The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 109

TG1F Th Post "and Thrf Evening May 1 m-2l' jPBEEGIG 3 4 Animated movies making comeback at the box office tion, which earned $25 million. Also popular was "She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword," which grossed well over $10 million. "Although I'd rather see a 'Snow White' or we would never make a movie of the Disney quality," says Michael Rosenblatt, vice chairman of the Atlantic Entertainment Group, which is releasing five animated features during the first half of this year: "American Rabbit," "Hey There, Yogi Bear," "The Go-bots Movie," "The Adventures of Mark Twain" and "Heathcliff: the Movie." "It may sound unartistic, but the reality of the marketplace is that this entire generation of kids has grown up watching absolutely horrendous animation on Saturday morning. That's what animation looks like to them." The expensive, classical style of animation isn't completely dead yet. Steven Spielberg and the Disney Studio are betting a total of $19 million this year on two fully-animated films they hope will prove that kids know the Smurfs is not what real animation looks like.

"The success of 'The Care Bears CAPITALIZING: On last year's most popular animated film, 'The Care Bears is the sequel, 'Care Bears Movie II: The New Generation' (above right); 1985's second most popular was 'The Black a richly animated fantasy from Disney (above left). However, none of them came even close to the umpteenth re-release of '101 Dalmatians' (left). TGIF flit pholos whose Samuel Goldwyn Company had its biggest hit to date with "Care Bears." "The children are the driving force in choosing the film. It's the same as in any market you don't program teenage films by appealing to what the parent wants to see. It's the same with the young children." But, as Atlantic's Rosenblatt See ANIMATION, page 24 creations director five years later and spent a quarter of a century in that role at Warner until the studio dissolved that facet of its operation.

Three-time Academy Award winner Jones who either created or helped develop such memorable cartoon characters as Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, Pepe le Pew, Bugs Bunny and the! Roadrunner feels he is fortunate i to have been associated with' i i ML1'. taste." To some. To others, that's exactly the kind of thinking behind the failure of Bluth's first animated feature "The Secret of NIMH," as well as the relative failure of many later Disney films. "One of the great mistakes people make is programming children's films for the parents, and not for the children," says Samuel Goldwyn, Unfortunately, most of us are gone.

I guess it helps to have lived so long." Jones has not spent a lot of his life worrying about honors and recognition: "I have no way of knowing whether we were being appreciated or not" when the cartoon "factories" were in full operation, Jones said. "We just went ahead and tried to make pictures that were funny to ourselves." By William Rabkln Entertainment News Service Bugs Bunny will be turning 50 soon, and he's learning the tough lesson his colleagues Mighty Mouse, Popeye, and Donald Duck have already faced: there's no room in Hollywood for a gray hare. Animated cartoons are changing, and the old stars are getting left behind in the dust along with the craft and skill that once went into their making. New theatrical releases like "The Care Bears Movie" and "The Adventures of the American Rabbit" don't bother with the painstaking animation that characterized the old Disney and Warner Bros, cartoons. Film critics say the new films are flat, talky and slow-moving.

Kids think they're wonderful. That's why we'll see nearly two dozen of them this year. Box office figures agree with the kids. Last year's second most popular new animated film was Disney's "The Black Cauldron," a richly animated fantasy that grossed around $20 million. The most popular was "The Care Bears Movie," cheaply made with TV-style limited anima Cartoon By Bob Porter Dallas Times Herald Chuck Jones cannot say exactly when it was that animators the folks who turned out all those cartoons with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and the like during Hollywood's golden days began to get the respect they so richly deserve.

But the honors are now coming quickly for Jones, who is being hon-orCd'ih Dallas as" the USA Film val's Great Director. He 'alsd was artist finally respected for his Movie' doesn't have anything to do with public taste," says Don Bluth, the former Disney animator who is directing the $7.5 million "An American Tail" for Spielberg's Amblin' Entertainment. "All it means is that mothers drop their little kids off to see it when they go out shopping. If a parent says, 'Let's take the kids to see this movie because it will be a good film to see that's public imagine being in the company of all those (honored) live-action directors. But, if they insist on it, OK! "We never used the term We were 'animators' or All we were doing was trying to make people laugh," he said.

"Which is precisely what Buster Keaton and (Charlie) Chaplin and the rest of them were doing in their work. They never thought of themselves as 'artists' either. So, that's why it is so gratifying, so surprising to have yourself con-; nected with some kind of recently honored at the Miami Film Festival. He has been singled out for a tribute at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as well. A friendly, outgoing 73-year-old master of the genre, Jones is taking his current status in good-humored stride.

"It comes down to Mark Twain: You don't have to deserve something to enjoy it," Jones said in a recent interview. "This is' very unusual," he said, about 'the festival honor. "I can't Beginning as an animator in 1931 Warner's in that when the shortly dfteVth ferflfcnWsMrttfit V. movies. J6fiesbWaifie fcfi rrtifmattow'-'See JONES, pa -23.