Sunday, March 18, 2012

Drawings on inspiration, words on imagination and other adventures at 24 frames per second (with Wendell Washer!)



Veteran storyboard artist and special guest Wendell Washer cracks the 41st seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse! Yes it's the first part of a two episode interview with a man who had a hand in creating many of the most memorable shows and scenes from the animated shows I grew up watching! From Filmation to Hanna Barbera to Marvel and beyond, Mr. Washer worked as a storyboard artist at many of the great American animation studios of the 70s, 80s and 90s. He shares in this episode the early beginnings of his career and what it was like to grow up a fan of cartoons while pursuing an education that had him headed entirely in another direction. How did a science major aspiring to be a nuclear physicist from Chicago end up working in animation in Hollywood? What Donald Duck short was the first cartoon that inspired him? Who would win in a fight between Gigantor and Optimus Prime? Find out all that and more in this I'M 99% HYSTERICAL edition of the podcastalypse!


Or download it directly

SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE
  • Goodbye Ralph McQuarrie




  • Podcast credibility letting me interview great people
  • WendellWasher.com
  • Interview with Wendell Washer (part 1)
  • Growing up in Chicago near the Museum of Science and Industry
  • The anthropomorphic alphabet stylings of Mrs. Washer
  • Being the son of a lithographer who did patent drawings
    Hanging out with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
  • Getting to meet Martyn Green, Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Rose Marie, Mary Martin and others
  • Watching Donald's Garden (Disney 1942) for the first time in parochial school
  • Tips from Preston Blair's book Advanced Animation
  • Why nearsightedness affects ones' appreciation of Kung Fu Panda
  • Having natural talent takes a lot of work
  • Barbra Walters' rocket to Schenectady
  • How did they ever make cartoons before computers?
  • The Buck Rogers school of science appreciation
  • Having a head for science but a heart for animation
  • The disadvantages of dc power (and how square roots can help)
  • Tesla & Westinghouse lighting up Chicago
  • An abundance of inspiration may overcome much of the need to perspire
  • Nikolai Tesla being abducted by incompetent aliens
  • Geniuses in history tapping the ultimate potential of the human mind
  • Degrading the earth's environment degrades our human potential
  • The future of animation is the holodeck
  • Appreciating life at 60 frames per second
  • The rise of video game reflexes
  • Losing the ability to be fooled by illusions
  • Being sad that my kid will not be as dumb as me
  • Average man uses more of his brain (10%) than he does of his Adobe Photoshop (1%)
  • The railroad was the internet of yesteryear
  • The Union Pacific Big Boy
  • What it really means to be more powerful than a locomotive
  • Mickey Mouse was topical and also Plane Crazy
  • Finding a place for things that aren't 60 fps
  • The birth of Xerox and the end of lithography
  • HEY HEY HEY-Starting out at Filmation in 1972 with Fat Albert
  • Springtime for Gigantor
  • I'm hysterical, I'm wet, and I owe Mel Brooks another movie admission fee
  • Am I taking Chemistry or German?
  • Watching Getter Robo G, Yuusha Raideen, UFO Warrior Dia Apolon, and others on KWHY in Los Angeles
  • It's the Dorohms!
  • The Cartoon / Fantasy Organization's early days as the Astro Boy / Kimba Club. (Expanded upon here by Fred Patten)
  • A great character moment at the end of Spirited Away's English dub that's not in the Japanese version
  • The draw of storyboarding
  • Doing a storyboard is as close as you can get to doing an entire cartoon by yourself
  • Storyboarding the Tom & Jerry episode School for Cats
  • Spike the bulldog drill sergeant and his uncanny resemblance to a mascot painted on the wall of the army latrine at basic training
  • To be continued…

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