Events
“Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” makes the jump from beloved holiday special to Broadway with next Monday’s Actors Fund benefit
Here’s a challenge for all of you Christmas trivia buffs out
there: Name the first-ever animated holiday special produced especially for
television.
If you were thinking “Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer,” you’d be wrong. That much-beloved Rankin-Bass production didn’t
debut on NBC until December 6, 1964.
Likewise “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (That Peabody Award-winning program
didn’t premiere on CBS ’til December 9, 1965) and “Dr. Seuss’ How the
Grinch Stole Christmas” (This Chuck Jones-directed holiday favorite didn’t
bow on the Tiffany Network until December 18, 1966).
Copyright Classic Media, LLC and Dreamworks Animation. All rights reserved
So which TV program can claim the first-ever-animated-Xmas-special
crown? “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.” This surprisingly faithful adaptation-for-television
of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella debuted on NBC on December 18, 1962. And it has remained a holiday
favorite for 50+ years now, largely because of the wonderful score that Broadway
vets Jule Styne and Bob Merrill wrote for this seasonal favorite.
Which is why — when The Actors Fund announced earlier this
year that it would be producing a one-night-only concert presentation of
“Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” — show tune fans & baby boomers alike began
a mad scramble for tickets to this December 15th benefit event.
“And what’s fun about this upcoming Actors Fund benefit
is that its roots can actually be traced back to another one-night-only concert
presentation that we did in 2002. We had worked with the Jule Styne estate on
this version of ‘Funny Girl’ that we presented — appropriately enough — at
the New Amsterdam Theatre. Which was, of course, the very stage that Fanny
Brice performed on when she was in the Ziegfeld Follies,” producer /
playwright Timothy Pinckney explained during a recent phone call. “But
instead of just doing a straightforward concert version of ‘Funny Girl,’ we decided
to adapt the script of that show to accommodate a different Fanny Brice in
every scene. So that when this show started, the first Fanny Brice you saw was
Sutton Foster and she sang ‘I’m the Greatest Star.’ And then — over the course
of this special concert version of ‘Funny Girl’ — a new star like Idina Menzel, Kristin
Chenoweth, Carolee Carmello, Bebe Neuwith and Jane Krakowski would come out
onstage with each new scene. And you’d then get to hear their interpretation of all those great Bob
Merrill & Jule Styne songs.”
Copyright 2000 – 2014 The Actors Fund. All rights reserved
“So we presented this much beloved Broadway show in a
different way and it was a very successful night for The Actors Fund. But more
importantly, the Styne estate was very pleased with what we’d done. And we’ve
had a good relationship with them ever since then,” Pinckney continued.
“In fact, the estate actually approached us about putting together a
concert presentation of ‘Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol’ because this animated TV
special is a great telling of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale. And they
were thinking that this project might have legs as a show beyond the animated
special if for no other reason than this TV show’s score is beautiful and was
written just about the same time that Bob & Jule were working on ‘Funny
Girl.’ I mean, these guys were at the very top of their game when they wrote
the songs for this animated Christmas special.”
But that said, Timothy still faced quite a challenge as he translated
Barbara Chain’s teleplay (which — in & of itself — had been freely adapted
from Charles Dickens’ novella) to the stage. Given that this 1962 holiday
special had been built around the nearsighted Mr. Magoo … Well, did that then
mean — when the Actors Fund went about casting a performer to play this show’s
title role — that they’d then have to find someone who could do a really great
Jim Backus impression? (Editor’s note: Jim Backus was the comedy legend who
voiced Mr. Magoo from this cartoon character’s first appearance in UPA’s 1949 short,
“The Ragtime Bear” right through to CBS’ 1977 animated series,
“What’s New, Mr. Magoo?”).
“I was initially concerned about this aspect of ‘Mr.
Magoo’s Christmas Carol’ as well. But as I watched & rewatched this
animated holiday special, I realized that this cartoon character was really only
Mr. Magoo in the first scene in this TV show and then again at the very end of
the show. In between these two points in the program, Magoo’s just another
contract player at UPA Animation Studio. So playing Ebenezer Scrooge was really
just another gig for him, his next role at that studio,” Pinckney stated.
