Saturday, October 20, 2007

George Germanetti

Without having counted the exact amount of animation footage he did, I would say that George Germanetti was the most prolific of all the Popeye animators. His work spanned three different time periods of the character - Fleischer, Famous Studio, and King Features.

The first Popeye credit for Germanetti was on the 1935 Fleischer cartoon 'Choose Yer Weppins'. He animated primarily for Willard Bowsky's unit until 1939. At that point Germanetti's work wasn't exclusive to any particular unit until the later Famous Studio years when he became part of Al Eugster's crew.

Germanetti had an aesthetically appealing look to his Popeye (contributing to the overall appeal of the Bowsky unit cartoons) and his style must have been well regarded during the Fleischer and Famous Studio eras as evidenced by the use of his drawings for publicity art and posters. I have posted some examples below of Germanetti's scenes and artwork.

To see a photo of George Germanetti (and other Famous Studio animators) check out Mark Mayerson's amazing site on animator Al Eugster at:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/3131/photo_album1954xmas1.html


Choose Yer Weppins - 1935


I Ski Love Ski You Ski - 1936


Hold The Wire - 1936


Popeye Meets Ali Baba's Forty Theives - 1937


A Date to Skate - 1938


Hello - How Am I? - 1939


Olive's Sweepstake Ticket - 1941


Me Musical Nephews - 1942


Happy Birthdaze - 1943


The Island Fling - 1946


Wotta Knight - 1947


Alpine For You - 1951


Popeye's 20th Anniversary - 1954


Parlez Vous Woo - 1956


Popeye's Double Trouble - 1961


Fleischer Studio in-house publication cover (thanks to Jerry Beck)


1940's generic 1 sheet poster


1950's generic 1 sheet poster

Next Animator ID: Frank Endres

14 comments:

Kevin Langley said...

Bowsky's shorts are my favorites from the Fleischer era. Germanetti's a big reason for that. Any chance you'll be doing commentary on any of the Popeye DVDs? It's almost a crime you weren't on the first set. I'm looking forward to future posts.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know you had a blog. You've posted some really great stuff already and I'm looking forward to more. I noticed that George Germanetti tends to draw Popeye's one eye small.

Bob Jaques said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob Jaques said...

Hey Kevin,

I did two commentaries and participated in a third on a recent trip to LA. For Popeye Vol.2, I did commentary for Stealing Ain't Honest and Too Weak To Work. The third was a group commentary (with Jerry Beck, Leslie Cabarga, and Ray Pointer) for Popeye Meets Sindbad the Sailor that will be on an upcoming DVD release. Thanks for dropping by.

Mitchel Kennedy said...

Awesome! I'm looking forward to learning more about Popeye. Keep 'er up! =)

cartooncolin said...

Welcome to the blogging world Bob!

Can't wait for all the goodies you'll unleash.

I smell another cartoon party with 100% Fleischer Popeyes so we can see these great, under appreciated
animators in action ;)

-Colin

J. J. Hunsecker said...

It's great to see you have your own blog now, Bob!

I look forward to future posts to help expand my limited knowledge of the Fleischer animators.

Amir Avni said...

Great to have you on board, Bob!

Germanetti rules!

Mark Mayerson said...

All I can say is "it's about time!" Good to see you on line, Bob, and I hope that you keep this thing up. You know more than anybody about the Fleischer/Famous animator styles and we NEED your expertise. Educate us!

Thad said...

Glad to see you have your own blaggh now, Bobjay! Looking forward to your posts!

Larry T said...

Alrighty, another informed blog to keep an eye out for.... looking forward to learning more about the Popeye / Fleischer / Famous shorts, Bob!

sdestefano said...

you are my guide of choice through all of this stuff, Bob. Welcome to the blogosphere.
sde

Anonymous said...

Cool beans! Another fellow citizen of Vancouver has join the fight, to help us poor, selfish slobs for telling us which Fleischer animator did what scene, in which cartoon.

I’m trying to get into the animation industry myself, chief, and hopefully, I might be able to get into the animation program at Cap College.

Later, from an inspiring cartoonist/ artist

Bruce.

P.S., I have done some posts on Popeye, Iwerks, and more recently, Paul Terry on my blog, in case if you wanted to read them

Bruce

C. A. M. Thompson said...

Fascinating blog. Just wanted to say thank you for creating it!