Tribute to Bill Hanna
1910-2001
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Tribute to Bill Hanna 1910-2001 |
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Over the course of 60 years Bill Hanna
and Joe Barbara created thousands of cartoons starring dozens of classic
characters. Together they received practically every entertainment award and
honour it is possible to receive including induction into the television
Academy Hall of Fame and a star on the prestigious Hollywood walk of fame.
Their very names have come to mean animation.
Bill Hanna started his cartoon career in 1929 working for Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising making cartoons for Warner Bros. In 1936 Bill joined MGM where he met his lifelong working partner Joe Barbara. In 1940 they created the first Tom and Jerry cartoon Puss gets the boot and over the coming years went on to win seven Academy awards for their cartoons featuring these two classic characters. In 1957 MGM decided to close their cartoon division. The birth of the famous Hanna- Barbara studios occurred in 1959 with the release of Ruff and Reddy, a huge success which ran over fifty two shows. There is no question that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara started the television animation industry and after the success of Ruff and Reddy came the appearance of Huckleberry Hound Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw. The medium of television could not withstand the budget of theatrical cartoon production and of this was born limited animation, a creation directly attributed to Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara. Limited animation was a production method for which the number of individual drawings needed for a six and a half minute cartoon could be reduced by 90%. With the advent of The Flintstones which premiered on ABC in 1960 a whole new genre of prime time animation was born. Top Cat followed the next season and in 1962 The Jetson's debuted depicting the tribulations of an average working stiff and his family in the 21st century. The studio's fourth prime time series Johnny Quest, premiered in September 1964 and paved the way for such series as Space Ghost, Scooby Doo, and Speed Buggy. Throughout the 1970's Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara remained hands-noncontributory to their studio and it was not until the 1980's, an era marked by cute shows such as The Smurf's, The Snorks, and The Biskitts that the two moved into more supervisory positions. Silver K Gallery salutes one of the true giants and genius's of the animation industry Bill Hanna with this beautiful show entitled "A Tribute to Bill Hanna". |
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