Copyright Classic Media, LLC and Dreamworks Animation. All rights reserved
So after taking this observation into consideration, Timothy
crafted the script for the concert presentation of “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas
Carol” in such a way that the actor who was playing this show’s title role
could then channel that cartoon character’s larger-than-life personality &
energy rather than slavishly imitate Jim Backus’ vocal performance.
“In the end, building a stage version of ‘Mr. Magoo’s
Christmas Carol’ around someone who was going to have to then do an impression
of a cartoon character that was at the height of his popularity back in the
1950s … that idea just didn’t seem stage-worthy,” Timothy admitted.
“But given how strong Bob & Jule’s songs are — That’s the real
treasure of ‘Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.’ That it has this classic Broadway
score — we just felt that this show would be better served with a real actor,
rather than a cartoon character, in the title role. Especially when you consider
that this show is — at its heart of hearts — really a traditional and
beautifully rendered telling of that Charles Dickens classic.”
So will this concert presentation feature any songs that
Merrill & Styne had written for “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol”
that were then cut or dropped from the holiday special? Sadly, Pinckey says
“No.”
Copyright Classic Media, LLC and Dreamworks Animation. All rights reserved
“We actually asked the estate about that. But there
just didn’t seem tobe any songs that Bob & Jule wrote that then didn’t make
it into this TV program,” Timothy admitted. “I mean, that was
something that we did with our ‘Funny Girl’ concert presentation. The Jule Styne estate found us a trunk song that had originally been Nick Arnstein’s
solo in the show which then wound up being cut in Boston.
And Peter Gallagher — who played Nick Arnstein at our 2002 fundraising event —
got to present this song for the first time in New York.
But as for ‘Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol,’ it’ll just be the songs that Bob
& Jule wrote for the holiday special plus some reprises.”
So having firmed up a script and a score for their one-night-only concert
presentation of “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” how did Carl Andress
(i.e., this show’s director), John McDaniel (music director) and Marcos Santana
(choreographer) then go about casting this show?
“Well, that’s the great thing about being The Actors Fund. Given that we
are the human services organization for everybody in the entertainment
industry, when we do events like this, the community just comes together and helps
us. It’s their commitment to the cause and generosity that makes events of this
size possible,” Pinckney enthused. “I mean, ‘Mr. Magoo’s Christmas
Carol’ is going to sound absolutely amazing. We’re going to have a 28 piece
orchestra playing the score at this concert presentation. And every one of
those musicians volunteered their time & their talents because they
sincerely believe in The Actors Fund and what our organization does for the
entertainment community.”
Copyright Classic Media, LLC and Dreamworks Animation. All rights reserved
“As for the actual cast of the show, it’s just an embarrassment of riches.
Everyone came on board for the right reasons. They wanted to do this show to
help raise money for The Actors Fund,” Timothy continued. “Which is
why we’ve got people like Christopher Sieber — who’s doing eight shows a week
in ‘Matilda’ — carving out time to come rehearse ‘Mr. Magoo’s Christmas
Carol.’ The Fund has a long, distinguished history of presenting benefits and
events like this. But the cast that’s come together for this concert presentation
— I think, personally — is one of the best we’ve ever had.”
“And you want to know the really funny part? A lot of
these performers didn’t just join this production because it was an Actors Fund
event. They wanted to be part of this show because they grew up watching ‘Mr.
Magoo’s Christmas Carol’ on television every holiday season and they just loved
the idea that they were now going to get the chance to perform those great
Jule Styne & Bob Merrill songs live onstage,” Pinckney concluded.
“Even the performers who couldn’t take part in this concert presentation
because of scheduling conflicts — as soon as they heard what we were doing —
were like ‘Oooh! I wish I could be in that!’ “
Well, if you’d like to catch The Actors Fund’s one-night-only concert
version of that holiday classic, “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” (which
will be presented at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College on Monday, December
15th at 7:30 p.m.), not to mention help out a very worthy cause … Well, you might then
want to swing by The Actors Fund store and pick up a ticket for this benefit
presentation.
