaron's scenes. They would be so much weirder and cartoonier than my own, that I would be shocked to my core. It's not easy to shock me. Even I would be tempted to change his stuff, either because it was just TOOOO weird, or that I was jealous. I would fight off the urge to tone down his stuff, because I knew it would make for a better picture if I just locked myself in the bathroom and counted to 10. I imagine this is an internal fight executives and producers have every day over stuff way less creative than what Aaron can do. So by direct experience, I know the ugly feeling bland people get when they have the overpowering urge to make everything "consistent" at the expense of the film entertainment. The difference is I have will power and can submerge my considerable ego for the sake of the film. Plus I wanna be a fan of new stuff.

One thing I've learned is that the longer time oozes by, the less radical, radical drawings seem and the more I am glad I didn't tone them down.

Here's my blander part of the section:

Ever have a job where you have to get up really early in the morning? Like, before everyone else? It's still dark out and your only company is the lowly hooting, screeches, grunts and calls of animals mating or ripping each other's flesh and fur apart.
I had a job smelting steel once that was like that. Being up at 4 in the morning dreading a long boring day where you might be vaporized by molten steel. Or having to go work on the Smurfs. That's how I feel right now actually, up at 5:30 making inane blog posts for you. I hope you appreciate it as you sleep in till noon in cool linen sheets dreaming of when your Harem comes to awake you by rubbing grapes over your naked toes and turning on Dora the Explorer for you.
This lonely morning desolation was the feeling I was trying to evoke in this sequence using the meanest of limited animation. Going to a routine job every day with nothing to live for, out of the lonely need for sheer survival.
I think it should have been painted darker and dingier to get the feeling across.Something like this.
Some of my limited tricks. I love limited animation when it doesn't try to hide.
Well, I better try to get some more winks in and be lively for Dora. I don't wanna miss out on a nice lesson in tolerance. Should they change the show's name to be more topical?"Little Drug Cartels"? "Gangland Babies"?

http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/HB/JohnHB/DayInLife/limitedHats.mov

more Ranger Walks - 4 and 5

These delightful walks were animated by Ben Jones - a Canadian.






http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/01Principles/walks/ranger/walk4walk5.mov


BTW, this lovely picture of nature in the wild is for sale...
http://kalikazoo.blogspot.com/2009/03/goldilocks-and-three-bears-for-sale.html

Ranger's Retreat - Trusting Class

I think Ranger Smith is one of the deepest cartoon personalities ever created. In fact the whole chemistry between him, Yogi and Boo Boo is inspired.

I also think that the Hanna Barbera style itself is absolute raw material for experimentation and eventual greatness. The limited animation techniques they pioneered to try and hide the fact that the cartoons are cheap could have been exploited by less conservative minds and turned into part of the entertainment itself. It's perfect for Flash, but no one has taken advantage of it yet.

Hey the picture above and the one below were drawn by that magic imp of the animation world - Aaron Springer. Boy do I love his talent.
The solutions the HB animators came up with to create limited walks made me laugh even when I was a kid, and I always wanted to make fun of them and draw attention to them. Me and my friends actually used to walk to school in limited animaton walk cycles. I perfected the Perry Gunite walk - to the great amusement of the Italian bullies that always wanted to kill me, but couldn't because they were laughing too hard.
HB was absolutely chock full of creative raw material and could have spawned a truly imaginative well respected school of animation techniques, had it been taken advantage of.
I love to experiment, and when I got the chance to do a couple HB cartoons myself, I went at it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to continue developing the style. Part of the problem of experimenting is you have to get the rest of the artists (and executives) to go along with you and its very hard for them to break habits that the animation business has instilled into them, so it takes time to get the cartoons fully developed into a whole new thing. I'd bet you 75% of my directing time is spent just trying to get my crew to actually believe I want them to draw what I said to draw - or even drew myself! Especially when jumping from one style to another.
That's why I hate the whole notion of "style". It really should be renamed "blind habit". People should just learn to draw well and forget trying to have a style. I saw this film the other day that was an unbelievable symphony in formula. It was "The Little Match Girl" done in a completely Cal Arts "style". Every single part of it was drawn and animated by formula and you had seen it all a million times before. I mean it was all smooth and airbrushed and everything, but ye Gods I'd go nuts if I had to just draw the same poses and expressions for a lifetime - especially in such a cold style. The funny part is, many Ren and Stimpy people animated on the cartoon and I guess had to learn the Cal Arts style (or maybe revert to it). Of course Disney has tons of time and money to wait for you to learn to do everything the same way.

Here's another section from "Ranger's Retreat" where Ranger Smith is learning how to trust everyone without question. I think Politicians take this course on their retreats. Shouldn't they really be teaching "Suspicion" lessons?
Note the difference between storyboard scribbles and the final drawings in the colored frames.
We draw continuity really fast, because we are trying to aim for spontaneity of emotion. Then we polish up the poses in layout.
In animation, with the right mindset, you can add a lot of entertainment that neither the script or the storyboards came up with. I'll put up a clip later of funny HB walks.
This was how I ate breakfast every morning when I was 8 and 9 years old. With my Yogi Mug and Huck Bowl.

Here's part 1 if you missed it:
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/01/rangers-retreat-2-trusting-class.html


more later...