Thursday, December 20, 2007

Roland (Doc) Crandall - Part 1

ID for Roland Crandall's animation should be a no-brainer for those of you into the Fleischer Studio Popeye cartoons. (and I admit easy for me to blog) His style is the most identifiable to fans of the early Popeye animators. Crandall drew the first model sheet for Popeye and you can see a copy of it in Leslie Cabarga's book 'The Fleischer Story'. Before exiting the Fleischer Studio, Crandall de facto directed only one Popeye cartoon - 'Shakespearian Spinach', released in 1940. Up until that time he animated exclusively on the Popeye series for Seymour Kneitel's crew.




Costume model for 'Shakespearian Spinach'

Better said by this published biography, here are some facts about Roland Crandall. (click on image to enlarge)


From Fleischer's Animated News Vol.2 #7, June 1936

I will be posting frame grabs from all of the Popeye cartoons with Crandall's animation. Check back soon for part 2.


'Popeye The Sailor' - 1933


'I Yam What I Yam' - 1933


'Blow Me Down' - 1933 (re-use animation from Popeye the Sailor)


'I Eats My Spinach' - 1933


'Seasin's Greetinks!' - 1933


'Sock-A-Bye Baby' - 1934


'Strong to the Finich' - 1934


'Axe Me Another' - 1934


'A Dream Walking' - 1934


'The Hyp-Nut-Tist' - 1935


'For Better or Worser' - 1935

3 comments:

Larry Levine said...

Incredible images--can't wait for part 2!!

Paul F. Etcheverry said...

Thanks for posting these frame grabs, Bob. This is a great blog.

Any truth to the urban legend that "Doc" Crandall animated all of "Betty Boop-Snow White"?

Bob Jaques said...

'Any truth to the urban legend that "Doc" Crandall animated all of "Betty Boop-Snow White"?'

Yes - absolutely. Read Crandall's bio from an issue of Fleischer's Animated News that I've posted.