This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post’s Entertainment page on Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Events
From toxic gas leaks to the triumph of ‘Finding Dory,’ Lindsey Collins has loved every minute of her time at Pixar Animation Studios
When it comes to “Finding Dory” producer Lindsey Collins, she takes “going-with-your-gut” to a whole new level.
To explain: This Occidental College graduate joined Walt Disney Animation Studios straight out of school in 1994. And after working as a PA on “Pocahontas” & “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Lindsey had just been made assistant production manager on “Hercules” when she began hearing people talk about Pixar.
“I was working at Disney with Ron & John (Author’s note: That’s Ron Clements & John Musker, the acclaimed animation directing team behind not only “Hercules” but also “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and WDAS’ soon-to-be-released “Moana”) and was really enjoying that experience. But just before ‘Toy Story’ came out, there was a brief blurb in the company newsletter about Pixar. And I was like ‘Well, who are these guys?’ And then I got to meet John Lasseter and was just totally blown away by what he and his team were doing,” Collins recalled during a recent phone interview.
Lindsey Collins. Copyright Disney Pixar
“Anyway, Disney liked what I was doing at Feature Animation and really wanted me to stay on there. So they offered me a contract. And I was like ‘I’m fine. I can stay here.’ So I signed that contract. And then I went home and threw up all night,” Lindsey laughed. “The very next day, I went back into Disney and said ‘I’m sorry. I can’t do this. I really have to go.’ Then I went up to the Bay area and basically pounded on Pixar’s door & said ‘please, please, please hire me.’ “
Luckily for Ms. Collins, Pixar Animation Studios was just in the process of gearing up to do “A Bug’s Life.” More to the point, Sharon Calahan – the director of photography on that production – saw lots of potential in this recent Mouse House escapee.
“Sharon was hugely involved with Pixar’s decision to hire me. And part of that was because I had worked with background painters while I was at Disney Feature Animation. So even though I had no clue how CG worked at that time, I could talk with Sharon in the terms of painting. And she was like ‘That’s exactly how I want people around here to start thinking when it comes to how we light our scenes,’ ” Collins continued.
Sharon Calahan. Copyright Disney Pixar
“Mind you, I was the one who kept telling Sharon ‘I don’t know how helpful I can be to you guys. Because I really don’t understand a lot of what you’re saying when it comes to CG.’ But she wouldn’t give up on me. Sharon kept insisting that – because I had already worked with artists and knew how to communicate a vision for a painting – I was also going to be able to communicate with software engineers. It was just a matter of learning a new language. Sharon was instrumental in convincing me that I had any right to be at Pixar,” Lindsey stated.
Which isn’t to say that life was initially easy for Collins at Pixar. First there was that steep learning curve which came with her new job (“When I first got here, I had no idea what a render farm was. I was like ‘There’s a farm? Like a petting zoo?’ “). Then there was the fact that the Port Richmond office park which housed this animation studio at that time was downwind of a Chevron plant (“Sometimes – because there’d be explosions or gas leaks at that plant — we’d then be told to shelter in place or to not come into work at all that day. We used to call those toxic snow days”).
But even under these somewhat stressful & occasionally toxic conditions, Lindsey thrived. Largely because she really loved her new co-workers at Pixar (“They were people who could really make me laugh. In a way I didn’t know that real adults / professionals could make me laugh. And I feel like I haven’t stopped since I got here”).
Copyright Disney Pixar
But it hasn’t all been big laughs. Take – for example – what happened when Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar Animation Studios, approached Collins (who was producing “Finding Dory” at that time) about a change that he wanted to make to that Andrew Stanton film.
“Pixar had this new renderer that it wanted to try out. And Ed felt ‘Dory’ would be the perfect project to try this new technology on. The only problem was that – when Ed approached me – we were already well into production on this ‘Finding Nemo’ sequel. Which meant – if we were going to take full advantage of what Ed was offering us – we’d then have go back and redo a bunch of stuff we’d already done on this movie,” Lindsey said.
