What is your favorite Oregon film?

Here are the leading favorites on Oregon Movies, A to Z:

1. Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)

The all time top favorite post on Oregon Movies, A to Z. A testimony to the deep love Jean Auel’s fans have for anything to do with the Earth Children series.

2. Family Dog (1987)

Brad Bird’s first animated film appeared on television as part of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories.

3. Free Willy (1993)

Starring Oregonian Jason James Richter, and set and shot on the Oregon Coast. One of a long line of Oregon animal films.

4. Drum Beat (1954) /Lost film

Set and shot in Modoc country, on the border of Oregon and California, and featuring Charles Bronson’s first lead performance.

5. Vortex 1: A Biodegradeable Festival of Life (2005)

Using home movie footage and the recollections of attendees, Vortex 1 documents a 1970 rock festival organized by state bureaucrats in Salem, and held in McIver Park.

6. Alice In Wonderland (1951)

Marc Davis, the only one of Disney’s Nine Old Men to graduate from Klamath Union High School, was the animation supervisor.

7. Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search For A Kool Place (2010)

Ken Kesey’s first career goal was to become an actor. He never lost his love of movies, and this documentary uses his own home movie footage.

8. MacKenna’s Gold (1969)

Omar Sharif and Gregory Peck look for gold and find Julie Newmar. Partially shot in Oregon.

9. The Great American Cowboy (1973)

Real life Oregonian (and rodeo champion) Larry Mahan was the subject of this Oscar winning documentary.

10. Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1993)

Tom Robbins’ novel about a gifted hitchhiker was brought to life by Gus Van Sant in his fourth feature film. Shot in Central Oregon with Uma Thurman playing Sissy Hankshaw.

Hmmmmmmmm. Three animal films (Clan of the Cave Bear - which does star Bart the Bear, Family Dog and Free Willy), three drug films (Vortex 1, Alice In Wonderland and Magic Trip) and four  films starring people in cowboy hats (Drum Beat, MacKenna’s Gold, The Last Great American Cowboy and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues.)

I wonder what that means.

Brad Bird demonstrates his Pacific Northwest roots by a) thanking Matt Groening, with whom he and Eric Goldberg shared the award, and b) asking his employees to “use all of the buffalo”.

Bird had to record his acceptance speech on video as he is out of the country scouting locations for his next film, Mission Impossible IV.

The good people over at Oregon Cartoon Institute would like to point out that Mel Blanc (Portland), Marc Davis (Klamath Falls), and Bill Plympton (Oregon City) preceded Matt Groening (Portland) and Brad Bird (Corvallis ) in receiving this award.

Congratulations, Brad!

Brad Bird’s first feature, Iron Giant (1999), was recently celebrated with a special 10th anniversary screening sponsored by ASIFA in LA. Bird is the youngest, and most Oscared, member of the current, well populated group of world class Oregon animators.

I hereby claim Iron Giant as an Oregon film, based on the fact that Brad Bird came to Hollywood from Corvallis.

This post brought to you by the Oregon Cartoon Institute, your source for Oregon cartooning and animation history since 2006.

Internationally acclaimed directors are Oregon’s leading cinematic export. Our talent pool in that department – James Ivory, Gus Van Sant, Bill Plympton and Brad Bird – is unparalleled. But the hand painted contact lenses Natalie Portman wears in Black Swan also came from Oregon. Lee Williams has the story.

Basil Wolverton displays his pioneering “spaghetti and meatballs” approach to human anatomy.

As Oregon Cartoon Institute heads into its fourth year, I sat down to retrace the steps that led to its creation.

This timeline of development was originally written for Jill Hartz, at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Thank you, Jill, for providing me with the impetus to pull this together!

1990’s in New York

As I fly back and forth between Portland and New York, I begin noticing the way Oregon press underplays the fame of Oregon’s most well received artists (Chuck Palahniuk a great example ) while at the same time New York press omits the Oregon citizenship of an artist all together. I begin to understand the way this has created a misperception that Oregon does not produce artists.

At about this same time Columbia sportswear begins showing up on the subways. The Simpsons are becoming a cultural mainstay. Elliott Smith, the Dandy Warhols, Courtney Love, Gus Van Sant — I start to feel  surrounded by Portland even when I am 3,000 miles away.

