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Jules Engel (11 March 1909–6 September 2003) was a Jewish-Hungarian American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, and director of live action and animated films, and teacher. Events 1425 BC - Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Events 3114 BC - According to the Proleptic Julian calendar the current era in the Maya Long Count Calendar started Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Hungarian Americans are American citizens of Hungarian descent He is most remembered as the founding director of the Experimental Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts, where he taught until his death, serving as mentor to several generations of animators. The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia California, a suburb of Los Angeles California.

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Early life

Engel was born in Budapest, Hungary where as a baby his mother would cover him with a baby blanket when carrying him in a stroller. This was largely due to the shape of Engel's head (he once commented in an interview) that was similar to a hexagon. The family story is that people would stop his mother to inquistively ask what she was carrying in the stroller. Engel goes on to explain that this incident might have been a foretelling of his career in art and animation! [1].

Engel immigrated to Chicago at the age of thirteen, where he grew up in Oak Park, Illinois and attended Evanston Township High School. Evanston Township High School, or ETHS, is a public four-year High school located in Evanston Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago During his high school years, he became the best runner in his track team, and was already showing signs of early abstract work in his art classes. One teacher, who was understanding of Engel's peculiar taste, would make the rest of the class go out, and do observational drawing of people and nature, while she let him stay in class and work with different collages of paper shapes. He remarked in his later years,"If you are good as an athlete there something in you that has that sense of rhythm that going to show itself on a canvas or a drawing. It gong to be there to a degree. " Also, while in highschool, he was invited by a classmate he never talked to before to go see a performance of Swan Lake by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which would serve as an inspiration for his artwork the rest of his life. Swan Lake ( Лебединое Озеро, Lebedinoye Ozero) is a Ballet, op See also Ballets Russes, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was an influential Ballet company founded by René Blum and Colonel Vassily

Arriving in Los Angeles

In 1937, Engel traveled to Los Angeles originally to gain athletic scholarship to either USC, or UCLA, as he was in the track team while in high school . The University of Southern California (commonly referred to as USC, SC, Southern California, and incorrectly The University of California Los Angeles (generally known as UCLA) is a public research university located in Westwood Los Angeles, California, United He would eventually settle in Hollywood, while at the same time studying at the Chouinard Art Institute in downtown Los Angeles. The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional Art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879-1969 It was during his studies at Chouinard, he met many artists who would go on to work for Disney Studios, and later recommend him to Walt Disney Studios. in the meantime, he work under Charles Mintz Studios as an inbetweener.

Disney Period, Fantasia and Bambi (1938-1941)

A year later, he was asked by Walt Disney Studios to work on the now Disney classic film Fantasia. Fantasia is a 1940 Animated film produced by Walt Disney, and is the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. At the time, Disney Studios was doing something innovative, integrating "low" (animation) and "high" (classical music) art, and the studio needed someone who was familiar with the timing of dance. It was because of his drawing talent and his growing knowledge of dance, Engel was assigned to storyboard the Russian spites and Chinese mushrooms dance sequences of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.

Fantasia Trademark

For the Russian sprite sequence, Engel inventively placed the dancing sprites against the stark black ground. And by bolding the simplified setting, he intensified the contrast of the figure and the ground. (It should be noted that during this time he was most inspired by the paintings of Kandinsky and Klee). Wassily Kandinsky (Russian Василий Кандинский first name pronounced as) ( – 13 December 1944 was a Russian painter, Printmaker The latter sequence, Chinese Mushrooms, has brought much debate in the animation community surrounding Engel himself, Art Babbit, and Elmer Pummer over who got to claim responsibility for the sequence. As former CalArts student Mark Kirkland revealed, Engel was upset about Plummer censoring his concepts from reaching the hands of Walt Disney, and later putting the final 'correctional touches' of both his and Babbit's work. Mark Kirkland is a director of episodes of The Simpsons. As of 2005, he has directed 58 episodes the most of any director similar to how many episodes Overall, Engel could claim responsibility for the choreography (timing) for the final sequence, but to this day, animation scholars and former students alike continue to debate about it from all sides. [2]

Contributions to Bambi

His work on Fantasia didn't go unnoticed by the studio, as the director of Bambi, David Hand, asked Jules to work do color work for the film. Originally, Engel was unhappy about it because he had no interest working on a film focused on animals. However, word got out to director about his attitude towards the project, and he was then re-approached to work on the timing for the sequence where Bambi first encounters his childhood playmate, Faline, which required a lot of movement analysis. After completing the sequence, he became committed to the entirety of the project after hearing the score for the film, which he thought had lot of abstraction and movement. He began doing color sketches because he felt that the color schemes they were using during production was too naturalistic. Hand, who liked Engel's approach, green-lighted his color contributions to the film's traumatizing momma deer death scene, and where the clan of pink and red deers ran away from firing gunshots. He expressed to his colleagues, "You should emphasize, you should push, you should be more inventive. [. . . ] There's nothing 'normal' about animated film, it's all invention. " Basically, making them more aware of their color choices in relationship to the aesthetics of animation. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called

