Toons
Joseph Barbera and William Hanna together created the nostalgia merchandise of cartoons like Tom and Jerry, Ruff and Ready, Huckleberry Hound and the Flintstones. The two of them transferred smoothly out of movie cartoon creation into television when it became more popular in the 1960’s. If the two had walked away after Tom and Jerry, they would have had a massive affect on the industry regardless of their future careers. The two successfully owned a production company called Hanna-Barbera Productions. They won eight Emmys as a duo and seven Oscars. Their estimated net worth is $300 million but their impact on the world of Hollywood is immeasurable.
How did they get this way? Both Barbera and Hanna wrote auto biographies with all the good anecdotes anyone could ever ask for about their rise in the industry. Hanna was born in New Mexico in 1910 and moved to Southern California as a child. He didn’t grow up with much at all and entered the world as a young man during the Great Depression. He worked odd jobs for a while just to get by, one of which was building the Pantagus Theater as a construction worked. On a fluke, he landed a job as a janitor at Harman and Isling Animation Studio, where Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons were created. Through random chance and being nosy, he managed to work his way up and learn the skills of animating through practical application. He managed to become head of their ink and paint department and wrote lyrics and tunes for them.
The studio collapsed and Hanna moved on to MGM as a director. While managing a series that turned out to be a flop, Hanna blew his reputation in the work place and was demoted to a story man. While working hard at this, his desk was placed opposite Joseph Barbera. They both realized quickly that they would make a good tieam and began tag teaming on projects, coming up with content. Their first stroke of genius was Tom and Jerry. It was nominated for an academy award but their studio head wanted a more diverse cartoon series so he shut further production down. The two didn’t listen to him though and kept writing their stories. There was an issue with Hanna’s previous boss getting credit on the cartoon that was undeserved and when that came to the foreground, the two were given the green light to go ahead and continue with the toons.
We are all brave enough to ignore what others say and simply keep working-something incredible may come of it. This story goes to show that social media was not always the means by which people managed to create great work. To relate this to Annoying Orange, the two animating teams just never stopped. When people said it wasn’t going to work out, they simply kept going. I think this speaks to a huge factor in the film industry: if you just hang around and bug people a little longer than anyone else, the folks running the show start to notice you. They can’t escape you, is the reality, so they decide to wrestle with you and your project.
The only things that are ever made are the ones that people are seriously passionate about. There has to be someone behind the project who is completely proud of it and believes in it fully. Nothing will ever get done if someone doesn’t completely invest in it. All these toons and shows and artistic pieces that get put out are just brain children. They are thoughts materialized and they hit their full stride sometimes, if the idea is good, universal. We cannot let go of this. The most important thing for an artist to know is that they should just never stop. Whatever they’re trying to say is important, and if it’s not being well received, they just need to look at it more closely and take all the feedback they can get-or start over. Not all children come out as good eggs, no way could all brain children do so.
