Now, if you’re a regular reader of JimHillMedia.com, I don’t have to explain who Floyd Norman. But — just in case you aren’t — here’s a quick recap:
Mr. Norman — to put it bluntly — is a legend in the animation industry. Floyd started out at Walt Disney Studios as an apprentice in-betweener back in 1956 … and he’s been pushing a pencil ever since. Name a major animation company — Disney, Pixar, Hanna Barbera — and Norman’s worked there. Cracking out quality cartoons as well as making lots of friends along the way.
Ask anyone who works in animation and they’ll tell you that Floyd’s skill as a story development artist is unsurpassed. But Norman’s other claim to fame (at least within the industry) is his wickedly funny gag cartoons. These silly sketches that he’d quickly throw together to amuse the other members of his production team.
Now, a few months back, I posted this rave review for Floyd’s latest collection of cartoons, “Son of Faster! Cheaper!” I highly recommended that — if you were an animation fan — that you should really run out and pick up a copy of Norman’s new book.
And I guess that at least some of you listened what I was saying. For the first press run of “Son of Faster! Cheaper!” totally sold out. Which is why Vignette Multimedia was forced to quickly publish a second edition of the book.
Well, if you liked “Son of Faster! Cheaper!” I guess I should also let you know that Floyd’s latest book is actually a sequel to an earlier collection of cartoons, “Faster! Cheaper! The Flip Side to the Art of Animation.” Which was published by John Cawley — through his “Get Animated!” magazine — ‘way back in March of 1992.
Now — given that this first Floyd Norman book was published nearly a dozen years ago — I had pretty much given up hope that I’d ever be able to acquire another copy of “Faster! Cheaper!” (“Why another copy, Jim?” you ask. Because my original copy of “Faster! Cheaper!” vanished shortly after Michelle and I separated. Some boxes just seemed to have disappeared while I was in the middle of that awful move. And among the things that I lost — along with my self esteem most of my hair — was my original copy of Floyd’s first book.)
Anyway … Even though I’ve seen the past eight years prowling around Disneyana shows and eyeballing eBay, I’ve never once been able to locate another copy of “Faster! Cheaper!” I even asked Norman himself if he could help me find a copy that was for sale. But Floyd didn’t know where to look either.
I had just about given up hope. When — in a response to Norman’s debut JHM column — I got this note from John Cawley. Which read:
“Noted Floyd’s doing a column for you. Good for you AND him. Always love hearing Floyd’s comments.
Don’t know if you’re aware, but the original ‘Faster! Cheaper!’ (published by me), is still available.
You can buy through www.cataroo.com.”
As I read this particular e-mail, for a brief moment, I became Sheila Broflovski (You know? Kyle’s mom on “South Park) as I screamed “Wha-Wha-WHAT!”
Sure enough — over at Cataroo, under the “Stuff For Sale” sign — John had copies of the original “Faster! Cheaper!” available for purchase. And not just the standard paperback version of the book, but also the ultra-cool special limited edition version of “Faster! Cheaper!” Which were individually numbered, signed by the author and even featured an original hand-drawn Floyd Norman cartoon on the front page of each book.
I have to tell you, folks, that — when I heard that copies of the original “Faster! Cheaper!” were still available — I got ahold of Cawley ASAP. And — just a few days later — I had a pristine copy of Floyd’s first book in my hot little hand.
And let me tell you, gang, that “Faster! Cheaper!” was just as biting and funny as I remembered it to be. This book is sort of this perfect time capsule of what it must have been like to work in animation from the early 1960s through the early 1990s. Floyd had a front row seat as a lot of animation history was happening. And he wasn’t afraid to use his sharp wit and even sharper pencil to make fun of whatever was going on.
Here’s just a sampling of some of the great gags you’ll find in “Faster! Cheaper!” :
Walt’s legendary complaint about Bill Peet’s original artistic vision for “The Jungle Book.” That this proposed animation feature looked so dark and dreary that “… it reminds me of ‘Batman.’ “
Disney trying to persuade Tinker Bell to shave a few inches off her shapely behind by offering her a can of Metracal. As Ms. Bell pouts, Walt says “C’mon, Tink! It’s really good.”
Then — jumping ahead a decade of two — Norman makes fun of the Disney animated features on the 1980s with great cartoons like:
A gag movie poster that riffs on “The Black Cauldron.” This poster pretends to be hyping an upcoming Disney release, “Indiana Joe and the Cauldron of Doom.” The parody poster shows Joe Hale (the “Black Cauldron” ‘s producer) in Indiana Jones garb fleeing from two huge money bags as they come rolling toward him. The poster’s caption reads “10 Years in the Making! At a price that no one will ever admit to!”
Another great cartoon picks on Disney management’s lame-brained decision to change the name — virtually at the last minute — Feature Animation’s next production, “Basil of Baker Street” to “The Great Mouse Detective.” Another fake movie poster shows Basil dressed in a “Miami Vice” type outfit with a cigarette dangling from his mouse. While the copy around him screams “He’s not Sherlock Holmes! Honest!”
Still other cartoons in “Faster! Cheaper!” teases the then-still-new management team at the Walt Disney Company; Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Floyd obviously loved to twit the enormous egos of “Team Disney” ‘s key players with wonderful gag drawings like:
Michael Eisner in bed, dreaming of the day when — as Disney’s CEO stands in a theme park next to Mickey Mouse — a small child points to the two of them and says: “Mommy, who’s that standing next to Michael Eisner?”
Norman’s notion about how “Captain Eo” really got its name? We see a cartoon which shows Michael Eisner receiving the final bill to cover the production costs of this new 3D movie. When Disney’s CEO sees that this Michael Jackson film costs $12 million, he screams “EEOW!”
Another cartoon commemorates Disney’s decision to build a new theme park just outside of Paris. As Michael Eisner shows a newspaper (whose headline reads “Euro Disneyland Authorized”) to Frank Wells, Disney’s CEO says “We just slipped France a Mickey.”
Mind you, there’s also great cartoons in here that poke fun at Hanna Barbera and Don Bluth. Not to mention some intriguing drawings that detail Norman’s days at Tom Carter Studios, that infamous animation operation that burned through millions of dollars but never really produced much of anything.
You can learn all about Floyd’s days at Disney, Hanna Barbera and Tom Carter Studios thanks to the brief anecdotes that Norman includes along with his cartoons. That’s why — if you’re a real animation history buff — you gotta get your very own copy of the original “Faster! Cheaper!”
If you’d like to purchase a copy of Floyd Norman’s first collection of cartoons, you can do so by clicking on this link. Which will take you straight to Cataroo’s “Stuff for Sale” page.
If — on the other hand — you’d like to pick up a copy of Norman’s second cartoon collection … well, I hear that the online store over at www.afro-kids.com just received another pile of “Son of Faster! Cheaper!” So — if you’d like to buy a copy of that funny Floyd book — you can buy it from here.
Whichever way you decide to go here, folks, you can’t go wrong. Trust me. “Faster! Cheaper!” and “Son of Faster! Cheaper!” are both really funny, very informative books. If you’re a real animation fan, you’re going to want to have copies of both of these volumes in your reference library.
Buy them today … and you can thank me later.