Bruno Bozzetto is an Italian genius! This photo shows him outside the Disney Animation building with Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas and Eric Larson sometime during the late 1970s.
Bruno has won acclaim and many awards over the years for his exquisite feature films as well as short subjects. Signor Rossi (below) is a character I enjoyed watching on German TV as a teenager.
He is your everyday Italian man, who copes with life's challenges.
Wonderful design!!
Bozzetto produced and directed several animated feature films such as The SuperVips (My Brother the Superman) from 1968. Limited animation used brilliantly.
Probably his most famous animated feature is Allegro Non Troppo from 1976. This film is a tribute/satire on Disney's Fantasia, and it is "fully animated", 12 to 24 drawings per second. After I saw the film as an art student I was mesmerized by its craftsmanship, its intelligent storytelling and its beauty. I wrote Bruno a fan letter with an added sketch, and he responded by sending me a letter with an added sketch!!
Ward Kimball loved this film. He told animation students to study the Ravel/Bolero sequence. To him it included some of the best animation ever done.
A frame from the film's the Sibelius/Valse Triste sequence. So brilliant!
The Bolero illustrates the beginning of life on Earth...the Bozzetto way.
For the love of God, if you like hand-drawn animation, get a DVD copy of Allegro Non Troppo:
https://www.amazon.com/Bruno-Bozzettos-Allegro-Non-Troppo/dp/B00014NE6M/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1480571699&sr=1-1&keywords=allegro+non+troppo
Try Ebay as well. The film is a masterpiece!
I had the chance to meet Bozzetto on a couple of occasions. He is one of the nicest men still working within this art form, and my conversations with him continue to stimulate me.
The 1980s was a dark year at the disney studio before The Little Mermaid was in production in 1987 so wen it came out in November 1989 it changes everything at the disney studio the Renaissance was great to Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King I love your characters villains like Gaston, Jafar and Scar thay look real but all the villains thay act like crazy just beacuse thay are jealous and thay wante revenge if we look into there eyes.
ReplyDeleteIn those days, looking at the foreign and independent market was ALL we had to see what was out there outside the boredom of American mainstream animation of that era.
DeleteI love Bruno Bozzetto, when I was a child I drawing a comic book based on "Vip mio fratello Super Uomo"!
ReplyDeleteIt's very sad, but in Italy, he is the only cartoonist for 50 years.
A country where they were born the great Masters of the Art, but Italians do not like the art enough to dedicate it as a "job". Really very sad.
I'm sure. If there's at least one thing he did do that shouldn't be ignored was bringing about the notion that animation wasn't simply kids' fare (since I'm sure that was all Italy got before he stepped in).
DeleteThat look of Signor Rossi reminds me highly of 'Schoolhouse Rock' from the same relative time period. I wonder if that was just a general fashion or was there some influence from Rossi over SR's final look.
ReplyDeleteHard to tell, I sorta felt Bozzetto's initial look for Rossi was perhaps derived from the abstract UPA influence of the 50'.
DeleteI absolutely love Allegro Non Troppo and so many of Bozzetto's other works. And I agree with Ward Kimball, the Bolero sequence is brilliant. The animation's so perfectly timed to the music, and when I originally saw it, I was blown away. I still debate over which one's the better movie: Fantasia or Allegro Non Troppo.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the post. I just love Signor Rossi, especially in combination with the music (the soundtrack CD is multi-lingual, so I reccomend it to every fan).
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to get my hands/eyes on "Allegro Non Troppo".
Reminded Bruno along with his son Fabio worked on this musical piece recently...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_brCXj10I