This video needs to be seen by more people!! I came across it while researching Otto for a school assignment and discovered a gem that I would have absolutely watched outside of the schooling context too
It made me giggle and warmed my heart to see Messmer act out the typical Felix gestures, such as pacing back and forth while thinking and him getting a new idea. I would have loved to meet Mr. Messmer!!
Absolutely agree, it’s incredible how someone had an idea years ago and people still know it exists, the fact hand drawn animation looked so good for its time and even impressive nowadays
What a great piece of animation history. The thing that struck me is how similar Messmer’s situation was to Ub Iwerks. They both essentially ran their respective studios and were the most important animators/ directors yet they didn’t receive fair credit for their work. While Iwerks went to form his own studio, Messmer didn’t and couldn’t, especially since Felix was owned by the Sullivan estate. Makes me wonder how different the landscape of animation in the 1930’s would have been if Messmer had more control and was given the budget to properly bring Felix into the sound era while it was still hot. Messmer genuinely had to have been among the top 5 most proficient animators of his time and he deserved better
BTW Original Musical Score by ROSS CARE. It's somewhat toned down (buried) in this (off-air) version but can be heard most clearly around 9.47. It was a thrill scoring the silent Felix clips.
This video needs to be seen by more people!! I came across it while researching Otto for a school assignment and discovered a gem that I would have absolutely watched outside of the schooling context too
It made me giggle and warmed my heart to see Messmer act out the typical Felix gestures, such as pacing back and forth while thinking and him getting a new idea. I would have loved to meet Mr. Messmer!!
Absolutely agree, it’s incredible how someone had an idea years ago and people still know it exists, the fact hand drawn animation looked so good for its time and even impressive nowadays
Is it just me, or was there something heartwarming when seeing Otto assigning Al the job of colouring in his Felix drawing.
What a great piece of animation history. The thing that struck me is how similar Messmer’s situation was to Ub Iwerks. They both essentially ran their respective studios and were the most important animators/ directors yet they didn’t receive fair credit for their work. While Iwerks went to form his own studio, Messmer didn’t and couldn’t, especially since Felix was owned by the Sullivan estate. Makes me wonder how different the landscape of animation in the 1930’s would have been if Messmer had more control and was given the budget to properly bring Felix into the sound era while it was still hot. Messmer genuinely had to have been among the top 5 most proficient animators of his time and he deserved better
BTW Original Musical Score by ROSS CARE. It's somewhat toned down (buried) in this (off-air) version but can be heard most clearly around 9.47. It was a thrill scoring the silent Felix clips.
R.I.P Otto Messmer
3:22 the same music that appears in comicalamities, from 1997
ggggggggggreatie