Saturday, November 17, 2007

Charles (Tex) Hastings

Popeye looks weird as drawn by the hand of Charles Hastings. There's something about the bloated head and facial features that's odd and stands out. (but not detracting from the overall charm of the gritty Fleischer style) Hastings came from the west coast having worked briefly for Walter Lantz (and possibly WB) and had a short stay of a couple of years animating for the Fleischers. All of his work on Popeye was done for the Bowsky unit.

Below are frame grabs from all the Popeye cartoons that Hastings worked on before leaving the Fleischer Studio. Check out his animation in 'Pleased to Meet Cha!' - there's some really bizarre action of Popeye and Bluto walking from one room and continuing into another. It feels as though they have glue on their shoes.


The Dance Contest - 1934


We Aim to Please - 1934


Beware of Barnacle Bill - 1935


Be Kind to 'Aminals' - 1935


Pleased to Meet Cha! - 1935


Dizzy Divers - 1935

9 comments:

J. J. Hunsecker said...

What happened to Hastings after leaving Fleischers? Did he work at another New York studio?

Larry Levine said...

Hi Bob, Do you know what was the pencil of choice was for the Fleischer animators?

Bob Jaques said...

I'm not sure where Hastings went after New York. Here's a site that I reference then verify through credits:
http://www.immaginariofiorentino.com/albertopage/index.html
It has Hastings listed as a questionable employee at Dsney then opening his own studio. I can't verify either.
Larry - Sorry I don't know what the pencil of choice was for the Fleischer animators. I know for a fact that John Gentilella (Famous Studio animator and assistant at the Fleischers) used a carpenter's pencil to do his animation.

Marc Deckter said...

Are there many other examples of west coast animators moving east to work with the Fleischer's? It seems like it was usually the other way around (east coast animators leaving the Fleischer's to move out west)

Bob Jaques said...

The biggest migration of west coast animators going east was to Miami to work on Gulliver. Some Disney and WB animators made the trip.

Anybody know of any other west coast animator migrations to the Fleischers before Gulliver started??

J. J. Hunsecker said...

After leaving Disney, Friz Freleng moved to New York City to work on Krazy Kat, before moving back to California to join Harman-Ising.

J. J. Hunsecker said...

Oops, Krazy Kat wasn't at Fleischers, of course. I thought you meant west coast animators migrating to ANY east coast studio.

Whit said...

Reuben Timmins (credited as Reuben Timinsky at Fleischer's) was animating with a carpenter's pencil late in his career. I don't know what he used forty years earlier on the East Coast.

Jimbo said...

That's the guy! Thanks Bob for curing my ignorance. There's a wartime cartoon where Popeye and Bluto beat up Japs together (apologies to my Japanese friends). Bluto looks really scary and massive in it. I don't know the title but it's from 1943 I think.