Bernard Wolf | |
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Born | New York City, New York, U.S. | July 18, 1911
Died | September 7, 2006 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged
Occupation | Animator |
Bernard "Berny" Wolf (July 18, 1911 - September 7, 2006) was an American animator and television producer.
Wolf was born in New York City. His career in animation started either in 1924, or 1927. He began work as an inker on Charles Mintz' Krazy Kat silent shorts as an Inker along with Dave Tendlar. The shorts were being distributed by Paramount Pictures at the time. He moved to Inkwell Studios shortly afterwards a predecessor to Fleischer Studios, where he was hired by Max Fleischer as an Inbetweener on Koko the Clown in the silent The Inkwell Imps series. In 1931 he was promoted to the position of Animator and worked with Seymour Kneitel on the Betty Boop cartoons. While much credit has been given to Grim Natwick for her creation, her transformation into the cute cartoon girl was due to the work of Berny Wolf, Seymour Kneitel, Roland Crandall, and Willard Bowsky, who continued working with her after Natwick left in early February 1931 to direct for Ub Iwerks on the west coast. [1] It was at Fleischer Studios that he met Shamus Culhane and Al Eugster, with whom he would maintain a long personal and professional relationship. The three would leave Fleischer to work briefly for Ub Iwerks, where they worked alongside Grim Natwick.
In 1938, Wolf, Eugster and Culhane moved to Walt Disney Studios. After working briefly in the shorts department, Wolf moved on to features. He was one of the animators of Pinocchio and Fantasia (The Pastoral Symphony Segment). His final work at Disney was on Dumbo.
Wolf left Disney after the 1941 strike. He briefly provided uncredited work for Tex Avery at MGM before being drafted during World War II. Wolf was assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit, a group of former Hollywood personnel who created short educational films for the American military. After the war, Wolf worked briefly for animator Rudolph Ising and worked on commercials for companies like FilmFair before forming his own company, Animedia Inc. Animedia produced animation for advertising and commercial films. The company also designed some of the costumes used at Walt Disney World, as well as animating segments for Sesame Street.
Wolf folded Animedia in the 1970s in order to return to animation full-time. He produced several animated features for Hanna Barbera, including 1987's The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones . He was Producer of Bobby's World for Film Roman, and was an uncredited Animator on Tom and Jerry: The Movie . He retired from animation in the 1990s, but continued to provide freelance animation pre-production for Fred Wolf Films, commercial design, and additionally developed mascots for the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Wolf died in 2006 at the age of 95.
Year | Title | Credits | Characters | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1940 | Pinocchio | Animator | Credited and known as Berny Wolf | |
Fantasia | Animator - Segment " The Pastoral Symphony " | Credited and known as Berny Wolf | ||
1941 | Dumbo | Animator | Credited and known as Berny Wolf | |
1980 | Mickey Mouse Disco (Short) | Animator | Credited and known as Bernie Wolf | |
1985 | Galtar and the Golden Lance (TV Series) | Producer | ||
1985–1986 | Paw Paws (TV Series) | Producer – 21 Episodes | ||
1986 | Pound Puppies (TV Series) | Associate Producer – 13 Episodes | ||
Foofur (TV Series) | Associate Producer – 13 Episodes | |||
1986–1987 | The New Adventures of Jonny Quest (TV Series) | Producer – 13 Episodes | ||
The Flintstone Kids (TV Series) | Associate Producer – 26 Episodes | |||
1987 | The Jetsons (TV Series) | Producer – 10 Episodes | ||
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (TV Movie) | Producer | |||
Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose (TV Movie) | Producer | |||
The Little Troll Prince (TV Movie) | Producer / Story Editor | |||
1985–1987 | Snorks (TV Series) | Producer – 23 Episodes | ||
1988 | Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats (TV Movie) | Producer | ||
Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (TV Movie) | Producer | |||
Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf | Producer | |||
Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears (TV Movie) | Producer | |||
1989 | The Smurfs (TV Series) | Animation Director – 24 Episodes | ||
1989–1990 | Paddington Bear (TV Series) | Animation Director – 13 Episodes | ||
1990 | Garfield's Feline Fantasies (TV Short) | Key Animator | ||
Jetsons: The Movie | Animator | Credited and known as Berny Wolf | ||
1989–1990 | A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (TV Series) | Animation Director – 11 Episodes | ||
1990–1991 | Garfield and Friends (TV Series) | Director – 13 Episodes | ||
1990–1994 | Bobby's World (TV Series Short) | Director – 17 Episodes | ||
1994 | Garfield and Friends | Animator – 1 Episode | ||
Sonic the Hedgehog (TV Series Short) | Animation Timer – 13 Episodes | |||
1996 | The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (TV Series) | Sheet Timer – 1 Episode | ||
Ubbe Ert Iwerks, known as Ub Iwerks, was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician, known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios in general, and for having worked on the development of the design of the character of Mickey Mouse, among others. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Iwerks grew up with a contentious relationship with his father, who abandoned him as a child. Iwerks met fellow artist Walt Disney while working at a Kansas City art studio in 1919.
