Jenny Lerew reports that Ollie Johnston has passed away. Rest in peace.
Update: Peter Emslie has written a personal reminiscence of Ollie Johnston and included a great letter from Ollie.
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Reflections on the art and business of animation.
About Me
- Mark Mayerson
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- I've worked as an animator, writer, producer and director in TV animation for 29 years. I created the cgi series Monster By Mistake. I hold a Masters degree from York University in Cinema and Media Studies.
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3 comments:
Rest in Peace, Ollie.
The best tribute I can think of is for everyone to watch the “Frank & Ollie” DVD.
Ollie was one of the most underrated of the Old Men. For my money, he and Frank were the best actors in the place.
Their work was never 'showboating', never showy for its own sake, always supported the story--and always seemd to be some of the best damn work in the picture.
Farewell, old friends. Thanks for everything.
Mark, there's an obit online now at the NY Times' website(http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Obit-Johnston.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ollie+johnston&st=nyt&oref=slogin). Here's the part that gave me pause:
"He was especially proud of his work on ''Bambi'' and its classic scenes, including one depicting the heartbreaking death of Bambi's mother at the hands of a hunter. That scene has brought tears to the eyes of generations of young and old viewers."
"Depicted"? Didn't Bambi's mom die offscreen via sound effect gunfire, during a fast pan with the camera staying completely on Bambi until he makes it to safety? Did Ollie animate Bambi happily looking up saying "we made it, mother!....mother?" etc until he runs up against the Great Stag in a scene that predates by 6 or 7 years David Lean's Pip running into Magwitch in the fog(forgive me but it's been a while and I'm quoting this from memory)?
"The death of Bambi's mother" is always talked about as if she dies like Camille, onscreen. There's great animation start to finish in "Bambi" but the point sometimes is the power of what isn't shown, and that's what I thought was accomplished so well in that case.
But reviewers always seem to remember it differently--or at least, write it up to imply something different. Maybe it's me, though.
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