1999 visiting Portland

David Chelsea tells me about Basil Wolverton.

I knew about Homer Davenport, the Hearst newspaper cartoonist from Silverton.

I’d heard about Mel Blanc, Portland’s most reknowned voice artist.

But I am stupefied by Wolverton. How could a guy from Central Point (pop: 12,000)  influence an entire generation of  Americans? And do it via Mad Magazine ?

A seed starts to sprout in my mind.

2001, in Portland

Dennis Nyback and I teach an avant garde film survey course at Northwest Film Center. Preparing for it, I discover avant garde animator Harry Smith was born in Portland.

Smith was both the disciplined, insightful, completely original collector behind Folkways’ enormously influential Anthology of American Folk Music and a self taught, extravagantly experimental, completely original filmmaker. I never dreamt he had anything to do with Oregon.

In my previous understanding, Oregon rarely produced nationally known artists.

Now with Harry “High Brow” Smith and Basil “Low Brow” Wolverton in the picture, I am completely confused.

2003 in New York

Standing in Kim’s Video, I stumble across a footnote in a book about Robert Crumb which identifies Carl Barks, creator of the comic books which were a huge influence on Crumb, as being from Merrill, Oregon.

I turn the book over to see who wrote it — D. K. Holm, from Portland.

At this point I compile a list of living and dead Oregon cartoonists and animators and send it to John Canemaker, asking what he thinks. He calls me, excited and impressed.

He adds two new names.

He tells me Marc Davis, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men, graduated from high school in Klamath Falls

and that Pinto Colvig, an early animator turned voice artist, is from Jacksonville.

2006 in Portland

Dennis and I interview Portland cartoonist  John Callahan for The Portland That Was.

Callahan is surprised to learn that Mel Blanc, a life long hero, is from his own home town. Our intern, a graduate of Lincoln High School, the school Blanc attended, tells us she never heard of him.

About this time, graphic journalist  Joe Sacco returns home to live in Portland, bringing with him his 1996 American Book Award.

Dennis and I return home too.

2007 in Portland

We hold the first Oregon Cartoon Institute public event, a three week screening series at Disjecta of 16mm animation from Dennis’ collection. Jim Blashfield and Rose Bond come and speak. Both have conducted far ranging film careers from Portland.

Blashfield made his acclaimed music videos here, and Bond her monumentally scaled installations. Both use animation.

Our model for engaging audiences emerges  — we will use living artists as interpreters as we raise awareness about the dead ones. Chel White, Bill Plympton, Joan Gratz, Joanna Priestly, Marilyn Zornado and Will Vinton loan us 35mm prints for the final night of the Disjecta series, which takes place at the Hollywood Theater.

Second Oregon Cartoon Institute event: Dennis conducts video interviews with visiting and local artists at the Platform International Animation Festival. We put these online.

At this point, I thought we had found all the historic Oregon animation and cartooning figures there were to find.

I was wrong.

In the course of researching Oregon film history for the Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival, I stumble across George Bruns, a four time Oscar nominee for animated film scores, from Sandy

and Dennis stumbles across Ralph Wright, who won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1957. He’s from Grants Pass.

2009 in Portland

Third Oregon Cartoon Institute event: we co-sponsored Bill Plympton Day at the Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival at Marylhurst.

Bill is as fascinated with this history as we are.

Not all our research comes from history books. Some comes from the news. Just when we weren’t looking,  Brad Bird received first one, then two Oscars.

Looking ahead:

An interview about Oregon Cartoon Institute’s next public event, which will take place in 2011, can be found online at  KBOO.fm. Conducted by S. W. Conser as part of his Words & Pictures series, this interview introduces our first artist in residence, Heather Perkins.

Oregon Cartoon Institute is all about partnerships. As soon as the details get finalized, we will announce our upcoming partnerships with others who share our goal of raising public awareness of  this state’s rich animation and cartooning history.

