One name kept coming up. Ellen Thomas said “Homer Groening”. Will Vinton said “Homer Groening”. Tim Smith said “Homer Groening.” Bill Plympton said “Homer Groening”. What was the question?  Dennis and I were asking them who we should know about in Portland film history.

From the Seattle Times obituary for Groening, in 1996.

Homer P. Groening was born Dec. 30, 1919, a U.S. citizen in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, the son of Mennonite farmers. He spent his youth in Oregon.

He earned the rank of Eagle Scout and was a co-founder in 1936 of Camp Pioneer at the base of Mount Jefferson. He graduated from Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., in 1941.

He met his wife, Margaret, at Linfield. They married in 1942.

Mr. Groening flew a B-17 over Europe during World War II and participated in the D-Day invasion, winning a Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war, he returned to Portland and joined the Botsford, Constantine and Gardner ad agency as a production assistant.

He was called up again to fly transport planes in Korea.

Upon his return, he became a vice president at the ad agency, working on accounts such as Jantzen, Pendleton, Olympia beer, Idaho potatoes and Western Hotels. He started his own agency in 1958.

“He was an absolute creative genius,” said former Advertising Federation President Mick Scott, who worked with Mr. Groening to found the American Advertising Museum in Portland.

When film caught his interest, he taught himself the craft.

“He was a one-man show,” said his daughter, Lisa. “He did the producing, writing, shooting, sound recording, editing, directing and narrating.”

Among his film clients were Jantzen, Timberline Lodge, Johnson Motors, Eastman Kodak and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

He won numerous Golden Eagles, given by the Council on International Non-Theatrical Events (CINE), and awards from the Advertising Association of the West and the American Film Festival.

He produced a string of films about water in all its forms, including “Get Wet,” “Getting Wetter,” “Psychedelic Wet” and “Study in Wet.”

Mr. Groening’s son, Matt, said he received creative encouragement at home, in part because his father was a cartoonist himself. Mr. Groening took colored pencils and sketch pads home to his five children. He would make up the beginning of a story and his children would finish it.

When young Will Vinton stood in Portland with his brand new Oscar in 1975, wondering if he should stick around, he took a page from Homer Groening, and decided to stay.

One consequence of that decision…..

Travis Knight and Mark Gustafson next month will be in LA nervously waiting for the moment they open the envelope for Best Animated Feature. Both artists are former Will Vinton Studio employees, mentored by Will, who was mentored by Homer.

Learn more about Oregon’s rich animation and cartooning history at the first public meeting of the Oregon Cartoon Institute, Feb. 25 at 7:00 PM. Location: 13 NW 13th, first floor of Ackerman Films, in Portland, Oregon.

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

Tweetie Pie ( 1947) Mel Blanc voicing Tweetie and Sylvester, 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

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.

Portland represents at the Oscars once again this year. Last year we sent two directors: Gus Van Sant for Milk and Irene Taylor Brodsky for The Final Inch. This year we sent animators- lots of them. Coraline employed a small nation state of caffeine fueled Portland obsessives. As it happens, both Coraline and one of its competitors, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, showcase the stop motion work of graduates of Will Vinton Studios.

Top Photo: Travis Knight, lead animator on Coraline. Bottom photo: Mark Gustafson, working on The PJ’s at Will Vinton Studio. Gustafson is the animation director on The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Gee…..thanks, Will!

This post brought to you by the Oregon Cartoon Institute.

Cameron obviously intends Avatar to be a critique, however broad and simplistic, of American money and militarism—after all, his hero is an embittered veteran insurgent. But it’s hard to entertain seriously the proposition that the Most Expensive Movie Ever is on the side of the underdogs, let alone the angels. When judged against scrappier pictures like Fantastic Mr. Fox and Coraline, and their respective modest budgets, Avatar more closely resembles the unsavory, disproportionate strategies of Michael Bloomberg, our billionaire mayor who recently bought his own re-election, another king of the world. Benjamin Strong, in The L Magazine

When Benjamin Strong isn’t using James Cameron’s latest film to address the need for campaign finance reform in New York City,  he uses it to discuss CGI vs stop motion.

It’s worth noting, though, that 2009 has seen not one but two outstanding animated films—Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and Henry Selick’s Coraline—both of which were made with stop motion, a technology that’s supposedly obsolete, at least as compared to what Cameron is doing. These two films—Fantastic Mr. Fox, in particular—have natural, fully immersive settings, material worlds that appear as if they were handmade in actual three-dimensional space (and not on a computer) for the reason that they were. Benjamin Strong, in The L Magazine

Thanks for the shout out, Benjamin! Readers of Oregon Movies A to Z instantly recognize that both the “scrappier” pictures he cites were made by animators – Travis Knight and Henry Selick for Coraline, and Mark Gustafson for  Fantastic Mr. Fox — who originally worked for Oregon born and raised Will Vinton, the godfather of feature length stop motion animation.

Oregon’s contribution to Avatar, however, is on the live action side of the equation.

Kristi Turnquist, an honorary research associate of Oregon Movies, A to Z, broke the big story: Joel David Moore, the actor who plays scientist Norm Spellman in Avatar, is from Portland.

That’s Moore, catching flies, to the right of Sigourney Weaver.

Avatar is James Cameron’s second Oregon film, after Point Break, which he executive produced.

Anyone seen this film?

I hereby claim Avatar as an Oregon film, on the basis of Oregonian Joel David Moore’s presence in the cast.

The International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood awards the best animation in a yearly celebration. This year at least two Oregonians are up for awards.

Santa: The Facist Years by Bill Plympton, nominated for Best Short Subject

Travis Knight for Coraline, nominated for Best Character Animation

Then there was another third were local artists and animators from Portland, Oregon. There’s a long tradition of stop-motion with Will Vinton’s company that specialize in claymation. Travis Knight, one of our lead animators, is one of the best animators in the world, in the top five or 10 that I’ve ever worked with, so he set the bar very high for the local talent.

Henry Selick, director of Coraline, in an Animation World magazine interview