Tod and Cooper’s Friendship Turns 35!

 

They used to be friends…

…now they’re at war!

Another underrated Disney movie is celebrating its anniversary this month. Today, it’s the 35th anniversary of one of my long-time favorites from my childhood (for 10 years to be exact), The Fox and the Hound. Tod and Copper went from being the best of friends, to the worst of enemies in a several-year-span. On one hand, it’s sad; but on the other hand, it’s just the animals’ instincts naturally growing along with them. Overall, The Fox and the Hound is a cute but rather depressing movie with the only amount of light being provided by those two birds, Dinky and Boomer, trying to catch that caterpillar. Plus, there’s an awesome black bear fight, courtesy of Glen Keane! A scene that was undeniably ripped off by Balto, 14 years later.

Well, I’m sure it would all look like My Little Pony compared to The Plague Dogs. I haven’t seen it yet, but I read about how it is one of the most depressing things in the history of Western animation.

Of course, since Disney doesn’t want their audience to be totally upset, they didn’t let Chief get killed off, like in the original novel by Daniel P. Mannix. So, this adaptation garnered mixed reactions from people who read and love the novel.

Now for some behind-the-scenes facts! This is the last Disney production Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy (who eventually returned to work on Pocahontas), and nine other animators worked on, before leaving to start up Don Bluth’s studio to beat Disney to a pulp! Traitors! Fortunately, after three years of losing to Bluth at the box office, Disney gave him a taste of his own medicine in 1989, when a certain undersea film came out, and knocked out Charlie the dog!

Back to The Fox and the Hound, not only it was a moderate success with critics and the box office (during the dark age of Disney, which began after Walt’s death), but it’s also notable for boosting the careers of a whole lot of people who became major contributors to the Renaissance era and beyond. These include:

• John Lasseter (one of Pixar’s founding fathers, and creator of Toy Story)
• John Musker and Ron Clements (directors of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Great Mouse Detective)
• Andreas Deja (supervising animator of Jafar, Scar, Gaston, and Hercules)
• Tim Burton (some guy into horror, surrealism, and Danny Elfman’s music)
• Glen Keane (supervising animator of Ariel, Aladdin, the Beast, Pocahontas, Tarzan, and Rapunzel)
• Brad Bird (creator of Family Dog, director of Warner Bros.’ Iron Giant, and Pixar’s The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and a fan of the code A113)
• Randy Cartwright (animator of Aladdin’s Carpet)
• Chris Buck (co-director of Frozen and Tarzan)
• Henry Selick (director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline)
• Mark Dindal (director of The Emperor’s New Groove, Cats Don’t Dance, and the god-awful Chicken Little)
• Mark Henn (supervising animator for Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, Tiana, and Basil of Baker Street)

And, to me, the strangest one of them all is Guy Vasilovich, creator of Moville Mysteries, a Nelvana show so hideous that it makes Duckman look like Sleeping Beauty (and you know how Duckman loves to sleep with beauties 😉)!
If you’re a huge animation buff like myself, that list should be like an A-list to you! Not to mention, The Fox and the Hound is the last production where Disney’s Nine Old Men, such as Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, had major involvement in.
So in the end, The Fox and the Hound may be more popular than Basil of Baker Street, but people still overlook it. I understand, since, like I said, it’s not a very cheery film compared to, say, The Jungle Book. Well, here’s some oddball advice for you: if you see a DVD of The Fox and the Hound 2, SMASH IT WITH A RAW WHOLE CHICKEN!!! And wash your hands afterwards.

Best of friends or not, Tod and Copper are still MUCH better than a certain pair of ugly girls on Nickelodeon. And no, I’m not talking about Sam and Cat.

Oh, I almost forgot. The co-director of this movie, Richard Rich, went on to make garbage, a.k.a. The Swan Princess and Alpha and Omega.

 

Nelvana: Animating Canadian Childhoods for 45 Years!

Say, that’s a pretty neat title I just came up with. It should be used for a coffee-table book or something.

Happy Canada Day, everyone! This is a time for animation fans to praise the likes of Norman McLaren, Richard Condle, Cordell Barker, Danny Antonucci, Richard Williams, and the insanely persnickety John Kricfalusi for being born in the Great White North to shake up the animation industry with their edginess, imagination, and creative talent! But today, I’m briefly praising an entire animation studio! One that has played as big of a part of my childhood as Nickelodeon Animation Studio! I would like to call this studio the Disney of Canada, not only because it’s the biggest animation studio of its own home country, but also because a majority of their famous productions tend to be adaptations of existing properties, whether it be children’s books, toys, video games, or an Oscar-winning short.

IT’S NELVANA! Down below is a mini logo history.

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Born in Toronto, Nelvana Limited all started back in 1971, June 23rd. Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert had just graduated from York University, so they decided that establishing an animation studio would a fun way to spend the rest of their lives. When they teamed up with British animator Clive A. Smith, the three of them started to work on a series of animated/live-action shorts called Small Star Cinema for CBC.

Fun fact: the studio was named after a Canadian comic book heroine named Nelvana of the Northern Lights, because Michael, Patrick, and Clive had a fascination with Canadian comics that are now obscure as hell. But it wasn’t until 1978 when the polar bear was first adopted to be their mascot, instead of Nelvana of the Northern Lights. Well, considering how obscure that heroine is, I doubt that a lot of people would mistake the studio for her. It’s probably be the other way around.

In 1977, they began their string of animated specials, including A Cosmic Christmas, The Devil and Daniel Mouse, Easter Fever, Romie-0 and Julie-8, and Take Me Up to the Ball Game. So far, I’ve only seen the second one. Eventually, Nelvana caught the attention of a certain director of a certain movie about a certain galaxy far, far away. Yes, George Lucas loved Nelvana! If you were strong enough to actually remember the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, you might remember those weird animated segments in the middle. That was Nelvana’s doing. They also made the animated series Droids and Ewoks based on Star Wars, from 1985 to 1986.

However, Nelvana’s rise to fame came when they made a deal with American Greetings to produce a feature length film based on the diabetically adorable Care Bear plushies, as well as a few specials based on Strawberry Shortcake. In 1985, The Care Bears Movie proved to be so successful that it infamously beat Disney’s attempt at finding their darker side with The Black Cauldron. On one hand, it’s hilarious; on the other hand, it’s sad and embarrassing. Either way, it’s thanks to the Care Bears why Nelvana is even still alive to this day. After suffering the failure of their first movie, Rock & Rule, the people at Nelvana must have been grateful.

And the rest is history for you to find out on your own time, either through Wikipedia, or the 2001 book The Nelvana Story: Thirty Animated Years, which was coincidentally released on the same day as Braceface.

And now, time for the highlight of this post!

Made with Pixlr Editor on June 23, 2016, Nelvana’s 45th birthday.

This massive, colorful collage, containing exactly 69 Nelvana productions, should be enough to illustrate my strong admiration for them, and how much they mean to me as a Canadian animation aficionado. Recognize any of your favorites? I apologize if they are any I missed. I didn’t want to be biased by only including shows that I either admire or formerly admire. The collage went far enough to include stuff that I either show indifference towards (such as Cyberchase and Pelswick), or haven’t seen at all yet (like A Cosmic Christmas and Fievel’s American Tails).

Whenever I can, I’ll update this post with a list of the cartoons included in the collage in chronological order, as well as my short opinions on the ones I’ve actually seen.

Thanks very much to Michael, Patrick, and Clive, for all the work they’ve done to keep the animation industry in Canada alive for all these decades. However, let’s not forget that Nelvana not only covers for Canada, but for the whole globe as well.