A Wild Hare (1940) Mel Blanc voicing Bugs Bunny, nominated for Best Short Picture, Animated

Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1941) Mel Blanc voicing Bugs Bunny, nominated for Best Short Picture, Animated

Pigs In A Polka (1943) Mel Blanc voicing the Big Bad Wolf, nominated for Best Short Picture, Animated

Greetings Bait (1943) Mel Blanc voicing Wacky Worm, nominated for Best Short Picture, Animated

Swooner Crooner (1944) Mel Blanc voicing Porky Pig, nominated for Best Short Picture, Animated

Life With Feathers (1945) Mel Blanc voicing Sylvester, nominated for Best Short Picture, Animated

Rhapsody Rabbit (1947) Mel Blanc voicing Bugs Bunny, nominated for Best Short Picture, Animated

Tweetie Pie ( 1947) Mel Blanc voicing Tweetie and Sylvester, WON Best Short Picture, Animated

For Scent-imental Reasons (1950) Mel Blanc voicing Pepe LePew, WON Best Short Picture, Animated

Speedy Gonzales (1956) Mel Blanc voicing Speedy Gonzales, WON Best Short Picture, Animated

Birds Anonymous (1957) Mel Blanc voicing Tweetie and Sylvester, WON Best Short Picture, Animated

Knighty Knght Bugs (1959) Mel Blanc voicing Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, WON Best Short Picture, Animated

Sleeping Beauty (1959), composer George Bruns nominated for Best Music

Babes In Toyland (1961), composer George Bruns nominated for Best Music

Sword In The Stone (1963) composer George Bruns nominated for Best Music

Robin Hood (1973) composer George Bruns nominated for Best Music

Closed Mondays (1974) c0-directors Will Vinton & Bob Gardiner WON for Best Short Film, Animated

Rip Van Winkle (1978) director Will Vinton, nominated for Best Short Film, Animated

The Creation (1981), director Will Vinton, nominated for Best Short Film, Animated

The Great Cogito (1982), director Will Vinton, nominated for Best Short Film, Animated

Return to Oz (1985), claymation director Will Vinton nominated for Best Special Effects

Your Face (1987), director Bill Plympton nominated for Best Short Film, Animated

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992), director Joan Gratz WON for Best Short Film, Animated

Guard Dog (2004), director Bill Plympton nominated for Best Short Film, Animated

The Incredibles (2004), director Brad Bird WON Best Animated Feature

Ratatouille (2007), director Brad Bird WON Best Animated Feature

Coraline (2009), director Henry Selick/lead animator Travis Knight, nominated for Best Animated Feature Film

This installment in the Handy Guide Series brought to you by the Oregon Cartoon Institute.

Brad Bird was born in Montana, but graduated from Corvallis High School. He knew he wanted to be an animator from age 11. He won his first Oscar in 2004, for The Incredibles, and his second in 2007 for Ratatouille.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)  which qualifies because the star, Jon Heder, is from Salem.

Ratatouille (2007) which qualifies because writer-director-producer Brad Bird is from Corvallis. An Oscar winner.

Knocked Up (2007) which qualifies because cinematographer Eric Edwards is from Portland.

Oregon raised animator Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille) made his debut on network television with Family Dog, a short made while he was a student at Cal Arts. It appeared as one part of one episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories series.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I hereby claim Family Dog as an Oregon film.

Whatever the mysterious forces are which bring Oregonians to animation success, they were especially powerful in the mid-1980’s, when Will Vinton made the first feature length Claymation film in Portland. The following year, Matt Groening debuted The Simpsons and Brad Bird debuted Family Dog, both on network television, and Bill Plympton, working in NYC, was nominated for an Oscar for Your Face.

All four men are animation geniuses. If you are unsure that a successful advertising man like Will Vinton belongs in this group, see The Adventures of Mark Twain to appreciate just how miraculously odd he is as an artist.

If you remain skeptical of the size of Vinton’s contribution to American film, just watch the credits. Count the names who went on to other things — animator Mark Gustafson (The Fantastic Mr. Fox) and sound editor (now a director) Kelley Baker are just two.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was Vinton who modeled the passionate engagement with technique which paved the way for Coraline.

I hereby claim The Adventures of Mark Twain as an Oregon film, based on many qualifying factors. It was made at the Will Vinton Studios in Northwest Portland, and written, directed, produced, animated — you name it— by Oregonians.

This post brought to you by the Oregon Cartoon Institute.