Engel's time at Disney would come to an end with the development of the Disney animators' strike. The bitter animators' strike of 1941 at Walt Disney Studios was a psychological turning point within the company While the union won the case over the studio,, Engel didn't go back, largely because while he enjoyed the place, he felt uncomfortable being surrounded by colleagues that he felt didn't share his passion for the aesthetics of animation as he did. However, the time he spent didn't go to waste, as met avant-garde filmmaker Oskar Fischinger during Fantasia, who encouraged Engel in both his abstract animation and painting. Oskar Fischinger ( 22 June 1900, Gelnhausen, Germany — 31 January 1967, Los Angeles) was an abstract animator

Motion Picture Unit (1942-1944)

During World War II, he was in the service alongside the likes of actor Ronald Reagan, and famed children's book writer Theodor Geisel (Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel (ˈsɔɪs ˈɡaɪzəl March 2 1904 – September 24 1991 was an American Writer and Cartoonist, better known by his pen name Seuss) in the First Motion Picture Unit as an animator. The First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU was the unofficial name for the 18th Air Force Base Unit of the United States Army Air Forces. Originally, Engel was waiting to be drafted in the U. S. Army, but was rejected because of his poor eyesight (indicated by his glasses), and a bad shoulder. He was adamant in joining the war cause because he did not will to deal with the embarrassment of facing up to his friends who were already drafted. The Air Force would eventually recruit Engel in the Motion Picture Unit to work on training videos and war bond advertisements. he would eventual work on drawing instructions for the newer models of the weapons being produced, and maps based from looking above from an airplane, where he infused his earlier practice of abstraction.

UPA Days (1944-1959)

Engel was one of a group of animators (himself, William Hurtz, John Hubley, and Herbert Klynn) who later left Disney to found the United Productions of America studio. John Hubley ( May 21, 1914 – February 21, 1977) was an American Animator and animation director known for both his formal Herbert Klynn (born November 11, 1917 in Cleveland Ohio, US &ndash died February 3, 1999 in Tarzana California United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American Animation studio of the 1940s through present day beginning with industrial films At UPA, Engel worked as a background artist on cartoons like Gerald McBoing Boing, Madeline, and Mr. Magoo. A background artist or sometimes called a background stylist or background painter is one who is involved in the process of Animation who establishes the Gerald McBoing-Boing is an animated short film produced by United Productions of America (UPA and given wide release by Columbia Pictures on January 25 Madeline is a Children's book series written by Ludwig Bemelmans, an American author of Belgian, Austrian and German origins Mr Quincy Magoo (or simply Mr Magoo) is a cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949 The environment at UPA was much more open-minded to change, unlike his former employer, Disney. It was during this period where Engel was not only inspired from paintings by Kandinsky, Klee, but also Miro, Matisse, and Duly, as well as the Bauhaus book "Language of Vision". Wassily Kandinsky (Russian Василий Кандинский first name pronounced as) ( – 13 December 1944 was a Russian painter, Printmaker Miro may refer to Miro ( Prumnopitys ferruginea) a conifer of New Zealand Miro (software, an Internet television Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954 was a French Artist, known for his use of Colour and his fluid brilliant and original draughtsmanship Engel would later claim responsibility for discovering the children's book Madeline, and suggesting to Stephen Bosustow to buy and copyrights and develop the series. Stephen Bosustow (1911 - 1981 was an American Film producer from 1943 until his retirement in 1979

In 1945, Hazel Guggenheim (of the art patronage family) arranged for Engel to have first exhibition of painting at the Frederick Kahn Gallery in Los Angeles. As the story goes, Engel and Guggenheim were visiting the gallery when Ms. Guggenheim suggested Mr. Kahn that he should give Jules an exhibition. Taken by surprise, Engel agreed to have an exhibition if Kahn would agree not to sell anything.

Format Films (1959-1962)

With former UPA colleagues Herbert Klynn and Buddy Getzler, he then launched Format Films, and produced several popular US television series, including The Alvin Show (1961-62) and The Lone Ranger (1966-67), as well as one-off animated shorts, among them the Ray Bradbury-scripted, and Oscar-nominated, Icarus Montgolfier Wright (1962). Herbert Klynn (born November 11, 1917 in Cleveland Ohio, US &ndash died February 3, 1999 in Tarzana California Format Films was a Television Animation studio which was founded by Herbert Klynn. The Alvin Show was the first American Animated television series to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks, although The Lone Ranger is an American, long-running Old-time radio and early Television show created by George W

Live-Action in Paris

In 1962, Engel left for Paris where he directed a French animated cartoon, The World of Sine, which received the French La Belle Qualite Award. The World of Sine was purchased and released throughout Europe by Jacques Tati. Coaraze, made in French town in 1965 won the Prix Jean Vigo Award for Engel.

In 1964, in Paris, Engel co-directed The Little Prince, with Raymond Gerome. This was a theatre production combined with animation and live performance on stage. He was set designer for Le Jouex, and avant garde play starring Michelle Boucett. 

