Introduction
John Hubley was an innovative American animator. He worked for Walt Disney and UPA, but his greatest work is seen as an independent filmmaker. He is one of the rare filmmakers who gave the audiences a glimpse into the lives of those that were often ignored by other animation studios. He was born in1914 in Wisconsin, and into an artistic family. His mother attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and his grandfather was a painter. Growing up, he knew that he would be a painter, and studied painting at the Art Center in Los Angeles, California for three years.
Hubley's cartoons feel alive, and his commercials seemed to penetrate the drive-in theater screen. Another influence we see is the use of Benny Carter's boppin' music by the film maker in "Date With Dizzy". This was a time when black music was breaking into the mainstream, and we get a fleeting moment in jazz history in "Date With Dizzy". When the concept of what jazz was getting shaped and modified, Hubley was dabbling with aesthetically complex mediums such as oils, water colors, pen and ink. Those black-and-white sketches of emaciated things and endlessly energetic splashes of color in his works narrated opaque projects. These cartoons appeared during the hazy time in American history.
Before Hubley was blacklisted in 1951, he made one of his most well-known "Rooty Toot Toot" in 1951. This tem minute cartoon shoed love, treachery and murder and was noted for its depiction of black characters. We see Hubley painting the skin color directly onto the backgrounds and with no outlines, giving the characters a ghostly opaque shape. This was in stark contrast to "Cinderella," released by Disney the previous year. We see a more sober and sedated work of the filmmaker in "Harlem Wednesday" with Benny Carter's sultry music, depicting the trivialities of black life in Harlem. The characters nearly blend together with their backgrounds and the environment adapts around its people. One can just go on about Hubley’s shorts, his detours from established norms and how he has offered countless innovations. It is hard to believe that how a guy like Hubley could draw, but one look at his drawings could make even an expert artist wonder if he was as good as Hubley.
At Walt Disney Studios It was in1935 that Hubley started working for Walt Disney Studios, where he worked on painting backgrounds and layouts. He was the art director for the film Bambi, Rite of Spring, Pinocchio and also worked on the first classic Disney film -Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However, we see a glimpse of Hubley's fondness for breathing life into vague entities and his melodious blend of music and animation.
The famous Disney strike left many artists cheated, who were losing their creativity in Disney's authoritarianism. They felt left out in matters of compensation and creative freedom as Walt Disney's main goal was now greater realism. Hubley, like many other artists, felt things going against his creative freedom theta needed unlimited possibilities for imagination and fantasy.At United Productions of America Hubley left Disney in 1941 and joined United Productions of America, where he created Mr. Magoo 1, the Oscar-winning animation. One of the well-known commercial -"I Want My Maypo", that featured his young son's voice, lent an authentic air to the commercial. Hubley was known for his independent and uncompromising manner. These animated commercials increased sales and soon Marky Maypo became a household name.
____________________1 Nina Metz. 2014. 'Mr. magoo' creator's overdue spotlight: John hubley survived a bout with disney and hollywood blacklist. Chicago Tribune2014.
UPA had a very keen interest in modern art and was known for its grand revolution in design style. The company gave Hubley to with this new looks and thoughts on animation. One finds his storylines and characters more developed and the drawings and figures less complex. Mr. Magoo, an irascible, near-sighted character that was developed by the filmmaker became very famous.
Hubley fell victim to McCarthyism in the early fifties, when a wave of anti-Communist sentiment was spreading across the United States. Many in the entertainment industry were suspected to be Communists, for their unconstitutional and unsubstantiated manners. Thus, many artists including Hubley found themselves out of work. He was frustrated with focusing too much on the business side of the studio and not his creativity. He left UPA and established his own studio.
Out of the line When Hubleys opened an independent animation studio – Storyboard 2 in 1955, in New York City, there was practically no market for independent animated films. Still, Hubleys managed to make a pact to create an independent film every year, and completed 21 films together. Several of his films were chosen for Academy Awards and even won Oscars. His animation under the studio Storyboard could not use his name as he was blacklisted, so the commercials were anonymous.
________________2 "John Hubley." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (October 31, 2014). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707821.html
The remarkable partnership of John and his wife Faith Hubley have led to some groundbreaking animated films. Together they changed the face of animation and explored much serious topic that were first overlooked of in the world of animation. Sound and music editor Faith had a resilient impact on traditional animation, artist and activist. Hubleys could produce cartoons on any subject, be it overpopulation, nuclear annihilation, death and rebirth, etc.
Before his marriage to Faith, scholars feel that his drawings were brilliant graphically but cold and distant. Gradually, one finds a warmth in his work that speak of the contribution and influence of his wife on him. His style was the antithesis of the big studio stylishness that was trailed by the Disney artists, who were busy making animated characters on cellular pages. Hubleys still drew on paper, did not bother to stay within lines and came up with techniques that were truly unique of him. The impressionistic quality of Hubleys’s characters could metamorphose into anything. His style was perhaps influenced by modern painters such as Picasso and Matisse.The firsts of so many The Hubleys were self-motivated innovators in the animation and were the first to bring jazz and animation together. We see the use of real children's voices in their animations for the first time and captured the real world of children, instead of focusing on what adults think is cute for the children. Their decision of using voices of different racial and ethnic qualities in the animation was a new idea. His cartoons tackled many social issues, looking at the frontiers of philosophy and science3.
______________3 Schenkel, Thelma. 1977. Exploring the cinema of figurative animation: With special consideration of the work of john and faith hubley and jan lenica.ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing.
We find the absurdity of war in "The Hat", philosophy and science in "Of Stars and Men,” interrogating overpopulation in "Eggs” and a lot more innovative ideas. Hubley's first film that was nominated for an Academy Award was Moonbird, and it won an Oscar for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) in 1959. People who worked with John Hubley, agreed that he was a creative genius and an animator who pushed the limits of his medium to release his visions. Working with him could also be very difficult.
The last project Hubley worked on was Garry Trudeau's comic strip characters for a television special. Hubley died in 1977, and his wife Faith 4 continued producing mythical animated films. His style evolved over time and was constantly shifting. He portrayed the world that he was ill at ease with through his human characters that felt lost in the irrational world. Maybe, the only characteristic that he shared with Disney was idealism. Because of his idealistic behavior, he was blacklisted. Hubley’s work was social realism through creative abstractionism.
The influence of Hubley and creative mind lived on as his wife and daughter, Emily created one independent film a year. Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA), an international organization for animation education founded by him in Europe is still going strong. This was an animator who charted his own routes and was successful. Rather than following the animation rules, he pulled the medium of animation behind him. He was the first animator to club social and moral passion into the medium, and this was the genius in him.
________________4 Aljean Harmetz. 2001. Faith hubley, oscar winner in animation, is dead at 77: Obituary (obit). New York Times2001
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aljean Harmetz. 2001. Faith hubley, oscar winner in animation, is dead at 77: Obituary (obit). New York Times2001.
"John Hubley." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (October 31, 2014). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707821.html
Nina Metz. 2014. 'Mr. magoo' creator's overdue spotlight: John hubley survived a bout with disney and hollywood blacklist. Chicago Tribune2014.
Schenkel, Thelma. 1977. Exploring the cinema of figurative animation: With special consideration of the work of john and faith hubley and jan lenica.ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing.
