Mar 2, 2013

Lost Film: Bob Balcer's "El Sombrero

Fans of classic animated shorts must know John and Faith Hubley's 1964 short "The Hat," but there is another short that was released the same year and called "The Hat." This short film, "El Sombrero" (retitled "The Hat" in English), is one of the few entertaining short films produced by Estudios Moro of Spain, which I wrote about yesterday.

According to the book Film & TV Graphics, published in 1967, it is "the story of a man on the outskirts of society and his troubles with his hat: ...... The hat is a symbol of status here, but the protagonist never uses it to his advantage.

Despite being animated in Spain, the film's principal artists were all American. The director, Bob Balzer, is happily still with us, and before landing at Estudios Moro to make this film, he had bounced around from studio to studio in Europe, including Denmark and Finland. A few years after this short, Balser moved to England, where he became most notable as the animation director of "Yellow Submarine."

The story was written and designed by Alan Sheen, who was active on the animation scene in the 1950s. He had worked for most of the major commercial houses in Los Angeles and was also a key artist in the early days of "Rocky and Bullwinkle." Dean Speer, who did the background art for the film, had just turned 85 and had also worked on television commercials, primarily for Playhouse Pictures. After "El Sombrero," he began working with Bill Melendez on "Peanuts" specials and features, and became one of Melendez's most important artists for the next 35 years.

If the most important characteristic of animation in the fifties was its emphasis on formal design, the defining element of animation in the sixties was the desire to break away from formulaic ways of drawing characters. Cyan, like many other artists of the period, embraced a freer, illustration-oriented way of drawing. The poses and expressions in the stills below do not appear to be from traditional model sheets. The flowing lines of the graphics are reminiscent of Robert Osborne's illustrations, and the drawings have a nice, improvisational feel to them. It would be a real treat to see these drawings in motion.

Update (8/29/2013): Oscar Grillo has posted a copy of this film online. Please see it below. Thanks, Oscar!