While he was in Paris, he came to the attention of renowned comedian Jacques Tati, who was a fan of the UPA work. Jacques Tati (October 9 &ndashNovember 5) was a noted French comedic Filmmaker.  And later, his first short live action film, Coaraze, which won the Prix Jean Vigo.  During his stay in Paris, he was friendly with other artists at the time, including Man Ray. Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky ( August 27 1890 &ndash November 18 1976) in Philadelphia PA and raised  In the late 1960s he began making his own personal fine art animation.  He also made several documentaries on other artists.

"To CalArts and Beyond!"

Returning to the U. S. , Engel continued his films on artists, directing a film for Tamarind Lithography Workshop called A look at a Lithographer and American Sculpture of the Sixties and also a film, Max Bill, about the Swiss artist. Max Bill ( 22 December 1908 &ndash 8 December 1994) was a Swiss Architect, Artist, painter,

In 1970, Engel founded CalArts' Program in Experimental Animation, widely recognized as one of the world's foremost centers for animation arts.

In 1997, Animation World Magazine, asked Engel, along with two other animation prfoessors: "If you were stranded on a desert island with only ten films to screen to your students, to teach them the principles, techniques and concepts of the art of animation, what would they be?" Engel chose the following:

In 2001, Engel kept himself busy by selecting the color design of each frame for The 1 Second Film. The 1 Second Film is a Non-profit collaborative art project being created by thousands of people around the world including several celebrities This was an interdisciplinary project that was conspired by Nirvan Mullick, an Experimental Animation student of his at the time. In that same year, CalArts hailed his indelible contribution to the arts by conferring on him the title of Institute Fellow, the highest honor it awards to faculty. The Fellowship has only be given to two other faculty to date, Alexander Mackendrick, and Mel Powell. Alexander Mackendrick ( September 8 1912 - December 22 1993) was a Scottish-American Film director Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein, February 12, 1923 in the Bronx, New York City &ndash April 24, 1998 in

Continuing His Legacy

In one of his final major acts, in May 2003, Jules established the Jules Engel Scholarship Fund. The recipients of the awards are those students who have carried out their work at CalArts in Jules’ name have all demonstrated rigor, daring imagination and great curiosity about the world, leading into inventive interdisciplinary projects.

Engel was also a painter, and produced a prolific body of oil paintings, lithographs and other graphic artworks. His paintings are in the collections of major museums, and recently there have been exhibits of his work at Tobey C. Moss Gallery in Los Angeles. He was still working on a new series of lithographs just before his death.

Today, many of his students carry out his influence through their work, which include John Lasseter, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, Stephen Hillenburg, Joanna Priestley, Christine Panushka,Peter Chung,Glen Keane, Ellen Woodbury, Paul Demeyer, Eric Darnell, Kathy Rose, Joyce Borenstein, Mark Osborne, Fern Seiden, Steven Subotnick, Patrice Stellest, Amy Kravitz, Vanessa Schwartz, Mark Kirkland, and Janeann Dill among others. John Alan Lasseter (born January 12 1957 is an Academy Award -winning American Animator and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Henry Selick (born November 30 1952) is an American Stop motion director, producer and writer who is best known for directing Timothy "Tim" William Burton (born August 25 1958 is an American Film director, Screenwriter and Set designer, notable for the quirky Stephen Hillenburg (born August 21 1961 in Fort Sill, Oklahoma) is an American Animator and is perhaps most notable as the creator of Joanna Priestley is an award-winning independent animator and teacher Christine Panushka is an independent filmmaker freelance animator and teacher Peter Kunshik Chung (born April 19, 1961 in Seoul, South Korea, as 정근식 (Chung Geun-sik or alternative spelling Jeong Geun-Sik or Chung Glen Keane (1954&ndash is an American animator author illustrator and director Ellen Woodbury is a Disney Animator and sculptor She attended the Experimental Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. Eric Darnell is the co-director of Antz and Madagascar, and is set to direct Madagascar 2. Mark Osborne is an Academy Award nominated director and Guggenheim Fellow (2004 Steven Subotnick is an animation teacher and award-winning independent animator Patrice Stellest (born May 231953 is a contemporary painter and Sculptor from Southern California. Mark Kirkland is a director of episodes of The Simpsons. As of 2005, he has directed 58 episodes the most of any director similar to how many episodes

The Engel Animation Advancement Research Center (EAARC) offers a slate of animated shorts drawn from leading international festivals. The program is structured around the themes of personal struggle and forbidden desire in the context of a polarized, conflicted world.

Former students of Engel, Christine Panushka and Dr. Janeann Dill, currently act as his representatives for some matters (excluding his films, which are not administered by them). Panushka served as the executor as Engel's estate, while Dill is his biographer.

In 2003, Center for Visual Music and Cal Arts presented a major retrospective of Engel's films at Redcat Theatre, Los Angeles. CVM preserved many of Engel's abstract films for the event, through the Jules Engel Preservation Project. Per Jules' wishes, CVM owns the rights to a number of his films, some of which are currently distributed by CVM today.

Trivia

Quotes

References

  1. ^ Jules Engel video at the Peoples Archive
  2. ^ TAG Blog: CalArts in the 70s (Part 4)

External links

Work and Statements by Engel

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