While a primetime commercial Emmy nomination for Coca-Cola’s “It’s Mine” is hard to top, praise of another kind certainly ranks for me personally. In this case the praise comes in the form of a thought that first crossed my mind upon seeing “It’s Mine” during this year’s Super Bowl–that the spirit of the spot was true to the classic Charlie Brown character as captured in TV animation from the great animator, director and producer Jose Cuautemoc “Bill” Melendez.
Melendez died on Sept. 1 at St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica. He was 91.
I met Melendez once, back when he maintained his animation studio, Bill Melendez Productions, on Larchmont Blvd., just blocks from SHOOT’s current West Coast roost on the Raleigh Studios lot in Los Angeles. I also had the occasion to do a couple of phone interviews with him in subsequent years.
He was a warm, sweet, decent man and it struck me that his warmth, sweetness and decency were the same traits that made Charles Schulz’s classic, treasured “Peanuts” cartoon strip so popular and appealing.
Melendez, his studio partner Lee Mendelson and Schulz brought the “Peanuts” characters to life on television, helping to establish the format of the half-hour animated special of which the Charlie Brown shows were a pioneering staple. The very first “Peanuts” special, A Charlie Brown Christmas (originally sponsored by Coke), won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award. It debuted on CBS and is now shown each holiday season on ABC.
Melendez also had a hand in four “Peanuts” theatrical films (A Boy Named Charlie Brown; Snoopy, Come Home; Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown; and Bon Voyage Charlie Brown).
Melendez’s involvement even included his voice for the Snoopy character’s laughs and sobs. According to Melendez’s obituary in the Los Angeles Times, the emergence of Melendez as the voice of Snoopy sprung from fortuitous circumstance. Schulz said that Snoopy couldn’t talk. So Melendez experimented with making sounds that suggested a voice and speeding them up on audio tape. He had assumed a professional voice actor would do a final recording. But time ran short and Melendez ended up serving as Snoopy’s original voice, a role which the animator went on to play in a host of half-hour and hour-long TV specials, the Saturday morning TV show and the four feature films.
Melendez was also a spotmaking artisan. He was a director and producer of more than 1,000 commercials for such studios as United Productions of America (UPA) and Playhouse Pictures. And in 1959, he directed the first animation of the “Peanuts” characters for a series of spots promoting the Ford Falcon.
Melendez’s accomplishments in animation encompassed working at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinnocchio, Bambi and Fantasia, as well as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck shorts.
He later animated Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other classic Warner Bros. characters.
Melendez is survived by his wife Helen, two sons, six grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Donations in Bill Melendez’s memory can be made to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, 4650 Sunset Blvd., #29, Los Angeles, Calif., 90027 (www.childrenshospitalla.org).
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More