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.
I always found that while Bullwinkle's stories were very good, the animation was mediocre at best. The colors always looked washed-out and the audio frequently seemed choppy.
I was laughing like an idiot at a recent animated short: "The Madagascar Penguins in - A Christmas Caper". VERY good writing, crisp audio, clever plot - and of course the animation is amazing, even on my HDTV. It's almost too good, though... no warts at all. Know what I mean?
You are so right. Everyone laughs with the music because of the associations with it.
Ditto Bugs coming in as a Viking maiden with Wagnerian music. One music critic recently admitted that he could not get the image of Bugs with his blond wig out of his mind.
Cartoons once used a lot of classical music. I was fascinated as a cartoon-loving kid to find that the background music was written by another set of masters.
You said it. What happy times I had watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
OK. Bad animation. Low budget. They did a lot with it.
Disney spoiled us. I recently watched Fantasia 2000 by Disney after showing the original to many different college classes (Fantasia with Tocatta and Fugue and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony). I was shocked that Disney put out something so plain and cheap looking as F 2K. F 2K was still clever, but the production values were garage band level.
Am I wrong or does it look like the guy in black is going to do some major groping on Betty Rubble?
Me too. Funny how some cartoon phraseology has been incorporated in the language such as 'yaba daba doo' or 'ruh roh'.
A few years ago, my elderly neighbor's elderly dog died. Her husband had died the year before, after a long period of having nursing care in their home. Anyway, one of the nurses gave her a dog, a smallish border collie mix. It wasn't a good fit--an energetic dog with an old woman who had trouble walking. The dog escaped from her house on an almost daily basis and started coming to our house, where our old dog had recently died leaving us dogless for the first time in 13 years. We'd give the dog a walk, then bring her back to her home, almost dragging her. When the old woman said she was giving up and was going to give the dog to the pound, we decided to take her. At the very least we could find a better home for her than the pound, and I knew that once we actually had the dog at home a couple of days, there'd be no way we were giving her away.
After we'd had her about a year, I was talking to the old lady's daughter, who told me that the dog had supposedly belonged to Joe Barbera before. The same nurses were taking care of him, and he'd had to get rid of his dogs.
So, assuming that all that's true, I have Joe Barbera's old dog, who, apart from a habit of pulling the trash bag out of the can and hauling it out to the living room rug, is a sweetheart. Thanks, Joe.
Not bad at all! Cat from pixie/Dixie - Mr Jinks (hated these meeces to pieces)
Squiddly Diddly is the octopus at the top
The villian in Wacky Racers and other 'toons is Dick Dastardly
The bad guy in Smurffs was actually named Gargamel (had a cat named Israel (accent in the middle)
The cat and mouse detectives names escape me at the moment and I'm going to slap my forehead and say "I knew that" in a minute.
Thanks Mr. Barbera for many wonderful laughs. RIP.
Goodbye, Mr. Barbera. You filled my early years with laughter and joy.
*** (Fantasia with Tocatta and Fugue and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony).***
I saw this in 1971 at the theater. One woman was so shocked, SHOCKED! with the Pastoral scenes that the said to her husband, "I hope they show a CARTOON after this!"
Great animation! Great music!
Disney also just about went broke making Fantasia. The problem is that real, hand-drawn, beautiful animation is just exorbitantly expensive, and it's an investment that just doesn't pay off. Speaking of which, Disney just laid off something like 30% of their animators last week.
they were as low-budget as they could possibly be w/all the tricks for cheap animation i'm surprise art carney never sue for thef of his patented ed nortion voice
Revised to "Smarter than the average hippie" in the seventies; "Smarter than the average Kennedy" whenever anyone passes the bar exam first try . . . the possibilities are endless. They added something to the language.
But it was a different kind of laugh, while H&B, except for the Flintstones, were more of the laugh for laugh's sake,Bowinkle, Fractured Fairy Tales, Bugs Bunny ETC. were more of the "Thinking" kind of comedy.
They both fit certain viewers needs, and some like me enjoy them both. Comedy, like beauty, is in the eyes (or ears), of the beholder.
The things I remember most about the cartoons of the day, are as follows,
No matter what people say, you are never too old to enjoy a good cartoon.
They're either dropping like flies or we're all just getting OLD! (And I refuse to believe that!)
First Rocky & Bullwinkle's creator, and now THIS? Grrrrr!
No like the new Disney. I'm glad they are laid off.
Thank you! New "wallpaper" for my monitor. ;)
I never tire of watching it, even on a lousy projector with bad sound.
I have been reading a Disney bio. He went through plenty of trials. He left a great legacy.
Let see what I could name on top
Yogi bear
Flinstone
Atom Cat
Penneople pitstop LOVE her she rocks
Tom & Jerry
He hasn't died, he's in a state of suspended animation.
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