Posted on 12/18/2006 3:37:09 PM PST by Borges
LOS ANGELES - Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.
Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.
With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.
The partners, who had first teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1950s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Yogi Bear," "Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends."
Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons." Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.
"This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year - without a break or change in routine," Maltin wrote.
"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work," Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.
Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist but his partner could "capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known."
The two first teamed cat and mouse in the short "Puss Gets the Boot." It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born.
Jerry was borrowed for the mostly live-action musical "Anchors Aweigh," dancing with Gene Kelly in a scene that become a screen classic.
After MGM folded its animation department in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera were forced to go into business for themselves. With television's sharply lower budgets, their new cartoons put more stress on verbal wit rather than the detailed - and expensive - action featured in theatrical cartoon.
Yeah...and what's wrong with that?
CA....
It's the end of a (Barb)era.
Who was responsible for Dudley Do-Right and Nell, and Smedly Whiplash (?) They were my favorites.
Thanks for the information.
Chris Hayward, who died at 81 on the 11th of this month!
CA....
Well, I have friends who are animators there, and even though they didn't get laid off this time, I can't share your joy. You can't blame them for the lousy movies they work on. Meanwhile, the executives who should take the fall get to keep their jobs, or get big golden parachutes.
I agree with you, but they are working on dopey stuff, so they take the hit.
HORRIBLE NEWS....:( Thank You so much for your work Mr.B. It is timeless.
No...because they are all done by computer...all have the same smart ass sarcastic insulting attitudes. No characters have been really developed like his...absolutely the most talent along with Tex Avery.
I do laugh however watching Family Guy and Aqua Teen Hunger Force...those are hysterical.
The garage level actually took talent...wasn't The Little Mermaid the last actual drawn cartoon by Disney? They have done all computer animation since then....nothing touches the classics...they all had CHARACTER.
If anything...Disney has cheaped out.
I guess I was raised on better things like real animation.
This was to be the last Tom and Jerry, but they made some changes and it kept going.
Good point. I don't know when they went to cheap stuff. Disney is normally not in my realm of interest.
Including license plates. I saw one saying "RUT RO". :-O
I think that's Gargamel, the Smurfs' antagonist, preparing to grope Mrs. Rubble, if no one has identified him yet (I haven't read the rest of the thread). Hey, he always did have a fetish for powder blue. :-O
RIP, Joe (and Bill). Thanks for making (with assistance from Filmation [and Warners] et al) my Saturday mornings and afterschool hours.
ff
Gene Deitch's T&J are memorable for little more than utterly surreal sound effects. Although I did like the Deitch T&J where Tom is a stowaway aboard Jerry's suborbital flight (that toon came complete with T&J's encounter with a rodent cosmonaut [the space race was underway at the time, remember]).
Deitch around this time also produced some rather lame Popeyes. And I don't mean the fried chicken. :-)
ff
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