When thinking about children’s entertainment, the artistry behind its creation often takes
a backseat to production cost and marketability.
If the quality is substandard, its excused by saying, “well, it’s for kids,” as
if their taste is indiscriminate or unrefined.
However, an exception can be found in Faith and John Hubley, two animators whose experimental
work literally spoke to kids on their level.
John Hubley began his career at Disney, where he worked as background animator and art director
on their earliest feature films.
In 1939, architect Frank Lloyd Wright visited Disney Studios, bringing with him a copy of
Ivan Ivanov-Vano’s The Tale of the Czar Durandai.
Now clearly this animation style was in stark contrast to Disney, and this made an impression
on Hubley, who believed the medium had potential beyond what Walt was offering.
The economic instability of the Great Depression gave way to the rise of unions, and due to
a strike at Fleischer Studios, animators would organize the Screen Cartoonist’s Guild in
1938.
By 1941, all studios had signed contracts except Disney.
In Walt Disney’s opinion his was exempt, because he provided the best pay and working
conditions, neglecting the fact that only a select few got to enjoy these privileges.
On May 29 of that year, over 200 studio employees went on a strike that would last five weeks,
ending with Disney eventually signing.
Hubley would leave the studio during this strike, producing several films for Screen
Gems before moving to United Productions of America.
It was here he created Mr. Magoo, maybe his most enduring character, but I think more
importantly it was at UPA where he began experimenting with form.
My favourite example of this is 1951’s Rooty Toot Toot.
While the animation is somewhat limited, its style is striking, particularly the use of
colour and textures.
A year later he was forced to leave UPA for refusing to name names before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities, unlike his old boss, and was subsequently blacklisted from
the industry.
Faith Elliott left home at fifteen to pursue a career in theatre and at eighteen headed
for Hollywood, where she worked as a music editor and script supervisor on such films as 12 Angry Men.
Her and John would meet here and together founded Storyboard Studios in 1953, vowing
to independently produce and release one animated film a year.
They were married in 1955, the same year the studio moved to New York and would collaborate
on every project for the next 22 years, beginning with 1957’s Harlem Wednesday.
This featured no traditional animation.
Instead the couple filmed paintings by Gregorio Prestopino, using camera movement to create
rhythm and motion.
In 1958 they produced Tender Game, this was their first animated collaboration, a short
depicting love abstractly to a score composed by Oscar Peterson.
The images move to the music as though they were improvised, a feeling that would become
a staple of the Hubleys and taken to the next level with 1959’s Moonbird.
In perhaps their best-known work, John and Faith recorded their two young sons rambling
as they were falling asleep.
They then took the story the children fabricated and animated it.
The result is a surreal, stream of consciousness in which the boys search for an elusive bird.
The film captures an emotional realism that would’ve been impossible to script and provides
a glimpse into the wonder of a child’s imagination.
Moonbird won the Hubleys their first Oscar and was the first independently produced short
to win the award.
They would win again for The Hole and A Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass Double Feature in
1962 and '66 respectively.
As the Hubley family grew, their films came to include the imaginations of their other
children, Georgia and Emily.
Both appeared in Cockaboody, a spiritual sequel to Moonbird, in which the children’s playing
is interspersed with conversation about childbirth and adulthood.
The Hubleys’ final collaboration was with cartoonist Gary Trudeau on A Doonesbury Special,
released in 1977.
In February of that year, John underwent heart surgery and passed away during the procedure.
In honour of his death, Storyboard Studios was renamed Hubley Studios and the family
continued creating animation.
Faith’s solo work leaned heavily into the abstract and explored the natural world, drawing
inspiration from Indigenous art and mythology.
Her films have a distinct look thanks to the use of a technique known as under-lighting.
Now in traditional animation, the drawings are filmed with light from above but in under-lighting,
they are illuminated from below, which produces a warm, glowing effect.
What I find most exciting about these films is that they are free of the restraints of
conventional story-telling.
They’re alive in the way that form and mood can, and usually will, shift at any time.
It’s a show, don’t tell approach, where the message is conveyed rather than explained,
and I think this is an extremely useful method of educating - again, a lot of these films
were geared towards children, for educational purposes.
The Hubleys understood that just because they were kids didn’t mean they were incapable
of comprehending certain concepts, perhaps because their own children so perceptive,
and would go on to become accomplished artists in their own right, Emily as an animator,
and Georgia as a musician.
They existed outside of the studio system and this gave them the freedom to take the
medium to places where their better-known contemporaries simply couldn’t go.
Because of this, the films of Faith and John Hubley managed to capture not only the joy
and wonder of childhood, but of creating, and life itself.
If you would like to learn more about the Hubleys I’ve posted several links to their
work in the description, and if you enjoyed this video, be sure to give us a like, subscribe,
and share it, tell a friend.
You can check out some of our other videos as well, like the early history of computer
animation and a similar video on Dave and Max Flesicher.
Thank you so much for watching.