“But the good news was – because “Dory” was a sequel to “Nemo” – we weren’t discovering a look for this movie. We were just trying to improve on it,” Collins continued. “And that was the handshake deal that Ed was offering. That – if we agreed to use this new renderer plus some new lighting & shading tools. Basically reinventing the entire back end of the Pixar production line – we’d then end up with a far better looking film that was still set in the same world as ‘Nemo.’ As long as the studio delivered on that promise, Andrew was willing to go for it. Mind you, it would be another full year before Andrew would then actually get to see any footage that this new renderer produced. So it was a huge leap-of-faith on his part. But Andrew was incredibly excited when the redone ‘Dory’ footage began coming in and it all looked so great.”
Copyright Disney Pixar
Another technology challenge that Lindsey had to deal with while producing this “Finding Nemo” sequel was Hank the septopus. But in this case, as soon as Collins saw this character described in an early draft of Stanton’s ‘Dory’ script, she immediately got Pixar’s character department involved.
“When you’re working as a producer, you get to see pages a lot earlier than the rest of the crew. And as soon as I read that first scene with Hank, I turned to Andrew and said ‘Just how big a character are we talking here?’ And he said ‘I think it’s a pretty big role.’ And I was like ‘Okay.’ And I then went down to the character department and told them that Andrew wanted to add an octopus to the cast. And they all went kind of pale,” Lindsey said. “I think what they knew right-off-the-bat that – if we were going to do an octopus in the ‘Nemo’ / ‘Dory’ world with all of the realism & beauty that entails and then have that character fit in – it was going to be incredibly difficult if not kind of impossible to pull that off. Largely because the character of Hank couldn’t be super-cartoony.”
“I mean, on ‘Finding Nemo,’ we had had Pearl, the little octopus who was in Mr. Ray’s class. But clearly the whole point of a character like Hank was that he needed to be a jack-of-all-trades. That this character was going to have to be able to get in & out of everything. So the character department knew – right off the bat – that this was going to be something that would kind of break the bank, if you will,” Collins continued.
Copyright Disney Pixar
“Now what you have to understand about Pixar is that we play ‘Chicken’ a lot here. By that I mean, we see how long we can let something sit on the page before we then have to finally move it into production. But when it came to Hank, that just wasn’t an option,” Lindsey stated. “Based on this character’s needs, Hank was going to take every minute we had, all the time between when he first appeared in Andrew’s script and when we’d be in full production on ‘Dory’ to build this. So we needed to commit very early on this character. But the good news is that I think we bet right on Hank. He actually wound up being a far bigger character in this film. And I think that was partially because the technology which drove this character was so cool.”
So how did it feel – after five years of hard work – to have “Finding Dory” become this hugely popular motion picture? The fifth animated film in all of Hollywood history to earn over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office? Collins – the mother of three – put a somewhat maternal spin on her reply.
“You have to understand that – when you work on projects like ‘Dory’ or ‘John Carter’ for as long as Andrew and I did – these movies are kind of like your kids. In that they then go off & have their own successes & failures which are kind of beyond your control as a parent,” Lindsey said. “But as you’re finishing up working on a film, emotions do sometimes well up at the weirdest time.”
Thomas Newman (L) and Andrew Stanton in the booth during the recording sessions for “Finding Dory” ‘s score. Copyright Disney Pixar
Take – for example – what happened while Collins & Stanton were sitting in the recording booth as Thomas Newman rode herd on “Finding Dory” ‘s scoring sessions.
“We’d had this huge orchestra for four days. And then – on the last day – Tom cleared the stage and recorded the scene where Nemo, Marlin & Dory reunite in the pipes under the Marine Life Center. Now you have to understand that this is one of the only times in his score for ‘Finding Dory’ that Tom reprises a cue from “Finding Nemo.’ And he has this single clarinet – or was it an oboe? – play that cue,” Lindsey recalled. “And as this was happening, Andrew got really quiet. He was just sitting there, watching.”
