Animation fans in the Pacific Northwest will not want to miss the excellent, “The Art of Warner Brothers Cartoons” exhibition at the MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry… http://seattlehistory.org) in Seattle.

Running from February 14^th till May 17^th, the show features a wonderful collection of amazing background art and animation drawings, the like of which will probably never again return to the area in this current form. Additionally, the show presents the core production process that was required to create these films of animated genius, as well as offering copious examples of traditionally-animated pre-production artwork… such as storyboards, key drawings, layouts and exposure sheets. There is additionally a collection of printed promotional material from the ‘golden era’ too, as well as a collection of films that play loudly and wonderfully rudely from the side of the show.

Walking around and seeing all that traditionally-created animation artwork, it carried me back to my early days in the industry. I was especially intrigued with the original background art… some of which was truly impressive and some that was quite frankly crude and simplistic. However, the wonderful truth about the Warner Brothers films was that regardless of how simplistic and sometimes almost clumsy and crude the background art was, when it was up on the screen it totally worked 100%! Coupled with the fact that only one background artist created all the artwork for each film over just a few week’s of production time, it is perfectly understandable that the quality of work had a somewhat erratic quality to it. As a background artist in my own right during the earlier days of my career, I totally emphasized with the challenges that my soul brothers at Warner Brothers’ were faced with… and I take my hat off for what they achieved in such a short time and with scant resources (compared to the digital artists of today).

Most moving to me out of everything on display were the sequence of animation drawings attributed to the great Warners animation maestro, Ken Harris. I was Ken’s assistant in the days he worked at the Richard Williams Studio in London during the 1970’s and felt my eyes tearing-up as I studied the sequence of his characteristic animation poses. That said, I do very much doubt if the finished drawings that were attributed to Ken’s name were actually his. Ken Harris was a genius animator but actual ‘drawing’ was not his strongest point. He therefore invariably required another artist to clean-up his rough animation drawings and I really do suspect that the ones on display at the MOHAI were no exception to this. I believe therefore that although the animation ‘reds’ (rough drawing in red pencil) that can be seen beneath the black-line final drawings were Ken’s, it is most likely that the clean-up version on top were done by someone else. (And looking at the quality of line and sensibility the contain, I suspect very much that it could have been done by the great Chuck Jones himself!)

All this aside, I have to say that if you’re in the Seattle area and interested in witnessing the product of a great… truly great… period of traditional animation, then  you should not for  one moment miss this great exhibition. Knowing that the majority of Warner Brothers animation artwork was destroyed long, long ago it is a rare treat to see it when it is available and on show. Looking at early Warner Brothers drawings in a book is not the same as seeing the subtleties of the grainy penciled originals… or the exquisite delicacy of the final inked and painted cels (where master artists… almost invariably female… finely traced roughly-hewn animation drawings onto cels, prior to each one being hand painted prior to filming. 

How I miss the days of traditional cel animation! If you go there too, and were part of the industry all those years ago, you too won’t fail to feel a slight tear of nostalgia and longing for a great artform, the like of which we’ll probably never witness again!

That’s all folks!