OIAF remembers Bob Clampett
Festival screens 11 restored classics
Ottawa International Animated Festival will honour former Warner animation director Bob Clampett (1913-1984). Screening includes controversial short.
(Source: Big Cartoon Database)
On Friday, September 22 and Saturday, September 23, the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) will hold a special screening remembering legendary animator Bob Clampett. Hosted by honorary festival president Mark Langer, the retrospective will feature restored 35mm prints of some of Clampett's greatest, and most controversial, films.
The restored shorts include The Daffy Doc (1938), Wabbit Twouble (1941), Tortoise Wins By A Hare (1943), A Corny Concerto (1943), A Gruesome Twosome (1945), Book Revue (1946), Baby Bottleneck (1946), Kitty Cornered (1946) and The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946).
Also added is a restored print of Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943), an all-black spoof of Disney's Snow White. The Merrie Melodies short is so rife with black stereotypes that it has rarely shown on TV, and was never released on home video. John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy) calls it "the greatest cartoon ever made."
Robert Emerson Clampett (1913-1984) started his career at Disney, where he claims he designed the first Mickey Mouse dolls. In 1931, Clampett was hired at Warner Bros., where he worked on various Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts. In 1935, he designed the unexpectedly-popular Porky Pig for mentor Fritz Freleng in Freleng's cartoon I Haven't Got a Hat.
In 1937, Clampett was promoted to director, where he developed a zany style that drew inspiration from surrealists like Salvador Dali. His cartoons are considered some of the wackiest, funniest and most violent shorts to ever come out of the Warner Bros.' "Termite Terrace." Clampett left Warner Bros. in 1946 after completing The Big Snooze, for which he didn't get screen credit.
In 1949, Clampett developed the classic puppet show Time for Beany, which won 3 Emmys and counted Groucho Marx and Albert Einstein among its fanbase. He also created Thunderbolt and Wondercolt in 1952, developed the puppet variety show Willy the Wolf in 1954. In 1959, he created Beany and Cecil for ABC, which ran from 1962 to 1967.
In later years, Clampett toured universities, colleges and festivals, lecturing on the history of animation. He died of a heart attack on May 4, 1984; four days shy of his 71st birthday.
The Bob Clampett Retrospective Program will run on
Friday, Sept. 22, 10:00 am, at the Bytowne Cinema. It repeats on Saturday, Sept. 23, 7:00 pm, at the NAC Southam Hall.
Kricfalusi will also host a workshop/tribute to his stylistic mentor, called John Kricfalusi Presents: The Genius of Bob Clampett.