“So I went up to him and said ‘What’s going on? How are you feeling about all this?’ Because we were finishing this film up at that time. And Andrew looked at me and he was really emotional. And then he said “I remember the first time I wrote Dory’s name on a piece of paper. I can’t believe how far she’s come.’ And that’s when I started getting emotional too, ” Collins said.
Andrew Stanton & Lindsey Collins. Copyright Disney Pixar
And speaking of ” … how far she’s come,” one might say the same thing about Lindsey. Who – it should be noted here – when she was studying at Occidental College 25 years ago, didn’t major in business or film studies. But – rather – diplomacy and world affairs.
“Those diplomacy skills do actually come in handy when you’re working on a movie. But you want to honestly know the very best thing you can do at college if you eventually hope to become a producer? Work as an RA,” Collins concluded. “Katherine Sarafian – who’s also a producer here at Pixar — also ran a dorm while she was in college. And the two of us agree that that job was great training for becoming a producer. When you’re constantly dealing with people and have to get answers to ridiculous questions like ‘Okay, who pooped in the closet?’ “
The Blu-ray & DVD version of Pixar’s “Finding Dory” hits store shelves today.
This article was originally published by the Huffington Post on Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Events
Women in Animation panels prove that there’s more to San Diego Comic-Con than just promotion of pop culture
Thanks to Comic-Con International, now through Sunday, San
Diego is the white-hot center of the pop culture universe.
Photo by Jim Hill
Mind you, there’s more to this four day-long event than
those high-profile presentations in Hall H. Which is where various movie
studios will be parading celebrities & showing exclusive clips. All with
the hope that those 6000 early adopters who have (some of them, anyway) been
camped out in this cavernous convention center for hours ahead of time will
then hop on social media and start evangelizing about how cool that footage
from next summer’s would-be blockbuster looked.
But if you can look past those long lines for
limited-edition merchandise and/or the tens of thousands of people who are
cosplaying, you’ll see that there’s another, more serious side to Comic-Con
International. And that’s the part of this four day-long event which allows a lot
of creatives to reconnect with one another.
Take – for example – Marge Dean, the general manager of
Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (i.e., that Burbank-based operation which is responsible
for “Robot Chicken,” television’s longest-running stop motion series, as well
as Sony’s just-about-to-begin-production-on-its-second-season-for-Crackle
superhero spoof, “SuperMansion”). Over the past decade, she’s made at least
eight trips down to San Diego for Comic-Con International. And what Marge loves
most about this four day-long event is all of the old friends she invariably
runs into as she’s coming & going from the convention center.
Photo by Jim Hill
“Whenever I’m down in San Diego for Comic-Con, I just love
the experience of getting outside the hall, walking down the street and then
suddenly going ‘It’s you ! A guy I haven’t seen in three years ! How are you
!,” Dean recalled during a recent phone interview. “Even though I really don’t
like driving to Comic-Con – which is why, these days, I always take the train
down from LA – I really enjoy strolling around San Diego and then running into
people that I haven’t seen for a long, long time.”
Mind you, Marge is sure to run into a lot of people that she
knows / has previously worked with today in Room 24ABC at the San Diego
Convention Center. That’s because this is where Comic-Con’s “Cartoon Creatives:
Women Power in Animation” panel will be held starting at 4:30 p.m. PT. And
joining Dean at this gathering (which will be shining a spotlight on Women in
Animation‘s goal to have a 50/50 workforce by 2025) will be a veritable who’s
who from the worlds of television & feature animation.
Among those who are scheduled to appear today are:
Daron Nefcy, the creator / executive producer of “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.”
