Jack Polito | |
---|---|
Born | Joachim Polito December 4, 1941 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Animator |
Years active | 1960s–present |
Relatives | Jon Polito (brother) |
Joachim Polito (born December 4, 1941) is an American animator who has worked in the film industry since the 1960s. He was inspired by the 1933 film King Kong. Polito formed the animation company The Production House in 1980.
Joachim "Jack" Polito was born in 1941 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[ citation needed ] In 1951, Polito's father took him to see the King Kong rerelease of the 1933 film. This experience inspired him to follow a career in animation and special effects. [1] He graduated from West Catholic High School in Philadelphia in 1959. [2] Polito played tennis all through high school, and was a member of the Adoration Society. [3] After graduating, he got his first animation job at DeFrenes Studio. [2] Polito was the brother of actor Jon Polito. [2]
Polito has worked in animation and has been part of the film industry since the 1960s. [4] He moved to Hollywood in 1966 to work at the special effects department at 20th Century Fox. He met acclaimed individuals in the film industry like Max Steiner, L. B. Abbott and Linwood Dunn. He also met Merian C. Cooper and established a strong relationship with him. Polito discovered and restored film footage from the original King Kong film in the 1960s. Because of his love of film and passion for the movie, Polito became a collector of King Kong items. He even discussed with Peter Jackson, who directed the King Kong release of 2005. [1]
Polito became the head of art and animation for DeFrenes Studios and Animation Arts Associates. He was also the head of Cinemotion in Philadelphia, an animation company. He has even received an Oscar nomination for his work. [4]
Polito left DeFrenes to begin Production House, an animation studio, in 1980. They started making TV commercials and working on industrial animation and then made cartoons. [2] They made animation using drawings to depict movement. Polito worked as a cameraman, animation cameraman, director, and animator. He Started the Production House in Philadelphia in 1980. He worked with Dava Jennings. His company worked on advertisements or industrial animation during the 1980s for his clients and had high-end clients like Welch's, Raytheon, and Honda. However, toward the end of the 1980s, the company experienced severe reduction in sales and revenue due to the recession. Production House turned to the entertainment industry. Polito worked on the production of The Dancing Pumpkin and other children's productions. [5] They also worked on a cartoon called A Fairy's Tale. They also helped animate G.A.M.M.A. Force which consisted of 13 half-hour cartoons. [2]
Charles Martin Jones was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of shorts. He wrote, produced, and/or directed many classic Animated Cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, and Porky Pig, among others.
King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure fantasy horror monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was developed from an idea conceived by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. It stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and tells the story of a giant ape dubbed Kong who attempts to possess a beautiful young woman. It features stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and a music score by Max Steiner. It is the first entry in the King Kong franchise.
Willis Harold O'Brien was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," and is best remembered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) and Mighty Joe Young (1949), for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Animation in the United States in the television era was a period in the history of American animation that slowly set in with the decline of theatrical animated shorts and the popularization of television animation during the late 1950s to 1960s, peaked in the 1970s, and ended in the mid-late 1980s. This era is characterized by low budgets, limited animation, an emphasis on television over the theater, and the general perception of cartoons being primarily for children. Due to the perceived cheap production values, poor animation, and mixed critical and commercial reception, this era is sometimes referred to as the dark ageof American animation by critics.
King Kong is a 2005 epic adventure monster film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. It is the eighth entry in the King Kong franchise and the second remake of the 1933 film of the same title, following the 1976 film. The film stars Andy Serkis, Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody. Set in 1933, it follows the story of an ambitious filmmaker who coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island. There, they encounter prehistoric creatures and a legendary giant gorilla known as Kong, whom they capture and take to New York City.
Merian Caldwell Cooper was an American filmmaker and Academy Award winner, as well as a former aviator who served as an officer in the United States Air Force and Polish Air Force. In film, he is credited as co-inventor of the Cinerama film projection process. Cooper's most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong. He was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1952 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Before entering the movie business, Cooper had a distinguished career as the founder of the Kościuszko Squadron during the Polish–Soviet War and was a Soviet prisoner of war for a time. He got his start in with film as part of the Explorers Club, traveling the world and documenting adventures. He was a member of the board of directors of Pan American Airways, but his love of film always took priority. During his film career, he worked for companies such as Pioneer Pictures, RKO Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1925 he and Ernest B. Schoedsack came to Iran and made Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, a documentary about the Bakhtiari people.
Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation. Rankin/Bass' stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called "Animagic".
The history of Canadian animation involves a considerable element of the realities of a country neighbouring the United States and both competitiveness and co-operation across the border.
The Mighty Kong is a 1998 American animated monster musical film. It is an adaptation of the classic King Kong story, produced by Lana Productions and is the 7th entry in the King Kong franchise. Jodi Benson and Dudley Moore headed its cast of voice actors. The film was animated overseas by the South Korean animation studios including Hahn Shin Corporation, and by Jade Animation in Hong Kong. It features original songs by the Sherman Brothers. The film was released on VHS on June 16, 1998 by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as a part of their 75th Anniversary promotion. It was released on DVD by Tri-Coast Entertainment in 2019 as a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release that is only available through online stores. The film is currently available on multiple streaming platforms such as Tubi and Vimeo.
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelization of the 1933 film King Kong from RKO Pictures, with the film premiering a little over two months later. Upon its initial release and subsequent re-releases, the film received universal acclaim. A sequel quickly followed that same year with The Son of Kong, featuring Little Kong. Toho produced King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) featuring a giant Kong battling Toho's Godzilla and King Kong Escapes (1967), a film loosely based on Rankin/Bass' The King Kong Show (1966-1969). In 1976, Dino De Laurentiis produced a modern remake of the original film directed by John Guillermin. A sequel, King Kong Lives, followed a decade later featuring a Lady Kong. Another remake of the original, this time set in 1933, was released in 2005 by filmmaker Peter Jackson.
Mighty Joe Young is a 1949 American black and white fantasy film distributed by RKO Radio Pictures and produced by the same creative team responsible for King Kong (1933). Produced by Merian C. Cooper, who wrote the story, and Ruth Rose, who wrote the screenplay, the film was directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and stars Robert Armstrong, Terry Moore, and Ben Johnson in his first credited screen role. Animation effects were handled by Ray Harryhausen, Pete Peterson and Marcel Delgado.
Chinese animation refers to animation made in China. In China and in Chinese, donghua describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. However, outside of China and in English, donghua is colloquial for Chinese animation and refers specifically to animation produced in China.
David W. Allen was an American film and television stop motion model (puppet) animator.
Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack was an American motion picture cinematographer, producer, and director. Schoedsack worked as a cameraman in World War I, where he served in the Signal Corps. At the conclusion of the war, he stayed in Europe to further his career. He worked on several films with Merian C. Cooper including King Kong, Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, and The Most Dangerous Game. He also collaborated with screenwriter and actress Ruth Rose, whom he later married. Schoedsack died on December 23 at age 86.
Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr. was an American director, producer and screenwriter, who mostly worked in animation. Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion and traditional animation features such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and the 1977 cartoon special of The Hobbit. He is credited on over 1,000 television programs.
Emery Otis Hawkins was an American animator, best known for his work during the Golden age of American animation, working in various studios in the industry.
Ruth Rose was a writer who worked on several films in the 1930s and the 1940s, most famously the original 1933 classic King Kong.
Harold Eugene Geer was an American producer, filmmaker and animator, noteworthy for his association with the Looney Tunes franchise.
King Kong is an American media franchise featuring King Kong, a character initially created by Merian C. Cooper at RKO Radio Pictures and now owned by Warner Bros., Universal Pictures with more recent films being licensed to Legendary Pictures for production with Warner Bros. handling distribution. Films featuring Kong over the years are currently owned by various studios, including Toho, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. The film franchise consists of twelve monster films, including seven Hollywood films, two Japanese kaiju films produced by Toho, and the first three direct-to-video animated films. The first film, King Kong, was directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and released by Radio Pictures in 1933 and became an influential classic of the genre. Toho was later inspired to make the original Godzilla after the commercial success of the 1952 re-release of King Kong and the success of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). The success of King Kong would go on to inspire other monster films worldwide. The popularity of the films has led to the franchise expanding to other media, such as television, music, literature and video games. King Kong has been one of the most recognizable symbols in American pop culture worldwide and remains a well-known facet of American films. The character of King Kong has become one of the world's most famous movie icons, having inspired a number of sequels, remakes, spin-offs, imitators, parodies, cartoons, books, comics, video games, theme park rides, and a stage play. His role in the different narratives varies, ranging from a rampaging monster to a tragic antihero.
Events in 1912 in animation.