William Hannah, American animator: biography, creativity

Hannah William, an American animated cartoonist, producer and director, was born July 14, 1910 in Los Angeles. He was the only son in the family of a railway employee. As soon as William was three years old, his parents moved with him to Baker City, Oregon, where the head of the family was to lead the laying of roads on the dam being built. Then there were a few more moves related to the new place of work. Eventually the family returned to Los Angeles.

A bit of history

At the end of the thirties of the last century, the production of animated films of the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer film studio began to decline. The head of the division, Aising Rudolph, tried to find new characters that could compete with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.

Salvation came in the person of William Hannah, who at the time was creating several new projects. One of them was the multistory about the cat Jasper and the mouse. Initially, the staff of the studio coolly took the idea of "cat-mouse", which looked quite banal. But the first frames of the animated series astonished everyone with the freshness of the plot and the colorfulness of the images.

So there was the first superproject, which was destined to receive seven Oscar prizes and many other prizes. "Jasper" was later named Tom, and the mouse began to be called Jerry.

Music and Animation

While studying in high school, William Hannah learned to play the saxophone. Music lessons were useful to him in the future. The artist-animator independently wrote soundtracks to many films that were created in his studio. Hannah had a sonorous voice and good diction, so the scoring of cartoons was his prerogative, many heroes, whom he also drew, speak in his voice. Some characters, the artist even passed features of his character.

American cartoons have their own specifics, the dialogue between the characters must be clear and verified. Great importance is attached to intonation, timbre, pauses. This is also a kind of art, because of the sound of the film depends to a large extent on its success.

Creative Alliance

Throughout his life, William worked closely and was friends with Joseph Barbera, who was also an animator and director of animated films. Together they created the world-renowned studio "Hannah-Barbera". At first, there were certain difficulties in organizing the creative process, but gradually friends were able to invite the necessary specialists and the work began to boil.

The company Hanna-Barbera was formally established in 1944, but in full force the production of animated films earned only in 1957. This was due to problems of personnel and technical nature. Until that time, in 1945-46, the studio created the series "Tom and Jerry," about the cat and mouse, which are in a state of permanent struggle and confrontation, but at the same time they can not live without each other. From morning till night the cartoon characters rush around the house, the cat pursues the mouse, as it should be, if you turn to the classics.

The series "Tom and Jerry" immediately fell in love with millions of viewers, ten-minute cartoons were filled with kind and gentle humor. Everyone was sorry Jerry, at first glance deeply unhappy, suffering from Tom's wiles, but if you look closely, it turns out that the cat also gets pretty much from a small ingenious little mouse.

The series was based on the plot dynamics, practically without dialogue. Nevertheless, both Jerry and Tom were so expressive in their movements and facial expressions that they did not need words. The viewer also understood absolutely everything, the multipliers tried to create episodes simple and intelligible.

Working on TV

In the early fifties the film company Metro-Godwin-Meyer, in which William Hannah and Joseph Barbera worked, began to work closely with cable television. However, the animation studio did not fit into the structure and the artists decided to separate from MGM and start their own business.

New direction

At some point, William Hannah felt interest in his films from an adult audience. He conferred with Barbera and they decided to create a series of comic books for adults. So the animated series "Flintstones" appeared.

The four heroes were determined immediately, Fred Flintstone, his wife Wilma and Barney Rabble with his wife Betty. All of them live in a small town Bedrok. Fred works at a construction site as a driver of an excavator (a huge dinosaur), Barney does nothing. Their wives are housewives.

In the city there is a bowling alley, Fred is a regular at the game club, Barney is also trying to achieve some results in the game. Usually the two of them leave for the whole evening and chase balls, which causes resentment from the wives.

"Scooby-Doo" and other projects

In the sixties of the last century, William Hanna, together with Joseph Barbera, created a number of animated series that are considered to be early. These are such projects as "Mishka Yogi", "Johnny Quest", "Jetsons", "Secret Agent's Show", "Top Cat", "Space Specter", "Fantastic Four", "Crazy Race" and others.

American cartoons are complex in production, so the release of two animated films of average footage per year is considered a good result.

Basis of creativity

Such a fruitful joint work of two talented animators would have been impossible, if not for the profound friendly relations of the artists, which lasted almost sixty years. Although it should be noted that each of them had their own interests, as well as their own circle of contacts. Joseph Barbera preferred to revolve among Hollywood celebrities, loved beaches, drinks and good food, and William Hanna spent his spare time in the company of multiplier artists and adored nature.

But it's on weekends and in the evenings, and on ordinary days, friends met in the studio at eight in the morning and worked until late in the evening. William Hannah, whose films are somehow connected with the work of Joseph Barbera, once and for all ordered at the beginning of each cartoon to point beside the two names of William Hanna & Joseph Barbera. In the cinematography of the United States such "little things" are given great importance. American cartoons - this is also a film product, requiring delicate treatment, so that no one's interests are affected.

Awards

Tandem Hanna-Barbera for all time, has won eight Emmy Awards, seven prizes of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts of the United States and several awards Golden Globe. However, the most significant prizes were awarded to artists for the creation of the TV series "Tom and Jerry", these were the Oscars. In total, William and Joseph received seven gold figurines and six Oscar nominations. This is still considered a record that no one could overcome yet.

In 1976, the duo "Hannah-Barbera" was awarded a star on the "Walk of Fame" in Los Angeles. In 2006, in the hall of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, on one of the walls were placed bas-reliefs of memory depicting legendary animators and popular characters of their cartoons. Tom and Jerry, Scooby doo, the Flintstones, the Jetsons came to life on the walls.

Personal life

In August 1936, William Hannah married his long-time acquaintance named Violetta, they lived together for about sixty-four years. The couple had two children and seven grandchildren. In 1996, an autobiography of the artist was published, which helped to write a writer, Tom Ito.

William Hannah died on March 22, 2001 of throat cancer in his home in North Hollywood. After his death, a short clip with the text "We will miss you" aired. Later it became a memorable tradition, in 2002, Chuck Jones and Joseph Barber were held in 2006. On the day of the funeral, there was also a memorial meeting at the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, with the star Hannah and Barbera.

All assets of the company were inherited by Cartoon Network, which today continues a great business, started once by two talented artists-animators within the walls of the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer film studio.

Hannah William was buried in the Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, near Los Angeles.