The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound synchronized cartoons in 1928, gradually ending in the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started to lose popularity to the newer medium of television. Animated media from after the golden age were produced on cheaper budgets and with more limited animation techniques between the 1960s and 1970s. The theatrical animation of the golden age peaked in the 1930s and 1940s, while the period is subdivided as the silver age for the rest of its animation produced in the 1950s and 1960s; which includes the latest theatrical animations produced by Walt Disney and Walter Lantz, the latest theatrical cartoons of MGM and Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera's earliest animated television series and DePatie–Freleng's earliest theatrical cartoons. Furthermore, the history of animation became very important as an artistic industry in the United States.
Fleischer Studios was an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of its films. In its prime, Fleischer Studios was a premier producer of animated cartoons for theaters, with Walt Disney Productions being its chief competitor in the 1930s.
Max Fleischer was a Polish-American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios, which he co-founded with his younger brother Dave. He brought such comic characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen, and was responsible for several technological innovations, including the rotoscope, the "follow the bouncing ball" technique pioneered in the Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes films, and the "stereoptical process". Film director Richard Fleischer was his son.
Talkartoons is a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1932.
Flip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American animator Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933. The series had many recurring characters besides Flip, including Flip's dog, the mule Orace, and a dizzy neighborhood spinster.
Famous Studios was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized control of the aforementioned studio after the departure of its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1942. The studio's productions included three series started by the Fleischers—Popeye the Sailor, Superman, and Screen Songs—as well as Little Audrey, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Honey Halfwitch, Herman and Katnip, Baby Huey, and the anthology Noveltoons series.
Burton F. Gillett was a director of animated films. He is noted for his Silly Symphonies work for Disney, particularly the 1932 short film Flowers and Trees and the 1933 short film Three Little Pigs, both of which were awarded the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and both of which were selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry.
ComiColor Cartoons are a series of 25 animated short subjects produced by Ub Iwerks from 1933 to 1936. The series was the last produced by Iwerks Studio; after losing distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934, the Iwerks studio's senior company Celebrity Pictures had to distribute the films itself. The series was shot exclusively in Cinecolor.
Willie Whopper is an animated cartoon character created by American animator Ub Iwerks. The Whopper series was the second from the Iwerks Studio to be produced by Pat Powers and distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 14 shorts were produced in 1933 to 1934.
Myron "Grim" Natwick was an American artist, animator, and film director. Natwick is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studios' most popular character, Betty Boop.
Alfred Julius Eugster was an American animator, writer, and film director. He worked for a number of American animation studios, including Fleischer Studios, the Iwerks Studio, Walt Disney Productions, and Famous Studios.
James H. "Shamus" Culhane was an American animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for his work in the Golden age of American animation.
Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Max Fleischer and directed by Dave Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. Released to cinemas in the United States on December 22, 1939, by Paramount Pictures, the story is a very loose adaptation of Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel of the same name, specifically only the first part of four, which tells the story of Lilliput and Blefuscu, and centers around an explorer who helps a small kingdom who declared war after an argument over a wedding song. The film was Fleischer Studios' first feature-length animated film, as well as the second animated feature film produced by an American studio after Walt Disney Productions' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as Paramount had commissioned the feature in response to the success of that film. The sequences for the film were directed by Seymour Kneitel, Willard Bowsky, Tom Palmer, Grim Natwick, William Henning, Roland Crandall, Thomas Johnson, Robert Leffingwell, Frank Kelling, Winfield Hoskins, and Orestes Calpini.
Seymour Kneitel was an American animator, best known for his work with Fleischer Studios and its successor, Famous Studios.
The Grim Natwick Film Festival is an annual film festival, inaugurated in 2010. The three-day festival is held every summer in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.
Swing You Sinners! is a 1930 animated cartoon short, produced by Fleischer Studios as part of the Talkartoons series. The cartoon is notable for its surreal, dark and abstract content.
Events in 1911 in animation.
Iwerks Studio was an animation studio headed by animator Ub Iwerks.