William Hanna

            On Sunday morning I memorized the first two verses of “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse and a half of “Celle-là c’est la meilleure” (This is All for the Best) by Serge Gainsbourg. The second verse as sung by Juliette Greco doesn’t seem to have exactly the same chords as the first verse by Sacha Distel. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. I think the action might be a little low. 

            I weighed 86.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I couldn’t do any sanding in the bathroom because I was behind on my journal. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and to play it safe I stopped to use the washroom at the McDonald’s just north of College. I still had to go again when I got home but it wasn’t a rush. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos at 18:11. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:49. 

            I continued turning the images from my first rainbow wave animation to sepia tone and then added small but increasing amounts of shades of blue to each frame. So far I’ve got the first five done. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, pub fries, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the fourth episode of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story, Cumulous the master meteorologist has gained control over the weather. Focusing on Central City he has concentrated an electrical storm to knock out the city’s power and then paralyzed it under a thick fog. He then approaches the heads of government (all wearing military uniforms) and threatens to do the same to the whole country in 24 hours if they don’t give him full authority. Falcon 7 contacts Birdman and he flies to Central City where he finds and attacks Cumulous’s weather station. Cumulous makes the clouds so thick that the sun can’t reach Birdman to reenergize him. He falls into Cumulous’s darkened cell. Birdman radios his eagle Avenger and has him sneak into Cumulous’s lair to get the keys to the cell. He does so. Cumulous once again goes to the military leaders and demands their surrender but Birdman arrives to challenge him. Cumulous is wearing a belt that gives him weather powers away from his weather station. He covers Birdman in a block of ice. But Birdman breaks free and then destroys Cumulous’s weather belt, rendering him helpless. Birdman clears up the fog at Central City with one solar blast. 

            In the Galaxy Trio story, Intergalactic Headquarters has a regular rollcall of planets but K7 has failed to report. They send the Galaxy Trio to investigate. We learn that the name of the Trio’s ship is Condor 1 as they lock it in orbit and beam down. They arrive in the middle of the city where they see everyone in suspended animation. But they do hear activity and when they investigate they see that pirates are robbing the paralyzed planet of all its wealth. There are giant claw machines that break into buildings and grab large amounts of treasure. Meteor Man smashes two of them. But another emits a gas that puts both himself and Gravity Girl in suspended animation. Vapour Man destroys the machine and then takes Meteor Man and Gravity Girl back to Condor 1 where they recover. He gives them both anti gas helmets to protect them and they return to the planet. They break open one of the machines and climb inside, then they simply follow the other machines back to headquarters. But they trigger an alarm and Krag the pirate captain sends his men to stop them. Krag’s men are easily defeated so he tries to take off. But Gravity Girl levitates him away from the controls. He tells them how to release the population from their suspended state but while they are doing that he escapes. 

            In the second Birdman story the government’s bathyscaphe has been sent to the bottom of the ocean to find gold that is badly needed by the treasury. I guess in this reality the US is not as rich as one would expect. But at the bottom of the ocean a rogue submarine steals the bathyscaphe. Falcon 7 tells Birdman to find the bathyscaphe and both he and Avenger dive into the ocean. Somehow they don’t seem to need to breathe and Birdman can even talk underwater. That might be one of his powers but that doesn’t explain how an eagle can survive that far under the sea. The bad guy sends his shark and his octopus after Birdman who is too weak from lack of sun to resist. He is captured and meets the villain Dr. Shark. Shark has a special antenna that absorbs the sun’s energy so he can have sunlight under water. When Shark is out of the room, Birdman with his hands tied behind his back and his feet tied together hops over to Shark’s sun machine to give himself enough of a dose to break free of his bonds. He makes it to the surface where Avenger picks him up and carries him to full sunlight to recharge. Birdman returns to the ocean floor where Shark sends his shark and octopus after him, but Birdman electrocutes them with his shield. He breaks off the depth stabilizer from Shark’s sub and forces it to the surface. Shark leaves the sub in a small speedboat and the sub blows up. Shark escapes. 

            This show was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. In 1930 Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio, which made Looney Toons and Merry Melodies. Despite lack of formal training he became head of their inking and painting department. He also wrote songs and lyrics for the cartoons. He moved to MGM where he directed his first animated feature: “To Spring”. His desk was opposite that of Joseph Barbera. Together they created Tom and Jerry and their first joint feature “Puss Gets the Boot” was nominated for an Academy Award. Over the next 17 years they produced 114 very popular Tom and Jerry cartoon shorts. Tom and Jerry was nominated for 14 Oscars and won 7. The characters were so popular that they appeared in live action films such as Anchors Aweigh, Invitation to the Dance, and Dangerous When Wet. Hanna-Barbera became a company and the two traded the role of president every year. Hanna brought to the partnership a gift for timing, story construction and recruiting top artists while Barbera was a skilled gag writer and sketch artist. They produced The Cat Concerto and Johann Mouse, which are considered masterpieces of animation combined with music. They produced the first Saturday morning cartoon: The Ruff and Reddy Show. Their first two successes were Huckleberry Hound (the first Emmy winning cartoon) and Yogi Bear. Then they created the Flintstones, which became the first hit prime time cartoon. Hanna co-wrote the theme song. They produced over 3,000 animated shows, including Atom Ant, Jonny Quest, Josie and the Pussycats, Magilla Gorilla, Quickdraw McGraw, Top Cat, Scooby Doo and The Smurfs. They produced the hit film Charlotte’s Web. But Hanna-Barbera became notorious for cheap animation. The number of drawings for a 7 minute cartoon dropped from 14,000 to 2000 and yet the characters still became iconic. Hanna and Barbera never talked to each other outside of work but never argued on the job.