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
-
Lauren Faust (the creator of “My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic”) -
Brooke Keesling (the director of animation
talent development at Disney TV Animation) -
Katie Krentz (the senior director of development
at Cartoon Network) -
Lauren Montgomery (the co-executive producer of
“Voltron: Legendary Defender”) -
Daron Nefcy (the creator / executive producer of
“Star vs. the Forces of Evil”) -
Gina Shay (the producer of DreamWorks
Animation’s “Trolls”) -
Stevie Wermers-Skelton (the co-director of
Disney’s upcoming “Frozen” holiday special)
Dean (who serves as the co-president of WIA) views this
hour-long session (which will be moderated by Leslie Combemale of Animation
Scoop) as a great example of a lesser known aspect of Comic-Con International.
Which is the many ways that this four day-long event educates the fan
community. Gives them a clearer understanding of what’s really going on in
today’s entertainment world.
Marge Dean, co-president of Women in Animation, speaking at a WIA event
honoring Nickelodeon’s contributions to television animation.
“I mean, did you know that women hold only 20% of the
creative roles in today’s animation industry? While the landscape has obviously
changed over the 20+ years that I’ve worked in this field, women still predominantly
work on the management side of animation. Not the creative end of things,”
Marge continued. “That’s a big part of what the Women in Animation organization
is all about. More to the point, why we’re doing outreach to the fan community
at Comic-Con this week. We’re looking to shine a spotlight on this disparity in
the industry and hopefully create some opportunities for more women to break
through creatively in the future.”
Of course, in order to know where you are (more importantly,
where you’re headed next), it helps to have to have a firm understanding of
where you’ve been. Which is why WIA will be holding a second panel at Comic-Con
International, “She Made That? Nickelodeon hosts Women in Animation.” This
presentation (which will also be held in Room 24ABC from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. PT on
Friday, July 22nd) will honor some of the real pioneers of
television animation. The women who helped create such memorable Nicktoon
series as:
-
Vanessa Coffey (“The Ren & Stimpy Show,”
“Rugrats” & “Doug”) - Mary Harrington (“Invader Zim,” “Hey Arnold!”)
Television animation pioneer Margaret Loesch
Of course, Coffey was quick to credit the woman who gave her
a leg up when she was just getting her start in animation in the early 1980s.
And that was Margaret Loesch, the then-President and CEO of Marvel Productions.
“At that time, Margaret was the only woman working in
television animation. I was just this intern, working down the hall from Stan
Lee. But Margaret took a chance on me,” Vanessa remembered. “And Margaret not
only mentored me, she genuinely inspired me. I mean, here she was running this
huge production company in a field that was mostly run by men. Margaret proved to
me that not only should women in the animation business but that they could be
these huge successes.”
You see? That’s what’s really great about Comic-Con
International. If you can just get past all of the hype (not to mention handle those
super-crowded conditions you’ll encounter out on the show floor), you might
then discover that some real education has been mixed in with your
entertainment.
(L to R) Vanessa Coffey, Stephen
Hillenburg (the creator of
“SpongeBob SquarePants”) and and Butch Hartman (the
creator of “The Fairly Oddparents.”
Comic-Con International is running at the San Diego
Convention Center now through Sunday, July 24th.
This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post’s Entertainment page on Thursday, July 21, 2016.
Books & Print
It’s Jim Hill in the Restaurant with the Book – The Jungle Book – and You Can Join Him June 5th
It’s a Jungle (Book) Out There
For more than 50 years, The Walt Disney Company has been reimagining the writings of Rudyard Kipling–taking his tales of Mowgli the man-cub and his animal friends and then turning them into hugely popular films and television series.
Let Jim Hill take you from Bill Peet’s far-too-dark take on this tale (which Walt Disney just hated) to Jon Favreau’s photo-realistic box office smash (for which the Studio is already developing a sequel).
You’re sure to go ape as you listen to all of these great behind-the-scenes show business stories.
Join us June 5th, 2016 from 11:30 AM-1:30 PM at HB Burger, 127 West 43rd Street in New York City
Tickets are $62.00: Each ticket includes lunch at HB Burger, the program, and a special souvenir.
Buy tickets now on line here –> Unofficial Guide’s Disney Dish site or here –> e.t.c. (events — tailor made & customized)
Get your tickets now!
email events@etccustomevents.com with any additional questions.
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